Purple Prose

Jon Mortimer

2011-11-29T22:52:00.004+10:30

Jon Mortimer - Restless Heart (mp3)

My old band-mate Jon Mortimer has called himself a lot of things since We Grow Up parted ways. Jonathan Blake, Kids In Love, The Sunday Gang, Sputnik Sweetheart and Dear Sputnik all lie strewn by the wayside now that he's settled on the name on his birth certificate to play under. Nomenclature aside, Jon's been consistently writing his constistently well-written songs on the sly the whole time.

Thankfully, investing in an iPad and microphone means he can finally share his new gems with the world, and by the world I mean me. I really wanted to hear the darn things! With the earnest (and potentially dicey) mix of sci-fi cheese and humming melodrama afforded by Garage Band synth strings in many ways he's harking back to the simple bedroom sounds of his earliest stuff with We Grow Up (which incidentally won him Triple J Unearthed under his own name), but with a much better grasp of the songwriting tools at his disposal.

Young Anne Fey packs a powerful, Neil Young-channeling chorus and an undeniably gorgeous middle eight, but the less than subtle rape-y overtones of the lyrics kind of irk me, so I'll share 'Restless Heart' with you instead. Written in Canada, no less.

photo by Sia Duff

Mr. Rosewater

2011-11-29T22:30:00.009+10:30

Mr. Rosewater - Dreaming Alone (mp3)

I shared a stage with this pair of men folk a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed their schtick. Essentially, the majestically bearded Ross McNaughton plays his Nick Cave-come-Jeff Magnum sea shanties whilst guitarist Ben Campbell lets fly with all manner of winged apes of distortion and noise from a delicious sounding array of Fender gear. Being their live debut it would be unfair to criticise them for still being a little embryonic; you can see what they're going for and it looks cool from afar. But while the idea of weird noise over straight forwardly appealing songwriting is quite cool, they've yet to quite push past the appeal of the initial premise and make something great out of it.

But as I said early days, this tune of theirs is pretty nice though.

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The Harpoons

2011-10-29T22:13:00.003+10:30

The Harpoons - Keep You Around

The newest track from the newly re-emerged Harpoons holds a few surprises for those fond of the irreverent tambourine shaking, 'grittily' recorded sixties sounds of the Faith EP. Aside from a noted step up in production values (crisp plucked bass and smooth drums), the songwriting on 'Keep You Around' shifts the band's focus from the bouncy garage sounds of the 60s to the snappy soul of Detroit. In this context the interaction between lead vocalist Bec Rigby and the backing hollers of the Madin brothers adopts a neat Jackson 5 sensibility.

Perhaps the most obvious reference point for this new track comes from Oscar + Martin's early 2011 single 'Do The Right Thing', which similarly recast irrepressibly groovy (is that word okay now?) RnB influences with inner-Melbourne bedroom-recording cred. Unsurprisingly, Bec and Harpoons drummer Martin King had a big hand in that chestnut too.

'Keep You Around' is the first taste of the new Harpoons record produced in collaboration with the meekly mind-shattering Nick Huggins and Two Bright Lakes. Drool.

The Blind Herd

2011-07-10T15:27:00.004+09:30

The Blind Herd - Ever Been Taught (mp3)

A new band to emerge from that Julia Farr-Aves-Bearded Gypsy Band clan of Adelaide bands, the ones who hold underground Alleyway shows and the Grace Emily above all others, The Blind Herd offer a somewhat bleaker perspective to the shirtless dancing of their comrades.

In some respects it covers similar territory to Jack Ladder’s recent record ‘Hurtsville’ with its sense of gothic Australiana, encapsulating that intangibly bleak desolation with which we suburbanites contemplate the dead heart, all gravitating around the powerful presence of a deep voiced, charismatic frontman. While Ladder’s use of 80’s synth and big gated snare drum to achieve this effect, The Blind Herd lean towards country and folk, with slide guitar and fiddle positioning frontman Frank Lloyd’s songs somewhere between Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and a more traditional, less cinematic Jae Laffer.

Good fun!

Chimneys

2011-06-08T13:25:00.005+09:30

Chimneys - Winters (mp3)

I was quite a fan of Melbourne-via-Perth collective Institut Polaire and their knack for pastoral folk rock with a few dollops of alt-country and James Mercer pop for good measure. The seven piece broke up not long after the release of their excellent and long-gestating debut LP 'Make Your Own Mayflower' which boasted an impressively cinematic titular single and a whole bunch of other fine choons.

Luckily some of the members have floated to the surface in new projects, such as acoustic guitarist Samantha Wass's new baby Chimneys. Aside from an excellent, evocative band name, the trio dabble in a similarly strummed vein to their predecessors, though in a far more stripped back manner emphasising twin harmony vocals from the two lady frontmen that fall on the pleasant end of the country vocal spectrum, more loose and airy than high and lonesome. While still cooking, their first recording 'Winters' is pretty lovely, and also boasts percussion from fellow Polaire expat and ex-Audreys drummer Toby Lang.

Oscar + Martin

2011-03-07T21:28:00.006+10:30

Oscar + Martin - Do The Right Thing (mp3)

Another month, another fine unlikely pop volley sent forth from the Two Bright Lakes camp. Taking over from Collarbones' Don Juan last month is Oscar + Martin (a duo previously behind the somewhat murkier, experimental outfit Psuche), who deliver an incredibly smooth pop tune in 'Do The Right Thing'. Whereas their aforementioned label-mates address similar R'n'B territory by reassembling those influences in the context of a weird, glitchy but somehow particularly accessible collage, this track is a touch more direct. It reminds me of any number of infectious singles released by clean cut, mother-friendly British singers coming out of some sort of post-5IVE bubble. Don't take that as a sticking point however, it's a pretty gnarly tune.

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Yellow Ostrich

2011-02-18T19:02:00.006+10:30

Yellow Ostrich - WHALE (mp3)

As much as I prefer to avoid rehashing things said by blogs far more interesting and well-read than mine, I really can't get enough of Yellow Ostrich at the moment. Initially a solo project for New Yorker Alex Schaaf (the band now includes Bishop Allen/We Are Scientists drummer Michael Tapper and more), their much-covered track WHALE quickly became a favourite. When recording my own scrappy little creations I always feel a little conflicted as my ever-present desire to pile instrument upon vocals upon instrument clashes with the lack of percussive devices available to me. So a pretty awesome, rich song based around little but the human voice and a floor tom seems kind of liberating.

Sure the band tend to stick to some of the more well-worn indie tropes of late; a skinny white Brooklyn kid makes rhythmic, catchy animal-related songs with an abundance of Africa-via-Fleet Foxes vocal chanting and harmonies to before acclaim drags him out of the bedroom. Musically they remind me of a stripped back, American Cloud Control in that respect. 'The Mistress' from which WHALE is taken is similarly excellent, if not entirely broad in its palette. The tracks invariably gravitate around an opening, wordless vocal chant that builds in layers of harmonies before the rest of the song takes shape around it, which kind of suggests he draws on looping in his songwriting. Also pretty cool, I think. Either way, what could end up homogenous and repetitive somehow manages to just be plain brilliant, song after song.

Bandcamp

Alarm Birds

2011-02-17T12:10:00.000+10:30

Alarm Birds - Love And The Leaves (mp3)

Adelaide expatriate and producer extraordinare Jed Palmer has been keeping himself quietly busy in recent years, producing a few albums here and there for The Brels and The Sea Thieves (still waiting on that one, by the way). He's also been releasing his own music in various guises since the shift to Melbourne, from Girls & Adam to his collaboration with partner and cellist Zoe Barry in Hope Diamond. I mentioned earlier their current project Alarm Birds based on the strength of a little youtube performance of a song called 'Better Pill' in their lounge room. It was a good song too.

Alarm Birds - Feathers (demo) (mp3)

The first official recordings to emerge from Alarm Birds are not quite as melodic or full of quirky electronic squeaks and whirs, but are interesting in their own way. They're both wrapped in creaky atmospheres and spooky overtones like a layer of dust. Both 'Love and the Leaves' (presumably from an upcoming album) and demo 'Feathers' sound like they were recorded in the hallway of a dilapidated mansion prone to hauntings and mysterious noises, and they probably where. All thats left is some ghostly singing saw. Now, if only they knew someone who played...

Bergerac - Reconstruction (mp3)

I've also stumbled upon some tracks from their old Adelaide band with Zac Coligan on bandcamp. Save for a track on a Three D compilation or two Bergerac had until now eluded me and to be honest they're a lot weirder and louder than I would have expected from the Zac's current work. An interesting and rewarding listen, either way. It's mostly all free on bandcamp, by the way.

Alarm Birds Bandcamp
Bergerac Bandcamp

Ainslie Wills

2011-02-12T17:24:00.005+10:30

Ainslie Wills - Quite Capable (mp3)

One of the many exciting interstate acts lured to the Format Festival of Song shows by curator Ben Revi, Ainslie Wills and her band were described to me as Feist with a little bit of rock. It's a fairly accurate assessment, with both the evocative, commanding vocal presence and jazzy flourishes so eloquently conjured by our Canadian friend but with a bluesier undertone and a subtle, indeterminate wackiness. Her EP 'Somebody for Everyone' peaks with its most upbeat moment as 'Quite Capable' double tracks that incredible voice around a tight muted guitar riff and a driving beat as one sassy verse breaks out into a spacey chorus that is simply grand.

Ainslie and her band are playing the 'Format Festival of Song Vol 3: Rock' show at Format on the 24th. You should come, it'll be great.

Bandcamp

Collarbones

2011-01-20T01:42:00.008+10:30

Collarbones - Lover Of Mine (mp3)

One of the best tracks presented to me by Seb last year during our weekly witching hour on Student Radio was from Adelaide via Sydney duo Collarbones, the pair behind one of the best singles to come out of either city last year with Beaman Park. Speaking of which, as I was watching Zumba ads on TV earlier tonight Travis put their covers and remix mixtape 'Tigerbeats' online. A prelude of sorts to next year's full length 'Iconography', which is due out through the consistently great Two Bright Lakes record, the mix features previously heard takes on Justin Bieber and Destiny's Child all filtered through the pairs MSN-collaborating, glitch-pop goggles. They also turn in a remix of fellow Two Bright Lakes signings Oscar + Martin (formerly Psuche), turning their vibraphone and typewriter-driven track 'I Sea A Wolf' into a haze of dialtone synths and hills-hoist whirring.

