The Black Watch (USA) and Surf Friends NZ Tour

The Eskimo Record Label is pleased to announce that Los Angeles dreampop band the black watch who have put out 14 CDs in the US and UK--have confirmed dates for their maiden tour of New Zealand with Powertool Records own Surf Friends this December.

As Andy Gill of Gang of Four fame remarked in The Independent UK: \the black watch have, in singer/songwriter John Andrew Fredrick, an artist capable of both My Bloody Valentine miasma

and Nick Drake quietness. Fredrick, who holds a Ph.D. in English Literature, melds literary allusions to Shakespeare, Dylan, Shelley and Lewis Carroll with his own curiously personal poetic diction; his songs are as catchy and erudite as they are acerbic and, at times, whimsical. Its a great shame that this long-running indiepop band has to rely on a tiny label out of Dorset to get its wonderfully psychedelic melodies heard.

Recent addition on second guitar and transcendental backing vocals Steven Schayer toured the with

The Chills (yes, that The Chills) after the release of Soft Bomb.

Live, the band have been described in The Big Takeover as like The Cure or mid-period Beatles joining forces with Crazy Horse or The Velvet Underground--a not-to-be-missed experience. Icing the Snow Queen, the bands latest CD/LP garnered loads of support from flagship NPR station KCRW, and TBW have just returned from the CMJ Music Marathon.

Surf Friends ambitious first EP on Powertool puts one in mind of, but in no way apes, their heroes The Clean: lovely lilting melodies, quite catchy hooks and a great young energetic vibe on stage.