Derwent River Star – ‘Bottles and Boats’ (mp3)

Wistful and serene, Sydney’s Derwent River Star conjure up many a beautiful sound on their latest EP, The Winter Dark. Much like the state brethren The Seabellies, Derwent River Star are one of those bands were every member is way too talented, playing a multitude of instruments. The lush textures of their music create a wonderfully atmospheric brand of folk-rock, and it’s great to hear the underused banjo rear its twangy head in their tune ‘Wanderlust’. But I think we’ll use their number ‘Bottles and Boats’ as an introductory song.

http://www.myspace.com/derwentriverstar

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The Mime Set – ‘Northern Boy’

One of the most promising indie releases of ’08 so far, I’ve Only Ever Lived In Rivertowns is the multifaceted and diverse debut album from Melbourne indie-artsters The Mime Set. On a seven-track album that’s filled with mostly dark, austere, jangy-guitar driven numbers, overdriven opener ‘Northern Boy’ is one of the rockier numbers of the seven, recalling The Dirty Three and Polly Jean Harvey in her more aggressive moments. Frontwoman Sam Wareing’s tensile voice sits somewhere between Kristen Hersh and Chrissie Amphlett.

http://www.myspace.com/themimeset

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Kora – ‘Burning’

I’m not sure if Darwin could explain it, but for some reason Kiwis have an innate sense of dub and reggae – think Salmonella Dub, Fat Freddys Drop, Katchafire and The Black Seeds. It’s even got its own Wikipedia entry!

Kora stand out from the pack because they infuse their music with a heavy dose of rock and funk; they’re the support act for the upcoming Cog album launch tour, which demonstrates this band’s major crossover appeal. It’s a great album for someone like me, who has more of a rock background but has always enjoyed dub music. It’s a very diverse record, traversing dance, dub, hip-hop, rock, soul and funk landscapes, always maintaing a wicked, infectious groove.

‘Burning’ is the opening “song” (barring the Lord of the Rings-esque cinematic epic ‘Intro’ on track 1) and a tune which I think best represents this album. I was going to put up the tounge-in-cheek tune ‘The Delivery Man’ because it’s just so damn funky, but I think I’ll put that one up later. If you’ve never heard Kora before, that song might not give you the right impression of the band. ‘Burning’ however is just so naturally groovy that you can’t help but bop with it.

http://www.kora.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/koraroots

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And here’s the final clip for the week. I hoped you’ve enjoyed this week’s more visual Who the Bloody Hell Are They. I thought I’d leave you this week with everyone’s favourite heavy rockers, Cog, and the clip for their latest single ‘Bird of Feather’.

http://www.cog.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/cogrockmusic

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Phase 2, part 2: Bertie Blackman and the clip for her new single, the rather infectious ‘Fast Bitch’. Who’s the fast bitch? Bertie, or someone else? I refuse to believe BB’s a bitch!

http://www.myspace.com/bertieblackman

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Thus begins Plan B – posting film clips to mask the fact that we’re not uploading new blogs. First off the rank: Happenstance.

http://www.myspace.com/happenstanceband

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CakeHole – ‘Stab You’ (mp3)

Before I get into this little writeup, I just wanted to say we might be a little scant on the postings this week. It’s busy days ahead, but please bear with us and we’ll be back to the usual programming in no time. Hell, we might just throw up a bunch of YouTube vids to pass the time.

It’s one of those songs that you hope is meant to be ironically bad. CakeHole is a bit of a mystery band: the vocals are immediately obvious as Jess Origliasso from The Veronicas, but the other characters I’m not too sure of. I think one of them may be Azaria, singer of The Follow (and Jess’ new beau) but the other dude… no idea. Any clues readers?

The aesthetic is amateur electronic J-pop, but with lyrics like “I will stab you here / don’t ask me why / I will stab you with / Stab you with my wife” I can only assume – and hope – that CakeHole are supposed to be tongue-in-cheek bad. Honestly, who would write crap like that and mean it to be serious? The problem, though, seems to lie in Jess’ incongruent vocal melody that doesn’t lock in with the music. This ain’t no Veronicas pop tune, honey.

In the end, it’s fairly vacuous but innocuous electronic dribblings that won’t amount to much. But somehow it’s irritatingly memorable.

http://www.myspace.com/cakeholemole

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