The Lovetones are an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 band with members:

• Matthew J. Tow
  Matthew J. Tow
  Matthew J. Tow is a highly regarded Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Perhaps best known as the singer and guitarist of 90's Sydney indie band Drop City, Tow currently fronts international neo-psychedelic rockers The Lovetones....
  
   (acoustic & electric guitars / sitar / autoharp / vocals)
• Matthew Sigley (bass / keyboards / vocals)
• Serge Luca (electric guitars)
• Chris Cobb (drums / percussion)

History

The Lovetones released their debut album, Be What You Want, in 2002 through Bomp! Records. The album was reviewed in Creem and Rolling Stone magazines. The latter hailed Matthew J. Tow's songwriting as being worthy of Ray Davies, Bowie, Lennon and McCartney.

After enjoying the critical success of Be What You Want, touring Australia extensively, and even supporting Morrissey

Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...

 during his first-ever solo Australian tour, Tow joined The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American eclectic musical group led by Anton Newcombe, whose music spans multiple genres including psychedelia, electronica, folk music, blues, experimental music, and many others....

 in 2003. He contributed two tracks to their album, ...And This Is Our Music. Tow's opening track "Starcleaner", later also appeared on the The BJM retrospective Tepid Peppermint Wonderland. In the same year, UK based Fire Records invited The Lovetones to contribute to the James Joyce Chamber Music project alongside Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...

, Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

, and REM's Peter Buck. In 2004, The Lovetones released the Stars EP, coinciding with their support of The Brian Jonestown Massacre on their tour of Australia.

The second album, Meditations, was released through New York's Tee Pee Records in late 2005. Returning from shows in the US in late 2005 and also at SXSW

South by Southwest

South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...

 2006, The Lovetones toured to support Meditations Australian release in May 2006. In June 2006, The Lovetones completed a European tour across 12 countries with The Brian Jonestown Massacre in support of Meditations, which was released there through Tee Pee/Cargo Records, culminating in an album review in the respected UK magazine Uncut.

The Lovetones also recorded their third album, Axiom, during 2006, with sessions split between Figment Studios in Hollywood and the Sydney Opera House Recording Studio. It was released in June 2007 through Tee Pee Records.

Their fourth album, Dimensions, was released 4 November 2008 in Australia through Undercover Records and 6 April 2009 in North America through Planting Seeds Records.

Discography

Give It All I Can (single 2002)

Label: Undercover Music

Released: 2002

1. Give It All I Can
2. Guiding Star
3. As Good As It Gets
4. Shipbuilding

The Sound & the Fury (single 2002)

Label: Undercover Music

Released: 2002

1. The Sound & the Fury (Radio Edit)

Be What You Want (single 2003)

Label: Undercover Music

Released: 2003

1. Be What You Want (Single Mix)
2. What Am I to Do (Coda Mix)
3. Fairweather (Echo Mix)
4. Be What You Want (Demo)

Be What You Want (album 2003)

Label: Bomp! Records (USA)

Bomp! Records

Bomp! Records is an Los Angeles-based indie label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw.-History:The label has featured punk, pop, powerpop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres, and its roster has included artists such as The Modern...

, Undercover Music (Australia)

Released: 2003

1. The Sound & the Fury
2. Give It All I Can
3. What Am I to Do
4. Something Good
5. Be What You Want
6. Drink the Night
7. Guiding Star
8. The One and Only
9. Its Always Been That Way
10. Fairweather

Stars (EP 2004)

Label: Chatterbox Records

Chatterbox Records

Chatterbox Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia, founded in 1997 by musician Nik Tropiano and Sebastian Chase of Phantom Records. The label boasts an eclectic mixture of artists across various genres. Its first release was a vinyl EP from Sydney electro-goth band Cult 45...

Released: 2004

1. Stars
2. Inside a Dream
3. It's Not Over Yet
4. This Is Why You Love Me
5. Across the Sea

Meditations (album 2005)

Label: Cargo Records (UK), Tee Pee Records (USA)

Tee Pee Records

Tee Pee Records is an independent record label located in New York City in the United States, made popular by the signing of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.-Artists :*Ancestors*Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound*The Atomic Bitchwax...

, Undercover Music (Australia)

Released: 2005/2006

1. Mantra
2. (I Gotta) Feel
3. Stars
4. Inside a Dream
5. Was I There in Your Future?
6. Genius
7. Sea Shanty
8. Come Home
9. Pictures
10. Across the Sea
11. It's Not Over Yet
12. A Place for Us
13. Wrapped Up in You
14. The Colour and the Cut

Axiom (album 2007)

Labels: Cargo Records (UK), Tee Pee Records (USA)

Tee Pee Records

Tee Pee Records is an independent record label located in New York City in the United States, made popular by the signing of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.-Artists :*Ancestors*Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound*The Atomic Bitchwax...

, Undercover Music (Australia)

1. Navigator
2. Wintertime in Hollywood
3. Pieces of Me
4. Signposts
5. Please Don't Break My Heart Tonight
6. Everybody Hides Away
7. Say You Will
8. Ordinary Lives
9. A Simple Song
10. Alone

Dimensions (album 2008)

Labels: Planting Seeds Records (USA), Undercover Music (Australia)

Released: 4 November 2008 (Australia); 6 April 2009 (North America)

1. Moonlit Suite (Her Room)
2. Journeyman
3. Two of a Kind
4. Look at the Waves
5. Memory Lane
6. A New Low in Getting High
7. Love and Redemption
8. There is No Sound
9. Song to Humanity
10. When It Comes
11. Journeyman (Anton Newcombe Mix)

External links

• http://www.thelovetones.com Official site
• http://www.myspace.com/thelovetones - The Lovetones on Myspace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
  
  
• http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/thelovetones/ - The Lovetones Message Board
• http://www.rhino.com/RZine/rhinocasts/podcastkeeper.lasso?shownum=13 - The Lovetones interview/live performance at rhino.com (Nov 2005)
• http://www.adasam.plus.com/rayman/idx1.htm - Colorsound (Matthew J Tow solo project)