Foghorn Records - Sydney, Australia - Independent Record Label, Independent Music Label, Music Publisher, Media Servicing Company

As many Independent Artists find their niche in 2008, those of foghorn's stable are finding an open ear in the media to kick off 2008 and coincide with touring.

2008 is set to be an exciting year for Foghorn, with plenty of media activity for new releases from talented artists such as: The Woodenelves, Jude Elliot, Chickenhead, Very Unique Existence, Penny Coco, Illicit Eve and Mei Lai Swan. A new SoundsLikeCafe@home retail compilation CD has been released with ‘Grow Your Own Upload 2’ and Home Grown Roots Vol 3 to come later this year.

Jonathan Moran of the Sunday Telegraph gave Jude Elliot a rave review for her latest album Gentle Glimpse of Waking, awarding her a ‘stellar effort’ and commending the diversity of her songs. www.judeelliot.com

Chickenhead is ‘simply smokin’ according to Paul Robinson’s review in the latest February edition of QANTAS In-flight magazine The Australian Way.. Referring to their mini album Jack of Diamonds as having ‘Dirty, stompin’, raw blues power’.www.myspace.com/chickenheadband

Very Unique Existence caught the ear of Michael Smith of Drum Media, who expressed that the group delivered ‘a crisp, strong and confident musicianship’ with their new EP Everyone. The four piece from Byron Bay have been receiving lots of media attention, with a review and emerging artists article in the January 18 edition of The Music Network, commercial radio play list adds around the country and even college radio chart activity in the USA. As young emerging artists, they are predicted to evolve into a ‘worldwide crowd-pleasing machine’ in 2008. www.myspace.com/thevuerock

Mei Lai Swan is releasing her EP The Morning Tree, kicking off her launch shows on the 28 th of Feb with The Fuse Festival in SA. Mei Lai has been described as ‘absolutely beautiful’ by Jacinta Parsons (Triple R radio) as well as having Triple J Unearthed comment ‘it’s the lush sound of cello and her unique captivating voice that make Mei Lai’s music so enticing’. www.myspace.com/meilaiswan

Perth act The Woodenelves are on an absolute roll this year, following on from supports with The Black Crowes and Angie Hart they will be completing an East Coast tour including FUSE festival throughout Feb and March before jetting off to perform at SXSW and Canadian Music Week. www.myspace.com/thewoodenelves

Illicit Eve received Triple J play late last year and have now scored a release through Mixmasters/MGM for their debut album 'Into the Woods' - the album and accompanying video for single "They Don't make boys like they used to' was launched to a sold out crowd in Adelaide last weekend and will be available in store from March. www.illiciteve.com

New Sydney roots rock artist Penny Coco has grown up surrounded by music and her debut self titled EP shows a talent that belies her years. Produced by Syd Green and already added to Satellite Music with showcases coming up this is one to watch. www.myspace.com/pennycoco

Fogsongs Music Publishing has recently signed Travis Caudle - principal song writer for Perth band The Woodenelves to a worldwide publishing agreement.

After wrapping up the recording of the bands debut album Trips Between Worlds(produced by Tim Powles of the Church) in 2006, The Woodenelves finished the year with a coveted slot as the house band on ROVE LIVE. The episode was the last of 2006 and also featured U2 and Deni & Marcia Hines.

Earlier in 2006, the four-piece rock act took out two national songwriting awards for two tracks off the album – “A Little Bit of Me” won the rock/indie category and “What It Is” won the contemporary pop/dance category of the Australian Songwriters Association awards and flew to Sydney to take part in the awards ceremony.

As well as producing the album, Powles’ drumming prowess also features on the CD, as does the bass talent of Steve Kilbey.The album was mastered by Don Bartley in Sydney.

Travis said; “Having Fogsongs on board helping us as we launch our first album is a great support, and we’re really excited about it. It’s given me a chance to further concentrate on songwriting and gigging with the band as Marshall and Paul help look for new opportunities for us in new markets.”

Marshall Cullen MD of Fogsongs said 'Signing a Perth writer as talented as Travis adds the much needed WA location to our roster so that we now have writers signed in every state and Territory and as we are looking at strong US opportunities for The Woodenelves material i believe great things will come from our partnership - expect to see the boys on the East Coast sooner than you think.'

The album will be launched on May 12 at the Rosemount Hotel in Perth - see below....

Release details

Artist - The Woodenelves
Title - Trips Between Worlds
Label - SpinningBlue/MGM
Release - Date May 7

SATURDAY MAY 12 - ALBUM LAUNCH** THE ROSEMOUNT HOTEL
459 Fitzgerald St, North Perth ph: 9328 7062

www.thewoodenelves.com

Fogsongs Music Publishing Sydney Australia are proud to announce a new singer/songwriter signing - Rosie Burgess - from Melbourne.

Rosie spent 2006 touring and promoting her previous album performing at Festival of the Sun and Woodford as well as many more.

Now she has a brand new album HUMBLE PIE for 2007 which will be released via MGM this May and will be available on all download sites such as Itunes from April
Rosie will be touring the country to support the release.

