Matt Malone is an iconoclastic singer-songwriter hailing from the goldfields region of Victoria, Australia.
Malone is known for his darkly poetic songs tilled from a life walking the line between faith / despair, love / loneliness, good / evil, sobriety / drug-dependency, musically integrating post-punk, metal + avant-garde influences with the blues, country, folk + gospel tradition, littering his lyrical landscape with references to The Bible, Dostoevsky, Dante, Baudelaire, Flannery O’Connor amongst others.
Matt’s bold baritone / tenebrous imagery have often been compared to Michael Gira, Nick Cave, David Eugene Edwards, Mark Lanegan, Johnny Cash + he has cultivated a cult audience with his intense live performances having shared the stage with the likes of Kim Salmon (Beasts Of Bourbon) + Hugo Race (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds).
2023 saw Malone release his critically acclaimed - For The Term Of My Natural Life (VRS Records, CD / Vinyl), solidifying his status as one of the consummate singer-songwriters of the Australian underground. He followed it up w/ a small collection of electrified covers called - Made In The Image, Vol. 1, featuring a reinterpretation of the classic ‘I’m Bad Like Jesse James’ which was subsequently shared + endorsed by the John Lee Hooker estate.
On his first NZ tour he will be joined by honorary Holy Spirit + magisterial player Zac Winterwood (Winterwood, Perpets, The Immediatists, Dreamland Recordings) on electric ambient / blues / noise guitar.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits in the flesh!
Genre - Blues / Apocalyptic Gospel / Death Country
Lineup - Matt Malone (vocals, guitar) + Zac Winterwood (guitar)
This marks the first show of Matt's NZ tour.
PRESS:
'★★★★’
- Sydney Morning Herald
'★★★★’
- Backseat Mafia
“What a powerful rendition of the John Lee Hooker classic I’m Bad Like Jesse James from bluesman and twang artisan - Matt Malone… I like that!”
- Tower Of Song, Double J
Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits channel the darkness, the shadows... you'll recognize some Bad Seeds vibes in here and I'm all for it.
- Henry Wagons, Double J
Malone mines life's dark shadows in a similar way to Nick Cave or foreign antecedents like Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan. It's an album of singular vision, unrelenting in its intensity...
- Rhythms Magazine
Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits sound like a Ennio Morricone score for a Cormac McCarthy movie.”
- Americana UK
Whatever juju, alchemy or disturbed darkness that made Jim Morrison put on a pair of leather trousers & shock the world out of its apathy… Matt has got it!
- Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Beasts Of Bourbon, The Surrealists)
Matt Malone & The Holy Spirits are stripped and bare in the outlaw country tradition, but with the menace and slow stabbing guitar of Rowland S. Howard.
- Rolling Stone
Matt Malone resonates with echoes of Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and the greats... his latest single embodies his unique style and lyrical genius.
- Anthony De Filipis
Matt Malone deals in dark, heavy and sombre music... his voice a gothic, stentorian and preacher-like baritone. There are obvious touchstones like Nick Cave, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Johnny Cash who he absorbs into his death blues soundtrack of rattling strings, ghostly sounds and strummed wasteland ballads.
- The Music
Matt Malone is a wayfaring stranger whose roots strongly echo the sweeping vengeful deliverance of Michael Gira and Swans, Malone seems more like a dark preacher-man trailed by a cloud of haunted dust in which one might also sense the spirits of Jim Morrison and Hank Williams.
- Noir Lounge
LINKS:
For The Term Of My Natural Life -
https://youtu.be/JXOAjqxr1oY?si=9Mr2dhVGerGS88u1
Judgment Day -
https://mattmaloneandtheholyspirits.bandcamp.com/.../judg...
I’m Bad Like Jesse James -
https://youtu.be/HNln4qHE4lg?si=ewvO8qp4s3_2Iffw
Bandcamp -
https://mattmaloneandtheholyspirits.bandcamp.com/
+
DISJECTA MEMBRA
Formed in 1993, the Hamilton-born, now Wellington-based Disjecta Membra is essentially the brainchild of founder, vocalist, and guitarist Michel Rowland, and while many band members have come and gone over the years, he has been the one constant across more than a quarter of a century.
This makes Rowland and his band, the odd short hiatus notwithstanding, a true pioneer within a local context. Of course, there have been other New Zealand-based bands ticking all the boxes we usually associate with goth, but most have been short-lived, and Disjecta Membra is surely the granddaddy of them all.
LINKS:
https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/disjecta-membra
https://www.facebook.com/disjectamembramusic