My favourite so far though is the cover of 'Lover of Mine', one of the better tracks from Beach House's Teen Dream. It features some cool sounding vocal interplay between Marcus Whale and fellow Sydney resident Anna Chase, who I'm going to have to check out now...

Update: Rose Quartz premiered a new single from 'Iconography' last week in the form of Don Juan. It finds new ways to endear Marcus' voice to me with some lush multi-tracking and a shuddering dance beat.

Download the mixtape and previous singles at bandcamp.

Kins

2011-01-18T02:11:00.006+10:30

Kins - Lake Troposphere (mp3)

Since posting about them back in October Kins have gathered some decent momentum on the national broadcaster and played a handful of nice support slots, perhaps unsurprising given the previously established pedigree of frontman Thomas Savage. Although I had earlier mentioned their forthcoming album Tenochtitlan it seems that record has been overtaken somewhat by a new mini-LP intriguingly entitled 'Dancing Back and Forth, Covered In Whipped Cream', an album Thomas tells me "is based on a true story of a man who spent $2000 in a brothel, yet was baffled at his wife's lack of understanding. It was very expensive as he requested for her to watch him dance back & forth, covered in whipped cream." That about summarises it, I suppose.

The first single 'Lake Troposphere' just popped up on bandcamp, so be sure to hop over and download it for sweet nothing. It's somewhat chunkier and guitar-driven than previous tracks which made use of sparse, syncopated rhythms, tasty organ and clean sparkly guitar melodies here and there. One might also be interested in observing the video clip for another mini-LP cut 'Hume Bloom' down here...

Also while the full album might be a little way off yet, the band are streaming on Soundcloud a bunch of really strong material that may yet surface.

Blogspot

Wiley Red Fox

2011-01-13T02:58:00.005+10:30

Wiley Red Fox - Nothing Like It (mp3)

Clem Wetherall apparently used to be the receptionist at the radio station I work at, and has played and contributed to a bunch of Adelaide bands I dig so very heartily from The Keepsakes to (just-before-my-time-but-by-all-accounts-excellent) Zeta. I discovered this when putting together an 'Adelaide Band Hop' playlist during the heady Student Radio days of 2010 and found her name gracing the credits of almost half the tracks presented. She buggered off to Melbourne a while ago, but has returned on occasion for such esteemed events as the Format Festival of Song and the crowd-surfin' love-in that was The Keepsakes album launch back in April of last year.

Last but not least however, she plays music on her lonesome under the appropriately folksy moniker 'Wiley Red Fox'. 'Nothing Like It' is a simple but indisputably likeable song, building as it does over four and a half minutes of gently swelling circular guitars and harmonies around a neat, subtle vocal melody.

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Quiet In The Lab!

2011-01-13T00:20:00.003+10:30

Quiet In The Lab! - Why Bother (mp3)

Doug Arnott is probably one of the nicer people you could meet fumbling around the Adelaide band scene, always eager to chat and more genuinely enthralled by the joy of playing music than I could ever be. Along with his wife Jayney they play in Quiet In The Lab, a band I will try to summarise thusly:

Picture a band of 17-20 year olds sitting in an Adelaide garage with black t-shirts listening to Nirvana, Smudge, You Am I's Sound As Ever), trying to catch bands like Jebediah play on episodes of this new fangled show called 'Recovery' before picking up their guitars and churning out angry, happy, emotional songs full of chunky fuzz guitars, gang vocals and earnest, angsty lyrics. And they're good! Now, transpose that band 15 years into the future and age them accordingly. They're still good, if a little unusual in the present climate, playing music they're un-self-consciously in love with, no matter how confused snarky little post-Cold War brats like myself might be by the various obscure band names emblazoned across their T-shirts.

Perhaps the fact I spent most of the 90's watching Peter Pan and this, explains the lack of reference points for their music. I guess they remind me of the Foo Fighters in some ways, a comparison which I was reluctant to offer but one Doug seemed to embrace. I suppose he remembers the days when Dave Grohl was something of an upstart, as opposed to a slightly grittier, American Powderfinger type. Anyway, their demo from last year features the damn catchy, horny middle age pop of 'Get My Hands On You' and some utterly cathartic crunch and screams in 'Why Bother'.

Tiger Choir

2011-01-01T21:58:00.014+10:30

Tiger Choir - Vultures (mp3)

Out with the old and in with the new! The year's barely begun and already the list of sure-to-be formidable 2011 releases is looking rather paunchy around the waist. In my inbox today arrived some cuts from Tiger Choir's upcoming debut album, including singe Vultures and a slightly reimagined version of pulsating, synth driven 'Dancer', which surfaced last year on their self-titled EP. The Hobart trio turned many a head earlier in the year with a pair of Adelaide shows and a debut release that made waves well beyond the Apple Isle. From what I can extrapolate the album seems to retain many of the bands Animal Collective influenced quirks with a broader, more expansive scope (and really nice sounding drums). That's all the more impressive given it was recorded in a Hobart shack by the band themselves, who are proving to be a pretty damn talented bunch of guys.

They're playing Adelaide shows this weekend, and short of seeing Thee Oh Sees and/or my band there's really no excuse to miss them.

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Two Thousand & Ten

2010-12-30T12:47:00.009+10:30

Box Elder - Microdots (mp3)

The Honey Pies - Bossanova (mp3)

Collarbones - Beaman Park (mp3)

Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Animal Spirit Guide (mp3)

The Keepsakes - Tired (mp3)

Our Husband - Villages (mp3)

Fake Tan - I Won't Flirt (mp3)

Matt Banham - Save Me (mp3)

Steering By Stars - Ether (mp3)

Dialect & Despair - Prolific (mp3)

It's a tricky thing to list and I have probably definitely missed someone or something that I'll kick myself over later. But anyway, this is my top 10 for Adelaide in the last 12 months. I'm not sure if this list is a best album or best song or best EP hootenany, but I think it pretty accurately reflects the sounds from around this town that have left an impression on me and probably/hopefully others this year. No Battery Kids, no City Riots, no regrets. It might also be worth noting that three of my inclusions are apparently (although with no shortage of ambiguity) no longer with us, and for they we doth shed a tear. Guess which ones!

Tiger Choir - Young Loving (mp3)

Svavar Knutur - Emotional Anorexic (mp3)

Kins - United Fate (mp3)

Darren Hanlon - Scenes From A Separation (mp3)

Otouto - Astronauts (mp3)

Sufjan Stevens - Too Much (mp3)

Beach House - Lover Of Mine (mp3)

Best Coast - Crazy For You (mp3)

Hello Satellites - Building A Wall (mp3)

Jonny Telafone - Pitter Patter (mp3)

Dan Kelly - West Coast Fishing Incident (mp3)

Elsewhere, these are a bunch of sounds from interstate and abroad, some of which aren't particularly adventurous choices but have still provided an abundance of good listening from January to now. The more predictable picks (Sufjan, etc.) I was pretty sure I'd swoon over one way or another, but more than half of them have been complete surprises, artists from Hobart, Iceland and the wildernesses of... Melbourne(?) whom I probably wouldn't have heard but for a few lucky coincidences. In some ways that's the best kind of music, right?

Fingers crossed for 2011.

The Keepsakes

2010-12-29T09:12:00.001+10:30

The Keepsakes - Bells (mp3)

Somehow I let eight months pass without mentioning it, but The Keepsakes released their debut album back in April, finally committing to tape (or hard drive) many of the finest guitar pop songs written in Adelaide in recent years. The album for the most part makes good on Wignall's knack for pretty amazing songs with effortless, buoyantly acrobatic melodies all delivered in his great Lucksmith-y voice with a distinctly Australian sound. The guitars are at times crunchy and at others soft, but always catchy and brimming with a relaxed suburban bliss. With this record we've finally had a chance to enjoy one of Adelaide's most naturally gifted songwriters in full flight, something hinted at throughout his involvement in bands from Zeta to Deja Entendu. Although admittedly the production does seem to dull the edges of some of the live favourites, and to me no full band recording will ever top last year's acoustic demo of 'Paper Bridges', it's still a darn good listen.

After absconding to the US after the release and leaving his bandmates to their own devices with 20th Century Graduates, it seems like the band have wound themselves down a tad in recent months while Wignall busies himself with new band Oh Minor. That said, their brief semi-appearance at the Honey Pies album launch in November with Mark Curtis on extra guitar was a fun reminder of just how good they and the songs on their album can be.

Crocodile Onesie on Bandcamp

Wintercoats

2010-12-28T01:47:00.008+10:30

Wintercoats - Windmill (mp3)

Not entirely unlike a subdued, Melbournian Owen Pallett, James Wallace's music under the title Wintercoats is the sound of a glacier thawing. In a nice way mind you, with none of the nasty climate change connotations... just the natural ebb and flow of a slowly moving body of ice melting and refreezing under a winter sun.

Thus ended one of the more masturbatory passages on this blog, but not an entirely inaccurate one. Througout his Cathedral EP Wallace blends his knack for subtly chanted but involving vocal melodies with lightly pulsating string loops, and the result is pretty damn beautiful. While playing with imagery and influences drawn from the kind of romanticised winters found well above the equator, there is something Jae Laffer (The Panics) about his voice that lends a nice antipodean twist to some very Northen Hemisphere sounds.

Earlier in the month he also released a new track from his second EP, which while not quite as instantly brilliant as some Cathedral cuts still serves as quite an exciting prelude.

Cathedral EP on Bandcamp

Hazel Brown

2010-12-27T13:26:00.006+10:30

Hazel Brown - Calligraphy (mp3)

I had the pleasure of interviewing Hazel Brown of Melbourne art-pop trio Otouto last week, which led me to an Unearthed page with several of the songs that constituted the solo project that eventually became her current bad. While these tracks don't have quite the same spiky, rhythmic quirk and space about them, her voice is still a little enchanting and a lot of the building blocks and raw grey matter remain. She does utilise a more conventional songwriting style and a more full bodied approach to instrumentation, with a robust, soulful rhythm section bobbing along to her crooning. While still featuring the drumming of present drummer and collaborator Kishore Ryan it's a little busier than Otouto, and though arguably not quite as hip or inventive (Brown seemed herself hesitant to admit the comparative merits of her earlier work) tracks like Calligraphy still have more than enough merit to warrant many a listen.

