New. Australian. Music.    

Die! Die! Die!

“Die! Die! Die! is a three-piece band from New Zealand currently wandering the globe.”

There are so many of these post-hardcore noise bands in Australia, but very few actually make the jump and relocate overseas for a music career. Sad, but the truth is this NZ trio is doing what every Australian (or Kiwi) band should do: get out of the country and tour the world. Their hardwork has caught the attention of producer Steve Albini who worked their latest EP. Regular gigs and residencies in New York and London means it’s only a matter of time before the music media wake up and pay attention to this hyper punkers. I actually have never seen these guys before but from what I heard I’ve been missing out. No idea when they’ll be back here but I’m waiting for it.

Die! Die! Die! - ‘Year Nine Yeah’ (mp3)

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http://www.diediedie.net
http://www.myspace.com/diediedienz

Flamingo Crash

Flamingo Crash has the most unfortunate luck that they are based in Brisbane. This northern based fivesome has some of the catchiest pop songs I’ve heard all year. The hardworking band has driven a full 25 hours across 3 states from Brisbane to Melbourne just in time for an instore performance! The Crash’s gig history reads like an all star hit parade: supports with The Presets, The Go! Team, Wolfmother, Wolf n Cub, The Bravery and Faker prove that if these guys were based in Sydney or Melbourne they’d be all over radio and magazines. This August they’ll be coming down to Sydney for a couple of show, check them out.

Flamingo Crash – ‘(Vamp at the) Wax Party’ (mp3)

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http://www.flamingocrash.com
http://www.myspace.com/flamingocrash

The Lucksmiths

I became an instant Lucksmiths fan when I heard ‘Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco’ on the radio last year, a timeless pop tune. The band has released eight albums, received adulation from the usually critical Pitchfork and toured endlessly throughout Europe and US. And still managed to be overlooked by the general public. Lucksmiths’ songs are all highlighted with quirky personal lyrics delivered by Taliesyn White’s smooth white boy pop voice not unlike Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch.

Early this year I caught them in a very personal backyard gig when they were in tour in Sydney. The band were literally playing underneath laundry clotheslines. About 150 people packed into the tiny space, some climbing the roof and sitting on the neighbours’ fence to watch the band. The set up was a simple three piece with Tali being the stand up drummer/vocalist in the middle. I didn’t recognise most of their songs as they picked randomly out of their massive back catalog, but when they played San Francisco I couldn’t help but reminisce my own stories about the city.

The Lucksmiths - ‘Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco’ (mp3)

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http://www.thelucksmiths.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/lucksmiths

Bob Evans

There is a grand juxtaposition in terms of musical styles that are in vogue at the moment. On one hand, we have the superfluous Eighties synth/new wave fad, and on the other the simple, stripped-back folk music trend. Perth’s Bob Evans is a subject of the latter category. But rather that it be a contrived, money making exercise, Bob Evans plays honest, emotional folk music.

Truth be told, Bob Evans is actually the alter-ego of Kevin Mitchell, front man for Perth punk/pop group Jebediah. I was never a big fan of the music of Jebediah, but I’ve fallen in love with Bob Evans and his latest release Suburban Songbook. There’s nothing flashy about the record, it’s just based around simple and effective folk-rock tunes with strong songwriting at the core. It’s one of my favourite albums of the year and while it was hard to pick one song off the album to showcase, I thought it might be best to go with the opening song, and lead single, ‘Don’t You Think It’s Time?’

Bob Evans - ‘Don’t You Think It’s Time’

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http://www.bobevans.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/suburbankid

Angus and Julia Stone - photo by Mitch Connolly

I went to Splendour in the Grass last weekend, a music festival that goes off in Byron Bay in northern New South Wales every Australian winter (that’s June to August for you northern hemispherians). Byron Bay is an area famous for laid back lifestyle, great swells for the surfing types, hippie-ish attitude with its close proximity to the drug tolerant Nimbin and an abundance of vegetarian/tofu options in restaurant menus. The drive took 14 hours with stops and it had been raining leading up to the weekend. There was not a single patch of green grass to be seen, mud was everywhere. Think Glastonburry.

There were three main stages and I went to start off at the more chilled out sitting down stage at the end of the mud trail. I sat down and saw these guys played to a half empty room which quickly filled up once Julia’s sweet voice wafted through the air. The siblings’ performance was so captivating I didn’t bother to move on to the other bigger profile tent featuring a certain hyped up Swedish prog wannabes Dungen or some other rap/dance combo at the far end stage. It has been a while since I’ve sat through an entire acoustic set, and I’m really looking forward to seeing these guys again.

