Jinja Safari announce The Forest Eyes tour

Jinja Safari has seen a jump from their first show (in a forest in May) to performing astonishing sets at Australian festivals (Splendour In The Grass, Coaster Festival, Big Sound & more to come over summer), touring nationally with Art vs Science, releasing their debut EP and packing out rooms for their recent shows in Melbourne & Sydney.

Channelling African rhythms, bouncing harmonies, makeshift percussion, unabashed performance and the ability to tap into both gentle melodic jungle-folk and the fiery independent showmanship of a band with ten times the ‘actual’ stage hours under their belt – if you don’t know how entertaining the concept of allowing yourself to ‘Ugly Dance’ can be, then you haven’t experience the unbridled spectacle of a Jinja Safari show.

Debuting as dual lead songwriters Marcus Azon & Pepa Knight, ‘Jinja Safari’ settled down in late summer of 2010 to piece together a series of songs over a month of weekends on the Central Coast of NSW. After being asked to play high profile support shows with Miami Horror & Cloud Control, the duo hurried together some close friends to complete the picture: Jacob Borg on drums, Joe Citizen on bass guitar & a percussive wily character by the name of Alister Pattern (who literally jumped out of the van in Sydney whilst busking up the east coast from Tasmania). Winning Triple J’s Unearthed competition with less than 10 shows together as a band, Jinja Safari’s first single ‘Peter Pan’ was an instant Triple J & community radio hit, reaching top 10 Australia-wide in the indie airplay charts and radio play in the UK on BBC6.

Forest Eyes – the second single from the ARIA #4 debut physical EP - is a jaunting afro-pop escapist story which captures Jinja Safari in one song: the makeshift craftiness of their production (Most of the ‘drums’ & atmosphere on Forest Eyes is played out on a creaky old chair that Pepa had in his house, filled in with finger clicking & handclaps), jaggered guitar melodies and adventure-inspired lyrics, which traverses the boundaries of Jinja Safari’s ‘forest-rock’ and allows a wild dance through the world the band is creating… a perfect excuse for a 2010 spring tour across Australia to continue introducing the Safari.

ALPINE
Joining The Forest Eyes Tour is Melbourne’s fiery hypno-pop 6 piece ALPINE: double-female fronted vocalists with driving backbeats & shadowy synths mixed with mid-summer guitars that has signalled excited attention from radio & audiences alike – such is also their recent addition to the prestigious Ivy League Records stable. Alpine’s live show is a beguiling explosion of colour & sound that is welcomed onto the safari.

http://www.myspace.com/alpineband

FISHING
Possibly one of the most exciting & fun debuts of 2010, Sydney’s FISHING is a production duo who fuses quirky summer glitch pop with a brilliant live tweaked two-man sampler show. Sharing a love of jungle chants & African melody with Jinja Safari, Fishing have managed to capture international attention with their first single ‘OOOO’ (which appeared on Pitchfork’s Forkcast as ‘a sparkling post-Dilla jawn’) and will be released in Austalia before summer – as will their remix of Jinja Safari’s ‘Peter Pan’.

JINJA SAFARI
T H E    F O R E S T   E Y E S   T O U R
N o v e m b e r   2 0 1 0

Thursday  4th  Nov    The Zoo (Brisbane) *
Tickets from Oztix: 1300 762 545; www.oztix.com.au

Friday 5th   Fremantle Town Hall (Perth)*
Tickets from www.heatseeker.com.au, Mills (Fremantle), Planet (Mount Lawley)
Moshtix: 1300 GET TIX (438 849); www.moshtix.com.au

Saturday 6th   Jive Bar  (Adelaide)
Tickets from Moshtix: 1300 GET TIX (438 849); www.moshtix.com.au

Thursday 11th Oxford Arts Factory  (Sydney)
Tickets from Moshtix: 1300 GET TIX (438 849); www.moshtix.com.au

Friday 12th    Northern Star Hotel  (Newcastle)
Tickets from venue: (02) 4961 1087, www.bigtix.com.au

Thursday 18th Karova Lounge  (Ballarat)
Tickets from Karova Lounge, New Generation & www.oztix.com.au

Friday 19th  East Brunswick Club (Melbourne)
Tickets from www.eastbrunswickclub.com, box office 03 9388 9794.

* - Alpine & Fishing not appearing in Brisbane & Perth