QUOTE: James Black - musician, arranger, producer, (MD of RocKwiz, The Black Sorrows, Mondo Rock)
"Does the world really need another Soul band? The answer is "YES!" but it's gotta be THE HIPTONES!"

QUOTE: Ross Wilson - Australian music industry icon, (Daddy Cool, Mondo Rock)
"The Hiptones cool grooves & beautifully understated playing are led by the great vocals of Snooks La Vie. No wonder they've scored a deal with a major label - this is blues for the masses & a great leap forward for the oz blues scene."

QUOTE: Renee Geyer - Australia's Queen of Soul
"The Hiptones are one of our great young R&B bands. Not only are their aims true, but they give the much needed 'nod' to all the great 'old school' R&B that has come before...which gives them a great insight when it comes to writing great original material...no easy feat when it has to come up to the level of the 'greats'. They do interesting and whimsical 'covers' of some classic songs, but their strength is in their writing. Watch out for them - they're formidable - an oasis in an R&B drought called Australia."

REVIEW: THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - ALBUM OF THE WEEK - Beat Magazine - Melbourne

Technically speaking, frontman Snooks La Vie should have been born black.

How the hell a set of pipes that damn good ended up in some white boy from Adelaide has got me beat. But then, he compensates in style. Pimping a name like Snooks La Vie, trolling round in a classic chrome-finished '62 Thunderbird, sporting mutton-chop jowls, a hipster slouch cap, and retro cowboy shirts with horse-shoe stitching I mean, sheet, the man has it down pat. He even uses words like it's been a gas in the liner notes. Yup, The Hiptones live and breathe it, baby. The real deal.

With a canny laid-back fusion of soul, funk, blooze and gospel, Adelaide retro act The Hiptones debut album Right Now simultaneously distils the best elements of the New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago rhythm & blues tradition, and gives a shot of adrenaline to the Australian roots scene.

Git down wid da Motown. Check the slinky grooves, swollen hammond organ, and lazy tremolo-bar action of opener I've Been Loving You Too Long. Or Crescent Moon, where gee-tarist Steve Smith serves up his tasty licks and slow-hand lead between burping saxophones and shuffling drum patterns. Meanwhile, La Vie's effortless upper range channels the likes of Van Morrison, Creedence, and even Robert Plant. You better believe the man can sing, and with heart-felt piano ballad and title-track, he lays on the emotion with a trowel, before a George Benson-esque jazz solo meanders through, and leads us back to the main refrain. All the while, bassist and organ-player Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi, and skinsman Miguel Garcia lock in some rock-steady grooves and define the term rhythm-section.

Everything about The Hiptones screams authenticity, and it ain't just their outfits, with every sound on Right Now both vintage and perfect. If a part calls for a sleepy Hawaiian-style guitar break, then it s there. Crybaby wah? Check. Classic tremolo effect? Right on. Even the wurlitzer-led rollicking instrumental Jumpin With Jimmy, with its traditional slap-back guitar reverb, conjures a rockbilly barn-dance and slick quiffs going heel'n'toe on the chequered vinyl bar top.

The Hiptones pay homage, true, but it never seems like affectation. You won't find La Vie wailin' about love lost on the bayou, rather Something's Gotta Give namechecks Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, laments a destructive relationship as only the best blues songs can, before the frontman lets loose with a crying harmonica line. They even wear their influences (alongside the sequinned buttons, of course) on their sleeves with some sly re-working of classic tunes like That Driving Beat, Hound Dog and Ninety-Nine & A Half (Won t Do) that not only do such staples justice but give them a whole new life.

The Hiptones are one of those bands you'd expect to see under a marquee in Byron at the East Coast Blues Fest, rocking on your heels to the music, wondering how it is that every note played and sung sounds like it s exactly what should have been played, asking yourself why you haven't heard of them before, and that goddamn it you really should listen to more blues music that sounds like this.

It's also the kind of album that you put on in your office, and everyone's like "What's this you're playing?" "I like this, who are these guys?" "That CD was really cool can I burn a copy?" In fact, that's how they got signed to SonyBMG. A mere four days in Joe Camilleri s Woodstock Studios in Balaclava (the single-take guide-vocals were so good, producer James Black, ex-Black Sorrows, kept them all) and a copy was sent to the label. Passed around the SonyBMG office in pretty much the way described above, the Adelaide combo found themselves inked to a major label deal. Straight up. Like the bourbon they drink.

