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Featuring half of the amazing (yet sadly deceased) Poly&theStatics, I fully expected this band to be largely a distillation of their old outfit's Belle & Sebastian-y pop moments. While those influences are still present, thankfully The Honey Pies have an intriguing schtick all of their own, and seem a little better executed and more cohesive than Poly ever was. Somewhere between the sunny, spiky riffage of early Arctic Monkeys and the technicolour pop of '65/66-era Beatles, the band are a head-shaking salute to the guitar pop bands of the 60's.
A mix of Ray Davies and Julian Casablancas punctuated by moments of lofty, falsetto-driven whimsy, singer Jon Marco's vocals and songwriting seem more self-assured (even more acrobatic) than before, which is lovely to hear again on record after a few years' absence.
The band have just put out a batch of pretty polished demos through their website, including "Sex Wax", a joyously frenetic surf-rock ode to the Apocalypse, and the freak-folk ditty "Sold My Soul".
The Honey Pies - Sex Wax
The Honey Pies - Sold My Soul
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Shamelessly reaffirming what was already said a few months ago, Bing Goes To Monaco are pretty sweet. Prior to last night I hadn't seen them for a few months, and in that time they've procured a permanent drummer in Tristan March, written a batch of new material and played some pretty big support slots (Bluejuice, John Steel Singers and... Peter Coombe's son's band).
It also seems Freya has gone electric (judas!) and I don't know, they seem to be enjoying themselves a lot more onstage which is nice to see. Oh, and their EP is quite swell too.
As a side note, Coopers' Alive over the last 2 weeks has delivered two of the funnest shows I've been to since No One Wants To Play With Me. Last night's featured an Aviator Lane set that toed a fine line between hushed instrospection and bawdy stand up comedy as Michael Radzevicius traded inebriated insults with some heckling frenemies.
Bing Goes To Monaco - Ice War
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So, shining beacons of Adelaide awesome Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! have put out another single to whet our appetites in the lead up their 2010 debut LP, Sea Priest. "Witch House" not only perpetuates the band's knack for evocative and cool sounding song titles, but sees them embrace their poppiest moment to date with stompy rhthyms and rubbery, melodic bass.
You have to admire their tenacity in making such stylistic jumps from single to single whilst still maintaining a coherent musical identity, sifting so many seemingly disparate influences through their golden synth and guitar filter. More so than its predecessors, "Witch House" really showcases the linchpin of the band's current incarnation, Caitlin Duff, whose nonchalant, liltling melodies and voice serve as a nice foil to the more abrasive aspects of their sound.If this slew of consistently impressive singles (as well as the equally mesmerising Animal Spirit Guide b-side "April/May") is any indication, their album might just see them replace Wolf & Cub at the top of Matt Hills' resumé.Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Witch Housemyspace
Tipping the dirty and swampier ends of the rock scale, Friends are the relatively new project of a bunch of Adelaide musicians including Josh Phillips of the now defunct Poly&TheStatics and Billy Bishop Goes To War. Sounding something like Nick Cave at his most raw and visceral, with sleazy basslines and a raucous duel guitar attack. On tracks like "Satellite" the band grind and punish the same riff and chord progression into a mess of garage, blues and anxiety as vocalists Philips and Ben Quici spit guttural, Adelaide-specific venom (see "Gang of 49") over the top.
These tracks are just live demos (which suits the music in a lot of ways), but since a lot of Adelaide bands at the moment seem to vanish after a couple of months without putting anything out (i.e. Billy Bishop Goes to War), I thought I'd mention them now just to be safe. Hopefully I'll run into them soon, it looks like their live show would be a lot of fun to watch.
Friends - Satellite
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The Hugs are a Portland four-piece who've sat on my radar for a few years now, thanks to a heads up from my mate Nick. It's been interesting seeing them go from a precociously talented pair of baby faced High School students with some irrepresibly sugary pop songs, to having their (now ex) guitarist steal guitars from You Am I (controversy!), to being heralded as "next big things" (largely on their own myspace). They got a hip British rock photographer as their manager in Roger Sargent and signed with 1965 records and Columbia in the UK, in a year that saw them being groomed as a raucous garage rock band in the vein of then label-mates The View.
They've parted ways with that record label now and are back in Portland doing what they do best, making catchy as, irreverent pop songs with their long-time producer Shay Scott and putting out records on their own. Their latest, Again & Again, sees a return to the whimsical, unabashedly happy pop of earlier tunes like "Shoe Swapping", but with an even greater early Beatles vibe in the weaving melodic guitar riffs and "Sha la la" choruses.
The Hugs - She Was High
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Before The Sea Thieves called themselves The Sea Thieves and made the pretty swell album Hiding In The Shade, Zac and Naomi (also the couple behind The Jade Monkey a.k.a. the nicest little venue in Adelaide) put out an EP called "Summer of the Red Wolf" under the name 'Eiderdown'.
With a similar sound to their current project (unsurprisingly), the EP retains the creaky lo-fi ethos but with a more experimental bent, with Avalanches-style retro dialogue samples, dusty sounding beats and layers of toy piano augmenting their more familiar Creak-Folk sound (see what I did there?).
It is, sadly, out of print, but a few tracks are available as iTunes bonus tracks with Hiding in the Shade. Well worth checking out. Also, Zac announced a few details of their new album here...
Eiderdown - The Shadow Of My Hand
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ps. toy piano photo by Spoz
I caught Sarah Blasko at the Norwood Town Hall as part of her tour for As Day Follows Night last night. Aside from her marathon set being pretty much flawless, another little revelation was her support act, Swedish singer Sarah Assbring, who plays under the pseudonym El Perro Del Mar (The Sea Dog, which seems to lose some of its romanticism in translation).Putting aside my dislike for backing tracks in live performances (pressing play on a laptop and singing along is less than endearing), her dreamy, thawing voice and hypnotic stage presence was intriguing. The fact that she looks like something out of À bout de souffle did not hurt either.
El Perro Del Mar - Gotta Get Smart
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