The Holidays – ‘Apparently Nothing’

Rumour has it that The Holidays haven’t even been together a year, but chances are if you have been to a local Sydney gig in the last 5 months you would have seen them play at least twice, maybe even three times. Earning their stripes as a likable support act on a number of bills, most recently, opening for UK sensation Jamie T at Candy’s apartment, they seem to be the flavor of the month. I saw them opening for Wolf and Cub and their tunes are well written and to be completely honest, they’re boyishly handsome look and indie scruff appeal didn’t go unnoticed. Style over substance I hear you ask, definitely not! If the sudden shift into cooler weather has you feeling a little down, take a listen to this recording of ‘Apparently Nothing’ and let me know what you think of this musical holiday.

myspace.com/theholidays

Jackson Jackson – ‘Eliza’

Just got this album yesterday and I gotta say it’s one of the more interesting albums I’ve heard from an Australian artist this year, both in its high production values and lyrical playfulness. They are playing the Corner Hotel in Melbourne tonight and I’m going so join me cos I heard they are pretty damn good live.

www.myspace.com/jacksonjacksonmusic

Plastic Palace Alice – ‘Empire Falls’

Part of the new breed of multi-instrumental indie bands directly influenced by the Arcade Fire phenom, Melbourne’s Plastic Palace Alice is getting some buzz locally, owing to frequent gigging with their Sydney counterpart The Seabellies and favourable spins on Triple J and local community stations. This song was produced by Jonathan Burnside who has done some work with The Sleepy Jackson, The Melvins, and local Nova FM favourites Dukes of Windsor. Check them out tonight at the Public Bar at The Espy, St. Kilda.

www.myspace.com/plasticpalacealiceband

The Checks – ‘Take Me There’

Their songs sound like any old retro rock band to me, kinda a bit of Jet, a bit of The Exploders, or any of those retro rock revivalist bands from the 80s, 90s or today. They are around 19-20 years old, been together as a band since they were 15 and originate from New Zealand. As the story goes, The Checks were playing a gig when they were ‘discovered’ by NME’s Editor who happen to be on holiday at the time in Auckland. He offered them a spot in the NME new music tour, and so they relocated to London, scored a record deal and recorded and released their debut album Hunting Whales. Next Noel Gallagher himself chose them to be the support for an Oasis tour in Australia. And then the chance to came up to support The Hives in Japan. Quite the rock n roll story so far. They’re touring Australia in late May playing small venues like Hopetoun and The Tote before going on the road for the Jet tour support. Catch them if you dig this song.

www.myspace.com/thechecks

Old Man River – ‘La’

Ohad Rein has an obvious and uplifting love of the Beatles, and ‘La’ has all the oddball romatic meanderings of a Sergeant Pepper cacophony, layered with hums, squalls, birdcalls and a crowd of supporters whose joyful enthusiasm will not be contained. The band plods merrily, the lyrics are silly and the melody rings with a familiar echo, but it’s clear Old Man River is really, truly in it for the music

www.myspace.com/oldmanriver

The Androids – ‘Whole Lotta Love’

Those boys who wanted to do Madonna return, with an opening riff that smells a bit like Jessie’s Girl. Otherwise, they rock dogmatically while preaching about how all we need is love because the times they are a changing, and besides which, war, what is it good for? They got whole lotta ordinary, is what.

www.myspace.com/theandroids

DJ Bonez – ‘The Hot (feat Blade)’

This sounds nothing likw Australian hip hop and I know a lot of people hate this kind of hip hop that makes itself sound so American, but I suppose that was probably the aim of this record, to blur the boundary between local and overseas production skills. DJ Bonez is one of the house producers of local hip hop giant Obese Records, based in Melbourne. He has produced for most artists on the label includes Hyjak n Torcha, label boss Pegz, Plutonic Lab, the country’s biggest hip hoppers Hilltop Hoods, and about 20 other releases listed on his myspace site.

Now I’m never gonna be saying that I’m an authority on the subject of hip hop, or even know it well enough to be a good critic/reviewer. I mean this sounds pretty good to me. To make things complicated I’ve been told that Ninja Art, the album that this track is taken off, is not even an original album but a rework/remix of another album of the same name. Hmm?

I try to keep an open mind however with Australian hip hop because it’s interesting to observe how the scene has been divided into two big camps and that is this Obese Records crew based in Melbourne, and the Elephant Traks crew based in Sydney whom I posted about yesterday. They each retain their own sound flavour because they seem to keep their circle of producers between themselves. Everyone else, like Macromantics for example, is pretty much outside of this scene. I hope to one day know enough to map out this scene but at this point in time I’m pretty much an outside observer. If anyone here knows more please do comment.

www.myspace.com/deejaybonez