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WATCH: Teen Sensations – ‘Get Fit For Summer’

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As much as the pale, coat loving folks among us may try and deny it, the fact is – it is really goddamn hot. Good things can still come out of the sweaty season, and one of those is this super sweet surf tune from the Teen Sensations.  Ever wondered with a bunch of mid-twenties dudes pretending to be teenagers pretending to be The Beach Boys would look like? Look no further.

The video has the boys escaping from a boogie boarding ‘Dean’ and generally being hooligan youths ala. Today Tonight. It’s funny as hell and this track is tops.

You can also download the track for free on the Teen Sensations’ Unearthed page.

If you wanna follow their ongoing war with ‘The Dean’, and get plenty of life/ fitness tips, like the guys on Facebook.

(ps. Don’t Google ‘Teen Sensations’ at work.)

 

 

LOOK: Cutters and Two Bright Lakes Present – MMW

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With the vast expanse of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Great Hall transformed into a live music venue, the gems of Melbourne’s indie scene came out to play with the Gallery’s priceless collection. Featured as part of the Labels Series for Melbourne Music Week, the night showcased the best of the labels’ respective talent. With the neo-90s penchant of Two Bright Lakes, to the innovative electronica from Cutters Records, this was one hell of a variety night.

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WATCH: The Jungle Giants – ‘You’ve Got Something’

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Brisbane’s The Jungle Giants have a new video for their single ‘You’ve Got Something’. Taken from their current EP She’s A Riot, the video features my pet hate of shit being smashed then played in reverse but it’s actually a pretty good performance video and oh, it’s in black and white – which is cool. But forget all that. The Jungle Giants are probably one of the more underated bands of 2012. Really sweet pop. Way cooler than The Rubens. Vote for them in JJJ’s hottest 100, it’ll get you laid.

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Directed, Produced, and Edited by Anthony Salsone with Director of Photography, Kurt Riddell.

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Sugar Mountain

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Sugar Mountain has released its second line-up, adding to an already bumper selection for the annual boutique festival. Held over multiple days in January 2013, the main event takes place at The Forum Theatre on Saturday 19 January, with additional sites at ACMI, Rooftop Bar and Polyester Records. We love this festival as you can tell by having featured all these bands before. Check it.

The latest additions include:

Melbourne super group Boomgates, who began as a couple of friends having a loose Thursday evening sing and strum on a couch in Melbourne. Since then they’ve played a bunch of shows, released three 7″ singles and their remarkable debut LP Double Natural.

Brothers Hand Mirror are Grant Jonathon Gronewold (HTML Flowers, Cougar Flashy) and Oscar Vincente Slorach-Thorn (Oscar Key Sung, Oscar & Martin); two Melbourne bros. Predominately using tape loops and fast mouth tricks, Brothers Hand Mirror are inspired by tattooing each other, making comic books and zines, friends, coffee and sunbeams.

Collarbones need no introduction. Their current record Die Young will surely make all the hip 2012 lists, look out for pop conventions amid swathes of experimental electronica and elegant r’n’b laden hooks.

Sydney-based multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer JONTI makes playful, dreamy electronica. He has spent countless hours studying records like they were books, processing each song and testing his theories on a four-track recorder. If you love music, eventually you meet others who do too.

Melbourne based synth outfit FORCES will collaborate with acclaimed choreographer ANTONY HAMILTON (Chunky Move, Australian Dance Theatre, Lucy Guerin). A ‘must see’ one-off performance, curated just for Sugar Mountain.

Finally, AH Cayley’s pick for heart break, Lower Plenty. A bunch of sweet dudes from bands including Dick Diver, Deaf Wish, The Focus, The UV Race. Heavy on the downer country, Lower Plenty sound like an outer suburban Go Betweens, or a Paul Kelly song where he doesn’t name-check Melbourne landmarks all the time. Their debut LP Hard Rubbish was released earlier this year on local label Special Award Records, and pays homage to divorce and the Australian outback.

Tickets for the 2013 Sugar Mountain Festival are on sale now via The Forum Box Office, Ticketmaster and Polyester Records.

