Dead Farmers – ‘The Suns of Thunder’

You know, with all this electro going down in Australia, I say it’s high time we shed our bright pink jeans and got back into our rock roots. Dead Farmers, with their unique brand of scuzz-punk madness are just the men to brink us back from the brink of fluoro madness.

Their tracks are non-stop blasts of distortion, with drums that sound like they’ve been recorded in the back of somebody’s truck and a whole lotta screaming. Remember when you used to jump around to Nirvana and yell like an angry chimpanzee in heat? Well I do (I was approximately fourteen and a half) and this kind of ‘who-gives-a-fuck?’ garage music takes me back to the days when ‘indie’ didn’t automatically mean The Strokes. Lead singer/guitarist David Akerman is on a one man mission to make as much noise as possible come out of an amp without blowing the thing up. If you haven’t seen these guys live, I highly recommend it. It might rip your eardrums in half, but hell, the point of being young is to screw up your hearing so you can pretend not to hear your own kids’ offensive music when you grow up!

Dead Farmers have supported The Black Lips on their Vice Party tour in January and are fixtures at a number of house parties and clubs across Sydney and Melbourne. They’ve got a debut 7″ EP out now (if there are any left!) and are currently recording an album. Listening to this stuff is the equivalent of drinking a glass of Tabasco Sauce. You have been warned…

http://www.myspace.com/deadfarmers

Birds of Tokyo – ‘Silhouettic’ (mp3)

It only took me about 20 seconds to realise this is the best thing Birds of Tokyo have ever done. Their first release, Day One, was a solid pop-rock album but something about ‘Silhouettic’ (which, by the way, isn’t in my dictionary Mr Kenny) pushes all the right buttons.

When you dissect it though, there’s not a lot going on, but the power of a well-written song is that you don’t need bells, whistles and fluff. Ian Kenny’s vocals are second to none, and the reason why he’s considered king amongst men in the alt rock scene in Oz. He carries this song that plain rocks, and doesn’t do much else. It’s just 3:25 of pure rock goodness, and why would you want anything else? Production is a step-up from the first album, enveloping the listener in sound. Check it out in your headphones!

http://www.myspace.com/birdsoftokyo

The Presets – ‘A New Sky’

“My, how you’ve grown!” muses The Presets’ frontman Julian Hamilton on ‘Talk Like That’, one of many standout tracks from the duo’s second release, Apocalypso. You’d be forgiven for thinking that he’s talking to himself. After all, The Presets have transformed from underground synth junkies into full-blown popstars in a ridiculously short amount of time. When their debut record, Beams, dropped back in 2005, they signalled in the beginning of the Modular Era, which would see thousands of kids squeeze into tight jeans and bright coloured tshirts and go absolutely apeshit for dance rock. But the Presets were always way ahead of the pack, leading the way with their increasingly dark electro tunes that would eventually become the soundtrack to the New Rave generation. And with hits like ‘Are You The One?’, ‘Girl And the Sea’ and ‘I Go Hard I Go Home’ being dropped in every single club in Australia (as well as abroad), it was only a matter of time before this band went into overdrive.

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Feist – ‘1234 (Vanshe Technologic Remix)’

Now calling themselves Vanshe Technologic rather than using the old Van She Tech moniker, the DJ/remix personality of Van She have – for some reason – decided to remix Canadian Feist’s iPod soundtrack, ‘1234’ (which was written by Australia’s New Buffalo). I’m not sure whether I’m into it or not: the beats and dirty synths are suitably electro/indie, but the vocal doesn’t seem to fit. But maybe that’s because I can’t get the original out of my head.

http://www.myspace.com/vanshetech

sleepmakeswaves – ‘One Day You Will Teach Me To Let Go Of All My Fears’

Now I’m not going to lie and say I’m the authority on the post-rock scene. But what I can say is sleepmakeswaves are the first of the aforementioned genre that you can actually listen to in one sitting without being bored out of your brain. Essentially, this band makes music for your head – a slow burning, hard-hitting fix for musos and nuevos alike. The great thing about post-rock stuff is that you’re likely to hear intricate guitar playing, crunching power chord blasts and swooning synths all in the space of about thirty seconds.

The trick with making these transitions effective is turning on the power at the right time, and making sure it’s switched to overdrive. SMW sounds like what would happen if Jeff Buckley never sang on his records; full of emotion and featuring many different sections that somehow fuse together to make a perfect whole. They’re already quite well known in the underground scene, having released their first EP at the end of last year and playing a whole host of shows with similar bands like Laura and Meniscus. Listen out for the metal riffage around the 1’38” mark, it’s to die for…

http://www.sleepmakeswaves.com
http://www.myspace.com/sleepmakeswaves

I haven’t heard from Sia for a while, turns out she’s making some moves in the States

Live on Jimmy Kimmel

Live on KCRW

The painful looking video for ‘Buttons’

http://www.siamusic.net
http://www.myspace.com/siamusic

Sarah Humphreys – ‘Waiting To Burn’ (mp3)

Last week, doing my little radio show, I discovered a great track by a Sydney artist called Michael Peter. And as good as the tune (the name of which evades me right now) was, it was the backing vocals of Sarah Humphreys that caught my ear. Inspired, I went on the hunt for her own solo material and have discovered a goldmine of sweet folk which marries a Missy Higgins-esque voice, dripping with the Aussie accent, with the intelligent pop of Clare Bowditch. Her music, particularly ‘Waiting To Burn’, has the joyous baroque feel of The Beach Boys and the rich vocals of Lennon & McCartney songs.

Her debut album, Teapot Trees and Love Birds, came out late last year and just by the songs I’ve heard on her JJJ Unearthed and MySpace sites, sounds like it’d be a beautiful chest filled to the brim with gorgeous melodies and sublime story-telling. If you live in Sydney, Sarah’s playing every Wednesday with Sara Storer and Bec Willis at the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills. Since I host my radio show on a Wednesday, I can’t make it, so I implore you, dear reader, to go along and check out this fantastic local talent.

http://www.myspace.com/sarahhumphreys