On The Quiet: Live :: Out Today

Glenn of Augie reporting on some new developments. Our On The Quiet: Live CD and digital download is officially released today. We’re very happy with the response so far from this, especially as it wasn’t really a planned thing in the first place, but perhaps it points to similar releases down the track. There’s very little of recorded quality out there for Augie live stuff which is a shame so we’d like to address that. Thanks to everyone who pre ordered and to all of you for your interest, it’s very encouraging.

All CD orders have shipped and the newly announced Double LP vinyl edition is now available for pre-order, looking like an April delivery for the latter. You can have it right now in digital and it will be up on streaming platforms next week.

You can preview 'Rich Girl' from the album here:

In other news my new album FIBATTY! has been received better than I could’ve imagined and I’m looking forward to putting together some shows over on the mainland to get it out in the wild and go face to face. Between you and I it’s probably the record of the decade so far. I recently headlined both Hobart and Launceston Mona Foma concerts and went down a treat so I’m keen to follow on from those with a big set of old and new.

Briefly, work also continues on a new Augie record, I’m currently composing for a 10 Days on the Island film project, and if you happen to be in Tassie tomorrow you can find me in the bowels of the Mona museum making improv song stuff, playing avant-gardist table tennis, and drinking weird free cocktails with my good mate Benny Salter in his temporary studio. Be well, take care, bon chance, etc xg

On The Quiet: Live :: Now on Double LP Vinyl

The CD stock for On The Quiet: Live has arrived and it's looking superb. Orders will be posted on Monday.

Some news. We have had a number of enquiries about On The Quiet: Live on vinyl. We have just put the wheels in motion and are expecting stock to arrive in April. It's being pressed here in Melbourne. If you're interested, you can pre-order a copy now:

It's a double album and includes a double-sided poster of the beautiful illustrations by Madeleine Griffith and Sandra Eterovic.

By the way - On The Quiet: Live is also available for pre-order via Compact Disc and Digital Download.

The album is officially released on Friday 5 February. As mentioned above, the vinyl will follow in April.

- The Good Gardener

On The Quiet: Live :: February 5, 2021

After convening in a Melbourne studio at the start of 2020 for some recording with the possibility of releasing new material later in the year, CoVid-19 forced us to shelve the project and retreat to our various drawing rooms.

Quarantine on the Augie Island in 2020 was a strangely productive time for its inhabitants after the initial shock of lockdown.

Glenn and Kiernan recorded and released solo records; Dave recorded drum tracks for musical friends and colleagues in his living room; Adam sharpened his home renovation skills with sparkling results for his master bedroom; Ed identified and recorded new Australian native flowers while out patrolling the field.

Quarantine also gave us an opportunity to peruse the archives and...we’re proud to present our first live release, On The Quiet: Live.

In 2009, when it couldn't get any bigger or louder, we pared it back and skirted the east coast of Australia with our On The Quiet tour. Playing our repertoire with laser-like focus and strident minimalism, this largely acoustic show was a huge hit.

10 years on in 2019, we reprised the concept, bringing On The Quiet to hand-picked venues, while taking the opportunity to revisit and re-imagine tunes across our 23 year career.

This 15 track set, containing rarities alongside crowd favourites, was recorded at Brisbane’s famed Old Museum concert hall.

It chronicles 5 musicians who have performed and recorded together for over 20 years shifting effortlessly through our many collective musical gears in an informal but no less compelling format.

Glenn says: “We had a seriously good run with the On The Quiet shows in 2019 and were gratified by the turn out and the response to the sets. We love playing this style of show, the songs get their due but there’s little, if any loss of power, it’s just a different kind.“

Limited to 500 copies worldwide and containing unique illustrations by Sandra Eterovic and Madeleine Griffith, On The Quiet: Live is released on February 5, 2021.

