National Gallery of Victoria Presents FRIDAY NIGHTS AT ITALIAN MASTERPIECES, 7/27-8/29

A stellar line-up of musical acts will take the stage in the NGV's Great Hall when the enormously successful Friday Nights series returns for Italian Masterpieces from Spain's Royal Court, Museo del Prado.

Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV said: "Following 2013's sell-out performances, we have brought back Friday Nights with some of Australia's hot ticket artists including Kirin J Callinan, Owl Eyes, Mick Turner, Teeth & Tongue, The Orbweavers, Dan Kelly, The Audreys, New Gods, Ben Watt and The Break."

"Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces is a unique way for visitors to view the exhibition after-hours, enjoying great food and wine, DJ sets and special guest appearances and talks," Mr Ellwood said.

Tickets for Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces are on sale now. See ngv.vic.gov.au for details.

Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces

Fri 27 Jun-Fri 29 Aug, 5.30-9.30pm

On Friday evenings view Italian Masterpieces from Spain's Royal Court: Museo del Prado after hours and enjoy talks, great food and wine, DJs and a stellar line-up of music performances:

27 JUN - KIRIN J CALLINAN

4JUL-OWLEYES

11 JUL - MICK TURNER

18 JUL - TEETH & TONGUE

25 JUL - THE ORBWEAVERS

1 AUG - DAN KELLY

8 AUG- THE AUDREYS (duo)

15 AUG - NEW GODS

22 AUG - BEN WATT (solo, from the UK)

29 AUG - THE BREAK

Cost $28 Adult Admission / $23 Member Admission / $10 Child Admission Venue NGV International, Ground Level

BAND BIOGRAPHIES

KIRIN J CALLINAN

What they've said about Kirin J Callinan:
"2013's best new artist" - Stereogum
"Callinan is one of the world's most exciting new artists." - The Quietus
"Not your average rock 'n' roll heartthrob, but more a brutal mockery of that very stereotype" - Clash Magazine
"Some instinct-driven, proto-human being, skulking out of primordial ooze" - Pitchfork
"The local gym-rat, whose usual soundtrack is the reverb of barbells crashing to the floor" - The Sydney Morning Herald
"Moist with sweat... probably read some Brecht" - The New York Times
"Australia's own Robert Fripp" - The Vine
"The question was raised: Is Kirin J Callinan the greatest guitarist in Australia?" - Beat Magazine.

OWL EYES

Brooke Addamo is Owl Eyes - one of the most exciting artists to emerge from Australia's music capital, Melbourne. Her unique '80s pop-synth sound has inspired three EPs and a debut album, Nightswim, which has already received heavy rotation on nationwide youth radio station triple j. And with her singles collectively reaching over 1 million hits on youtube, there's no denying the demand for more from this promising young artist. Barely into her twenties, Brooke has just returned from a successful jaunt to Austin music conference South By South West where she played eight showcases over the week, landing herself on Huffington 'Post's 30 Acts About to Break' list, as well as FasterLouder's 'Five Buzziest Australian Bands' list.

MICK TURNER

As a former member of Melbourne post-punk bands Fungus Brains, Venom P.Stinger and The Moodists Mick Turner provided menace and a unique anti-rock approach to guitar playing, As the third cog in the Dirty Three wheel Mick provides the rolling rhythms and washes of sound for drummer Jim White and violinist Warren Ellis to explore and dance around to. As a solo artist Mick uses his brush not only for the cover art that inherits his and the Dirty Three album covers but to provide a canvas for himself and his invited artists to add their own colour too. He is like no other. Really.

Mick's new solo-album, Don't Tell The Driver, was four years in the making and features guest appearances from Jeffrey Wegener, Caroline Kennedy, Oliver Mann, Ian Wadley, Peggy Frew and others. He has nailed it.

TEETH & TONGUE

Teeth & Tongue is the musical project of Jess Cornelius. With a combination of hypnotic 505 drum- machine beats and slow, bent-out-of-shape guitar lines, the songs weave themselves
throughout heartbreak and simmering discontent. Teeth & Tongue's second album, Tambourine, came out in April 2011 through Dot Dash/Remote Control, earning RRR Album of the Week and rave reviews across Australia. Her debut record Monobasic received critical acclaim from Australian media, including rotation airplay on triple j and FBi, 'album of the week' on Radio Adelaide, and stellar reviews in Rolling Stone Magazine, jmag, Who Weekly and Yen Magazine.

Teeth & Tongue returns in 2014 with third album GRIDS, out now via Dot Dash / Remote Control. Touring as national support for Vance Joy in April/May 2014.

THE ORBWEAVERS

The Orbweavers - mesmerising, haunting and heart-warming. Drawing on a love of history and science, The Orbweavers have charmed audiences with evocative songs of creeks & quarries (Merri), greyhounds (You Can Run - Fern's Theme), volcanoes (Japanese Mountains), historic sewerage pumping stations (Spotswood),and industrial landmarks (Match Factory). Dark and dulcet melodies, chiming guitar, violin and trumpet meld to hypnotic effect, recalling reverberant ghosts of places past.

