Silver CIty Highway play their last two shows for the next three months…..

supporting James McAnne’s Dirty Skirt Band at the Spanish Club in Fitzroy on Saturday the 19th July and the following week we are a part of the illustrious WWWWW number 4 at the Tote in Collingwood on the 27th of July….

Thanks for the ongoing support our Album is available via respectable music outlets and some not so respectable ,,,, or at GIGS!!

Also we are playing main support for Wellyn at their Album Launch which i have heard and sounds amazing!

Thanks again to everybody for getting down to see us play and to the bands who played with us, The Ukaladies, Abbie Cardwell, The Family Hour and Van & Cal Walker.

The Album is available in stores and at shows.

Silver City Highway release their debut album Everything Is Breaking, recorded by Aaron Cupples (The Drones, Dan Kelly), through Green Media/MGM Distribution. Renowned for their rock, psych and country lineage Silver City Highway are a seven piece outfit with a big Australian Rock’n’Roll heart and a Melbourne soul.

They present the album at an evening at The Tote on Saturday April 26 with Abbie Cardwell and band, The Ukeladies, Van and Cal Walker, and The Family Hour (featuring Henry Wagons). Everything Is Breaking is out mid April. 8.30pm, $12.

Silver City Highway - Everything is Breaking

Author

Simone Ruggiero

Published

Tuesday 8th April

Hitch a ride down the ‘Silver City Highway’ with this seven piece outfit and your bound for a beautifully atmospheric journey. ‘Everything is Breaking’ takes you to destinations where blues, country and rock combine to create a conceptually connected album. With a band backed with established musicians and one that was recorded by Aaron Cupples who has worked alongside The Drones and Dan Kelly, this CD is inundated with success.

The album is widely theatrical providing powerful vocals and an intense instrumental score. Front man, Fergus McAlpin delivers soothing and sometimes narcotic sounding vocals, in moments reflecting the earlier work of Nick Cave. McAlpin honours Cave with deep and engaging vocals often bordering on spoken words. The title track of the album delivers a dreamlike vibe and sets the standard for the rest of the CD. You are taken on a ride with Silver City Highway and only released after the completion of nine songs. Who knew that country music could sound so haunting, but with a track like ‘Dear Elizabeth’, Silver City Highway prove that their much more than any other Australian rock/country outfit. The eeriness of the album is largely due to the harmonica and pedal which feature heavily in all tracks and in turn have enormous impact over the overall sound.

With a Melbourne soul, Silver City Highway have collaborated a superb collection of songs for their new CD. Entering into a blend of country, blues and rock genres the album achieves a very pleasing symphony of sound. Join the boys from Silver City Highway and hop on the band wagon.

 Silver City Highway@ Northcote Social Club, 22/3/08

I first stumbled upon the haunting and hypnagogic strains of SCH last summer. It was at the tail end of Sunday sadness, during some feel -better beers at the Labour and I was very much instantaneously won over. Soothing yet totally exhilarating, this unsigned side- project screams with understated potential. They gig around Fitzroy haunts such as Old Bar, venues conducive to this band’s casual yet colossal charm. One of Silver City’s greatest strengths is an easy, yet oscillating intimacy with their audience and subsequently Silver City is suited to smaller venue’s like these but to witness the full glory of the band in its seven- piece, orchestral incarnation; a venue like the Northcote Social club is ideal.

On Saturday night the sound was heady and full and despite the band seeming slightly terse at points, this dynamic worked for rather than against them. From the Johnny Cash black of guitarist Ryan Nelson and front man Fergus McAlpin, to the wife beater clad double bassist, SCH is living proof of what an aesthetically and musically diverse beast country music can be. The Northcote band room had the somnolent, sleepy atmosphere of an opium den, created by Seamus’ psychedelic sound effects and Nelson’s plethora of pedals and intuitive guitar work.

Silver City Highway’s primary skill exists in their ability to commune and retract, to create psychic landscapes and occupy them entirely, so the listener is inside with them and locked out simultaneously. Which sounds seriously contradictory and a bit tripped out, man; but this is the riddle of the sphinx which makes Silver City Highway such a special band. It also helps that they boast one of the best drummers in Melbourne, the ever- beatifically- beaming Simon Edwards. He’s technically fantastic, but it’s all in the expression; he looks like he’s genuinely journeying into some kind of state of transcendence.

I don’t like to bandy the word around, but bliss is the real currency of the Silver City performance. On this evening, the band was introspective than usual and seemingly more serious; when Fergus broke into a smile, it was downright dazzling. The solemnity dissipated when Nelson planted a smacker of a kiss on Fergus’ cheek after an archipelago number that in my opinion didn’t quite survive the acoustics of the room, nor do his pretty majestic voice justice. 

For Mid- Easter weekend, the turn out was very good, even if the audience was largely made up of the walking wounded. They delivered a controlled dosage of raw, narcotic sound, which reached a chilling crescendo point at I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back again. I’m hoping that they always stay this close to this dark country edge, but move a little closer to the forefront in the very near future.

The full seven piece ensemble will be playing material from the much anticipated album. The show will include some newly written songs for their follow up recording.

Black Pony Express will be play their first show back since their European tour as the main support, with The Greasers opening the night with some charged pop.

So anyway.. here’s the song

Download audio file (million_dollars.mp3)

SILVER CITY HIGHWAY – Everything Is Breaking

(Independent)

Due to a continued increased interest in darkly intense faux-country bands, Silver City Highway is seeking fans for their take on this distinctly Australian classic sound. This is a fantastic opportunity to join the fandom of a thriving genre, with recent successes from contemporaries like The Drones, Skipping Girl Vinegar, Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, The Devastations and even the Bad Seeds. If spooky emotive rock that sounds like angry thunder galloping rapidly across a blackened country sky is what you’re after in a band, Silver City Highway is the place to get it! As a fan of this band, you will start on a relatively small amount, with just this one-track single, but you can look forward to expanding your portfolio rapidly, with a debut album arriving in the next few weeks. Positions exist for both Full Time fans and Part Time fans, splitting your fan time between Silver City Highway and other bands containing SCH members, including Redfish Bluegrass Band and the excellent Subaudible Hum. Benefits include production from Aaron Cupples (Dan Kelly, The Drones), a great new source of country-and-western-strength fucked-up-family lyrics and an overwhelming feeling that you’ve been out to an intimidatingly creepy ghost town without leaving your seat.

Well Fergus, never let it be said that we don’t do our bit to help and the fact that you have a killer sound helps a lot. I love the keyboards and damn that’s a lot of guitars you have there. “Everything Is Breaking” reminds me of Stan Ridgeway and Warren Zevon, everything about this track just makes me smile ( a touch more vocal in the mix would be nice). There is a strong country/blues feel here but the production is just epic. (Did I mention the thing about a tad more vocals in the mix… yes?)

Have a listen to “ Dear Elizabeth” as well, it starts out as an old school country talking blues but it really kicks once they get going, I think some of the band start channelling Deep Purple towards the end. I think I like these guys.

I popped it on the MP3 player a day or two back and it is definitely a keeper. I am sorry that Fergus didn’t let us all know that the gig was on until after the event, but I will be keeping an eye out for them

Warmly recommended. Great Guitars and keys.