Perfume Genius in NZ this week * Supports announced

2014 CRITICS CHOICE, Seattle native Mike Hadreas – aka Perfume Genius – brings his four piece band to New Zealand for the first time THIS WEEK to delight audiences & perform songs from his profoundly beautiful album Too Bright, out now on Matador Records.

Joining Perfume Genius for both his New Zealand shows will be MALI MALI - From Auckland’s North Shore, Mali Mali is Ben Tolich and his songs. In 2013 he released his finely crafted debut “Gather ’round the Gooseclock” Since then he has been touring and gigging when ever and where ever he can, opening for Boy and Bear on their New Zealand tour, and Jack Carty on his National tour of Australia. Currently in the final stages of writing for his next album. His music is Lyrical, Melancholy, Hopeful, Imaginative and Textured, the perfect accompaniment for Perfume Genius.
The Auckland show also will feature very special guests LONTALIUS - Lontalius is the band project of eighteen year old Wellington singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist and producer Eddie Johnson, assisted live and in the studio by multi-instrumentalists Taylor Groves, Daniel McBride and Miles Sutton. Since 2010 Johnston has released several critically acclaimed EPs, in the process exploring a stylistic spectrum which ranges from shoegaze, lo-fi, alt-rock and noisy folk to bedroom drone pop/RnB. He's also shared stages with How to Dress Well, Liam Finn, Dear Times Waste, Glass Vaults, and performed at the Camp A Low Hum Festival. Over the last two years, his compositions have become a regular fixture on student radio stations, Ryan Hemsworth DJ sets, and counterculture music websites across the globe, racking up over 700,000 soundcloud plays along the way, we couldn't be more thrilled to see them at the Kings Arms on Fridaynight.

On the Wellington line-up, we're thrilled to announce Eyeliner is joining the party too! Eyeliner is one alias of Luke Rowell: Synthesist, digital fantasist and deep-thought enthusiast. Inspired by #vaporwave and the music label Innovative Communication, Eyeliner is a post-recession contemplation via daytime-TV workstation grooves.

These are shows not to be missed!
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Over the course of his previous two astonishing albums, Perfume Genius cemented his place as a singer-songwriter of rare frankness, creating songs that, while achingly emotional, offered empathy and hope, rather than any judgment or handwringing. Sparse, gorgeous and with Hadreas’ quavering vocals often only accompanied by piano, they were uncommonly beautiful tales of a life lived on the dark side – scarred, brutalised, yet ultimately, slowly but surely reclaimed.

“Hadreas’ sexuality is obviously a huge part of his work, but he’s above all a human—one who’s spoken about battling addiction and sickness and sadness, and one who possesses the ability to write about it in a way that feels universal. A huge part of what makes the work so strong is the generous human spirit that bleeds into it, and Too Bright is the best example to date of the lengths he goes to confront his fears and demons. These songs feel less like songs and more like treasures, ones that fill you with power and wisdom” – PITCHFORK Best New Music

The third album from Perfume Genius, Too Bright, builds on the exquisite piano ballads Hadreas has become known for, but is less self-conscious and less concerned with storytelling and easily-digested melodies. It is a brave, bold, unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas calls “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since ten and has just begun to bubble up”. Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Scott Walker’s Tilt, records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation.

Too Bright is one of 2014’s most acclaimed releases, and the “Best Of 2014” accolades keep pouring in: NPR, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Stereogum, Paste, Cosmopolitan, American Songwriter, and so many more. It’s an ambitious album, and it’s been extremely gratifying to see how closely people have listened and how intelligently it’s been written about
– and in turn, how popular it’s been with fans.

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