New Zealand indie pop cult heroes the Chills recently returned with their first new song in years, and now they're giving fans another treat by announcing a live triple-LP. Somewhere Beautiful is set to arrive through Fire Records.
The album was recorded at a private party on New Year's Eve in 2011 in the Central Otago region of New Zealand. It features a five-piece incarnation of the band, with frontman Martin Phillipps joined by multi-instrumentalist Erica Stichbury, keyboardist Oli Wilson, bassist James Dickson and drummer Todd Knudson.
Slicing Up Eyeballs notes that the package is billed as a collaboration between the band and visual artist Shane Cotton, as each copy comes with an art print inscribed with song lyrics.
According to the press release, "Music and art are brought together in this contemporary object, where text intertwines with image in order to generate the sensational and the unexpected."
Phillipps said in a statement, "The third-ever five-piece Chills (out of some 20 Chills lineups) kicked into action over five years ago — and wonderful things began to happen! Soon we were asked to play at a private gig near Queenstown in New Zealand's South Island for a combined birthday party and New Year's Eve gig at the end of 2011. Of course equipment failed, all the things that should go wrong did their best to do so — but yet we caught on tape (in the modern digital sense that is) a wonderful night, with many happy people enjoying the Chills in a raw but warm, relaxed and rewarding situation. The recording has been tidied up as little as possible — but as much as was necessary, and here it is!"
The tracklist is below. Scroll past that to hear the set-opening rendition of "Night of Chill Blue." The exact release date has not yet been revealed.
Somewhere Beautiful:
1. Night of Chill Blue
2. Wet Blanket
3. Lost in Space
4. Part Past Part Fiction
5. I Think I'd Thought I'd Nothing Else to Think About
6. House with a Hundred Rooms
7. The Other
8. Walk on the Beach
9. Submarine Bells
10. True Romance
11. The Male Monster from the Id
12. Pink Frost
13. Soft Bomb Part One
14. February
15. Matthew and Son
16. Effloresce and Deliquesce
17. Canterbury Go!
18. Heavenly Pop Hit
19. I Love My Leather Jacket
20. Rolling Moon
The album was recorded at a private party on New Year's Eve in 2011 in the Central Otago region of New Zealand. It features a five-piece incarnation of the band, with frontman Martin Phillipps joined by multi-instrumentalist Erica Stichbury, keyboardist Oli Wilson, bassist James Dickson and drummer Todd Knudson.
Slicing Up Eyeballs notes that the package is billed as a collaboration between the band and visual artist Shane Cotton, as each copy comes with an art print inscribed with song lyrics.
According to the press release, "Music and art are brought together in this contemporary object, where text intertwines with image in order to generate the sensational and the unexpected."
Phillipps said in a statement, "The third-ever five-piece Chills (out of some 20 Chills lineups) kicked into action over five years ago — and wonderful things began to happen! Soon we were asked to play at a private gig near Queenstown in New Zealand's South Island for a combined birthday party and New Year's Eve gig at the end of 2011. Of course equipment failed, all the things that should go wrong did their best to do so — but yet we caught on tape (in the modern digital sense that is) a wonderful night, with many happy people enjoying the Chills in a raw but warm, relaxed and rewarding situation. The recording has been tidied up as little as possible — but as much as was necessary, and here it is!"
The tracklist is below. Scroll past that to hear the set-opening rendition of "Night of Chill Blue." The exact release date has not yet been revealed.
Somewhere Beautiful:
1. Night of Chill Blue
2. Wet Blanket
3. Lost in Space
4. Part Past Part Fiction
5. I Think I'd Thought I'd Nothing Else to Think About
6. House with a Hundred Rooms
7. The Other
8. Walk on the Beach
9. Submarine Bells
10. True Romance
11. The Male Monster from the Id
12. Pink Frost
13. Soft Bomb Part One
14. February
15. Matthew and Son
16. Effloresce and Deliquesce
17. Canterbury Go!
18. Heavenly Pop Hit
19. I Love My Leather Jacket
20. Rolling Moon