Their chops have earned them kudos not only from within the Australian blues scene, but from formidable musicians like Chris Isaak and his band (who The Hiptones supported on their recent tour), claiming they haven't seen Rhythm & Blues played that well in many a year. Hell, sacrilegious as it is, one suspects if you happened to be one of the faithful who trawled past the displayed body of James Brown for one last glimpse of the Soul Godfather, all it would take to get his alligator boots tapping again would be shove your iPod in his waxen ears and load up a Hiptones tune.

Sure, it's hardly new music. Doubtful they'll grace the cover of NME or Rolling Stone anytime soon. But fact is, they don't make bands this good anymore. It's foot-tappin', finger snappin' good shit, brother. While Hurriance Katrina blew away most of their beloved New Orleans, there's a new storm brewing in old Adelaide town, and it's called The Hiptones.

Nick Snelling, Beat Magazine, Melbourne - Issue 1024: 24 January 2007

PROFILE: HIP TO IT: 2006 will go down in history as the year that launched The Hiptones - Rhythms Magazine - Melbourne/National

Every band has had a hard year, just ask them and they'll tell you, ad nauseum, but not every band has had that hard work pay off this year. That's where The Hiptones are waaaaaay out in front. Twelve months ago, if you lived anywhere outside of Adelaide, you'd most likely be like "Hiptones? Who the hell are these cats?". Now however, get ready to shake your ass and get it awn down to the roots/soul explosion that the 'Tones have been dishing out around the lazy streets of the South Australia capital for the past six years now.It's time to rock you cats... can ya dig it?

A mate of mine has been to every one of The Hiptones' Melbourne shows, probably about three, and every time he does, he rings me up afterwards and berates the hell out of me for not being there, He's not the only one to sing their praises; the 'Tones have been garnering a cult following for quite some time now, mainly at home, but it's what's been foing down in the past year that is going to garner them a following all over the country, and possibly beyond. In that time, the band have laid down their debut LP, Right Now, which consists of mainly original tunes, been signed to SonyBMG, scored prop's from the likes of Renee Geyer and various community radio DJs, plus they've got a remixed track at Number 17 on the national dance charts... it's madness. This time last year however, the focus was to just get an album recorded, and as is testified by Hammond/bass player Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi, this was indeed a trippy time for this foursome from across the border.

"We won a grant from Arts SA in the middle of last year (2005), so that meant we could be a little more ambitious about where we recorded the album," begins Tulsi from over the phone in Adelaide about a recored, which was well overdue. "So we sorta pitched it at Woodstock Studios, plus we also know that James Black was a good producer and had worked in that studio before."

"So we lined up James, but then James had some personal stuff going on with his mum being crook," Tulsi goes on, "and for a while there it looked like he wasn't going to be available, but he ended having three days at the end of January. So i rang Woodstock and they pulled me a favour, but we only had three days to record. So we said 'Let's go for it' but as luck would have it, when we were driving over to Melbourne, there were those (January 2006) bushfires..."

These trials were only the tip of the iceberg, and i remark to Tulsi that it's a miracle the album was recorded at all. As luck and perseverance would have it though, it was, and it was in the aftermath that things really started to happen for the 'Tones.

"Once we got back, we were looking for some advice about how to market it and the tools we'd need," says Tulsi, "and that's how it ended up getting played in the office of this guy at SonyBMG, not with a view of getting a deal with SonyBMG, i was just picking this guys brains about the right way to approach it... and they liked it, and it flipped me out. In May (2006) i remember getting the call, and it was, 'you've just been signed to SonyBMG'. I had to go for a walk and get a coffee and stop my head from spinning."

"For Snooks and i as writers, we're pretty stoked," laughs Tulsi, "because this is our first major effort, and we just put down what we had, you know? Picked the best dozen from about sixteen ideas we had, and we had no idea that it would be this well received. We got a call from Renee Geyer, when we did the RRR (radio) interview with Gary Young (Daddy Cool's drummer) earlier this year, and she rang up and said she loved the songs and what else did we have" So stuff like that is great for Snooks and I as writers, really boosts our confidence."

So from a mini-disc recording of a bunch of tracks just over a year ago, to a slick new recored out on a major label, 2006 has been a bit of a fairytale for the 'Tones, particularly Tulsi and La Vie, both now full-time musicians, and it's onwards and upwards for these soul infused hep cats.

