EMA is coming to Australia and New Zealand as part of the awesome St Jerome’s Laneway Festival.  The lineup is fucking insane (Austra, Cults, Chairlift, Fiest, Horrors, M83, Twin Shadow, GIRLS etc, etc, etc).  I think it will probably be at least as exciting as this thrilling scene from one of my favorite childhood movies The Man From Snowy River (AU).  Wild horses!  Cute cowboys!  Dramatic and dangerous equestrian stunts!  I’m sure we can find all that and more at this festival, don’t you think?

• 01/28/2012  AU  Brisbane  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival         
• 01/30/2012  NZ  Auckland  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival        
• 02/03/2012  AU  Melbourne  East Brunswick Club w/ Yuck      
• 02/04/2012  AU  Melbourne  The Tote                                                
• 02/04/2012  AU  Melbourne  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival    
• 02/05/2012  AU  Sydney  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival            
• 02/09/2012  AU  Sydney  Oxford Arts Factory w/ Yuck              
• 02/10/2012  AU  Adelaide  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival        
• 02/11/2012  AU  Perth  St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival                

We are also doing some sideshows with the kool kool YUCK and playing a headlining show in Melbourne.

Just to get us both pumped, here are a few more of my favorite things from “Down Under”:

Once Were Warriors (book and film)

Super creepy great song by Split Enz…“I don’t know why sometimes I get frightened…”

Midnight Oil!

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Micro-tonal instrument builder and composer Kraig Grady.  I used to perform with his Shadow Theatre of Anaphoria back when he lived in LA.  He now lives in Australia.  His music and performances are some of the most beautiful and hypnotic things I have ever seen.  If you get a chance to experience it, you must go!!!

Heavenly Creatures - Kate Winslet’s first movie about 2 girls who commit murder.  Loved this when I was a teenager…

Performance artist/noise musician Justice Yeldham-warning it ends in blood.

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What am I missing?  What AU/NZ books do I need to be reading?  Which Flying Nun bands should make up my plane-ride playlist?  Do I really need to read and download “The Thorn Birds”???

Humbled and happy by the year end luv for this track.  I wanted to share with you a kind of funny and definitively fucked-up live version from our show in Athens, Greece.  I am kind of embarrassed by my braying swear yells of protest when things initially go awry, but I feel like as soon as we start to embrace the chaos, that’s when the magic happens.

“there is no art in the absence of risk”

LIMITED EDITION 7″ – ITUNES + EUROPE/ASIA  + NORTH AMERICA/AUSTRALIA

“ANGELO” featuring Mz’Gorjis of Platnum Platnum Glam Squad

Oh my!  There are so many things I want to tell you!  About “Angelo” and Ms. Gorjis and the Black Cowboy Parade and the 17-sided die.  About CSS and MEN and the luvfest of that tour.  About why I cut off my hair.  About accidental power crystals.

Can you wait?  Just one second?  We are 2/3 through a 3 month tour and I’m a little sleepy.  I am so yawn, can I tell you in the morning???

FALL/WINTER 2011 Tour Dates:

11/07/2011 FR Paris – Olympia
11/08/2011 FR Rennes – UBU
11/09/2011 FR Tourcoing – Grande Mix
11/10/2011 FR Strasbourg – La Laiterie

• 11/11/2011  IT  Milano Salumeria Della Musica
• 11/12/2011 IT  Rome  Circolo Degli Artisti
• 11/13/2011  IT  Bologna  Locomotiv
• 11/15/2011  IT  Venezia Pop Corn di Marghera
• 11/17/2011  CH  Zurich  Stall 6
• 11/19/2011  GR  Athens  Bios
• 11/23/2011  GB  London  Heaven w/ Zola Jesus
• 11/24/2011  GB  Manchester  Academy 3 w/ Zola Jesus
• 11/25/2011  GB  Liverpool  Kazimier w/ Zola Jesus
• 11/29/2011  DK  Arhus  Voxhall
• 11/30/2011  DK  Indre ByPumpehuset
• 12/01/2011  SE  Stockholm  Debaser
• 12/03/2011  PT  Lisbon  Vodafone Mexefest

GET TICKETS HERE.

Hey all!  EMA is headed out on a fall US tour with some rad bands.  We are playing earlier on these shows, but if you’re interested you should come check ‘em out as they are the last US dates of this year.  Special attention to the SF show at the Independent, where we are headlining and Alexis Blair Penney (featured above in the Marked video) is opening.  Buy tix here.

Also, we are headlining a show during CMJ at the Bowery Ballroom.  If you wanna see us play long and late, this is the show for you!  Tix here.

Otherwise we will see you in these fine cities:

10/07 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune *
10/08 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret *
10/09 – PDX, OR @ Doug Fir *
10/11 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre *
10/12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent - headlining
10/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex *
10/14 – San Diego. CA @ Casbah
10/15 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom $
10/20 – NYC @ The Bowery Ballroom – headlining
10/21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer #
10/22 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall #
10/23 – Boston, MA @ Paraide Lounge #
10/24 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
10/26 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club #
10/28 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues #
10/29 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues #
10/30 – Austn, TX @ La Zona Rosa #

* = w/ Wild Beasts
$ = w/ Washed Out
# = w/ CSS and MEN

come shout out!!!

