The Strums – ‘2+2=3′ (video)

The main songwriting team behind The Strums is the same songwriting team that was behind Dead Riot, known for their sharp songs and awesome boat cruises.
Like many Brisbanites, singer Jai and guitarist Eric had their home destroyed by the January floods, and the destruction inspired them to retire Dead Riot and start something new.
Cool video clip.
FFO: The Gaslight Anthem, Bouncing Souls, The Living End.

The Rescue Ships – ‘On The Air’ (video)

The Rescue Ships played Rockhampton once.

It was in 2009 and back then they were (and still are) Elana Stone and Brian Campeau and they were touring with Passenger aka Mike Rosenberg.
The gig was poorly publicised and they ended up scrapping the door price and just playing in the beer garden – their own originals and some tremendous covers.
Everyone had a great time and I ended up driving my (plastered) best friend home, via the supermarket where she berated a shop attendant for not selling “you know… chicken, that’s like, chopped up and already roasted?”
Good times.

Anyway, they’ve pooled their considerable talents and are playing as a duo. I saw them support Scott Spark at The Globe Theatre a few months back and they were still incredible.
If you get a chance to see them live, go and do it. They’re ridiculously talented and do great banter.

Frenzal Rhomb – ‘Bird Attack’ (video)

Ibis’ are the worst.

‘Bird Attack’ is from Frenzal’s new album “Smoko At The Pet Food Factory”.

Ange Takats – The Girl and The Glass (video)

Ange Takats is a singer-songwriter, but she used to be a foreign correspondent.
She spent a couple of years working for a major news agency in Bangkok, earning a pittance and seeing a lot of weird and interesting things. She’ll be playing a gig with Paul Kelly at the Byron Bay writers festival this weekend, where she’ll also be spruiking her excellent book about the whole Bangkok stint – The Buffalo Funeral.
BUT  back to the music. Ange teamed up with photographer Nat Brunovs to make this very cute stop-motion video clip and I think it’s a winner. The song’s pretty good too, and a must-listen for fans of Joni Mitchell.

Let it also be known that Nat is a generally good sort, and she let me stay at her house and look after her dog for a week after she’d known me for approximately four minutes.

The Drones live DVD – A Thousand Mistakes

It’s kind of old news, but I don’t care.

It’s out in September, and the band will tour in October.

The Ovaries – ‘Devil’s Snare’ (video)

I have mixed feelings about this band.

On one hand, I really like this video. On the other hand, their Q & As with their fan base (who are either young goth dudes who want to bang them, young goth queer girls who want to bang them, old dudes who want to bang them and a smattering of idiots just to make things interesting) are fucking cringe-worthy. They actually used to have a lot more Q & As on their Youtube, but they’ve disappeared, thank God.

I suppose they’re basically Short Stack, but with real vaginas instead of the implied ones that Shaun, Andy & Brady have.

And that’s the thing  that gets me, I guess. Part me thinks  that they’re reasonably proficient on their instruments and they can write a song, so why bother comparing them with men, or women?

But I can’t stop myself from doing that and it’s  because they use their gender as a gimmick, as a vehicle for their music, and that shits me off.
In an older video, they explained this in detail, if somewhat naively.
They tried to use the drummer’s sexuality as a gimmick too, but they’ve since deleted the Youtube video where they taunt her with chants of “we like penis, you like vagina…” and hopefully realised that’s a shitty thing to do to someone, even in jest.

In conclusion, they have more than a thousand fans on Facebook - some who’ve got Ovaries tattoos – and I’m just a sad old hater, I guess.

Little Scout – ‘We Are Walking Out’ (video)

Back in 2008, I decided I wanted to blog for this site in order to improve my writing (yes, I was that naive) and to gush about bands I really really liked. Hearing Little Scout’s first single ‘Dead Loss’ and not seeing anyone else gushing about it prompted me to email Jerry Soer and ask if he’d let me join the fun here. They were one of the first bands I posted about.

Now I’ve kind of sort of left the blog (as has Jerry), and Little Scout are releasing their debut album, after releasing some great EPs and building a solid touring CV.

Fuck yeah, history.

Streamer Bendy – ‘Away From Home’ (video)

Riding off into the sunset

Dear internet,

After two-and-a-half years, 140 posts and numerous opinions I’m handing in my logins and leaving the blog.

It’s been fun, but I’ve got other stuff I want to do.

Thanks for putting up with my erratic taste in music. I hope I helped some bands out with my posts.

Thanks to Jerry Soer for giving me the opportunity to contribute to what is a fucking awesome blog and all the other bloggers who’ve contributed, especially current editors Matt Hickey and Melissa Tan.

You can find me over at Twitter if you give a shit about that sort of stuff.

Thanks!

The Waifs – ‘Angela’

The Waifs – ‘Angela’ (mp3)

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Although the core band members now live in the US, to me The Waifs are an Australian band. Those accents! Those songs! That record label they co-own with John Butler!

Twenty years of playing together combined with twenty years of life experience has helped birth Temptation, their first album in five years.

I think it’s their best yet. The arrangements are quite sparse compared with their earlier work, but it’s a good thing. Solid songs should be given room to breathe.

They’re touring in March.

www.thewaifs.com