Photos by Jess Gleeson
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Over the course of BIGSOUND Koi Child, friendships, Cosima Jaala (Manglewurzel /JAALA) and Donny Benet allowed us to court them around some of Fortitude Valley’s least trash-laden alleyways and convenience stores for a few shots. Featuring Donny’s best Kirin J Callinan impression and some serious brotherly love from the Koi Child brood.
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(View full set below)
It’s BIGSOUND season again, and my humble home of Brisbane is ready to prove that we can do urban pretentiousness as well as the other east coast heavy hitters. We have a gluten-free brownie shop, those fucking donut milkshakes and even a cat cafe – because, shut up. More relevant to the swarm of music journos and broke-as artists about to descend on our fair city is that Fortitude Valley, home of the BIGSOUND conference, has a tobacco shop three doors down from Maccas – and at least two pubs where you won’t be the first person to order a drink at 9am.
Our relative smallness certainly hasn’t restricted our output when it comes to musical talent, it just makes the scene…well, a little incestuous. This has more of a talent incubating effect than birthing bands with mutant third limbs. Although there are plenty of great venues spread across the city and its suburbs, there’s no denying the few seedy blocks of the ‘Valley’ contain the city’s most well-loved live music institutions.
We gathered some Brisbane bands on this year’s BIGSOUND bill to share some stories. Here’s what Morning Harvey frontman Spencer White (far left) had to say:
Spencer: I was actually thinking about this the other day, comparing Brisbane’s nightlife precinct to Sydney or Melbourne’s. We don’t venture out to ‘The Valley’ (where all the BIGSOUND magic happens) anymore unless one of our bands, a friend’s band or a touring act is playing. Nonetheless, I personally feel more comfortable going out in Brisbane to Sydney. It’s pretty mental on a Saturday night but it’s fairly controlled chaos. All the bars are in one place so you have so many kinds of people in a four block radius. I don’t really know what the difference is between the cities, maybe I’m just a sook.
It’s BIGSOUND season again, and my humble home of Brisbane is ready to prove that we can do urban pretentiousness as well as the other east coast heavy hitters. We have a gluten-free brownie shop, those fucking donut milkshakes and even a cat cafe – because, shut up. More relevant to the swarm of music journos and broke-as artists about to descend on our fair city is that Fortitude Valley, home of the BIGSOUND conference, has a tobacco shop three doors down from Maccas – and at least two pubs where you won’t be the first person to order a drink at 9am.
Our relative smallness certainly hasn’t restricted our output when it comes to musical talent, it just makes the scene…well, a little incestuous. This has more of a talent incubating effect than birthing bands with mutant third limbs. Although there are plenty of great venues spread across the city and its suburbs, there’s no denying the few seedy blocks of the ‘Valley’ contain the city’s most well-loved live music institutions.
We gathered some Brisbane bands on this year’s BIGSOUND bill to share some stories – the first from Babaganouj drummer Jack Gleeson.
Jack: I used to be in a band which for anonymities sake, we will call ‘Inland Twee’.
We had been offered a coveted spot on the Big Sound 2011 Lineup, which featured legends like Big Scary, DZ Deathrays, and Ball Park Music. I was pretty pumped, because our manager at the time told us this was a pretty important opportunity for like, the band and whateverblahblahblah. I guess she was right because we ended up touring the UK soon after, but eh who is keeping score anyway?
To keep it short and sweet (I lie, this is a longwinded piece of shit), I don’t fully remember the show, but we played a gig hotter and sweatier than the dreadlocked armpit hair of a JBT roadie. Playing Brisbane in summer can be a test of endurance, akin to the Bridge To Brisbane or listening to the Veronicas discography. Thankfully it was mid-September. I’m sure the gig went well regardless.
During the course of the next three days of debauchery/networking, 7 of the 10 people in our ridiculous band, proceeded to drink so heavily that guitarist Beau, our resident ‘wild man’ had to be sat down and told to “rein that shit in” cause he was just “grabbin’ chicks”. Claire fell over in front of Cloudland resulting in an amount of bruises usually exhibited by the entirety of a roller-derby team post grand-final. A few of the Inland Twee-team even managed to seriously jeopardize long-term relationships! Severe bruising, a troubled gait and relationship turmoil – as history attests – continue to be the hallmarks of a good time. It was truly, freaking wonderful.
To fellow fans and musicians:
BIGSOUND is like being tossed into a churning sea of beer, basic spirits, and some exotic shot of liqueur you didn’t ask for. You’re swimming for your life among the drunk musicians, drunk fans, and drunk industry types and the regular Valley locals we know and love (shout out to the guy outside the old Westpac building who just constantly shreds). You’ve just gotta catch the party-wave back home in time to get a reasonable enough sleep to get to work on Friday. Which of course never happens, and the next three days post-BIGSOUND are a total write-off.
