The Chaperones – ‘Jacqueline’ (mp3)

It’s an apt time to post about two-piece garage rockers The Chaperones because we’re smack bang in the middle of their month-long residency in the darkened interior of The Excelsior Hotel in Sydney’s Surry Hills where they’re playing every Wednesday night.

The Chaperones are the girl-boy combination of the rather cute drummer Marissa Gillies (I’m not sure if she’s in any way related to Silverchair’s stickman Ben Gillies) and frontman Matt Vince (the girls will have to decide whether he’s cute or not… sorry Matt!) and, like a number of bands in this post White Stripes world, they’ve deemed a bass player unnecessary. To me, not having a bass player is a cardinal sin because there’s a whole frequency range missing and unless you build a custom guitar/bass like Local H’s Scott Lucas or have someone playing droning low-octave keys a la The Red Sun Band, you’re never going to actually hide the fact you’re missing a bass player.

This duo plays with plenty of panache and energy and have some really lo-fi, groovy tunes. Overdriven guitars and solid drum patterns give The Chaperones that indie/garage aesthetic and their debut EP has been garnering some healthy reviews. Still, a bass player would be nice…

http://www.thechaperones.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/chaperones

Read Post →

Lady Strangelove – ‘Rotate (Part 2)’ (mp3)

It’s been a while since I’ve heard a band actually do old-skool psychedelica. There’s been a booming undercurrent of psychedelica-inspired bands in my home town of Sydney, but who knew they actually did it properly in Adelaide? Lady Strangelove are a funky rainbow cocktail of Wolf & Cub style rhymths, Hendrix inspired lead guitars which screech throughout and delay-heavy vocals which bring to mind Led Zep’s Robert Plant and former Pink Floyd vocalist Syd Barrett.

They call their music “psychedelica dance-rock” or “prog-dance”. It’s all very 60s technicolour/acid inspired with a touch of Mars Volta and The Music thrown in. I’d love to see these guys play live if they didn’t live so far away. Here’s hoping they come by the Annandale Hotel sometime soon.

http://www.myspace.com/ladystrangelove

Read Post →

Pomomofo – ‘Island’

It’s been a while since we heard the disco grunge of Sydney’s Pomomofo. The now familiar sounds of dirty bass, hi-hats on the upbeat and 80s synths has become a stalwart on the airways of local radio stations around Australia and has seen the kids lining up down the streets to see acts like Midnight Juggernauts, Muscles, Dukes of Windsor, Plug-In City and more.

Which may just be the problem for Pomomofo. When they hit the scenea couple of years back, they were exciting and fresh but now the sound has been carbon copied so much that this three-piece has lost that initial buzz about them. What does set Pomomofo apart though is their energetic and thoroughly enjoyable live show, which may help save them from drowning in a sea of Aussie electro acts. Their set opening for Cornelius last year, including their cover of ‘Mr. Wendell’ WITH Speech from Arrested Development equaled pure musical orgasmic joy.

Check out what we wrote about them over a year ago.

http://www.myspace.com/pomomofo

Read Post →

Brian Campeau – ‘Reinventing Myself’ (mp3)

Wow, we are so late on Brian Campeau it’s not funny.

This is a man who deserves immediate attention. I fell in love with the Sydney troubadour straight away after hearing ‘Reinventing Myself’, a song that marries Eastern samples, beautiful finger-plucked acoustic guitar and some rather abstract electronic elements. These disparate parts I’ve never really heard crammed into one song, which I think is the beauty of Brian’s music – he’s trying something a little different, and succeeding so brilliantly at it.

The Sandwich Club have written an excellent summation of Brian, his sound and his live performance, saying it better than I could have. Check it out, along with a selection of MP3s. 

http://www.briancampeau.com/
http://www.myspace.com/briancampeau

Read Post →

Brand new single from Sydneysiders The Paper Scissors. Enjoy!

http://www.thepaperscissors.com
http://www.myspace.com/thepaperscissors

Read Post →

Oh Faker… what the hell were you thinking when whichever God forsaken director presented you with the concept for this film clip?

Here’s a breakdown of Faker’s brand new filmclip, second by second:

00:00 – Oh, an electrocardiograph… how LITERAL!

00:04 – it’s our first look at the new Faker, because front man Nathan Hudson has made twenty three members of the band redundant in the ten years they’ve been around. Also, what’s with the O Brother Where Art Thou? get-up? Plus they’re in a white room with a green stripe… O-kay…

00:16 – after numerous frames of the band sporting stupid facial expressions, we get our first glipse of a girl decked out in fluoro nursewear. Oh crap, what’s the rest of this clip got in store for us if they’re bringing out fluoro-clad girls? FLUORO for christ’s sake…

00:23 – Phil, or Stefan, whichever guitarist you are… do you think you’re in Red Riders?

00:35 – we’re hitting the chorus people, get ready for the sing-along and ooh ahh ahhs

00:37 – the fluoro-clad girl-Faker equivalent have drips with fluoro colour in them? Huh?? If you’ve made it this far, could somebody please tell me what the concept for this video is?

00:50 – we’ve hit the chorus – “this heart attack… I gotta get away, not coming back.” I know how you feel dude.

01:13 – OMFG! What’s with that chick’s makeup?

01:17 – Oooooooooooooh! Get angry Nathan.

01:29 – oh no, it’s a mime-off between Faker and girl Faker! I thought Marcel Marceau was taking that artform to the grave?

01:33 – at least this girl is putting some energy into her performance.

01:47 – probably should have mentioned this earlier, but Paul Berryman, decked out in all black and a skinny tie, really looks like he belongs the behind the drums for an emo band…

02:00 – is anyone winning this mime-off, or is the audience the loser amongst it all?

02:30 – with limbs flailing and competing members getting up close and personal, really nothing much is happening. You haven’t missed anything up until this point. And here comes the bridge…

02:43 – rapid-fire frame changes, showing how girl Faker is perhaps the alter-ego of original Faker? So inside every boy is there a girl? And inside every man wearing braces, there’s a girl wearing fluoro waiting to be freed from the eternal shackles of introversion? Deep man, so deep…

02:53 – “I got your back. But you don’t got mine.” Hey Nathan, I’m sure you’re upset man, and I can see it in that arm-thrusting of yours, but that doesn’t excuse poor grammar.

03:03 – we’re at the climax of the mime-off… strap yourself in!

03:38 – girl Faker have decided to free themselves from their fluoro drips and throw it in the air. Yay, we’re all fucking happy little munchkins. I think they think they’re at Parklife. Look at them dance!

03:52 – it’s over…. what the hell was that all about??? What’s any of that mindless meandering got to do with a heart attack? I want 3:52 of my life back*.

http://www.myspace.com/fakertheband

 – quote courtesy of You Know Who from a magazine…

Read Post →

Cloud Control – ‘Fine Teacher’

They’ve been building a bit of a buzz lately, and now Cloud Control, who hail from the more Western parts outside Sydney in a beautifully-named location called the Blue Mountains, are set to release their debut EP this week.

Our blogging brethren The Sandwich Club are sponsoring a new night at The Loft Bar at the University of Technology in Sydney called Art, Bitch (awesome name hah) and the Cloudies will be there this Saturday to launch their new EP.

‘Fine Teacher’ is my favourite song off the EP – I just love the honky-tonk piano line.

http://www.myspace.com/cloudcontrol

Read Post →