Finally, An Audience With Tomás Ford is coming out. I think that’s cause for a party, no? Well I’m throwing one. A big one. On January 27 at Amplifier Bar, Perth.

If one were to take six years between albums, one had better make sure that the album one is putting out is fucking awesome. One would probably also want to make sure that when one launches said album, one does so with a killer party. Tomás Ford agrees with these sentiments entirely and so is pleased to simultaneously announce both an awesome album and a killer party.

THE RECORD IS AWESOME
First, the record; An Audience With Tomás Ford. It’s a wierdo masterwork; twelve slices of skewed electro-pop that catalogue the weirdness of Ford’s live show. The album takes listeners on a strange and twisted trip, from messy Youtube hit I Feel Dirty, through the crowdsurfing love-in of Cuddle and deep into the dark industrial disco of Five Times… this isn’t the kind of pop record that you can play at a dinner party, unless your friends are really messed up. But Tomas Ford isn’t meant to be easy to take.

Recorded in isolation before being mixed and vocalised at Soniclolly studio in Margaret River and mastered to perfection by Forensic Audio, the album sounds rather splendid. It will be released in an initial limited run of 100 handmade copies on January 27, before hitting stores nationwide via Firestarter Distribution to accompany national touring in March and April. The launch edition will feature a beautiful fabric cover, a bonus disc of demos and alternate versions of songs from the record and a zine that’ll give you a bit of background to the songs. This is going to disappear quickly and if you don’t
pick up your copy at the launch, you won’t be able to get one until March.

THE LAUNCH PARTY WILL BE KILLER
Luckily you’re coming to the launch then, right? For one night only, Amplifier Bar will be transformed into two rooms of underground music, barrier-smashing performance and unmatchable debauchery. Obviously TOMÁS FORD tops the bill in the main room with his full live experience, plus Sydney’s 8-bit firecracker SIMO SOO will be along for the ride, Nintendo-popsters BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!, post-everything destructionists INJURED NINJA, all-star collaborators DIGER ROKWELL & FELICITY GROOM, BRASH AND SASSY’s GENNIA FEBBRAIO in her solo debut and Melbourne hip hop mixtape masters L-BURN DJ’s between sets.

The Beer Garden Cabaret Spectacular is going to be even more debauched, with SCHVENDES’ sultry songstress RACHAEL DEASE playing a rare solo show, circuit bending avant-pop ludicrousness from THE GIZZARDS, comedy cabaret from freewheeling freaks LADYBONER and a never-to-be-repeated audiovisual spectacular from LEON (aka LOON-X-WING aka LEON EWING aka THAT GUY FROM BEAVERLOOP) and partystarting blueslooping from ADAM BROWN.

Plus you can expect performances and intrusions by Fringe favourite HOT PINK BITS (NZ), ukulele genius JOHN ROBERTSON, the walking confuse-o-rama that is JOHN CONWAY, splendid character comic ZACK ADAMS, spine tingling storytelling from ANDREA GIBBS, the comedy debut of LAITH TIERNEY, elegant phrases from Perth’s poet laureate BYRON BARD, DOSH LUCKWELL’s salacious sex poems and Perth’s legends of underground drag, VOIX DE LA VILLE.

COMBINE BOTH PRODUCTS FOR MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT
Don’t fret, you don’t have to choose one or the other – you can come to the party AND obtain an album! Everything will be available at Amplifier Bar on Friday January 27 between 8pm and 1am. Tickets are available for $15 (or $25 with a copy of the album) from Moshtix online: http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=53631&ref=tomasfordamplifier

AN AUDIENCE WITH TOMÁS FORD
TWO ROOM ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY

AMPLIFIER STAGE SUPER-PARTY:
TOMÁS FORD
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!
SIMO SOO (SYD)
INJURED NINJA
DIGER ROKWELL & FELICITY GROOM
GENNIA FEBBRAIO (EX - BRASH & SASSY)
L-BURN DJ’S (MELB)

BEER GARDEN LOFI CABARET SPECTACULAR:
THE GIZZARDS
RACHAEL DEASE (SCHVENDES)
LEON (AUDIOVISUAL SPECTACLUAR)
ADAM BROWN
LADYBONER

