Richard Davies' band The Moles are making a new LP w/ Jarvis from Woods, playing shows (dates, new song stream)

June 17, 2014

by Bill Pearis

The Moles back in the day…

Richard Davies, who played shows as Cardinal a few years ago, is reaching back further into his past, reviving The Moles, the Australian band he fronted in the early-’90s. The group is getting a Brooklyn makeover for 2014, using fellow Aussie expats Free Time as his backing band, and working with Woods’ Jarvis Taveniere on a new album to be released via Fire Records later this year. In the meantime a single, “Beauty Queen Of Watts / Chills,” will be out June 23, marking the first new Moles songs in 21 years. The a-side is an ode to Davies days in Sydney:

Sydney is beautiful but is also the place that people were sentenced to from the British Isles. So, a very romantic, sad, but resilient, hopeful song, like a convict would write.

“Beauty Queen Of Watts” definitely has that jangle one associates with The Moles. Welcome back. You can stream it below. The band have some UK dates this summer, including Glastonbury 2014. Nothing for the US yet, but they all currently live in America, so hopefully soon. All dates are listed below.

Fire recently reissued The Moles’ entire back catalogue as a set titled Flashbacks and Dream Sequences: The Story of The Moles which you can stream via Spotify. Some of their early songs — “Europe by Car,” “Bury Me Happy,” “This Happy Garden” — are just terrific.

One wonders if the new Moles single’s b-side, “Chills,” isn’t a nod to the legendary New Zealand group The Chills who were clearly an influence on The Moles and who also are now recording new material for Fire. The Chills’ “Molten Gold” is out July 29 and its b-side is a new recording of what is arguably their most famous song, “Pink Frost.” Martin Phillips give the track a new intro but otherwise doesn’t mess with perfection too much. Superflous, but not bad. Stream the new “Pink Frost” and the original below…

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