Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Princess Chelsea Debuts New Single 'No Church On Sunday' via Stereogum

Some of the wait is finally over for Princess Chelsea fans. Eastern Europe is breathing a sigh of relief today as her new single 'No Church On Sunday' is premiered on Stereogum.

Princess Chelsea has teamed up with Mermaid Avenue / Mom + Pop Records to release We're So Lost and No Church on Sunday as singles in North America.

You can buy? No Church on Sunday here via Lil' Chief  

USA patrons may buy here via Mermaid Avenue

I hear a rumour theres a Simon Ward directed video on the way...and yes there will be a 7inch - more on that soon!


Friday, October 31, 2014

Jonathan Bree Releases New Single 'Weird Hardcore'

Seeing as it's Halloween Jonathan Bree has sneakily released a new single 'Weird Hardcore' today accompanied by a truly creepy video made by Simon Ward.




Weird Hardcore is the first single from Jonathan's upcoming sophomore album 'A Little Night Music' which will be released early 2015.

Even better the single is available for free!

While writing and recording A Little Night Music - Jonathan inherited a bunch of second hand classical records and began listening to a bunch of ballet scores by Tchaikovsky, orchestral suites by Grieg and Haydn symphonies.  With no classical background but always an obvious appreciation for orchestral pop (Serge etc)  A Little Night Music is Jonathan's attempt to write more free-form 'classical' inspired compositions but still always with a McCartney-esque bassline.

A year down this rabbit hole has resulted in a truly interesting album.





Monday, August 18, 2014

Scott Mannion of The Tokey Tones Debuts Solo Material

Nick Harte of the Shocking Pinks recently did a mixtape for promisedmiracles.com - and the closing track just happens to be Scott Mannion of The Tokey Tones solo debut.

'You Are The Substance That I Can't Live Without' is the first single from an album Scott is working on at the moment and which will be a Lil' Chief release in the not too distant future. It is also Scott's first release in over 10 years.



Fans of the Tokey Tones / acid will not be disappointed - especially seeing as the whole mixtape is a free download.

The mixtape also features a remix of Dragon's - Are You Old Enough by Pikachunes!

Cheers Nick, (and Scott).

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

WET WINGS RELEASE MINI-ALBUM, WILLOW PEAK.

Lil' Chief is please to announce the release of the new Wet Wings mini-album, Willow Peak.

Wet Wings will play in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch in July/August with a full 5-piece band. The party will be louder than the former two-piece’s Casiotone and vocal-loop-centric shows.
Songwriter Darian Woods says while the live show will be energetic, the album is the most melancholic yet. “Willow Peak is only thirty minutes long, which meant we could create a cohesive mood across the whole album.”
“It’s 4am music. The music is darker but there’s still a little optimism in there somewhere,” says singer Lucy Botting. “But only if you really look for it.”
“My favourite song on the album, ‘Brute’, is a story about two people living alone trying hard to love each other. When Darian first showed it to me I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, it’s so sad. In the recording I sing about the darker side of relationships, the admiration and fear you can hold towards someone,” says Lucy.
The band will play at Auckland’s Golden Dawn on 5 July, Wellington’s San Francisco Bath House on 12 July, and the Dark Room in Christchurch on 2 August.
The live shows will be upbeat, with drums, bass and synths reinterpreting the intimate songs on the album.
Wet Wings is based in Wellington, and released its debut album Glory Glory in 2011. The band has played alongside like-minded outfits such as The Brunettes, The Ruby Suns, and Watercolours.

Grab a copy of Willow Peak on bandcamp 




Friday, May 16, 2014

THE ICYPOLES ALBUM 'MY WORLD WAS MADE FOR YOU' RELEASED TODAY!

Lil' Chief is pleased to announce the release of The Icypoles debut album.


The Icypoles are the most recent addition to our roster our first Australian signing. 

They say timing is very key in this industry so it was possibly another brilliant decision by the chief to release this smack bang in the middle of NZ music month. Go Team NZ!

Grab a copy of the album on Vinyl, CD, or digitally on bandcamp or iTunes.

The Icypoles will be playing one special album release show at Golden Dawn on Friday May 23rd with the Eversons and DJ Princess Chelsea


You can also catch them supporting Lawrence Arabia

Auckland – Kings Arms Tavern
Wednesday 28 May – Lawrence Arabia/Chant Darling
Thursday 29 May – The Sparrow plus old songs with string quartet

Wellington – Puppies
Friday 30 May – Lawrence Arabia
Saturday 31 June – Chant Darling
Sunday 1 June – The Sparrow plus old songs with string quartet

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Lil' Chief Records presents The Icypoles!

Its May NZ Music Month and Lil' Chief is happy to announce our first Australian signing The Icypoles with their debut 'My World Was Made For You' due out on Lil' Chief Friday 16 May.

Having become a familiar fixture on Melbourne's inner north stages, and with two previous releases (2009's Getting Ready cassette and 2011's Promise to Stay 7" EP),  The Iypoles' musical adventures can be traced back to the early '00's, with half the band finding their formative footing playing horns and trinkets in an early incarnation of Architecture in Helsinki. 
When The Brunettes were hangin' with The Architecture folk in the early naughties Big Chief' Dr Bre(e) was impressed by The Icypoles 'Shirelles meets K Records' vibes and offered to put out their album.  10 years later he finally got the call and the album has shaped up to be everything he'd hoped.

You can pre-order the album on vinyl or cd here.



In anticipation of this release Undertheradar has previewed the new music video by The Icypoles for their single Babies.


The kaleidoscopic music video was made by band member Isobel Knowles underwater, using some fluff, lights and a fishtank.

The Icypoles will be heading over to play support for Lawrence Arabia on his epic run of full album shows but will also be playing one special album release show at Golden Dawn on Friday May 23rd with the Eversons.



Lawrence Arabia Full Album Shows:

Auckland – Kings Arms Tavern
Wednesday 28 May – Lawrence Arabia/Chant Darling
Thursday 29 May – The Sparrow plus old songs with string quartet

Wellington – Puppies
Friday 30 May – Lawrence Arabia
Saturday 31 June – Chant Darling
Sunday 1 June – The Sparrow plus old songs with string quartet





Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Sheep, Dog & Wolf Releases New Music Video For Glare!

Sheep, Dog & Wolf has released a new music video for 'Glare'.


'Glare' is shot on film and is made by the talented folks at Candlelit Pictures who recently gained a Vimeo staff pick for their music video for Randa's Frankenstein in 2013.

For this music video the crew and Daniel flew to the Australian outback and spent 10 days in the desert waiting for the sun to appear in exactly the right place.

Not since the heady cocaine-fuelled days of Cold Chisel has Australia seen so many nose-bleeds in the desert.

The location for the shoot was 12 hours north of Adelaide in a place called 'The Moon Plains' which millions of years ago used to be the ocean floor.



According to the crew no computer-generated imagery was used in the video - the sun looks that large on your screen because Daniel was shot running on a giant 2400mm lens.

Sheep Dog & Wolf's album Egospect is a finalist in this years Taite Awards - alongside fellow Lil' Chief head honcho Jonathan Bree  - making 2 out of the 8 finalists Lil' Chief artists - that's precisely 1/4, or 4/16ths of the nominations.