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do the understanding

  • ron blue tjgarvie It should be no surprise that Ron S Peno and The Superstitions have delivered their most fully realised album yet in “Do The Understanding”.

    With 12 years and three previous long players behind them, they’re a crack outfit of experienced Melbourne players, fronted by a vocalist who made an indelible mark with Died Pretty.

    Everyone has a COVID-19 story, and musicians are doing it harder than most.

    But Ron Peno’s own experience was preceded by a diagnosis of esophageal cancer, followed by chemo and radiotherapy, and then remission. A much-delayed Died Pretty national tour in April this year was sandwiched between lockdowns.

    “Do The Understanding” has a prolonged and disrupted gestation stretching back to its formative writing in 2018, but it’s a contender for best Australian album of the year.

    It’s a record full of drama and delicacy; a superb collection of songs underpinned by soulful playing and (arguably) the best vocals of Ron Peno’s career.

    “I really pleased with it. It's taken a while to surface but we're really pleased with the seven songs,” a dapper Peno says over a Saturday afternoon Zoom connection.

    “I think it's seven wonderful songs. Nice, strong, rather than putting too many tunes on there.

    “It's just an hour. It's seven songs. Nobody says you have to have 10 songs. It's a little journey…start here, you finish there, drift off into the distance, you know, and if it's  too short…play it again. Take the take the journey again.

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    Ron S. Peno and the Superstitions have a new video out to promote "The Strangest Feeling" from the magnificient album "Do The Understanding". After months of lockdown, they'll finally launch the record with three shows in hometown Melbourne:
     
    SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2022 Brunswick Ballroom
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2022 Macedon Railway Hotel
    SAT, MAR 12, 2022 MEMO Music Hall, St Kilda
  • barman 2022The Barman at an I-94 Editorial Board meeting with Our Man in Dimboola, Ron Brown (left).

    THE BARMAN’S BEST ALBUMS OF 2022

    Do The Understanding – Ron S Peno and The Superstitions (self released)
    Ron S Peno
    has equalled and maybe surpassed his output with Died Prettyafter a succession of excellent records with his champion Melbourne band. The man needs a muse and found an outstanding one in co-writer and guitarist Cam Butler.This is the Album of the Year.

    The rest in no particular order: