Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

Above is footage of Bridezilla performing a live set for ‘The Guest Apartment’ at Baeble Music.

In other Bridezilla news, their debut album ‘The Last Dance’ is out November 7 on Inertia. Yay. I had a brief correspondence with vocalist Holiday Cameron-Sparks in the lead-up to its release. The wily singer doesn’t give away much about their impending record because “it’s like giving away the sex of a baby,” but it’s only made me more keen to get my hands on it. Q&A below.

What was it like starting out so young? Has it been like one of those high school relationships that got a bit weird when you left school?

Everyone’s gone through their respective phases and rites of passage. We have to keep on our toes, adjusting and adapting. We are very, painfully, close.

How was it performing at ATP in New York?

Perverted and indulgent; an honour and a thrill.

Your album is coming out soon – what should we expect from it? What did you expect going into it?

I expected it to sound like The Colo River mystified by my adolescence. I want you to expect nothing, so you can be surprised! It’s like giving away the sex of a baby before it’s born, and painting the walls accordingly.

As well as all the bands you’ve played with at ATP, you recently toured with Decoder Ring and Seekae, bands that get critical acclaim and talked of as ‘intelligent’ or ‘high art’ music. Did you seek to achieve something like with your album? Did you see it as a collection of songs or a work of art?

I hear it as both, increasingly so. It’s nice to confuse and challenge yourself by making your music more complex than you can care to understand, and the art of it allows us to get away with anything in the name of abstraction.

Tracks like your latest single ‘Beaches’ are fairly atmospheric. Is that something you plan and take into consideration at the time of writing and rehearsing or does that all happen when you’re in the studio?

We’ve tried to use the advantages of recording and electronic equipment purely to emphasize (with subtlety and purpose) dynamics that are already in place.

The other striking thing about ‘Beaches’ is that it sounds quite big, almost epic, and yet it’s over in about 2mins. Did you consciously keep that song tight, and is it a reflection of the forthcoming album?

It may well be a result of attention deficit, but perhaps everything is there in that 2 minutes that needs to be. Perhaps that’s all you need to hear.

Who is your favourite Australian band/artist at the moment?

In my bias opinion, The Scare are the most frustratingly under-appreciated band in Australia. We are lucky to have them. In Sydney, Cabins, Seekae, Marf Loth, and A Casual End Mile. In Melbourne, Teen Archer, Super Wild Horses, and Witch Hats.

What’s your favourite Australian album of the last decade?

My Mother’s records. Loene Carmen: Slight Delay, Rock N Roll Tears, and It Walks Like Love. I haven’t got my hands on Rowland S Howard’s Pop Crimes yet though, and that will be a tough contender, I know.

www.myspace.com/bridezilla

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Phat Chance – ‘Mountain Of Glass’

“Probably not the most accessible song on the album… [but] most reflective of what I’m about as an artist.” Thus goes the description that accompanied this track when it appeared in our SoundCloud account (yes, we do check it regularly). I’m not entirely sure just how accessible the album gets, but this song is already pretty catchy. I won’t sit here and pretend to be an Aussie hip hop connoisseur, but I know when I like something and I’m quite taken with this song. I like how laid back it feels; where other Australian emcee’s often have a forced intensity that personally I shirk at, Phat Chance sounds like he lays down his vocals while sitting forward in an arm chair. The beats and production aren’t showy but are up to scratch and suit the track well.

I couldn’t find his Myspace (the curse of having a fairly generic name), but if you head to his Triple J Unearthed page listed below then you can grab the track for free anyway. Score.

www.triplejunearthed.com/phatchance

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The Boat People – ‘Echo Stick Guitars’

I have to level with you guys.
I don’t like this song and I find the promo pic incredibly pretentious.
However, you’ve gotta commend The Boat People on what is either a complete re-invention or an elaborate piss-take. Apparently borne from Robin Waters’ dabblings in hiphop side project, perhaps it’s a bit of both.