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Danvers & Ghost Knife

2010-12-26T22:36:00.010+10:30

Danvers - Centre Of Town (mp3)

Y'all know Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! right? Of course you do silly. Anyway, their affable co-leader and grower of ginger beards has long pedalled his far sparser and melancholic solo wares alongside his more celebrated output with the six-piece. While until now Danvers has consisted largely of a quietly released mini-LP 'Forest Witch' a few years ago and occasional personal appearances, the project has kept a fairly low profile. That might step up a notch now with the addition of the impeccably titled 'Ghost Knife', a backing band consisting of Fire! collaborator Sam Stearne and Rory O'Connor of Steering By Stars, ex-Aviator Lane and more recently Curses.

The solo + duo trio combo played their first show a week ago with Sincerely, Grizzly and while Rory and Sam never over-stated their presence (keeping their contributions to a pretty minimal drum and bass rhythm section for half the set and sitting down for the rest), they nevertheless added that little bit of grit and flesh that Dave's skeletal guitar work and softly sung compositions needed. Even if this is but a friendly side project to serve as an outlet for a quieter songwriting tangent performed to friends and well meaning fanboys like myself, its a pretty nice one.

They're playing early in the new year with Tasmania's Tiger Choir and locals Box Elder, a combination so dizzyingly swell by my watch that I may have no choice but skip Thee Oh Sees return show at Format, goshdarnit.

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Jonny Telafone

2010-12-26T22:03:00.001+10:30

Jonny Telafone - The Ballad Of Samwise Gamgee (mp3)

Pat Lockwood of Box Elder turned me onto this tumblr which collects a whole bundle of free releases by known and lesser known Australian artists from Sydney and beyond. Aside from being a fantastic source of new local music that would probably be difficult to even know about outside of the geographically specific scenes from which they're drawn, they also introduced me to the work of Melbourne (not Canberra) electronic/folk artist Jonny Telafone.

Particularly great is his recent-ish cassette album 'Wherever The Wind Blows', which combines brittle acoustic guitars with creaky drums (both real and synthesised) and the kind of unchallenging but somehow incredibly intoxicating songs with a charm akin to sitting on a couch watching Lord of the Rings all day. Speaking of which, 'The Ballad Of Samwise Gamgee', one of many album highlights, incorporates some amusingly tongue in cheek Sean Astin dialogue at the tail-end of an otherwise pretty sincere sounding extrapolation of Tolkien's 'Road Goes Ever On'.

Outside of that excursion into fantasy literature, the album is grounded in a pervasive melancholy which pretty much drips from tracks like 'It's Only Ever You' and 'Howl At The Moon'. But as with Frodo's seemingly inescapable burden in the aforementioned ballad, there's always a sense of optimism just around the corner. While it mightn't be something quite as dramatic as the knowledge that there's some good in this world, there's an endearing lightness to the moping. There might be some forgotten sweets in the pantry, at least. In that respect it's similar in some ways to Matt Banham's acoustic output between his early No Through Road albums and more recent solo material.

All or most of his released can be downloaded from the Dream Damage website, and while I've made a big deal of loving his digi-folk stylings, its worth noting that his prolific output varies wildly and this one definitely sits at the friendlier, more accessible end of the spectrum.

Jonny Telafone @ Dream Damage

Atlas Sound

2010-12-25T02:19:00.000+10:30

Atlas Sound - Mona Lisa (mp3)

There's little to naught that I can say add to the matter of Bradford Cox's amusing and a little inspiring Bedroom Databank adventures in November. Admittedly I'm a relatively recent convert to the Atlas Sound/Deerhunter magic bag of blogspot tricks, but all's I want to say is, Mona Lisa is one of the more effortlessly perfect pop songs I've heard this year, much as Shelia was in 2009. If the boy keeps churning out lazy hooks and nicely crooked sounding acoustic guitar and percussion arrangements like this it'd be alright by me. None of it is particularly challenging or earth shattering, but it has that undefinable quality that wraps you up like a comfortable doona.

But of course, he also releases similarly flawless 'proper' albums with his day job. Oh, and then he throws another sweet Christmas song into the ring as well, just for kicks. Sheesh!

Download all and more on Bradford's blog...

Traveller & Fortune

2010-12-19T13:02:00.000+10:30

Traveller & Fortune - Little Plastic People (mp3)

As leader of The Art Therapists Tom West spent a few years playing around Adelaide and became familiar to me as that CD in the Big Star local artist shelf that I often considered buying but always ended up with another Poly&TheStatics EP instead. That excuse doesn't really fly with his most recent outfit Traveller & Fortune, where West showcases his intricately written folk pop and incredibly rich, Ryan Adams-esque voice. His lightly plucked and strummed acoustic guitar arrangements are also embellished by all sorts of instrumentation twee and/or otherwise, from double bass to saxaphone along with gorgeous three part harmonies courtesy of his lovely companions, which include the unrelated Jayne West who can also be found playing her own folk songs around our town.

They put out an extended EP a month or two ago, and from what I've heard it is pretty lovely indeed. It can be downloaded at this here link below:

Bandcamp

Kes Trio

2010-11-23T20:56:00.008+10:30

Kes Trio - Thieves Beat (mp3)

Upon sifting through albums a few weeks ago I was at first puzzled by multiple releases by bands with "Kes" in their name. What insanity, I thought, that there should exist bands called the Kes Trio when acts called Kes Band play music in a similarly M+N-approved style in the same damn town. Don't they have myspace?! Didn't one do a cursory search for "Kes" bands before deciding on their band name?! Alas, I am the idiot, for they are all connected projects led by 'Kes', aka Karl Scullin, who would otherwise be familiar to listeners through his time with the excellently named Mum Smokes.

Of the two more or less concurrent releases he's produced this year, it's his album as Kes Trio 'Black Brown Green Grey White' that stood out to me. It's full of distinct, off kilter vocals and some really eclectic instrumentation all wrapped an odd, laid-back but always intriguing sense of composition and melody. Highlights include the chunky stabs of acoustic guitar and layered, Sparkelhorse-esque vocals of 'Thieves Beat' . Second track 'Body Time' is also incredibly cool.

And best of all, across his many projects there's at least four albums worth of recent material to bite into once I inevitably overplay this one.

myspace

Not Given Lightly

2010-11-01T19:13:00.020+10:30

The Wooden Birds - Afternoon In Bed (mp3)
The Bats - Two Lines (mp3)

Recently I stumbled across a recent compilation album from the stable of German label Morr Music. The album's thirty four tracks are for the most part a tribute to bands of the late beloved New Zealand indie label Flying Nun Records and its celebrated and influential roster of artists. I'll be honest in saying my familiarity with Flying Nun artists is a little lacking, but the tracks on offer do provide a good starting point to dive in.

One track from Texas duo The Wooden Birds stood out in particular as they turned in a downbeat but utterly pristine cover of The Bats' Afternoon In Bed that ends up in a similar vein to locals Firekites. Earthy sounding percussion and a slightly crunchy bassline ground an airy, kind chant-like wordless melody. The track is enough to provoke anyone to delve into The Bats back catalogue, a rewarding endeavour in itself as songs like 'Two Lines' from their last album 'The Guilty Office' will attest.

It's A Musical - All My Hollowness To You (mp3)

Elsewhere German slash Swedish duo It's A Musical throw in some playful irreverence with an infectious rendition of 'All My Hollowness To You' by Little Dwarfs.

Not Given Lightly is available in Australia through the prolific newish label Other Tongues and it's a fun, diverse listen.

The Wooden Birds myspace
It's A Musical myspace
The Bats myspace

Kins

2010-10-27T13:33:00.001+10:30

Kins - United Fate (mp3)

There was a period last year where I kept meaning (but ultimately forgetting) to post a few tracks by 'Pitseleh', the solo project of one Thomas Savage. Savage had of course been the relatively silent partner in band/duo/solo artist(?) Oh Mercy, who have garnered envious rivers of praise and attention in the past year.

In that band he was (I might be speculating) responsible for some of the more knotty and ethereal moments on Privileged Woes, from the lofty melodies and discordant guitar break of 'Met A Wizard' to the slightly unsettling but ultimately charming melodrama of closer 'What Good Is That To Me'. I suppose these contributions hinted at a sensibility that would inevitably be a touch stifled by the (still pretty great) straight up 'gumtree pop' that the band seems to veer towards of late.

But no more! In the last few weeks its become apparent that fairly quiet, unannounced tangent to what was his main band has now become priority numero uno. It feels like a pretty good fit too. Assuming the name 'Kins', the now-four-piece also features Jacqueline Collyer on keys, who came to my attention on myspace under the name Tiny Teahouse (now Bean) with a lovely batch of garage band tunes half way between the Motifs and Land of Talk.

They've been gradually leaving a trail of quite impressive tracks over the last few weeks culminating in their debut single 'Fade, Bird Fade'. That track is an interesting excursion with off kilter drums, snatches of big reverb-y guitar and detached vocals, but doesn't quite match what I presume is the first track from their upcoming album Tenochtitlan. An intriguing slice of Seagull-flavoured pop with pulsating keyboards, the lightest of vocal harmonies and a damn good chorus hook, 'The Bold Frown' is a pretty stellar introduction to the band. Also of note is the acoustic b-side 'The Endeavour', a pretty perfect laid-back strummer originally slated to appear on their album as is before being superseded by a full band version. I am pretty excited about this band.

For those in Melbourne they're launching the single on November 6 alongside The Ocean Party, with whom they share a drummer.

