The Brunettes

Breezy New Zealand indie pop group the Brunettes feature the core duo of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and producer Jonathan Bree and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Heather Mansfield, alongside as much as 8 auxiliary members who help create the group’s Phil Spector-esque wall of sound. The band’s revolving membership contains Lil’ Main labelmates Harry Cundy as well as the Decrease Agents’ Wayne Milne and Ryan McPhun, as well as the Lil’ Key Orchestrette add banjo, marimba, saxophone, cello, and clarinet towards the band’s sonic palette. In 1998, Bree and Mansfield had been playing in various bands and fulfilled when they performed a show jointly; the Brunettes had been born once the set decided they’d prefer to collaborate on special but clever pop motivated by ’60s young lady groupings and ’70s punk. Afterwards that season, the Brunettes’ debut EP, Mars Loves Venus, came. Although band’s first discharge arrived fairly quickly, it got another four years for the band’s initial full-length, Keeping Hands, Nourishing Ducks, to seem on Lil’ Key Records. The appeal of this record as well as the Boyracer EP, also released in 2002, earned the Brunettes a dedicated following within their homeland. The group spent 2003 and 2004 touring Australia as well as the U.K., helping other pop-minded rings such as Structures in Helsinki as well as the Futureheads. Summertime 2004 saw the discharge of the second record, that was also called Mars Loves Venus (the EP as well as the record just have the name track in keeping), and shown the Brunettes’ raising skill within the studio room and affects from Gram Parsons to Prince. The music group made it towards the U.S. being a septet in 2005 as support for the Shins, and released the When Glaciers Met Cream EP to commemorate the event. That fall, they agreed upon to Sub Pop and toured being a five-piece with Rilo Kiley. The group’s most advanced record yet, 2007’s Framework and Cosmetic makeup products became the very first Brunettes record to become released domestically within the U.S. The Brunettes managed the distribution of 2009’s Paper Dolls independently, releasing it within the U.S. and New Zealand on Lil’ Key.