As we reported back in May, Australian indie-pop lifers the Lucksmiths are calling it quits after 16 years of sad-eyed, jangly guitar pop. Before they throw in the towel, they're putting out a farewell 7", "Get-To-Bed Birds", this month via Matinée and Lost and Lonesome. The title track sounds like the Lucksmiths, which is a very good thing, and a bittersweet farewell to one of indie-pop's more overlooked acts.   --Pitchfork

 

A final, posthumous release from the mighty Lucksmiths is out soon on Matinée Records and Lost and Lonesome, and it's a fitting way for them to go. 'Get-to-Bed Birds' just glides. Try listening to this whilst remembering all the times you'd had the time of your life watching The Lucksmiths play lives, or danced in your room to their wonderful records, and it'll be hard not to feel that pang of sadness that this really is the end. Over on t'b-side, "The World of Professional Golf' is similarly downbeat, telling the tale of drinking, world-weariness and, um, coffee. It's a beauty, anyway. And the songs fade to white. And that's it. I remember seeing The Lucksmiths supporting Hefner in London about ten years ago, and they blew me, and a few hundred others away. Sixteen years is long enough for any band to keep producing pop masterpiece after pop masterpiece. But what a trail they've left behind.   --A Layer of Chips

 

I feel like i never got to say a proper good bye to the Lucksmiths. After announcing last year that they were calling it quits, the band did a victory lap tour in Europe and Australia, but didn’t make it to US. The world is a big place after all, and touring the States ain’t exactly a walk in the park. Not that I would have done it, but out of curiosity I did look to see how much airplane tickets were to Spain last summer to see one of their farewell gigs. It wasn’t cheap. Much less expensive than a flight to Spain, the Lucksmiths have decided to serve up one final bite of their gentle, heartwarming adroit pop as a 7″ single to put a nice bow on their 16 year career. I’m guessing that these are the last couple songs in the Luckmsiths’ vault, since they thoroughly cleaned it out with the double disc Spring a Leak back in 2007. The parting shot is two songs. The B-side contains the intriguingly titled The World of Professional Golf 1994 and could be previously found as part of the Lifted Brow magazine. It has an early Bee Gee’s sounding guitar riff and does its job of reminding me of spending a rainy Sunday afternoon inside watching golf in some sunny local on TV, but probably closer to 1984 for me. The A-side is the pensive Get-to-Bed Birds which appeared on the Matinée compilation Grand Prix and was the last song main songwriter Marty Donald wrote for the band. The swirling guitar appropriately gives an autumnal feel to the song as the final leaves fall from the Lucksmiths’ tree.   --The Finest Kiss

 

In a long kiss goodnight, The Lucksmiths have called it a career while simultaneously offering a final 7" single. For a band that suggested we strip to our t-shirts, reflected on aversion to cameras, and poked loving fun at The Smiths about a boy who never goes out, it is nothing short of a twee-colored funeral. Harder to say is whether "Get-to-Bed Birds" feels a little sad for its own reasons or because we know it marks the end. The guitars are bright, but the sun never fully emerges on this, the last trip around the block for a band without whom we would have so much less.   --32 ft. per Second

 

After 16 years The Lucksmiths called it a day last year and this 7″ single is their posthumous farewell. Get-To-Bed Birds is the last song Marty Donald wrote for the band and for those with their eye on the ball they would have noted this track was previously released on The Matinée Grand Prix earlier this year. However it’s worthy of a release on glorious vinyl such is it’s jangling charms and that oh so classic Lucksmiths sound which will be undoubtedly missed. Flip side The World of Professional Golf 1994 has also been released previously, this time for a literary journal down under. It tells the story of Arnold Palmer’s last appearance at the Open. Golf isn’t my bag but the low and gentle strumming here certainly scores a hole in one! Get-to-Bed Birds is out now on Matinée Recordings and Lost and Lonesome. A DVD of their final show is being finalised whilst a batch of previous albums have been re-issued. See the bands website for more.   --Indie-mp3.co.uk

 

