Dr. Ianto Ware

This isn't strictly speaking a music post, but I have been lacking Adelaide content for a few weeks, so what the hey. Amongst other things, Ianto Ware plays in No Through Road, South Australia's answer to The Strokes, maybe, if the Strokes were pushing 30, living in Adelaide and absolutely reluctant to grow up. They have received 'mad props' from across the Australian online music community, and some Triple J loving with their 2008 album Winner., taking out some key places in Mess+Noise polls and winning the affection of Rose Quartz.

Anyway, Ianto might be better known to some around Adelaide for his role in the Renew Adelaide movement and the Format Collective, an arty bunch who put on exhibitions and a small festival as well as curating the Format Zine Shop. It's currently squatting in the front room of Merge Magazine's offices off Hindley St. behind Irving Baby (but it's location is known to jump around a fair bit), and hosts a variety of dazzling zines and assorted wares, with titles like Plastic Knife (#1 and #2), Shy As Punched Pie and assorted interstate and international home-made publications.

Perhaps the zines I've enjoyed the most however, have been from the pen (or rather, the printer, scissors and glue) of Ianto Ware, with titles like W.W.T.D. (What Would Tintin Do) and notably his mammoth 30,000 word behemoth zine 21 Nights In July: The Physics and Metaphysics of Cycling, which has been since republished in a nice looking book form, which I'l admit makes it a little easier to digest. I bought it for a family member as an xmas gift, and have been quietly making my way through it, and despite the fact that I have close to no interest in bikes, his witty, self-deprecating writing style, genuine humour and oozing passion for the subject makes me want to dust off my old mountain-ish bike and roam the streets of Adelaide, cyclist style! (if not for the fact that he derides folks with comically inefficient, garish bikes like mine, meaning I would be just "someone who rides a bike", not a true "cyclist").

Here is the blurb:

'Laugh along as actual doctor and professional nerous bachelor Ianto Ware turns his powerful doctoral brain to the art of bicycling. Documenting the history and mechanics of the machine itself, alongside a detailed analysis of the 2008 Tour De France and an exhaustive literature review, this ground-breaking new publication draws from the high stakes fields of Cultural Studies, Gender Studies and related Humanities fields to unravel the fundamental truths about the human condition contained within cycling as a physical and metaphysical activity.'

It is a great read, if you're a cyclist, have a passing interest in bikes or not a cyclist but want to a) feel shamefully inadequate or b) become dangerously envious of those lycra-clad geniuses. It's out through Format Press, and can be bought from the Format Zine Shop. A bunch of other zines are also available as part of his "Westside Angst" series, that includes the aforementioned Tintin expository piece, tales about his band adventures and 21 Nights in its original, preposterously thick photocopied form.

Also, he contributed this article to Mess+Noise a while ago; it is both enlightening and achingly amusing.

And a youtube interview about Tintin.

No Through Road - Party To Survive

Margaret Helen King

I've posted about this band before, but this time I want to take a moment to gush about their old lineup, the three current members plus (now solo) singer, songwriter and Regina Spektor enthusiast Cathy Petocz.

In particular, their album Knows No Other Name is a thing of pure alchemy. The quirky harmonies and lyrics of their current incarnation were still there, but in a much grander form, augmented and expanded by Cathy's fourth part to their harmonies, keyboard talent and her (not insignificant) knack for songwriting.

I've been listening on and off to it for the past year and a half probably, and I always come back to it and get blown away once again by how modestly incredible it is. The coolest thing I find about the album is that although it has familiar parts, from catchy melodies, pristine guitar and key arrangements and glorious harmonies, they are delivered in such a unique way, with pop songs that stretch for up to 7 minutes (without being multi-part medleys) without ever losing their way or letting the ear drift.

It's the build, the release, the relentless beauty of it. Their voices all just gel so finely throughout, swapping lead vocal lines across songs with their four endearingly unique voices, before coming together to make a truly lush sound.

And I really like the album cover, just quietly.

Margaret Helen King - Passionate Protest Against Facade

Margaret Helen King - Windows

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Dragging Pianos

Dragging Pianos is the project of a fellow named Sam who is the room mate of the Middle East. I'm sorry if that's a little vague, but like his housemates, his 'web presence' is annoyingly scant on biographical details, or details at all. Anywho, Dragging Pianos is this guy's songwriting outlet which he enlists the help of members of the Middle East on recordings, and occasionally joins them on tour.

From his first EP The Food Chain, it's a blend of hushed acoustics, bedroom-recorded vocals and distant piano sounds that at times are a little formless but make for nice, unchallenging background music. The title track is the most promising of the bunch, featuring female vocals I will haphazardly attribute to Bree from the Middle East, and nice banjo and vocal melodies and scrappy, homespun percussion that is a little bit haunting and a little bit twee a the same time.

Dragging Pianos - The Food Chain #2

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Otouto

This Melbourne trio supported Micachu & The Shapes at the Curtin earlier this month, and although their brand of decompressed, sparse, vocal and drum driven pop literally put one of my (admittedly quite tired) friends to sleep, I found them to be quite interesting. With similar vocal harmonies to Adelaide's Bing Goes To Monaco but with greater emphasis on twitchy, slightly left of centre rhythms and instrumental textures.

