Teenager – ‘Alone Again’

We’ve covered what one half of Pnau, Pete Mayes did with himself, this is the other side / new project. Nick Littlemore has kept himself busy with dj gigs, producing The Valentinos and Damn Arms, and working on this new band Teenager, not to be confused with The Teenagers or even teenagersintokyo. I’m not sure how long the album took to record but it was at least a good year and a half before I heard anything new from them since they released Liquid Cement on a compilation made by Sydney’s FBi Radio. This track features the guitarist Pip doing vocal duties.

www.myspace.com/teenagerband

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photo by Sir Wheatley

Muscles – ‘Ice Cream’

I’m risking overloading on Muscles goodness here, but he’s worth the hype. Last time we wrote on the trance boy wonder I said that he was taking time off to rejig his live set up as a band. That was the plan I believe until he just got more and more gig offers. Now there’s a national tour on the cards in April with a certain big Australian band I’m not supposed to blog yet. Anyway, the thought of seeing him with a full live band is pretty exciting. Last week I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of what his sound/setup could be in the near future.

Muscles was headlining Click Click on Saturday, he’s played there maybe twice before so this time a week before the gig he made an open call on myspace for ‘band members’ to perform the first three songs during his set: Marshmellow, One Inch Badge Pin and Ice Cream. The stage was packed with an 8 (or maybe more) guest musicians including photographer/muso Ryan Wheatley of Learn The Splits, Tranter of Gameboy/Gamegirl, the guys from Julian Nation and Popolice both of whom supported the bill, another band I didn’t quite catch the name off, and resident party animal Phil Burns.

It was quite an impromptu and very candid set up, everyone was given lyric sheets with the major chord changes in it, though I don’t think anyone paid much attention to any of it and just sorta jammed through the set following Chris Muscles’ lead on the keyboard riff. There were no prior rehearsals so some in band weren’t sure when to dive in for their parts, but I must say the rhythm section did very well with Wheatley’s backing vocals giving One Inch Badge Pin a much thicker singalong texture that was a highlight of the set for me.

More on Muscles.

http://www.myspace.com/musclesmusic

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photo by Sir Wheatley

Muscles – ‘Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon & Lime’

Yes, another track from our leading trance revivalist. I hope this Muscles will outlast the Klaxons in the neo-trance movement. His MySpace blog reveals that he will be taking a break from performing live after February while he reworks his live show. He did mention to me earlier that he wants to have a live band eventually to back him up. I kind of like the idea of the one man band, he would work so sweet in the middle of a club, or better yet a stadium rave! Complete with fairy lights, strobe and police lights! Anyway, you better catch him live in his last few remaining one man shows.

www.myspace.com/musclesmusic

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Pomomofo – ‘Late Night (Dsico remix)’

So two of Sydney electro pop artists have gone to bed and got remixing happy. I’m not sure if this track will flow with DJs it is a bit too downbeat for a club drop. Maybe if it was sped up a bit? I don’t know I’m not a DJ so if there’s any out there let me know of your thoughts.

2006 was the year where bands remix other bands’ tracks and though most came out substandard and unusuable on the dance floor (just like most mash-ups), a few came out shining. Standout winners were when DJs remix bands ie Justice’s remix of Franz Ferdinand’s The Fallen, and when DJs remix each other ie Erol Alkan remixing Justice’s Waters of Nazareth. For a great rundown of the top remixes to hit iPods last year, head to Good Weather For Airstrikes’ end of year wrap up.

www.myspace.com/pomomofomusic
www.myspace.com/dsico

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Rizzo & Pizzo – ‘Infomercial’

Here’s something for Saturday night, a new song from Sydney’s most colourful electro duo! This is coming from what I can only assume is an upcoming debut EP. They cancelled most of their January dates due to Pizzo being sick, but they have salvaged one live date which is tomorrow on the 27th January at Spectrum, Sydney. Somebody go check them out and let me know how they are.

www.myspace.com/rizzopizzomusic

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Gameboy/Gamegirl – ‘Sweaty Wet Dirty Damp’ (mp3)

So I’ve been in Melbourne for three months now and after many gigs, festivals and countless parties I made friends with the three party animals that make up Gameboy/Gamegirl: Tranter, Jess and Katy. Helped by local DJ/beatmaker Miami Horror they’ve put out a track featuring dirty rhymes over very now sounding electro beats. This track is a bit unedited and is not really a single but more a club mix for easier dropping in DJ sets. When I saw their first gig last week their set was entirely mixed in by Miami Horror, giving it a real party vibe.

A bit of background; we’ve covered Tranter before, but it’s worth mentioning he was previously active in the band scene as member of Wolfbrother, and also has DJ residency at the Streetparty nights in Melbourne. Both Jess & Katy were previously involved in a project called Service Station Youth, with another local freestyler Talkshow Boy, who will be covered here soon.

www.myspace.com/gameboygamegirl

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Bumblebeez – ‘Black Dirt’

Bumblebeez won the old era Triple J Unearthed competition a few years ago, when it was done state by state, and toured extensively after being signed to Modular, including support slots with Radiohead and N.E.R.D. They changed names to Bumblebeez 81 after a copyright dispute but has since dropped the numbers for press releases. The band was a collective of musicians based in and around Canberra, led by Chris Colonna. Eventually one by one the other band members either left or were kick out. I’m not even sure if his sister pictured here is still in the band. But I do know that the band is still on the Modular label and they’ve flown Colonna over to London to get this track and record mixed by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford. As much as an enigman Chris Colonna is, this track sure sounds different than everything else out there at the moment.

www.myspace.com/thebumblebeez

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