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Alarm Birds

2010-10-26T13:32:00.005+10:30

Hope Diamond - Costume Drama (mp3)

A little game I often play on the radio is "bands that are in some way connected to The Sea Thieves and their ex-bandmates". Its one that has served me well over the months of Student Radio as I've cycled through Hope Diamond, Eiderdown, Bergerac, Girls & Adam and The Brels. Key to this fun-filled musical adventure is Jed Palmer and Zoe Barry, Adelaide natives who played with Zac Coligan of the Sea Thieves before escaping to Melbourne to form a whole bunch of bands. They have returned on several occasions to collaborate with their old comrades both live and in the studio, with Jed producing The Sea Thieves' yet-to-be released and hotly anticipated (by me) second album. Most recently of course, they ventured back to deliver a by all accounts rousing set of Sparklehorse songs at the Jade Monkey's recent tribute night as documented at length by Spoz. If this video (also via Spoz) doesn't send you diving feverishly into Sparklehorse's 'Its A Wonderful Life', nothing will:

In a decision that will haunt me for the rest of my days I didn't attend for some reason, which makes me all the more anxious in awaiting material by the pair's new project 'Alarm Birds', a new continuation of previous band 'Hope Diamond'. While recorded works are scant (or non-existent), they do have this video which I can't help but revisit constantly. Crisply downbeat folk with Ray Davies worthy references to Shangri-La augmented by some odd electronic buzzes and beeps that sets this project apart from some of their older bands.

Watch it and weep with envy.

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Cheer Advisory Council

2010-10-23T19:58:00.007+10:30

Cheer Advisory Council - Coach (mp3)

A week-old Cheer Advisory Council release with no coverage on this blog? Outrageous! Coach is the third and latest single to be teased out of their soon-to-be-released-at-some-point-oh-bugger-it-just-burn-me-a-copy-already album. Its actually one of their earliest songs to my knowledge, appearing as a demo when they first emerged on myspace. Here it is rendered in all the band's seven member grandiosity, boasting once again those nimble guitar playing fingers possessed by Chairman Ben Revi as well as the fine violin-ing of Adam Osborn, who is just awesome. For more of his sweet violin playing listen to this track.... okay, that was a joke. But still, he is no slouch at the ol' fiddle. The song has a kind of slippery quality between the descending guitar line and the way the strings teeter over the top of it all as it descends into a rocky cacophony.

What really excites me about this release though, as great as headline track is, is the quality of the B-side demos. Both also featured back on the myspace but appeared to be regarded as throwaways since. Luckily they've been revived, and I think re-recorded in the case of 'Velodrome', and rightly so. Both do well to lead us further down the rabbit hole and accentuate the subtle nuances of Revi's songwriting. In 'Fables Excite' he builds warm layers of Elliott Smith-esque harmonies for him to yelp the chorus's plea over.

Right in the middle though, lie the blunt lyrical insults of 'Velodrome': "He has no point he goes around and around". Ouch! And although that song seems like the most nondescript of the three track release at first, it soon reveals itself to be perhaps the most rewarding, rising as it does with subtle layers of increasing instrumentation with sweetly plucked acoustic guitars, moody violin and a slightly percussive sounding organ.

Download the whole thing free here, fool.

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Sam J Nicholson

2010-10-16T07:44:00.001+10:30

Sam J Nicholson - Nightcats (mp3)
Sam J Nicholson - Orange Lights (mp3)

A few months ago I mentioned a Hobart band called Tiger Choir who played with my old band when they ventured to the mainland for some Adelaide shows. Awesome as they were (very!) they did seem a strange fit to be playing with the Belle & Sebastian come Darren Hanlon indie folk-rock of that band, with all their pulsating synths, swamped vocals and Animal Collective-like samples. It all makes sense months later after finally getting around to listening to the solo work of their drummer Sam, who has a bunch of great tracks on Unearthed that pull influences from Darren Hanlon and The Lucksmiths, dabbing drowsy-eyed acoustic tracks with spots of lyrical whimsy and subtly catchy melodies.

This along with his sometimes tour-buddy Billy Whims makes Hobart seem like a damn nice place to visit for an indie band leaning towards the twee side of things.

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You Am I

2010-10-10T00:24:00.004+10:30

You Am I - Shuck (mp3)

I have been a fan of You Am I for a while. I won't try to deny that between 2004 and 2007 my obsession with Davey Lane's other band The Pictures reached levels totally disproportionate to the amount of great music they released in that period. But You Am I were always great to have around, whether slavishly checking their fan forums whenever wind of a new record came out to 'rediscovering' Hourly, Daily every couple of months and realising it really is one of those records that is front to back unremittingly incredible.

Their more recent albums have been an interesting proposition. While never containing melodies or arrangements cut from the same cloth as their era-defining early albums, they nonetheless contained a not unsubstantial share of fine songwriting and playing as the band changed gears, first with the guttural 'rawk' of comeback album Convicts and then the more subtle Dilettantes as the band teased at the edges of Tim's diverse songwriting. In many ways their new self-titled album continues that progression sounding quite unlike anything they've done before with a similar brand of moodier tension and melancholy trading punches with moments of bombastic noise and tender sweetness. Similarly, Tim's songwriting takes us further down the rabbit hole of his increasingly literary output of the last few years, eschewing the big laid back pop melodies of yesteryear for a more nuanced, almost spoken word style delivery. It means that for a lot of people, myself included, recent You Am I material is fairly unimmediate, and will take at least a couple of listens to really wrap itself around you, which really plays to the bands current strengths. Sections of a song that at first sound kind of boring soon reveal the depth of their craft and get stuck in your head anyway as some kind of chanted mantra. Case in point, the "I am such a chiiiiild" hook of lead single 'Shuck'.

Make no mistake, it still has some pretty straightforward nuggets in the laid back Deliverance-esque cruising of 'Lie And Face The Sun' (featuring token appearance by the damn near unescapable but always beguiling Megan Washington) and 'The Good Ones'. But while this is definitely a different You Am I to the one that released Dress Me Slowly almost a decade ago, and an age away from Sound As Ever, it still somehow feels like the interesting next step in natural progression a few years in the making. And while some might think it odd to self-title such an un-You Am I sounding record (in the traditional 90s sense), you get the feeling that this is where the band are 100% comfortable right now. Its not the immediately life changing, earth shattering masterpiece that the fanboys and girls over in the forums have heralded on first listen, but it's still pretty nice.

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Eminem 'Love The Way You Lie'

2010-10-09T23:45:00.004+10:30

Eminem is ridiculous, but incredibly entertaining. Though hardly the sass-spitting, snot nosed funster of yesteryear, with deliberately provocative and parodic video clips strutting hand in hand with his sharply satirical yet unapologetically immature lyrics, his current spate of videos provide their own fair share of absurd chuckles.

I remember a few months ago checking out his new single 'Not Afraid'. Aside from the strange, bellowing rap power ballad that constitutes the song, resplendent with such puzzlingly straight faced "to the fans i'll never let you down again, i'm back i promise i'll never go back on that promise", the accompanying clip amused me the most. You see, for the lead single of his new album, an incredibly important step in his current comeback trajectory, the first three minutes of Eminem jumping around a dilapidated room and standing atop a city building just seemed way too low-concept, low-budget and just plain underwhelming. Also, there seemed an unnerving similarity between his style of angry, emotional direct address to the camera and other popular videos sweeping the internet...

and...

But then at the ... mark, HE FLIES. OH. JUST LIKE NEO. Oh...

Grinning from ear to ear I watched him rocket away from the crater-like edge of the city and land atop... the building from the opening shot! Genius. Pure and simple. I now saw the true meaning of it all. Eminem is NOT AFRAID. And his lack of fear means he FLIES. Not soar in a cryptic analogical way, but LITERALLY FLIES. And I love it.

His new video however, I'm pretty nuts about too. Aside from featuring Rihanna in what seems a little too transparent in its commercial motivation (we need a successful female artist to feat. on the second 'emotionally resonant' single... is Kelly Rowland free? No? Who else is on the charts?), the song kind of sits strangely with its naff acoustic guitar arrangement that sounds way too much like a Bubba Sparxxx song. I mean, when Eminem is referencing Bubba Sparxxx in his music, there is something wrong with the world's 'white rapper equilibrium'.

But the 'plot' of the clip is Eminem at his over-budgeted, over-connected best. Intercut with our stars earnestly singing and rapping in front of a burning house and a wheatfield(?) respectively, we see the story of a kind of trashy, 'punching and f***ing' type of couple, at each other's throats one second and making dirty rough love the next. But they're played in an awesome, nonsensical, ingenious bit of casting by Megan 'non-robotic Transformers eye candy' Fox and Dominic 'Merry The Hobbit' Monaghan. I know he shed his Hobbit image a little with his portrayal of the heroin addicted Charlie in Lost, but really? As the bad boy lover of Megan Fox? Surely not.

Anyway, that all progresses and escalates until their house burns down, which Eminem and Rihanna are now performing in front of.

And then the cherry on the cake of amazing appears, as we kick into 'token CGI' terrain and suddenly EMINEM IS ON FIRE!

So please, please, don't ever retire again. We need you. I need you.

Hello Satellites

2010-08-28T23:37:00.007+09:30

Hello Satellites - Heartbeat Fast As A Rabbit (mp3)

Hello Satellites' self-titled debut is, to put it simply, the nicest thing I have heard in weeks. It's the latest release from Melbourne's Two Bright Lakes label collective and continues their brilliant winning streak with Otouto, Seagull and recent Adelaide signings Collarbones. This here record is a studio collaboration between onetime solo artist Eva Popov, whose song 'First Day Of Summer' caught my ears in a big way once upon a time, and producer Nick Huggins, a man with a finger in most if not all Two Bright Lakes pies. While her solo work had a kind of warm, folky feel that accentuated the Waifs-yness of her voice, this album combines her rich but unassuming vocals and songwriting, still bursting with maturity and optimism, with the kind of rhythmic desolation that hit the mark so well with Kid Sam's record.

This was Radio Adelaide's feature album last week, and I've been letting it wash over me for days. I am unlikely to emerge from its waters any time soon. Okay that was lame, I apologise. But it's good, goshdarnit.

Eva Popov - First Day Of Summer (mp3)

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Fake Tan

2010-07-21T20:20:00.010+09:30

Fake Tan - Creature Comforts (mp3)
Fake Tan - I Won't Flirt (mp3)

Upon hearing this three piece on myspace a few thoughts came to mind. Firstly, super lo-fi production on care-free pastiches of 60's pop always sounds cool. Second, rarely has such cheesy adolescent abandon sounded so swell. I mean, sure Rivers Cuomo has channeled it a lot across the years, but Fake Tan bypass the tongue in cheek cynicism and inherent creepiness (at least since he started pushing forty, or thirty, or twenty-five or something).

