Just thought I would let NZers know that there is a feature about Lil Chief Records on National Radio this Saturday. It features some comments from Jonathan Brunette, taken from a phone interview recorded a couple of weeks ago.
Musical Chairs: Lil' Chief Records
National Radio, Saturday Nov 12 at 3.30pm, repeats Fri Nov 18 at 7.30pm
This week on the New Zealand music profile show Musical Chairs, Andrew Clifford visits the Auckland headquarters of Lil’ Chief Records. Offering a 100% pure pop guarantee, this new entrant to the local industry was founded in 2001 by like-minded musicians, Scott Mannion and Jonathan Bree. Having just turned three, the label is still in its infancy but is already making impressive first steps in the wider world of international success…
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Though I may as well post the full press-release about the sub-pop signing as well - sorry it's so long!
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The Brunettes are pleased to announce that after years of scraping together change from under the couch cushions, touring in borrowed vans, pasting up their own photocopied posters, playing shows without monitors or sound people, driving all night and sleeping on floors - they have finally signed a record deal with a US record label…. Sub Pop Records!
Sub Pop Records are based in Seattle, Washington and their current roster includes some of the major names in American Pop Music – including the Shins, the Postal Service, Sleater-Kinney, and Wolf Parade.
Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop Records says: "Having shimmied, curtsied and barnstormed their way into the hearts of North America, I was left no choice but to sign The Brunettes. That's not to say that I am anything less than overjoyed. I am, in fact, thrilled! But it's their unerring ability to captivate, both on stage and in the studio, that inspired me to purchase their souls. Oh, I mean that inspired me to sign 'em to Sub Pop. Seriously though: I'm so excited to be working with The Brunettes. These youngsters know how to - in the words of a beloved pop band from my youth - shake some action!"
Currently Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield are recording the new album in the New York. Following the Brunettes extensive US tours earlier this year they have remained there and will return to New Zealand in summer when the Brunettes will play The Big Day Out as well as tour Australia.
In March 2006 with the recording complete they will return to North American and plan to tour there as much as possible.
The Brunettes first release on Sub Pop Records will be their third album and it will be available in the US in August 2006. The Brunettes earlier recordings Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks (2002), The Boyracer EP (2003), Mars Loves Venus, (2004) and their latest EP When Ice Met Cream (2005) will also be available in North America through Sub Pop Records.
What the US press said about the Brunettes:
“ … The Brunettes have staked a major claim on U.S. hearts with their ridiculously catchy hooks, Mansfield’s eyelash-batting coyness and Bree’s droll delivery.- Mars Loves Venus Review: Harp – Oct/Nov 2005
The seven-piece band, anchored by Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield, clearly won the audience over with an eclectic, exuberant melding of hooks, harmony and humor - not to mention their mastery of a plethora of musical instruments including marimba, glockenspiel, banjo, cello, trumpet, and alto and tenor saxophones.- Live review: No Depression Issue #58, Webster Hall, April 2005
Luckily the coed New Zealanders have a dark streak in their corn silk, and the dynamic between cynical and sweet really sells Mars Loves Venus. Jonathan Bree glowers like Jonathan Richman, and Heather Mansfield isn’t too pure to admit that sad love songs kick her ass.
- Album Review: Detroit Metro Times
The principal Brunettes, Jonathan and Heather, turn these songs into musical dialogues with an unjaded, buoyant interplay as their band creates a dimestore Pet Sounds-esque backdrop. Together, these things make Mars Loves Venus just about the most perfect indie pop record you'll hear all year. - Amazon
The Brunettes were such an unexpected treat when they opened for The Shins last month that I did wonder if they'd be as beguiling the second time around - the response had the zeal of the converted. - Live Review :Toronto Opera House, May 2005
Had Belle and Sebastian listened to Arthur Lee and Love rather than Simon and Garfunkel, they might have sounded something like The Brunettes, the thoroughly modern and delightful band that opened the show, playing dozens of instruments mixed with sha-la-la harmonies.
Live Review: Post Intelligencer, Seattle, June 2005
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curious
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