Just got back from Europe!  Whew!  Germany Switzerland UK Belgium Netherlands, all fucking amazing, and of course, Vienna, where we got to record this sweet version of “Butterfly Knife” for FM4.  (Lots of other kickass live sessions in the works too, including a version of Anteroom recorded in a Parisienne crypt!)  So we walked into this radio studio in Vienna and there are like 3 Bosendorfer grand pianos, (all sweetly and stubbornly tuned to 444) so I thought, Hey! I’ve always wanted to do a piano version of “Butterfly Knife”.  And so we did.

In any case, I’d like to take this opportunity to define “we”.  This is my band!  And here are the people you will see onstage when you see EMA:

Leif Shackelford : violin, keyboards, co-producer and main collaborative partner in crime.  He ran EASTNILE (where a majority of PLMS was produced), builds amazing recording gear and boutique guitar pedals, and is also a helluva nice guy.

Nicole Anderson aka NKA aka “Aunt Dracula”.  My li’l sis hitting the skins.  She is shy but funny, refuses facebook and photoshoots and really does not want to provide her dorky older sister with any pictures or info to put on her website.

Nicky Mao : black-clad New Yorker, an only child thrown in to a family of pink-faced gee-golly Midwesterners.  Playing tough and mysterious second guitar.  She is also a very good sport.  Check out her kick-ass solo dreampop : Hiro Kone.

So long before there was Newermind (ok not that long before.  5 years?) GOWNS performed a Nirvana set at the now deceased Il Corral in LA.  It was a “cover band” night and we told everyone that we were doing George Thorogood and then busted into Aneurysm.  Sloppy and chaotic but it was a lot of fun.  I just remembered these and thought I would post them.  Thanks to Whitman for bringing along a tape recorder or these would be lost forever, as so many great fun performances are.

I left the crowd noise and tuning in so you can get a sense of the rowdiness of the night.  People were drinking and laughing, swinging from a rope hanging from the ceiling, moshing even!  Although Ezra and Corey might hate how sloppy these songs are, listening to them now made me remember how much fun it was to play with them.

AND keeping up with the NorthWest vibe, EMA is playing MUSICFESTNORTHWEST!  (that’s MFNW to those in the know)  Which is a fuckkin killer festival in Portland.  Check out the lineup here.  We play THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH at the super sweet HOLOCENE.  Somehow we get to headline this awesome night which also features TWIN SISTER, BLOUSE, and SUN ANGLE.

and if you aren’t in the lands of grunge origin, i’m coming to Europe right after.  Check out the dates on the new EMA LIVE page.

see you soon?

and yeah that guitar was harder to break than I thought!  shoulda tried it before 5 takes 6 hours and 12 beers!  but in the end it’s good cuz it’s all we had the budget for

special shoutout to Brock and Eva from Experimental Half Hour for filming and editing!  Much love!!!

I never do this kind of things, i know it sounds cheesy but i really don’t.

I just listened to The grey ship and California and decided I got write you

My name is —- I’m 21 years old,I’m from Israel and currently serving in the army (not by choise,it’s mandatory)

I first heard your magnetic voice In Gowns a while ago and was immediately drawn in.

When i got to the lyrics i was blown away by how accurate( and vague at the same time) you described a very specific ( and not specific at the same time) feeling.

A feeilng which is a part of my everyday life

Yes, this shit will kill me someday, i know it will, but it doesn’t scare or even makes sad

I am absolutely indiffrent to it.

The world is coming to an end and I’m in the attic shooting ketamine.

It’s not just the drugs

It’s everything, every little thing.

I want to live but i don’t mind dying at the same time

I feel like you and me are the same in that way

Two misfits like two submarines in the sky

I dont want to bore you so i’ll end here

I can’t wait for your LP

Take care and contect me ( if you wanna)

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 PREORDERS:  LP, CD, 7″

RECENT INTER/REVIEWS:

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“Usually we ask our Guest Mix Makers to put together some sort of introduction to their mix, but the title of this week’s mix explains it all really, doesn’t it?”

10 Tracks To Put On A Mixtape For Your Teenage Girlfriend To Listen To On Her Way To Community Service (Based On A True Story)

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here are just a few recent ones I like.  for a more complete and up-to-date list please visit facebook

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ALSO:  Just got done with the NW + Kurt Vile.  Thanks everyone for coming!  Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam added right before the UK dates.  See you all very soon.

<3 <3 <3 EMA

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BOOKING

US: lisao@highroadtouring.com

EU: a@puschen.net

NW dates close to sold out, git ‘em now.  And UK, looking forward to saying hello

EMA – California (Official Video) from Souterrain Transmissions on Vimeo.

IT is true that I moved to California after high school because I liked “Welcome To The Jungle”.  That and “LA Woman” (and even TOOL’s awesome 7-minute drum ballad “AEnema“).  I was 17 when I decided to go (I had my parents urging, who didn’t actually like my back-up plan of smoking pot and being a waitress).  I didn’t know where I wanted to go and in fact I was afraid to go anywhere.  As naive as it sounds, I picked LA because I thought it was a place where people went to write great songs.

I didn’t necessarily think I would ever end up writing one of my own.

This video was shot as one performance take with no edits.  The background is a mixture of footage from South Dakota and my adopted West Oakland.  Thanks to Leif Shackelford and EASTNILE.  The white light flares correspond to the drum beats and the angel rays correspond to my voice.

My first music video.  Hope you enjoy.

Also just really want to thank everyone for their support so far.  About a year ago to this day I was ready to quit music, move back into my parents’ basement in SD and spend the next 5 years in a snuggie.  It feels nice to be back and busy.  Do I hate Cali?  Nah.  But someone’s gotta rep the darkside of the zeitgeist.