New Music

PREMIERE: Gang of Youths – ‘Evangelists’

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Gang Of Youths

Gang of Youths describe themselves on their Facebook page as ‘HUNGRY BROS’ who ‘ACCEPT ALL PAYMENTS; CHEQUE, CASH OR CARD’. They also tell us they make music that sounds like ‘EMOTIONAL-ASS, 10-TRACK CONCEPT ROCK’. While the band seem to have a penchant for writing everything on the internet in caps, all that yelling makes sense when you listen to lyrics of their new track ‘Evangelists’. 

We first noticed this band in May after listening to their earlier demos, which were super impressive. So surprised the labels haven’t come scrambling yet. Yet.

‘Evangelists’ was co-produced with The Preatures’ Jack Moffitt and mastered by Chicago-based engineer Carl Saf. The track was “penned in a hospital waiting room after battling with an extended period of writer’s block”. It’s a cathartic track with straightforward lyrics (I have made more friends in Hell than I have in Jesus land..) all of which suggest the mater nerves very close to a plight of personal experience, rather than just some case of regular writer’s block.

So their lead singer sounds like an angry Brandon Flowers on this track – and their pop sound is radio presenter’s wet dream, but there is something really poignant about the lead vocal. I previously described Gang of Youths’ sound is as a ‘Win Butler at your birthday/Casablancas at your funeral’ band after spinning air-punching stadium number ‘A Sudden Light’. However, these guys shine most when they sing out from the place that defies whatever shit bands like The Jungle Giants harp on about. And with that ‘Evangelists’ picks up where incredible ‘Riverlands’ left off.

Gang of Youths will be supporting Cloud Control on their upcoming national tour. It’s probably the last time you’ll get to catch them, since the band will be relocating to the USA after the tour (a good place to purge to the Mormon population).

Give these guys 6 months (maybe less) to start filling venues and exhausting radio play. A band like this deserves good things. Preach.

‘Evangelists’ will be available to purchase online this Friday.

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INTRODUCING: Cypher

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cypher

 

I wish I was somewhat of a talented songwriter. Probably just to be a straight up show-off. I’d flog my material through every social channel I would find, making sure all my friends and their friends know I’m kind of a Big Deal. This is also probably why I hold reverence to Cypher (and why the world is a better place without me having a ‘talent’).

Cyper is 15 year old Brisbanite ‘Faith T’. When I last looked, her Unearthed profile was the only place on the internet I could find her material. She started a Facebook page only a few days ago and it’s already off the hook. Cypher’s track ‘Liar’ is hauntingly beautiful; all breathy vocals over sparse piano and a rich atmospheric soundscapes. It’s alarming that a 15 year old can produce such a mature sound. Then again, the world seems to be hyping anyone who’s still going through puberty now, so Cypher will probably have her moment in the sun soon.

One can surely make comparisons to early Sia but ‘Liar’ suggests that Cypher has heaps of potential. Although it’s surprising for such a talent to have such little material online, it only adds to this teenager’s humble, self-effacing charm.

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LISTEN: Kins – ‘Aimless’

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kins

 

Bittersweet how this band skipped off to the UK before their debut EP Dancing Back and Forth In Whipped Cream even got the chance to warm up around the press or get anywhere near close to the radio play that it deserved here.

The Australian masses are reasonably facilitating about local stuff. Doesn’t mean I didn’t feel like slitting my wrists at major festival I recently attended while everyone fapped off to vanilla flavoured Scandinavian bands, dudes with triangles in their artwork and imported teenage ‘wunderkinds‘ who need to focus on the stuff teenagers should be into; like haiku and growing pubes.

There are a number of extremely supportive outlets which support local music and upcoming artists (hi fellow Oz music blogs, hi community radio, hi hardworking label start-ups, hi fReeZA, you know who you are etc..). Too often though, we’re quick to claim support when it should have been given in the first place. For artists hoping to achieve some level of ‘success’, Europe and the US has always, and will always be the land of milk and honey (+ legal weed, +crowds who actually dance). I know a few artists from overseas who’ve moved here in their plight to develop in a tighter ‘scene’, but in general those of the sort are few and far between.

While that might be the eternal case, let it be known, Australian bands…that somewhere, out there in the abyss of suburban Sydney – on a stained mattress in the Valley – or in a decrepit hole of a band room; SOMEONE LOVES YOUR MUSIC. Think about our feelings when you leave.

I’ve been following Kins closely since coming across ‘Bold Frown’ back in 2010. Originally a solo project for frontman Thom Savage (ex-Oh Mercy guitarist), Kins made the move to Brighton in the UK two years ago. Spots at the The Great Escape Festival and regular airplay on BBC 1 is all real great – but their new LP is more so.

