Ghetto Pussy – ‘Cassette Sex’ (mp3)

Just when dirty electro couldn’t get any dirtier… along comes Sydney’s Ghetto Pussy.  Hell, it’s bordering on 90s happy hardcore!  With members like Pussy Tiger Lyck, Samurai Pizza Phat and CJ Hooker, it’s hard to know who these people actually are.  I did a bit of MySpace scrounging and found out that one member is Craig McVea from Lucy and the Pheromones and Charchie Ink.  The other two members may be someone named Rizzo (I don’t think it’s the same Rizzo from Rizzo & Pizzo though) and Anastasia.  But I may be waaay off the mark.

It’s late-night, liquor-soaked party music for kids in dark indie clubs wearing stovepipe jeans to be dancing til they pass out from heat exhaustion.  It’s in your face, bold and brash and unabashed sex music. This kind of uber-dirty electro seems to really be taking off now, with acts like the aforementioned Rizzo & Pizzo and Gameboy/Gamegirl gaining a lot of popularity.  I guess it’s just fun music to dance to.  What more could you ask for!

www.myspace.com/ghettopussymusic

The Evening Son – ‘Lemming’ (mp3)

Who said that Silverchair were the only good band to come out of Newcastle?  ‘Lemming’, from Novocastrian three-piece The Evening Son, has been getting a flogging on my stereo lately.  It has an old-school Stone Temple Pilots vibe to it, especially because of the electric and acoustic guitar combo.

The band formed in mid-2005 out of the ashes of another great Newcastle band, Paperhalo.  They’re hitting the studio soon to record an EP, so hopefully that’ll mean these guys will start playing around more often, particularly in Sydney.

http://www.myspace.com/theeveningson

Soft Tigers – ‘M.A.R.I.A’

Bucky of Soft Tigers gave me a demo of this song well before it went to radio and getting picked up by Triple J. I do believe this was the song that got them the Triple J Spotlight artist during Australian Music Month back in November. At the first few listens I cannot stop thinking how the feel of the guitar melodies in this song remind me of old Rick Springfield songs. They are different riffs, but just the general vibe of the song makes it very familiar and friendly. I love how they namedrop places in Sydney, makes me feel not as bad for spending too much time hanging out at those watering holes.

Simone’s Review:

Sydney love song where drunk kids carouse and out cool each other in the inner city. There’s a beery squall in the background and some bustling sound from the late night streets, a splash of colour here and there and a quiet break in the stop and start action at one point. Soft Tigers bring a hair’s breath of originality to the jarring jam of the Oz Indie Goes Eighties plague, but it’s a hair. Less with the fashion, more with the songwriting.

www.myspace.com/softtigers

Donnie Sloan – ‘Call You Up’ (mp3)

Don’t really know much about this guy, there’s no bios on his myspace. Tried to get him to give me a bit of a story but he never really got back to me. I hear this song get dropped quite often in clubs here and it has that 1980s Miami Horror feel to it. Should be handy for your next party.

www.myspace.com/donniesloan

Batrider – ‘Trouble (demo)’ (mp3)

A DVD just hit the market here in Australia called Sticky Fingers which is a “rockumentary” on the underground Melbourne music scene, and in particular the punk-rock sub-scene. Amongst the blurred amateur live footage which poor-quality, and some even poorer-quality bands, a few stood out. One such band was Batrider, a visceral four-piece punk rock band.

Originally from Wellington in New Zealand, I’m not sure when they immigrated to Australia because there’s not a lot of info on the band on the net. Blogs such as Polaroids of Androids and Get Big, Little Kid have screamed the praise of the band, and there’s a great interview with the intense frontwoman Sarah Chadwick at Mess + Noise.

Sleater-Kinney and Young & Restless are two bands that Batrider have been compared to, and I guess that’s because of the female vocal onslaught. It’s dark, it’s punk, it’s angry. There’s not much more to say.

http://www.batrider.com
http://www.myspace.com/batrider

KIM – ‘Wet n Wild (Riot In Belgium Mix)’ (mp3)

La decadanse had blogged this early in February and if you’re an overseas club dj deeply interested in the Australian electro scene then this type of incestuous remixing is probably your dream mix that you’d drop in the next Ipod battle night or whatever. This track was taken off KIM‘s oh-so exclusive Japan only released album System Breakdown. Not entirely sure why he didn’t release this in Australia, must be some marketing strategy of some sort. I’ve just listened to the track a few times and I think I like the original version better, or at least the one that I hear in clubs here anyway. For all I know it could be some sort of Bang Gang Van She Tech dub mix or whatever.

www.myspace.com/kimberleyisaacmoyes

Stature:Statue – ‘Make Haste Roman’

I used to live in a house of 6 people, 3 of which are big fans the prog rock/metal genre who think Omar from Mars Volta could be the second coming of the Christ. Of course I quickly got tired of it and just like the 1970s reaction to overbloated and self indulged ‘progressive’ music I turned to punk. It’s been a few years since I’ve given a serious listen to anything that can be roughly described as ‘prog’ but a few weeks ago I saw a band from Queensland called Stature:Statue. They’re definitely worth catching at least once even if you hate this kind of music as I did when I saw them. Very impressive live, I am only going to describe their sound as a cross between At The Drive-In and Blood Brothers. Anymore than that I’d be using overused and oft misunderstood adjectives that shouldn’t be used in music reviews, but common in bad label press releases. Anyway these recordings don’t do them justice, catch them live when they’re touring next in your town.

www.myspace.com/staturestatue