WTH: You’ve known Claire Bowditch for quite a while?

EL: We became friends when I was nine and she was 16. We went to the same hippy school and somehow found each other. We even wrote some songs together back in the 90’s. Our early work never really broke through onto the scene though.

WTH: Did Harry Angus (Cat Empire) direct Tinpan Orange towards a ‘bigger’ sound? What did he bring to the table during the working process of the record?

EL: He brought a lusciousness to our sound…sweet melodic lines, little hooks and riffs subtely layered to create texture and richness and drive. We don’t have drums and bass so we needed to be creative about making the songs have groove and evolution. He also had a lot of confidence that we could make a beautiful album, despite the fact that we all had little production experience.

WTH: I can’t keep track of how many guest musos walk in and out of the Cat Empire.

EL: They are a musos band. They love jam… I mean a jam.

WTH: You describe yourself as ‘gypsy infused’ folk. What does this mean for the rest of the population who are wary of pick pocketing musical vagrants who smell like hashish and patchouli oil?

EL: The gypsy thing is phasing out a little bit in Tinpan. Alex is straying from his Ukrainian Jewish gypsy roots and embracing his Ukrainian classical heritage. Behind that iron curtain those kids can really play Bach…

WTH: Bearing the estrogen in the trio, how does musical conflict go down?

EL: I usually win.

(more…)

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Georgia Fair – Times Fly 

Sydney duo Georgia Fair have recently returned from the US where they’ve been working on their debut record with Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses). Times Fly is a balmy folk gem, shrouding sweet surf coast atmospherics in sedate harmonies and melancholic hooks. Those chiming chords and that jovial tambourine makes the outro sound like it’s been plucked from a scottish hymnal. I’ve got a soft spot for these kind of tracks that remind me of days driving down to the coast and burning my feet on the hot pavement in summer. A charming, temperate track that reads like a mellow sepia photograph. Nice stuff.

Catch Georgia Fair supporting Darren Hanlon on Friday the 13^th at the Factory Theatre.

www.myspace.com/georgiafair

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‘Lifeblood Flow’ (Turkish Prison remix)

‘Michael’s Deadline’

Some new tracks from the Midnight Juggernauts including ‘Michael’s Deadline’ and  Turkish Prison’s spin on ‘Lifeblood Flow’.

Catch the dudes at Splendour In the Grass or on one of the dates below before they fly off to do a run of dates across the UK.

12/8 – The Gov, SA

14/8 – The Capitol, WA

19/8 – The Forum, VIC

20/8 – The Forum, NSW

21/8 – Hi Fi, QLD

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Northeast Party House – ‘Dusk’ (mp3)

Seems like the only way to get your band gazumped by college kids is to get your brood on the party circuit. Northeast Party House’s name has been tramp stamped onto every ounce of facebook party spam I’ve received in the last month. These type of invites won’t fuck off no matter how much you stab ‘no’ into your keyboard, so I thought I’d give them a chance.

Don’t let the steady progression of guitar (it’s all a bit too Two Weeks for my liking) or that sleepy stream of vocals fool you. That mellow, dreamy verse floats around as if it’s just been plucked out of Damon Albarn’s cerebral cortex. But just when I’m about to be transported into oblivion by that awesome hook that reeks of spandex and glitterati, those shrill synth fart noises start up and undermine all the goodness that was promised.

Yes, at times this track sits in your stomach a bit like a badly mixed jagerbomb and can’t make up it’s mind whether it wants to party or pass out. There’s probably a bunch of streetparty kids who will beat me into the ground with their strobe lights and smoke machines for dissing the fun.

In the meantime, Northeast Party House will be overtaking vacant houses and gig venues providing Saturday playtime to little girls donning nanna-chic and floppy haired boys who take pride in doing their shirts up to the top button. In the meantime, I’ll need a few beers and a blast from the smoke machine before I can adjust to all that fuzz and novelty print.

www.myspace.com/northeastpartyhouse

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Sticky Fingers – ‘Juicy Ones’ (mp3)

Sticky Fingers – ‘Murderous Nerves’ (mp3)

There are always those bloody festival punters I get stuck next to in the pit who put their dreadlocks so close to my face that I can taste henna ointment and lentil chutney. I’ve sat through too many awful consecutive renditions of ‘No Woman, No Cry’ by neigbourly compatriots camping next to my tent at Falls Festival to ever appreciate anything associated with reggae again.

I’m no expert in reggae, so if it sounds somewhat coherent, in tune and adopts some kind of swaying cohesion, it’s sweet music to my ears. When these guys described themselves as garage/pop/reggae I wasn’t quite sure to pull out my serious scorn or take the piss. While Sticky Fingers sounds more like the name of a roving kids craft centre or the title of a b grade porno, I’m getting into this.

Juicy Ones delivers translucent layers of jewel toned riffs over a vibrant pop melody.  Dylan’s crisp tone has chutzpah, but an added effortless restraint to it that guides SF’s sound through this with absolute ease. Loose tuning on the ends of most phrases add a nice tempered dimension to the track too.

Murderous Nerves serves up the band’s reggae leanings. And as ugly as you’d imagine the spawned offspring of british hued indie pop and reggae to be, the end product ain’t all bad. Smokey, musky atmospherics here that could easily slot straight onto one of those dub mixtapes most bars seem to whack on between sets.

At the 1:43 mark I’m picturing Kyle Falconer from The View staggering around stage blowing smoke rings and donning raggamuffin beads and hemp-dyed pants. Oh! What a turn on. There’s something about reggae dub beats that brings out the best of stoned ‘come-hither’ faces in most people. Whatever it is, it’s working it’s charm.

The band have managed to develop a fresh, clear-cut sound without flaunting too much studio polish. They’ve glazed that ‘r’ word with a nice twist, and I’ve just given in.

www.myspace.com/stickyfingers_

* Sticky Fingers will be playing with a hoist of other schweeet bands (Howl, Puta Madre Brothers, Traps, Guineafowl, Parades & more) at Oxford Art Factory’s 3rd Birthday on the 20th of Aug.

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Our Husband – ‘Villages’ (mp3)

Our Husband is a new side limb for Nathaniel Morse of Adelaide band Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! and Freya Adele formerly of now defunct act Bing Goes to Monaco.

Woodland hymnals for melody lines, tangles of glistening guitar, Villages carves another elegant figure into the realm of narcoticised folk-pop.

Freya’s spectral vocals add to the thoughtful construction of this track, leaving you feeling as if you’ve had your head immersed in a jar of liquid hydrogen for a week.

Villages works as a solid opening track, but seems incomplete in it’s wider narrative scheme.  Our Husband’s debut will be released later on in the year, so for now, this has to suffice on repeat. If you’re into Beach House, you’ll like this.

Definitely giving Big Scary a run for their money on my list of top local acts this year so far.

www.myspace.com/weareourhusband

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