Here's a preview of a track from the album:

Maybe pick up an On The Quiet tote bag at the same time? (SOLD OUT)

- The Good Gardener

"FIBATTY!" out today

Well, today’s the day I release my 2020 solo album “FIBATTY!”. The stock has arrived and the online version is now live to order. Along with the album launch I’m pushing out another single and video, “Alive (Until You’re Not)”, which can be viewed at my Youtube channel and below. There’s little to be gained at this stage waxing about the strange year we’ve all probably had but I made this record for a number of reasons, chief among them being as a way to process the shift in things and the plain awfulness of a few events closer to home that happened to land in the middle of it. At the same time I tried to make something that would be enjoyable to listen to whether superficially, forensically or anywhere between. It has hooks, humour, depth, polish and grime, and as much as is possible in a short album it contains traces of so many of my influences from the proponents of raw four track wizardry to the maestros of the most audacious studio trickery. In the end though it’s just me in my glorified shed in a backyard, isolation within isolation, hopefully a work of some fellowship and joy. I’ll be releasing a track a day with an accompanying lyric video for the next several days for edification purposes.

GR 10/12/2020

ps. There's an interview with the always terrific Zan Rowe on Double J around 10.45am (AEDT) this morning. In just under 2 hours time.

Glenn Richards "FIBATTY!"

“Such fear and fanciful notions took possession of the living that almost all of them adopted the same cruel policy, which was entirely to avoid the artists and everything belonging to them. By so doing, each one thought he would secure his own safety.” Boccacio, G 1348

The more things change, hahaha. Halfway through an Augie record I got trapped on the island. I knew, probably better than anyone, certainly better than many leaders of nations, that I would need to start work on something new.

Shortly I release “FIBATTY!”, a fully home brewed plague of another sort. An epidemic of songcraft and studio delight, an infestation of lyrical bastardy and filmic ecstasy. Eleven feverish trax, including the pre-album single In The Court of the Cat King, complete with a GR Joint home brew filim clip. Breathe it in and feel what it is to have wrath visited upon you by me, an artist. It is a good wrath and you will be full on it. Some say it is my best work yet.

Richards, G 2020

"FIBATTY!"

01 In the Court of the Cat King

02 Alive (Until You're Not)

03 New Songwriter

04 U R

05 Lake Drive

06 FIBATTY!

07 Last Aid Kit

08 Stalker 1986

09 My Midi Life

10 Backyard Arcana

11 Never Be Your Boy

Released December 10, 2020

Sunset Studies Coloured Vinyl

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Sunset Studies. To commemorate this landmark album, we are pleased to announce that we have pressed up a limited amount of translucent rose coloured vinyl copies, housed in a gatefold sleeve. It's limited to only 300 copies worldwide and is available to order now - exclusive to our online shop.

For those of you based in Melbourne and surrounding suburbs:

If you pre-order before June 14, one or two of the Augies will jump in the tour van and hand deliver the album (observing 1.5m distancing, of course).

More news on the Sunset Studies Live 2020 tour coming soon.

- The Good Gardener

Hi Gene!

With a salty salute to Sparks and a neurotic nod to Neu, “Hi Gene!” was written, recorded, mixed, filmed, and edited over three days as an unreasonable challenge Glenn set himself in the first week of the pandemic. As usual, he beat himself soundly.

With a new solo album in the works for later this year, a year in which he celebrates not just the 20th anniversary of the seminal first Augie March album “Sunset Studies”, but also the 10th anniversary of the best Augie March album that wasn’t, his spellbinding 2010 “Glimjack”, GR sends this odd, spiky little tune out as a hello and a reminder to keep your hands, if not your minds, clean as the lockdown eases.

From Glenn: “Augie had a big year planned and we’re hoping to be able to reschedule our Sunset Studies shows for November, but the virus has meant that a planned album will now take a back seat to something entirely new and, so far, really bloody good. I’m confident we’ll see an excellent GR album this year followed by an extraordinary AM album next year. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this half cut home brew, it harks a little to my early years when I had more brain cells but there were far less chords in music. The gist is we need to be clean with our bodies but our culture in general could use a little more dirt beneath its fingernails. Also, dogs are the best people. Stay safe and spread this ludicrous clip like it’s a vaccine. Xg2020”

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: Update

Apologies for the lack of communication regarding the rescheduling of shows in recent times.

