Discography - Other Releases
*Untidy Towns 7" – 1998 (Drive In/Matinee Records)
Tracks: Untidy Towns, Pin Cushion & Edward, Sandwich Hand
*Southernmost 7" – 1998 (Drive In/Matinee Records)
Tracks: Southernmost, Beer Nut & Paper Planes
*A Smile Took Over ep (various) - 1998 (Matinee Records)
Track: I've Got It And It's Not Worth Having (Boyracer cover)
*Indie Aid Abroad Compilation (various) - 2000 (Drive In Records)
Track: Even Stevens w/Ladybug Transistor
*T-Shirt Weather ep & 7" - 2000 (Matinee Records)
Tracks: T-Shirt Weather, Tmrw Vs. Y'day,
Deep Sea Diving Suit (Magnetic Fields cover), Southernmost (new version)
*A Boy, a Girl and a Rendez-vous Comp. - 2001 (Red Roses For Me)
Track: Mars
*North American Summer 7" - 2001 (Matinee Records)
Tracks: Friendless Summer & Goodness Gracious

Visit the Official Lucksmiths site at www.thelucksmiths.com.au

Album Tracks - Real Audio
*A Hiccup In Your Happiness from 'Warmer Corners'
*The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco from new EP
*Little Distraction from 'A Little Distraction'
*Camera Shy from 'Naturaliste'
*Even Stevens from 'Where Were We?'
*T-Shirt Weather from 'Banter Compilation'
*Broken Bones from 'Why That Doesn't Surprise Me'
*Smokers In Love from 'Staring At The Sky'
*Edward, Sandwich Hand from 'Happy Secret'
*Under The Rotunda from 'A Good Kind Of Nervous'

Interview - Real Audio
*NPR Morning Show, USA - Aug 2001

Marty Donald Writes About The 'A Hiccup In Your Happiness' EP
"The song that would eventually become “A Hiccup in Your Happiness” lay around in various forms for a good couple of years. Unusually for me, it was written around the bass line; I tried several different melodic and lyrical ideas (including, I seem to remember, one about my fondness for baseball movies), but nothing seemed to work that well.

The final version of the song had its genesis at the Melbourne Comedy Festival a couple of years ago. I attended a performance by Daniel Kitson, having seen him the previous year and laughed myself stupid. This show was different: he shuffled onto stage and announced he had just gotten off the phone from his newly-ex-girlfriend, who had broken his heart. The audience twittered nervously, unsure if this was part of the routine. For the next hour or more, while repeatedly assuring us he would get to the funny bits soon enough, he ruminated somewhat bitterly on the nature of love and loss, ending up at one point lying on his back on the stage, his feet in the air, giggling to himself. It was one of the more bizarre performances I have seen: excruciating at times, but also (thinking about it later) incredibly brave. It would have been very easy for him to go through the motions of his routine, hiding his pain behind a few well-worn jokes. A week or two later, I wrote a song about it that began “The start is the hardest part/To step on stage and announce a newly broken heart....”

(Still not content, I eventually changed this, ditching the idea of a comedian altogether. Mostly I felt that the basic premise — that your broken heart will heal, that the pain will pass — was presumptuous, somehow, if not sung to someone who was already a friend. Around this time I saw a few close friends have their hearts broken, too, and it was with them in mind that I finished the song.)

At the next year’s Comedy Festival, I waited around after Daniel’s show with a copy of “Warmer Corners” for him. I was planning on telling him all this, but I am uncomfortable in these situations at the best of times, and had heard him talk of his own discomfort at being approached by strangers. So I handed him the CD, said a brief hello and thanks, and was pushed aside by a girl — Poppy? Polly? — wanting to tell him that she had the same name as a girl in one of the stories he had told that night. I finally got the opportunity to tell him of his part in the song’s evolution a month or two later, when I got an email thanking me for the CD. Later still, when Jimmy Tassos from our American label Matinée approached us about releasing “Hiccup” as a single, I contacted Daniel asking if he would write something for the liner notes. He graciously agreed.