First track "I Won't Flirt" is a lesson in embracing cliche with an unpretentious grin and head a-bopping, with the opening riff, verse "yeah yeahs" and chorus all sounding instantly familiar but somehow fresh and new. Creature Comforts also asserts itself as an instant Adelaide classic. Their live shows are endearingly sloppy, incredibly loud and totally jubilant experiences, transforming even the most jaded Metro crowd into grinning idiots. Some day soon they will whip up interstate audiences and bloggers alike into giddy Beatlemania-sque fan girls. It wouldn't surprise me.

As a side note, they also look about 14 onstage with Vince absolutely dwarfed by the bass he often sports, which is both amusing and utterly depressing, making even me feel past my prime at the ripe old age of 19. The Justin Bieber for the Bitch Prefect crowd, perhaps?

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first release VOLUME 1 can be downloaded for freesies at bandcamp

Dialect & Despair

2010-06-25T00:34:00.009+09:30

Dialect - Prolific (mp3)

I will be the first to admit I know next to nothing about Hip-Hop. Sure, I was big on Eminem as a 10 year old and enjoy the rap spots on Gorillaz records, but it's more or less an unknown quantity to me.

Luckily, the high school connection with one Nelson Hedditch, a.k.a. Dialect, gave me the impetus to jump headfirst into the second record from an MC that is being described by people far more qualified than I as one of the more talented up and comers of the Australian Hip-Hop ranks. And you know what, this album is pretty excellent. While at 16 tracks it proved a little much for me to jump into at first, Dialect's lyrics and Despair's consistently smooth production makes for an immersive listen. And it is peppered with some sweeet hooks.

And the lyrics: Dialect flicks around with syncopated rhyme structures and phrasing, crafting some really sweet hooks around words at times clever, at times deep and always captivating.

Anywho, this track is pretty great. My Only Vice feat. Social Change is also pretty great. 'The Vortex' is out through Uknowho records, a brand new Adelaide label with distribution through Butterthief records, also pretty great to see such burgeoning talent and industriousness in Adelaide outside of my usual tastes.

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Eagle & The Worm

2010-06-22T18:20:00.005+09:30

You might remember Eagle & The Worm supporting Dan Kelly at Jive a few weeks ago along with some other band. They had a pretty cool schtick I must say, with a set of dare I say 'groovy' jams rooted heavily in the late 60s and early 70s, recalling aspects of the Stones led by some crazy stretched-rubber-band vocals from their frontman, who also played some kind of bass-guitar mustang hybrid, with half the strings that of a guitar and half bass, with a different pick up for each routed through a different amp.

It took me about 4 songs to figure out just what the heck was going on there. Apparently their full line up numbers around the eight person mark, but with members of Fearless Vampire Killers their relatively modest five piece line-up was pretty effective.

In a few words I'd say they remind me of a Lola/Powerman era Kinks fronted by the fella from Ween (given the only Ween song I know is that Push Th' Little Daisies number). Futureman is just 'dope', far and above the highlight of their set for me at least.

Eagle & The Worm - Futureman

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Vi-dee-oh

2010-06-21T22:33:00.006+09:30

Darren Hanlon - All These Things

This video just makes me happy. It's the way Hanlon waddles around in the dance sequences like a pigeon toed Ricky Gervais, it's the utter whimsy that oozes from every pore of the thing. And that kind of childlike twee-ness coming from someone as umm... not a child... as Hanlon is something to be celebrates. Peter Pan indeed.

Goodnight Owl - Maps & Compasses

I think I mentioned this track a long long time ago, and I'm a little surprised they haven't put together a new single or something to make a video out of, but what the hey. It is still pretty wicked.

Steering By Stars - Closer

I'd be utterly remiss to post videos without drawing attention to this little masterpiece, even my blogging laziness of late means I am perhaps literally the last conceivable person to gush about it. At any rate I still dig this track, especially in the context of their soon-to-be-released album Cables.

Tiger Choir

2010-06-10T11:29:00.000+09:30

I came to the sad realisation that while last year I had periods where I would average a show a week (September through to December were good to me), this year has been pretty quiet. Upon reflection I remembered that I've still been to many shows, it's just they were We Grow Up shows and I played in them. While this has exposed me to a lot of old favourites (I've seen the Honey Pies and Box Elder too many times to count), it's also occasionally thrown in some nice surprises.

Tiger Choir were one of them, a three piece from Hobart who aside from being utterly unable to shake Animal Collective comparisons mine a really cool vein of off-kilter synthy pop puncuated with squirts of guitar. While my dad thought they were utter rubbish ("It's just noise!") I quite enjoyed their set, and their self-titled EP received a thrashing in the following weeks.

Anyway, Young Loving is my favourite track of theirs. Dancers is pretty sweet also.

Tiger Choir - Young Loving

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Our Husband

2010-06-10T01:25:00.007+09:30

Our Husband - Villages (mp3)

Our Husband, who might rank as one of my favourite Adelaide boy-girl 'tweed pop' duos were it not for all those other great ones that make it a dead heat, today put out this here track. Villages is the first single from their debut album which they are currently working on and was a bit of a pleasant surprise, with Nathaniel Morse on lead vocals and keyboard drums - a bit of a departure from most of the stuff I'd heard from them.

It almost sounds like a less reverb-soaked Beach House in parts, with a buoyant vibe all over it. The song reminds me of something else as well for the life of me I cannot pick it. Anyway, its pretty tops.

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The Trafalgars

2010-05-22T00:40:00.009+09:30

Hey, whatever happened to this band? In another obsession I will attribute to my post-Jet adolescent frenzy of 'retro-rock' appreciation, The Trafalgars were probably the first local band I really listened to in unhealthy amounts, despite releasing only two EPs.

I even dragged my under-age arse out to a gig of theirs at The Cavern supported by the truly awful, woeful band "Universe". Their sleekly produced single - complete with trite faux-British pronunciation of bus (booos) - 'London Taxi' received a solid amount of affection from Triple J and they even won a slot at the Falls Festival around 2005. Then they kind of dropped off the map, releasing a couple of demos like the pretty cool Drones-aping 'All The Days & The Nights' (Gareth Liddiard probably nabbed it from an earlier song anyway) but otherwise maintaining a pretty low profile. They never released the debut album they'd been recording tentatively titled 'Peaches And Cream'.

So, I moved on and didn't really think of the band again until recently, when I felt an unexplainable craving to bop along to their EP after a hook of theirs came out of nowhere and planted itself in my head.

Sure, in today's context they are pretty daggy and trite (hell, they probably were then), but who doesn't like the 60's packaged into tight modern pop songs? The Crayon Fields proved that for one thing, I haven't quite moved on from my Year 9 tastes. The Honey Pies do it with a little more panache than ye olde Trafalgies though, I must say.

The Trafalgars - Madeline Jones (live on Home & Hosed)*

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*as a side note, it'd be nice for Triple J to do live sets of more obscure Oz bands for H&H. I guess they lack the clams. Oh nevermind, Radio Adelaide does a pretty sweet job as it is Adelaide-wise.

Deja Entendu

2010-05-16T19:22:00.007+09:30

Quite I while ago, I started this blog with a post about a band called Deja Entendu. They had added me on myspace a few days earlier and although I enjoyed the blippy-piano pop of the majority of their EP, I was most interested by then-guitarist Anthony Wignall’s one track ‘I Think We Lost Her’. Since he’s given us more than enough pop gold in the last year with The Keepsakes, the rest of their debut Skeletons warranted a little more attention, especially as they eschewed the stage in the last few months in favour of cooking up some new recordings.

This track ‘Fast, Hard!’ is quite accurately titled. ‘Hard’ could perhaps be interchangeable with ‘Slick!’. The song kind of sounds like Muse (of the ‘Undisclosed Desires’ sort) after chewing up and spitting out the Rogue Traders, then upping the tempo. At first it took a bit of adjusting to appreciate how an (I think home-recorded, but am probably wrong) independent Melbourne band could put together something equally if not more shiny than anything coming out of major-label production houses. I also had to shake unescapable feeling that they are making a concerted effort to really hit radio over the head with this one.

Then again - and I quite like this train of thought - it is pretty awesome to see an unsigned band reclaiming that autotuned, big-budget electro-pop sound for their own, and for us all. No longer, Justin Timberlake and Rihanna, shall your over-produced pop aesthetic be an unnattainable fantasy for us ProTools homebodies with a synth and a dream! They even have sweet Brian May-esque guitar solos.

The track is nonetheless invested with an atmosphere of palpable paranoia and frenetic movement that is quite a shot edgier than their commerical radio counterparts. Also, the relative intricacy of the song’s hooks sets it apart from its more mainstream cousins and their more obvious, watered down choruses.

So, a few listens of adjustment later, I quite like this song.

Deja Entendu - Fast, Hard!

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The Bedroom Philosopher

2010-05-04T19:32:00.011+09:30

For over a year now, I've coveted any opportunity to visit the homes of my female friends for the sole reason of delving into the next issue of Frankie. I know, I know, "it's for girls" but I'll be damned if it isn't full of some of the nicest little articles in Australian print at the moment. The aesthetic is nice too.

And one of those big draws, other than Marieke, is Justin Heazlewood. Better known as The Bedroom Philosopher, he achieved a level of Triple J ubiquity with the impossibly funny "I'm So Post-Modern" that he struggled to match in the last few years. That is, of course, until his new single 'Northcote (So Hungover)', a merciless piss take of Melbourne hipster culture.

So I was quite pleased today to find out of nowhere his new album Songs from the 86 Tram in my letterbox today. Four listens later, it's quite an amusing little album. While there's nothing as immediately grabbing and ingenious as 'Northcote', many come close, from the understated little soliloquey of a Sudanese to an Irish girl's search for meaning in... 'Irish Girl'.

The album, derived from Heazlewood's stage show at last years Melbourne Comedy Festival, also hits a peak with "New Media", one that particularly hits home for me as a student of media. A dark glimpse at the possible future of my classmates and I, perhaps?

While the album is a little patchy, it is musically subtle and swings every so slightly from song to song to complement the passenger that each song is sung from. And while positioning himself as Australia's premier musical taker of the piss, for the most part he imbues the tracks with a distinct empathy for his characters, poking fun but never mocking them. The only really dud track would be the faux Oz Hip-Hop of 'We Are Tramily', but that might grow on me as it's lyrical wordplay (which is very clever throughout the album) becomes clearer.

