We Grow Up

Far and above one of my favourite Adelaide bands, We Grow Up centre around the core creative duo of songwriters Anthony Golding and Jonathan Mortimer. Their songs flit between fuzzy childhood reminisces, ruminations on religion and adulthood and the occasional dark stalker ditty.

Musically, it’s a mix of twee acoustic guitars, keys and brushed drum textures akin to an antipodean Belle & Sebastian. Central to the band's sound is main singer Mortimer, whose expressive, Darren Hanlon meets Greg from the Wiggles voice attracted their early success via Missy Higgins and Triple J Unearthed.

Their 2008 album Night Kitchen remains an enduring favourite, with flawless pop tunes like "Celia", "Wrote it All Down In My Diary" and the creaky, ominous waltz of "Fingernails". They recently downsized to three members, and are currently recording their third album, tentatively titled Kids In Love.

We Grow Up - Celia
We Grow Up - Fingernails

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The Shiny Brights

A few years ago a friend played me a sad little folk rock tune made by a few schoolmates of his, in a band called Room One. I kept tabs on their myspace as their sound slowly evolved, plugged in, flirted with Coldplay-like choruses then thankfully became a lot hipper. Then in 2008, they suddenly disappeared, then re-emerged with a new name and sound that was all twitchy indie rock guitars and tight jeans.

Zip forwards 8 months and The Shiny Brights were the "next big Adelaide things", launching their very listenable debut EP to a sold-out Governor Hindmarsh, playing showcases in New York and winning an Adelaide Big Day Out slot through Unearthed.

Now they've played The Great Escape Festival in the UK, and are readying the release of their second EP Too Many Chiefs, starting with the odd, 'Hard Day's Night'-esque tomfoolery of the video for 'Man In The Manic'.

New Mapletons

I mentioned these guys a while ago, and they've just unleashed a new single Gunpowder, which is quite a step from their earlier stuff, and well worth a listen. The darkness of that permeated early tunes like Plastic People has all but vanished, making way for some sparkly glockenspiel, upbeat drums and buoyant, bellowing vocal harmonies.

This single is a taste of an upcoming EP, and possibly an album over the next year.

Mapletons - Gunpowder

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The Middle East - Interview

I thought I had best register kudos for this enigmatic Townsville band before they get bigger than Devendra locally and beyond our shores. Their first mini-LP/EP showcases an intoxicating mix of nimble fingerpicked folk and more expansive, Sigur-Ros-esque soundscapes and atmospheres. And what's not to like about a moody neo-folk band who drop references to "Barad-Dur" and "Sim City" with straight faces?

In keeping with the bafflingly scant supply of information about them (see the painfully undescriptive myspace), someone in the band was kind enough to engage in this intriguingly vague e-interview.

You guys hail from Townsville, what kind of music ‘scene’ do you have there?

There's a few bands. Lots of different stuff and everyone is friends, regardless of genre.

Last time I checked you had a 6 piece lineup, how collaborative is the songwriting process with so many members?

Not very collaborative. There are some key songwriters.

Who are some of your favourite Australian bands at the moment?

Augie March. Grand Salvo is a new fav.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? Tours? Overseas? Recording?

Some recording, some more touring. The usual stuff I suppose.

What cds are currently on high rotation with the band?

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Grand Salvo
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

The Recordings of the Middle East EP is out now in Australia through Spunk.

The Middle East - Blood

Spoz's Rant

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Liam Finn + Eliza Jane

The son of Neil, Liam put out his first solo album I'll Be Lightning in 2007 and has toured pretty much non-stop since, earning praise for his unique live shows featuring the man doing his best to recreate the lush instrumentation of his record with just a guitar, loop/octave pedal and drum kit.

I saw him supporting Ben Folds in Adelaide in 2005 as a last minute acoustic fill-in. His performance was often punctuated with random excursions of fiddling and meandering with his new toy, a loop pedal. It was neat to see then, that a few years later that off-the-cuff experimentation has come to define his solo career.

More recently his live shows have been assisted by one of Jimmy Barnes' many daughters Eliza Jane, with whom he collaborates on the EP Champagne in Seashells, the first taste of Liam's 2nd album, in September. It features the single "Long Way To Go", a continution of the crunchier, poppier colours of the Finn rainbow.

