We actually blogged about this Melbourne act last year and now they’ve been signed to tastemaker label Modular Records.

http://www.plug-incity.com
http://www.myspace.com/plugincity

The Scientists Of Modern Music – ‘Easy’

Last week my mate Rohan bought a $700 Korg keyboard. Soon another mate Ross was showing off his skills with the built in vocoding effects, I believe his words were something to the effect of “give us a few weeks and we’ll write better songs than the (Midnight) Juggies!”

I have a feeling similar proclamations could have been made when Tasmanian duo The Scientists of Modern Music started out. Maybe they are victims of bad timing, but their sound is a bit old now considering how ubiquitous Oz electro-clash is. Signed to Rubber Records and recorded by Daniel Jones (of Savage Garden, remember them?) they’re not short on resources to come up with quality record, but the material and style is not exactly fresh.

Too bad because they are pretty good live, and the organisers of Falls Festival must really like them because they are playing both days this year. I saw them played on new years’ eve last year and they sounded pretty good then. Funny thing is the promoter told me “give these guys a year they will be bigger than the Midnight Juggernauts!!” True story.

www.myspace.com/thescientistsofmodernmusic

The John Steele Singers – ‘Smashing the speed of Sound on An Empty Lake In Utah’

A while ago I posted a band called Stature:Statue. The drummer Ross emailed me a few weeks ago about his side project, The John Steele Singers, 6 piece Beach Boys-ish brass/pop band from Brisbane. I went to see them play in Melbourne in Geddes Lane and unfortunately for them that was the shittiest sounding room in town, so they played a really short set and didn’t show off much after travelling over 2000kms for this gig. But the recordings sounds great, and they were once approached by the late Grant McLennan of the Go Betweens after a performance in Brisbane. Talk about a confidence booster. Their 5 track EP is out now, watch out for an album.

www.myspace.com/thejohnsteelsingers

Regurgitator – ‘Blood and Spunk’

For one reason or another it’s been a while since I’ve listened to Regurgitator, but ‘Blood and Spunk’ is an electric reminder that these profoundly creative, funny and forward-thinking musicians are the godfather’s of our ubiquitous electro-clash scene. The first single from their eighth album sees the band return to stylized, sample-driven punk with the usual pulse-quickening results. The muted four-on-the-floor bass bulging darkly from the room next door is a particularly nice touch.

www.myspace.com/regurgitators

Naked On The Vague – ‘All Aboard’

The first time I met Lucy Phelan, one half of Sydney duo Naked On The Vague, was at about 1am last year in the FBi studios. She had just finished her presenter course, and she was paired up with me for a couple of hours of a graveyard shift so I could guide her through her first on-air shift. I’m crippled with the inability to explain anything (I would be the world’s worst teacher), but she’s still hanging around the studio, so perhaps what I showed her stuck?

Lucy, along with Matt Hopkins, creates a cacophonous melange of no-wave, psychedelica, ravenous punk and electronic soundscape. Their abberant, seemingly non-directional noise tunes are fucked-up lo-fi pieces of music that jab straight at your eardrums. It’s almost bordering on art moreso than music – I’m hesitant to call it “noise art” because that brings to mind 11 minutes of static. The music found on their debut record, The Blood Pressure Sessions, is monochromatic, dense and at times claustrophobic – thrashed-out guitars, jackhammer drum beats, Lucy and Matt’s throaty vocals and waves of keyboards conjures music brimming with an anarchic punk ethos.

They’ve previously released a self-titled 7″ record, and the Sad Sun EP. They’re launching their debut record (being released through Dual Plover Records) at Sydney’s coolest new venue, the Oxford Arts Factory, on Saturday October 12. Guaranteed to be weird, but in a good way, not the Britney Spears way.

http://www.myspace.com/nakedonthevague

Kat Frankie – ‘Serves You Right For Using Violence’

A friend of mine described Kat Frankie to me as “sounding like angry lesbian music”. Kat definitely echoes the sounds of the 90’s alternative female rockers like Cat Power, Kristen Hersh and Ani DiFranco – but her voice reminds me a lot of Wendy Matthews. Have a listen to ‘The Day You Went Away’ here and tell me what you think.

Though she’s spent most of her life in Sydney, her music career began when she went to the creative hub of the Earth, Berlin. This is where she recorded her debut record, Pocketknife which was released only recently. She’ll get lumped into the folk genre, only because of her use of acoustic guitar, but its as folk as PJ Harvey is. Kat’s tunes are dark and fiesty and though I haven’t heard much of the record, I’m digging ‘Serves You Right For Using Violence’.

http://www.katfrankie.com
http://www.myspace.com/katfrankie

Thanks to YouTube, I found out that Kisschasy once played a secret show under the moniker ‘Milky Joe & The Coconut Band’. They score massive brownie points for being Mighty Boosh fans.

http://www.kisschasy.com
http://www.myspace.com/kisschasy