Though their settings could scarcely be more different from each other, the other two songs I wrote for the EP are both narratives imagined in actual places. (Conversely, Tali’s song “Rue Something” is — as far as I know — a more-or-less factual account of an evening we spent on tour in Paris.) “From Macaulay Station” is an ode to one of the unlovelier stops on Melbourne’s rail network, nestled underneath the City Link freeway on the bank of the glorified storm-water overflow that is Moonee Ponds Creek. It’s been cleared up now, but for a long time the remnants of a demolished factory towered over the city-bound platform, a pile of rubble and twisted metal that looked like something from wartime London. I’ve never alighted there, but from the window of a passing train Macaulay’s bleakness is fascinating. It was about the most miserable setting I could think of for a tale of heartbreak and forlorn hope.

The original idea was to record the song late one night at the station itself, to hopefully capture something of that ambience, but we opted for the comforts of Audrey Studios instead. Our good friend Pete from Sodastream came in to play some double bass on it on the night of the Australia/Uruguay World Cup qualifier. We brought a few beers in to the studio, and huddled around a portable TV that absorbed more and more of our attention as the game unfolded. Thankfully, left to his own devices, Pete came up with something lovely (as, of course, we knew he would), although he did seem a little taken aback by the exultant arm-raising and cries of triumph that greeted his final take.

By contrast, “To Absent Votes” takes place in the outback New South Wales town of Lake Cargelligo. Em’s mum grew up here in happier times; known as “the Manly of the West”, it was a working-class resort town, a seaside holiday hundreds of miles inland. Now it’s slowly dying: every other shopfront is boarded up, and only one pub remains open. When I first went there a few years ago the area was in the grip of drought. We visited family friends who lived just out of town, on the lake; standing on their jetty, above the sun-baked mud, I could just about see the water’s edge in the hazy distance. But I love places like this: the vast skies, the peace and languor. So, although I can’t remember exactly why I thought of setting an election night there, it’s not surprising that the tone of the song is more hopeful than that inspired by Macaulay Station — even if the wistfully-remembered optimism was to prove unfounded, and we were left with another few years of this fucking god-awful government."

A Message From The Lucksmiths About 'Warmer Corners'
"Well, if it isn’t enough we’ve gone and recorded a new album, and then Candle Records ask us to tell you all about it in this blurb! I guess it’s okay – Crouchy’s probably busy working on questions for his new boardgame World Domination 2 – Expedition To Antarctica.

So here it is – Warmer Corners; everything we’ve always wanted a Lucksmiths album to sound like and more! As usual, there are lots of guitars, some soothing loopy basslines, and a singing drummer who’s far better than Phil Collins, but this time there’s also a horn section who are having a party, a string section who dig Phil Spector, some fiery organs, a lazy pedal steel, and a whole lot of other things that I can’t recall just now.

“A Hiccup in Your Happiness” kicks the album off with an uplifting nod of reassurance to a girl named Louise. Coincidentally, this song also marks the recorded debut for our new guitarist named Louis. (Not really that much of a coincidence.) (And actually, he has recorded in the past with his band Mid-State Orange and also with Candle rising-star Anthony Atkinson.) Anyway, if you don’t mind me saying, this song is a dancefloor sizzler! As well as the aforementioned strings and horns, there’s some seriously funky guitar on here and a bassline that we may have ripped off from Orange Juice!

From there, the floor just keeps rumbling with “The Music Next Door” and its pleasantly off-kilter guitar riff. And by now it’s evident Marty Donald’s turns-of-phrase seem to have ripened with age: “And now from in the wings, a neighbour sings…”. Tali White’s vocals are warm as ever, and he’s been helped out all over the album with some dreamy doe-eyed harmonies.

As has become our customary indulgence over the last few albums, we’ve put producer Craig Pilkington to work on the string and brass arrangements, and he’s done some seriously wonderful things on Warmer Corners. Notably, the string section on first single “The Chapter in Your Life Entitled San Francisco” drops the song off effortlessly at the bridge (and our monumental first ever use of wah-wah!). From there, it sounds like Keef has stepped into the room until the strings neatly wrap the whole thing up and deliver it home, completely unscathed.

