Oh Ye Denver Birds

Another cool little track from Brisbane's Oh Ye Denver Birds. Like many I dug their early batch of home recorded tunes hard, with the mess of folk influences, Dirty Projector influenced stabs of vocal harmonies and a jaunty sense of melody.

Those tracks like Douglas Firs and Picture Frame, which scored them a bit of love from Triple J, were largely the solo bedroom creations of their frontman Dominic Stephens, who has since recruited a further four or five members to round out the band. This track 'Walls' is the first recording to surface from this lineup, and although maintains many of the same elements as their older stuff, is a little denser and better produced.

One new addition particularly stands out, the occasional vocal presence of Katherine Gough who has all the serenity of St. Vincent with a kind of eery operatic otherworldly vibe, like she could be soundtracking some Whirling Dervishes or something. Either way, it makes for a nice change from the swirls of multi-tracked vocals from main man Stephens.

Musically they've been compared to Grizzly Bear, but for me they are closer to a mix of Here We Go Magic, Akron/Family and... I don't know, the voice of Daniel Johns if he was a bearded hippie, not a self-aggrandising wanker?

Oh Ye Denver Birds - Walls

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On The Up And Up

In the time spent not writing for this blog, I've been doing a lot of listening, most frequently to a handful of impossibly solid release from Adelaide bands that make me beam and gush to think of what a lovely little bunch we have in this city.

Box Elder have been getting better and better over the past year, and now their soon-to-be-announced EP is proving to be a real treat, with this second preview track building on the promise of the first, Vega. Even more formidable is their live show, which continues to improve - with a good mix, that is. With three guitars weaving in and out, an Exeter show would probably not be an ideal first introduction. The Metro however...

Box Elder - Microdots

20th Century Graduates are still getting around to releasing their debut EP as well. The fact that Jeremy and Jon's other band just launched their excellent album (which I will gush about once I summon the eloquence) to a packed Jive probably deserves a bit of slack, but y'know. They've put out a couple of tracks on the internet in the lead-up, with this one being my new favourite of the bunch. Such a delicious horn melody, it's like we don't even need Belle & Sebastian anymore.

20th Century Graduates - Keeping Up With The Jones'

So apparently Bing Goes To Monaco have fizzled out, which is quite the bummer, especially with their last few shows indicating that their best material was still to be recorded. Listening back to some live radio recordings from the last few months of their existence, songs like Like A Warrior and Suche showed such promise, despite the at times slightly pitchy live vocals. Oh, how I will miss the delightful blend of Freya and Anny's voice in two part harmony. But as with any loss, we must move on, and so I will by listening relentlessly to some new live recordings from Radio Adelaide by Our Husband, Freya's newish collaboration with FSRF's Nathaniel Morse. They dropped into The Range a fortnight ago and talked and played some songs, this one included. Very promising indeed.

Our Husband - Bask

The British Robots are another band who put out a debut release to a joyous reception. A full Jade Monkey is always nice to see, and their EP certainly has its share of sweet cuts. This one however is a live recording of a brand new one that features Paddy on shrrrredding 12-string acoustic guitar.

The British Robots - Ashes To Snowflakes

Svavar Knútur - Leipzig

Everyone's favourite Icelandic folk troubador Svavar Knútur came back to Adelaide on his way to Perth as part of his epic three month couch-surfing backpacking tour of Australia. When I say everyone's favourite I mean everyone. I don't think anyone in attendance (of which there were many thanks to some scrupulous word of mouth and Facebook action) left the Grace Emily on February 26th without a smile on their face or a CD in hand. Those who didn't can always have a listen to it here, it's so lovely...

After his last show, I had the foresight to try and record one of the many highlights. What I didn't anticipate was that the song, at most seven minutes long last time, would now be extended well into 10 minutes. It was so long that the camera ran out of memory after seven minutes and I was forced to make the seamless jump to camera phone for the remainder (the best bit).

Anyway, here is my live video (of varying quality) of Svavar Knútur's live version of Leipzig:




Amazing, huh?

Svavar Knútur - Leipzig
Svavar Knútur - Baby Would You Marry Me? (Live)

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Get his album here: http://svavarknutur.bandcamp.com

Lumonics

Although I can only admit to actively experiencing the wealth of Adelaide bands live in the past two years, I nonetheless whittled away many school nights doing my best to live vicariously - with a little less alcohol intake - through the photographic witticisms of a blogger equal parts David Brent and Kirk Hammett. Lumonics were one of those bands I missed out on, and although long since broken up, their members live on in such acts as 20th Century Graduates, Steering by Stars and relative newbies Sunsettler. Pretty sweet pedigree, no? Despite their being only one release to their name, a pretty ace sounding demo that included the too-cool duet of Unlikely Heroes, I can't say I'm too sad about their passing. After all just look at what their members are doing now. It would just be plain greedy to keep them all in the one band.

Anyway, I realise most of y'all reading (is that optimistic) are probably already more familiar with the band than I, but I'll be darned if these tracks aren't worth sharing anyway.

Oh, and maybe I will start blogging frequently again. I have a sneaking suspicion that I have covered most of the bands I love in this town already, so I'm banking on maybe another "let's all break up and make new bands" wave to inject some new music to write about.

But then again, when you have a pool of local bands this talented, are pulling increasingly larger crowds and building up more and more momentum across the whole scene, that'd just be plain silly (RIP Bing).

Lumonics - Unlikely Heroes

Lumonics - Beggar's Choices

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