Cam is my favourite find from the slush pile that was the old whothehell email account.

www.myspace.com/cammackellar

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Dead Letter Circus – ‘Here We Divide’

Dead Letter Circus are a textbook example of how to do the rock band thing.

1. Rehearse until you are sure you won’t embarrass yourself in public.
2. Start playing phenomenally awesome local shows, build following through said shows.
3. Repeat ad nauseum in arenas, pubs, festivals and dives all around the country.
4. Get airplay on JJJ, support every other band in your genre until you overtake them in popularity.
5. Keep releasing singles to keep your loyal fans happy.
6. Sign a deal with a major label after having done all the hard work off your own back for years.
7. Profit (???) using internet-driven and value added packages (???)

When I was 17, my much-older boyfriend at the time used to sneak me into dive bars all around Brisbane to watch his band play. It was during this bit of my life that I saw Dead Letter Circus’ second show ever, then their fifth, then their tenth, and how the punters kept coming back and bringing their friends. It was exciting to be around, and so were the songs; their debut EP  (released in 2007) was stellar.

A few years on and the excitement of the music has waned a bit, although to be fair it must be hard to work around Rob Maric’s distinctive guitar style and tone. If you loved DLC before, you’ll like this; and you’ll probably sign up to Project Dead Letter, the paid-access members only website with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of their debut album This Is The Warning and MP3s of new material.

Good on ’em.

www.myspace.com/deadlettercircus

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Loopus – ‘Dad’s Angry’ (mp3)

Loopus call themselves “a live DJ band without the vinyl”, and while I suppose that’s a pretty good description, it doesn’t give credit to the jazz training of the band members, let alone the contribution of VJ Jaymis. Here’s their explanation of how they work:

Live
The band consists of computer, guitar, electric bass and drums. When performing live, DJ Henden grabs riffs from each instrument, loops then and throws them back for the band to work with, creating more texture for interaction/improvisation. A live set performed by Loopus is always evolving and can be over one hour long, moving from groove to groove, riff to riff in continuous flow. For festivals and venues with screens available, Loopus combines with VJ Jaymis who attaches micro cameras on instruments and surroundings, creating live video mixing as the band plays.

Studio
DJ Henden works behinds the scenes as a producer, looping, editing and re mixing previous live jams/gigs. These tracks resemble more of a song structure.

In summary, this band is fucking cool in the nerdiest way possible. If you like the possibilities of digital music and/or jazz without annoying glitch beats or scatting, you’ll probably like this. Check out their videos, or see them live at Brisbane’s X & Y bar tomorrow night.

http://www.myspace.com/theloopusband
http://vimeo.com/loopus

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Castles Sunk Below The Sea – ‘1992’ (mp3)

Castles Sunk Below The Sea make music for thinking deep thoughts to. From the same school of sound as local post-rock bands Willows and The Paper and The Plane, they sound a bit like Appleseed Cast, a bit like Explosions in the Sky and a bit like Brand New. ‘1992’ is a short but powerful track (that’s what all the ladies say, eh? eh? eh?) based around  samples from Severn Suzuki’s speech at the UN Earth Summit in 1992. More thoughts than feelings at the moment, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

They have a show at Fat Louies in Brisbane on Saturday night, just sayin’.

www.myspace.com/castlessunkbelowthesea

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