What did Gulliver say when he stomped down the diminutive cities of the Lilliputians? Hey look, Tiny Ruins!
But casting jests asunder, this band means business. Auckland, New Zealand is the base camp for this three headed act. They play a delicate mix downbeat of folk and blues, in short brilliant soulful music. Hollie Fullbrook started Tiny Ruins as a solo project back in ’09. Cass Basil (bassist) and Alexander Freer (drummer) are now included under the wings of the band.
Full length number two from the siren sounds of New Zealand’s Tiny Ruins is out now via Spunk.
They have toured the most of Australia, UK, Ireland, Europe and the U.S. Well, basically almost everywhere. They’ve opened for Beach House, Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, The Handsome Family and Calexico – they are sailing down a path to being big.
Little Notes was a collaborative EP released in 2010. Some Were Meant for Sea, their debut LP was out in 2011. They also have another EP called Haunts, which is a collection of older tracks that we covered way back when Happy NZ was a thing. Remember that? Their second album Brightly Painted One saw the light of day only this month and holy sweet baby jesus is it packed with amazing tracks.
The video for Carriages is rather…umm…traumatic. A young lad wearing reindeer horns is forced to drink a lot of alcohol by an obnoxious fedora donning old man or OFDOM.
Is it initiation to join a gang lead by the OFDOM? Or is it some sort of celebration? It’s not too clear but one thing for sure, the boy’s in bad company. The video is filled with (and I list in order of appearance) alcoholic binges, gambling, a stripper and a blow-up doll. Finally, the OFDOM wants to put pink plastic handcuffs on the boy. At this point, the boy loses it – and about time too. So I guess the video is about rebellion.
The video has a fascinating phantasmagorical quality about it, which works with the silky vocals. This song will make you wet (hold the dirty minds) with tears from your eyes if you do not belong to the bloodlines of the heartless Grinch. The melody of the soft guitar is bloody beautiful. And the lyrics? “Hand me a pair of fool proof wings. Spin me a story that unwinds and sings,” Phew! Just look at those words in those lines. If there was a beauty pageant for lines, then we’d be reading a winner here.
They are currently touring the UK and Europe (supporting Neil Finn). They will be kicking off their Australia tour, starting the 1st of July at Brisbane’s Black Bear Lodge. For tour dates see below:
TOUR DATES
All shows with Shining Bird
Tues July 1st, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
Wed July 2nd, Newtown Social Club, Sydney
Thurs July 3rd, Anita’s Theatre, Woollongong
Fri July 4th, Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
Sat July 5th, Mojos, Perth
Sun July 6th, Jive Bar, Adelaide
Tues July 8th, Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
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