Give this a shot if you like Architecture in Helsinki or other pop music incorporating shouting children, vintage synths and nonsensical lyrics.  If you didn’t like The Boat People’s music before, you might like it this time.

www.myspace.com/theboatpeople

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Joel Edmondson – ‘Edge of The Road’ (mp3)

Brisbane’s Lofly collective not only run one of the coolest venues in town, but provide the kind of artistic guidance, growth and support that only a functioning artist’s collective can. Initially performing under the name Calvara, Joel Edmondson is a shining example of this, and the closest thing Lofly has to Triple J fodder.

Edmondson’s songs sound like experiments to see how many sonic oddities can sneak into an arrangement of a pop song before the listener gets distracted. With ‘Edge of The Road’, the appearance of a deep-voiced, reverb-soaked choir on backing vocals ends the experiment early, but it’s fine. Edmondson has the chops to pull it off.

Joel Edmondson will release the Invisible Steps LP later on this year.

www.myspace.com/joeledmondson

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www.myspace.com/themesshall

Usually I don’t copy and paste pressers, but these words from the filmmakers help explain this clip:

‘Bell’ follows a day in the life of the eleven-year-old preaching phenomenon, Minister Terry Durham – also known as “The Little Man Of God”. Hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Pastor Terry started preaching at the age of four, and was ordained by his grandmother Pastor Sharon D Monroe at the age of six.  In his short lifetime, he has travelled to 38 states in the US, as well as making several overseas trips to the UK, South Africa and more, to preach.

‘Bell’ was shot over a weekend in LA where the Minister had travelled to give a guest sermon at a small church in Compton – in and around where the entire film was shot. Before each LA sermon, Terry likes to buy a new suit, and has it tailored to fit, accompanied by his grandmother. This routine is beautifully captured in the video. What unfolds from there is best seen and not explained.

Director Justin Kurzel, who is the brother of The Mess Hall’s singer/guitarist Jed, has directed all of the band’s previous videos, including ‘Keep Walking’ and ‘Pulse’ which won the Audience Award and Best Music Clip respectively at the 2008 St Kilda Film Festival.

“Jed told me that ‘Bell’ was about someone who knocks your socks off, someone who amazes you,” says Justin. “Having chanced upon Terry on the net, we were immediately fascinated by his story. After some lengthy phone conversations with Pastor Monroe, we were lucky enough to be granted three days with Terry, and unlimited access. The idea was to capture an incredibly powerful performance and to simply record it, without judgment or commentary, and get the impact that he has across on film.”

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Leena – ‘Universe Can Wait’

What a bloody great pop song! Leena really knows how to nail a great smooth melody and some interesting instrumentation.

Universe Can Wait is the first single from Leena’s Mean Old Clock EP. The EP is a collection of smooth, well-crafted pop gems and its been sitting in, or at least within easy reach of my CD player for the past few weeks.

Although it’s definitely a pop record there is some real depth to the song writing that makes it an involving listening experience.

The songs on the Mean Old Clock were the product of sessions with some very well respected and well know producers; Josh Pyke, Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, Tori Amos, My Morning Jacket) and Mike Daly (Whiskeytown).

www.myspace.com/leenamusic

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Cloud Control – ‘Gold Canary’ (mp3)

New music from the Blue Mountains! Only it sounds kinda like it originates from somewhere deep in America. Cloud Control always had an earthy, pastoral quality to their music, but it sounds all the more temporally appropriate post-Fleet Foxes. Less jangle and more twang.

‘Gold Canary’ is pulled from their debut album expected early 2010. It’s got some rootsy backing vox and yelping, tambourine+handclap percussion, references to family members in the lyrics and then… a synth solo. Yes, in the midst of this quality ho-down, Cloud Control bring the ‘Dr Who’ – and it oddly fits better than it does anywhere on the latest Muse album. This song is rad and I’ll eat my computer monitor if this isn’t all over Triple J soon.

www.myspace.com/cloudcontrol

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