"It's nice to have that endorsed by other people," finishes Tulsi with a laugh, "but it's still pretty trippy, this has surpassed our expectations"

Sam Fell, Rhythms Magazine: Australia's Roots Music Monthly, January 2007

INTERVIEW: THE HIPTONES - dB Magazine - Adelaide

"Does the world really need another soul band?" questions the opening line of The Hiptones' press release. "Yes!" answers the voice of James Black who, other than appearing on the ABC's 'RocKwiz", just happens to have produced their stunning roots'n'all debut album 'Right Now; a title that subliminally doubles back on itself as it perfectly servies to illustrate their immediate, fresh albeit-vintage bluesy/soul sound of old.

And it's right now that The Hiptones are set to expand upon the live buzz already established here in their hometown of Adelaide with 'Right Now' snapped up by major label SonyBMG and instantly slated for a global release.

"To be honest," begins the genially effusive Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi, "the whole thing is pretty mind-boggling because this album actually got started by an Arts SA grant. So just over a year ago, apart from all of us being together for a long time, we had nothing. When we got the grant, we decided to go to Melbourne to record at (Joe Camelleri's) Woodstock Studios because we know that would be a good studio for our sound and then we took a punt a gave James Black a call because he seemed like a nice guy..."

"And he has a real familiarity with roots music as well," Interjects the band's vocalist, Snooks La Vie.

"When he said yes we went over and recorded and mixed 13 tracks in four days," continues Tulsi, "which along with the money from the grant still cost us thousands of dollars. When we got back to Adelaide, i was picking the brains of someone who's a friend from way back and who just happened to work for SonyBMG. I was asking how to get our CD to an independent distributor and he gave me some advice about what marketing tools we would need and then we went away and did everything he said. Essentially, we then just delivered that package to SonyBMG independently and they looked at it and loved it so the CD got played all around the office and they signed us without even seeing the band. So we really did get lucky," Tulsi concurs.

"The whole thing is just mind-blowing. Even before we had any product out we'd had people from Belgium and New Orleans, and other who have been to Montreaux and places like that, come up to us and say that we rock; so we're now keen to explore that because there's a big world out there.

"Look, the reasaon it works is because we're a tight band," rightfully boasts Tulsi. "I don't know if you've heard this story but we just went in there and set up all the gear and baisically plated live, whinc meanas i was doing the bass and Hammond, and Steve [Smith] did his guitar tracks and Miguel [Garcia] was on drums. And then Snooks came in just to do his guide vocals as we were going along, you know? Day one, day two and so on. Then we put some guitar leads and piano over the top of it while Snooks was waiting around to come in and record the vocals properly, but James just said no, his guide vocals were fine. The extraordinary thing about Snooks is, even all the little incidental things you hear with his vocals, he came up with on the spot."

"They were all just done in one take," chips in La Vie, "and some of the songs were new which we were playing for the first time."

"It really wasn't even one take," continues Tulsi, "because Snooks pays so much attention to what he's singing that even when he sings the lyrics as a guide, he's singing them like he means them. So with that, and the band being tight, it saved us an enormous amount of time," he reveres, with La Vie quietly adding, "...and money."

"And James was very focused at getting the task done," concludes Tulsi, "so he wasn't just a great mentor, he was also a great producer in the sense that right from the onset he said, 'this is how long we've got and what do you intend getting through with that?' We just said the best case scenario is that we finish the album, worst case is that we at least get the bed tracks down and we do all the rest later. And we got the best case scenario." Right on!

Steve Jones. dB Issue 401, 20 December 2006

INTERVIEW: THE HIPTONES - Australian Music Airplay Project

Organic rhythm and blues music, made by a bunch of guys on the other side of 30, is not the kind of music that usually gets signed to a major record label in Australia. Thankfully SonyBMG got their hands on this authentic South act, and have just released their debut album 'Right Now'. It's a collection of songs that swings between blues, soul, roots, pop and funk. Ten of the thirteen tracks are original tunes, and the album was recorded at Joe Camilleri's Woodstock Studios with producer James Black of The Black Sorrows fame. Recorded in three days and mixed in just one, 'Right Now' is refeshingly retro with a warm live sound.

