Category: Charles Jenkins

NEW ALBUM RELEASED TODAY!!!

“Water, drought and flood, the cooling drink, the dangerous current. Water is inevitably at the heart of the Australian story, and Charles Jenkins dives right in with new album Too Much Water In The Boat, a collection of songs inspired by our oceans and rivers and our relationship to them, from the twanging surf rock of The Prime Minister Is Missing to the humorous tale of a crossdressing bushranger and deeply emotional contemplations of love, loss, the search for the inland sea and hopes of a new life dashed on the rocks. One of Australia’s finest songwriters just keeps getting better with the years.”
Noel Mengel, The Courier-Mail. Brisbane

“Surfing the crest of the zeitgeist, songwriter Charles Jenkins delivers yet another sparkling musical distillation of life as it’s lived on this planet. His deft rhymes unfurl over deep oceans of melody to form wave after wave of pure listening pleasure. Cross-dressing bushrangers, dancing emus, and love amidst a tsunami all play a part in Jenkins’ singular and undeniably catchy worldview. Take the plunge and luxuriate in these epic waters!”
Peter Lubin – Producer/Writer, New York City

“Weigh the anchor and clear the decks . . . Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos “Too Much Water…” is a masterpiece. From the broiling breakers of ‘The Prime Minister Is Missing’, the calenture-crazed Ahab leading Willard’s crew in ‘The Whale Song’ and the sunlit tree-top pop of ‘7 Creeks (The Crossdresser Steve Hart)’ to the ache and anger of ‘The Barrel Song’ and ‘Christmas Island’, this is no three hour tour – this is the sound of a fearless crew on the voyage of a lifetime. Welcome aboard. I’m calling it early – one of the albums of the year.”
Pat Monaghan – Basement Discs, Melbourne

You can get it here   http://www.charlesjenkins.com.au

If you’re in Melbourne this Friday 21st February, you can catch Charles and a couple of those wonderful Zhivagos – Davey Lane and Matty Vehl  – at a lunchtime performance -12.45pm at Basement Discs.

See you there, Melbourne people!

Too Much Water In The Boat The new album by Charles Jenkins and The Zhivagos Release Monday 17 Feb 2014 on Silver Stamp Records/Rocket Distribution

Australians have a special preoccupation with water due to its scarcity in some regions, its abundance in others and the way that we relate to it physically, emotionally and symbolically. Water encircles us, defines our borders and shapes our identities.

And so, here’s an album that undertakes an exploration into what water brings, and what it takes away. Half of the songs on ‘Too Much Water…’ deal with the ocean, the other half with our rivers. Songs examining everything from drought, climate change, tsunamis, asylum seekers, Prime Ministers going missing to the search for an inland sea, cross dressing bush rangers, the Snowy Mountains scheme and much more.

Says Charles, “Again it was recorded with the incredible Zhivagos, namely Dave Milne on drums, Art Starr on bass, Davey Lane on guitar and Matty Vehl on keyboards, all of whom jumped on board to lend their jaw dropping talents to this far fetched project, hone it, and bring it to life. Also, Greg Field dropped by to play some fiddle, Jack Howard played some trumpet on a duet I wrote with Suzannah Espie, so she gets roped in, as does my old Icecream Hands buddy, the extraordinary Douglas Lee Robertson singing harmony like no one else in this country can. All engineered and produced by my trusty sea captain, Justin Rudge, who also did Walk This Ocean and Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart”

The first taste of Too Much Water In The Boat is lead single ‘7 Creeks (The Crossdresser Steve Hart)’. A rollicking knees up, set where 7 creeks meet and the ensuing tall tales associated with the best looking member of the Kelly Gang, Steve Hart. Pre-orders receive an immediate download of the single!

Album pre-orders available from www.charlesjenkins.com.au from Monday 13 January

Album launch show at Northcote Social Club

Sunday March 2nd (Matinee Show)

With Very Special Guests Suzannah Espie & The Last Word

Charles Jenkins
Blue Atlas

LP (2008, Dust Devil Music)
Charles Jenkins.

If you’re looking for buzzwords to remember 2008, “change” and “hope” will probably figure highly. But if you’re looking for musical accompaniments for remembering the year that was, it’s unlikely Charles Jenkins will even rate a mention. That’s something of a tragedy, really. Blue Atlas, his latest solo record backed by The Zhivagos, might just be his masterpiece.

It’s a record of simple, plangent, acoustic pop. As with every record Jenkins releases, the influences are immediately apparent – The Beatles, Alex Chilton, the Beach Boys, The Byrds. But Jenkins voice is always a singular, original, Australian one. He combines the sly melodic ease of the greatest pop music with narratives of languid nostalgia stretching from Houston to Johnston Street, Fitzroy back across the Nullarbor and up to Brisbane.

‘Shelley Winters’ charts the cinematic history of its namesake buttressed only by an acoustic guitar, a voice and a cavalcade of swooning, desperate strings. It’s easily the best opener to an Australian album I’ve heard this year. ‘Autumn Fall’ betters any recent Ryan Adams record for maudlin self-loathing and ‘Maria Van Diemen’ goes toe-to-toe with Glenn Richards and Gareth Liddiard on the grim, unremitting excavation of Australasian history. A string section surrounds every moment on the record, but it’s never the stable bollard supporting shonky songwriting ala The Whitlam’s nadir ‘Love This City’. Instead, it’s just the final touches on perfectly realised songs, rendering them nothing short of epic.

In a year where most popular Australian music oscillated wildly between trenchant dance revivalism and brutish primitivism, Blue Atlas is a welcome respite. It’s an exceptional collection of classic songs crafted by the underappreciated leader of a perennial gang of “losers” (Melbourne’s Icecream Hands).

There’s no better soundtrack of hope to close 2008.

by JP Hammond

www.messandnoise.com

Dear Lovers of The Finely Crafted Pop-a-licious Tune:

If you missed the fantastic Icecream Hands at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday, you missed something special. Great harmonies, awesome guitars, mean drummin’, excellent songs – and super bonus – Matty V on keys and that hot soundman Michael Pollard running about behind the scenes.

Thanks all around to Charles Jenkins, Douglas Lee Robertson, Derek G. Smiley and Marcus Goodwin for an ace gig.

New songs from “The Good China” sounded great sitting up there along with some of the old china, including “Gasworks Park” and “Broken UFO.” Georgeous and powerful stuff. “Come Along With Me” is simply the best pop song to hit the airwaves in a decade or more and “The Good China” is a wistful and breathtaking thing, but there were also some serious rockers, including “Backseat of a Stolen Car.”

Check out some of the shots from the night by Rizzy Ramone at www.myspace.com/loud_images and visit the Icecream Hands at www.myspace.com/icecreamhands.

Many, many thanks to Dust Devil records for bringing quality music to da people!

Goddam, it did sound SUHWEET!

To all you people who haven’t yet got your own “Good China” get out there and get yourself some! And ring up Triple J and tell em to play the bejesus out of “Come Along With Me.” It’s the goods.

Yours in Icecream Love,

xKaren