Mr. Percival – ‘All Of The People’

It seems like every week I’m falling in love with some new Aussie release, and I guess that’s the benefit of working at a music mag and a radio station – you get a flood of new CDs crossing your desk every day.

So my new musical infatuation comes in the form of Out of the Loop, the sophomore release from the truly amazing Bondi-based singer Mr. Percival (or Darren Percival as he’s otherwise known).  There’s not enough space to say how much I’m loving this album at the moment.  It’s such a positive, uplifting record and Darren’s voice is just phenomenal.  I mean, this guy trained under Bobby McFerrin – the same guy who sung ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’!!

Influenced strongly by gospel music, Out of the Loop is created solely by Darren’s voice – every drum beat, shaker, vocal backing and double bass is mimicked and created by Darren.  By utilising a variety of loop pedals, he records the backings and then has the ability to stop and start them whenever he wants.  Check out his MySpace page for videos, because it’s a hard one to understand if you’re not up with the workings of loop pedals. 

So everything you hear on Out of the Loop is created live, and that fact alone is mindblowing, and that’s before you even hear his heaven-sent voice.  He’s toured with some of Australia’s biggest acts, as well as graced the recordings of many a fantastic artist, including trumpeter extraordinaire James Morrison (not the UK bloke). 

He’s playing heaps of dates around Sydney, so go see him if you live there – expand your musical horizons, break free of your indie safety net and… just listen to this album!

http://www.mrpercival.com
http://www.myspace.com/mrpercival

Why do these kids, who annoy me so profoundly with their vacuous fashionista posturing, insist on writing these awesome songs? I mean Christ. It’s inconsiderate. That’s the problem with rock and roll, though, you know? Talent blesses the most random assembly of knuckleheads.

www.myspace.com/britishindia

Former Child Stars – ‘These Demons’

Former Child Stars is an Adelaide indie-rock five piece who formed in 2006 and have since released a debut EP, which was recorded at HotHouse Studio in St Kilda, Melbourne with engineer Finn Keane. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to listen to the EP, yet if the songs on their myspace are anything to go by then they have a knack for song writing, with the tunes baring catchy hooks not unlike the Strokes, yet without the jadedness of the New Yorkers. The band are getting stacks of good press around Adeliade, and much love from fans (not just the female fans either) on their myspace.

They are as dashingly handsome as the biggest major label band and though I haven’t seem them live, they seem to be a golden child of Triple J, with the demo of The Next In Line featured on Triple J before the band had even done a show. Former Child Star have a number of shows planned in Melbourne and Adelaide in the upcoming months, with plans to get to Sydney soon. Have a listen and let us know how bright you think they shine.

www.myspace.com/formerchildstarstheband

Sly Hats – ‘Vampire Sips’

Geoff O’Conner of the Crayon Fields steps out solo as the Sly Hats, uniquely cute and unassuming against bongo beats, wooden scrapes and a dreamy choir of sweet girl angels. Bespectacled and mooning over the long kisses of his vampiric love, he sings quietly and bravely with the full conviction of his geek lord stature. Fragile but adorable.

www.myspace.com/slyhatsmusic

The Crooked Fiddle Band – ‘The Butcher of Bessarabia’

Always had a soft spot for a good fiddler. I don’t know I guess it’s all the imagery of period films that comes to mind everytime I hear a violin getting ripped in the middle of a world music tune. This song jumped out of the radio when I heard it on Triple J as one of their unsigned finds. On their page they jokingly (or not) described their sound as folk/hardcore/roots music. I suppose it is pretty hardcore for world music. And some of the rhythms do have hard rock qualities, in reverse fashion as how System of a Down infuse elements of Armenian music into their rock songs. It’s not too hard to imagine that maybe, in days gone by Europe, gypsy music like this was the rebel underground movement that cool kids mosh to. Maybe they have their have their equivalent bands of Ramones-like concept bands or Sex-Pistolesque outcasts decried by their government as practicing the devil’s music. Would be an interesting art film festival entry I’d say. Gotta be smoking something good tho.

www.myspace.com/thecrookedfiddleband

Kiosk performing live at the Cake Shop in New York City last year.  It’s not the greatest quality vid, but it’s raw as fuck which is part of the reason I wanted to throw it up here.

Also, for those living in Sydney, Cat Kelleher, the vocalist for Kiosk (and you might know her from her solo hip-hop project Catcall) is performing in a play penned by playwright Wayne Tunks called Unrequited, which is on at the Newtown Theatre.  It’s running from May 30 – June 23. Tickets are $27, or $22 if you’re lucky enough to still be a student.  Go, it’ll be cool.  They’ve even got a MySpace site – www.myspace.com/unrequitedtheplay.

http://www.myspace.com/kiosk

The last time we talked about Dukes of Windsor I mentioned about how they sided with an iPod me too product to be able to record their album independently and keep ownership of the record. Since then their song ‘The Others’ have been remixed by hyper commercial electronic duo TV Rock, and have gained lots of mainstream airplay and boosted the band’s profile in the mainstream media, even getting the opportunity to perform in the cheesefest that is Australian Video Music Awards (MTV Awards down under). Again a good example of what can extend the life of a record, and in this case elevate it to another commercial level.

www.myspace.com/dukesofwindsor

For those of you who really love this song, here’s the original clip: