Posts By Dom Alessio

Red Jezebel

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Red Jezebel – ‘Lost My Gun’

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If you’ll please allow me the liberty to get on my podium for a minute…

We get our fair share of emails here at Who The Hell, from bands who want to be featured, from labels who want their bands to be featured. It gives us a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling that people want to be a part of this little project of ours.

But lately we’ve been receiving a lot of emails from non-Aussie acts wanting to be featured. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you kind reader – on a blog that features only Australian and New Zealand music, bands from America and the UK believe they can be featured too. Please, if you’re one of these people, do us the courtesy of reading the blog before flogging your wares to deaf ears. We don’t hear any music that’s not Australian or New Zealand. Seriously. It’s a rare medical condition.

Now back to your regular programming…

Come the turn of the century, Australia’s musical epicentre moved westward when, perhaps with the proliferation of the internet and MP3s, the usually insular and distanced Western Australia began to unload a barrage of top-quality pop rock acts upon the scene: Eskimo Joe, The Panics, Sleepy Jackson and The Panda Band were just a small number of bands who were coming out with a sweet, idiosyncratic Perth pop sound.

Red Jezebel is another group worthy of illumination. ‘Lost My Gun’ is a cut from their new record How I Learned to Stop Worrying, a track that is equal parts Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Ryan Adams-esque alt country. Dirty Fender guitars crunch in the background with strummed acoustic guitar chords while sweet, harmonised, Sleepy Jackson-esque vocals and tinkling piano hold the melody up front.

Arresting sounds from the wild West.

http://www.redjez.com
http://www.myspace.com/redjezebel

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Machine Translations

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Machine Translations – ‘You’ll Change’ (mp3)

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Bedroom musical maestro J. Walker has been making sounds under the moniker Machine Translations since 1997. For many, though, he first bleeped onto the musical radar with his 2002 album Happy and the quirk-pop of ‘She Wears A Mask’.

Since then, his brand of abstract pop has never seemed to gain the collective attention like ‘She Wears A Mask’ did. But he’s made a name for himself as a deft producer, lending his skills to other musicians, and the construction and composition of his own tunes are testaments to J’s incredible musical ear.

However, his singing voice isn’t strong enough to carry his own straight-foward pop songs, which ‘You’ll Change’ demonstrates. Built around simple open acoustic guitar chords, when J’s required to drive the song forward with the vocals, it stagnates. Subtlety in the layering of instruments help give ‘You’ll Change’ enough variety for its noticably short 2:30 duration, which makes it a good song, but not a great one. It’s no ‘She Wears A Mask’.

http://www.machinetranslations.org
http://www.myspace.com/machinetranslations

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Cassette Kids: ‘Food For The Winter’ Clip

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A week or so ago I managed to catch one of the most-hyped bands going round the Sydney scene at the moment, Cassette Kids, at Candy’s Apartment. Expecting an audience full of Mogans I was surprised to find a small but passionate crowd of CK fans getting their groove on.

I really dig Cassette Kids’ Klaxons-meets-YYYs brand of post punk / indie rock. and it was good to hear it in a live context. I still think they’ve got a little way to go with their performance, as the lack of charisma made parts of the set seem a bit cold and distanced the band from those watching, but those skills will come in time.

http://www.myspace.com/cassettekids

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