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS ALL NIGHT:
HOT PINK BITS (NZ)
JOHN ROBERTSON
JOHN CONWAY
ZACK ADAMS
ANDREA GIBBS
LAITH TIERNEY
BYRON BARD
DOSH LUCKWELL
VOIX DE LA VILLE

AMPLIFIER BAR, PERTH
FRIDAY JANUARY 27
8 PM TO MIDNIGHT
BOOK NOW VIA MOSHTIX
More information at HTTP://TOMASFORD.COM

Oh dear, between the last post and this one, things are a little bit smutty around here at the moment. In a Benny Hill way though, so it’s all good. Anyway… bit of a fun announcement today. This thing was a blast to make and it makes me laugh every time I look at it…

Virility: Tomás Ford has it.

As he is finally releasing his new album An Audience With Tomás Ford in January after working towards it for SIX YEARS, Tomás is feeling spectacularly virile. Being as though he’s not entirely sure what to do with that sensation, he has channelled it into the production of a hilarious erotic calendar.



Shot in retired art deco theatre Aurora in WA wheatbelt town Kelleberrin with photographer Shaun Ferraloro and filmmaker John Aliaga, the calendar is a byproduct of an intense fourteen and a half hour shoot that also spawned the sprawling album artwork and performance videos for album tracks Nice and Vice.

Each calendar comes with a streaming preview link for his forthcoming album, scheduled for launch on January 27 at Amplifier Bar, featuring a huge two-stage multi-arts megacabaret lineup to be announced in the new year.



Oh, OK. I can tell you that it will feature Sydney 8-Bit lunatic Simo Soo whose recent self titled album on Lesstalk Records is a frantic burst of digital punk and distorted funk, with a hyperactive live show to boot. And there will be comedy, dance music, circuit bending, punk rock and all kinds of amusements. BUT NO MORE CLUES, ALRIGHT? JUST CALENDARISE IT ALREADY.

In the meantime, you need to get yourself a calendar to mark the 27th into. Tomás can help you with that. For $19.95, you can have a splendid A5 calendar (plus $3 P&H - international rates by request) on sumptuous card. They’re printed on glorious thick A5 card in full colour, and look sumptuously delicious.

The only place to get them is by emailing management AT tomasford.com with “I CAN HAS CALENDAR?” in the subject header. Payment can be made by bank transfer or Paypal and you will get your beautiful date-keeping object in the mail as soon as Australia Post can get it to you.

A bit of a good week for announcements this one. If you haven’t seen the new video clip, scroll down IMMEDIATELY, but otherwise;

This is my new weekly night at The Hydey in Perth every thursdady; I’m excited about it because there’s not much else like it around and it will be FUN. The presser looks a bit like this:

Comedians? Performance Art? Cabaret? Acoustic? Yep. We’ve got all that covered.

Welcome to Raw Hyde at The Hyde Park Hotel.

Every Thursday kicking off on the 28th of September will see your host Tomás Ford showcase the newest and most diverse talents from Perth.

Open mic nights have never looked so different. Free entry, and at the Hydey from 7pm EVERY Thursday evening, starting this one.

Our opening lineup is a cracker, with appearances from Bonnie Tessa Davies (fresh from Edinburgh Fringe), Belowsky (straight off an amazing Downstairs At The Maj season), tunes from Taun Band, Mike Cardy and Peter Bibby (Frozen Ocean).

Plus 5 minute open mic slots all night. Rego for Open Mic will fill up fast, so get down before 9pm to ensure your place.

It’s going to be a blast, make sure you come check it out sometime as I’m hoping it becomes the kind of place where performers can try out pretty much whatever you’ve ever wanted to try out. It’s going to be crazy fun.

It’s a been a few months of clicking around with my good pal John Aliaga on this one, but it’s finally done. May I present to you, the finished video clip for my collab with Ze!,  ‘Til Death Do Us Part…

This was a blast to work on - following an enjoyably chaotic shoot that incorporated an op-shop shopping spree, we ran around my managers’ house following a heavily improvised shooting script. It was almost as fun as playing the song live with Ze when we toured a few months back; by the end of the tour we were really bouncing off each others’ energy on stage, which is not something I get to do a lot of.