Nicole Craig of AMRAP talked with Snooks La Vie (lead vox, harmonica) and Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi (hammond organ, bass) about The Hiptones music.

Click here to go to the mp3 file of the interview on the AMRAP website.

REVIEW: THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - Australian Musician - Issue 48 Summer 2006

Kudos to major record label Sony/BMG for signing this four piece Adelaide soul, blues and funk band. Not one of the member is under 30 years old, they don't dance and have no connection with a TV talent show. The Hiptones are the real deal, a tight groove based unit proudly displaying their retro influences on their sleeves. This band swings, smoulders and cooks through 13 warm and organic, roots flavoured tracks conjuring tastes of New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago. That they can play is immediately obvious, that they can write becomes equally apparent as the 'Snooks' La Vie/'Brother T' Tulsi originals sit very comfortable alongside Lieber and Stoller and Steve Cropper/Wilson Pickett covers. Real music by genuine musos signed locally to a major label. Faith is restored.

REVIEW: THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - The Sunday Telegraph - 12 November 2006 - Sydney

A local act, The Hiptones describe making this album as "a gas" which gives you a fair idea of where they're at. Their stock-in-trade is smooth-edged toe-tapping R&B soul and blues, fleshed out with plenty of hammond organ.

INTERVIEW: THE HIPTONES REAL MUSIC... RIGHT NOW! - Australian Musician - Nov/Dec 2006 on-line issue

In the surprise signing of the year, Adelaide four piece roots and groove outfit The Hiptones were inked to Sony/BMG. Surprising because not one of the guys is under thirty years old, they don't have an affiliation with aTV talent show and ... with all due respect... they don't have pin up boy looks. All of which narrows the signing down to one thing .. THE MUSIC! The Hiptones wear their influences proudly on their sleeves.. Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Booker T and the MGs. This band is the real deal, gig-seasoned musicians doing what they love. Australian Musician's Greg Phillips recently caught up with vocalist and harmonica player 'Snooks' La Vie and Hammond organ meister Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi to chat about the signing and .. of course.. the music!

How did a band playing your style of music end up on a major label like Sony/BMG?

Narmon: We got very lucky. Snooks and I loved the music and wanted to make music our lives. We knew writing was where it was at. We've each been doing this now for decades. We decided to get on the writing trail. We were lucky enough to win an Arts SA grant. We'd only done one EP previously which was a bit of a suck it and see thing, and that sold really well locally. When we won the grant we decided to go to Joe Camilleri's Woodstock studios in Melbourne because that was a studio empathetic with our sound and they had all the vintage equipment. We were lucky to get James Black to produce cold cal. We ended up meeting him, got on well, and he was very supportive. We were on a pretty strict budget and through a range of circumstances we only had three days in the studio. We mixed it in one day. Then I went to see a friend of mine at Sony/BMG basically to get a vibe about marketing. I was running cover art ideas by him as a friend. Meanwhile this guy at Sony/BMG was playing the album in the office and everyone that heard it kept asking who it was. Then Dennis Handlin (Sony/BMG boss) heard it and wanted to go with it. But we were actually signed without any of the big wigs actually seeing the band live. I don't think that has happened before.

Do you think that public taste is moving back to more organic sounds?

Snooks: I think so. Roots music has always been timeless but I think with The Black Keys and Gnarls Barkley etc, it's making a resurgence.

How would you describe the audience you are getting to your shows now?

Snooks: It's a real mixed bag. It's great. A lot of early teens coming to the shows up to forties and over.

Narmon: I remember a recent gig in Adelaide where Snooks was a bit trashed at about four in the morning. We went outside and we were walking out near the cab rank and Snooks starts doing Al Green and within minutes there were about ten girls come over just swooning over the voice. It's amazing how many young kids know Al Green. It's making its way back through samples too.

Every year we lose another blues or soul legend. There aren't too many left. In fact there are two songs on your album, one dedicated to Jimmy Smith and another to Wilson Pickett. Do you see yourselves as crusaders of roots music as well as being entertainers?

Snooks: I guess so, but really we're just doing our own thing. It's all about the music to us.

Narmon: The style of music we play... everyone in the band loves it. But it also is a nod to those people. And the good thing is if you want to listen to The Hiptones and maybe listen to what we listen to, then it is a nod in that direction and the good thing is that those old cats will get royalties.

