Shaky Hands – ‘You and I’

I’ve only seen these guys once but they definitely leave an impression, just like fellow frantic Kiwi rockers Die!Die!Die! and The Mint Chicks. It was at Purple Sneakers in Abercrombie Hotel and the friday night indie club night doesn’t usualy put bands on but made an exception for them. It was packed and took me almost an hour to get through, and once inside it was so crowded I could not really see the stage or the band. Phil the vocalist of the group is known for his wild stage antics and this night he decided to climb the rafters onto the rooftop next to the stage and yelled out some of his songs from there. Reminds me a lot of that guy from Les Savy Fav.

The Death Set – ‘Intermission’

You really only need to know two things about Sydney’s The Death Set, that is they are two guys, one part insanity the other part profanity. Beau Velasco and Johnny Siera are the two members, with the third arguably an electronic accompanist that plays some disco beat while the two main men sing abrasive half coherent ludicrousies into two vintage microphone stands. I saw them for the first time at the AM Eyewear party at Sydney’s Gaelic Theatre in Surry Hills, armed with guitars and without inhibition they had the crowd in a psychotic state, and were systematically stripped, abused and close to molested by a number of the audience members throughout the high energy set. Not only did they enjoy it, but they provoked it!

It’s an abrasive strand of dance pop they play, and definitely one of the most entertaining local live acts I’ve seen this year. Though with much of their time being favoured to shows in the US, they prove a rare act to catch locally, and don’t really have a huge name for themselves at least amongst scenesters in Sydney, however their EP To is out in Australia with a full length release rumored to be due out sometime in early 2008. It will be interesting to see how they attempt to capture blood, near death and two tattooed tortured bodies on record, but one thing’s for sure, The Death Set are armed with a musical recipe for mayhem.

www.myspace.com/thedeathset

teenagersintokyo – ‘End It Tonight’

“One word, all lowercase”, that’s how Sam of teenagersintokyo instructed me to spell out her band name. Actually I wasn’t sure if they were a band back then, more like really hot team DJing action that frequented cool underground indie clubs, Modular parties and advertising functions. Of course being the local Sydney radio identities that they were, getting involved in the live music scene was inevitable and all that interviews and gig going soon led them to morph into a band. They started out with five but soon lost their drummer to a wrist injury, and I was told they now perform with a drum machine instead.

They get a lot of comparisons with Brazillians Cansei De Ser Sexy, but those are usually based on their image rather than music. Both have crazy indie disco fashion sense and hot looking girls, but CSS has a much more clubbier feel to their music while these girls lean towards the no/nu wave revival popular of late in the Sydney scene. I’ve only seen them once and I believe it was one of their very first gigs at Brighton Up Bar in Darlinghurst, a tiny space of maybe 80 people capacity with no stage. Coincidentally it was also the same place where I saw Young & Restless for the first time. And now these three bands will have another connection, CSS is touring Australia early January and teenagersintokyo is supporting them in Sydney while Y+R is the support for Melbourne. All of them have very hot Asian girls leading so check them out yo!

www.myspace.com/teenagersintokyo

This one shot clip of Snowman‘s Andy Citawarman gives a hint of indication of his manic stage demeanor. My favourite cut from one my top 5 albums this year.

www.myspace.com/thesnowmanempire

Other Snowman Posts

Nina May – ‘Monsters In The Dark’ (mp3)

OK, so I have a bit of a confession to make.  I’m quite impartial to bands with female singers – hey I was in one myself – and yes, that does mean that I’m sometimes caught enjoying the odd tune by The Veronicas (they write catchy pop tunes, you gotta give them props for that).  But The Veronicas segue quite nicely into Nina May, because just like the Origliasso twins, Nina May are from Brisbane and they play pop music with distorted guitars as well.  Is it emo?  That’s one for you to argue amongst yourselves about..

But Nina May seem to align themselves more with the metal and alternative side of music, and it comes out in their riffs and song structures.  They remind me a lot of an unsigned band out of the States called Estrela, although I’m sure Nina May have never heard of them.  Nina May are just about to complete their debut EP and ‘Monsters In The Dark’ is the first taste of what’s to come.  It’s an extremely catchy tune, and if their popularity on MySpace is anything to go by, it seems as though a lot of people are digging this track.  I like vocalist Erinn Swan’s voice, although her lyrics leave a lot to be desired – you’ll find no deep and meaningful messages in here.  Aside from said track, the rest of the stuff on MySpace is poorly recorded demos and the songs don’t live up to the standard of ‘Monsters In The Dark’.  But it’s a solid start from a band who I think will appeal to a large audience looking for pop music with a bit of an edge to it.

http://www.myspace.com/ninamaymusic

Plug-In City – ‘Broke On A Wheel’ (mp3)

Plug-In City have all the characterists to become the new darlings of the sometimes fickle indie music scene.  They’ve got “cool” written all over them – be it in their promo photos, their influences and especially in their music.  It’s minimal, with enough keys and bleach-clean guitar to keep those eighties lovers happy.  Yeah, it’s one of those bands.

It’s getting to the stage where we can see over the hill of the indie scene.  Bands are all starting to sound the same and in my opinion, the beginning of the end is near for the minimalist electro/indie scene.  But amongst the tonne of mediocrity and clones, some gems do appear.  I don’t think this Melbourne group is doing anything extraordinary – in fact, I don’t really like most of what I’ve heard of these guys .  So why am I blogging about them? Well, I quite like their track ‘Broke On A Wheel’.  The limited-range vocals leave a fair bit to be desired, but they’re better on this track than the others.  But the music is catchy, and I can easily picture the indie guys and gals packed like sardines in Sydney’s fave indie spots like Candy’s Apartment and all the 34 Oxford St clubs going off to this track. 

Hey, it’s fun and we might as well enjoy it now before the scene implodes upon itself and all we’re left with is nü-rave.  And you don’t want that, do you?

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

Yen – ‘Emily’ (mp3)

We hardly blog enough on pop music so here’s a piece from Sydney outfit Yen. Not much is known about these guys except that they’ve entered Triple J’s Unearthed competition which is how I found out about them. I do like a good laid back pop number every now and then and these guys do it well. They are playing the end of year Peats Ridge Festival in New South Wales. This is a ‘sustainable’ festival, where part of the shtick is that the performing musicians get paid in free tickets for their friends and family. Not my kind of thing personally but lots of people dig it.

www.myspace.com/yenband