Initially a solo project for singer and guitarist Hazel Brown, the band also includes her sister Martha Brown, who rounds out the perfect harmonies (both through singing and and sampling Hazel's voice through a keyboard, quite the nifty trick), and the intricate chops of drummer Kishore Ryan (who also plays in Seagull and Kid Sam).

Apparently Hazel Brown also makes a significant guest spot on 'Killer' from Whitley's new record Go Forth, Find Mammoth.

At first I thought their recordings were a little more slight than their live show, but after a few listens 'Sushi' has really quite impressed me.

Otouto - Sushi

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The Motifs

Thanks to Lightning Heart for turning me onto this band, the quirky little bedroom pop project of Melbourne's Alexis H. She is also joined by a band that includes two halves of my other favourite and (shamefully) recently discovered pop band as of late, The Crayon Fields.

In Melbourne earlier in the month I had to resist buying a copy of their album on vinyl in spite of the charms of it's home made, brown paper sleeve, so I've been contenting myself with tracks from their myspace and last.fm, which are all a breezy blend of cheap keyboards, simple beats and understated multitracked girl vocals in little one to two minute bursts. Oh, and some adorable little melodies that will woo the pants off you, I swear.

'Backwards' is especially brilliant, catchy and ingenious, if unbearably succinct. Actually, after weeks of being impossibly flummoxed by that great keyboard line coming to an abrupt, premature end, even its shortness has proved sweet rather than frustrating.

The Motifs - Backwards

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(New) Mapletons

Last year I did a few posts about a little Brisbane acoustic duo called Mapletons. They featured the vocal and keyboard talents of Kane Mazlin, also of Hungry Kids of Hungary, a connection I did not make until it was made explicitly clear as he left Mapleton-ville to focus on his other band. As a side-note, he now also plays in another acoustic folk duo called Spring Skier. Since his departure the band have pretty much reinvented themselves, with original member and guitarist Derek Orr joined officially by producer/bassist Carl Roosmale-cocq who played on the 2008 Canyon Falls EP, and a drummer named Mitch.

Aside from a vaguely re-recorded version of their last single with Kane ( the bellowy pop stomper 'Gunpowder'), 'Seaside' is their first release in earnest with their new line up and singer Anita Goldsworthy (cool surname), who brings a nice Megan Washington vibe to possibly their most sedate and soothing tune to date. It's the first taste from their debut (or third) EP Origami Army, showing their pun muscles to be in fine shape.

Mapletons - Seaside

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20th Century Graduates

Definitely one of the loveliest bands around Adelaide at the moment, the Graduates are the proud parents of a sound equal parts Belle & Sebastian and The Lucksmiths, with generous helpings of trumpet, glockenspiel, melodica and cute girl vocals. Perfectly laid back yet utterly infectious, they are led by the Naboo-esque stylings of singing drummer Jeremy Lake (also of like-minded Adelaide popsters The Keepsakes) whose drowsily crisp melodies and understated, buoyant vocals amidst a swirl of sunny instrumentation make for a distinctly Australian sound .

The band really excel in a live setting, led onstage by backing singer, tambourine and general focal point Larissa Perry, who sways along with a look of utter joy that makes it damn near impossible not to get swept along with them. They recently finished their debut EP Parking Inspectors Are People Too at Hillside Studios, previews of which can be found here, there and everywhere.

Oh, and they are also playing the Adelaide Big Day Out this year, which will surely do a lot to balance out the awfulness of Muse.

20th Century Graduates - Lucky You

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Grizzly Bear at The Corner

So I was a little shattered to find that The Middle East (the first of a two band combination I was impossibly psyched about) had pulled out to be replaced by Oh Mercy in duo form. I wonder what kind of tragedy must have befallen their 7 piece lineup so that not even a fraction could make an appearance in some kind of acoustic configuration. As much as I love Oh Mercy, to see them for the fourth time in less than a year without Eliza and Rohan was a tad underwhelming, although it did yield some new, Thom Savage-sung material such as a brand new untitled song that I will haphazardly label "Stay Please Stay".

From the opening chords of 'Southern Point', Grizzly Bear totally and utterly obliterated my (considerable) appreciation of their recorded work by delivering perhaps the most formidable and beautifully executed live shows I've seen. Between the four of them they delivered re-interpretations of Yellow House tunes with all the intricacy and detail intact, but with more bite and power than the album could ever convey. What a feeling, halfway through 'Lullabye', when an arresting, booming bass tone grips your chest, and you look around to find Chris Taylor playing not an overdriven bass, but a clarinet fed through all manner of octave pedals. Wow!

Live, they gave such life to their songs that Veckatimest will probably never sound quite as satisfying again. Certainly not cuts such as 'Cheerleader' and 'I Live With You', which respectively surrendered fragile vocals and orchestral flourishes for sheer conviction and lean precision. And in 'Cheerleader', they hold the fourth note of the main riff for just a touch longer, just enough to let it resonate around the room. It makes all the difference.

And they played a 'Fix It' as an encore.

In a word; radtastical.