CAMPAIGN – TOUR PUBLICITY
DOWNLOAD – J MASCIS (HIGH-RES) PHOTO HERE
PRESS RELEASE:
Folk-rock troubadour J Mascis makes his long awaited solo-acoustic tour appearance this summer appearing at The Falls Festivals in Marion Bay and Lorne and for a series of headline shows along the East Coast.
Mascis has toured Australia in solo mode before of course, both as a headliner and as support to Sonic Youth, but this tour is the first to feature J and an acoustic guitar and comes off the back of his impressive debut solo-acoustic release and his first for Sub Pop, Several Shades of Why.
After two decades of creating influential music, the fact that this astonishing album features some of his best songs to date makes this as important as it is unfalteringly beautiful. - KERRANG
The result is a beautifully fragile acoustic record that positions him as the missing link between Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash. - ROCK SOUND
And though the electric may have been swapped for an acoustic the intensity and even the decibel levels remain intact (relatively) as does Mascis’ ability to tear shards out of his instrument whether it be hollow or solid bodied.
Mascis opened with “The Wagon,” a stand-out track from Dinosaur Jr.’s iconic 1991 major label debut, “Green Mind,” a bone to the many long-time Dino fans in the packed Hi-Dive, the perfect setting for his soul-baring set. Much of the performance was comprised of Mascis laying down several-minute loops and then playing over his own intricate leads. I’ve seen other guitarists use this method of “playing with themselves,” but none as impressively as this. Mascis created something complex and spontaneous; his guitar lines were not simple rhythm parts, but melodic lines for him to weave intricate harmonies atop. - REVERB
In classic Dinosaur Jr fashion, there was plenty of the “quiet loud quiet” dynamic to Mascis’ set: his wired-up Gibson easily parlayed between jangly acoustic lines and screaming electric solos. - REVERB
Check-out the fabulously freaky videos for Listen to Me and Is it Done from Several Shades of Why and don’t miss J Mascis, live, this January.
All headlines shows on sale Monday 17th October – Sydney dates to follow.
TOUR DATES:
Melbourne, The Toff | Tuesday 3 January 2012
Tickets $38.00 + bf, Moshtix & Oztix Outlets, Ph: 1300 GET TIX (438 849)
feelpresents.oztix.com.au | www.moshtix.com.au
Melbourne, The Toff | Wednesday 4 January 2012,
Tickets $38.00 + bf, Moshtix & Oztix Outlets, Ph: 1300 GET TIX (438 849)
feelpresents.oztix.com.au | www.moshtix.com.au
Oakleigh, VIC, Caravan Music Club | Friday 6 January 2012
Tickets $35.00 + bf (GA) and $42.00 + bf (Reserved), Ph: 0411 569 180
www.caravanmusic.com.au
Gold Coast, The Soundlounge | Saturday 7 January 2012
Tickets $33.00 + bf, thesoundlounge.com.au
Brisbane, The Powerhouse | Tuesday 10 January 2012
Tickets $38.00 + bf, Venue Box Office,
Ph: (07) 3358 8600 | www.brisbanepowerhouse.org
BIOGRAPHY:
It’s all but inconceivable that J Mascis requires an introduction. Many know him as the frontman of the seminal alternative band Dinosaur Jr, but in the past 25 years he has also been the driving force behind a string of bands – Deep Wound, Gobblehoof, Velvet Monkeys, the Fog, Witch, Sweet Apple – and he has guested on innumerable sessions. But “Several Shades Of Why” is J’s first solo album, due out on the 4th of March by Legendary Seattle imprint Sub Pop, through Inertia.
Those expecting J’s signature wailing guitar solos are in for a pleasant surprise, with “Several Shades Of Why” being almost entirely acoustic and drum-free. It is an album of incredible beauty, performed with a delicacy not always associated with his work. But every track bears that distinct Mascis watermark, both in the shape of the tunes and the glorious rasp of the vocals.
Recorded at Amherst, Massachusetts’ Bisquiteen Studios, “Several Shades Of Why” was created with the help of Kurt Vile, Sophie Tradeau, Kurt Fedora, Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Ben Bridwell (Band Of Horses), Paul Zappoli (Black Heart Procession), Matt Valentine (The Golden Road) and Suzanne Thorpe (Wounded Knees).
“Megan from Sub Pop has wanted me to do this record for a long time, ” J says. “She was very into it when I was playing solo a lot in the early 2000s, around the time of the Fog album [2002’s Free So Free]…Several Shades of Why] came out of that. There’re no drums on it… Usually I like to have them. But going drum-less pushes everything in a new direction, and makes it easier to keep things sounding different.”
There is little evidence of stress on “Several Shades Of Why”. The title track is a duet with Sophie Trudeau’s violin recalling Nick Drake’s work at its most elegant. ‘Not Enough’ feels like a lost hippie-harmony classic from David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name’. ‘Is It Done’ rolls like one of the Grisman/Garcia tunes on ‘American Beauty’. “Several Shades Of Why” is ten brilliant tunes that quietly grow and expand until they fill your brain with the purest pleasure.
PRESS QUOTES:
“Mascis has come up with an album (even by his standards) that is soulful and downright folky” IMPOSE
“I have soft-spot for Mascis’s voice — that rangy, ragged, crackling, moving quaver never fails to take me back to listening to “Severed Lips” on repeat in high school, then forward to all the great shit he did afterward” STEREOGUM
“His music has earthy, distorted riffs — twangy roots-rock marches and choppy postpunk dissonances — leading into brash, extended solos that climb from chiseled melodic lines to racing, spiraling, frenetic peaks.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
CONTACT:
For more information, please contact:
Brian McDonald – RiSH Publicity
P: +61-418-604-844 www.rishpublicity.com
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