Garnering Triple R Melbourne Album of the Week, national and international praise, The Orbweavers have performed at ABC TV studios, ABC Radio National, Melbourne Music Week, National Gallery of Victoria, and supported international artists Beach House, Cass McCombs and Julia Holter. 2013 saw the release of their new double single 'Ceiling Rose / Match Factory', with a national tour and showcases at BIGSOUND in Brisbane, and AWME - Australian Worldwide Music Expo.

Commencing 2014 with shows at Melbourne Zoo Twilights, Nannup Music Festival (WA), and Golden Plains Music Festival to rave reviews, The Orbweavers are fast drawing a devoted following of their spellbinding sound.

"A particularly special Melbourne band ...Graphite & Diamonds (is a) wonderful post-
rock digital/acoustic masterwork, deep and dangerous, but also small and lovely." - The Age Melbourne Magazine

DAN KELLY

Dan Kelly's three albums have been lauded by critics and fans alike as mysterious and adventurous mind journeys with a technicolor sound. The songs are highly geographical with good/bad time falsetto sing alongs for the whole crowd. Like his heroes Ray Davies and Robert Forster, Dan illuminates the lives of ordinary people and their desire to escape the horrors of modern life and love. The six piece Dan Kelly Dream band are working on a concept record about the Pacific Highway and will play a bunch of fabulous Moto?rik and folk jams for you .

THE AUDREYS (Duo)
The Audreys are a folk-rock duo/band from Adelaide, Australia. Taasha sings and plays tiny guitars and keys, and Tristan plays normal-sized guitars and doesn't sing. They are set to release their fourth studio album, a set of songs about high hopes set in low places. Note: this is also the subject matter of their three previous releases, but as each won an ARIA award, they figure if it ain't broke don't fix it. They tour hard so, like it or not, they'll be bringing it down and dirty to a town near you to teach your little- uns how to weep into a whiskey glass and sucker-punch a weasel, all without tearing a seam in their vintage op-shop duds. Folk Yeah!

NEW GODS

New Gods is the new project for former Little Red members Dominic Byrne and Adrian Beltrame, who are joined in the "indie-supergroup" by Eagle and The Worm's Richard Bradbeer on bass, and Ground Components' members Sam Raines on drums and Dale Packard on keys. The album also features horns provided by Saskwatch's Liam McGorry and strings arranged by violinist Sophie Di Tempora.

New Gods have released their first full-length album Beloved for free. The 11 track album - credited to "New Gods or the Universe or God or the Internet" - is presented as an "online cassette".

The release of the album comes almost 12 months on from their self-titled debut EP, which featured the singles 'Razorblades', 'Klipse', and 'On Your Side'. FL's review of the EP described it as "a somewhat disjointed affair, but intriguing nonetheless ... the sound of one of Australia's most promising young songwriters, deciding where to go next."

BEN WATT (solo)
Ben Watt is an English musician, DJ, record producer and radio presenter, best known as one half of the platinum selling duo Everything but the Girl. In March 2013 Watt announced a return to his solo career, one he had left parked in 1983. With a raft of new songs, he performed two low-key solo shows at tiny folk n' blues basement, The Slaughtered Lamb, in London's Clerkenwell. Accompanied by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, he showcased a dozen new songs to sell-out crowds on August 20 and 21. A mini-UK tour followed in November in the midst of recording sessions for a new album. Now complete, 'Hendra' is the meeting of worlds: languid folk, distorted rock and fizzing electronics. The upshot is ten songs. Unsentimental. Impressionistic. Songs about close family and strangers, resilience and hope. All set in vivid landscapes where the outside comes inside and clings to the stories.

Apart from a life in music, in 1996 his autobiographical memoir, 'Patient - the True Story of a Rare Illness' was published to wide acclaim by Viking/Penguin in the UK (a Sunday Times Book of the Year, Esquire Non-Fiction Award finalist) and Grove Atlantic Press US (a New York Times Notable Book of The Year.) In Feb 2014 Bloomsbury published his second book, 'Romany and Tom'. Both a personal journey and a portrait of his parents, it is a vivid story of the post-war years, ambition and stardom, and family roots and secrets. Bloomsbury US publish it in June 2014.

Performing solo, acoustic and electric, Ben Watt brings material from Hendra plus other works to Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with the Melbourne Writers Festival.

THE BREAK

Australia's most powerful and innovative surf rock band, The Break, have a new album, 'Space Farm', released recently (Sony). Many of the elements of the band's first recording 'Church of the Open Sky' remain: the raw energy of live studio takes driven by the rhythm section of drummer Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil) and bassist Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes); and the strong guitar/theremin melodies of the Oil's Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey. Jack Howard (Hunters & Collectors) completes the Space Farm line-up, playing soaring surf/mariachi trumpet. Space Farm sees the band discovering new musical frontiers and exploring new sonic galaxies. The rips and swells and chants of the first album are still there, but the band has added turf to the surf and beef to the reef, and picked up a few singing hitchhikers along the way - including Engelbert Humperdink on 'Ten Guitars' - The Break's take on this classic - plus the unique chanting of The Gyuto Monks of Tibet.