The Bedroom Philosopher - New Media

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Oh Ye Denver Birds

2010-04-28T20:57:00.006+09:30

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

2010-04-19T21:55:00.007+09:30

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

2010-04-10T22:30:00.006+09:30

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

2010-04-10T21:11:00.003+09:30

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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The Dissociatives

2010-03-16T18:41:00.008+10:30

An article I wrote for On Dit got me thinking about my favourite albums, the ones that really had an impact on me. I ended up writing about 2001 album that was special to my Dad and I, but there are a whole bunch of others (equally embarrassing) that made a pretty big impact on me 'back in the day'.

I remember when the Dissociatives album surfaced in 2004 I had just been getting into Diorama-era Silverchair, and thought I was pretty damn alternative to be listening to the 'Chair and The Vines instead of Maroon 5 (Note: any album bought available at Big W is not alternative). With their self-titled album, the combination of Daniel John's songwriting, the joyous up vibe and, honestly, the really cool visuals, were a revelation to little Walter. All the little electronic flourishes from Paul Mac and the strange whimsy of Johns' lyrics (something that I might now place closer to pretensious wackiness) also made me feel pretty edgy.

Listening back, it has some sweet songs. They're at their best with their relatively earnest and simplest songs like 'Thinking In Reverse' and 'Forever and a Day'. It's nice to think that this was a truly transitory record for Johns, casting off the final shackles of the grunge sounds he'd been mining since he was a tween and embracing a different tack of songwriting. Sure, he's more than a little self-inflated and indulgent since, with most people sick to death of his "happy voice" and pining for angstier times, but listening now, The Dissociatives was just cool.

(Note: This was written through goggles of nostalgia, a lot of this album is actually pretty wanky. But don't diss it, yo!)

The Dissociatives - Thinking In Reverse

Love Parade

2010-03-13T13:44:00.006+10:30

I remember back in Year 9 taping rage overnight in the hopes of catching the new video from my then-favourite band The Pictures, and then going through the 3-5 hours captured to try and catch a glimpse of Davey Lane, Luke Thomas and their luscious sideburns.

As most people who do this know, this opens you up to experiencing a lot of videos that are strange, crappy, utterly puzzling but at the same time damn endearing. Love Parade's video "Pink Shoes" was one of them. Sure, they weren't a mind-blowing musical experience, and the main hook of the song reminded me a bit of 'Coin Operated Boy', but what's not to like about such a painstakingly created video clip with all its wacky special effects whilst never pretending to be anything other than a home made labour of love. The best thing was, this wasn't their only video clip. They made lots.

Later I found these songs on Unearthed, one of which seems to be named after something Peter Combe said. In conclusion Love Parade are utterly dorky, totally un-self-conscious and write some pretty cool/uncool left of centre 60's influenced pop songs. It's the perfect package.

Love Parade - Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy

Love Parade - Mission Bell

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Midnight Static

2010-03-09T21:56:00.007+10:30

You might not know it, but over the past few months I've been involved in the Student Radio program at Radio Adelaide. More specifically, I am hosting the Wednesday installments of the 12-1am music and general interest bonanza that we like to call Midnight Static! Woo! I present with my chum and "bad music" buff Sebastian Tonkin, who plays all sorts of odd stuff alongside the little pop nuggets I try to unearth each week.

Here is a photo of us looking super charming in the studio:

Such faces are wasted on the radio...

Anyway, if you're up between 12 and 1 on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning, tune in or listen online at http://radio.adelaide.edu.au

(Shameless self promotion over. Now back to thinking of actual things to blog about.)

http://studentradio.com.au

Sincerely, Grizzly

2010-03-01T20:06:00.007+10:30

These guys have been kind of elusively on my radar for the last six months. Despite playing a show with them I still had little idea of their sound due to a combination of fatigue and... well, thank you, Rocket Bar rider. When combined with the fact that their recorded work consisted of 15 seconds of silence on their myspace player, the combination of the unknown and the gnawing feeling that they might be awesome was pretty darn frustrating. It's times like these I'm glad Spoz videos songs, otherwise I'd have no idea what I was in for.

I don't really have an awful lot to say about their debut EP, except that I think it is pretty special. Somewhere between the way their multi-part songs weld together disparate time shifts and segments without feeling too laboured and inorganic, the lushly layered guitars and the choppy rhythm section, these four tracks are, as far as first sounds go, pretty sweet.

And Two-Face is just awesome, with all its somewhat jarring tempo changes and odd samples of Aaron Eckhart in "The Dark Knight". It's them at their most relaxed, effortless and effective, with a rad whispery chorus hook to boot.

Sincerely, Grizzly - Two Face

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On Dit

2010-02-22T18:01:00.007+10:30

In case you are a student of the University of Adelaide, cut through the campus as a thoroughfare or are just into great local magazines, On Dit is back for another year with a renewed vigour and a newfound coherence (and pretty layout). The Editors have made something really great out of the unenviable task of trying to edge this 78 year old student newspaper out of the rut of shambolic mediocrity it seemed to be edging towards.

And, of course, yours truly made a contribution to Issue #1 with what else but a piece about the Adelaide band scene called "Mapping The Scene". It features a map of the scene (or part thereof) and the connections between bands, as above. The final nice looking print version has a few connections missing so for completions sake, here is my draft of it.

Read it online here or here, or go and get one from campus. They look so nice in real life it's not even fair.

http://ondit.com.au

Anthony Wignall

2010-02-17T00:49:00.004+10:30

Anthony Wignall has played guitar in a lot of bands over the years. From Zeta to Deja Entendu, Oh My Guard! and most prominently The Keepsakes. He also writes pretty amazing songs, with acrobatic melodies that just seem to flow completely effortlessly from, all delivered in his great Lucksmith-y voice with a distinctly Australian sound. The nice kind of Australian sound, the one that feels like suburbs and parks.

Since apparently The Keepsakes are no longer gearing towards an EP release (the tracks of which have been on myspace for some time) and are instead working towards an April album release, I thought I'd hold off on the full band tracks and instead share a couple of equally awesome demos he put on last.fm. In a lot of ways his songs are even better served in a sparse acoustic setting with the sounds of birds outside bleeding into the recording. For me no studio full band version of "Paper Bridges" can top the great vocal multitracking and buoyant melody of its acoustic demo version "Practice". Man thats a sweet song.

The Keepsakes are playing a little acoustic February residency at the Exeter, of which 2 shows remain I think. A nice way to spend a Monday evening, I think.

Anthony Wignall - Practice

Anthony Wignall - Bells

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photo by Sia Duff.

New Honey Pies

2010-02-14T12:36:00.001+10:30

Since I first gushed uncontrollably about The Honey Pies back in August, I've finally got around to seeing them live (twice, in fact, in different configurations) and my appreciation has only become more potent. That and I managed to get a hole bunch of old, crackly distorted but awesome home demos from when Jon had yet to form the rest of the band, including the amazing 'Diving Bell', which is given a whole new depth live with those sweet, slightly off kilter three-part harmonies in the "seriously-Jon-Marco-it's-not-even-fair-how-cool-that-melody-is" bridge. I get that feeling a lot actually.

Anyway, this week they released the fourth and final track to their demo CD "Oh Hi We Didn't See You There, We're.... The Honey Pies", a whole 3 months after the first three tracks became available. While 'Too Cool For School' isn't quite as shinily recorded as the earlier tracks, it nonetheless rounds out the release nicely, with a cool backwards solo/outro section that kind of sounds like a lo-fi outtake of Revolver. Got to love the tongue-in-cheek triteness of the rebellious lyrics and title.

As always, this track and all them other beauties can be downloaded, possibly for free, at their website....

Oh, this is an utterly brilliant live set courtesy of the folks at Radio Adelaide.

And they're playing with We Grow Up and The Keepsakes on the 26th of February at the Jade Monkey. Damn my shameless self-promotion, damnit to heck.

The Honey Pies - Too Cool For School

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Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!

2010-02-12T10:14:00.011+10:30

You know, with 'Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres', we've now been privy to five tracks from Sea Priest, the debut of Adelaide's big hope for 2010. That's pretty much half the album(!) If they are anything to go by, it shall be a dizzyingly eclectic but strangely coherent mash of styles that capitalises quite nicely on the potential shown way back with 'War Coward'.

This tune is shiny. The guitars are big and crisp, with a tone that's kind of removed from their last couple of singles yet has an angular, duel-guitar interplay that recalls the dance-punkiness of their earlier work. Obviously though, this one is a huge step forward in terms of melody and song craft. It retains the half-buried vocal mixing of their previous bunch of singles, which in this case helps prevent it from becoming just a flat out dance-pop tune, and rightly so. That and the fact that it is just such a behemoth, kind of like a more "up" continuation of the lurching monster that was 'War Coward'. It's cool the way it marries so many elements of their myriad of past sounds with a fully formed pop sensibility that still manages to be knottier than most JJJ radio fare.

An slightly left-of-centre summer jam, perhaps a bit late in the season, but still pretty cool.

I like that it makes full use of their duel vocalists David Williams and Caitlin Duff, though I've just got to shake of the unnerving feeling that it's a duet between Daniel Rossen and the girl from Operator Please.

Sea Priest is slated for a March release, and should be huge, surely. Judging by the album cover alone, it is destined for the st(rad)osphere.

Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres

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Box Elder

2010-02-08T12:17:00.010+10:30

Box Elder are a young five piece from the Adelaide who play from the same school of thought as Steering by Stars and the now-defunct Billy Bishop Goes To War, with disembodied, atmospheric vocals and swirls of shoegazy and melodic guitars.

They've managed to strike a really effective balance across their three guitarist line-up, with each player weaving in and out of each other adding texture and nuance across a track without ever becoming cluttered, something that comes across really well in the mixing of this track "Vega". The bass and drums are no slouches either, with all five elements really coming together organically and cohesively.

Another tune from these home recordings (Folk Hands), which I guess will surface as an EP sometime in the future, goes for around six minutes with no vocals (in the unfinished version I've heard) and is entirely reliant on the riffing, and it's really quite captivating. The guitar tone as well, I can't really describe it, but it's that clean almost surf-rock/spaghetti western kind of sound, but much slower and more melodic. It's ace.

