Glaciers - ‘BC’

(mp3)

Sauntering through the endless field of bands suffocating on reverb like small children at a narcotics fair seems to be common go around these parts of town. Fortunately, Glaciers have made the familiar meander a little bit more reassuring. ‘BC’ is the first track from this new Melb four piece and there’s plenty of bright treble guitar hooks and ND’s dozy vox to wrap around you like a happy blanket. Doesn’t stray too far from a Wild Nothing b-side, but overall sunny sounds here make the usual dream pop sojurn more of a cheerful retrospective than a pitiful sledge through melancholia. Weep Jack Tatum.

weareglaciers.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/glaciers.melbourne

It’s that time of year when Sydney rolls out the giant projections and ocular spasms of joy, because VIVID 2012 kicks off tomorrow. We have a whole stash of double passes to parties and shows Modular, FBi Radio and Goodgod are putting on throughout the festival.

To win a double pass, swing an email to rsvp@whothehell.net with your contact details, show of choice and minor reasons/bribes as to why you deserve to get down with Donny, stroke Jonno Boulet’s beard et al.

UP FOR GRABS>>

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Redspencer – ‘Happy Slow Riverbends’

(mp3)

The only available jpeg of this these guys on the interwebs is slightly larger than a toenail clippping. But nevermind. This song makes me want to do good things to people, so I’ll stop crying over low-res and start the plead to this Gold Coast trio for more tunes.

www.facebook.com/pages/Redspencer

These guys have been on our radar since Matt got on the Mosman Alder wagon early. The Brisbane 6 piece have been busy recording over the last few months at Airlock Studios in  Samford Valley with Sean Cook, Yanto Browning and Tony Espie on mixing duties. The guys are about to release their debut EP Burn Bright and are heading out on a string of tour dates – presented by yours truly.

I had a chat to Kat from the band about playing Splendour, the new EP and getting acquainted with secateurs for studio time.

How long have you guys been playing together?

We formed in January 2010 and instead of actually playing gigs straight away we tried to do a lot of writing to begin with. We tried to get some demos out there first but our first show was around August 2010.

You’re all playing Splendour again in Byron this year, but what was it like playing at Woodford for the first time last year?

We were the first band on the Sunday. I could never afford to go to Splendour so it was amazing. The vibe was great! Huge adrenaline rush. Playing in that amphitheater was just incredible.

It was intimidating, there’s massive foldback from the stage and I’m just not used to hearing myself that loud. But it was pretty amazing, it all happened very quickly!

Were you all in different bands before?

I moved to Brisbane in 2009 and before that I played in a folk rock band for a short amount of time on the Gold Coast. Jackson, Liam and Damo were also in a prog punk band together.

With Valdis reading Kafka and using ideas of mythology as an influences, was it instinctual for you all to follow that up with a moodier sound? Were you guys averse to making a lighter record with those themes?

No not at all. We never really thought of what direction we were taking it, it just happened.‘Raisin Heart’ was written when Valdis was travelling through Germany and reading Kafka and those kind of authors. We didn’t do anything purposely, it sort of just fell into place.

Is it chaotic trying to get everyone together, with six of you in the band?

It can be chaotic with communication between six of us, comprising between work schedules and such. The songwriting process can differ – it might be Valdis and Jackson having a skeleton of a song, then having the rest of the band piece it off. But there’s been other times where we’ve been jamming and we’ll just experiment and improvise.

I was reading in your presser that you guys were offered free studio time for yard work?

Yeah! Ian Haug’s been really wonderful to us and very helpful. So that’s what we did in exchange for studio time, a lot of gardening. We still need to do a little bit more I think, but yeah that was a really awesome deal and we didn’t think twice about it.

Apart from pulling out weeds, what was the most challenging thing about recording the EP?

