Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! – ‘Captain Thunder Hearts Mistress Ice’ (mp3)

Big thanks to Stuey from The Sandwich Club for turning me onto these guys.  Yep, Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! first captured my attention purely because of their awesome band name.  It also reminded me somewhat of The Arcade Fire, a band who I’m a particular fan of, and upon listening found that it wasn’t just their music that bore a resemblance to the Canadians.  According to their less-than-informative MySpace page, there’s six of them, but there could be four permanent members.

They hail from Adelaide, South Australia and play indie-rock like their life depended on it.  A tonne of energy accompanies their rocking, infectious tunes.  Solidifying their lineup in 2005, the band released an EP this year entitled You Seize The City, I’ll Seize The Sky which comes with some fantastic artwork.  There’s also a couple of tracks of an upcoming EP on the band’s MySpace page, and the one that’s featured on this blog, ‘Captain Thunder Hearts Mistress Ice’, is one of those aforementioned songs.

I’m not sure why these guys have evaded me for so long, but rest assured I’ll be at their next show when they come to Sydney town.

http://www.myspace.com/firesantarosafire

Dead Letter Circus – ‘The Mile’

First off – no, Bert Newtown isn’t in this band! (For those who don’t know, Bert Newtown is a famous Australian TV personality.) 

Whichever country you go to, regardless of musical trends, you’ll always be able to find what could be termed “pocket scenes”, or even “mini scenes”, where a group of bands stick close together, and it becomes almost incestuous, but not in the nasty kinda way.  One such scene is the Brisbane underground alternative scene, with a bunch of high quality bands all coming out of the same area, and the same half a dozen or so bands have the same MySpace top friends.  Yep, MySpace has finally become a cited social marker…

To me, the band that stands at the apex of that Brisbane scene is Dead Letter Circus.  They take a leaf out of the book of bands such as Dredg and U2 and lay on the delay and reverb thick and fast, but as a self-confessed delay junkie I like the tones that they’re making here.  They’re also creating alternative music that’s a bit more intelligent than the norm.  Bassist Stewart Hill plays excellent melodic bass lines, choosing not to simply follow the root notes of the guitar chords, and Kim Benzie’s soaring vocals add to the music a more dramatic mood, akin to someone like Clint Boge from The Butterfly Effect. It’s fair to say not everyone’s going to like his voice, but that’s a matter of personal preference…

The band have just finished recording their debut EP with producer Forrester Savell, best known for his work on Karnivool’s album Themata. I’m hoping they soon make the trek out of Brisbane and head down my way to Sydney because I’m quite keen to see how they sound live, and to hear some more material from these guys who I feel have quite a lot of potential.

http://www.myspace.com/deadlettercircus

Blackbird – ‘A Tainted Breath’ (mp3)

A couple of years ago – 2004, actually – I was searching through the Triple J Unearthed website for bands.  One band I came across was an all-girl group from Wollongong, NSW called Blackbird, and I was completely intruiged by their description.  However, there were no MP3s and they had no website.  I had nowhere else to go on my search until one day I saw a poster up at my uni saying that Blackbird were playing a show at the Palm Court Hotel in Corrimal (it’s a suburb near Wollongong).  So I went along and was very impressed by their great melodies and intelligent song structures.  Sure, they weren’t perfect, but they definitely had something captivating.  Touches of PJ Harvey, sprinklings of Muse, and great use of their dual guitar attack.

I’ve seen them a few more times live and still thoroughly enjoy their tunes.  They released a poorly-recorded EP Trimmings in 2005, which doesn’t really capture what they’re all about, but it’s better than nothing I guess.  They’ve won a fair few band competitions and supported some good Wollongong acts, but they haven’t played much around Sydney.  Just recently they lost their drummer Sally Wiggins (so if you’re a drummer and looking to play in a band, contact these girls).  They’ve been fairly quiet lately due to their drummer-less situation, so hopefully they find someone to hit the skins soon because I’m really keen to see what’s coming next for these Wollongong girls.

http://www.blackbirdsounds.com/
http://www.myspace.com/blackbirdsounds

Carlos Santone (Blue King Brown)

Welcome to the best awards ceremony of the year… it’s just a shame the weather wasn’t going to help proceedings.  The inaugural AIR Awards took place last night in Sydney at the beautiful Blacket Hotel (it’s hidden away so I never knew how great a hotel it is).  AIR is the Australian Independent Records Labels Association, and last night was organised to honour those Australian independent artists who had achieved so much in the past year.  It would have all been perfect had the weather not decided to change and catch everyone completely off-guard.  After sweltering in the Sydney heat for the past couple of days, the mercury dropped by about 10 degrees Celcius and a strong wind blew up as well – not helpful when the ceremony is held in an outside courtyard 9 storeys above the Sydney CBD.