The ever changing rules and regulations surrounding mass gatherings and travel due to Covid-19 has made it incredibly difficult to schedule any performances with certainty.

We are in the final stages of negotiations to reschedule the Sunset Studies Live 2020 shows and will release details once they are complete.

Our Brisbane show at The Triffid has already been rescheduled to Saturday 21 November. All existing ticket holders have been advised of the new date. If you can no longer make the show, you can request a refund prior to 19.06.2020 via your Moshtix account. Tickets for the new date can be purchased here.

Please stay safe and we look forward to having a positive announcement to bring you in the coming weeks.

Thanks again for your support.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: Melbourne Recital Centre :: Second Show Added

Encroaching seas, wasted vistas, haunted bowling greens, roofing crises, seasonal oddities, war ghosts, hot cannon sex, right wing jellyfish plagues, privatised everything, rotten wealth hoarding mock religious born to rule grey souls flaying the system...a collective psyche shattered, melted down and glazed into a visionless mirror of THE FUTURE TO COME. It’s the year 2000 and a raw little outfit called Augie March enter a studio with the aim of holding that mirror up to a society in the telltale throes of what we would look back on in a misty manner as the last decade of hope - the nineties.

Twenty years on the mirror is a filthy window and the ghouls keep having their time. Was it our fault? Yes. Did we invoke the horrors to come? Probably. Yes. Should we merry band of seers be held to account for merely seeing and telling, and definitely conjuring forth this awful present? Well, you’ll get your chance to do just that at the Melbourne Recital Centre where we will play from Go (buy a ticket) to Woe (is you) our prescient debut, and the first tour of several de forces, Sunset Studies.

NOW ANNOUNCING A SECOND MELBOURNE SHOW ON THURSDAY 14 MAY.

Tickets available from 9am today.

Roll on you careless evenings…

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: Canberra Theatre

Another city has just been added to the tour...

CANBERRA: Thursday 28 May

We're delighted to announce that 'Sunset Studies Live 2020' will be setting down at the Canberra Theatre Centre on Thursday 28 May. A pre-sale ticket window is now open.

Click on the button to reserve your seats:

We're looking forward to seeing you in May.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: The Triffid, Brisbane

Brisbane friends, this note's for you.

BRISBANE: Saturday 16 May

We're very pleased to announce that we're heading north and playing 'Sunset Studies Live 2020' at The Triffid on Saturday 16 May. Tickets are available now.

SYDNEY: Friday 29 May

Tickets for the City Recital Hall are currently available here:

MELBOURNE: Friday 15 May

A reminder about Melbourne - tickets for the Melbourne Recital Centre show are close to selling out.

Thanks to everyone who has already reserved their seats to Melbourne and Sydney.

We're very close to announcing one final city. More news next week.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: City Recital Hall, Sydney

SYDNEY: Friday 29 May

The Sydney pre-sale commences this morning. Tickets for the City Recital Hall are on sale now! Click on the button below.

MELBOURNE: Friday 15 May

A reminder about Melbourne - tickets for the Melbourne Recital Centre show are close to selling out. Thanks to everyone who has already reserved their seats.

We're very close to announcing another city. More news on that shortly.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020 :: Sydney & Melbourne

SYDNEY: Friday 29 May

Augie are thrilled to announce that the Sunset Studies 20th Anniversary show will now be travelling to Sydney also, May 29 at the City Recital Hall. After Melbourne, Sydney was the town we took SS to most often way back when and we still get the same feeling of excitement and belonging whenever we head up the Hume. We are also very close to securing shows in two other cities and will be forthcoming with details on those asap.

Having never played the album in its entirety we are both nervous and excited about getting this sprawling, diverse piece of work into shape for what will assuredly be some very unique, moving and, horror or horrors, nostalgic experiences. The challenge presented by Sunset Studies became the template for ourselves as a band in the studio and on stage, and for what our audience came to expect from us. A great melodic charm bracelet binding the years, laden with distinct keys, locks, foolish baubles and rare stones. Always just hanging together no matter how corroded the links or how many times it was cast into the void.

