Brilliant Fanzine – ‘Change For You’

Tinkling piano flanks this Britpop-tinged number from Melbournites Brilliant Fanzine. Totalling a mammoth seven members means ‘Change For You’ is garnered with a lush instrumental bed which Matt O’Neill’s creamy, harmonised vocals can lay on. They try and mix some difficult elements, like pop and hallucinogenic noise breakdowns, but somehow it works in the heat of the moment. Around the 2 minute mark, the electric guitars and synths go spastic while the acoustic guitar strums along oblivious to the chaos. It’s Elastica, Blur and Bends–era Radiohead sandwiched together. Rather tasty too.

http://www.myspace.com/brilliantfanzine

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Des Miller – ‘Lucy’

Melancholic and reflective, ‘Lucy’ is Des Miller at his most narrative, assuming the role of storyteller about our titular protagonist who’s the victim of some bad shit, though what it is is never clear. “Time wounds all heals, but pain remains,” Des sings with ardent emotion and crackling falsetto notes. “Close your eyes and make it go away.” The circular rhymths and steel-guitar riffs conjures up images of driving along empty highways; the slide guitar the sound of dry desert winds blowing in through the open window. A folk song should always spin a good yarn, especially one with a country inflection. This is Western saloon music at its best. Grab a whiskey and settle in.

http://www.myspace.com/desmiller

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Photo by Andrzej Liguz

Cog – ‘Bird Of Feather’

Brand new single from Cog off their forthcoming album, Sharing Space, which is due out in April. Word is the album’s out of this world, despite the fact that the recording process was so tough that the three-piece started to question whether it was all worth it. ‘Bird of Feather’ is a far more literal and structured Cog; Flynn Gower wrote this song about being away from his 3 year old daughter for long periods of time.

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

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Can you say “Donnie Darko”?

http://www.gyroscope.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/gyroscope

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Don’t get the ringtone, OK? Sorry about the stupid ad, but I really love this song and this is the only copy of the clip on YouTube.

http://www.myspace.com/the3basics

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Iron On – ‘One Man Band’

This is a real dirty indie track, fusing together Death Cab for Cutie melodies, Sleater-Kinney female fiestiness and ’90s indie rock energy – you can hear the Superchunk and Shellac influences here. Hell, they even named themselves after a Shellac song! Kate Cooper and Ross Hope are the stars of this show: their dual vocals bring ‘One Man Band’ to life; a ditty about a relationship collapsing under the weight of a partner’s negativity. Perhaps that accounts for the abrasive bridge section. The raucuous climax bites in hard and the drums thump, thump, thump! Great work.

http://www.myspace.com/ironon

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Lover – ‘Never’ (mp3)

The faux Brit accent starts me off on the wrong foot, but that aside, these three lads from Newcastle (in NSW, despite what you may think) have taken a batch of contemporary influences and fashioned themselves a rather toe-tapping tune. Treading dangerously close to being nothing more than a pastiche of English bands like The Smiths, Gang of Four and New Order, Lover peak at the chorus with up-beat hi-hats, choppy guitars, stabs of synthesiser and layered vocals belting out “I never, I never, I never made it home last night / I lied / When I said I made it home.” The lyrics to the whole song actually don’t make a lot of sense, but when you’re on the dance floor D&M tunes are the last thing you really care about.

http://www.myspace.com/lovertheband

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