Snooks: It's not necessarily a crusade but the music those guys play is so good it will never go away. They'll be cats out there who have never heard of Wilson Pickett and if they hear us play his stuff, they might go out and buy a best-of or something and that's great.

Have either of you spent time chasing your musical roots? Have you been to New Orleans or Memphis?

Narmon: One of the things that I have always put off is the travel because I've always been playing in bands and couldn't afford one or two months away. I think with this band there's the opportunity now to do that in a way that will be spectacular.

Narmon, is it an authentic Hammond with Leslie speakers that you use?

Narmon: Yes it's an X5, and a 1962 Leslie. The X5 actually stuffed up on me at the show on Saturday night in Melbourne. I got to Melbourne to do Chris Isaak and didn't have a Hammond but James Black came to the rescue and came up with something. It's the first time I've experimented with something else. I am looking at what to get as a replacement rig. I've had this X5 since 1977.

So you must have a bad back then?

Narmon: Yes, I try to keep it in shape with exercise, just to keep it in check (laughs).

What's the worst thing that has happened with the Hammond?

Narmon: I've been really lucky actually. It did stuff up just before the recording of the album in Melbourne. It was 42 degrees. I had a gig on the Saturday and Sunday. My tech came around and couldn't fix it. I had to get another Hammond at the eleventh hour. I was lucky it happened in practice and not at the show. But the worst was probably just last weekend. To get that just before our first international support was a bit testing. But we got through it and it was another notch on the belt, but we'll see what tomorrow brings. Its the price you pay for playing funky equipment.

Snooks, are you a chromatic or diatonic harmonica man?

Snooks: I like them both. they are both totally different to play.

Narmon: He's an awesome player. A lot of people miss that because he has such a great voice.

I know you only had 3 days to record, but did you play around much with microphone placement?

Snooks: Yeh we did. The guys in that studio pretty much know the sweet spots. I used Joe Camilleri's old RCA, an old ribbon mike. Robin May and James Black have recorded there a lot.

Narmon: And they knew our sound too. That's why we went there. We wanted people we could trust. I mean we had an opinion but at the end of the day James made the call.

What about the brass parts on the album, will you take some brass players out on the road with you?

Narmon: We will for a more extended tour in February or March. We did a show at the Spiegeltent in Adelaide and we had a couple of brass players come in and it was great. It's more of a budget thing.

Snooks: As a four piece we keep it really a simple. People say we have so much time between notes. We pride ourselves on that. It's a feel and emotion thing.

What bands have you been in previously?

Narmon: They are all Adelaide bands. I was in a New Orleans band called Gumbo Ya Ya, bit of an Adelaide icon doing a lot festivals and I played bass in that band.

Snooks: The Delivery Men was the first R&B band which opened the door for me and I've been doing The Hiptones for the last six years. I have just done a side project with a guy called Jessie Dean Freeman, with him on National guitar and me on harmonica, and also a power soul garagey thing I do with Brian Morrison called Los Ramado Groove.

What's the grand plan now?

Narmon: Snooks and I have been writing for the next album. We have a lot of tunes written already. We'll watch the roll out of this album. Look at international opportunities. Make good music and keep doin' it and gettin' it out there, but really we're feelin pretty good at the moment.

Australian Musician, November/December 2006 - Greg Phillips

REVIEW: The Hiptones - Live @ The Rainbow Hotel - Melbourne, 9 November 2006

The Hiptones are an interesting group. Consisting of Snooks La Vie (vocals, harmonica), Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi (hammond organ, piano, bass, harmony vocals), Steve Smith (guitar) and Miguel Garcia (drums, harmony vocals), they combine to make quite a sound. At least they did at The Rainbow the other evening.

What a show. For a bunch that hails from Adelaide, their background is firmly concreted in roots music and they've nailed their colours to the mast where they count. Their attire is funky and retro-styled and their ability to play alive and kicking music is outstanding.

The Hiptones had the crowd in and out ofpaces - the soul and funk numbers lit the venue on fire; ballads interspersed between slowed things down a notch, only to spring the crowd back into action with tracks like Houndog which had the audience erupting in delight; there was certainly danger of waking the neighbours.

A comment was overheard that they "sound a lot like the Black Sorrows", but that is to understate the quality of their sound and the ability of the lead singer, for it's La Vie's soulful voice which works wonders for the band, his soaring vocals holding everything together.

