The Parlotones

In their native South Africa, there’s no rock band bigger than The Parlotones. The Johannesburg-bred quartet have headlined the 20,000-seater Coca Cola Dome in their hometown in 2009, performed at the World Cup Kickoff Concert to an audience of a billion in 2010, and were handpicked by Coldplay to open the British band’s stadium shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2011. Also last year, The Parlotones staged an original rock theater production, Dragonflies and Astronauts, which was broadcast live around the world in 3D via DIRECTV and in 2D on Facebook. (The 3D broadcast was so well received Stateside that the satellite provider scheduled 100 re-airings, while more than half of the worldwide viewership on Facebook hailed from the U.S.) Dragonflies and Astronauts wove a narrative through the band’s catalog, including 16 songs that were Top 40 hits in South Africa. The Parlotones toured the U.S. three times in 2011, which resulted in The Boston Herald declaring, “The Parlotones could become huge here. Killers huge, Muse huge, Coldplay huge.”

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The Parlotones will release their fourth studio album, Journey Through the Shadows, on May 8, 2012 via Sovereign Entertainment USA. The new album was recorded in Johannesburg and Cape Town during the final months of 2011 and includes 12 brand new tracks of their undeniable romantic and anthemic rock sound, while offering several surprises along the way. Following a massive touring year that trekked through America, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Austria, Switzerland, Japan and their home country, South Africa’s biggest rock band will get right back to the road in 2012 with a stop at SXSW in Austin before launching a 27-city tour of the U.S. kicking off on May 17 at the Roxy in Los Angeles. “America dictates trends around the world,” singer Kahn Morbee says. “If you’re big there, the rest of the world listens. It has a ripple effect. We would be very proud to achieve success in the U.S. because very few artists from our country have managed it. I think for a long time, South Africans have had an inferiority complex in terms of our place in the world and our relative insignificance compared to the super powers. It would be nice to have a success story, especially in a nation that needs uplifting, and instill folks back home that ‘can do’ belief.”