DIRTY PROJECTORS
ESG
PEANUT BUTTER WOLF
ACTION BRONSON
BOOMGATES
BROTHERS HAND MIRROR
COLLARBONES
FORCES X ANTONY HAMILTON
HTRK
HUNX AND HIS PUNX
JONTI
KIRIN J CALLINAN X KRIS MOYES
LAUREL HALO
LOWER PLENTY
NAYSAYER AND GILSUN
WOODS

With the visual arts and satellite programs still to be announced!

www.sugarmountainfestival.com

LISTEN: Brothers Hand Mirror – ‘Muddy Now’ EP

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Brothers Hand Mirror. Eclectic is what you can label the Melbourne duo from the outset. BHM is HTML Flowers and Oscar Key Sung (of Oscar + Martin) fame. You may not recognise HTML Flowers at first, but remember he’s that guy who featured on Collarbones with that asymmetrical haircut.

Before your eyes move on, here’s a little disclaimer. Technically, this is Australian hip-hop (loosely). But hey, it hasn’t been picked up by the J’s just yet, so let’s save your cringing ‘till later. If you were at the TBL-Cutters showcase at the NGV last week, then rest assured that you’ve been immersed in the stylings of Brothers Hand Mirror. I don’t think this music can necessarily be defined as such, but consider anything Two Bright Lakes puts out, as a relatively clear thematic goalpost.

This EP isn’t going to be an easy listen. The sheer amount of nuance/white boy rapping that’s going on here will require multiple listens. But this will make you dance – or even shimmy if you’re the most ardent of non-dancers like me. And I guess this comes through tracks like ‘Bleeding Apparition’. What underpins this release are the hip-hop influences that have made their mark upon most of the tracks. And it’s that brand of hip-hop which I like to consider the ‘golden age’. Not the emergence of gangsta-rap that Ice-T seems to cling to in almost every interview, but the visceral period of late-90s where the lines between mainstream pop, hip-hop, and r’n’b meshed into this now-nostalgic period in urban music.

You can add Brothers Hand Mirror to the list of acts touched by the wave of 90s nostalgia that seems be emanating from the alt-music sphere now. File next to How to Dress Well, or even Jonny Telefone.

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[EDITOR’S NOTE]

(via Tommy Sounddoc)

 

 

 

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LISTEN: Vol. 8 Mixtape

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It’s been far too long since I received a mixtape. The last I was given was a flimsy cd with some tacky love notes etched into the front and a list of songs waiting to be interpreted too literally. Still, mixtapes are a nice gesture. Kind of like the thoughtfulness of a pal buying you fresh vinyl or a pre-release, but not really as thrilling as doing a music hard-drive swap and discovering your friend’s skip-hop collection.

It’s our job to siphon out the good stuff, so we’ve compiled a load of our favourite new tunes for your essential summer listening. Our Vol. 6 mixtape is nearly notching 40K listens, so if that’s some indication that we can probably DJ at your backyard party, then hit me.

 

Vol. 8 from whothehell.net on 8tracks Radio.

 

(see below for full track list)

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LOOK: Sound/Light /Stone @ St. Philip’s Church

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Wintercoats @ St Philip's Church

 

Light Giant‘s post-rock-ish din and The Townhouses‘ endearing one-man electronics and guitar show are both great tonight, especially in this venue, but it’s Wintercoats – just one man, a violin and a loop pedal, who takes the prize tonight. Glitchy little string plucks sit behind swooping orchestral harmonies and his own haunting voice, all of which fills the vaulted ceiling with music made of equal parts joy and sadness. If that’s not what church is for, I don’t know what is.

So – whenever The Gate put on these Sound/Light/Stone shows at St.Philip’s Church in Sydney, you must go see them. Repeat that to yourself a couple times a day and you’ll be just fine. The next one’s in the New Year, and it will be a cracker, guaranteed.

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Wintercoats at St Philip's Church
Wintercoats at St Philip's Church
Wintercoats at St Philip's Church
The Townhouses at St Philip's Church
The Townhouses at St Philip's Church
The Townhouses at St Philip's Church
Light Giant at St Philip's Church
Light Giant at St Philip's Church
Light Giant at St Philip's Church