We were trying to get the EP done in 15 days but it stemmed over a 6 month period.
It’s all a blur for me because it was so all over the place! There were a few months were we had to reschedule because of other people’s schedules and renovations happening at Airlock Studios. We wanted to release it last year but we’re really happy now that it’s finally coming out.

The clip for ‘Raisin Heart’ is quite cinematic…

We worked with Dylan Wiehahn, he was great. When you can see us performing in the video we went out to a lovely property and we were doing some shooting out there. But Dylan had to do another day of shooting and Jackson and Valdis went out to the Wivenhoe Dam. I think the guy who acting in the time lapse video spent about 10 hours in the water to get the right shot.

People have described your tunes as dark and brooding and I’m reading some of the titles on the EP – ‘Mr Pickney and the Beast’ and ‘Ice Queen’ etc. You all seem like a real serious bunch.

We’re serious when we need to be. But really, not at all.

‘Burn Bright’ is released May 25 through Dew Process/Universal. Catch the guys playing Splendour In The Grass 2012 or at one of the dates below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve had a long standing affinity for this chick ever since The Gingers reached godess-like status in my sixteen year old mind. Chelsea Wheatley who used to front the band, came out with a few singles three years ago as ‘Bells’, but now goes under the moniker of Chela. Good news if you’re still hyping on Ladyhawke, although I’m enjoying that highland Wonka costuming for now. Chela also features on ‘Fifteen’ by LA producer Goldroom that’s been doing the rounds on the blog press recently. For those late on it, hear it below or grab it here as a free download.

Goldroom – Fifteen (ft Chela) by Goldroom

www.facebook.com/chelamusic

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many flashbacks here to childhood in surburbia sitting with my face pressed against the TV. Sydney director Alex Ryan created the distortions in this video for Bon Chat, Bon Rat by treating 16mm film and running it through a projector. Cool stuff.

soundcloud.com/bon-chat-bon-rat

bonchatbonrat.com

Jonti - ‘Nightshift In Waltz’ (RAJA Rearrangement)

(mp3)

NY native RAJA recently put Jonti’s ‘Nightshift in Blue’ on the slow burner. This looser version plays out like an astral projection on a Sunday afternoon. Worth a listen.

soundcloud.com/lordraja

lordraja.tumblr.com

jontidanimals.tumblr.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

SPOILER ALERT:

Curious Indian boy discovers golden ticket. Said ticket opens up magic portal. Instead of being greeted by Aslan, David Tennant (or the stuff you usually get when you walk through magic portals) – boy finds Melbourne four piece who refuse to put their shirts back on.

Sodapop EP is available on bandcamp.

citizensex.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/citizensex

*Also worth checking out some of the other great work done by the guys from Betty Wants In who made this clip.

Horror My Friend - ‘Leave Me Alone’

(mp3)

The Sunshine State may have earnt its fair share of cultural schtick in the international music press as the place for scuzz and house parties courtesy of DZ and Bleeding Knees Club, but don’t count on these guys from Adelaide to keep suburbia quiet for too long. This track has enough hooks for havoc potential and the right dose of vocal precociousness to make the kids go crazy. A heads up if you dig DZ or Children Collide’s earlier material.

The band’s EP Shivers and Spines is available on bandcamp.

horrormyfriend.bandcamp.com

Facebook

Click here to view the embedded video.

You don’t really need to find much beyond ‘Crave You’ and ‘Foreign Language’ to hear that production pair Flight Facilities have bestowed some unforgivingly catchy tracks on us all.

Here’s the brand new clip for their track ‘With You’ which features Grovesnor aka. former Hot Chip member Rob Smoughton.

This clip took animator Ben Drake and his team four months to complete. I’m frankly over watching band vids with pretty chicks running through forests, so these Daft Punk/Astroboy vibes are so up on my radar right now.

