Groovin The Moo has been one of the happier music festival success stories in recent years, finding a niche in regional Australia starved of contemporary Australian acts and cutting edge international bands, and bringing it directly to the likes of Maitland, Canberra, Bendigo, Townsville, and Bunbury.
Now GTM 2013 is gearing up for another year, and with dates already locked for each stopover through April 27th – May 11th, all that punters need now is the lineup to go with it, and a pair of international acts may have let slip a week out from the official lineup announcement.
First up is America’s “most famously unknown” musical pair, They Might Be Giants, with the ‘Two Johns’ (Flansburgh and Linnell) confirming that they’re headed to Australia for a national tour from April 24th – May 13th, which coincides perfectly with the Groovin The Moo tour dates, as FasterLouder points out.
The tour announcement was made through TMBG’s social media with the admittance that the dates have been announced a little prematurely, as the final list of dates and venues won’t be officially released until February, basically after Groovin The Moo have announced their lineup, preceding any planned sideshows or additional gigs to the touring festival.“Dates r locked in for April/May-but cuz of festival announcements in early Feb. we have to wait to say.” – TMBG
A tweet by the band last December further solidifies the Groovin The Moo association, responding to a Sydney fan “dates r locked in for April/May-but cuz of festival announcements in early Feb. we have to wait to say.”
A visit with GTM will mark They Might Be Giants’ first visit to Australian shores in over ten years, since 2001, and considering their prolific work ethic, there’s plenty to draw from in the interim – including their four kids’ albums, three studio albums, and a live album.
TMBG are also set to release their latest studio album Nanobots, revealing the artwork today as well as three preview tracks from the album on the Nanobots EP teaser, following a characteristically bizarre “anti-spoiler” for their sixteenth record that mashed the first seven seconds of all 25 tracks and played them simultaneously in one single video.
The other musical duo looking likely for the GTM 2013 lineup is Canadian twins Tegan & Sara, who confirmed to The Music Network that an Australian tour is imminent.
“We’re going to be coming out very soon actually, we very excited about it,” said Sara Quin. “We’ll be doing a tonne of stuff. I think that will happen in the [American] spring and will be announced in the next week or two.”“We’re going to be coming out very soon actually… and will be announced in the next week or two.” – Sara Quin, Tegan & Sara
The Quin sisters are currently touring their emotive indie-pop across their native Canada as well as North America, but considering that the US’ spring months land in April and May, and Tegan & Sara’s tour schedule is booked up ’til an April 14th show in Tucson, Arizona, those GTM 2013 dates once again look to be a good fit.
The twins must have enjoyed their 2011 stint with GTM, and will be back in Australia promoting their forthcoming album Heartthrob, which looks set to be a stylistic departure from their previous output, featuring production from Greg Kurstin. The producer specialises in working with feisty female artists on snyth-pop sounds, having previously worked alongside the likes of Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue, Santigold, Ladyhawke, Ke$ha, Marina and the Diamonds and Sia.
“Our idea with picking somebody like Greg was looking for somebody who would help us take what we thought were already fairly accomplished poppy songs and really take them to the next level,” Quin reveals. “We’ve never made a pop record per se, so we knew there were going to be ideas and suggestions that would not necessarily be the kind of things we would do inherently, or naturally.”
All will be revealed with the lineup for Groovin The Moo 2013 is announced next Wednesday 30th January, with tickets going on sale from Tuesday 5th February.
Groovin The Moo 2013 Dates
Saturday 27 April 2013 – Maitland NSW
Maitland Showground
Blomfield St, Maitland NSW 2320
Sunday 28 April 2013 – Canberra ACT
University of Canberra
Kirinari St Bruce ACT 2617
Saturday 4 May 2013 – Bendigo VIC
Bendigo’s Prince of Wales Showground
42 – 72 Holmes Rd, Bendigo VIC 3550
Sunday 5 May 2013 – Townsville QLD
Murray Sports Complex – Townsville Cricket Grounds
Mervyn Crossman Dr & Murray Lyons Cres, Idalia QLD 4811
Saturday 11 May 2013 – Bunbury WA
Hay Park
(off) Parade Rd Bunbury WA 6230
