The Weekly Wrap | 31/05/2024
The Weekly Wrap is a look at the biggest stories in music collected in one place for your reading ease.
Dirty Three Share New Single ‘Love Changes Everything II’
‘Love Changes Everything II’ is the second taste from Dirty Threes’ forthcoming studio album, Love Changes Everything.
This is the band’s first album in 12 years, following on from the instrumental act’s much loved 2012 record, Toward the Low Sun.
In a press release, the band comprising Mick Turner, Warren Ellis and Jim White, described the song as “Dirty Three at midday: already in elegiac reverie, glancing pensively back at the waters of morning and forward past the sands to the shades of evening.”
To coincide with the release, Dirty Three is embarking on an Australian tour, playing Hindley St Music Hall on Monday, June 24. Tickets are available via Moshtix.
Love Changes Everything is set for release on Friday, June 14. You can pre-order/pre-save a copy of the album here.
MONA Hosting Listening Parties of Wu-Tang Clan’s Never Released Once Upon a Time in Shaolin Album
If you’re a hip hop fan and happen to find yourself in Hobart next month, do yourself a favour and head down to MONA for your chance to listen to Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased seventh album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
The album will be on display at MONA as part of Namedropping from June 15 to 24. Recorded over six years in secret, only one copy of the record was ever produced.
Its most famous owner was pharma entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, who purchased the album in 2015 for $2 million. The album came into possession of the US Department of Justice in 2018 after Shkreli was found guilty of fraud and had his assets seized.
Digital art collecting conglomerate PleasrDAO purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $4 million in 2021.
"Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances," Mona's director of curatorial affairs, Jarrod Rawlins, said about MONA acquiring the album to display.
"Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is more than just an album, so when I was thinking about status, and what a transcendent namedrop could be, I knew I had to get it into this exhibition."
A select lucky few with tickets to Namesdropping will get the opportunity to listen to a condensed 36-minute version of the album.
For your chance to hear the album subscribe for tickets here.
Michael Franti & Spearhead Headlining Queenscliff Music Festival 2024
Michael Franti & Spearhead have been announced as the headliners of this year’s Queenscliff Music Festival.
Taking place across the weekend of November 22-24, Franti and co are the first names to be revealed for the annual Queensland festival that’s been held since 1997.
The return of Michael Franti & Spearhead to Australia also includes two solo shows at Brisbane’s The Tivoli on Saturday, November 16 and Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Wednesday, November 20.
Californian musician Fanti has been a regular to our shores over the years, first touring with his band Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in 1993 as part of that year’s Big Day Out lineup. Since then he has visited both with Spearhead and solo, with his last tour coming in 2023 as part of the Bluesfest lineup.
Early bird tickets for Queenscliff Music Festival 2024 are on sale now via Oztix.
Kelis Revealed as BigSound 2024 Keynote Speaker
Image supplied
R&B superstar Kelis has been announced as the keynote speaker at BIGSOUND 2024. The ‘Milkshakes’ singer will join an eclectic list of speakers that includes Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers, Korda Marshall of Mushroom Group and Elliot Lefko, Vice President of AEG/Goldenvoice Concerts.
In a statement announcing the addition of Kelis, QMusic and BIGSOUND CEO Kris Stewart said: “BIGSOUND lights up the heart of the Fortitude Valley each year with a flurry of music lovers, brilliant minds and world-class performers. It’s a pleasure to get to partner with QLD Music Trails to bring to the city someone who encompasses all these things and more, Kelis, for what will undoubtedly be an incredible Keynote speech and festival performance.”
Although Kelis hasn’t released an album since 2014s Food, she has shared several one-off singles and toured North America in 2020 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her debut album, Kaleidoscope.
BIGSOUND 2024 takes place between September 3-6. Check out the full BIGSOUND program and grab tickets here.
Lost John Lennon Guitar Sells for $2.9 Million
A guitar John Lennon played during the recording of the Beatles’ classic albums Help! and Rubber Soul has sold for a whopping $2.1 million at auction.
The 12-string Framus Hootenanny acoustic guitar was thought to have been lost for 50 years before miraculously turning up in the attic of a British home. It was found when a man was helping his parents move house and was still in its original case.
After Beatles historians Andy Babiuk and Danny Bennett authenticated the guitar, it went to auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, New York City. Expected to fetch somewhere between $600,000 to $800,000, the sale exceeded expectations, with the hammer coming down at $2.1 million.
Portishead’s Geoff Barrow Drops Surprise Beak> Album >>>>
Beak> is back with the surprise release of their fourth album, the imaginatively titled >>>>. The side project of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, it’s been six years since the trio of Barrow, Billy Fuller and Will Young released the band’s third album, >>>.
The record is another experimental listen, with Beak> urging fans to listen to the record as one entire body of work. The album cover, featuring a dog shooting laser from his eyes, was inspired by the record’s first song, ‘Strawberry Line’, which is a tribute to Alfie Barrow, Geoff’s lovable four-legged friend.
“At its core we always wanted it to be head music (music for the ‘heads’, not headphone music), listened to as an album, not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or promo tracks,” Beak> said in a press release announcing the album.
“The recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales in the fall out from the weirdness of the COVID days. Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance we got to work.”
You can stream >>>> below or grab it on vinyl here.
Iron Butterfly Founder Doug Ingle Passes Away
Doug Ingle, the last remaining original member of prog rockers Iron Butterfly passed away earlier this week.
The news of Ingle’s passing was revealed in a Facebook post by Ingle’s son, Doug Ingle Jr: “It’s with a heavy heart & great sadness to announce the passing of my Father Doug Ingle. Dad passed away peacefully this evening in the presence of family.”
Ingle and Iron Butterfly found fame with the 17-minute track 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'. Throughout the band’s seven decade career, which includes three hiatuses, there has been a revolving door of performers, with Ingle the last remaining member to play in the band before calling time on his career in 1999.
Although they’ve only released six studio albums, Iron Butterfly has continued to tour the globe regularly with various lineups, with their second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, one of the biggest records of the 60s.
Friday Five
You love music. We love music. Here are five songs we’re digging this week and think you will to. Enjoy.
1. King Stingray – ‘Best Bits’
2. Habibi – ‘In My Dreams’
3. Kirin J Callinan – ‘The Boys in Blue’
4. Romy - ‘Always Forever”
5. Abbie Ozard & Pixey – ‘miss american dream’