I produced this track at home and spent a lot of time getting all the floating layers and hooks in it to sit in the wierd-pop space I had in mind. We wrote our own lyrics; I remember getting Ze’s initial vocal contribution and being pleasantly shocked by it. Far from the glam electroclash of her other stuff, she slammed a disco murder ballad on me. As you can imagine, I was a little excited. A thousand mix-revisions later, we ended up with this thing.

It was avaliable as a free download a few months ago to coincide with our tour and picked up a stack of downloads; we’re re-releasing it commercially now, so you can get it at my Bandcamp site or on iTunes.

If you missed all the Ze!-related tour crazy crazy awesome funtimes, you can find out more about her at http://ze.com.my - this is what she does when she’s not trying to kill me:

I’m touring! We kind of announced this alongside the single a couple of weeks back, but 1:22am this morning seems as good a time as any to call the OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. I’M COMING TO WHERE YOU PROBABLY ARE UNLESS WHERE YOU ARE IS NOT IN AUSTRALIA (in which case, seriously, hit me up on facebook or twitter or something, I would love to chat about where I could play in your town ESPECIALLY if you think “it would never work”).

Perth’s electro cabaret touring machine Tomás Ford is hitting the road to pimp his brand new single I FEEL DIRTY around the nation.

It’s time to allow yourself to feel excited; I need you to do something VERY QUICKLY… Watch this. I know you’re busy and you have ten thousand groups to join, but this will shape your day. Your LIFE. Trust me:

I FEEL DIRTY is a pop-sized blast of sweaty, intense punk disco. It came out of Tomás’ early shows; he’d play a full-on set and then bundle his equipment into suitcases and run with them to make it to the last train home. The song revels in that feeling of being a sweaty mess, covered in fading makeup, bruises, a ridiculous costume and glitter.

You might have seen Tomás sometime over the last few years, creating magic in your favourite dive bar or festival, whether touring with the likes of Birds Of Tokyo or The Big Day Out’s Lilyworld. His last tour saw him stage-married to Malaysian pop princess ZE!. Now he has itchy feet again.

Joining him on selected dates will be beatmakers NAIK and DOS4GW. Other local supports will be announced in a separate press release in the days to come.

Perth-based NAIK (Sam Price) creates psychedelic, progressive and unique experiments in instrumental hip hop music. His debut album In the Shadow of Thunder Mountain (2009) received critical acclaim throughout Australia.

DOS4GW is one of Perth’s bass music experts. His laptop-hopping live show packs a seriously bassy punch and his idiosyncratic stage presence makes it a must see.

And of course Tomás will be bringing his unpredictable combination of live beats, film projection, punk rock audience-baiting, costume changes and partystarting showmanship to every show for a run of dates that will scar their way into the minds of anyone who attends. In a fun way. Mental scarring is fun, yeah?

ENTERTAINMENT FROM ALL ANGLES.
IF YOU WANT TO GET DIRTY WE’VE GOT THE MUD.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011
BRISBANE
Tomás Ford vs Ghostboy
Room 60

Saturday, September 10, 2011
CANBERRA
Tomás Ford & DOS4GW plus special guests
The Front

Sunday, September 11, 2011
SYDNEY
Tomás Ford plus special guests
Valve Bar & Venue

Friday, September 16, 2011
HOBART
Tomás Ford & DOS4GW plus special guests
The Alley Cat

Saturday, September 17, 2011
MELBOURNE
Tomas Ford, NAIK & DOS4GW plus special guests
Yah Yahs

Sunday, September 18, 2011
ADELAIDE
Tomas Ford, NAIK & DOS4GW plus special guests
The Promethean

Saturday, September 24, 2011
PERTH
Tomas Ford, NAIK & Mulder plus special guests
Mojo’s Bar

Get your free copy of I FEEL DIRTY right now at http://ifeeldirty.tomasfor d.com/ .