They're playing a show at the Metropolitan Hotel on the 20th, with the coolest gig poster concept I've seen in a while. (Note: I am also playing this show, but I swear I am not biased at all.)

Box Elder - Vega

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Knit Factory

2010-02-05T14:58:00.014+10:30

While most of these tracks aren't exactly brand new, I've only really been fawning over them over the past month or two, so I thought I'd share them anyway.

Best Coast is Bethany Cosentino, an American songwriter who relocated back to California and started making appropriately dreamy garage pop with a terrific lo-fi sensibility that goes nicely with the pristine sounding melodies and vocals.

Best Coast - When I'm With You

Micachu & The Shapes are a band out of England led by talented producer/songwriter Mica Levi. A friend saw them at Glastonbury last year, and when they happend to be playing down the road from my hostel when I was in Melbourne for GB, I jumped at the chance. They did not disappoint.

Micachu & The Shapes - Wrong

Deep Sea Arcade had been one of those bands you know the name of, read about a lot on Triple J playlists but generally ignored. I don't know why but I kind of expected them to be some kind of Nu-metal act for some reason, and how wrong I was. Great tight 60's pop with a sweet chorus hook

Deep Sea Arcade - Lonely In Your Arms

Zeal is the bedroom electronica project of Adelaidean Robert Jarvis, and Wasps is the first track from his new album which was assembled using his array of modified Playstation midi-controllers. It also features guests like my band-mate Anthony and them folks from Radio Spectacular!!!

Zeal - Wasps

Sam Clark

2010-02-04T12:00:00.004+10:30

So here was I thinking Ringo Brown left Neighbours to become a paramedic. How wrong I was! Kind of like this song is wrong. And it's accompanying video.

Up until now I think I've managed to avoid being a snide little critic and only posted music I genuinely enjoy, but man, this is so awful. I thought the music industry stopped working like this around 2003. For some reason I can't shake the feeling that it reminds me of David Brent's foray into pop music.

I love the totally unnecessary "tender" piano outro that doesn't even try to tie in to the 4 minutes that precede it.

Take Donna back Ringo, Zeke and Karl need you. Maybe Alan Fletcher & Waiting Room need a new guitarist.

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Svavar Knútur

2010-02-02T15:43:00.007+10:30

Over the past week I've been at Radio Adelaide quite frequently doing some training for Student Radio this year, and aside from the joyous experience of realising my ad-libbing skills are beyond woeful and being flummoxed by a control panel, I got to meet an Icelandic singer-songwriter called Svavar Knútur.

While waiting for a practice studio to free up, this guy who looked like a cross between a backpacker and a teddy bear came in off the street, ukulele in hand, and asked if he could please be interviewed. The Range team managed to fit him in and he proved to be hilarious, and talented to boot, regaling us with his ukulele-driven reinterpretation of the folk classic "Clementine".

It was remarkable enough that we all came out to his show at the Grace Emily that night. Suffice to say it was amazing. Between sweetly hushed acoustic tunes about melancholy and loneliness, he literally had me in tears with hilariously bawdy stories that I shan't repeat here, and a truly genuine appreciation for our appreciation of his music.

It was during an in between song break when he ruminated on quitting his job to become a few years ago to be a musician, something in retrospect motivated by his more recent diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder. He remarked that during meetings and work days, he would just zone out and think of melodies, but now playing music around the world makes all those 'butterflies' go away.

He then proceeded to play a song that went "Let's get f***ed up in Leipzig on a Sunday night, we'll get into a fight with the polizei!", complete with a hefty ukulele driven mid-section where he brought out renditions of the covers requested by drunk Germans in Leipzig, from 'Living on Ze Prayer' to 'Eye of the Tiger', and my personal favourite, 'Firestarter' by Ze Prodigy, complete with sung synth lines.

Perhaps the best Thursday evening yet this year.

I've been playing his album Kvöldvaka pretty much non-stop since then, and it is fantastic. Apparently it was recorded with a whole bunch of friends (the list of backing vocal credits is staggering) with two microphones between them all, in the studio of Sigur Ros. So, apparently all Icelandic musicians do know each other.

Svavar Knútur - Clementine

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Dr. Ianto Ware

2010-01-29T00:09:00.003+10:30

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

2010-01-27T19:44:00.012+10:30

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

2010-01-24T15:54:00.006+10:30

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

2010-01-20T14:26:00.006+10:30

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

2010-01-18T20:06:00.007+10:30

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

2010-01-12T17:02:00.010+10:30

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

2010-01-10T15:50:00.004+10:30

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

2010-01-08T13:06:00.010+10:30

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.

Hottest 100

2009-12-26T16:58:00.011+10:30

It's that time of year when we take stock of our listening habits for the past 12 months and I realise just how homogenous my musical tastes really are. This year's Hottest 100 shortlist has been an especially straight forward mix of nice melodic, Triple J-favoured indie-pop made by white people with acoustic guitars handy. Not a particularly edgy list, especially after Lisa Mitchell and edged out Animal Collective, and I just plain gave up on my usual practice of voting for obscure local tunes that had barely scraped a couple of spins on Home and Hosed, didn't make the shortlist and hadn't a chance in heck of making it into the final countdown, but what the hey, here is my fairly unadventurous, pretty homogenous but y'know, still pretty nice top 10.

Leader Cheetah - Fly Golden Arrow (Pt. 1)

The Middle East - Blood

Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For The Others

Sarah Blasko - Hold On My Heart

Washington - How To Tame Lions

Oh Mercy - Get You Back

Bon Iver - Blood Bank

Dirty Projectors - Cannibal Resource

Lisa Mitchell - Clean White Love

Cloud Control - Gold Canary

Sally Seltmann

2009-12-21T18:38:00.009+10:30

If questioned about New Buffalo's music I would shamefully have to plead woeful ignorance. Despite having a passing awareness of her much fêted second album Something, Somewhere and that elephant in the room, the behemoth hit she spawned for Feist in 2007, my only actual exposure to her music was a cover of Crowded House's 'Four Seasons In One Day' from the excellent She Will Have Her Way compilation.

But thank you Mess+Noise for shaking me out of my living-under-a-rock-ness by bringing this, her first single under her own name, to my attention and making it the soundtrack to my November/December. At the risk of having someone confuse me for a lady for the kind of "sensitive" gush I write about here (thanks again, Megan Washington), this song is endlessly lovely. Swaying between moments of shimmering intimacy and bursts of lush drums and momentum building shininess. It positively drips with lilting sweetness yet doesn't make me want to vomit (unlike her current press picture which is a little saccharine even for my tastes).

Her third (or debut, whichever way you look at it) album, is titled Heart That's Pounding, which seems a pretty appropriate title.

Sally Seltmann - Harmony To My Hearbeat

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Bishop Allen

2009-12-16T12:04:00.006+10:30

I first got turned on to this Brooklyn duo-come-quintet through the film 'Mutual Appreciation', an earnest, scratchy little black and white 'mumblecore' film by Andrew Bujalski. In it, Bishop Allen frontman Justin Rice played (although I'm unsure how much acting was necessary) a struggling Brooklyn musician, who had recently moved to the big apple to restart his band The Bumblebees after breaking up in Boston. It's quite a nice little film, and featured a few Bishop Allen songs from their first album Charm School, notably 'Quarter to Three', which Rice plays in a duo at a live show within the film.

It turns out they had released two albums and achieved some level of online notoriety through the "EP project", where they spent 2006 writing, recording and releasing a new EP for each month of the year. Their second album The Broken String was composed largely of cuts from the huge pool of material generated in that year and features sweet tunes like 'Butterfly Nets' and 'Rain'. Unfortunately I bought this album while on a family road trip, and for a while it was the only new CD I had, so it is somewhat dead to me after countless hours of repeated listens in the back of a car driving to gosh knows where and now gives me a feeling of claustrophobia whenever I listen to it. My bad, fellas.

This year however, they put out a new album of material, Grrr..., that allowed me to enjoy their tunes without feeling like I'm back in the car in the 6th hour of a 10 hour journey. Better yet, they retained that nice twee acoustic vibe whilst getting a lot more upbeat and drum-driven, a return to their first record.

Annnnyway, my parents, the lucky devils, just got back from a trip to America, and while in Brooklyn they went and saw who else, but Bishop Allen, pretty much because it was the only name in the "listings" they recognised because of my over-listening. My dad really enjoyed them and thought they were were having fun and sounded nice and punchy, as one would at the final homecoming show of a tour, although my mother just thought they were too loud and rocky (Bishop Allen, really??), but she did love Darbie Nowatka-Rice. She was also somewhat peeved that they only started playing at 11pm, despite doors opening at 8pm... but I'm pretty sure shows are like that everywhere, no?

(photo taken by my Mum.)

In conclusion, my parents, both past 50, went out to a hip indie pop concert at some crowded New York venue whilst surrounded by hip young New Yorkers getting their twee-rock on. Isn't that a beautiful thing.

Bishop Allen - Oklahoma

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Two Thousand and Knit

2009-12-11T13:29:00.029+10:30

It seems a little self-indulgent, but what the hey, that's what this blog is for. So, in no particular order (except for the first), here is my inevitable 'best-of' list for the past year.

Favourite Album:
Leader Cheetah - The Sunspot Letters
Spirit To The Bone

Not just the best local release, but for me this is up there with Veckatimest and Bitte Orca. I enjoy pretty much every element of it; the nostalgic yet contemporary songwriting and neurotic shaman vocals of Dan Crannitch, the subtle yet dextrous rhythm section and the rich vocal harmonies and hooky lead guitar melodies (with that beautiful 12-string Rickenbacker) of Dan Pash. My one point of detraction would be the mixing and mastering of the thing, which is a little loud and confronting, with maybe a little too much weird reverb thrown on everything, which doesn't really suit the sound an awful lot. But that is really nitpicking, because in every other way it succeeds. Now it is just a matter of waiting for the follow-up.

