UK’s Maximo Park are already jetting our way for the already announced New Years celebrations for Falls and Southbound Festivals, but now the band have announced two headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne.
It’s been seven years since Maximo Park released their critically acclaimed and Mercury Prize nominated debut album A Certain Trigger, and shot up the UK charts with their breakthrough single ‘Apply Some Pressure’. Now with over 2 million albums sold and an arena tour of Europe under their belt, the British 5
piece are currently in rip roaring form; more vital, forceful and potent than ever.
Their recently released fourth album The National Health was recorded with the legendary Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, Patti Smith), and it’s a ferocious and rousing blast of incendiary rock and roll. It harnesses the confusion, agitation and chaos currently seeping through the nation’s veins and jolts it violently awake, creating a persuasive call to arms for the disenchanted.
“We’re in a global recession and everyone is being bombarded with bouncy, happy music,” explains frontman Paul Smith. “The nation is out of control and the record is about taking back control, and being a force for change in your own life. It can’t speak for everybody but it has its eyes and ears all around us… that’s always been a Maximo Park thing: look at yourself. See how you relate to yourself and hopefully someone else will have something in common with it. Our songs are built on empathy. I would hope it’s as vital a music as people would want to hear.”
This is not to say the band have lost their tender touch, as the album contains some of the most exquisite love songs Maximo Park have written yet. With The National Health, Maximo Park are now working on a considerably larger scale than they ever have before, but they never forget the human connection that ties
everything together.
Support for both shows will come from Glass Towers. Originally born as a solo recording project of frontman Ben Hannam, the band came together in the summer of 2008 with the addition of guitarist Sam Speck, bassist Cameron Holdstock and drummer Daniel Muszynski.
The band has since walked a path of highs, from having ARIA Award winning producer, Wayne Connolly, on their 2011 debut EP, to earning spots at festivals including Splendour In The Grass.
The bands’ list of influences ranges from the literary genius of Jack Kerouac to the madcap mind of Syd Barrett and effortless cool of Lou Reed; from a childhood raised on a somewhat oddball mixture of Neil Diamond, Roxy Music and Simon & Garfunkel, to the paintings of J.M.W Turner and photographs of Robert Doisneau.
MAXIMO PARK AUSTRALIAN TOUR // 2013 TOUR DATES
w/ support from Glass Towers. Tickets on sale now.
Wednesday January 2nd – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets: www.handsometours.com; Corner Box Office (57 Swan St Richmond 11am-8pm Mon-Sat), 03 9427 9198 or cornerhotel.com
Thursday January 3rd – The Hi-Fi, Sydney
Tickets: www.handsometours.com, www.thehifi.com.au or 1300THEHIFI
For all Falls Festival and Southbound details: www.fallsfestival.com.au + www.southboundfestival.com.au
