Sneaky Sound System – ‘I Love It’

As Bob Dylan famously announced, “The times they are a-changin”, especially for the Sneaky posse, who seem to have transformed from everyone’s favourite club act into commercial superstars overnight. Of course, Angus and Daimon (i.e, the boys) have been banging out tunes for over five years, acquiring a legion of devoted fans in the process from their ‘Sneaky Sundays’ jaunt at Hugo’s Bar, home to the urban elite in Sydney’s party central, Kings Cross. Yet it is only recently that their hard work has come to fruition, in the shape of their banging self-titled album.

Part of Sneaky’s newfound influence can be attributed to their newest member, the stunning Connie Mitchell, whom the boys stumbled across in Hyde Park playing guitar and singing. Like Fergie to the Black Eyed Peas, Connie has only served to enhance the already distinct Sneaky sound. The Sneaky D.I.Y approach has certainly taken them far beyond the realm of their wildest dreams, as they were recently nominated for two ARIAs (NB: One ARIA in Australia = One Grammy in USA, One Brit Award in the UK, etc), and invited to support Robbie Williams on his upcoming Australian tour. Quite ironic, considering their statement “We’re like an electronic garage band with delusions of stadium glory.”

These guys make seriously good music. They make sugar-pop groups with electro trimmings like the Rogue Traders and Bodyrockers look like preschoolers. Rock on.

http://www.sneakysoundsystem.com
http://www.myspace.com/sneakysoundsystem

Rizzo & Pizzo – ‘Escalator Love’

Usually I hear about new bands on the radio or seeing them in a gig supporting some other band. This Sydney duo has been so far under the radar I only found out about them last week from a mate, it was my turn to go who the hell..? They don’t play live that much (due to stage fright I heard) and to my knowledge haven’t released anything. But they’ve got two albums written, recorded and for sale on their myspace. They describe their sound as Electro/Trash/Rap/Crump-It- Hump It-Let-It-Bump-It. Nice. This track featured here is a minimalist beats and rhyme number, but if you go over to their site you’ll get a variety of tracks from electro-camp to downright white boy crunk/hop (or whatever) .

http://www.myspace.com/rizzopizzomusic

The Mean Streaks – ‘Real Physical Danger’

These guys must get the shits getting compared to The Grates, especially coming from Brisbane where they both originate. It’s unfortunate that any female fronted rock band in Australia invariably gets this comparison, such is the latter’s dominance of the genre at the moment, but any association is usually unfair and inaccurate. The Mean Streaks stay true to their name, even after using similar instrumentation and arrangements their songs have a darker tone and a more urgent beat than their pop neighbours. Front woman Jean Nicotine leads her six piece outfit with intense chorus outbursts in much of their repertoire. They have shared the stage with Spoon, The Buzzcocks, Har Mar Superstar, The Presets, Faker, Love of Diagrams and Pharaohs. When I contacted Jean last she said they were taking a break from performing to record some new tracks. They started playing live again recently so I hope that means new recordings will be available soon.

themeanstreaks.com
www.myspace.com/themeanstreaks

Taken from his debut album Boardface, Gotye’s clip was shot with a digital stills camera taking more then 10,000 shots to make, directed by Jacob Simkin of Dork Films. This man has a love for meticulous craftsmanship for his art – his latest album Like Drawing Blood took more than two painstaking years of home recording and multiple computer crashes. Very strong candidate for album of the year.

Previous posts: Gotye, Faux Pas, Gotye vs Faux Pas

Dappled Cities Fly – ‘Within Hours’ (mp3)

A new cut from the upcoming album Granddance, produced by Peter Walker and Jim Fairchild (ex-Grandaddy) and mixed by Jaquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse). Heard this song played live a couple times and they were of course brilliant. I was half expecting Tim Derricourt to go his usual high pitched ‘Ow!‘ in the chorus of the song, but I suppose that’s only for live shows. This is not the leading single from album, my guess is that would be ‘The Birds’ – which you can have a listen to the demo version on their MySpace. Since finishing the recording Dappled Cities Fly has been signed onto US based Dangerbird Records while in Australia the fine boys at Speak n Spell will be putting out their album. They’re on tour with Crayon Fields at the moment, and will later on in the year play at Pianos in New York as part of the CMJ Music Marathon – something like the college version of SXSW – with a lineup like a music blogger’s dream gig.

Previous post: Dappled Cities Fly: Live

dappledcitiesfly.com
www.myspace.com/dappledcitiesfly

From the archives, and as an addition to the Retrospective #1 post, here’s the filmclip for ‘Champion’ from my personal faves The Grand Silent System from their last release Everyone Lies Alone.

Previous posts: Retrospective #1

Sarah Blasko – ‘don’t u eva’

During university I went through a phase of audio engineering and did some work experience in the Roundhouse, a venue at the University of New South Wales. One night I was helping out the house sound tech doing the university band competition and I saw band called Acquiesce belting out folk rock tunes, complete with a violin. They were the most professional out of the usually crappy entrants, but what set them apart was the female singer’s voice. It was just so beautiful I stopped and watched the entire set. They won that competition of course, I got the EP and set out to see them again. But I never did. The band broke up and the vocalist Sarah Semmens disappeared from the music scene entirely. I couldn’t believe it. I asked around and scanned the papers for her name to appear solo or in another band but it never happened. It was very disappointing to think that such a talent had just given up on the music scene.

A few years later I had forgotten about the whole thing when I heard the same voice coming out of Triple J, this time much more mature and confident. It was Sarah Blasko and right at that moment I just knew it was the same Sarah from Acquiesce. Her voice was so unique it couldn’t be anyone else. I went to one of her solo shows and talked to her. She never did explain why she changed her name, but I was just glad she was back singing. That was before she released her EP Prelusive. Two years ago she went to LA and recorded The Overture and The Underscore – it’s one of my favourite Australian albums of all time. I think a lot of people dismissed it as another sooky solo singer songwriter record, but this record had such incredible melodies that only Sarah can pull off.

The good news is she has a new album coming out called What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have. The track ‘Explain’ has been on high rotation on Triple J and it is just fantastic, backed by piano and sweeping string arrangements. I couldn’t get an mp3 from her label, so this video will have to do for now. Directed by Lucy Dyson & Isobel Knowles.

www.sarahblasko.com
www.myspace.com/sarahblasko