Posts By Annie

LISTEN: MT – ‘Alpha Romeo’

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MT (or Many Things) is led by Michael Tomlinson, the heartbreaker from late Brisbane band Yves Klein Blue, who’s followed YKB’s Britpop tendencies to their proper conclusion and actually moved to London. He must have sold his soul at the crossroads on the way (or perhaps  imbibed a Phoenix box set), because new single ‘Alpha Romeo’ has got to be the grandest pop song he’s delivered yet.

MT’s work seems simpler than Tomlinson’s earlier stuff; less wordy and more direct, focused primarily on the id-centred payoffs that come with a massive chorus. The tone is slightly ambiguous for a pop banger, Tomlinson crooning ‘I’m tired of lying / when people ask me if I’m alright,’ before launching into reminiscence like a drunken former frat bro: ‘Romeo used to be my call sign / Call me up for a good time’. The hook, however, is sweetened with disco synths, gospel girl backing vocals and a rockstar delivery that’s utterly convincing.

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‘Alpha Romeo’ is officially released on 29 November through Dew Process and Universal Music Australia. Expats/absconders can catch MT’s single launch party at London’s Oslo on the 28th.

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INTRODUCING: Early Woman

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Early Woman is a collaboration between writer and documentary maker Hannah Brooks (St Helens, Spider Vomit, Young Professionals) and artist/cartoonist Ben Montero (Treetops, the Brutals, Montero). The group started popping up on bills around Melbourne about a year ago, performing nicotine-stained love songs in the style established on first demo, ‘Brothers’.

 

Early Woman’s sound is the perfect meeting point between the decadent, knowing schmaltz of Montero and St Helens’ gritty heroin chic, with Brooks’ serrated vocal and guitar tone complementing Ben Montero’s breathy croon and organ figures. They somehow manage to seem both earnest and sleazy at once, regularly rolling out lines like ‘I love my brothers like a real lover should’.

 

The band’s first official release, ‘I’m a Peach’ b/w ‘Feathers’, came out on vinyl and digital just over a week ago. As with the earlier ‘Brothers’, the tracks’ pop structure is straight to the point – there’s a bridge for every chorus, and both pack a punch. The best moment here has to be the billowing first hook of ‘Feathers’, Montero’s lyrics an exercise in surrealist romance: ‘Feathers flying all around / when she opens up her gown / I can hardly feel the world around me’.

 

When you see Early Woman play live – a terrific, tinsel and tie-dye affair – Bobby Brave’s ornate bass playing really comes to the fore, providing much of the songs’ melodic backbone. That element is oddly low in the mix on these recordings, but it can still be enjoyed with a pair of headphones.

‘I’m a Peach’ b/w ‘Feathers’ is out through Mistletone and Inertia. You can purchase it on iTunes or order the vinyl here. The band is at work on a debut album right now and will play a Mess + Noise Lunchbox show on 22 November as part of Melbourne Music Week.

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LISTEN: Popolice – ‘Would You Believe’

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I picked up the first two Popolice EPs on my brother’s recommendation back in about 2006, and I was glad that I did. I loved Marc Regueiro-McKelvie’s angsty, angular indie pop and those dynamic progressions – there are no overwrought two-chord dirges here. I’ve still got a copy of Middle Ground in my glovebox (the only place for CDs these days), which I spin from time to time on my way to the shops.

Although he’s been making music since around 1997, Regueiro-McKelvie doesn’t seem to have had a strong PR machine behind him (or maybe he’s just been flat out playing with Teeth and Tongue, Enclosures and New Estate) because he ought to be a local sensation. That’s all changing now: this new track has been popping up all over the place, and a debut album (!) is due out soon.

Though he was citing crossover bands like Gerling way back at the turn of the millennium, ‘Would You Believe’ has got to be the most danceable Popolice track yet. The song’s catchy, stop-start rhythm matches Regueiro-McKelvie’s scratchy delivery perfectly, and it’s got a chorus that just keeps on getting bigger.

The accompanying video was made by Matthew Cribb, who recently filmed clips for WTH favourites Teeth & Tongue and The Ocean Party. It features Popolice striding along a Melbourne boardwalk as though caught up in a private rock stadium fantasy, Stratocaster hooked up to headphones and elegant legs encased in a sweet pair of tights. Meanwhile he’s being trailed by some sort of entropic VHS vortex…

 

‘Would You Believe’ is available now as a free download on Bandcamp.

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LISTEN: boatfriends – ‘Sport Billy’

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boatfriends are a Newcastle band who’ve recently moved to Melbourne, based around the songwriting duo of Shanna Watson and Clinton Edwards. In two years they’ve put out just two singles, but this June the pair finally met their Pozible campaign target to fund a debut release and supporting tour and the boatfriends EP is now up and streaming.

