Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits will be performing their last band show of '24 at one of the most revered live music venues in Melbourne - The Old Bar!
This will be a special show to celebrate Matt's birthday / another year alive / another year older w/ one of his all-time fave Oz bands - Underminers (Hap Hayward - The Dead Salesmen + Chris Morris - Shooting Czars) who are reforming for a very rare performance.
FREE ENTRY (4-6PM) - don't miss out!
MATT MALONE & THE HOLY SPIRITS
Matt Malone is an iconoclastic singer-songwriter hailing from the goldfields region of country Victoria, Australia. His bold baritone and carefully crafted songs have been likened to The Man In Black - Johnny Cash, gospel preacher - David Eugene Edwards, poetic folk troubadour - Townes Van Zandt and tenebrous lyrical princes - Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan and Michael Gira.
In 2023, Malone released the critically acclaimed LP - For The Term Of My Natural Life (Vinyl, CD, Digital - VRS Records), solidifying his status as one of the Australian underground’s most revered and literate songwriters.
He and his band The Holy Spirits (Anthony Cornish + Ash Jones) are currently performing shows in support of their latest EP - Made In The Image, Vol. 1, featuring songs by PJ Harvey, Bob Dylan and John Lee Hooker whose interpretation had Henry Wagons saying - “what a powerful rendition of the John Lee Hooker classic I’m Bad Like Jesse James from bluesman and twang artisan - Matt Malone… I like that!”
'★★★★’
- Sydney Morning Herald
'★★★★’
- Backseat Mafia
"Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits channel the darkness, the shadows... you'll recognize some Bad Seeds vibes in here and I'm all for it."
- Henry Wagons, Double J
"Malone mines life's dark shadows in a similar way to Nick Cave or foreign antecedents like Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan. It's an album of singular vision, unrelenting in its intensity..."
- Rhythms Magazine
"Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits sound like a Ennio Morricone score for a Cormac McCarthy movie.”
- Americana UK
"Whatever juju, alchemy or disturbed darkness that made Jim Morrison put on a pair of leather trousers & shock the world out of its apathy… Matt has got it!"
- Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Beasts Of Bourbon, The Surrealists)
"Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits are stripped and bare in the outlaw country tradition, but with the menace and slow stabbing guitar of a Rowland S. Howard Special."
- Samuel Fell (Rolling Stone)
"Matt Malone resonates with echoes of Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and the greats... his latest single (The Stranger) embodies his unique style and lyrical genius."
- Anthony De Filipis
For The Term Of My Natural Life -
https://youtu.be/JXOAjqxr1oY?si=9Mr2dhVGerGS88u1
I’m Bad Like Jesse James -
https://youtu.be/HNln4qHE4lg?si=ewvO8qp4s3_2Iffw
Bandcamp -
https://mattmaloneandtheholyspirits.bandcamp.com/
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UNDERMINERS
Hap Hayward and Chris Morris first started writing and playing together around 1990 in the Nulty Grips, with Peter Crebbin, Lawrence Nulty and David Quick. In 2000, Hayward and Morris continued writing and playing under the guise the Underminers. The Underminers secured a publishing deal with Mushroom Records and got some great reviews for their efforts while remaining relatively known only to friends and family. They would record three albums with a rotation of players, the brilliant Lawrence Nulty being there for the crux of them. Hap and Chris have only played a few times since the final album - Heart Part Of Your Mind in 2011.
"Underminers might be the best Australian band you’ve never heard."
- David Maine
"The Underminers debut album is full of stunning, heartfelt tunes all with a fair helping of Hap's wistful, slightly off-beat sense of humour. Compelling, essential."
- Croxton Records
"(Heart Part Of Your Mind) is a personal album drenched in a mood of melancholy but also uplifting beauty.....an epic album full of moods, questions and frustrations."
- Scott Thurling
Bandcamp - https://popboomerang.bandcamp.com/.../pb064-underminers...