Melbourne psych-rockers Money For Rope will release new album ‘Picture Us’ on March 8, 2019, following international tours which have previously taken in shows across Primavera Sound, Glastonbury & SXSW, alongside support slots for Courtney Barnett (also an early champion of the band). Details of a 2019 UK headline tour from Money For Rope in support of the new album are soon to be announced. The band are trailing the album announcement with lead single, ‘Actually’.
Spawned from the same fertile Melbourne music scene which has fostered not only Barnett but also other friends including King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, The Goon Sax and Rolling Coastal Blackouts Fever, Money For Rope are releasing ‘Picture Us’ off the back of a dogged touring habit which has kept them on the road near constantly for the last four years. Entirely self-produced, mixed & mastered by the five piece – comprised of Jules McKenzie (guitars, vocals), Rick Parnaby (keyboards), Erik Scerba (drums), Chris Loftis (drums), Ted Dempsey (bass) – ‘Picture Us’ was recorded over the course of a single summer in Victoria, Australia on the coastline of the Southern Ocean.
The volatility of this stretch of sea – fused with the careering urgency of Money For Rope live shows, powered by a pummelling rhythm section including two drummers – bears out on ‘Picture Us’, whose pace seldom eases across its lean 30 minute span. The insouciant, surf rock of blistered lead single ‘Actually’ came together whilst the band were on tour in the dog days of a Berlin heatwave, whilst early advance track ‘Earl Grey’ arrived earlier this year via a video which ratchets the single’s air of menace with a blend of overhead & underwater footage in which the band play their guitars in the surf off Sorrento Beach in Victoria. Speaking about this kind of interplay, frontman Jules says; “We wanted guitars to be keyboards, keyboards to be saturation, and drums to be folded over into themselves like tape worn away, like rocks eroded by the relentless southerlies blowing the ocean onto the land.”
Whilst everything Money For Rope does is buoyed by a freewheeling ‘Why not?’ attitude – including a mini tour across India, and McKenzie honouring various live commitments following a motorbike crash by performing from a wheelchair – don’t be fooled by that derisive band name. ‘Picture Us’ thrums with the promise of one of Australia’s most hard-working and charismatic new bands.
‘Picture Us’ Tracklist
- Hold
- Actually
- Stretched My Neck
- O’Chelles
- Remember My Name
- Earl Grey
- Trashtown
- Look
- Picture Us
- What Takes So Long
Pre-order ‘Picture Us’ here: https://www.roughtrade.
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