Influenced by New Orleans, but also liking Ross Hannaford and Ross Wilson, Joe Camilleri and the Dynamic Hepnotics and the Mighty Reapers, this band can really swing. And rock. And roll.

Can you get a better vocal than La Vie? - probably not. He is sensational. The audience loved him all night long, and they loved the rest of the band too. That hammond organ played by Brother T took me back to the Blues Brothers - Ray Charles lives again!

Songs which stood out include the aforementioned Houndog (a ripper of a version emulating Hannaford and Wilson on Ross Wilson's CD Go Bongo Go Wild). Other good numbers included Crescent Moon and Devil's Got A Hold On Me.

All in all it was a great show from The Hiptones.

Melbourne PBS Radio Announcer - online review - November 9 2006

INTERVIEW: The Hiptones - Beat Magazine - Melbourne

Every now and then, there comes a success story that makes you rethink your cynical attitude toward the music industry; a glimmer of hope that, amidst the manufactured pop and imported hits, some hard-working local musicians really can score a ticket into the big game on the basis of their talent alone. Adelaide soul-rockers The Hiptones aren't exactly teen pin-up material, most of them being 20 year veterans of the business.

What they are is simply a group with the ability to get an audience on their feet and keep them there, thanks to some well refined R&B chops and an inimitable sense of groove. According to these cats, you don't have to stray too far from their home town to earn your stripes as a live act.

"Coming from a place like Adelaide, which is one of the smaller cities, you have to be able to grab a piece of everybody's action in order to pack a room out" keyboardist/bassist Narmon "Brother T' Tulsi says. "We've worked some really, really difficult rooms, and we've come up with a formula that draws people in, gets them into the zone. One of the comments that keeps coming through is the diversity of grooves that we have. You know, it's all very focussed, but it's quite diverse, and we work hard at that. Really what we want to be able to do when people come to see a Hiptones gig is to hit that sweet spot with them, take them somewhere they want to go. Even having five people in the room doesn't bother us. We'll just say 'Well, we want these give people sweaty by the end of the night.'"

For The Hiptones, their love of the classic isn't restricted to music, but extends to their 'funky retro' attire and even their mode of transportation. But according to vocalist Snooks La Vie, this is not ant attempt to cultivate a gimmick, but simply a part of who The Hiptones are.

"It's not a pretentious thing at all", he says. "It's how we walk the walk. It's part of my lifestyle; i love playing around with old cars, and i have a '62 Thunderbird..."

"And we're hoping the record takes off so he doesn't have to sell it", Narmon ribs. "Look, there's people who have told us 'Man, you're dressing like a rock-star!' but for Snooks and I, that's been happening for years!".

Image, however, had nothing to do with how The Hiptones managed to get their self-funded debut full-length recording Right Now into the catalogues of Sony/BMG.

"We were just looking for some advice about marketing when Sony/BMG got hold of the album through a connection of ours", Narmon relates. "They started playing it in their offices in Sydney, and they loved it. And every time somebody else heard it, they loved it too. And so on and so forth".

"There was only one person at Sony/BMG who had seen us," Snooks explains, "and that's not the person who's responsible for signing. So essentially, we were signed sight unseen, on the strength of our songs. We'll have to do a showcase for Sony/BMG because we've had absolutely outstanding support from them, and they're dying to see us!".

This unfolding of events is only made all the more remarkable by the fact that, thanks to their tight live synergy, Right Now was recorded and mixed (In Joe Camilleri's Woodstock Studios) in a matter of only four days.

"Because we honed our skills within the roots styling, we can go into the studio and just put it down, straight away," Snooks says. "We're confident that we can go in and record a song in 15 minutes."

"It was also the money," Narmon admits. "We had a certain amount of money, which we used to book the studio for three days. So it was a combination of between circumstance and the fact that we could do it. It wasn't until we started to listening back to it and getting feedback that we had any idea what else was possible. What's happened with this album has been extraordinary, even for us."

Let it be made clear that The Hiptones don't just splash around in the 'party music' end of the pool; one song off Right Now called I Saw The Light, is a feeling piece that Narmon wrote after his dad passed away. Observing the simple, heartfelt power of such a song, I suggest to the guys that perhaps the emo generation could afford to take a fresh look at soul music if they want something with an emotional punch.