Liam Finn - Fire In Your Belly

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Leader Cheetah - Interview

Like many, I was a little shocked when after their excellent 2nd EP Medicines, Adelaide's Pharaohs decided to part ways. Any initial grief quickly dissipated upon first listen to the fruits of the newly formed Leader Cheetah. In place of the frenetic, spacey post-punk and double time beats sat a laid back, country-rock inspired four piece, embracing melody, backing vocal harmonies and many a tuneful guitar break.

Two years later, they released The Sunspot Letters to near-ubiquitous Triple J airplay and critical acclaim. It's reverby vocals and lush instrumentation blended some charming Americana influences with a rough, uniquely Australian sound. Definitely one of my favourite albums so far this year.

Singer/guitarist Dan Crannitch consented to answer a few questions over email:

Compared to the output of Pharaohs, there’s a much greater emphasis on song craft and melody with Leader Cheetah. What is the writing process like in the band?

Well, for the majority of 'The Sunspot Letters' I would come up with a basically completed melody and a loose arrangement for each song. The band would then work their magic on fleshing out the arrangements, adding harmonies and basically putting they're collective stamp on it.

With a lot of our newer (unrecorded) stuff, my brother Joel’s come up with the initial embryo for the songs then I’ve gone to work on the melody and chorus/bridges etc. It's pretty exciting and there seems to be a lot of material coming to the fore.

It must feel great getting such a warm reception with JJJ and audiences after making what must have seemed quite a jarring stylistic U-turn for much of your previous bands audiences. How does the experience with this band compare to your past ones?

This feels right with me. This band was always something I wanted to do as a career band. A long term thing, and I think we've got enough creative energy and love for each other to be able to create a large body of work... well, if the winds of good fortune stay on our side anyway.

The record’s strikes a great balance between the current wave of folk-rock revival and the muscle and swagger of 90’s indie rock. It seems a winning combination; have you found much of an overseas interest and audience for the band?

Not as yet, there has been a bit of interest but we've only just really started the overseas mail out etc. So fingers crossed the right set of ears hear it!!

I noticed you are currently readying the album for a vinyl release, are you all vinyl lovers?

We all love vinyl. Our manager Ross as well as Dan Pash and Joel are by far the group’s serious collectors.

I came across an interview where you mentioned a lot of the next record was already written; how does the new material progress from the first album?

I think it's probably even more melody based. A little more focused and direct maybe?

Certainly a lot of the songs seem more around the 3 minute mark and are pretty hooky. It wasn't really a conscious thing at all though –more so a case of just letting the songs come and refining them down to what they really need to have the maximum impact.

Finally, what albums are currently on high rotation for the band?

Well for me it'd be:

'Through the Morning Through the Night’ by Dillard and Clark
'Invitation Songs’ by the Cave Singers
‘Love and Other Crimes’ by Lee Hazlewood
‘Motion to Rejoin’ by Brightblack Morning Light
‘The Rise and Fall of Goodtown’ by Wagons

The Sunspot Letters is out now through Spunk. The two Daniels of the band played an acoustic set live on The Range in '08 that is too rad for me to keep to myself.

Leader Cheetah - Bloodlines (live on Radio Adelaide)
Leader Cheetah - Twilight's Gone (live on Radio Adelaide)
the whole set and and interview can be found here.

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Knits & Pieces

Instead of my usual spiel on a single band I thought I would post a little mixed bag of things I have been enjoying as of late...

Yves Klein Blue are certain to go gangbusters this year with their shiny LA-recorded album Ragged & Ecstatic looking to build on the promise of last year's EP, which grafted a nice exotic flavour to Strokes and Libertines influences. Now, they are poppy as flip.

Make Up Your Mind

Goodnight Owl fall close to the more folktronic side of Whitley, or perhaps Josh Pyke fronting the Postal Service. Their tune Maps & Compasses has been racking up the play count on my side of the woods over the past few months.

Maps & Compasses

Here We Go Magic; I might be six months late to the party with these guys, but this new project by Luke Temple has recieved a lot of acclaim, adding weight to the ancient proverb:

"When in doubt as a solo artist, think up a cool sounding, grammatically questionable band name under which to peddle your wares and success will be yours."

Only Pieces