Later, the fruits of bassist Mark Monnone’s relocation to Tasmania (bad “apple isle” pun, sorry…) are on display, namely in the hobo lament of “I Don’t Want to Walk Around Alone No More” which meanders along gently and runs head first into “The Fog of Trujillo”. The former features the talented lips of whistler White, and some beautiful acoustic guitar from Louis Richter, while the latter, a sort of paean to a daydream, invites the horns back for another sangria, and a rockin’ party again ensues.

There’s a lot going on on this album, that I’d like to tell you about, but you and I both have better things to do, right? Maybe you should just have a listen and ask “hey, why didn’t he tell me about the beautiful quiet song with the pedal steel? Or Tali’s ace song about the “Sunlight in a Jar” with its brilliant Rickenbacker jangle? Or the crazy climactic zydeco wigout at the end of Fiction?”. But you’ve probably figured out that we wouldn’t want to oversell ourselves. Oops, sorry…"

The Lucksmiths Talk About Their San Francisco EP
Hey, no problem guys. It's us - The Lucksmiths! Just when you thought we'd disappeared into the summer void and gone full-time with musiclessness. This time we have four new songs that we'd like you to consider for your early year playlists. Here are some thoughts on them:

The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
Marty: “The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco” takes its rather unwieldy title from a pamphlet I stumbled upon upstairs in a second-hand bookshop in Daylesford, foraging through a suitcase marked “ephemera”. I bought a 1960s map of Australia produced by some body like the Council for Industries instead, but I noted the title. Back home, a few minutes’ research told me it was a pro-Californian publication produced during the Depression era to persuade westward emigration — all very Steinbeckian. I’ve always been a little reluctant to just blatantly namedrop cities in my songs, but the title had a nice ring to it, and many greater artists than me have drawn inspiration from that lovely place, so I persevered. It took a couple of years for the song to take shape (and to think of a rhyme for “San Francisco” that wasn’t too preposterous); eventually, when it was done, I got my girlfriend to drive me back to Daylesford in the forlorn hope that the pamphlet was still in that suitcase. It wasn’t, but I did find a great old printer’s poster displaying the tea-chest typeface.

Young And Dumb
Mark: When Daz, Gina and I were stalking Jonathan Richman on his 1996 tour of Australia, we managed to corner him for a few moments before the show by the pinball machines in the foyer. We asked him a few questions for the ill-fated third edition of the Candle Wax zine, and also made sure we told him we played in bands that would hopefully be touring the United States one day. His advice: "never leave your guitar in your car! In America, thieves can smell them (sniff-sniff noise). Oh yeah, they can just smell them (more sniff-sniff noises)".

Skip forward to 2003, and the last night of our third American tour. Foolishly, I had disregarded my hero's "sound" advice, and found that guitar thieves indeed have a heightened sense of smell. So, there on the footpath outside San Francisco's Hemlock Tavern - all our bags neatly piled by the smashed pieces of the hire-car windscreen. The only thing missing of course, my guitar.

Anyway, I wrote this song for Katy Davidson who was playing with us that night. She tore me up with three short heart-broken laments and made me realise that usually, nothing's that big a deal.
(Oh and check out Louis Richter, our new guitarist adding loads of sparkle!)

The Winter Proper
Marty: I thought of this title the day before I received an email from good friend and Matinée Records honcho Jimmy Tassos, asking if we had any songs to contribute to a winter-themed compilation CD he was putting together. It was too much of a coincidence for me to ignore, so I got to work. The song is self-explanatory, though (once again) it took a while to come together; it was based around an earlier number called “The Acheron Way” for which I had lost enthusiasm. We were working to a tight deadline with the recording, as Mark was in London, and had to add his guitar part over there. The last section of the song (is it a coda?) proved particularly troublesome; I didn’t sort it out until (predictably enough) about half an hour after I gave up and sent Jimmy an email telling him I couldn’t get it finished. Incidentally, the first bit of the first line of this bit — “At night the helicopters move....” — is a quote from Elliot Perlman’s wonderful book “Three Dollars”, which is (I’m guessing) itself an oblique reference to an equally wonderful Ray Carver poem.

I Started A Joke
This song was written by the Bee Gees and we're sure they'd find pure enjoyment in listening to our version.