The band’s first singles had a brash, EDM feel, with hints of Nu Rave (‘Kaleido’, for example, has been tagged ‘Skrillwave’ – with more than a little self-awareness, I assume – on Soundcloud). New track ‘Sport Billy’, on the other hand, is a veritable psych banger, falling somewhere between Twin Sister and the Klaxons on the dance-punk spectrum. Watson and Edwards cite the British shoegaze scene as an important influence, and there is something here that’s reminiscent of Warp band A Sunny Day in Glasgow, who’s whirling dream pop involves at least as much synth as Jazzmaster. boatfriends have well and truly absorbed the lessons of this approach, creating a stellar EP closer in ‘Sport Billy’. The track opens with panned snares that are as heady and disorienting as Watson’s distinctive vocal which comes through like it’s beaming in from outer space. There are synth flutters and some high-pitched glass-factory ambience, all underwritten by propulsive bass and plenty of kicks.

Be sure to keep your eye out for the upcoming tour – and official EP release, including vinyl!

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LISTEN: Nimble Animal – ‘Back n Forth’

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Brisbane guy Dom Stephens has a lot on the go. Eccentric indie band Oh Ye Denver Birds is on the back burner since he moved to Melbourne to study sound design, but he’s also got solo beats outfit Outerwaves (which is responsible for gorgeous tunes like this one) and a more introspective project called Nimble Animal.

About a week ago Stephens released the Bleak Moments EP as Nimble Animal. It’s basically drone, with distressed analogue sounds looping alongside percussive taps and clicks, layers of lush synths and Stephens’ voice, which is mostly buried in echo. There’s a lot of tape hiss and weirdly circumvented instruments, but overall the EP has a warm, gently soporific feel.

Bleak Moments is a patient and engrossing record as it leads up to the cathartic closing piece, ‘Back n Forth’. With its repetitive, uplifting motifs and homemade vibe, it reminds me of the best tracks from Youth Lagoon’s breakout debut, The Year of Hibernation. Though it comes right at the end, ‘Back n Forth’ sounds like the EP’s pop heart, its circular melody spiralling upwards to take you home.

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LISTEN: Boomgates – ‘Widow Maker’

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Australia, you may have noticed, is really flipping big. There’s a lot of distance between our urban capitals, and we’re a heck of a long way from most of the so-called ‘Western world’. We sometimes feel a bit isolated, on our own all the way down here, and we get a bit defensive of our cultural exports – not to mention fiercely supportive of their creators.

These factors tend to make our music scene kind of incestuous. Enthusiastic music journos toss the word ‘supergroup’ around with gay abandon, but when every drummer plays in about five different bands the term doesn’t always mean that much. Boomgates, however, have one of the most drool-worthy line-ups upon this vast continent, featuring Eddy Current Suppression Ring frontman, Brendan Huntley, Dick Diver‘s Steph Hughes and Rick Milovanovic from the Twerps.

These guys have actually crossed the ditch for their latest release (in a sense – no one actually had to leave their hometown, let’s not get crazy), a split single with Kiwi group the Bats from that country’s own great export and singular pride, the Flying Nun roster. Boomgates’ contribution to the 7″, ‘Widow Maker’, is a jangly existential ode to the mundane. It opens with a great riff, open strings singing, then clicks into a bright, guitar-led groove with a steady forward momentum. Huntley memorialises a few moment-to-moment pleasures (‘I wear my diamond necklace just to show it off / I tie my shoes just to tie the knot’) – the take-home message being don’t take this stuff for granted, because at any old time that eponymous widow maker could snap off and wipe you out. Like most Boomgates tracks, ‘Widow Maker’ turns on the counterpoint between Huntley’s roughshod, half-sung, half-spoken delivery and Hughes’ soothing harmonies, as well as the loose interplay of the two guitars.

 

The Bat’s contribution to the split, ‘December Ice’, is an outtake from their sessions at Seacliff Asylum, a 19th century psychiatric institution located at a village on the country’s South Island. The singles were released digitally yesterday, with vinyl coming on 1 November. You can preorder the 7″ from Bedroom Sucks or Mistletone. Both bands will be playing a huge show for Melbourne Music Week’s opening night, on 15 November, alongside Montero and San Francisco’s Sonny and the Sunsets. Get your tickets here!

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INTRODUCING: The Creases

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Housemates Joe Agius and Jarrod Mahon had only been writing songs as The Creases for a couple of months when they got an email from iconic indie label Rough Trade asking to release their debut single.

A couple of commentators have attributed this early success – basically every slacker’s wet dream – to Triple J presenter/manager extraordinaire Maggie Collins, but personally I’d pin it on the tunes. We hear a lot of lo-fi, low stakes garage pop in Australia, and all too often it’s more style than substance. But the effortless sound of The Creases’ debut single ‘I Won’t Wait’ belies a flair for simple songwriting. The rising chorus with its backing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ is a charming exercise in tension and release, not to mention harmony.

 

‘I Won’t Wait’, along with b-side ‘Fun to Lose’, will be out digitally and on 7″ vinyl from 11 November, and preorders are now open via the Rough Trade webstore. The Creases have rounded out their line up with bassist Aimon Clark and drummer Bridie McQueenie and, with a few shows now under their belt, they’ll be supporting the Jungle Giants on their national tour, which starts this Thursday in Hobart.

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