Ha The Unclear Announce 'Big City' Single Release Tour For May

Idiosyncratic pop four-piece Ha The Unclear are gearing up to release their new single 'Big City' later this month and in anticipation are announcing handful of shows around the country. The upcoming single is the band's first new material since their 2014 full-length Bacterium, Look at Your Motor Go, and was recorded by Tom Healy​ (Tiny Ruins​, Popstrangers​) at The Lab studios in Mt Eden .

The band, who originally hail from Dunedin but are currently based in Auckland, penned 'Big City' about a public transport journey that sees "a bus full of people fail to react appropriately to an onboard emergency", pointing a finger at the diminished sense of social responsibility that can come with living in the big smoke. Keep your eyes peeled for the single's release on 21st April, and here are the tour dates...

Ha The Unclear 'Big City' Release Tour

Saturday 13th May, Sawmill Cafe, Leigh
Thursday 18th May, Golden Dawn, Auckland
Saturday 20th May, Caroline, Wellington w/ Moon Lander
Friday 26th May, Space Academy, Christchurch w/ Soaked Oats
Saturday 27th The Crown Hotel, Dunedin w/ Soaked Oats

Tickets to all shows (except Auckland) available HERE at UTR and instore at the usual outlets

Here's the entertaining video for the group's early single 'Secret Lives Of Furniture'...

PRESS RELEASE:

Ha the Unclear are pleased to announce a fistful of shows around the country in May to celebrate the release of new single BIG CITY (out 21st April).

BIG CITY was recorded with Tom Healy​ (Tiny Ruins​, Popstrangers​) in the recesses of the Lab studio complex in Mt Eden. The song d​etails a public transport journey as a bus full of people fail to react appropriately to an onboard emergency. Recently inhabiting Auckland after making the move from their hometown of Dunedin, the song focusses its lens on big city living. Alluding to bystander apathy and diminished social responsibility, BIG CITY ​pulses and distorts fittingly as it winds its way to its inevitable, repeating refrain ‘everyone’s anonymous’.

An exciting couple of years for Ha the Unclear has seen them nominated for a Tui at the NZ Music Awards, perform spirited sets at Rhythm & Vines and The Winter Garden, tour New Zealand supporting Courtney Barnett and perform shows across the Tasman in Australia.

After releasing 2014’s debut album Bacterium, Look at Your Motor Go the band’s knack for hook-ridden, mind-bending stories was acclaimed internationally by the likes of BBC Introducing ("absolutely bonkers") and Entertainment Weekly ("fascinatingly odd"). At home the album garnered 4 star reviews in The Sunday Star Times and The Listener and was described as “certainly unique and quite possibly bent genius” (Elsewhere.co.nz).

In 2015 Ha the Unclear relocated from their southern, Scottish influenced harbour hometown of Dunedin/Ōtepoti (pop. 127,000) (farthest city in the world from London) to the North Island city of Auckland (pop. 1,495,000) (avg. house price $1,000,000). This included a transitional 6 months spent living on a hydroponic lettuce farm in the Bay of Plenty where the band toured between bouts of picking basil, lettuce and avocados.

Ha the Unclear - Big City is released on Friday 21st April 2017 via Banished From the Universe.