'Naturaliste' Album Information
Two years after their last studio album “Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me” won the hearts of pop lovers and critics around the world, The Lucksmiths return with “Naturaliste”. The highly anticipated new record confirms the reputation of this Melbourne band, offering eleven examples of instantly memorable indie pop music to win you all over again.

All The Lucksmiths’ hallmarks are here — an ear for melody, an eye for detail and a way with words. And again all three members contribute songs. But stepping away from the increasing orchestration of their recent work, the guitar-based “Naturaliste” demonstrates a sensibility of understatement and restraint that allows these songs to shine. This is at once The Lucksmiths’ most assured and cohesive work so far, from the effortless guitar jangle of “Take This Lying Down” and opener “Camera-Shy” to the gentle yearnings of “The Perfect Crime” and “What You’ll Miss”; from the late-night melancholy of “Stayaway Stars” and “What Passes For Silence” to the sunny melody of “Midweek Midmorning”, their single of late last year praised as “a fragile gem” , “the kind of pop moment that will remind you why you fell in love with music in the first place”.

“Naturaliste” continues The Lucksmiths’ collaboration with producer Craig Pilkington, who contributed brass arrangements and shared lead guitar duties with bass player Mark Monnone. As you’d expect with such popular fellows, other friends dropped into Richmond’s Audrey Studios: Eva Sommerfeld (The Foots) lends her voice to the mesmeric “The Sandringham Line”, and transpacific tourmates The Salteens lend theirs to “Stayaway Stars”.

The Lucksmiths’ fifth studio album in a decade is also their finest hour. “Naturaliste” represents reassurance that pop music can be affecting rather than affected, and further evidence, were it needed, of why “if there is to be a way back to world domination for melodic intelligent pop … The Lucksmiths are likely to be in the vanguard.”

The Lucksmiths Thoughts On 'Naturaliste'
‘Hi. Thanks for wanting to know about our new album. If you’re here through some slip of the mouse and don’t, in fact, have any interest in learning anything whatsoever about our new album, you’d best stop reading now. The eleven songs on "Naturaliste" were mostly written during the course of last year, a relatively quiet one by our recent busy standards. In August, after playing a couple of shows in Perth, we headed south to Eagle Bay (near Cape Naturaliste, incidentally) and borrowed a house for a few days. There, with no distractions save for the beach, a tennis court, and a plentiful supply of local wines, we put a lot of these songs together.

Back home, we returned to Craig Pilkington’s Audrey Studios, birthplace of our last album "Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me" and the ball game "slendid". Those first sessions resulted in eleven more-or-less completed songs, eight of which would eventually find their way onto "Naturaliste". (Of the others, "Point Being" and "Requiem for the Punters Club" were b-sides for the "Midweek Midmorning" single of late last year, and the third, Tali’s "The Thought That Counts", was our contribution to our UK label Fortuna Pop!’s Christmas compilation.)

After a short break to tour the single with our friends The Salteens, we headed back to Audrey to finish the job, armed with three more songs. When we Lucksmiths had done what we could, and Craig had added his guitar bits and brass pieces, we asked a couple of guests in. Eva Sommerfeld from The Foots lent her beautiful voice to "The Sandringham Line", and the aforementioned Canadians formed the choir on "Stayaway Stars".

To us, at least, "Naturaliste" feels a somewhat more understated, cohesive effort than the last record. "Restraint" was a word thrown around the studio quite a bit. (So were "lunch", "beer" and "slendid".) There is less orchestration throughout, and more guitar. As for the songs themselves — from the lazy jangle of "Take This Lying Down" and "Camera-Shy" to the gentle yearnings of "The Perfect Crime" and "What You’ll Miss"; from the late-night melancholy of "Stayaway Stars" and the fragility of "What Passes For Silence" and "The Shipwreck Coast" to the energetic strumminess of "Sleep Well" and "There is a Boy That Never Goes Out" — we love ‘em. Hopefully you will too.’

The Lucksmiths Talk About Midweek Midmorning Single
Marty: ‘For a couple of years the phrase “midweek midmorning” had been lying around in my notebook — plagiarised as so many song titles, this one from a poem in a student newspaper. I suggested it as the title track for our last album, and wrote a very short and not very good song to that end. The song as it finished up was the third attempt. The themes here are not exactly unfamiliar territory within The Lucksmiths’ canon: sunshine, laziness and unemployment.’

