Rat vs Possum

Photo by Nicola Trethowan

Rat vs Possum – ‘Jungle Pills’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you’ve ever experienced Rat vs Possum live, then you’re probably still finding a crust of glitter behind your ears and shaking out a glittery rainstorm from beneath your luscious locks. For those not yet acquainted (and also residing in Melbourne) they’ll be bringing their loop-peddling, psychedelic acid trip twang to the Tote every Wednesday in July, supported by a flurry of Australia’s experimental finest. A debut album looms in the latter part of the year, but here’s the ‘Jungle Pills’ demo to help you channel tropical circus vibes.

Dappled Cities – ‘The Price’ video

The Price – Dappled Cities

Billboard analyses twitter effect on music sales

Since Coolfer stopped I went back to reading Billboard online. Their article on twitter made some good observations about how it affects music sales. Last week Yves Klein Blue’s team made the announcement that it was going to distribute a free download by signing up to follow their tweets. Unfortunately for them, launching the promotion on Friday meant they were over shadowed by the biggest newstories of the year. I would like to hear from anyone who downloaded the track?

Margins

Margins – ‘Shot’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Melbourne’s Margins create music that’s both minimal and cinematic; characterised by a sparse, efficient beauty yet big enough to fill out the barren, dusty landscapes it evokes. At least, that’s what I think of when I listen to their excellent self-titles LP. This song, and several others on said album, contains an unexpected left-turn half-way through that certainly keeps things interesting. If Nick Cave and Warren Ellis get sick of soundtracking Nu-Westerns, John Hillcoat should give these guys a call.

Upstarts: Vetna, Bright Yellow, Kleptics

whothehell.net presents… UPSTARTS at Spectrum, 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney

To win tickets, join our mailing list!

WED 1 JULY $8

Vetna – ‘Be On’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

www.myspace.com/vetna

BRIGHT YELLOW – ‘Funny Bone’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

KLEPTICS
www.myspace.com/thekleptics

+ HAT & HIM DJ’s

Lions At Your Door – ‘Turning Burning’

Lions At Your Door - ‘Turning Burning’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Lions At Your Door had one of my fav Australian tracks of last year with ‘Shake It,’ and now they’ve readied a debut EP that strangely omitts it. Oh well, there’s still their  band name-referencing track ‘LAYD’ somewhere on there. ‘Turning Burning’ isn’t quite as good as either of those, at least not straight away. Maybe it will grow on me? It’s more straight-up rock than the sexy dance-punk strut of ‘Shake It,’ but Cookie’s vocals still manage to give it enough edge to make me return for a few more spins.

Canyons – ‘Blue Snakes’

Canyons – ‘Blue Snakes’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Parisian producer Cosmo Vitelli has been running the label I’m A Cliche for the last five years and is celebrating this milestone via a double disc release called Moments of Crisis. The first disc contains past releases, kind of a greatest cuts selection, but the second disc contains new tracks by Simian Mobile Disco, Yuksek, and Australia’s own DFA signee Canyons. This track previews what we can expect from these producer duo form their upcoming album.

www.myspace.com/thecanyonsinfo

Decoder Ring – ‘Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom’

Decoder Ring – ‘Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Decoder Ring have put out some rad music in the past and have always had a tendency toward atmospheric and lush (hence why the were so well suited to the ‘Somersault’ soundtrack). Here, they filter that into dance-ish track that aims to surge as layers are accumulated. Things are very clean but never too slick, however, being a radio edit, the song feels stripped of a suficient build up to make the final release as euphoric as its intended. It still sounds pretty good, but hopefully the album version delivers a more moving rendition that capitalises on the song’s intial momentum. I have faith in the band, and await new LP ‘They Blind The Stars, And The Wild Team.’

Young Revelry

Young Revelry – Came Back Today (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As a band Young Revelry are pretty fresh on the scene, with less than ten gigs under their belt so far. The members of the band however have cut their teeth over the past few years playing in some of WA’s finer and more popular musical exports (The Silents, Harlequin League and End of Fashion).

