Blonde Redhead’s first Australian tour in over 13 years and only Perth show. The legendary dream-pop band of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace returns with their first album in almost a decade, the sumptuously received Sit Down for Dinner.
This moment finds Blonde Redhead returning to Australia, 30 years since their incandescent debut - with brilliant new music, as perfect an addition as any fan could wish for, to their back catalogue of heady, romantic songs. Blonde Redhead’s lush contemporary sound – Kazu and Amedeo’s dreamlike vocals floating over a driving, cinematic soundtrack – has crystallised their stature as “one of the most revered and inventive independent rock bands of the last decade” (Los Angeles Times). A band who has never stopped pushing forward, Blonde Redhead are celebrated as a classic band of our time, their earlier masterpiece 23 recently named by Pitchfork as one of the Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time.
“On their first album in nearly a decade, and following a wave of viral resurgence, the NYC avant-rock vets return with their warmest, most welcoming music yet” - PITCHFORK
“A record of deftly anxious songs about loss … Blonde Redhead’s finest work” - THE GUARDIAN
MOJO - ★★★★
THE TIMES - ★★★★
UNCUT - 8 OUT OF 10
“Devastatingly gorgeous” - THE LINE OF BEST FIT
“Blonde Redhead’s first album in nearly a decade is one of their best” - BROOKLYN VEGAN ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“Life changes fast,” Joan Didion once wrote. “Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”
When Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino encountered this passage from Didion’s memoir of grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, in the early pandemic months, Makino was thinking of her own parents far away in Japan; the then-lost ritual of congregating for dinner with family; and the heavy, omnipresent feeling that life could change in the instant for any of us. She narrated these feelings on a pair of songs which helped title Blonde Redhead’s 10th full-length: “It’s sort of about death, but the music is so alive and groovy,” Makino says.
The title Sit Down for Dinner has a separate resonance for the Italian members of Blonde Redhead, the Milan-born twin brothers Amedeo Pace (singer / multi-instrumentalist) and Simone Pace (drummer). “Culturally, dinner is important to us,” Simone says of the non-negotiable family ritual. “It’s a moment for us to sit down and have time with each other. We grew up that way. I know a lot of people eat and run, eat in front of their TV, or don’t care about it too much — and that’s OK — but we really do.”
Dinner has long been a sacred ritual for Blonde Redhead as a band as well; when they’re on tour or rehearsing, they always share a meal, no matter what. Sit Down for Dinner is a meticulous and immersive testament to the unique internal logic Blonde Redhead have refined over their three-decade existence, characterised by that sense of persistent togetherness.
Formed in the 1993 New York indie underground, Blonde Redhead quickly found a place on Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley’s label, Smells Like, before releasing beloved records on Touch & Go and 4AD that traced an arc from angular indie-rock to cosmopolitan art pop. The trio might have been a quintessential ’90s band, if not for the fact that they continuously kept going, growing, never confined to any era but the present.
Sit Down for Dinner is charged with the inescapable struggles of adulthood: communication breakdown in enduring relationships, wondering which way to turn, holding onto your dreams. Fittingly, Sit Down for Dinner is a pleasure, with the ease of new conversation among familiar friends. Crucial to that equation are Blonde Redhead’s innate harmonic sensibilities, which Makino calls the core of the band. “We have a language we have kept,” she adds. “We try to change rhythms, concepts, and sounds. But that harmonic sensibility has stayed the same. It hits the same part of your heart.”
Supporting Blonde Redhead: Artfool
‘I’m not anywhere,’ sings Lo on softly heartbreaking debut single, ‘Floating.’ It’s a taste of the songwriter’s unbridled honesty, her constant introspection in the face of uncertainty. A voice that soothes and seduces over smooth and subtle instrumentation, Lo blends her indie sensibility with a darker sense of longing; a unique expression of love, lust and fear with a touch of nostalgia so sweet that it’s impossible not to feel everything that Lo has to offer. Words that echo our own thoughts and insecurities, Lo’s music is more than simply relatable. It’s our youth meeting our future, our emo roots intertwining with our fledgling maturity. ‘Artfool’ is the brainchild of Lo O’Hara, formerly known as ‘Lo’, an Australian sad-girl music artist. Growing up in a household where Bon Iver and Elliot Smith blasted through stereo speakers on a weekend, Lo has always been drawn to darker themes, sentimental energy and sad songs with a hint of hope. “The first time I heard ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, I felt it all over me, throughout my body. I didn’t understand how music could affect someone physically like that, but it inspired me to create that feeling for others.”
Her debut EP at Debaser studio, working closely with engineer Andrew Lawson (Noah Dillon, Death By Denim, Riley Pearce), producing what was initially a passion project, free from expectation. ‘Plan For An Independent Future’ was released in 2020 and was quick to grab attention, landing multiple Spotify Editorial Playlists and gaining over a million streams. ‘Floating’ had airplay on various radio stations in Australia, the US, Europe and the UK, including Australia’s triple j and UK’s BBC Radio 1. Pockets of fans from all over the world have reached out to express how deeply they connected with Lo and her lyricism.
Shortly after the release of her EP, Lo was added to The Harbour Agency’s artist roster, playing an assortment of Perth shows with local acts like Coterie, Dulcie and Great Gable. She also supported national treasure Ian Moss and French royalty Lou Doillon as well as selling out multiple headline shows in her hometown.
In 2021, Phoebe Bridgers referred to Lo’s buoyant single ‘Disconnect’ as "…something I’d see at a festival while walking by and I’d stop because I think it’s cool” during a triple J interview, while Sydney publication Temporary Dreamer praised “…Lo is powerful in her every move. Her words are strong, and her sound exclusively hers” and Australian music media outlet Pilerats noted “…Lo is quickly building a profile as a newfound star in powerful, emotive indie”.
2022 kicked off with Lo announcing label partnership with emerging tastemaker record label SameSame Records (ADA/Warner) and upcoming sophomore EP ‘Shy Panic’. Inspired by Haim, MUNA and Ethan Gruska, the EP plays on themes of regret, abandonment and dread, while sonically whimsical. First single, ‘Giver, Lover, Pet’ reached #2 on the AMRAP metro charts along with an artist spotlight from triple j Unearthed. Second and third singles, ‘tapped out’ and ‘GTY’ both landed on Spotify editorial playlists, as well as worldwide airplay. Shy Panic gained Lo an ‘Artist Spotlight’ position on triple j Unearthed, just before setting out for a national tour, playing shows in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. On their return, Lo won ‘Best Alternative/Indie Act’ at the 2022 West Australian Music Awards.
Since the change of name, Artfool is currently and working on a debut lo-fi album.
