Sunset Studies Live 2021 :: Two Weeks To Go

It's just two weeks until we'll be on stage at Melbourne Recital Centre winding our way through the inaugural Sunset Studies Live 2021 performance.

More tickets have been released for both the Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 May performances at the MRC along with the Canberra Theatre Centre show on Friday May 28.

Here's a picture of us having a band meeting over dinner in the kitchen of iconic Melbourne cafe Pellegrini's Espresso Bar back in 1999 (vale Sisto).

The Sunset Studies Live 2021 merchandise has been finalised and is looking superb. See you in a couple of weeks.

- The Good Gardener

FIBATTY! LP now available to pre-order

The excellent folks at Heart of the Rat Records have seen fit to release my recent solo album on vinyl, which I’m pretty chuffed about. Mastered by the always spot on Joe Carra at Crystal, the tunes shine on the black stuff. Check it and all the other great releases at HOTR.

The FIBATTY! LP stock is expected to arrive in late-July.

xg

PS. With venues given the ok to go full capacity, we’ve opened up a good number of new tix for the Melbourne Recital Centre Sunset Studies gigs, get in quick.

Sunset Studies Live 2021 :: Canberra Show

“When will Augie ever get their act together and come to Canberra with their Sunset Studies Anniversary show?”

Well Mr Speaker, we very much reject the premise of that question but let us say, Mr Speaker, that we are very comfortable, Mr Speaker, that the question in question has been, Mr Speaker, comfortably answered previously and that while the promised date of the performance, Mr Speaker, may have shifted somewhat, in no way have the people been misled and indeed we are uh, thank you Mr Speaker, quite confident of delivering the full dose of ‘that thing to cure what ails ya’ to the righteous people of Canberra on the 28th day of the month of May, and let it be made clear Mr Speaker, we are not that variety of miscreant who would always over promise and then chronically under deliver, Mr Speaker, we will give a good showing and the ordinary Australians of the great Capital of this great land will get full value for their hard earned. Thank you Mr Speaker.

The two Melbourne Recital Centre shows in late May are selling well. Final tickets:

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Live 2021

“Our favourite sons, our polished metal guns, plagues, mermaids, setting suns...”

Indeed. In the last several months while you’ve been impatiently waiting for us to finally put on this blasted spectacular, these conveniently rhyming prophecies have again justified their point zero three cents a play. Our feted sons of privilege just can’t keep their little guns holstered, the women of our absurd island colony may as well be screaming underwater, and while grandma and grandpa can’t get a jab or two to fix the loogie our recovery’s a gas, solar panels are a tax, and coal is an own goal with a side of corporate welfare for giggles. Apologies from us for the Giggus Interruptus but what a show they’ve put on in our stead! I want a refund.

Our first born turned 21 in the meantime and got black out drunk on its own, last memory was of googling itself and falling out of the charts all over again. But have some sympathy, for lockdown is hard on everybody and especially the young, good looking, and talented, and don’t they let you know it! While other acts are adopting influencer tactics to win hearts and minds, however, we remain stubbornly of the under the influencer type. So be it. Sweet mercy then, the circus is spiralling back into town, no more deep faking it, destination the Melbourne Recital Centre for two nights, May 26 & 27. Never done before to our knowledge, Sunset Studies complete, brought to you by your faithful, hard slogging, soothsaying servants, Augie March. Early subscribers get a free sample of NutriLube Eye and Other Youngener.

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 respect as one of the most expansive, ambitious and literate Australian musical releases.

The album went gold, it remains a favourite of an unusually diverse population across the planet, and is regularly named 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 at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre. Since that time Augie March has released five more acclaimed albums (with more to come!) and garnered a reputation as one of Australia's most unique and engaging live acts.

Augie March is dusting off this classic album and performing it live in full for the very first time at Melbourne Recital Centre on Wednesday 26 May and Thursday 27 May 2021.

Pre-sale tickets available via the button. The promo code is: SUNSET

At this stage, there are no plans for Sunset Studies Live 2021 to tour outside of Melbourne.

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And finally, fresh off the Augie March acetate production bench comes the emerald green instalment of Sunset Studies coloured vinyl series. This limited edition pressing is in stock and available to order.

- The Good Gardener

Sunset Studies Emerald Green Coloured Vinyl

Last year we released a limited pressing of our debut album on beautiful rose coloured vinyl. The final few copies recently found homes.

2021 marks the 21st anniversary of the release of Sunset Studies. To commemorate the occasion, we have pressed up a limited quantity of the album in a new colour - translucent emerald green - packaged in a gatefold sleeve. It's available to pre-order now.

This new edition of Sunset Studies is due to be released on March 26, 2021.

News on Sunset Studies Live 2021 shows coming soon.

- The Good Gardener

The Forum Melbourne, March 13, 2021

Enjoyed getting down to the filthy dna of some of my tunes at recent Monafoma shows. And enjoyed being yelled at by strangers knowing I had a good chance of a solid crew member getting between us. You don’t have that in day to day life. I’m playing with my excellent friend, pure artist, Jae Laffer, at The Forum on March 13. I’ll be going over everything I’ve done and reminding myself and yourselves of what it’s really about. It’s weird now, come and figure some things out with me. G.R.

On The Quiet: Live :: Now on Streaming Services

From today, On The Quiet: Live is available via streaming services and digital outlets.

And on that note...

Augie March presents On The Quiet: Live (Deluxe: Songs and Stories).

This digital-only release contains the whole box and dice - the complete 15 song set plus all the nonsense in between.

Discussions about the chosen setlist, merchandise stuff-ups, the range of Adam’s voice, why a $5 note appears by the front of the stage in the middle of 'The Third Drink', and occasional polite interruptions from the audience prompting Glenn with forgotten lyrics.

The best Augie March shows are equal parts serious and absurd, respect and irreverence.

You’ll find generous helpings of all four of these magical gig ingredients in this set. Come for the tunes, stay for the sparkling repartee.

Have a listen via Spotify or your preferred streaming service.

And of course, On The Quiet: Live is available on CD, digital and 2LP via our shop.

The double LP is currently being manufactured and will ship from April.

On another note...we are down to the last 10 copies of Sunset Studies rose coloured 2LP. If you're still contemplating, this could be your last chance.

- The Good Gardener

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