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Babaganouj will kick off BIGSOUND debauchery at The Elephant Hotel’s outdoor stage on Wednesday, September 9th.
Windy Grins – a songwriter from Sydney’s Soft Tigers gone solo – is about to trump the 90s VHS resurgence with the clip for his debut track, ‘Drop Out’: a montage of actual footage recorded on an actual 90s camcorder in the actual 90s. For real. It’s even dated ’97 with iPhones noticeably absent from all scenes, which 1) confuses me because why would people hang out with each other IRL if not to increase internet popularity and 2) is the reason I had to watch this a few times before I could put my finger on the fact that everyone appears to be genuinely having fun without peeking at their phones every 12 seconds to check if something better is happening somewhere else.
The track itself is equally refreshing in its authenticity, simple in its delivery and matches the sentiment of the clip pretty well. The frontman’s defiance and assuredness is bloody comforting as he reels off a list of your garden variety anxieties, like rent, where did these drugs come from, why aren’t I at uni and has everything always been this hard or … ? The vocals haven’t been pored over or produced to perfection, fuelling the track’s ‘chill the fuck out everything will be ok’ thrust. They plod along over steady drums and a couple of synth and guitar licks that build into an air-punching-ly uplifting climax, with a Scottish (?) guy rounding out the track, appropriately growling “I’m not goin’ down”.
Windy Grins will be releasing an EP later this year. For now, though, the curing powers of ‘Drop Out’ for the insecurities of 20-somethings everywhere will have to do.
Melbourne five-piece Crepes have released the clip to ‘Size of Your Town’, the downer-pop slow burner that closes out their debut EP Cold Summers. The clip is an ode to the boys’ central Victoria hometown, Ballarat, splicing VHS footage of Crepes with a 1994 performance from fellow countrymen the Teddyboys, an 80s band covering 60s swing. For an extra layer of WTF the boys have helpfully added Japanese subtitles for full karaoke absurdist effect.
The clip’s nostalgia is the initial drawcard, but it also serves as a great reminder to go back and listen through Crepes’ debut EP again – because damn, it’s a lovely slacker-psych kaleidoscope.
Fun fact: after seeing the clip I watched about 20 minutes of pancake tutorials. Thank you, Crepes, for not only being a delicious breakfast food but for producing equally delectable tunes.
Crepes are headed north with shows in Melbourne and Sydney before ending up in Brisbane next week for their BIGSOUND spot.
Samuel Dobson is an MC and multi-instrumentalist from Sydney, with a few years of remixes and production credits under his belt. I want to call Dobson’s latest track ‘Aussie weed rap’, except that is an awful phrase on many, many levels. But if you dubbed any voice from A$AP Mob over the downbeat, orchestral sounds that sprawl out beneath Dobson’s verses, you’d get where I’m coming from.
The spaced-out production spins the age-old “where ya from” narrative of hip hop writing into a pretty listenable flow, with zero forced crowd participation or calls for where you represent on the map etc. It’s a fluid, shimmery track, with Dobson’s verses pacing and then racing over the persistently sluggish beat. It kind of feels like a more well thought out version of the first track off his forthcoming debut – and I’m interested to see if he can sustain the dynamic over a full-length release. For now, this is a nice addition to the growing bank of sophisticated Australian hip hop and RnB.
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Sex, drugs and pop-n-roll is what Brisbane (via Sunshine Coast) four piece Pop Cult have on offer in their clip for their track, ‘Gotta Keep Lovin’. Set in a fucked up house at a party that I will never be cool enough to be invited to, the boys pull an all-nighter of debauchery and hedonistic band shenanigans that make me want to click my tongue with motherly ‘boys will be boys’ condescension.
Their sound bounces between fellow Brisbaneers Morning Harvey and Sydney Oasis revivalists Green Buzzard. It’s a solid pop track, replete with a Dandy Warhols sing-a-long chorus of “ahahahahhhhhs” and a ‘summer beers with the lads’ vibe.
Whoever gave the OK for their house to be used for what was originally pitched as a “small gatho” of mates – is going to be really, really pissed. Worth it.
Catch Pop Cult supporting the Cherry Dolls in Melbourne or ridin’ solo at Oxford Arts in Sydney.
Latest Comments
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Still trying to purchase!!!ANTHONY J LANGFORD
Cool track. Congrats Joshua. Hope the release is a success.Tristan
Man I love these guys. I can't believe they are not releasing any new music. I've been to so many…sophie
^^ I love Grimes! Banoffee is one of my new favorite music artists! :) I love With Her, Reign Down,…Ace
Read your review then listened to the EP. Fantastic ! Different to most hardcore punk I listen to. Somewhat more…