Recent Posts

LISTEN: Pencil – ‘Departure’

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Pencil are Melbourne friends Ashley and Zahra from Zone Out, Liam and Jordan from Ocean Party and Andrè who plays in Hot Palms with the Zone out peeps. What a community. This is their new EP; recorded last week. It follows up their first cut released earlier this year which sounded more stripped back and guitar driven. The vocals were sweet and followed one catchy melody after the next. There is a danger of becoming immune to the charm of – dare I say it – ‘jangly pop’. But it’s not gonna happen on this new EP Sydney Weekend. This has more atmosphere and features Ashley’s vocal range to take the sound to a surfier, washed out place. Wes Anderson could shoot a film around this sound. It’s a more confident recording and gets closer to what The Twerps pull off by sounding like they invented the sound. Check the bandcamp for both EP’s.

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Pencil – ‘Departure

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LISTEN: Jeremy Neale – ‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’

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‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’ is the new single from Brisbane’s spy rock Star Jeremy Neale. This track is more of a melancholy outing than previous singles ‘Darlin’ and ‘Winter Was The Time’, but Neale’s talent for deliciously constructed pop songs with breezy immediacy is still out in full force. The chorus sneaks up on you, ripping through a hazy vocal and spring-loaded beat. Like the other tracks we’ve heard from Neale, this one puts his vocal squarely front and centre, which is a great move cause he’s got a hell of a voice that can charm your pants off and knock you out of your chair at the same time.

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LISTEN: Flight Tonight – ‘Lines’

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This track brings me back to the few months I spent wandering in the thick of a New York winter. Cosmopolis lives up to the impressionable catacomb it professes to be; bagels, another construction zone erecting tall stuff, crumply dollar bills, good looking dudes in suits.

After hours, it’s a real lonely place though. Loneliness becomes more apparent stumbling out of Death By Audio alone at 4.30am, discovering the Manhattan bound E train is closed for repairs, being chased by Donald Sutherland’s hobo ghost and having nothin’ but a soggy subway churro in your bag to point you in the right direction.

Flight Tonight producer Adrian ‘Edo ‘Rafter has created a real gem here. The vocalist who sounds like Lykki Li fronting Portishead on ‘Lines’ is Leure, the solo project of Ash Hendriks (Wolves At The Door).

Formulaic beat samples and the purity of song blur on this track. It’d be easy to write this off as another shot at sexy minimalism (Seekae have already siphoned the threshold of all good stuff said about that on this site). There’s that familiar thump, the ambient synth, the breathy wane of someone who’s probably rolling around in a bedsheet somewhere. Minimal production on ‘Lines’ echoes the way The xx’s careful, clean cut sounds allow Romy’s dim vocals pulling power. Although ‘Lines’ generates a curious feeling of absence and space, it still comes across as incredibly personal which leaves the biggest impression here.

If you like what you hear, make sure you check out Flight Tonight’s self titled EP via bandcamp.

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LOOK: Boomgates, Camperdown And Out @ GoodGod

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Including Eddy Suppression Ring-ers and Dick Diver-ers, awesome Melbourne janglers Boomgates came and kicked the doors off a sweaty, drunken, and packed GoodGod in Sydney at the weekend in celebration of their debut LP. Local lovelies Camperdown And Out (hey wait, where have I heard that name before?) held our hands before the main act but both more than justified the noisy chatter accompanying their every recent musical move.

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WATCH: Tame Impala – ‘Studio Sessions’

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Filmed in the band’s hometown of Perth, Western Australia. The performance was captured at Tame Impala’s home-away-from-home, the Norfolk Hotel basement. Performing tracks from new record Lonerism, – ‘Elephant’, ‘Apocalypse Dreams’, and ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’.

Lonerism Australian Tour 2012:

Wed 5th Dec, The Forum, Melbourne. (All ages, with guardian)

Thu 6th Dec, The Forum, Melbourne. (SOLD OUT)

Tue 11th Dec, HQ, Adelaide.

Wed 12th Dec, The Tivoli, Brisbane.

Thu 13th Dec, Enmore Theatre, Sydney. (All ages)

Fri 14th Dec, Enmore Theatre, Sydney. (SOLD OUT)

Sat 15th Dec, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth.