Our Husband

Our Husband is a recent collaboration between Freya Adele of Bing Goes To Monaco and Nathaniel Morse, the new second guitarist in Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! Since I totally forgot about their first show at the Exeter last night, I've been listening to their only available recording this morning, a subtle, understated duet with just vocals and clean, reverby guitar.

Perhaps a lazy comparison, but they have that same sparse guitar and duel vocal interplay (and focus on simple but charming songwriting) as fellow FSRF offshoot duo, Kittyhawk.

And even though he only sings a few lines, Nathaniel's rich voice is quite impressive, along with his Daniel Rossen influenced guitar playing.

Our Husband - Dear

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Cheer Advisory Council

Ben Revi is a lot of things. He has been a streetpress writer (to the extent that I only just realised that much of my early introductions to many a local band came from dB articles written by none other than he), a beardly scholar* and one half of Humble Bee, whose simple yet charming debut album continues to impress me in its own little way. He is also the butt of what might be Spoz Spozington's favourite joke ever.

While in Humble Bee he sets the lyrics of partner in crime Carly Whitaker to modest, nimbly fingerpicked guitar and keyboard arrangements, his other vehicle Cheer Advisory Council flexes his full creative muscles, bookish lyrics, battily grandiose arrangements and all. Despite maintaining a near-identical lineup to his other band, the Council is quite a different beast altogether, with the seven (rough estimate) piece band conveying a very different kind of intimacy and honesty, with a sound that is at times smoky and atmospheric (Switching Sides) and at others bombastically hymnlike (Accomodating).

The band have recently put out its first release, a double A-side single available at Big Star records, and other places, I'm sure. The parent album is also rumoured to be due sometime in 2010.

Cheer Advisory Council - Switching Sides

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*I need to stop reading Dazzling Horse

Pharaohs

File under "dead but still entertaining". Pharaohs were, I think, my first real exposure to Adelaide music other than The Borderers (yeah!) when I saw them supporting The Pictures at the height of my adolescent "retro-rock" phase. Damn Jet.

With their debut single "Keelhaul", the band combined a simple yet damn catchy fuzz bass line with frenetic drumming, buzz-saw guitar, yelpy vocals and a nonsensical falsetto chorus that kind of sounded like Super Mario's voice.

It was their second EP, 2006's Medicines that really did it however, when the music became both denser and more chaotic in some places, and blissfully clear and and decompressed in others. With singer-guitarist Dan Crannitch taking co-production duties, it layered crunchy, angular guitar lines over filtered vocals that began to dispense the chanting, percussive hollerings of their earlier work and shuffle closer to *gasp* melodies!

Then unfortunately, they broke up, and I was a little horrified. But, in a preposterously amazing twist of fate, they announced a new band featuring 66.66% of Pharaohs, with a new sound that sat closer to alt-country than post-punk. Whiskey tango foxtrot! They then released perhaps my favourite record of this year. So, a good outcome in the end.

Pharaohs - Splinter

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Radio Spectacular!!!

Despite being kind of on my radar of acts to surreptiously myspace stalk every couple of months, I only really gave Radio Spectacular!!! a hearty listen when I finally met them both and nabbed a copy of their amusingly titled EP, The Robot Ate My Crayon, complete with hand-coloured crayon sleeve, the intricate folding of which made me incredibly jealous of their deft fingers and paper ingenuity.

The pair, who also write two very nice blogs (Phebe's arty Lightning Heart and Harry's amazingly noble and splendiferous tome Dazzling Horse) make dorky, synthy pop that nonetheless exudes a feeling of utmost "cool". Comparisons can be drawn to latter-day Architecture In Helsinki, with the quirky percussion, electro flourishes and the whimsical male-female vocal interplay, but they have a spark and a penchant for driving synthlines that is their own.

In 'You Light Me Up', which might ring a bell from the tantalising snippet that soundtracked a recent Canon ad, the band pull out the kind of nonsense "eh-eh-oh" hook that would be catchy yet infuriating in the hands of say, Rihanna, but when rendered with such unabashed dorky abandon, it becomes utterly charming and infectious. And for some reason I just love Harry's so naff, but somehow, incredibly cool line "We're like partners in crime, always dancing to the beat".

They are out of action in the live sense, since Harry apparently broke his wrist whilst stage diving at an empty Rocket Bar, but in the mean time their EP can tide you over, as well as the majestic musings on "resplendent beards" and "pegataurs" in Dazzling Horse.

Radio Spectacular!!! - You Light Me Up

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The Ocean Party

When I caught Oh Mercy last week I was also introduced to another Melbourne outfit with a penchant for easygoing country-strummed chords, harmonica and naive lyrics of neurotic lust and sitting around. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they had a lot in common with the headline act, sounding much like a younger, slightly less polished set of Privileged Woes outtakes. I mean, right down to the skinny jeans and op shop shirts with the sleeves rolled up way past the elbow.

But, on closer inspection and a bit of myspace stalking, they dohave some nice songwriting and raggedy chicken-picked riffs with an added Vasco Era twang to those breathy, Dan Kelly-esque vocals. Though not setting the world on fire (as if they are expected to), these fellows certainly boast a handful of potential with their first EP.

I shall keep thee posted.

The Ocean Party - St. Kilda Beach

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Steering By Stars

In the three weeks and two gigs (and one solo performance) since I first heard this Adelaide four-piece (featuring past and present members of Aviator Lane, Lumonics and Zeta) I've found myself transfixed by their hypnotic swirls of guitar, atmospheric drums and indecipherably reverby vocals, like Ed Droste awash in a layer of echo and fuzz.

The tunes from their debut album Cables might sound meticulously layered and honed in the studio, they are actually a pretty accurate documentation of their live performances (which are by the way, mesmerisingly formidable) recorded in just 3 days at Broadcast.

The band are currently unsigned, but if I had my way, they'd get signed to Spunk!, tour with the Middle East and Leader Cheetah and be "forkast" before the year is out.

Steering By Stars - Closer

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Music In Adelaide (video)

For Uni this semester I had to make a short 3 minute film about whatever I wanted. So, since I like the Adelaide "scene" ever so, and always enjoy talking to people in bands I thought I'd film a few people doing just that.

So here is my film-making debut, the insanely creatively titled "Music In Adelaide". Excuse the dubious audio and lighting quality throughout.

It features...

Rory O'Connor (Steering By Stars)
Jon Mortimer, Anthony Golding & Tom Mackay (We Grow Up)
Anny Duff (Bing Goes to Monaco)
Luke Eygenraam (The Waterslides/Antony of the Future)
Ben Revi (Humble Bee/Cheer Advisory Council)