Biography
Sunshine and candy-canes, The Brunettes were a hard-working and extremely promising, genuine kiwi pop band – a rare thing in this day and age.
Forming around Heather Mansfield and Jonathan Bree’s girl-boy vocals and a plethora of instruments used both on record and live (Heather being a rather talented multi-instrumentalist and Bree taking on the role of recording whiz Svengali), the band expanded to a 5-piece for the release of their brilliant 2002 release Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks – a Beach Boys / 50’s girl-group pop inflected album which was to be released independently, before EMI scooped them up for distribution at the last minute
After the albums release they furiously beavered away at new material, putting out the charming (and often bizarre) Boyracer EP and making low-key tours both nationally and internationally.
The Incisions‘ Nick ‘Harte’ Hodgson joined as drummer in early 2003, as the band entered the studio for their follow-up release. Harte left the band on the brink of 2004, concentrating on what would become his signature group, The Shocking Pinks.
By mid-2004 The Brunettes had once-again cemented a new line-up, and their sophomore release Mars Loves Venus (taking the name of their ultra-rare debut lathe-cut 7″ EP) was completed with the line-up of Mansfield, Bree, James Milne (aka Lawrence Arabia) and new drummer Ryan McPhun (soon to find fame with his own group The Ruby Suns).
With the success of their 2nd album the group once again departed for foreign shores, taking in South-By-Southwest and building an overseas audience.
Over the course of the next 3 albums the group would court US audiences (releasing their 2007 album Structures and Cosmetics through legendary US indie label Sub Pop), go through a myriad of line-up changes and some internal conflict.
Paper Dolls and the Red Rollerskates EP would be their final releases – both put out via the Lil’ Chief Records imprint in 2009. Bree would go on to release his debut solo album The Primrose Path in 2013.
Members
- Jonathan Bree (guitar / vocals / bano / sitar / keyboard / drum machine / percussion / arrangement, The Brunettes)
- Heather Mansfield ((The Brunettes, The Brunettes)
- Jia Xin Cheng (cello, The Brunettes)
- Kari Hammond (Drums/Percussion/Vocals, Boxcar Guitars, The Brunettes)
- Scott Mannion (guitar, The Brunettes, The Tokey Tones)
- Dominic Blaazer (Harmonica, A Riot of Colour, Goldenhorse, Greg Fleming and the Trains, Shaft, Smoothy, The Brunettes, The Chills)
- Tom Dale (Saxophone, Shaft, The Brunettes, The Rainy Days)
- Kingsley Melhuish (trumpet / trombone, The Brunettes)
- Peter Wood (The Brunettes, Vibraphone)
- Andrew Gibson (violin, The Brunettes)
- John Fennell (violin, The Brunettes)
- James Milne (Guitar/Bass/Vocals/Chamerblin/Vibraphone/Percussion, BARB, Fabulous/Arabia, Lawrence Arabia, Okkervil River, Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns, The Brunettes, The Reduction Agents)
- Ryan McPhun (drums / percussion / vocals, The Brunettes)
- Mike Hall (Bass, Balance, Pluto, The Brunettes, The Stereo Bus)
- Amee Robinson (saxophone, The Brunettes)
- Nick Hodgson (Drums, Black Albino, CM Acoustic Ensemble, CM Ensemble, Crone, Cubicle, Deface, Deplore, Hiatus, Medrum, Moider Mother, Montessouri, Shocking Pinks, Solaa, The Brunettes, The Hi-Tone Destroyers, The Palace of Wisdom, Tony Valens and the Incisions, Urinator)
- Harry Cundy (trumpet, The Brunettes)
- William Cotton (vocals / saxophone / celesta, The Brunettes)
- Dionne Taylor (guitar, The Brunettes)
- Jamie Power (drums, The Brunettes)
Discography
- Mars Loves Venus 7″ Lathe EP (1998, Self-Released)
- Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks (2002, Lil’ Chief Records, LCR001)
- The Boyracer EP (2003, Lil’ Chief Records, LCR002)
- Mars Loves Venus (2004, Lil’ Chief Records, LCR007)
- When Ice Met Cream (2005, Lil’ Chief Records, LCR010)
- Structures and Cosmetics (2007, Sub Pop/Lil’ Chief Records, LCR019)
- Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth CD Promo (2007, Sub Pop, PROCD122)
- Red Rollerskates EP (2009, Lil’ Chief Records)
- Paper Dolls (2009, Lil’ Chief Records, LCR025)
Links