Marky: ‘One day whilst riding my bike from my house in Clifton Hill to my friend's house in Brunswick, I wrote Point Being. When I got there, I grabbed the guitar and found that it all magically fit over the D, G, and A chords. It was a miracle.’

Marty: ‘I started writing “Requiem for the Punters Club” late last year, suffering from an acute bout of homesickness in the midst of a tour. I was in a cramped, smelly van (where I had slept the night before) with ten other people, somewhere between London and Paris, and I had just had news from home that the Punters Club was to close its doors. There had been rumours for months. The Punters was my favourite place to play, my favourite place to see a band, and my favourite place to drink. I spent more time there than I did in some houses I have lived in over the years. I was miserable. I felt I owed the place a song.

When we reached the outskirts of the city it started raining. We drove around the same Parisian block for two hours, looking for the promoter’s apartment, while in the back seat I wallowed in melancholy and wrote the first verse of the song. I wanted to have it done for our last show at the Punters in January, but the rest proved a little more troublesome. We played the theme from Cheers instead. I eventually finished it off on the balcony of the Grace Emily Hotel in Adelaide, about half an hour before opening up for Ruck Rover and desperate for a new song to play.’

'Where Were We?' Message From The Lucksmiths
‘Right, now where were we? Oh yeah. Hi chums! The Lucksmiths here again. Candle is probably going to be informing you of our newest and coolest CD entitled Where Were We?. Like our 1999 CD Happy Secret, it’s a collection of previously released material that hasn’t been on any album yet. This time we have fourteen songs taken from singles, various compilations, and demo tapes spanning the last two years. We hope that not too many folks out there will turn their noses up at the varying degrees of production we have on show here, as some songs were lovingly worked on in the studio, while others were quickly thrown to tape as “works in progress”.

Regardless, we love our new ugly baby and we think you will too. If you’re asking us, there are definitely some quality moments for you to squeeze tight: Darren Hanlon’s beautiful organ playing on The Cassingle Revival opens the CD.

While Pam Berry (Black Tambourine, Glo-worm, Castaway Stones, The Shapiros, and currently The Pines) lends us her haunting vocals on A Downside to the Upstairs. Mmmm. Need we say more? There’s T-shirt Weather making its first appearance on a full-length, and Even Stevens (recorded in Brooklyn, NY) is the epitome of High Art with those spunky Ladybug Transistor kids lending a hand. This compilation is chock-full of good feelings and tender moments.

Anyway, that’s just what we think. We’re not saying that you definitely need to buy our new CD, but if you do buy it and don’t like it, our address is on there, so why not write and yell at us? That always takes the edge off.‘

'Where Were We?' Album Release Information
After The Lucksmiths hugely successful overseas tour of 2001, they return with a wonderful new collection of 14 tracks in Where Were We? The new album contains all new tracks that they’ve recorded around the world and haven’t appeared on any of their previous albums. The new album highlights not only how prolific the band are but how consistent.

The collection finds The Lucksmiths at their poppiest in T-Shirt Weather & Even Stevens (a collaboration with USA touring partners Ladybug Transistor). Nostalgia also creeps in The Cassingle Revival & I Prefer The Twentieth Century. Well crafted pop never sounded so good. All wrapped up in great digi-pak artwork with photos from recent USA travels.

Over the past couple of years The Lucksmiths have had an amazing time touring overseas. Last years Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me USA album tour saw sell-out shows in New York, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco (as well as a fairly decent crowd of twenty-five or so in Chattanooga, Tennessee). One new fan – to The Lucksmiths’ delight – was long-time idol Jonathan Richman who invited the Melbourne-based three-piece along for a few shows in England further adding to the band’s list of dream-come-true supports (Belle And Sebastian, Cinerama). Consequently, both of The Lucksmiths’ own London shows were sold out. Following a month of further UK dates, the band headed to Sweden for a couple of weeks and finished their 8-month tour with a final sell-out show in New York, home to probably one of The Lucksmiths’ strongest followings.