Producer: Samuel Beck
Production Manager: Ben Huxter
Character Designs, Story and Directed: Benjamin Drake
Guest Animators: Alexis Dean-Jones & Xin Li
Compositors: Steven Smith & Xue Sen Wong
Special thanks: Liam Hockins & Seera Rytkölä

www.flightfacilities.com

www.facebook.com/flightfacilities

Better…two months late than never. I’ve been absent from these parts because I’ve been busy doing important stuff, like eating beans for 60 days and getting mugged in rural Central America. Prior to dieting on mariachi and Mexican opera for a few months, I got along to the annual SXSW conference/festival in Austin, Texas.

I arrived at SXSW for the first time without an itinerary or a wristband for a week of music and merriment. College orientation shit really. I mean, all I had to do was dodge the kids in Goodwill sweaters handing out sample mixtapes and stomp through to the free kebabs and gigs right? Turns out 6th St was as easy as striding through a trojan warzone, with the addition of Willie Nelson clones riding over my feet with their god damn pedal tuks every two meters.

Everything is bigger in Texas, but Austin is just whack. Any fleeting hobby interest you might have had in people watching gets amplified here; everywhere is teeming with street performers, artists and their convoys, people in neon suits, morph suits, birthday suits, and unabashed locals flaunting rainbow tie dye tshirts with ‘KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD’ emblazoned across their chests. Finding some new obscure band that blows your brains isn’t difficult, as live music happens everywhere from 10am until the early hours of the morning.

While SXSW has a rep for being a goldmine for unsigned acts, I learnt that it WILL quickly turn into a wasteland of terrible free prog-rock gigs if you scribble down 3 out of the 48 free events you’ve RSVP-ed to on a piece of scrap paper that’s covered in boob-sweat. Yes, SXSW is do-able without a $750 pass, and yes, you still can bask in the glory of plenty of new bands, have lots of fun and consume superfluous amounts of free Doritos to your hearts content (see here), but stuff gets tricky when you queue for three hours, then end up climbing iron bars for a scenic view of the back of Doug Martsch’s head.

After a few days of plodding, I was welcomed into the arms of Maggie Mae’s on Saturday for the annual Aussie BBQ. Highlights included free food, familiar accents, chummy people in green attire (it was St Patrick’s Day) and resident Peter Pan aka Nick ‘Paisley Adams’ Allbrook of POND catapulting into the crowd and nearly taking out Brit TV host Alexa Chung’s glory box with his pan flute. Go ’straya.

Here’s some photos from the Aussie BBQ:

Alpine

Voltaire Twins

Pond

(click below for more photos)

Lanie Lane

Twerps

Lyyar – ‘Afterall’ – mp3

Lyyar, pronounced ‘lee-ar’ have released their debut ep Outside, Elsewhere. This is the first track off what is a post prog rocky, dark winding, wave of dirty guitars with heavy bass and solid drumming. It gets darker and heavier, then takes a slight pych detour and back again. They really step it up in the last minute of the ep but overall I prefer the loose mish-mash of the first track. These guys would def be worth seeing play live.

You can check it out on their bandcamp and mail away for vinyl too – http://whothehell.net/U2U

Click here to view the embedded video.

The once humble music video is never so these days.  You might recall Phondupe two producers out of Sydney whose track ‘Aviary West’ we featured last year. They’ve teamed up with local director/producer Benjamin Zadig, who’s made a pretty spectacular clip, featuring a few colonial dudes getting terrorized by the resident forest ‘bunyip’.

The guys put out their latest release, Dinner Melts yesterday and it’s been on rotation here all day. The four track release is teeming with some interesting ideas, cut and paste beats and all the downtempo quirks you’d find in a Tokyo backalley bar.  It’s available as a free download on their bandcamp, so you’ll probably get to that faster than you can attempt to count the syllables in track four: ‘Hideyoshi’s Seven Skillful Spearmen of Shizugatake’. Yeah, that.

phondupe.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/phondupe

Summer Flake – ‘On the River’ – mp3

Stephanie Crase’s first solo release and self-titled ep is ‘Summer Flake’. I’ve posted ‘On the River’ from this release, which you can download for free here. ‘The Summer Flake’ is a straight forward DIY (shudder at that term, but it’s accurate) recording of lo-fi indie rock tunes. So if your feeling like getting blue with some downer fuzz, this might be your bag. I’m rarely in that mood being that I left my angst in high school, despite what my mum says, but there is something catchy about this ep and it’s crept up on me a few times following Sui Zhen in my library. A real slow burner that is def worth a listen.

