That’s right… VINYL RELEASE!!

Texas Tea are back in 2010 with a new release… and it’s VINYL! The limited (and hand numbered) double cover long player is a collection of rarities from the alt-country duo.

The first, “Fire Sides” is taken from an all-night campfire session recorded from midnight to 8am at Junkship Studios during Texas Tea’s original studio time for ‘The Junkship Recordings’. This is an intimate and raw field recording featuring renowned local producer Jamie Trevaskis on the saw. Amongst the music, you can hear the fire crackling, the night birds and the passing cars. This is a special experience in audio, listen as if you were there.

The flipside, “Last Drinks”, encompasses B-Sides and rarities from Take A Sip and other, more recent additions, including a duet recorded in Bretagne with The French Cowboy, Orville Brody, and a cover of the John & June sock hopper ‘I got a woman’. This version of ‘I Got A Woman’, a would-be 7” single, was intended for release in France last year but never made it to the pressing plant.

Texas Tea will be launching the LP at the Troubadour on Friday March 12th where they will deliver a selection of the songs. Accompanied by the astoundingly good, Fergus McAlpin and Adam Afiff (of Melbourne’s Silver City Highway) and other special guests.

The limited numbered vinyl will ONLY be available to buy at Texas Tea’s live shows. THESE WILL SELL OUT! ONLY 150 IN AUSTRALIA. Be there to get your copy.

Butcher Birds are beginning their 2010 world domination at Big Day Out tomorrow.

They were handpicked by JJJ as the Unearthed winners so they’ll be opening the Hot Produce stage at 11.00AM. Then (MORE, YES MORE) Jo Nilson will be destroying the airwaves at 12.30PM in a live interview with the Js.

Support your Butcher Babies. Show up, tune in, feel love.

BRISBANE ALBUM LAUNCH

The Step Inn
Friday 4th December
with Giants of Science + Sweet Dreams + Daddy Long Legs (Melb) + Lords Of Wong + Slug Guts DJs

NEW ALBUM OUT NOW AND AVAILABLE AT RECORD STORES + iTUNES + www.merenoise.net

Living With You Is Killing Me is the debut album from Hits, and its available NOW for grubby little hands around the country!

While some acts seek to represent a generation, Hits are agents of degeneration. Living With You Is Killing Me is a compilation of all the thoughts, all the sounds and all the drinks that your average pilgrim can find in the gutters and backstreets of Brisbane. This is not an offering for polite society. It is not a record for the helpless. It is a prayer for the hopeful, a work of liquor and succor drafted by our dirtiest garage prophets.

Hits have come down from the mountain to save souls and defile sensibilities. With or without consent.

Hits have played alongside stalwarts like The Scientists, The Drones, The Limespiders and The Dirtbombs. The band itself is comprised of members of other such unsavouries Strutter, Gazoonga Attack, Butcher Birds, Aampirellas, Drowning Kittens and Disables. Their live show has seen them up and down the East coast, playing everything from Brisbane’s smallest dives to its grander, virgin venues.

See them launch this garage rock opus at The Step Inn on Friday the 4th of December and capital cities all over Australia in the new year!

After a two year period of recovery, Brisbane is ready for another Mere Noise Meltdown. We’re going to oblige.

MERE NOISE RECORDS PRESENTS….

MERE NOISE MELT DOWN #2!!

This Saturday 14th November @ The Step Inn

2 stages!! Front bar and back bar. Doors open at 6pm.

Tix are only $15 (+bf) and available through Oztix at: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/default.aspx?Event=13255

* El Borracho getting back together for a reformation show!

AND if you buy a ticket you get into the Troubadour for after party with Texas Tea (1am show) and some soul music and no doubt some Bob Seger on the stereo.

http://www.merenoise.net

TIMETABLE

6.00pm – Doors Open

6.55pm – The Keep On Dancins (Back Bar)
7.25pm – The Dangermen (Front Bar)
7.55pm – The Hymies (Back Bar)
8.25pm – The Sips (Front Bar)
9.00pm – Butcher Birds (Back Bar)
9.40pm – Vegas Kings (Front Bar)
10.15pm – El Borracho (Back Bar)
11.00pm – Turnpike (Front Bar)
11.45pm – The Horrortones (Back Bar)

1.00am – Texas Tea (@The Troubadour)

Now that Set My Bones has been given its due debut, You’ll Never Work In This Town Again is putting on its best frock and doing some stretches in preparation for the same fate.

Mere Noise Records is launching the Vegas Kings’ new longplayer this Saturday at Brisbane’s Hi Fi Bar. Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side plus Slug Guts will be there too, keeping things a little bit sexy while the VK gentlemen are drinking their warm-up beers.

Come along and have a cigarette in the street.

You can even get tickets here. It’s so easy.

Anyone who came along to the first Meltdown in 2007 knows that this is gonna be worth the paltry $15 entry fee. If memory serves, I think the virgin Meltdown was so out of control that Kate Jacobson of Texas Tea did a cover of a Hymies song and said the word ‘cunt’ therein. And The Hymies played a song about shagging or killing a Butcher Bird? I’m not sure. You’re not sure. The whole thing is a loosely-contained catastrophe and it is not to be missed.