As some of those projects fell away it seems Young Revelry has sprung up in their place, and what a fine new growth it is. It’s noisy, it’s sweet, it’s got jangly guitars, fuzzy sounds and plenty of rhythm section punch.

Young Revelry make it hard to pin down a nice ‘band A meets band B’ simile to make a neat comparison but I think that is probably a good thing.

For all you Sydneysiders you can check Young Revelry out when they play Oxford Arts Factory on the 3rd of July. If you’re silly enough to miss that they’ll be back again for a residency in September.

www.myspace.com/youngrevelry

Matt Corby

Matt Corby – ‘Letters’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Anyone who saw Matt Corby’s croonings on Australian Idol season 5 could tell that this was one talented kid, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who heaved a sigh of relief when he came runner up and promptly dropped off the mainstream musical radar, never to be tarnished by the same brush as the Guy Sebastians who went before him.

Two years later, though barely shy of his 18th birthday, some strategically placed facial hair has transformed the wunderkind into a dapper young gentleman capable of some serious heartbreak. ‘Letters’ is the first offering from his debut EP Song For, a lyrical ballad that’s Nick Drake meets modern day Wordsworth. It’s such a beautiful song and I look forward to hearing more from him.

Howling Bells – ‘Cities Burning Down’ video

TRAPS – ‘Standard Life’ video

Into The Ocean

Into The Ocean - ‘Idiots of Noise’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If the history of popular music has taught us anything, it’s that teenagers love angst they can dance to.

If you’ve got some time to kill (and let’s face it, if you’re on here you probably do), trawl through MySpace Music for half an hour or so. You’ll see the genres commanding the most attention from heavy users are post-hardcore/screamo and generic dance music. If you’re anything like me (and you could be) you’ll wonder, “Gosh, why hasn’t any band formed a fusion sub-sub genre from these sub-genres?”

Well, Into The Ocean have done just that and are onto a winner. Nine Inch Nails did something similar twenty years earlier and it worked really well for them.  Now, I promise I’m not being snarky, I genuinely like this track and although the band wear their influences on their sleeve, it comes across as more homage than imitation.

I missed the band’s EP launch last weekend, but I’m really keen to see if they can pull this stuff together live.

www.myspace.com/intotheoceanforever

Children Collide – ‘Chosen Armies’ video – 360 clip

Cool!

www.childrencollide.com

Upstarts 24 June 2009: Chambers, Ghoul, Danimals tix giveaway

whothehell.net presents… UPSTARTS at Spectrum, 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney

To win tickets, join our mailing list!
WED 24 JUNE – $8
CHAMBERS
www.myspace.com/chambersband

GHOUL – ‘Swimming Pool’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

DANIMALS
www.myspace.com/jontidanimals

Red Riders – ‘Ordinary’

Lol clip for new Red Rider’s single ‘Ordinary’, taken from forthcoming Drown In Colour LP. Honestly, who wouldn’t like this song?

myspace.com/redridersmusic

The Middle East – ‘The Darkest Side’

The Middle East – ‘The Darkest Side’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s hard to overstate how good these guys are. I’ve seen them twice now and both times they had the rooms’ fullest attention; the crowd hung on to every word and even get hysterical . I’m not exaggerating here, when they play The Darkest Side, girls in the front row weep. Whether they like it or not, they have created a very strong following over a very short time. It won’t be long before the rest of the international indie blogosphere fall in line and praise this band, I’m just glad I got here fairly early.

www.myspace.com/visitthemiddleeast

Tweet

We are now on twitter! Follow us: twitter.com/whothehellnet

Boat Beam

Boat Beam - ‘The Rain Pauly’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So it turns out that Josephine of Sparkadia is now in this gorgeously gentle folky trio in Madrid called Boat Beam, and they seem to be kinda popular (check their Myspace). How crazy is that?

p.s. I could listen to this song for days.

myspace.com/boatbeam

No Device – ‘We Were Lions’

No Device – ‘We Were Lions’ (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A couple weeks ago we posted a remix from this newlyish formed two piece band slash producer outfit from Sydney. They just sent us an original and it sounds pretty good for debut.

www.myspace.com/nodeviceband