”Get to Bed Birds”, also on Matinée’s Grand Prix compilation, is such the perfect farewell song for the Lucksmiths, who called it quits last year. A detailed vignette of walking home late at night on New Year’s, it is rueful and versatile, capturing a specific scene vividly. That is the moment of transition between “a shit year” and one that stands ahead as a question mark, a silhouette of hope. The song fades elegantly, open. The flip side of the 7” is the rare “The World of Professional Golf 1994”, another example of the way the Lucksmiths set nice melodies to little recognizable stories – in this case, another time of transition, waiting for someone who’s gone away. The song describes months spent not sleeping, watching sports on TV, “harboring hope and doubt in almost equal measure.” Somehow in one quick motion this single commingles past, present and future, capturing the bittersweet anticipation of endings and beginnings.   --Erasing Clouds

 

I came to the Lucksmiths party ridiculously late. So late in fact, they had just broken up at the time. I’d been vaguely aware of them for a while, and as is always the way with such bands, the size of their discography always kept me away from them. Earlier this year, I was finally convinced to give them a listen and it was something of a revelation. Starting with Warmer Corners and working roughly backwards, I’ve now picked up nearly all of their albums, and continue to lament the fact I didn’t bother earlier. Get-to-Bed Birds doesn’t tread any new ground, and nor should it. It’s a song that would feel right at home on any of the band’s previous records. It’s gentle, melancholic and reflective. In other words, a perfect coda for a band that disappeared just a bit too soon. The Get-to-Bed Birds 7″ is released sometime soon on the lovely Matinée Recordings in the US and Lost and Lonesome in Australia. If you live in Europe, you presumably toss a coin.   --Another Form Of Relief

 

When Australia’s The Lucksmiths decided to throw in the towel last year, they left behind what will hopefully prove to be an enduring legacy of clever and charming indie-pop tunes. Having plied their trade for over a decade, the prolific trio (and eventual quartet) garnered a fervent cult following thanks to their lyrical smarts and disarmingly simple instrumentation. Vocalist Tali White doubled as the band’s percussionist, playing a stripped down kit consisting of a snare, hi-hat, and tom drum, while the rest was filled in with one bass and one guitar. They took what might be viewed as a restrictive setup and continually utilized it to incredible effect, creating music which was by turns shimmering and melancholy but always fueled by witty turns of phrase and White’s honeyed croon. (And here, dear reader, I pose an unusual imperative: if your music collection lacks some Lucksmiths, don’t hesitate–go pick up a copy of Where Were We? or Warmer Corners or Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me or, better yet, all three. Then come back here. I’ll wait.) In addition to countless albums and EPs, the band has also left behind one final release: a 7″ released earlier this year by Matinée Recordings entitled Get-to-Bed Birds. The titular a-side offers up all of the hallmarks of the band’s sound–a jangly, bittersweet lilt that is a cousin to Belle & Sebastian and labelmates Lovejoy and Math and Physics Club (although The Lucksmiths predate them all). On “Get-to-Bed Birds,” White perfectly encapsulates the conflicting feelings that each New Year’s Eve brings, opening the track with the plaintive “A shit year ends, I kiss my friends / We raise half-empty glasses / To the next one and the night wears on.” Hearing these words in action is pure poetry and guitarist Marty Donald gives them plenty of air to breathe. I can count about a dozen bands worth loving and The Lucksmiths are certainly in that rarefied air. If “Get-to-Bed Birds” can help a few more people fall head over heels, then it’s done its job. The single works well as a final riposte from the band, too, concluding with this epitaph: “And here I am, another year beginning / Half-way home with the get-to-bed birds singing.”   --One Track Mind

 

The glorious Melbourne indiepop dreamers split up last August but their farewell single has only just emerged, as simultaneously bittersweet and sunlit, and as reflecting on life through a glass after dark, as they ever were.   --Sweeping The Nation

 

It’s always a sad day when a great band calls it quits, but we knew this was coming for some time now. The Lucksmiths have opted to call an end to their blissful tunes, but they’re not going to leave us empty handed before they run off. The band is going to offer up one final 7” by way of our good friends over at Matinée. It’s the final two tracks from one of Australia’s great exports, so be sure to order this and savor the memories.   --Austin Town Hall