Kins never had twee intentions. I doubt they made the move to cement their status as a hype band. When you listen to these guys, there’s often no distinct hook or a blatant chorus that keeps you the whole way through. It’s Thom Savage’s vagueness.

Kin’s new track ‘Aimless’ is just that. It’s a dreamy saunter and an angular dance. The track sounds like the personification of that endearing person everyone knows; the socially awkward person with a closet desire to throw violently outlandish moves on the dancefloor. It’s probably not that’s what the song is about. I’m pointing the finger at that chiming main hook and the faux-mariachi floating around though. All I can see is a Lou Taylor-Pucci type, maybe Steve Buscemi, flailing lithe limbs around in an aquarium lobby or something.

Thom’s distinct voice is the subtle hero of this track. While this spares a close ear to the unconvention of Local Natives, bits Alt-J and early Dappled Cities, I reckon Kins are unique in their own league. If I met Severely Underrrated Band and could stomp all over it’s passport, I would.

Wish we could keep them, but a band like this deserves better ears.

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INTRODUCING: Tropical Strength

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tropicalstrength

Tropical Strength is the work of brothers Alastair and Russell Webster, who are also members of Austinmer outfit Shining Bird. What I love about both these bands is the way they manage to convey a sense of Australiana without subscribing to the usual conceits of ‘Australian’ music – i.e. the ‘jangly’ pop put out by the many lost children of the Go Betweens or the style of industrial goth that was born in dingy Melbourne pubs during the 1970s.

Shining Bird’s take on Australian music is closer to that of Men at Work or the Warumpi Band. They pulled it off wonderfully in their last single, ‘Distant Dreaming’ – a subtle, engrossing jam which sounds a bit like David Byrne in a tender moment and revolves around the line ‘I’m caught in a distant dreamtime’. The video clip even features cameos from Uluru, the Opera House and a giant kangaroo.

Tropical Strength are slightly less indebted to the 80s than Shining Bird, but the Aussie references are everywhere here, too. The band’s Soundcloud profile credits the music to a gentleman called Harold Holt living in Seychelles (so that’s where he got to!), and their first single is named after Australian cinema classic Wake in Fright: a nightmare of alcoholism and sodomy in the outback.

‘Wake in Fright’ is broadly divided into two parts. Opening with the sounds of rainfall and bird song (not to mention a lyrical reference to ‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’), the first half is a mix of melancholic synth drone and a found-sound evocation of the brothers’ south coast home. The vocal is processed so that when it hits the lower registers it sounds something like the rumble of a didgeridoo. In its second half the song opens out into lush choral harmonies and Beatles-esque piano chords, travelling from the unsettling to the euphoric in about five minutes. ‘Wake in Fright’ is the kind of song I’ve been hoping to hear for a long time: a unique expression of Australian identity that goes beyond games of knifey-spoony and grandma’s hills hoist.

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Tropical Strength are putting out an EP later this year on Inertia subsidiary Antelope Recordings. In the meantime, get your ears around a gorgeous Beatles cover the band have put up on Soundcloud as well as this video. And keep your eye out for a new Shining Bird single coming out next week!

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PREMIERE: The Ocean Party

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theoceanparty

We love these guys. Most bands don’t usually don’t make more than twice an appearance on this blog (so many new bands, so little time), but these guys have somehow found a way around that. Dave has a blatant man crush on everyone in this band – while The Ocean Party’s member spawn-out into other local acts like Velcro, Kins, I’lls, The Removalists, Pencil, Ciggie Witch and Mining Boom makes shirking away from Band Bias almost impossible.

Amidst this band’s thread of solo projects, side projects and gratuitous sharing of talents across acts that have, and still continue to make important contributions to local music, The Ocean Party is the constant fixture in the chaos. And in a way, their Brunswick sharehouse (which featured in our photo essay of the guys earlier this year) seems to have become a central meeting point, literally and lyrically.

The band’s new track ‘Split’ which we’re premiering today sums up the band. The song’s subject is about moving away, but it’s a bit of a homecoming really.

Much like the song title, the band has had it’s share of vagabond members traipsing off to the UK and New York before returning back to the band or leaving to work on other projects. The Ocean Party originally met in high school in Wagga Wagga, but didn’t become a band until years later when they all found themselves living in Melbourne. After drummer Ben Protasiewicz departed for Perth, Simon Lam joined when their debut record The Sun Rolled off the Hills was recorded. 

After the album tour, Simon left Australia for England with his other band Kins, while the band started penning their follow up, Social Clubs. Simon made a prodigal return, coming home to record the second album, before departing again to focus on his other project, I’lls. A few months later, Curtis Wakeling (Velcro) left for New York for six months, so Joe Foley (Aleks and the Ramps) joined on bass and Lachlan Denton’s younger brother Zac moved from Wagga as a drummer. Curtis eventually returned from NY, and after getting the songs together for the new album the band packed up the van and headed to Tarcutta in NSW to record new material.

