The Black Seeds Australian Tour 2004

Having well and truly conquered their home country with a top selling debut album and several years of extensive and enormously successful New Zealand touring, Wellington-based reggae/soul/funk/dub band The Black Seeds have set their sights on the Australian market. Recognised as one of New Zealand's most exciting new bands, The Black Seeds will bring their energetic live show to Australia for the first time in late March/early April, coinciding with the Australian release of their debut album Keep On Pushing by LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa through Shock Records.

Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds quickly developed a reputation as the capital's ultimate good groove band, setting local joints jumping with their irie grooves and smooth skanking moves. A seven (or sometimes more) piece group, The Black Seeds produce a uniquely Pacifican blend of soul, funk, reggae and dub sounds that has set dancefloors alight all over Aotearoa. They regularly sell out venues around the country and have appeared in headline slots at some of the country's major music events.

In June 2001 The Black Seeds released their long awaited debut album Keep On Pushing on Wellington-based independent record label LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa. Acclaimed in all quarters, Keep On Pushing has been the subject of rave reviews and extensive airplay. Songs like "Keep On Pushing", "Hey Son" and "Coming Back Home" have received massive alternative radio and National Radio support as well as regular airplay on Channel Z and other commercial networks. After receiving glowing reviews in all local print media upon its initial release, Keep On Pushing was listed in Rip It Up magazine's Top 50 albums of 2001 at year's end.

Music videos have been made for several singles from Keep On Pushing, including two by off-duty Lord Of The Rings film crews under the direction of up-and-coming independent video maker James Barr. A self-funded video for the album's title track was winner of both The Knack Award at the 2001 Flying Fish New Zealand Music Video Awards and the ultimate prize at Radio Active's 2001 Handle The Jandal music video competition, and it has been a regular fixture on New Zealand music television programmes ever since. A government grant towards the video for "Hey Son" allowed "Keep On Pushing" director Barr the luxury of blowing a decent sized budget on all-out action sequences and special effects, while a more low-key animated approach was used for the follow-up "Coming Back Home" clip.

The release of The Black Seeds' album was supported with an exhaustive touring schedule which packed out venues in the main centres and extended to regional centres including Hamilton, Raglan, Mt Maunganui, Napier, Ohakune, Wanganui and Queenstown. They've since supported touring international dub artist The Mad Professor and played high profile slots at events including The Gathering, the Rippon Festival, Alpine Unity, the Soundsplash Eco Reggae Festival in Raglan, First Night 2003 and Vibes On A Summer's Day, and completed University Orientation tours alongside leading likeminded locals Salmonella Dub, TrinityRoots and Fat Freddy's Drop.

While The Black Seeds were busy criss-crossing the country on the live circuit throughout 2002, the master tapes for Keep On Pushing were skilfully reworked and reshaped by some of the country's top producers into the remix album Pushed. The first offering from this release , Involve Records artist Jet Jaguar's rough and rugged rudeboy remix of "Coming Back Home" , topped New Zealand's alternative radio chart after its initial release on the Gathering 2002 CD, and was featured as a bonus track on the Australian edition of Keep On Pushing along with a remix of the album's title track by LOOP Recordings label mate 50Hz. These remixes are available at bigpondmusic.com

In recognition of their hard work and achievements The Black Seeds were nominated for five b.net New Zealand Music Awards in 2002 , for Best Live Act, Best Album, Best Downbeat Release, Best Music Video ("Hey Son") and Best NZ Remix ("Almost Home: Jet Jaguar remix") , an equal number of nominations as earned by fellow front-running New Zealand acts Che Fu, Salmonella Dub, The D4 and P-Money.

The band has just completed a sell out tour across Aotearoa, in support of their second album On The Sun to be released in Australia later in the year. A 6 track vinyl EP will soon be available at select outlets.

www.theblackseeds.com
ANZAC WEEKEND 2004

Thursday April 22 9.30pm
Oxford Tavern Wollongong
w/guest DJ's Lord Fader and Lady Rare

Friday April 23
Candy's Apartment
22 Bayswater Road KingsX 10pm
w/guests Dub Activ8, DJ Lord Fader Lady Rare
Backroom pH, Kapai Sound, DJ Make
Tickets from Electric Monkeys Bondi, Fish Records (Newtown Glebe and Bondi Junction), The Record Store Darlinghurst and Victory Records Manly

Saturday April 24
Tris Elies
Katoomba Doors open 9 pm
w/guests DJ's Timbo Lord Fader & Lady Rare

Sunday April 25
Prince of Wales Melbourne 8.30pm
With special guests The Red Eyes , DJ's Jesse I & Ras Crucial
Tix from Gaslight, Polyester Records (Fitzroy), Greville Records(Prahan) & The Prince Of Wales.