 

The final two songs The Lucksmiths wrote before imploding are finally set to surface. The Australian indie-pop favorites drop their last-ever release, the "Get-To-Bed Birds" single. On its flipside "The World of Professional Golf 1994" appears. The single's a joint release from the Lucksmiths' American label Matinée Records and its Australian record company, Lost and Lonesome, and is limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies. It'll also be available digitally for you futuristic types or procrastinators who miss out on the initial sale. After playing together for 16 years, The Lucksmiths called it quits last year.   --Aversion.com

 

Ah, this is bittersweet... A year after calling it a day, the Lucksmiths are releasing their final single on Lost and Lonesome in Australia and Matinée here in the States. These are "the last two songs the band scribed" before breaking up. The a-side originally appeared on The Matinée Grand Prix CD, while the b-side ("The World of Professional Golf 1994") was included with an Australian literary journal. The 7" single is limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies (L&L gets the odd numbers, Matinée the evens) and includes the MP3 download. It's only $4, so what are you waiting for?   --Glorious Noise

 

Not sure I realized it until I listened to this song, but I've totally missed bands like this. No one does that sort of crisp and super well crafted indie pop that the Lucksmiths, Death Cab For Cutie and a slew of other acts use to do. Oh well. It happens. One day someone will be sitting around wondering what happened to all the fuzzy pop in the world. The aptly titled farewell 7" is out later this year on Matinée.   --Side One: Track One

 

The Lucksmiths broke up just over a year ago now, and they’re finally giving us what they promised at the time — a posthumous single of what may have been their last original recordings. The single is titled Get-To-Bed Birds after the A-side track, and it is available via Lost & Lonesome Records of Australia and Matinée Records in the US. The B-side is titled “The World of Professional Golf 1994″. Limited to 1000 copies, the single is hand-numbered with half (evens) going to Matinée and half (odds) going to Lost & Lonesome. I feel that most things that can be said about The Lucksmiths already have been said, and probably in a more eloquent fashion than any words I can conjure. So I’ll just let the good tune speak for itself.   --Fensepost

 

So act surprised, it's been a while since The Lucksmiths came calling. Despite breaking up, The Lucksmiths has a special 7" called Get-to-Bed Birds, out soon on Lost And Lonesome and Matinée Recordings. Strictly limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies, so it will sell out quickly. I suggest you pre-order it to secure a copy. Songwriter Marty Donald described "Get-to-Bed Birds" as, ironically, the last song he wrote for The Lucksmiths. The song paints a picture of New Year's Day, and stumbling around through the suburbs in the new day. Hardcore fans would probably have a copy of this song from the The Matinée Grand Prix compilation. The 7" is backed by "The World of Professional Golf 1994", described as their "contribution to the fourth issue of The Lifted Brow, a Melbourne-based literary journal."   --We Heart Music

 

Oramai un anno è passato da quando i nostri amati Lucksmiths si sono sciolti e la Matinée pubblica un ultimo 7 pollici (in collaborazione con Lost and Lonesome) per dire loro addio. Sui due lati del vinile le ultime due canzoni incise dalla band australiana: Get-to-Bed Birds e The World of Professional Golf 1994. La prima è anche la canzone dei Lucksmiths preferita dal bassista Mark Monnone, e racconta il punto di vista di chi se ne va da una festa di capodanno, quel momento in cui le luci dell'alba si alzano sopra la città, mentre qualcuno ha ancora voglia di brindare e lontano sparano gli ultimi fuochi d'artificio: "And here I am / Another year beginning / Half-way home with the get-to-bed birds singing". In attesa che esca il Dvd del loro ultimo concerto (la notizia è confermata dalla stessa label), lasciamo i Lucksmiths così, tranquilli sulla via di casa, accompagnati dalle loro morbide melodie, maestri come sempre nel trovare l'equilibrio tra eleganza, malinconia e serenità.   --Polaroid