Band announcements going back to Live At Bakehouse, the movie and album we made before the pandemic - feels like decades ago somehow.
This song has been a live favourite for a many years and it's finally been recorded! The last single from The Long Divide, Harmony is a song for anyone rolling up a swag and hitting the dusty trail, literally or metaphorically.
Like all our stuff, it's on Bandcamp and your favourite streaming services.
Ever flipped through a TV guide and thought "There's a song in this?" That's what we did for Versatile Comfort, the closing track on our album The Long Divide. It's the penultimate single from the album, and just the tune for anyone who likes watching horror movies lying side by side. And it's backed by an instrumental version of Monday 8am. Full circle, enjoy!
Like all our stuff, it's on Bandcamp and your favourite streaming services now.
In 2009 we gave away a song called Nar Nar Goon, a silly outtake from our debut album to celebrate the festive time of year. It was the first in a (now) long-running series of releases we call "The December 17 Specials", in honour of the track of that name on the Time & Place album.
Each release has been a bit different - a remix, a redo, a demo from the vaults, often with a quirky edge. This year, we've finally gone there. Christmas Forever.
It's a full slice of Christmas cheese to enjoy with your loved ones, whether you're huddled round an open fire or sweating it out somewhere hot.
It's on Bandcamp and your favourite streaming services now, ho ho ho.
Let's be brutally honest. We've been at this for over two decades, but not many people in our home country (heck, even our home town) have heard us. We're rarely invited to festivals or talked about in the media. They don't ask us to host Rage or name drop us in arthouse movies. Kinematic is a ghost.
We're OK with that - we do it 'cause we love it and some of you do too, bless ya'.
It's 2022, the 20th anniversary of our debut single, which featured the acoustic song Residence as a b-side. Acoustic music is something we've always done (there's a track or two on every record) but it's taken us two decades to dedicate a whole album to it. According to our timeline in The Punters Club, we started recording in 2015, so it really has been a long time coming.
The final result is The Long Divide.
An independently produced and financed album of acoustic music that traverses loss and pain, happiness and joy, wonder and despair, the written word and the silver screen. It's about the expanses of time, distance and thought between all of us.
And it's about believing in ghosts.
The Long Divide lands on your favourite music services on Friday 14 November 2022, with physical release in early 2023. Links and gig dates to follow.
For 2021's December 17 special (named in honour of the track by that name on our debut album), we’ve raided the vaults to release a song that didn’t quite make it onto our last studio long player, Kinecism.
We hadn’t had a good listen to Splinters since about then, and in hindsight we were probably a little harsh - it sounds better than we remember.
You can listen to it here in our December 17 specials playlist, plus it's out on Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify and all your favourite streaming services from December 17th. So enjoy another Kinerarity for Christmas, and all the best for a safe, healthy and prosperous 2022 from your third favourite unknown band.
One day you wake up and you’re middle-aged, damn it. You remember significant historical events that people are now writing about in history books, like seeing Nirvana live or the collapse of the Berlin Wall. How does this happen? So effortlessly and almost without your knowledge; where does the time go?
OLD LEAVES laments the march of time while embracing change and life lessons learnt - it's like a musical ointment for changing times. It’s available from 5 November 2021 on all your favourite streaming services and ours, Bandcamp.
It doesn’t take a pandemic for people to feel isolated and lonely.
So many of us live that way even in the best of times. Maybe we reach out to someone. Go out of our way to make ourselves available. Take a risk. Perhaps we’re grateful for even the most fleeting of interactions.
The tale of two neighbours, one more invested than the other, JUNE was written before COVID but is perhaps even more relevant today. It's out now wherever you get your tunes.
The opening track from our soon to be released fifth album, The Long Divide, MONDAY 8am was inspired by a message from a fan in Newfoundland and finds its protagonist pondering life and love on her commute through a cold and rainy morning.