THIS IS A HAPPENING THING.

You need to go to http://ifeeldirty.tomasford.com, like, RIGHT NOW. You can get a free copy of the single over there. As of right now. I’m a little bit excited.

Here’s the video, in case you need convincing to click over to the subdomain…

Hey you,   

Do you like fun? Do you like amazing live dance music shows? Do you like karaoke?

If you have answered:
A)    Yes.
B)    I guess so, or
C)    Oh my god, what kind of fabulous party are you throwing! You’ve got to tell me. Tell me! Do it! Tell me!

… then please accept my invite to join me for THE BEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE.

Given the awesomeness of my new single I FEEL DIRTY and the long process to get it released, a bog standard launch gig didn’t seem appropriate. Instead, I’ve opted for an EPIC KARAOKE THROWDOWN. It’ll run from 8pm until venue closes at Ya Ya’s in Northbridge on SATURDAY AUGUST 6.

I’ve called in favours from around the Perth music scene (to be revealed in the coming weeks) to make sure we’ve got a lineup of karaoke guests that will shock and awe you, plus you’ll be able to sing yourself. There will of course be my full on, multiscreen TOMAS FORD live dance music experience at 11pm, followed by open karaoke slather.

The single, I FEEL DIRTY, is a pop-sized blast of sweaty, intense punk disco. It came out of my early shows; I’d play a full-on show and then bundle my equipment into suitcases and run with them to make it to the last train home. The song revels in that feeling of being a sweaty mess, covered in fading makeup, bruises, a ridiculous costume and glitter. Being the weirdest person on a 2am train can give you the oddest feeling of invincibility.

The single comes with a video clip directed by VIS Productions that is probably the best video clip ever (see the poster image for a taste). I’ve also arm-wrestled some remixes out of some of my favourite Perth producers; Naik, Obscotch, Yarkhob, Able and KNO Agents. You’ll be able to get it as a “Pay With A Tweet” (or Facebook post) FREE DOWNLOAD from this website (which is about to be radically altered) from lunchtime on FRIDAY AUGUST 5 - the day before the launch. You can stream a tasty preview here:

I Feel Dirty (Single Mix) - Tomás Ford by tomasford

But I’m digressing. What you need to know from all this is that you are personally invited to come to my launch party on Saturday August 6 at Ya Ya’s In Northbridge. It just won’t be the same without you there. I implore you to cancel any of your other plans and join me.

Much love,

Tomás Ford

TOMÁS FORD’S I FEEL DIRTY SINGLE LAUNCH & KARAOKE THROWDOWN
8PM UNTIL THE VENUE CLOSES
SATURDAY AUGUST 6
YA YA’S, 147 James Street Northbridge
TICKETS $15 + BOOKING FEE FROM MOSHTIX.COM.AU

As a side note to this press release, this is a limited capacity gig and I would prefer if it was full of awesome people like you. So please book now at MOSHTIX.

I’m putting on this spoken word show that I think you should come to if you live in Perth. It’s many of my own favourite local spoken word performers alongside the brilliant Randall Stephens from Victoria. I’ll be MC’ing, entry is free and… well… you have no excuse really. C’arn.

So, my collaboration with Malaysia’s Ze!, ‘Til Death Do Us Part, is still a free MP3 download at http://death.tomasford.com - go check it out! The video clip is being finished up at the moment and shouldn’t be too far away. She’s also just released a bit of a club electro-house bang0r, In The House which you can see the video for here. The outro is totally off the hook.

I’m sitting organising a whole pile of stuff for upcoming tour action - if you’re in Australia, I will be playing visits in a venue near you in August/September. Let me know if you live somewhere out of the way where you can think of an awesome place for me to play and I’ll come there.

Also, I’m playing at this show to the left next week, it’s the launch of The Painkillers’ new album. As regular live show catchers will know, I cover their tune Love Cancer in my live act (watch it below) and they’re one of my favourite bands. Also playing are 6’s & 7’s, who I’m currently doing a remix of (hopefully will finish that in time for the show).

…And here is The Painkillers’ superawesome original, in live form.