"When you have heard rosie perform, you’re sure to be tongue-tied trying to tell people how good she is..." says Dave Ritter, organiser of the Bruthen Blues Festival.

Stomping away on her homemade stompbox, Rosie keeps herself warm with her rootsy slide guitar, harmonica and mandolin, singing up a storm everytime. Her music flows straight from the heart and blood, at times edgy and intense, at times raw and beautiful, it is always original and gripping.

2006 was an exciting year for Rosie Burgess, with gigs and festival appearances all over Australia. Her 2006 album "viewed (though a little distracted)" has been enjoying radio play on both community radio stations all over the country and Triple J. During the year Rosie played along side some of Australia's finest musicians, including Ash Grunwald, Mia Dyson, Deborah Conway, Chris Wilson and Blue King Brown.

Rosie's quirky and original tunes are captivating audiences wherever she goes. Her high energy live shows and many live-to-air radio performances have secured her a growing fan base of acoustic blues & roots lovers around the globe.

Her new album Humble Pie(MGM) is due out in may, some sneak preview tracks are available at www.myspace.com/rosiesmusic or www.paynestrecords.com/rosie.htm

Fogsongs are pleased to announce a very new signing, Van Sereno.

It's been an impressive journey these past 2 years for Van, his first album 'I think I Know'(MGM) scored points all round, airplay, plenty of live shows great reviews;

" From the catchy acoustic riffs to smooth RnB i can't help feeling Sereno is singing every song to my girlfriend."- Australian Guitar Mag .

.Van was a feature artist on soundslikecafe and consequesntly the album went to a second pressing.

Last year also saw a spot on the successful Home Grown Roots compilation and culminated with an offer to shoot a video for the new single and title track to the new album

"Persistence' in New York as well as a coveted live slot at The Peats Ridge Festival on his return from the USA.

The album was recorded at damien gerards in Sydney and produced by Van and Russel Pilling - with the cracking new live line up the whole record only took 4 weeks from start to finish.

The video was directed by upcomer Jaclyn Amor and was shot at classic locations like Rockaway Beach, Times Square and Central Park - the result speaks for itself - being serviced now and also on utube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t-0sKuYXMI

Van has learnt a lot and matured quickly into a real contender and in his own words "you can't beat persistence", and as the old saying goes
"if you can't beat them, join them", my guess is you will - at the Vanguard Launch and with the new album Persistence(FOG/MGM) going to

radio, retail and online March 5.

Sydney R n B / Pop solo artist Van Sereno will launch his second album at The Vanguard Tuesday March 6 along with Claude Hay and fun funksters Dlvir

Fogsongs are pleased to announce a very new signing, Jude Elliot. Jude has undertaken a series of prominent supports this year, including Claire Bowditch, Tyrone Noonan, Kate Miller-Heidke and Evermore. In the wake of this weeks signing, the Adelaide based singer songwriter has now scored the Hawksley Workman support for Adelaide on November 3 at Jive Bar and will also be making a trip to Sydney to play at the Peats Ridge Festival over Xmas New Year 29 Dec - 1 Jan.

Fogsongs MD Marshall Cullen said:
"Jude first came onto my radar at Fuse festival earlier this year, she had just returned from 6 months in New York writing and recording and had a distinctive international air about her. We hit it off immediately and over the past few months have carved out the deal, the plan and hopefully some more great songs to form the album which will come out next year.

Jude Elliot said:
"It is a wonderful pleasure to have met Marshall this year and be invited into the Fogsongs family of talented songwriters. I feel so fortunate to be included in such a supportive and creative environment which has nurtured my songwriting and its evolvement into recorded material."

The as yet untitled album is already in the mixing stage with the first single being a digital only release before the year end.

This summer Foghorn Records has a range of different releases to roll out digitally through iTUNES, Bigpond, Ripit.com, CD Baby and other etailers. From world music to Byron Bay electronica, from blues and roots to unplugged rock; Foghorn is supplying a wide range of quality original music from Australian composers to suit all tastes.

The Perfect blend brand has now expanded into an entire series of genre based compilations and individual artist albums. Each CD has been designed to cater for different moods and personalities in order to provide every listener a different ‘Perfect Blend’. The first four CD’s for summer will include East (World), Southerly (singer/songwriter) Crossroads (blues) and Chill (electronica).

The Honey Palace unplugged EP shows off a different side to the usually ‘heavy’ rock band; showing their fans and audiences a more close up and intimate view of them. This new release features three re-collaborated songs from their first two EP’s along with 4 brand new songs recorded early this year all done in intimate acoustic mode.

The record was successfully launched in September at the Basement to a sold out crowd

Byron Bay’s, Kolliope, combine captivating, catchy, organic acoustic guitar-driven melodies linked with electronic sounds and melodies to create their own unique form of electronic pop. The Airborn remix was done by the production team ‘Karbuncle & Tuft’ creating a more dance orientated version of their music and will be the first of many remix’s of Kolliope’s music as well as a new EP of original tunes slated for early 2007.

To coincide with the launch of a brand new series of independent music releases, ‘Home Grown Roots’, Sydney-based Foghorn Records has opened a music download store directly from its own website www.foghornrecords.net using the new SafeSell digital distribution system.

