Australian Ghost Story from The Paradise Motel available now! IN THIS NEWSLETTER
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AUSTRALIAN GHOST STORY - AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW!
The Paradise Motel - Australian masters of dark folk - are back after a 10 year break with new album Australian Ghost Story. As menacing and beautiful as their early recordings, the album tells the tale of events and characters associated with the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain 30 years ago. The band, whose 1996 debut Left Over Life to Kill was described as "possibly the finest debut EP by a band in Australian music history" (Inpress Magazine), have lost nothing of their mesmerising quality and invite you to listen to their stories once again.
The Paradise Motel were formed in Tasmania in 1994 by Charles Bickford (guitar, organ), Matthew Aulich (guitar) and Matthew Bailey (bass). They relocated to Melbourne shortly afterwards and recruited Merida Sussex (vocals), BJ Austin (organ, pedal steel) and Tom O'Shannassy (drums). After the success of several EPs and the album Still Life, the band became the first act to sign to the new UK arm of Mushroom Records and they all moved to London. They toured with bands incl. Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev and released their second full album Flight Paths. Their cover of The Cars' song Drive enjoyed substantial radio play and helped to introduce new fans to their original material. By this time they had perfected their formula of mixing calm and chaos, story telling and sonic adventures. In spite of flattering comparisons to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Triffids, they had effectively created their very own genre. They had also established themselves as a top live act and were uncompromising, bringing their full instrumentation incl. Hammond organ with them to even the smallest (and tallest) of venues. Then in 2000 they split up. Post-split activities included Merida Sussex starting the record label Stolen Recordings, Tim O'Shannassy completing a PhD in music and literature and Charles Bickford appearing as the resident antiquities expert on the weekly UK ITV programme The Golden Lot.
In 2008 the band reformed. Once again based in Melbourne (with the exception of Merida), they have now released Australian Ghost Story - their first album for 10 years. The line-up is the same as before, except that Tim O'Shannassy has been replaced on drums by Andy Hazel (also part of The Bedroom Philosopher's Awkwardstra), Matthew Bailey has been replaced by Esme MacDonald (ex-Penthouse) on bass and they have been joined by Campbell Shaw on violin. This time they're doing it independently and it's an honour for GoMojo to be able to offer the album for your buying and listening pleasure. It's excellent by the way, with the expected attention to detail and existing fans will recognise the sound, although it has clearly evolved. The band will be touring Australia in September.
The album comes with a beautifully illustrated booklet that includes all the lyrics. Listen to the track Brown Snake and order your copy of Australian Ghost Story here: http://www.gomojo.net/basement/paradisemotel.
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Casper - happily twittering away Subscribe to this profile:
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