Critically the album and live reviews have been wonderful both in Australia and overseas. Juice Magazine gave Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me 9 out of 10, Rolling Stone 4 out of 5 and The Age 4 out of 5. UK Magazine ‘Q’ recently gave the album a great review.

This year The Lucksmiths will be spending some time working on a new album and playing around their neighbourhood plus supporting the likes of the Go-Betweens and The Pernice Brothers. Where Were We? shows the band at their peak and another great addition to The Lucksmiths story.

Message From The Lucksmiths In Japan May 2001
Hello Friends! We’re just on our way to the train in Nagoya. We seem to have been on our way to the train station a lot for the two weeks we’ve spent so far in Japan. The train rides themselves have taken a mere percentage of the time that we’ve spent walking to (or inside the train station). The Shinkansen is kinda fast. It’s a bit like a speeding bullet but also like a locomotive. Apparently, by the year 2013, it will also scale tall buildings. We have travelled across so much of Japan (Tokyo to Fukuoka, and everywhere in between) in roughly the time it takes to catch the number 96 tram from North Fitzroy to St.Kilda, have a beer at the Espy, and then back at the Empress to see the first band. Sorry, just trying to keep a little local perspective on things. It feels as though we’ve been here for at least a couple of months.

So many people have extended their generosity for us, not least Shintaro-san and Michio-san from the great bands Smiley and Pervenche. They even took the liberty of securing a sponsorship from their favourite beer company – Coopers. So there has been an abundance of our lovely ‘organic’ beer at most of the gigs and even in their fridges at home. Oi shii!! Today , whilst eating lunch, we discovered Michio’s talent for noodle-slurping. His hometown, as we found out, prides itself on the art of the noodle slurp.

The great folks at Clover Records have kept us afloat on the sea of their love. It has been a pure joy to see some good old record label bonding between them and our pal Mr Crouch, who has been keeping us in top spirits on this tour, while spreading the good Candle word. But right now, we are at the station about to board a train to Toyama. So it’s time to say our farewells to Crouchy! Farewell Crouchy! Matane! Moshi moshi! And here’s wishing you all a well-staked plate of Okonomiyaki whenever you have the chance. xx The Lucksmiths

'Why That Doesn't Surprise Me' Statement By The Lucksmiths
The Lucksmiths, a Melbourne-based pop group, have issued a statement denying that the imminent release of their new album “Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me” played any part in the recently announced Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman separation The Lucksmiths, a Melbourne-based pop group, have issued a statement denying that the imminent release of their new album “Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me” played any part in the recently announced Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman separation.

Guitarist Marty Donald dismissed the claims as “pure speculation”. “It is our first full-length studio recording since 1997 [the well-received “A Good Kind of Nervous”], so there was a degree of expectation involved for us – and, hopefully, for the public,” he said. “However, to suggest that it could lead to something like this is way off the mark.”

“Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me” was recorded over the Australian summer at Audrey Studios in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond, under the guidance of producer Craig Pilkington (the Killjoys). Its fourteen tracks build on the Lucksmiths’ brand of intelligent pop, embellishing it with organ, piano, brass, clarinet, and – yes – a string quartet. Good friend Darren Hanlon was one of the many collaborators.

Lyrically it is the group’s most personal work to date. All three Lucksmiths contributed songs to the album, and the maturing evident in their writing is reflected in the greater sophistication of the arrangements. However, Donald rejected suggestions that songs dealing with the pressures faced by lovers separated by work (“Don’t Bring Your Work to Bed”) or distance (“The Great Dividing Range”), the aftermath of a break-up (“All the Recipes I’ve Ever Ruined”), and advising a friend to end a troubled relationship (“Synchronised Sinking”), were in fact oblique references to the Cruise/Kidman situation.

“That’s laughable,” he laughed. “This album is more diverse than that. We’ve also got songs about cousins, rollercoasters and the Beach Boys.”

The head of the Lucksmiths’ Australian label Candle Records, Mr Chris Crouch, was unavailable for comment, being on his way to Los Angeles “to comfort a close friend”. However, a Candle spokesperson described the story as a “shocker”.