The launch of its own digital ‘Fogshop’ is the latest in a long line of initiatives from the Foghorn Group to help foster what they see as a very promising ‘indie’ music scene in Australia and the need to provide hands-on promotion to cater for acts so often ignored by the major record labels. Foghorn Records is the in-house indie label of Damien Gerard Studios and was founded in 1992 out of the desire to expose so many of unique and talented, yet unsigned acts that came through the doors of the studio to record.

“Over the year we have found that indie music sells best when it can be immediate for the customer - so live shows have always been a great way to sell discs but now with the Safesell-powered store there is another way we can offer immediate fulfillment to our customers as they discover our artists on either our Fogshop or on their own sites,” said Foghorn’s Managing Director, Marshall Cullen

Foghorn Records have grown and initiated deals for many of their artists with both overseas and local labels and distributors. The first of the Home Grown Roots series, launched in July and now available for download through SafeSell at www.foghornrecords.net, features Hawksley Workman (track now added to Nova 969), Angus and Julia Stone, Karl Broadie, Tecoma and Joel Plaskett.

Number 12 in the series of ‘Sounds Like Café’ promotional CD samplers which are played in over 1200 cafes nationally, was also recently launched by the label. These have included artists such as Lior, Kate Ceberano, Renee Geyer, Bob Evans, Clair Bowditch and Sarah Blasko. Other Foghorn initiatives include the Inner City Beats Dance Series, Perfect Blend lounge/café series and Grow Your Own unsigned artist compilations.

According to Mr Cullen, the SafeSell download system allows the label complete control over its own digital catalogue and the ability to compete in an international market.

“It’s early days yet but so far we have found the system very easy to use and anything that allows us to sell our artists music 24/7 in all territories with proper tracking and DRM is good for them and good for us,” he said.

Following on from Tecoma's (Amira Pyliotis) sensational rendition of Ben Lee's song of the year Catch My Disease at the recent Apra Awards in Sydney earlier this month, Fogsongs has now signed Mark Wolfe (The Honey Palace) to a worldwide publishing deal. The band have a current EP She's The One (the followup to last years Love Junkie) which earnt them the Nova Unsigned find spot earlier this year and after supporting Van Lustbader recently they have now found themselves with a flurry of shows including a run to Melbourne in August. www.thehoneypalace.com

In other news, Paul Scott (Bad Machines, Montana) has returned from a successful second European tour by The Bad Machines covering 4 countries. A license deal for their album Telling Lies to be released in Oz is now finally in the closing stages so expect to see the debut album (an indie success story in the UK and Europe) availabe here soon.www.thebadmachines.com

Young Guitar Maestro Luke Koteras has been utilising the facilities at Damien Gerard Studios over the past few weeks to recod and mix his debut album 'One Voice' just in time for his first UK trip to showcase/write and checkout the scene in July. www.lukekoteras.com

Songsmith Pattrick Carr has received yet another rave review for his album 'You and Me' - " Carr combines great acoustic playing with a variety of instruments including the harmonica, cello and violin. You’ll end up tapping your foot to this one." Tsunami Mag 8/10. His next live show will be an exculsive show in Melbourne at The Cornish Arms Saturday July 8. www.myspace.com/patrickcarrproject

Fogsongs writer/remixer/programmer for Kolliope and frontman for the legendary Massappeal - Randolph Reinman - has recently performed with the original lineup of his old band at the Come Together Festival at Luna Park to promote the reissues coming out on Chatterbox.

Finally Fogsongs directors Marshall Cullen and Elia Green- always on the lookout for new talent- were spotted at an exclusive invite only showcase in Adelaide on the weekend so look out for another possible new signing coming up soon.

At the APRA PDA award ceremony at The Mint in Sydney last night Amira Pyliotis (Tecoma) was awarded one of the two prestigious professional development awards in the popular contemporary category. The second award in the category was taken out by Damien from the Panda Band.

The substantial prize includes $10000 cash, recording time and overseas travel expenses which in Amira's own words is "a much needed boost to enable me to finish the next EP and travel to Europe again for the festival circuit..."

Also on the International front Fogsongs owner Marshall Cullen has just returned from meetings at South by South West in Austin/Texas.
Amira is now short listed for The Nemo Festival in Boston this September and Folk Alliance in Memphis 2007. He commented "Amira is so stunning live both songwise and performance all we have to do is put her on stage in front of people and everything flows from that - it keeps the plan nice and simple."

Amira signed to Fogsongs Music late last year on the back of her debut EP 'City Folk', receiving Triple J airplay and being chosen as a 'next crop' artist with a track on Robbie Buck's Home and Hosed compilation. During 2005 Amira perfromed at the Speigel Tent at The Edinborough Festival and along with Ben Lee was the only other Australian artist to perform at Popkomm in Berlin late last year.

The City Fok EP is distributed by MGM to all good record stores and is available on Itunes, Martian and other download sites for the digitally inclined while the new EP 'Air To Me' will be available in June.

For her next live performance catch Tecoma at The Great Escape Festival in Sydney in a few weeks time.

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