What Have Our Indie Artists Been Up To?

ON THE ROAD

Fresh with a new clip for tune Mountain Of Dead, Melbourne's four-piece High Tension – made up of musos from Young & Restless and The Nation Blue – will hit the east coast of the country to play a range of shows in anticipation for their forthcoming record, Death Beat. More.

Melbourne-born and now Brooklyn-based Luluc have been added as the support for the massive upcoming tour for The National, the duo's first live show for three years as they lead into the release of a sophomore record. Read on.

Making the trip back home after a massive string of shows in Europe, The Crooked Fiddle Band will showcase a bunch of new material from their upcoming record Moving Pieces Of The Sea in a large-scale Aussie tour. See all the dates.

Scheduled to release their debut full length in early 2014, The Cairos will also take to crowds through October and November to tease some material. Full tour details.

Bree Tranter, former multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire from The Middle East is now set to join indie-heartthrob Matt Corby on the road for his national tour. Tranter has just released her EP Jaws, more info (including the dates) here.

On the back on BIGSOUND, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will not slow down, releasing the dates for a six-date tour from mid-next month to November, the massive act launching new LP Float Along - Fill Your Lungs. Check it out.

EYE ON THE CHARTS

Brisbane pop faves Sheppard have notched the number one spot again in the top 20 of AIR's singles/EP charts for independent labels with independent distribution chart with their self-titled EP (Independent/MGM). Chet Faker and Kilo Kish held onto second place with their track Melt (Opulent/Inertia) while a debut entry from The Kite String Tangle in the shape of Given The Chance (Independent) charted at number three. The ensemble of John Swan, John St. Peeters, Marty Rhone, Ray Burgess & Tommy Emmanuel also had a debut with Legends Of The Southern Land (Independent) at 20.

There was plenty of movement in the top 20 albums released on independent labels through independent distribution chart this week, with Melbourne MC Mantra edging out The Jungle Giants to claim number one with his album Telling Scenes (Ten To Two/Inertia). Another rapper Mr Grevis also debuted high at two with his record My Escape (Obese Records).

The other debuts came from country artist Aleyce Simmonds with Believe (Independent/WJO) and Adelaide's Wolf & Cub with their return record Heavy Weight (Independent/MGM) in at six and seven plus former Noiseworks bassist Steve Balbi with his solo effort Black Rainbow (Social Family Records/Xelon) in at 11.

OTHER RELEASE NEWS

Working with producer Dan Grech-Marguerat of Moby and Lana Del Rey fame, The Jezebels have been very busy recording their follow-up record to the hugely popular Prisoner, announcing the new full length will be released early next year, with a new single titled The End dropping in a month or so. Read on.

Crooning sensation Chet Faker is set to team-up with the extremely talented producer Flume to release a collaborative EP set for release in a few months. Flume told theMusic: “We went away for like a week and wrote some music and it turns out that we're like an awesome duo”. Details.

The Butterfly Effect are back! The Brisbane band have locked in new vocalist Paul Galagher after hinting a few weeks ago, unveiling a killer new single to show off their new frontman. The tune is called Eyes Down and comes just before the band will play a few intimate shows around Australia. Listen to the single here.

Sydney's Spod is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his debut record Taste The Radness by releasing huge digital re-issue in October – including seven unreleased tunes – and a documentary early next year. Check it out.

SIGN THE DOTTED LINE

Sydney band Our Last Enemy have signed a deal with American label Eclipse Records. The deal means the heavy rockers will release their LP Pariah in the states in 2014.

TIDBITS

At BIGSOUND, Damian Costin officially launched 123 Agency, before opening up to theMusic about the new venture post-Mushroom Group/Premier Artists. Costin says “The priority is to look after a small amount of acts, a good quality amount of acts and do them properly, with a purpose.” Watch the full interview from BIGSOUND right here.

It seems smoking a bong can have it's consequences after all with Brisbane's Dune Rats finding out the hard way. They've been left off a potential festival bill in Hanoi, Vietnam and have alleged it's because of their Red Light, Green Light clip. Read more and check out the clip.