Oh Mercy - Privileged Woes
Get You Back - Acoustic

Since these fellows won an unearthed competition at the start of 2007 I've been anxiously anticipating this album from afar with unhealthily frequent trips to their myspace to check on their progress. In that time they've gone through a few drummers, a few setlists worth of songs and made a nice but unreleased 2007 EP before settling on their current brand of incredibly tight and catchy nostalgic pop. Aside from a few underwhelming moments, this album met pretty much all of my expectations and delivered a few pleasant surprises along the way, with meticulously written pop nuggets such as 'Lay Everything On Me' and 'Get You Back' alongside the lofty melodies of the suitably ethereal 'Met A Wizard' and the riffy cool of 'Can't Fight It', which gives the album's second side a great boot up the arse.

Humble Bee - When I Should Be Sleeping
Happy

This album is so darn nice in it's own simple little way. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much, but it's something between Carly's happy, sad but always endearing lyrics and delivery, Ben's nimble little little guitar arrangements and melodies and that general feeling of intimacy and warmth that is exuded across the album's 10 home recorded tracks. It's the kind of unassuming debut that few bands would dare to make, and it is all the more special for that.

M. Ward - Hold Time
For Beginners

My friend Tim turned me onto this album early in the year, and although I haven't revisited in a while, it is still one of the nicest "public transport listening" albums I've heard this year. It's brilliantly lush, calming escapism. I just realised looking back over this list that at the end of the day, my tastes can be distilled down to a pretty homogenous mix of 'nostalgic', 60's influenced pop with sweet melodies and nice acoustic and clean electric guitar textures. But what the hey, I dig that.

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
All We Ask

I wanted to avoid listing the more obvious albums, like Bitte Orca and this, but to be honest, I've gotten so much out of this it'd be misleading not to list it. While it is undoubtedly relentlessly inspired, for me the best moment is the simplest and briefest; the final stretch of 'All We Ask', as all their falsettos join together to deliver the buoyant, simply golden refrain "I can't get out of what I'm in with you", which sums up the album in a lot of ways: often sombre, reflective lyrical themes about troubled relationships rendered with the most splendid, uncharacteristic technicolourjoy with rad 4-part harmonies to boot. That 20 odd seconds is definitely one of my favourite musical moments of this year, followed a little later by "BITTE ORCA ORCA BITTE!!!!!!"

Sarah Blasko - As Day Follows Night

What a swell record. Her voice is just perfect, the production and arrangements are unobtrusive yet rich and fresh and timeless, and it has generous lashings of singing saw throughout. Her songwriting too is at its simplest yet most genuine. What's not to like? And her Norwood Town Hall show this year was perhaps one of the best shows I have seen this year, and I have seen many.

Clue to Kalo - Lily Perdida
The Infinite Orphan, By The Familiars

I know it came out in 2008, but I only got ahold of it in very late December, and I've been listening to it consistently ever since. Catchy, well written and fluidly structured songwriting and interesting, dynamic pop-folk arrangements with lashings of electronic crackles and lo-fi boy-girl vocals, this album, like it's titular protagonist, is at times beautiful, bewildering, dense, penseive and lost, and that it still sounds remarkably consistent and cohesive is quite impressive.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
The Sweetest Thing

I just realised this album came out in 2009, having only recently started listening to it I presumed it came out sometime last year. Even though it hasn't been with me for very long, it has such sweet melodies and an intoxicating atmosphere, with the unrelenting mid-tempo bop and lushly hooky string arrangements courtesy of Bjorn Yttling (who also produced the equally gorgeous As Day Follows Night, mentioned above) that I would be remiss to omit it. And Traceyanne Campbell has such a delicious, endearing voice, I am ashamed to have only just started listening.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Useful Chamber

Woe betide me for omitting this one from the original post, but this was another amazing album that just keeps giving. Unlike Veckatimest, the other hugely hyped international album that made it in here, I haven't been quite as guilty of relentlessly over-listening to this one, so it still sounds pretty fresh and rewarding having not ground every note of it into the deepest recesses of my brain. What an amazing year they had, from the opening David Byrne collaboration of the Dark Was The Night compilation, which set an impossibly high standard for the rest of that pretty sweet disc, to this, completely and utterly delivering on the promise of that briiiilliant tune. I'm guilty of being completely ignorant of their entire back catalogue, but with Bitte Orca that just isn't a problem. It's the perfect introduction, an immediate, impeccably crafted record that grafts brilliant vocals with breathable arrangements and approachable sounds, whilst still being knotty as hell and and batshit mad for the majority of it. Once again, BITTE ORCA ORCA BITTE!!! I believe I have made my point.

The Crayon Fields - All The Pleasures Of The World
Disappear

I'm definitely a latecomer to this band and album, but in the past few weeks it's really impressed me. It's kind of like a more introspective, less straightforward and ultimately more inventive and lush flip-side to the similarly timeless, immaculate retrospective pop of Oh Mercy's album. And the more I listen to it, the more Geoff O'Connor's subtle yet, dare I say it, quirky lyrics just get better and better, full of lines like "I hear drowning's quite pleasant when you've swallowed enough, and a tiny orgasm can be felt in a cough" and "I scruffed up my collar, just to feel you straighten it out". So sweet, and kind of nice coming from such a unassuming little fellow as he.

The British Robots

2009-12-11T12:23:00.000+10:30

The British Robots might be familiar to students at the University of Adelaide for a couple of reasons; they represented the Uni at the state finals (and later national finals) of the National Campus Band Comp, and can sometimes be seen, for little apparent reason, to partake in small acoustic shows on the Barr Smith Lawns. They were also apparently in the film 'Coffin Rock', which featured a guy terrorising one of McLeod's Daugthers. Pretty sweet, hey?

With duel vocalists Mark and Zoe, the band make a leafy kind of pop-rock with sparkling melodies and at times bluesy guitar, occasionally spiced up with rollicking upbeat numbers like early vibra-slap infused single 'Trickster', where Zoe's cute vocals become an almost menacing growl. With this first song from their debut EP, Mark takes the lead and delivers a pretty priceless little melody, and even though it opens a little abruptly, and Zoe is a little under-utilised, it makes for one charming little tune.

And it's name escapes me, but they have one super folky song they play live where everyone drops what their doing, picks up a tambourine and sings. "So you'll wait..." or something like that? That song too, is pretty brilliant.

The British Robots - Favourite Shade

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Crayon Fields

2009-12-06T16:02:00.008+10:30

I remember seeing Steph from Home and Hosed write about this Melbourne band a while ago, but I don't think I ever got around to actually listening to the track. It was a nice surprise then when I went out to their local album launch last night (mainly to check out the supports, I'll admit) and found them to be pretty darn endearing. Little did I realise they've already had a stack of airplay and two pretty favourable Pitchfork reviews.

With the trembling vocals and melancholic whimsy of singer-guitarist Geoffrey O'Conner, they are somewhat reminiscent of a non-acoustic Tigermilk-era Belle & Sebastian, with interweaving, reverby electric guitars and layered vocals akin to the nostalgic pop of the last Mystery Jets album with a more sedate and introspective edge. Live, I really enjoyed their other members' tight vocal harmonies, something that on first listen doesn't really come across on the record, but adds a nice flavour to the subtle organs and baroque pop instrumentation that augment their 4 piece sound.

Crayon Fields - All The Pleasures Of The World

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Dan Kelly

2009-12-04T01:49:00.009+10:30

I saw Paul Kelly last night and was a tad disappointed to see that Dan Kelly no longer plays in his band (no offense to Ash Naylor, who was quite gnarly nonetheless). Anyway, it is cause to revisit his own stuff, which I first started listening to at my guitar teacher's behest back in high school (I still never learned that solo from Drowning in the Fountain of Youth... just think of the mad chops I could have if I persisted with it).

And you know what, it is pretty nice. His falsetto croon, suburban lyrics that are realistic but not quaint and vomit-inducing and those dastardly talented Alpha Males made for one special album back in 2006. According to his blog he is in the process of finally recording a follow-up, this time without his Males, called 'The Decommisioner', which features a bunch of talented people such as Dave from Augie March, who is clearly getting no rest in his main band's down time.

Dan Kelly - SUV Song

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Our Husband

2009-11-29T15:25:00.016+10:30

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

2009-11-22T23:39:00.009+10:30

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

2009-11-17T15:05:00.014+10:30

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!!!

2009-11-12T12:57:00.010+10:30

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

2009-11-06T13:09:00.001+10:30

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

2009-11-01T14:00:00.006+10:30

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)

2009-11-01T13:23:00.000+10:30

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)

The Honey Pies

2009-10-26T20:44:00.000+10:30

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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Bing Goes to Monaco

2009-10-24T11:20:00.007+10:30

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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Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!

2009-10-19T23:38:00.003+10:30

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 House

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Friends

2009-10-15T09:15:00.000+10:30

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

2009-10-10T01:19:00.000+10:30

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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Eiderdown

2009-10-07T16:21:00.000+10:30

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

El Perro Del Mar

2009-10-04T15:02:00.004+10:30

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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Steering By Stars

2009-09-29T12:26:00.005+09:30

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. 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 - Ether

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Boy & Bear

2009-09-27T12:56:00.003+09:30

Following up from the excellent single "The Storm", their first under the Boy & Bear moniker, "Mexican Mavis" in many ways reaffirms this Sydney band's love of the Fleet Foxes, in a similar manner to the Hungry Kids Of Hungary's unabashed Vampire Weekend pastiche in "Scattered Diamonds". This song sees the swirling pastoral harmonies of their first single augmented with a crunchier chorus and some nice spiralling guitar textures.

Again, the band centres around the voice of leader Dave Hosking, which sits somewhere between Seagull, Jae Laffer and maybe even Xavier Rudd. Like HKoH, it makes for a likably sunny Australian salute to some great overseas sounds.

Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis

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Aviator Lane

2009-09-25T01:35:00.002+09:30

Gravitating around the songwriting smarts of singer-guitarist Michael Radzevicius and rounded out by Rory O'Connor and Tom Smeets (both of Steering by Stars), Aviator Lane have been flaunting their intimate folk-pop wares around Adelaide and Europe for a few years. They strike me as the less eclectic, more introspective and hairier cousin to Adelaide's other premier digi-folk band, Clue to Kalo.

"Best Untried" is from their first album Common Distance, and has some nice programmed drums which lend a cool Postal Service flavour to the hushed, unassumingly emotive singing and shimmery atmosphere.

Aviator Lane - Best Untried

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