The Medics – ‘Sinking Ship’

The Medics – ‘Amongst The Corn Field’

I have no end of good things to say about Cairns band The Medics (I posted about them last year too), so I’ll keep this brief and try to gush as little as possible.

The Medics have spent the last nine months touring the country, playing shows and festivals and getting  good at playing live. I mean, really good.

After a fantastic showcase at Brisbane’s BigSound conference in October (sucked in to all of you who were too busy talking over Washington’s set and demolishing Dew Process’ bar tab to see them), Leanne DeSouza came out of semi-retirement to manage them. Her previous clients include George and Kate Miller-Heidke, so the boys are in good hands.

Their new EP This Boat We Call Love was produced by Mark Myers from The Middle East and is a contender for my favourite album artwork of the year. It’s folkier than their previous effort but definitely more cohesive.

They’re playing shows in Brisbane, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast this weekend, starting with a gig at Club 299 tonight. Go and see them.

www.myspace.com/themedicsband1

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This band is full of ridiculously good-looking people.

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Blonde On Blonde – ‘Oh My Oh My’ (mp3)

Blonde On Blonde list their influences as “The Velvet Underground, The Valley and sex”. Add fellow Velvets admirers The Dandy Warhols and Queens of The Stone Age to the gang and you’ve got music which is pretty derivative but sexy nonetheless.

‘Oh My Oh My’ opens with drumming so effortlessly tight you’d swear it was looped, if not for the lack of wood block during the verses. Then there’s the scratchy guitar riff, then the bored-sounding male and female vocals and superfluous bass; you know how it goes. Who needs a bridge or a middle-eight with a groove this good?

I tried really hard to listen to the lyrics of this song, but I kept getting distracted by the urge to smoke a million bongs and convince attractive people to make out with me. That’s not a bad thing by the way, especially with New Years a couple of days away.

Excuse me.

www.myspace.com/blondeonblondetheband

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Willows – ‘You Said You’d Leave, But Our Houses Are Still Haunted’ (mp3)

Describing music is hard enough at the best of times, let alone when I’m put up to the task for a band like Willows.

Filing them under the catch-all sub-genres of “post-rock”, “post-hardcore” or “post-metal” seems inadequate, even though their music displays elements of all the above – quiet, clean delayed bits like Explosions in the Sky, sludgy power chords like Neurosis and ISIS and the atmospherics of A Perfect Circle.

Well, I tried my best. Just click the little triangle up there, or cosy up to them at the next gig they play. Watch out for flying guitar headstocks.

www.myspace.com/willowsaustralia

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The Verses – ‘Everything At Once’ (mp3)

I posted about The Verses last year, when the group was playing small shows around Melbourne and their MySpace had a collection of demos the Hooper siblings recorded with friends in a church in their hometown in regional Victoria.

They’re back on the major label ride and I’m a little bit disappointed with their first offering with Warner. I don’t think the songs are as strong as their older material and the shiny production robs them of character.

That said, Ella Hooper could sing the fine print of the Tax Pack over a Timbaland beat and I’d still fork over good money to see her do it live. The audiences of their Fleetwood Mac support slots in December are in for a treat and will enjoy ‘Forever More’, which sounds very heavily, um, influenced by the Mac.

www.myspace.com/theverses

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Numbers Radio – ‘Automatic’ (mp3)

If you turn up the volume on your speakers, you can hear drummer Mark Henman counting Numbers Radio into the start of  the song, kicking off  their debut album Acquiring Satellites. By recording the bulk of the album “live” in an actual “garage”, NR have blitzed every other indie-pop band in town with the sheer quality that can only come with bashing out song after song until they are good.

In the two years since their inception, Numbers Radio have played Homebake, made a sweet film clip and released an EP and an album, all on independent label Valley Trash.

If you like the songs, buy the album – it has great fifties-style sci-fi artwork and with more play money behind them, they could overthrow Children Collide as Australia’s best power trio.

www.myspace.com/numbersradio

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