It's the third single from the 'years-in-the-making' new album (to be released in mid-2021), which sees us returning to our acoustic beginnings – it's come up better than we dared hope and we can't wait to share the whole record with you. In the meantime, dial up MONDAY 8am on your fave service and enjoy!
Every year around this time we release a song that's out of left field. Remixes, album out-takes, covers of our old bands, from the sublime to the ridiculous. For over a decade the Kinematic Pagan Holiday Specials have been stocking stuffers for anyone who doesn't mind a tune with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
This year's tune is no exception. 2020 EPIC FAIL will be available on your favourite streaming service from Christmas or you can get in early and listen on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and YouTube. We hope you enjoy it and play it at your New Year's Eve party.
2020. Thank fuck that's over. Here's to better things in 2021. Your pals, Kinematic.
From Flinders Street station to the MCG, The Shrine to St Kilda Pier, Melbourne has plenty of iconic landmarks.
Melburnians use the West Gate Bridge a lot. Whether we’re heading to or from work or jumping on the Princes Highway to head to the surf coast, we use this thoroughfare so much, its history might not occur to many of us.
2020, already notable for so many of the wrong reasons, marks the 50th anniversary of a tragedy that not only changed Melbourne, it changed the working lives of Victorians forever.
At 11.50 am on the 15th of October 1970, two years into its construction, span 10-11 of the bridge collapsed, taking the lives of 35 workers with it. It remains the worst industrial accident in Australia’s history, but is credited with kick-starting a raft of workplace reforms that make Victoria and Australia one of the safest places to work in the world. This is the legacy of the men who died, and hopefully this is what people remember as they cross the West Gate.
It was on an everyday crossing a few years back that Mike noticed a lone man walking the bridge normally closed to pedestrians. Mike took that image home and picked up his guitar. He and Gordo continued crafting the music and lyrics for quite some time, until it felt just right.
Not long afterwards, Gordo ran into an old mate and discovered he was making a documentary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. It was a complete coincidence.
That mate is Shane Jacobson and the documentary is a project close to his heart. As a result of that chance encounter, Kinematic’s WEST GATE BRIDGE features in the documentary West Gate Bridge: The Untold Stories, which will air on Thursday 15th of October on the Nine Network. The band feel privileged to have contributed a small verse to the ongoing chapter of Melbourne. Cover art by Melbourne artist Karri Clarke. @karriclarke.art
We’re all too aware that in the age of the playlist, the idea of a compilation is a little anachronistic, but 2020 and the COVID era has given us plenty of time for reflection.
Introducing No. One Fan, a volume of our hits and misses since 2005, curated by a complicated logarithm combining the feedback of our dearest friends and fans, our most streamed and downloaded songs worldwide (now numbering in the millions) and, well, a few songs we like the most.
One exception, it includes a new single, Speakeasy, a never-before-heard studio version of a live favourite. Check out the new video on YouTube.
Although comps like this sometimes set a signpost to a penultimate stage for a band or artist, rest assured we’re nowhere near done yet, with plenty of irons in the fire for 2020 and 2021. As always, thanks for listening.
In case you’ve been on our socials and are wondering what this is all about, Gordo and Mike went and did a soundtrack to a comic. But before you rush out to buy it for your kids, just don’t - this rollicking and ribald road trip from the mind of Melbourne poet, Michael Pardy, beautifully drawn by Portuguese surrealist Antonio Piedades, is not that type of comic. The comic and accompanying soundtrack are best consumed together and in full. But be prepared, this is not typical Kinematic fare - whatever that is. Find the comic and more info at neonhelloman.com and the soundtreack is available to stream now on Spotify and all your faves.
After two long years of editing and mixing, our concert film and album LIVE AT BAKEHOUSE finally hits the digital shelves on Sunday 17 March. The film and album have slightly different playlists - the film will be available on DVD to all our awesome pledgers and on YouTube for everyone, and the album will be on CD for pledgers and on all the usual digital platforms for everyone - click here for pre-release on Spotify.