Find it again and wear it folks, it deserves a big night out. Sydney pre-sale will commence on Friday 14 February. A pre-sale code will be sent through in due course.

MELBOURNE: Friday 15 May

The Melbourne Recital Centre pre-sale commences this morning at 10am (AEDT). Click on the button at that time to reserve tickets.

The Melbourne promo code is TWENTY.

More news as it comes to hand.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2020

Released in October 2000, ‘Sunset Studies’ was the first long player from Augie March. After two EPs and several years intensive gigging around Australia, the band had built a burgeoning audience primed for a debut album that would earn a respect as one of the most expansive, ambitious and literate Australian musical releases of all time.

Against prevailing trends, the album (at 74 minutes long) covered ground more likely to be trod by poets, psychoanalysts, historians and cultural theorists than by an eager young bunch of suburban kitchenhands hailing from Shepparton and Coburg. Musically the album moves seamlessly from sophisticated to naive, from joyful to desolate, from intense guitar rock to stark ambient sound to traditional folk balladry, as band members threw themselves into each unexpected occasion and unfamiliar role with the abandon that only comes with youth and the sense that they might never get another chance like this, but with nothing to lose all the same. Recording was conducted everywhere from plush studios to bedrooms and cupboards in various insalubrious locales.

The album went gold, it remains a favourite of an unusually diverse population across the planet, and is regularly named by prominent artists today as enormously influential. Songs such as Asleep In Perfection, There Is No Such Place, The Hole In Your Roof and Here Comes The Night have all become cult anthems. Sunset Studies was launched at a legendary show in Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre; since that time Augie March have released five more acclaimed albums (with the promise of more to come!) and garnered a reputation as one of Australia's most unique and engaging live acts.

In 2020 Augie March is dusting off this classic album and performing it live at Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday 15 May.

An exclusive pre-sale window will commence this coming Friday at 10am (AEDT). More details later in the week.

- The Good Gardener

On The Quiet Next Week

Hi all from the surprisingly cosy and naturally lit Dark Satanic Mills Studio in climate addled Hobart town. Currently I'm taking a coffee and mixed nut selection break from working on what's turning into a pretty massive project of new work which, if things can be kept on track, will see the light of day in 2020. This will, for all sorts of reasons, make next year one of the biggest in AM history. In the meantime we're heading out for a smattering of On The Quiet shows in Melbourne, Freo, Castlemaine and Adelaide and this is me shamelessly begging you to come along. We have my good mate and excellent songster Alex Gow of Oh Mercy supporting (except Freo). He's basically young Elvis with Lloyd Cole's motivation so if that sounds good to you then come and get some. We've just added interpretations of Brundisium and Definitive History to the potential set and if the last run is anything to go by these will be some of the most entertaining and moving AM shows to date.

In other news you can tune into the ABC's NYE broadcast and watch me do whatever my thing is with the super sized Rockwiz hybrid band at the Sydney Opera House. And I've begun work on composing and sound design for the Blue Cow production of Angus Cerini's astonishing play "The Bleeding Tree" starring Marta Dusseldorp. Showing early 2020 at the Theatre Royal, and hopefully we can take it to the mainland as well. There's a lot to look forward to folks, even if some of it ain't what we asked for. Let's have some good times together and say nay to the greys.

Best,

G.A.R.

On The Quiet Returns

We had a seriously good run with the On The Quiet shows earlier this year and were gratified by the turn out and the response to the sets. We also got a lot of feedback from people who missed out, apparently whole cities in fact, which was a little remiss of us come to think. We’ve heard the righteous burble and will take action as best we can with what days are available to us.