Check it out.

As it says in small writing at the bottom there: buying a ticket gets you in to the Troubadour for the afterparty, which will include but not be limited to: a 2AM show by Texas Tea, soul music, Bob Seger.

I trust you all had a weekend of sorts.

The party at the Zoo for Butcher Birds’ album launch was unreal.

In the words of Stephen Goodwin, it was “a thousand decibels of awesome.”

But I mean.. When you’ve got 4 obscenely good looking mother fuckers tearing down standards of decency with brutal sonics alone, you don’t really have to worry about the party being anything BUT a goddam riot, do you?

Dirtybird, Loomer and SixFtHick were all fucking wonderful, too. All night I heard people commenting on Dirtybird — keep an eye on them, I’d wager.

So that’s that. Hope you all had fun.

If you missed the launch, you can still get the album via our website or from stores.

Set My Bones has held the coveted position of “EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE” on the 4ZZZ charts for two weeks running now. Little bit of trivia for the Internet.

A bit of double penetration never hurt anyone, did it? We don’t think so.

To celebrate this, we thought we’d have a party in Brisbane and a party in Melbourne. At the same time.

You are invited.

BRISBANE PARTY:

Butcher Birds, SixFtHick, Loomer, Dirtybird.

The Zoo.

Tonight.

8.30 – 9.10 Dirtybird
9.30 – 10.10 Loomer
10.30 – 11.10 Six Ft Hick
11.30 – 12.30 Butcher Birds

MELBOURNE PARTY:

Vegas Kings and Chinese Burns.

The Retreat.

Tonight.

8.30 – 12.00 Chinese Burns

12.00 – 12.15 Vegas Kings

Happy Butcher Birds Day, Internet. Set My Bones has been unveiled for the entire country today, so I do hope you’re already neck-deep in those dulcet/brutal tones.

Here’s a bit of a BB wrap-up in terms of press, plus an excerpt to whet your appetite.

Jo Nilson talks to Voges:

1. Beer, Bourbon, Whisky, Wine, Vodka or Cognac?

My first drink was Bourbon and I think I may have had a chuck after, so that’s out. Cognac is for P-Diddy and Kanye West, I’m too white and poor. Vodka smells like nail polish remover. The rest are alright by me.

2. You are based in Brisbane, what is the best/worst thing about living in sunny northern Australia?

Summertime is absolutely brutal, I hate it. However, Brisbanites are unpretentious, quick-witted, hard drinking scallywags who all start amazing bands. Moreton Bay is where the rest of Australia sent their worst convicts, so that says a lot really.

3. Vegemite on warm toast with lashings of butter, yes or no?

What kind of freak would say no to that? I can see Pete from Merenoise (our record label) tucking into said combo as we speak, except he is a bit fancy and is having his on Turkish bread.

4. What was your first car?

I can’t drive, which is shameful. I’m learning, I promise. If I could pick a first car, it would be a black 70’s panel van with sweet airbrushed paintings on the sides, depicting me as a Viking warrior in battle. Fur bikini, snakes, that sort of thing.

5. Do you know the second verse of the Australian national anthem?

Oh, no-one really does, do they? We need a new national anthem and I think Gareth Liddiard should write it. Though I guess no-one would know the words then, either.

6. What was your favorite toy as a kid?

Lego and my She-ra Princess of Power Crystal Castle playset.

7. What music festival would you love to play at?

ATP (All Tomorrow’s Parties) – the line-ups are always awesome, it’s a music fan’s festival and seems to be fairly free of meatheads. Glasto would certainly be an experience too.

8. Thing that always makes you smile?

My kitty, Stubbs. Except when she jumps on my face at 4am.

9. If you were a lolly in an Allen’s mixed bag which one would you be?

If you mean the “Party Mix” I would definitely be the teeth. Endless hours of fun.

10.The song you want played at your funeral?

“I’m Set Free” by the Velvet Underground. That song is very close to perfect.

• Rave Magazine: Interview with Denis Semchenko + Jacinta Walker.
• Rave Magazine: Set My Bones review by Denis Semchenko.
• Time Off: Interview with Tal Wallace + Stacey Coleman & Jo Nilson
• The Vine: Exclusive track and interview with Voges + Jo Nilson

The launch looks like it’s going to be one hell of a party. Maybe you should come?

The Zoo

Saturday, October 3.

Dirtybird, Loomer, SixFtHick and Butcher Birds.

Tickets here.

• The new Vegas Kings album (You’ll Never Work In This Town Again) is out. Buy it here if you trust me already, and wait around if you dont — I’ll post up some reviews for you later. Don’t forget about the launch on October 10. It’s at the Hi Fi with Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side + Slug Guts. Click here for tickets.

• The Zoo launch (3rd of October, remember?) for the Butcher Birds’ forthcoming long player has been altered slightly, with Ouch My Face having to pull out. We are sad to see their name fall off the bill, but thankfully SixFtHick will be stepping in for them. Too much party is still assured. Click here for tickets.

• The Mere Noise Records website has been restyled and relaunched for your internetting pleasure.

This update is brief and to the point in an effort to maintain an emphasis on the Hard News it presents. Thank you for your time.

–The Mere Noise Axolotl.