Dappled Cities Fly – ‘Within Hours’ (mp3)

A new cut from the upcoming album Granddance, produced by Peter Walker and Jim Fairchild (ex-Grandaddy) and mixed by Jaquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse). Heard this song played live a couple times and they were of course brilliant. I was half expecting Tim Derricourt to go his usual high pitched ‘Ow!‘ in the chorus of the song, but I suppose that’s only for live shows. This is not the leading single from album, my guess is that would be ‘The Birds’ – which you can have a listen to the demo version on their MySpace. Since finishing the recording Dappled Cities Fly has been signed onto US based Dangerbird Records while in Australia the fine boys at Speak n Spell will be putting out their album. They’re on tour with Crayon Fields at the moment, and will later on in the year play at Pianos in New York as part of the CMJ Music Marathon – something like the college version of SXSW – with a lineup like a music blogger’s dream gig.

Previous post: Dappled Cities Fly: Live

dappledcitiesfly.com
www.myspace.com/dappledcitiesfly

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Sarah Blasko – ‘don’t u eva’

During university I went through a phase of audio engineering and did some work experience in the Roundhouse, a venue at the University of New South Wales. One night I was helping out the house sound tech doing the university band competition and I saw band called Acquiesce belting out folk rock tunes, complete with a violin. They were the most professional out of the usually crappy entrants, but what set them apart was the female singer’s voice. It was just so beautiful I stopped and watched the entire set. They won that competition of course, I got the EP and set out to see them again. But I never did. The band broke up and the vocalist Sarah Semmens disappeared from the music scene entirely. I couldn’t believe it. I asked around and scanned the papers for her name to appear solo or in another band but it never happened. It was very disappointing to think that such a talent had just given up on the music scene.

A few years later I had forgotten about the whole thing when I heard the same voice coming out of Triple J, this time much more mature and confident. It was Sarah Blasko and right at that moment I just knew it was the same Sarah from Acquiesce. Her voice was so unique it couldn’t be anyone else. I went to one of her solo shows and talked to her. She never did explain why she changed her name, but I was just glad she was back singing. That was before she released her EP Prelusive. Two years ago she went to LA and recorded The Overture and The Underscore – it’s one of my favourite Australian albums of all time. I think a lot of people dismissed it as another sooky solo singer songwriter record, but this record had such incredible melodies that only Sarah can pull off.

The good news is she has a new album coming out called What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have. The track ‘Explain’ has been on high rotation on Triple J and it is just fantastic, backed by piano and sweeping string arrangements. I couldn’t get an mp3 from her label, so this video will have to do for now. Directed by Lucy Dyson & Isobel Knowles.

www.sarahblasko.com
www.myspace.com/sarahblasko

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Vendettas – ‘Running’ (mp3)

Vendettas combines the very hip talents of Peter Mayes of PNAU and John Hardy of Soundworks Studios, who recently produced the new records by Van She, The Valentinos and Children Collide. I’m very selective when it comes to listening tunes from the so called ‘new rave’ movement, this song though makes the cut. Singer Larissa’s voice reminds me of a lot of mid 80s pseudo-club/rock tunes which I’m not a particularly big fan of but the chorus is just too catchy to ignore. Played at full club volume this song can be easily dropped to most hipster DJs setlist. Rumours are they already had a deal with a major label in Australia. They’ve got a few gigs coming up in Sydney but I’ve yet to meet someone who’s seen them live, though they will play a lot more support slots in the next few months.

http://www.myspace.com/vendettasrock

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Mercy Arms – ‘Half Right’

Completely unrelated to Melbourne’s Damn Arms, this Sydney four piece is one of the biggest buzz band around at the moment and I thought I better jump on the wagon before they get their record out. Much of Mercy Arms’ music is centered around Guitarist Kirin J Calinnan’s amazing guitar work, often hovering around early U2 sounding riffs, partnered with vocalist Thom’s thin Smiths-influenced vocals. It’s hard to describe how good Kirin is on the guitar, when he’s on the melody the whole room seem to be transfixed on his craft, the audience is just sailing through each song on his lead.

Kirin was once member of the Valentinos before leaving to form his own group. He hooked up with some producers based out of Big Jesus Burger Studios to record the now well known demos on their myspace. Manager Todd Wagstaff of Engine Room fame (The Vines, Holly Valance, Veronicas) then picked up the band and put the big wheels in motion. They went on expenses paid showcases for major labels to the US and London and had a few big music industry names flying in for some local gigs, often filled with journalists, agents and A&R reps slipping in to have a look. Rumours of the band signing multi million dollar deals with Capitol, Universal and Modular soon floated around industry circles. We’ll never know if any of them were true, but I have heard recently from reliable sources that the band has signed an international deal so there should be an announcement pretty soon.

So will this band be next big thing? They have all the industry on their side and the songs and live skills to back it up. Recent tours saw them opening huge shows for The Strokes and now they’re on another national tour with Wolf & Cub. The fans are flooding in on myspace and everything else look sweet for these guys. I am very keen to hear the debut album, here’s hoping it’ll stand up to expectations.

www.myspace.com/mercyarms

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This duo from the Sydney Northern Beaches are recent signings to the UK label Independiente, home to Gomez, Travis and Martina Topley-Bird (ex-vocalist for Tricky).

Previous post: Angus and Julia Stone

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‘Test Pattern’ clip – Directed by Buzzard Mountain Ranch

Previous post: Damn Arms

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Damn Arms – ‘Test Pattern’

Three out of four members of Damn Arms were in a previous band called Snap! Crakk!, before they replaced some members and picked up the pace of their songs upon the name change. Much of their sound lingers on that electro tinged new-rave sound, though that’s probably not a fair description because they were there before NME decided to push this new sub genre revival. The name came from the Matt Groening animated series Futurama, when the main character Fry exclaimed ‘I could fit [into the drain] if I didn’t have these damn arms!’ You probably have to be a fan of the series to get it. The band have had a few tours through Europe, and even got on the road with the now imploded Test-Icicles. I believe they are heading out to the UK soon early next year after they recorded their new album with producer Lindsay Gravina of Birdland Studios in Melbourne.

damnarms.com
www.myspace.com/damnarms

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