Throughout December : Melbourne gets a silly season send off at the Northcote Social Club on the 12th, as good a place as any for this time of year. Friday the 13th our songs will slash the emotional throats of WA people at Freo Social. On the 20th we return to the glorious Theatre Royale in Castlemaine, and conclude on a beautiful Sunday evening in grand old Adelaide at The Governor Hindmarsh on the 22nd.

We love playing this style of show, the songs get their due but there’s little, if any loss of power, it’s just a different kind. Renewable is perhaps the best way to describe it. And we’ll look to generate more of it in the coming years alongside our traditional set ups. Special guests include Oh Mercy (solo) in Victoria and Adelaide, and Timothy Nelson Band in Fremantle.

Tickets now on sale.

- The Good Gardener

On The Quiet Merch Update

We are happy to announce that the On The Quiet T-Shirts and Tote Bags, along with our entire catalogue on CD and LP has been restocked and is now available to order via our online store.

Apologies to our Sydney and Brisbane fans for the limited merch available at the shows over the weekend - some of our merch boxes were lost in transit (now thankfully recovered, but a little too late).

Also, a reminder to Melbourne folk, our final On The Quiet show happens this Sunday night at Howler. Last tickets here.

- The Good Gardener

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On The Quiet :: Two Weeks To Go

Things are starting to get real down here at Augie March HQ in preparation for the ON THE QUIET tour- Kiernan and Glenn have drafted a setlist that contains a song from the Waltz EP, the first single lifted from Strange Bird that was barely played live, a song that features Me (Dave) playing acoustic guitar, and a B side from Havens Dumb that we have definitely never played live... Suffice to say the early rehearsals have been equal parts seat-of-yr-pants thrilling, blank stares and head-scratching.

In an exciting AM merch development, the On The Quiet logo t-shirt will be offered in KID SIZES 🙌 along with standard adult sizes and A RATHER FETCHING AND FUNCTIONAL TOTE BAG for your freshly signed CD or LP to be carried home in!

And just like the Bootikins tour, we will be out at the merch table after every show to sign stuff, get some pics and talk some nonsense with one and all so please pop by and say g'day!

Anyway, time for me to get back to learning those drum parts and harmonies that have been lost in the mists of time... Looking forward to seeing you all out in there in August!

- Dave Augie

p.s The accompanying vid has footage from OTQ 2009 in Syd, the Bootikins live launch soundcheck in 2018 and, the Gumball Festival in 2019...yes we did some mining of the AM footage files for that one!

On The Quiet

In 2009, when it couldn't get any bigger or louder, Augie March pared back and skirted the east coast with their On The Quiet tour. Playing their acclaimed repertoire with laser-like focus and strident minimalism, this largely acoustic show was a huge hit with Augie fans, purist and tourist alike.

10 years later they are reprising the concept, bringing On The Quiet to some of their favourite venues. They will take the opportunity to revisit tunes across their 23 year career. Rarities and crowd pleasers will be given equal billing, songs reimagined and distilled, the lyrics and voice of Glenn Richards will shine through. Don't miss this special tour, could be another 10 years (or longer) before it rears its precious head again.

Accompanying Augie March on all shows is chamber-pop maestro Grand Salvo, whose album Sea Glass was nominated for the 2018 Australian Music Prize.

Tickets are on sale now. We hope to see you in August.

- The Good Gardener

Augie March play Geddes Lane Ballroom - Nov 23 & 24

We are deep in setlist construction and rehearsal mode for our Geddes Lane Ballroom gigs in Melbourne on Friday November 23 and Saturday November 24.

These shows represent our final performances for 2018 and we are doubly excited about hosting these in a new live music venue in our hometown with wonderful supports The Orbweavers and Gregor.

In celebration of this, we have decided to trawl through our catalogue and perform some of our not-so-often-heard choons and we want you special peeps to help Choo-Choo-Choose 'em!

We will be conducting polls across our social media channels in the coming week, giving you the opportunity to pick two songs a night...keep an eye out and get involved.

Finally, thanks again for your continued support and encouragement, we could not do our crazy thing without it.

Dave

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Adelaidians - it's long overdue, we're coming your way in March 2019...