Other Recordings
*Bells Of Sunday (split 7" w/Love Me - on Steadycam Records)
*'Achin' To Be' - I'm In Love With That Song (various)
The Replacements Tribute album - on Antfarm Records

Album Tracks - Real Audio
*Slippery Slope from 'Slippery Slope'
*99% from 'Provenance'
*April Wind from 'This Sad Paradise'
*Jane's Movie from 'Twin Firs'

Slipery Slope EP Information
Golden Rough have emerged from the studio to deliver a great new EP 'Slippery Slope'. The limited edition EP (only 500 copies) features 5 new songs including the wonderful title track. Plus there's 3 bonus live tracks and a Gene Clark cover recorded with Joe Pernice. The EP is timely with The 'Rough just performing at this years South By Southwest Showcase festival in Texas, USA. Raph Whittingham (Clouds, The Dearhunters) is their new drummer and played on the new tracks on the EP.

Message About The EP From Golden Rough
"This new EP is designed as a taste of things to come from Golden Rough. We've got a terrific new drummer, Raph Whittingham, playing with us now and lots of new musical ideas. We've been enjoying playing together and working on new songs, and we decided to go into the studio and lay some of them down in a relaxed, spontaneous way. The songs range from the fairly big-sounding title track to more acoustic moments,and plenty of moods in between.

We've also added some bonus live tracks we recorded for JJJ and a rare Gene Clark cover we recorded with our friend Joe Pernice during his Australian tour. These tracks haven't been released on a Golden Rough CD before so we thought it would be good to make them available. All in all it's a 9 track mixed bag of "new, live and rare" songs we really like and we hope you will too!"

'Provenance' Album Details
Golden Rough have delivered another timeless album with ‘Provenance’. Under the album’s glistening pop surface there are a host of characters, voices and stories that reveal themselves more with every listen. Anchored around David Orwell’s strummed acoustic guitar and breathy vocals, the record is intimate and substantial at the same time. Provenance was recorded over a year, primarily at the band’s own studio in Sydney. The result is an album that is smooth and polished, providing further evidence of Golden Rough’s musical and lyrical sophistication.

The stories move from rapidly re-developing inner city Sydney to a remote south coast caravan park, from the steel and glass of an office tower to the tundra of Antarctica. They are inhabited by men and women grappling with the quiet battles of a million lives. There aren’t many heroes or happy endings but there is rich emotional detail as complicated, sad and beautiful as real life. Songwriter Orwell says: “I like the idea of using the pop song format to go beyond just good tunes, and operate like a short film or a book”.

Golden Rough’s last album This Sad Paradise received universal critical acclaim both in Australia and overseas. They were invited to play the prestigious CMJ New Music Festival in New York with additional performances in Boston and Nashville. That album also saw them win the Australian Music Critics Award for best unsigned band in NSW. Through their brand of literate, carefully crafted pop they’ve built an enthusiastic legion of fans not only in Australia but also in the US, South America, Europe and Japan.

Golden Rough are now a four-piece (guitarist Jason Walker left in 2001 to launch a solo career). Musically, ‘Provenance’ has moved the band even further away from the country-rock twang which characterised some of their earlier releases, replacing it with layers of vintage keyboards, vocal harmonies and occasional strings and horns.

History
Golden Rough are a band from Sydney Australia. They first appeared in 1995 as a group of musicians from other Sydney bands who got together to record some country and pop songs for fun. They released an EP called 'It's A Heck Of A Machine' in 1995 which had some songs by Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons and Elvis Costello, and some originals by singer Dave Orwell.

Everyone liked the originals best, so plans were made to record an album. In 1997 (after a break and some line-up changes) Golden Rough set up a basic 16 track analog home studio in an old house in Sydney's inner west and bunkered down with producer Wayne Connolly to work on 11 new songs. The sound was a major development from the first EP - veering from sprawling and ragged electric rock to sparse acoustic pop. The album Twin Firs (named after the house in which it was recorded), was released in 1998 on Summershine Records and was one of the most critically favoured local albums of the year.

Following the release of Twin Firs, Orwell, bassist Helen Meany and drummer Marty McDonald were joined by new guitarist Jason Walker and the band played extensively in support of the album. Live highlights included a performance at Sydney's Big Day Out festival, and shows with US songwriters Elliott Smith and Joe Pernice (Scud Mountain Boys, Pernice Brothers). Golden Rough performed as Joe Pernice's backing band on his Australian tour.

In April 1999 Golden Rough commenced work on their new album, This Sad Paradise. Continuing their path of self-improvement, they decided to record this time in the full glory of 24 track analog and a real studio. The band was expanded to a 5 piece lineup with the addition of new members Brian Crouch (piano and keyboards) and Graeme Trewin (replacing McDonald on drums).

If there’s going to a soundtrack for the Australian summer, then Golden Rough have delivered it in the shape of their highly anticipated new album ‘This Sad Paradise.’ A collection of 11 perfect pop songs with finely observed slices of everyday life, set to melodic, richly textured accompaniment, that are as musically inventive as they are timeless. From the opening track and first single ‘April Wind’ you know Golden Rough have something going on above the normal pop fare. The catchy ‘Novotel’, the haunting ‘This Sad Paradise’ and poignant ‘Lovers Rock’ raise the bar even further. Each listen returns great rewards.

Although Golden Rough have sometimes been described (perhaps over-simply) as a country-rock band, This Sad Paradise is not a country album. Neither is it a rock album. Gone are the pedal steel touches and country-tinged harmonies of their past releases. Gone are the hard-driving Gibson guitars. In their place sits a surprisingly eclectic array of sounds and influences, but the backbone of this album is simply a set of great songs.

Singer/songwriter Dave Orwell explains: "My main aim with this album was to make it a fad-free-zone. I wanted the songs to stand on their own, without relying on any particular musical style or trend. Obviously there are musical influences on the album, but overall it's not alternative country, it's not indie rock, it's not pure pop... On our previous records we've used elements of country-rock. But if you overdo it, it becomes limiting and pigeonholes you. I still like to listen to country-rock music - but coming from Sydney rather than Nashville or LA, I don't want it to define our sound ..."

"One of the main changes with this album," Dave says, "Was adding Brian, who played piano, organ and synthesizers. Keyboards can cover so much sonic and emotional ground - you don't need to rely on loud, heavy guitars to create energy and atmosphere"


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