Angus and Julia Stone are a brother sister combo from the Northern Beaches of Sydney. They play with drummer Mitch Connoly, formerly of the Beautiful Girls and a rotating guest bassist. While at first impression they sound like any other midweek acoustic night duo, it is really Julia Stone’s intriguing voice texture that reminds me of Joanna Newsome, albeit without the annoying shrieky bits. A lot of their numbers are down-tempo stories about domestic life and loves, though I suspect it’s only a matter of time before they find an upbeat crossover hit to take on radio.

Angus and Julia Stone - ‘Paper Aeroplane’ (mp3)

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http://www.angusandjuliastone.com
http://www.myspace.com/angusandjuliastone

Inga Liljeström - photo by Gavin Bradstreet

Inga Liljeström - how do you describe her music? Well, her music acts more like a soundtrack, the nature of it allows you to picture the visuals in your head and create a mini-movie to what you’re hearing. She creates a form of jazz electronica, rather than trip-hop although comparisons to artists such as Björk and Portishead are often generated.

I’ve seen Inga a few times live and she’s as good live as she is on CD. Her drummer, Michael Iverson, is amazing, as is her string section. She manages to recreate all the sounds live, and at one show of hers, she even had dancers - now that’s a live experience! She’s released two albums, but Elk is the latest record, and it’s a fantastic aural journey. We’ve got the song ‘Glow’ from that album for you to wrap your ears around.

Inga Liljeström - ‘Glow’

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http://www.ingaliljestrom.com

.hinge

It’s like the episode of The Simpsons where Apu is living with them, and his mother comes to stay and Lisa and Bart ask her “what’s with the dot?” Well, we could ask the same about .hinge, this rocking Melbourne five piece. They’ve been kicking around the Aussie alternative music scene sicne 1997 and musically they keep going from strength to strength. Their debut album Something To Adore was listed in the Top 10 albums of 2005 on DecoyMusic.com.

I’ve always been a fan of vocalist Glenn Johnstone and he performs even better live. Also, the guitar work of Rob Crimi and Brock Collins is reminiscent of the interplay between Billy Corgan and James Iha. .hinge don’t follow conventional song structures, but they still manage to create rock songs interwoven with intricate, effected guitar. Oh yeah, and the bass and drums groove along fantastically too! Check out the song ‘Cut The Cord’ from Something To Adore.

.hinge - ‘Cut The Cord’ (mp3)

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http://www.hinge.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/hingemusic

Pharaohs

LOUD. Real crash bang loud. That’d be the first word that comes to mind when describing these guys. TIGHT would be the next one. As anyone who has seen them would tell you, Pharaohs feature one of the most naturally gifted young drummers around, 16 years old of age. OK he’s probably 18 now but still, I’ve seen them several times and they always blow away whoever it is they are supporting. At the Mandarin Club gig in Sydney last year mid way through a song the guitarist/singer jumped on a round table and almost nearly stacked it, but he did some sort of skateboard type lip trick balancing and jumped his way out of trouble, all without missing a riff. Currently in the studio mixing down, the album should be coming out through Timberyard Records, home to Damn Arms, Riff Random & Dead Frenchmen.

The Pharaohs – ‘Keelhaul’ (mp3)

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http://www.tigerbites.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/pharaohs

Wolf & Cub

I first heard of Wolf & Cub in 2004 when they were announced as one of the inaugural signings of the new local label Dot Dash, a collaboration with the Remote Control marketing team and indie distributors Inertia. They toured as part of the label’s showcase, and was main support for label mate New Buffalo. The latter was a disappointment, but Wolf & Cub left quite an impression on everyone.

At first I thought the double drum kit set up was superfluous and dismissed it as an attention grabbing stunt, seeing that most of their tunes just needed one good drummer instead of two average ones. Their performance reminded me of a lot of the jam bands around at the time and so I didn’t think much about it. But over time they proved to be stayers, getting picked up by local and national radio, scoring multiple festival slots, opening for a lot of touring bands. By the end of 2004 I saw them about five more times, growing to like them a bit more at each show.