Facebook for Steph here – http://whothehell.net/hGA

Emma Louise – ‘Boy’

Listen up boy! If Emma Louise believes in you then best you pick yourself up, live up to your potential and stop disappointing this girl. OK. Good. Now that that’s outta the way, ‘Boy’ is the new single by Emma Louise. Another fine example of her incredible voice and intimate song writing ability. This is a rather restrained track that is as catchy as ‘Jungle’ but deploys more smokey vocals with subtle instrumental hooks and beats that compliment her melody. ‘Boy’ speaks of youth, love, hope and distance and will no doubt feature on a lot of winter soundtracks.

Emma Louise has also announced a string of East Coast tour dates – sure to sell out so check it fast – http://whothehell.net/TH4

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sui Zhen – ‘Cupboards and Sand’ Video Premiere

This ephemeral video was lovingly filmed and directed by Imogen Heath and Sam Icklow of NowMomentNow. Becky Freeman is the artist Sui Zhen and she studied with Imogen and Sam who have founded NMN, the Berlin based arts collective. Becky contributed with some of the drawings used in the animation and the live action was captured in Berlin at Teufelsberg, an abandoned spy tower. The shaky cam would surely upset David Stratton but I like the shots and the natural light plus the contrast of the green forest and ghetto look of the spy tower.

Her very sweet record ‘Two Seas’ is available now from suizhen.bandcamp.com/

The Ruminaters – ‘Timmy’ – mp3

These guys caught Mel’s attention with their first single ‘Deadstuff’ and this is their new one called ‘Timmy’. It’s a cabaret slacker-rock affair that’ll get you up doing the polka with your friends. Surfer guitar licks and a little story telling go along way when you add some back ground yelps and a damn catchy hook. Good times Ruminaters.

Go drink in their youth here – http://whothehell.net/CmZ

Sui Zhen – LP ‘Two Seas’ – sampler mp3

This track is a sampler of songs from the new record by Sui Zhen called ‘Two Seas’. It’s a nice ADHD taste of what you’ll find on the record which sounds pretty sweet. Sui Zhen has a lovely and delicate sensibility that she expresses through her indie-folk-pop melody. I like the comparison others make to Joanna Newsom because Zhen does seem to do her own thing and isn’t afraid to experiment with her sound. This record is out now so check out her page for details here – http://whothehell.net/Zkr

Click here to view the embedded video.

We are back to regular programming after yesterday’s special mix diversion. This is Danger Beach’s ‘Sioux’ and it’s the first single from their upcoming long player titled ‘Pacific’.

Check out their Facebook  here – http://whothehell.net/7Nf

Wizard Oz – ‘Pull Out Slow’ mp3

Whilst Wizard Oz’s stuff is a bit hit and miss for me – especially the computer game sounds on the last ep, I don’t mind this one. Lo-Fi will only last so long in my playlist as it mostly starts to blend but there are a few stand out tracks in here and I recommend downloading the free ep ‘Flashing Lights’. There is a bit of an Ariel Pink vibe going on and it’s kinda sweet. The ‘tape’ version will be released on the 5th May (Yeah tapes? seriously what is going on… are kids gonna raid vinnies stores to find Sony Walkman’s and old foam covered headphones… probably, yes.) at The Grace Darling in Melbourne for a lazy $8. You’ll also get to see ‘Pop Singles‘ supporting.

Grab the digital ep here – http://whothehell.net/1QJ