Last year was characterised as a banner year for local talent making big waves overseas, with Aussie artists featuring prominently in international taste-making yeard-end lists, the blogosphere, overseas media and radio, and even the Grammys.
A number of bands are capitalising on the momentum of 2013, and continuing the Aussie sinvasion into 2014; one need only look at the number of artists cropping up on big-name American European festivals for proof of that (re: Coachella, Bonnaroo, Sasquatch!, Firefly, Primavera, Field Day et al).
Now Aussie labels are also ready for their ‘big break’ overseas, with news that two domestic labels – one belonging to a legendary Aussie promoter, the other a Perth-based success story – are expanding into North America, taking a talented pool of Aussies along with them.
Chugg Music Launches In The USA
Chugg Music, the label of legendary Aussie music industry figurehead Michael Chugg, has grown significantly since launching 18 months ago, and the Chugg Entertainment division is making a major expansion into the US market.
Beginning from the 25th February, Chugg Music’s artists and releases will be distributed by Super D/Alliance in the US, starting with Falling Up The Stairs, the current EP of Sydney’s Lime Cordiale. The group, fronted by siblings Oli and Louis Leimbach, will also be relocating to Los Angeles to support the release after signing with LA’s The Agency Group.
“We have built a strong team of US industry members for Lime Cordiale’s release who will no doubt contribute to the band’s growth in America and Canada in the future,” said Michael Chugg in a statement. This year also marks the 50th Anniversary for the Aussie promoter…
“Along with our own office in Toronto, and my business partner Matthew Lazarus-Hall based in LA, everyone is excited to be working with Lime Cordiale who are fast gaining a considerable live following in Australia.”
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This year also marks the 50th Anniversary for the Aussie promoter, and this year’s SXSW conference will provide the platform for a celebration. Chuggi’s 50th Anniversary Party-come-Chugg Music showcase will be held on Thursday 13th March at SXSW 2014, where Lime Cordiale will perform at the event, as well as the regular Aussie BBQ shows in LA and Austin.
Fellow Chugg Music labelmates, Sydney indie popsters The Griswolds are also headed to SXSW as one of a record-breaking 55 Aussie bands headed to the Austin, Texas industry conference this year. The five-piece are also recording their first full-length album in LA, their first as part of a US deal for Wind-Up Records.
Since launching 18 months ago, the Chugg Music roster has grown to include the platinum-selling Sheppard, Deep Sea Arcade, Hey Geronimo, Major Leagues, and latest signee, #1 selling New Zealand folk-pop band, Avalanche City.
Spinning Top Music Poised For US Deal
Western Australian indie company Spinning Top Music is the home to Perth’s biggest music exports, the attention that Tame Impala and Pond have received internationally almost goes without saying (but we will, they’re both killing it, just ask NME), and now Spinning Top is set to crack a deal with major label Warner Music Australia as well as expanding into the US, as The West Australian reports.
Jodie Regan, Spinning Top doyen and manager to Tame Impala, says the major label deal has “a structure and reach” far bigger than that of the celebrated Fremantle-based business.
One of the first releases under the new Warner deal will be Hungry Sky, the second album from Spinning Top’s 33-year-old songwriting trailblazer Felicity Groom, the follow-up to her 2011 debut Gossamer.
Groom will also be airing material from her new album at the special Spinning Top showcase happening tomorrow (Saturday 22nd February at the Chevron Festival Gardens) as part of this year’s Perth International Arts Festival.
The showcase features Spinning Top’s best and brightest, including Groom, Pond (dropping cuts from Hobo Rocket and maybe even some tasty new material from their already completed follow-up album, Man It Feels Like Space Again), revered Perth psych-rockers The Silents (coming out of hiatus), DJ Lady Carla, and the little known AAA Aardvark Getdown Services.
As The West Australian reveals, the latter is actually none other than a new ‘disco-rock’ side-project from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, which – as it turns out in the ‘six degrees’ style of Spinning Top – first got an airing as part of a last-minute benefit gig to raise funds for Felicity Groom after her car got stolen.
Meanwhile, Spinning Top’s sphere of influence is also likely to expand with imminent solo albums from Gum, the side-project of Pond/Tame Impala member Jay Watson, Shiny Joe Ryan (aka the drummer with the afro in Pond), and a new album from Pond’s Nick Allbrook and The Growl’s Cameron Avery that features 4/5ths of UK’s The Horrors.
All that, and the prolific Kevin Parker has revealed he’s begun work on new Tame Impala material, the Grammy-nominated 27-year-old using pizza analogies to describe the minimal new material which will “make Lonerism look like amateur hour,” says the prolific frontman.