"Absolutely," Narmon agrees. "In fact, some kids are getting into the soul thing. You know, you're getting the trance-blues thing, which started with R.L. Burnside. And it's happening with The Blues Lounge... even with Justin Timberlake doing Sexy Back, he's got that reference 'take it to the bridge' etc. So there is that sound out there."

"One of the things that we're really amazed about is the breadth of support for this album," Narmon continues. "The sound engineer we had last night said that his six year old son, who gets to hear a lot of music, is right into this album. We've heard that from other people - that their kids like this music, and bop around to it. And at the other end of the spectrum, we hear that the parents of the Sony/BMG execs are into it too!"

"We did this spot for Chris Isaak last night," Snooks relates. "I was talking to Chris and Kenny the drummer after the gig. They just came up straight away and said 'I haven't heard R&B played like that for a long time. It's a great sound, a real breath of fresh air to hear those sounds with a modern kind of feel to it.'"

With the momentum they have already gathered, The Hiptones naturally plan to have a crack at overseas markets in the near future. And this has the potential to give rise to an interesting situation that only a select few Australian bands have ever had to contend with. That is, how does a 'foreign' face the prospect of playing in the cities - in The Hiptones case, places like Memphis, Chicago or New Orleans - where the styles they draw from were born?

"I'd look forward to that day," Snooks enthuses. "I guess that's because we're doing it our own way. We definitely pay a lot of attention to detail in terms of the roots styling, and we're really fussy about that. But i think that going to America and doing it would be great, because we'd be giving them an Australia kind of feel and emotion for their own kind of music."

"We're looking at the strategy for next year, and overseas is definitely on the cards," Narmon says. "There's a couple of really cool festivals to go to. We should have a look a the UK because i think there's one of the remixes playing in their clubs now. People from the UK have come up to us and said, 'Mate, this band would kill it in London. You've got to get over there.' And there are some opportunities in America that we'll be looking at too. It will probably be just the festival circuit to start with, but you've got to have your dreams..."

Jesse Shrock - Beat Magazine - 8 November 2006

REVIEW: THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - The Sunday Morning Herald - Melbourne

Hipnotes? Hiptones? Damned if i can remember this band's name from one day to the next.

The music, happily, leaves a far deeper impression. This Adelaide band consists of four ardent fans of the sort of southern Americal soul that surged from the Stax label in the '60s and '70s, with a lineral dose of Robert Cray and a touch of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Produced by James Black of the Black Sorrows, the album oozes class, delivering music that neither disguises its influence, nor slavishly replicates it. There are just three covers - Hound Dog, the Cropper/Floyd/Pickett Ninety-Nine & a Half (Won't Do) and Willie Mitchell's Driving Beat - leaving the rest of the album's compositions safely in the bands of smooth singer Snooks la Vie and keyboardist/bassist Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi. What a team.

The sultry Right Now and the swinging Something's Gotta Give are standout tracks - and unline the band's name, unforgettable.

Graeme Hammond - The Sunday Morning Herald - 5 November 2006

REVIEW: THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - The Advertiser - Adelaide

What polish, what shine, what class; all from a band whose name truly epitomises its sound. The Hiptones goes off like a $100 firecracker, with Hammond keys beaming like reverberations from the Ultra Lounge movement on No-Doz.

With jump rhythms tighter than Mick Jagger's pants and a brilliant package of big-dollar production, this global debut will snare groove purists and dance-floor newbies.

It's all funkified beats, vocal interplay and slabs of Motown retrospection (Hound Dog). Vocalist Snooks La Vie and band kick out the jams on soul music ripe for laying back (Right Now) or busting out (That Driving Beat). WARNING: Hip tones can cause hip replacements.

Mike Gribble - The Advertiser, Thursday 2 November 2006

REVIEW: CD OF THE WEEK - THE HIPTONES: RIGHT NOW - RIP IT UP Magazine - Adelaide

Local combo The Hiptones (featuring charismatic Snooks La Vie) are all set to release their debut album. Right Now, which was produced by James Black (of The Black Sorrows). The thirteen song album has also been picked up by Sony/BMG and its lead song, I've Been Loving You Too Long, was recently used by Channel 7 to promote US television comedy series, How I Met Your Mother. The album is a soulful R&B delight from go to whoa and includes a great rendition of Hound Dog (which Snooks sang while using his mouth harp microphone) as well as a couple of instrumentals, notably the jumpin' jump blues of Jumpin' With Jimmy, and a sway of great originals. Right Now will be in all good record emporiums by week's end.