‘Split’ was recorded on Lachlan and Zac’s grandparents farm. During recording, the band moved away from the traditional idea of Lachlan Denton being the lead singer. Instead, the band took a literal approach to the song title, with every member of the band writing and singing their own songs. Zac penned ‘Split’ after moving from Wagga to Melbourne. “At the time I was just 18 and living with the rest of the band who had time to spare and less responsibility” Zac says, dividing time time for music and working as a plasterer for “shit wages and a hard-arse boss”.

Suburban nuances, the whole slave-to-the-man mantra is the obvious common thread through all our local bands denoting that token pop jangle. The point is to make the end result appear a lot effortless than the track’s intention/subject matter – and these guys do it well. ‘Split’ is a gorgeous, leisurely jam that could easily fool Shazam for a Real Estate b-side, but it’s not a sound we’ll tire of soon. The band have honed a much cleaner sound here, but those rolling guitar hooks and wistful lyrics are still hanging out right where they left off. The Ocean Party’s modesty and unassuming nature is what makes them so damn likeable. Knowing the nature of this band, the guys will probably see through a few more lineup changes. As long as they stick around chugging along making tunes about chugging along, we’re content.

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LISTEN: Straight Arrows – ‘Never Enough’

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straight-arrows

The line up of Sydney’s Straight Arrows reads like a local who’s who. Fronted by Owen Penglis, a somewhat hands-off recording engineer (he records to tape in his kitchen) who’s worked with bands like Royal Headache and The Frowning Clouds, the band features Al Grigg of Red Riders and Palms fame, and Angie Bermuda from Circle Pit. Straight Arrows’ first full-length release, 2010’s It’s Happening, was a high-energy, low-fidelity offering, packed with jams inspired by 60’s UK garage. It was recorded at their mate Tim Done’s house on his collection of 50’s-era American gear.

The latest Straight Arrows release, ‘Never Enough’, is louder and brasher than anything the band’s done before. It’s also quite sludgy – in a bad-ass, high-octane kind of way, à la the Sonics. The song moves along giddily, the tempo lifting to deliver a call-and-response chorus before the drunk and wailing guitar lick pulls it back into the fray.

Chicago-based label Hozac Records has released the Never Enough EP as part of its exclusive 7″ club. The band have been selling any remaining copies on tour, but thankfully the EP is also available for a measly two bucks on Bandcamp.

Straight Arrows will be playing two Victorian single launch shows, supported by the charming Bits of Shit, on Friday, 16 August at the Barwon Club in South Geelong and Saturday, 17 August at Melbourne’s Grace Darling Hotel. They’re also on the bill for FBi’s 10th birthday party, which will be held at Carriage Works on Sunday, 8 September.

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LISTEN: Cow Parade Cow – Before The Sharks LP

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cows

 

The follow-up to 2012’s Big Sky is Cow Parade Cow’s new LP Before the Sharks which has ossified their position as one the most exciting DIY projects operating out of the Western Australia right now.

 

‘Hallelujah Howl’

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The self-recorded, mixed, produced, and art designed project is the work of Mike Litton. With a healthy dose of trepidation, he handed a few tracks over to the ‘live-band’ bassist, Cam Stewart, but otherwise the production is his love-child. He opted not to auto-tune ‘Kanye style’ the higher parts, instead Litton brought in housemate, Janie Green who perfectly complemented Litton’s sketchy, heart-on-sleeve vocals illustrated nicely in ‘Lease the Sunset, Sell the Coast’.

‘Lease the Sunset, Sell the Coast’

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Before the Sharks moves beyond Cow Parade Cow’s previous releases not just in sound and production but also emotionally. It’s darker and somewhat more battered in spirit and there is a desperation in the explosions of sound and neurotic lyrics.

Litton tells me that “it almost feels like the huge rhythms and driving songs are the result of pure determination and stubbornness rather than for the joy of music”. Which is kind of how I always imagined an Architecture in Helsinki record getting made. A sound that is fun, bold, hypnotic and uplifting, but at the same time sounds like it was produced under duress. I can totally picture those hippies being held in solitude until the last ounce of pure chai-fuelled sunshine is burnt onto tape.

‘Beagle Personality’

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‘Beagle Personality’ is one of my favs for its pure recklessness which manages to sound so light and poppy whilst being utterly blunt and so honestly heartbreaking.

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Cow Parade Cow are venturing over to the East coast in early September playing shows in Melbourne, with a live band of friends kidnapped from other Perth bands. Look forward to a large stage of shenanigans with 6-9 members recreating the densely layered sounds of the recording. We’ll keep you up to date when more details arrive.

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