Aside from the weather, everything else about this ceremony was fantastic.  It was a great crowd and I met some lovely people.  The food and drinks were top-notch – I ate my fair share of kebabs and drank quite a few beers.  Former Triple J and current Vega FM radio DJ Angela Catterns was the host of the awards and although she didn’t say a lot, she did a pretty good job.  It’s also the shortest awards ceremony I’ve been to – ever! I think all awards ceremonies should take a leaf out of AIR’s book!

We were also treated to some amazing live performances from Gotye and The Basics, two of Who The Bloody Hell Are They’s favourite bands (check out Jerry’s review of last week’s Gotye/The Basics Melbourne show here).  It was great to watch two quality acts in such a small venue.  Gotye was amazing as always, treating us to some songs off his album Like Drawing Blood during the middle of the awards. He was very relaxed and joked with the crowd.  He played solo most of the time (just Wally on the drums and a backing track) but was joined by members of The Basics for the final song of his four-song set. 

Once the awards were completed, The Basics, in all their 60s pop glory, entertained us with their catchy tunes, and they may well be the best dressed band in Australia.  I was hooked when they opened with ‘Rattle My Chain’; just a fantastic way to open a set.  I was worried that the small PA and high winds would have affected the sound, but there was no problem at all.  I got to meet Wally (aka Gotye) and Kris from The Basics, both of whom were fantastic guys.  For anyone heading to Homebake on Saturday, seeing both Gotye and The Basics is a must.

Congrats to all at AIR for putting such a great awards ceremony.  No doubt it will continue to grow over the years, but selfishly I hope it doesn’t because it works so beautifully on a small scale.  Anyway, here are the winners:

Best Performing Independent Album
Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road

Best Performing Independent Single/EP
Blue King Brown – Blue King Brown

Independent Artist Of The Year
Hilltop Hoods

Most Outstanding New Independent Artist
Gotye

http://www.air.org.au
http://www.myspace.com/ozindies

I’ve fallen in love lately with The Basics, a band featuring the drumming and singing talents of Wally de Backer, better known from the amazing Gotye project.  Now we at Who The Bloody Hell Are They love everything that invovles Mr de Backer and this song by The Basics is awesome.  It was recorded live at the Empress of India in Melbourne in August 2006.  It’s a great live recording and really showcases the live spirit this band possesses, as well as their immense talent.

Previous post: The Basics, Gotye & The Basics: Live

photo by Sir Wheatley

Tranterco – ‘Midnight Juggernauts vs Spank Rock mash’ (mp3)

Crunking party machine DJ Tranterco treats us to one of his signature crowd pleasing mashes combining Spank Rock’s ‘Bump’ with Midnight Juggernauts’ ‘Shadows’. I see dancefloors get bent everytime he drops this one off so download it for your next party mix right now. Tranterco is a regular at the Streetparty nights in Melbourne each week but you can also catch him at the Girl Talk and Uffie shows in December.

www.myspace.com/jesuswearyourhairdown

photo by Mia Mala McDonald

Muscles – ‘One Inch Badge Pin’

While I’m unsure if early 90s grunge music is ever going to make a fashionable comeback, Muscles is beating everyone else to the trance revivalist movement. Full of layered synths and unconventionally sung harmonies Muscles’ odd singing voice works perfectly for this tune. I’ve heard a few people say this song is about indie music betrayal, but I hear it as a simple going-out-meet-a-girl-hang-out tune. I’ve seen him play twice now and thought he would work so great in a middle of packed club, maybe even with a live skeleton backing band ala Midnight Juggernauts/Presets. He’s got some great gigs coming up, including a not to be missed Girl Talk support in Sydney and Melbourne.

www.myspace.com/musclesmusic
musclesmusic.com