Press Release: 

The Verlaines National Tour -Extra date added!

 Hamilton date added - Saturday 20 March, Gravity Bar at Altitude 

Seminal Dunedin band The Verlaines are pleased to announce they will be playing around the country in March this year.

 1980: 30 years ago The Verlaines formed while at Logan Park High School. A young Graeme Downes gets together with some like-minded individuals having heard the Clean, the Same (Chills in Embryo) and began a writing career that now extends to nine studio albums and many other singles and EPs.

 30 years later its 2010:  Graeme is writing prodigiously (A new album has been penned over the summer for recording and release this year) and playing a combination of both old Verlaines material and brand-new songs from recent albums such as Potboiler (2007) and Corporate Moronic (2009).

Graeme comments:

It’s actually very difficult finding a balance between old and new (let alone middle period). Obviously we want to be out playing the most recent albums but I think we have got the balance about right.

 “One of this country’s most adventurous and accomplishedsongwriters…

It’s funny, it’s precise, and its very crafty…Corporate Moronic furthers the case for Downes as a top-tier songwriter.

Popmatters.com

The Verlaines are touring with some of Graemes former students Anthonie “Tono” Tonnon and Simon Comber, who will be playing support at these gigs.

 Graeme comments:

I’m honoured to share the stage with these guys. They are songwriter/story tellers of the highest quality. Hopefully if some of the older Verlaines fans come out of the woodwork they will be turned on to their work as well.

The Verlaines National Tour 2010

with support from Simon Comber and Tono

Dunedin           Sat 13 March      Otago Uni Main Common Room

Auckland         Fri 19 March       Monte Cristo Room

Hamilton    Sat 20 March  Gravity Bar at Altitude

Wellington        Fri 26 March      Bodega

Christchurch  Sat 27 March     The Bedford

Limited Pre-sale Tickets $20 from www.UnderTheRadar.co.nz

 Media Enquiries:

Scott Muir

Scott@dunedinmusic.com

+64 21 44 01 60

About the Verlaines:

Flying Nun stalwarts, the literate and dramatic New Zealand guitar pop band the Verlaines formed in 1981; led by singer/guitarist Graeme Downes, with their  debut on the 1982 Dunedin Double compilation EP, they have gone on to produce 9 albums, with number 10 in getstaion right now.

www.theverlaines.co.nz

www.facebook.com/theverlaines

www.myspace.com/theverlaines

About Tono:

Tono (Anthonie Tonnon) wrote his debut EP Love and Economics as an attempt to define what it was to grow up in the 'Rogernomics generation,' but the EP took on new meaning when it was released in the midst of a recession in 2008.

Tono and his band The Finance Company (Chris Miller, Andrew Straight) are set to release a new untitled EP, recorded with Tex Houston, that leaves behind the old themes, and the Beatles-esque pop of the last, but retains Tonnon's emphasis on character, his ironic wit, and post-modern attitude to songwriting. The lyrics take on a darker, sharper edge, and the rhythmic, grinding guitar-based music owes it's sound to some of the Verlaines' contemporaries.

“An exercise in attention to detail where clever songcraft benefits from the ensemble’s dynamic but nicely restrained delivery. 4 stars’  

Shane Gilchrist, Otago Daily Times.

'It's bloody good'

Grant Smithies, Sunday-Star Times.

www.tono.co.nz

www.myspace.com/tononz

www.facebook.com/pages/Tono-and-The-Finance-Company/28313751360

About Simon Comber:

Simon Comber's first album Pre-Pill Love introduced New Zealand to a songwriter of quiet insight and shrewd economy. Written whilst Comber was based in Dunedin, songs like Early Spring Rain, Sunday Horrors and Marylands said what they had to say (on topics ranging from watching horror movies with the one you love to child abuse) and got the hell out, occasionally not even breaking the 2 minute mark. Since releasing Pre-Pill Love Comber has moved back to Auckland, and more importantly, written material for a follow up album. His sophomore release Endearance has for the most part traded acoustic for electric guitar, and is in some ways the folk-rock counterpart to his folk-pop debut. Recorded at the Masonic Lodge in Port Chalmers, Comber enlisted the help of Dale Cotton (Conray), Darren Stedman (The Verlaines) and Tom Healy (The Low Spark) to contribute engineering, drums and bass respectively and help bring his new songs to fruition. The result is a brooding electric folk-rock album of great beauty.

“... Judee Sill’s weapons – a unique voice, intelligent writing, and some wonderful lyrics – are his...  musically, he’s like a young Don McGlashan – McGlashan’s magnificent “While You Sleep” is the top shelf Comber is reaching for in many of his songs.”

Roi Colbert, Sunday Star Times

www.simoncomber.com