In 2009, when it couldn’t get any bigger or louder, Augie March pared back and skirted the east coast with their ‘On The Quiet’ tour. A loose and informal approach to their acclaimed repertoire, this largely acoustic show was a huge hit with Augie fans, purist and tourist alike.
Fast forward to 2019, Augie March are thrilled to be bringing ‘On The Quiet’ back to life and into some of their favourite venues IN AND AROUND Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, AND Brisbane. Adam Donovan, Dave Williams, Edmondo Ammendola, Glenn Richards, and Kiernan Box will take the opportunity to revisit tunes across their revered 23 year career.
To celebrate, we sit down with Augie March, as they share a ‘Track by Track’ of five songs they were listening to on the 2009 tour, and five songs that the band is loving in 2019 that they plan to be listening to on the 2019 tour.
2009 On The Quiet Tour Tracks:
1) Scott Walker: ‘Cossacks Are’
Nothing but Top 40, baby!
– Glenn Richards
2) Keith Jarrett: ‘The Köln Concert’
During the 2009 On The Quiet tour I was listening to a solo jazz piano album called The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett, which Dave had lent me. It’s comprised of 4 untitled and completely improvised tracks, so slightly surprising it went on to become the biggest selling jazz album of all time. When Jarrett arrived at the Cologne Opera House in 1975, there had been an equipment mix-up and he had to play an out of tune, damaged piano with bad pedals which they found somewhere backstage. He made it sound alright. I might have tried to do a couple of unnecessarily long solos on that tour.
– Kiernan Box
3) Animal Collective- In The Flowers
‘Avant-Folktronic-Almost-All-Of-It-Performed-On-An-Ensoniq’ is how i characterised it back then and it probably sells the songwriting alitlle short…This record strikes a nice balance of popular music harmony and melody performed on some traditional rock instruments with In The Box cut / paste production and use of synthethisers, incidental and found sounds, field recordings…all deftly woven together to produce a rich sound tapestry…A song full of (sampled) bells and whistles.
– Dave Williams
4) Ned Colette – The Country With a Smile
For someone who is a master on guitar, Ned is a whizz-bang textural
keyboardist. Endless streams of melodies flow from his mind and
heart and this song is proper sublime musicality. Joe Talia is a personal
tub-thumping favourite of mine and along with Ben Bourke make up a
cracking rhythm section.
– Dave Williams
5) Fleet Foxes – He Doesn’t Know Why
Young bucks from Seattle discover Neil Young, Bob Dylan et al along with
a Alesis mid-90’s-issue reverb unit…Good on ’em!
– Dave Williams
2019 On the Quiet Tour Tracks:
1) Elena Kats Chernin – ‘Velvet Revolution’
Nothing but Top 40, baby!
– Glenn Richards
2) Bruce Springsteen – Western Stars
In 2019, at this stage I will be listening to Augie March trying to remember the old songs. Also wouldn’t mind hearing Western Stars by Bruce Springsteen.
– Kiernan Box
3) Lizzo – Tempo
This has been one of my go-to soundtracks to accompany housework this year. Lizzo is power-house songwriter, vocalist, and performer who has made an eclectic record that is all about self-empowerment- ‘Empowerment-Core’ is how Pitchfork distinguished the sub-genre- and this Trap-tinged banger featuring Missy Elliot is one of the highlights…Lizzo is equally at home belting out a gospel-tinged tune about lost love as she is rapping over a spare, down tempo dark hip-hop tune about lovers who just aren’t up to scratch…loads of co-songwriting and co-production credits makes the stitching together of this piece of art alittle difficult at times but it’s well worth a listen.
– Dave Williams
4) Hot Chip – Melody Of Love
Hot Chip never stand still. They continue to make inspiring and inspired art together after nearly 20 years…Melody Of Love is another cracker off the HC production line of fun, interesting, more sonic-levels-than-a-game-of-Jenga songs and having Alex Taylor’s factory of endless melody belching out rainbow clouds 24/7 is unreal.
– Dave Williams
5) Aldous Harding – Fixture Picture
One of the albums of the year. Aldous is a songwriter and singer of rare talent and this album is a tour de force with equal parts of beauty and violence. Stellar.
– Dave Williams
They head to Howler, Brunswick on Sunday 25 August. Tickets on sale now via augiemarch.com/tour
