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KING GIZZARD &
THE LIZARD WIZARD –
‘Laminated Denim’
out now

WATCH THE
‘LAND BEFORE TIMELAND’
OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN CLOCK HERE

WATCH THE
‘HYPERTENSION’
OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN CLOCK HERE

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have just released their second album of the month, Laminated Denim, via KGLW.

This is the second of three albums released in October and follows Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs Mushrooms And Lava which came out last week. The final album of the series, Changes, is released on 28th October. The band also released a further album, Omnium Gatherum in April.

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An album written specifically with their recent sold-out Red Rocks shows in mind, the tale of the album’s gestation is one muddled slightly by the impact of COVID-19 on the band’s touring plans.

“What is Laminated Denim?” you may ask. “Laminated Denim,” explains Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard “is an anagram of Made In Timeland,” one of the more mysterious entries in the voluminous Gizzard discography, composed and produced for a specific moment in space and time that, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, never quite happened.

Made In Timeland was composed of two pieces of music – ‘Timeland’ and ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ – both exactly fifteen minutes in length. These tracks were created in 2019 expressly for a planned pair of monumental shows at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, US. Originally booked for May 2020, the shows were conceived as three-hour epics – the first concerts of such length King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard would ever have played. The group foresaw a fifteen minute intermission between the shows’ two 90-minute sets, and wrote Made In Timeland’s two pieces to accompany that intermission, with one of the two tracks playing each night over the PA, while a clock on a video screen counted down to zero and the beginning of the next set.

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Thanks to the pandemic, the Red Rocks shows were “postponed, and postponed, and postponed,” says Mackenzie. “We sat on Made In Timeland for so long that we started to get annoyed, and eventually just released it earlier this year.” The album was pressed up on vinyl and made available in March 2022 at Return Of The Curse Of Timeland, a hometown concert where the group finally performed their marathon three-hour set.

“What is ‘Laminated Denim’?” you may ask again. Well, in the immediate aftermath of that Return Of The Curse Of Timeland concert, as thrilled Gizz-fans carried their copies of Made In Timeland home from the gig in their grateful, sweaty little hands, a sense of unease swept over the six members of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. “We suddenly thought, ‘Great – what are we going to do for the intermission at Red Rocks now?’”

The oft-delayed Colorado super-gigs were rescheduled for October 2022, and Mackenzie explains they  “basically, we put together an album that was a kind of Made In Timeland Part Two.” Once again, the group conceived two special 15-minute tracks, which would be debuted at the intermissions of the Red Rocks shows.

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But Laminated Denim is more than a simple retread of Made In Timeland. Having to take a second shot at the project has offered the group a chance to refine the concept. There are similarities between the two albums but they pushed that original concept much further this time and the band used long group improvisations as the starting point for each of tracks, editing those jams down and composing songs from such protean raw material. “We set up with not a lot of ideas and laid down a lot of recordings and ended up stitching it all together.” The result is more complex and variegated, more abundantly songlike than Made In Timeland.

Having eventually played the two re-scheduled sold-out Red Rocks shows this week, Laminated Denim made its long-delayed debut during the intermissions accompanied by a countdown clock in sync with the tracks. The album was subsequently sold on the merch table, no announcement, in real embroidered denim sleeves designed by Jason Galea.

“We wanted to create a little world around the clock,” Mackenzie says, finally. And perhaps that’s the best answer to the question, “What is Laminated Denim?” – a world of its own, swarming with mysteries, thrills and magic, and a great place to spend half-an-hour in the company of the maverick invention that thrives within the Gizzverse. A great place to get lost, in other words.

Photo: Jason Galea

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TOUR DATES
2022

Fri. Oct. 14 – St Paul, MN @ The Palace Theatre * SOLD OUT

Sat. Oct. 15 – Chicago, IL @ RADIUS * SOLD OUT

Sun. Oct. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple *

Tue. Oct. 18 – Toronto, ON @ History * SOLD OUT

Wed. Oct. 19 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia * SOLD OUT

Fri. Oct. 21 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium %

Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall * SOLD OUT

Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem at The Wharf * SOLD OUT

Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * SOLD OUT

Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern * SOLD OUT

Thu. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater *

Fri. Oct. 28 – Austin, TX @ LEVITATION  – Stubb’s *

Sat. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ LEVITATION – Stubb’s $

Mon. Oct.  31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion #

Wed. Nov. 2nd – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre #

Sat. Dec. 10 – St. Kilda, AUS @ The Palace Foreshore @

Thu. Dec. 29 – Tauranga, NZ @ Summer Haze – Wharepai Domain

Sat. Dec. 31 – Wãnaka, NZ @ Rhythm & Alps

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TOUR DATES
2023

Wed. Jan. 4 – Auckland, NZ @ Summer Haze – The Matakana Country Park

Fri. Jan. 6 – New Plymouth, NZ @ Bowl of Brooklands

Thu. Mar. 2 – Paris @ Zenith

Fri. Mar. 3 – Amsterdam @ Gashoulder

Sat. Mar. 4 – Tilbug @ 013

Mon. Mar. 6 – Malmo @ Plan B

Tue. Mar. 7 – Stockholm @ Munchenbryggeriet

Wed. Mar. 8 – Oslo @ Sentrum Scene

Thur. Mar. 9 – Copenhagen @ Den Gra Hal

Sat. Mar. 11 – Warsaw @ Progresja

Sun. Mar. 12 – Prague @ Lucerna Velky Sal

Mon. Mar. 13 – Vienna @ Gasometer

Wed. Mar. 15 – Milan @ Alcatraz

Thur. Mar. 16 – Zurich @ X-Tra

Fri. Mar. 17 – Lausanne @ Les Docks

Sat. Mar. 18 – Wiesbaden @ Schlachthof

Mon. Mar. 20 – Brussels @ Cirque Royale

Wed. Mar. 22 – London @ Brixton Academy

Thur. Mar. 23 – London @ Brixton Academy

Thu. Mar. 30 – Sydney, AUS @ Big Top Luna Park

Thu. Apr. 6 – Brisbane, AUS @ Tivoli

Fri. Apr. 7 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Byron Bay Bluesfest

* w/ Leah Senior
% w/ black midi, Leah Senior
$ w/ Tropical Fuck Storm, The Murlocs
# w/ The Murlocs, Leah Senior
@Stella Donnelly, CIVIC

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Finally, the recent Marathon Shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater on October 10th, 11th, and November 2nd will be presented by Nugs.net as a delayed stream shortly after they happen. For more information, visit nugs.net/kglwlive.

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are:

Stu Mackenzie (vocals/guitar)
Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica/vocals/keyboards)
Cook Craig (guitar/vocals)
Joey Walker (guitar/vocals)
Lucas Harwood (bass)
Michael Cavanagh (drums)

Album discography

12 Bar Bruise (2012)
Eyes Like the Sky (2013)
Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (2013)
Oddments (2014)
I’m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014)
Quarters! (2015
Paper Mache Dream Balloon (2015)
Nonagon Infinity (2016)
Flying Microtonal Banana (2017)
 Murder of the Universe (2017)
Sketches of Brunswick East (2017)
Polygondwanaland(2017)
 Gumboot Soup (2017)
Fishing for Fishies (2019)
Infest The Rats’ Nest (2019)
 Chunky Shrapnel (live album) (2020)
 K.G. (2020)
L.W. (2021)
Made in Timeland (2022)
Omnium Gatherum (2022)
Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs Mushrooms And Lava (2022)

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Follow KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
Website – Instagram – Facebook
 Twitter – Bandcamp

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AMNPLIFY – ML