Robert Dunstan, RIU, October 26

ARTICLE: SO HIP RIGHT NOW - The Sydney Daily Telegraph - Sydney

"Proving they are not just trying to boost Nine's ratings with their new artist/reality series project Girlband, SonyBMG talent scouts have also unearthed some stellar musical talent in the Hiptones. While major record labels wouldn't usually be caught dead signing a bunch of blokes who are over 30, the very cool and groovy cats in this Adelaide band have boosted our hopes that good music will win out.

Their infectious blend of blues, soul and funk has been delightfully distilled by producer James Black on the album Right Now. SonyBMG is believed to be inking the deal with the Hiptones this week."

Kathy McCabe - Sydney Daily Telegraph, 7 July 2006

INTERVIEW: The Hiptones - dB Magazine - Adelaide

Narmon Tulsi is an ebullient chap. To be fair, he's got good reason to be: for one thing, The Hiptones - the firey soul/blues band for which he plays Hammond - have just finished work on their debut album, which is set for release toward the middle of the year. For another, they have the not-inconsiderable honour of playing at the Famous Spiegeltent on the final night of the Fringe. And if that wasn't enough, they've also decided to mark the occasion by filming the show for a future DVD release.

"It's great," he enthuses. "We got a pretty good rap after doing a show at the Regal Tent [at the Fringe] two years ago: we played pretty early in the Fringe and pulled a lot of people in - but the Regal Tent's just a tent while the Spiegeltent is a beautiful structure.

"We were thinking about releasing [the CD] at the show, but then we thought 'no, we won't do that, because people will have run out of money by then,'" he smiles.

"And we'd always been thinking of filming at the Spiegeltent anyway because it's a venue that has international appeal: and 'The Hiptones Live At The Spiegeltent' kinda has a nice ring about it. And just in terms of credibility, the Spiegeltent goes to Melbourne and it goes overseas. And now because we're going to release the CD later, there's a good chance that we'll include some or all of that DVD as part of the package. Just having something of broadcast quality, shot with multiple cameras; it's just something you have to have these days, especially for the kind of thing that we do. It'll look wonderful too - I mean, you've been in there. It's a beautiful venue, 6.30 in the evening, sunset streaming through the leadlight windows: it should be nice."

Certainly, the Hiptones' considerable reputation has been built up through their live shows, but Tulsi thinks that their new recording proves that the band can cut it in the studio as well.

"I mean, live is a particular forte of what we do, but having done this album, [the quality of the band in the studio] was really pleasantly surprising. We recorded at Woodstock Studios in Melbourne, which is Joe Camilleri's studio, and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience: ten days, nine nights, five guys, one motel room, three gigs, four days in the studio, thirteen tracks, three radio interviews, one live to air and a photo shoot.

"And it was 40 degrees the entire time we were there, and the air conditioning wasn't great in this funky little motel in St Kilda. It was a tremendously bonding experience, as you can imagine. We've come back different people. Now we all have little pet names for each other."

The speed of the recording was a testament to the band's musical chops. "We recorded very quickly, mainly because Snooks [La Vie, vocals/harmonica] did everything in one pass: the guide vocal was the vocal," Tulsi explains, shaking his head.

"He really is quite extraordinary. But [with the DVD] we were thinking that lots of people can do it in the studio but not everybody can do it live, so this is a great way to show what it is we can do. And having a base in Adelaide we understand that a DVD can travel much farther than we can. We really have our eye on some of the larger festivals, so this will certainly help.

"We've got a game plan: we're thinking of the release in June/July, tour to Melbourne and possibly Sydney, there's stuff happening. Although having said that, at the moment the promise is good, there's a lot of activity, but at the end of the day it's about sales of the CD. But there's a lot of really healthy and credible interest around that so far."

For now, though, there's the Spiegeltent show to concentrate on - and Tulsi has high hopes for its success. "It's the last night of the Fringe, so there's that momentum, and it's at 6.30pm so people can get home to watch the evening movie, so that works well for us. We can party hard afterwards and deal with Monday when it comes." He pauses. "I've just got to make sure that my Hammond works on the night. You get that with the Hammond: it's a very esoteric little number."

Andrew P Street - dB, 15 March 2006