Now I am convinced these guys are one of Australia’s better bands. Solid touring has moulded these guys into a rocking unit on stage and the new songs that radio have previewed sound very impressive; more cohesive song structures and driving grooves. They’ve got gigs supporting TV On The Radio this week and their upcoming album will be out in Europe through the prestigious 4AD label. While they’ve put up new songs up on their myspace, we have ‘Thousand Cuts’ below from their debut EP.

Wolf & Cub – ‘Thousand Cuts’

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http://www.wolfandcub.com
http://www.myspace.com/wolfandcubaustralia

Children Collide - photo by Warwick Baker

Searing guitar work, killer name and a great stage workmanship has made Children Collide the hottest trio to break through the indie scene this year in Australia. Playing multiple shows in parties thrown by hipsters favourite Modular and Vice helps put the band in trendies’ top 8s. I have seen these guys about 4-5 times and though have to admit they seem to have a few fillers in their set, once they get to the winners it makes the wait worthwhile. And for some reason the close resemblence of singing style to a certain early 90s grungy trio from Seattle doesn’t bother me one bit. Is it because I long for a grunge revival due anytime soon? Rumours are a couple of big labels are after them while they are in the studio knocking out some new. Touring soon with Red Riders nationwide.

Children Collide – ‘Frozen Armies’ (mp3)

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http://www.childrencollide.com
http://www.myspace.com/childrencollide

Pivot

I wish there was an easy way to describe the brand of instrumental music that Pivot makes. It’s densely layered and the songs are progressive and lacking in formal song structures. In a vain attempt to assign Pivot into a genre, they’re possibly organic experimental electronica - how’s that for a description! Pivot include healthy doses of synthesisers and laptop wizardry, but there’s also guitar melodies, driving bass lines and Laurence Pike’s amazing drumming.

I’ve seen these guys live only once and they blew me away, I can’t wait to see them again. Their debut album Make Me Love You was nominated for the coveted inaugural Triple J album of the year award, The J Award. If you want to hear how good these guys are, we’ve got the title track right below this sentence!

Pivot - ‘Make Me Love You’ (mp3)

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http://www.pivotisagoodboy.com/

The Brunettes

Continuing on the 60s sound wagon, The Brunettes are not exactly Australian but come from nearby southern neighbours New Zealand. I first saw these guys three years ago on a random online tip of their show at the Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney. Leading Brunettes Jonathan and Heather are two former lovers who still display great chemistry on stage… sometimes it’s hard to believe they’re not together. Their repertoire of songs range from daydreaming in a guitar shop to cute clap along love anthems to envying best friends.

The Brunettes employ a playful array of stage instrumentation including glockenspiel, clarinet and even a toy drum kit, though the last has been replaced with a full kit in their most recent tour. I can’t help but think how much harder it is for a band to be based in New Zealand, with less gigging opportunities, but these guys have scored a support slot in the UK with then obscure Ben Gibbard side project The Postal Service. Their record has been picked up by Sub Pop in the US and they seem to be touring non stop since the year began. Loopy!

The Brunettes – ‘Loopy Loopy Love’

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http://www.thebrunettes.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/thebrunettes

Belles Will Ring - photo by boudist.com

This five piece from Sydney is one of the many 60s revivalist bands gigging at the moment that draw so much from of Brian Jonestown Massacre school of psychedelia, such as The Lovetones and Dolly Rocker Movement. Belles Will Ring are not without their charms however, as their performance on Saturday night at Home Nightclub proves, opening for Death Cab For Cutie. Their songs are full of harmony buildup, chimey guitars and head nodding rhythms. Featuring the cutest tambourine girl of the scene, the band seem to be doing well with their track ‘The Coldest Heart’ getting decent airplay throughout the nation. Signed to the Architecture label who have released records by Death Cab, Spod, Further and Bit By Bats.

Belles Will Ring - ‘The Coldest Heart’ (mp3)

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http://www.architecturelabel.com/belleswillring.htm
http://www.myspace.com/belleswillring

Gotye - ‘Out In The Cold’ screen cap (directed by Jacob Simkin)

Gotye, whose real name is Wally de Backer, has managed to release what is close to the best Australian album for 2006, Like Drawing Blood. I love the press release - “Take two and a half years, four share-houses, 757 op-shop records, a few thousand dollars lost to dodgy housemates, 2565 hours of community library customer service, 20,000 km of round-Australia travel, countless computer crashes and one critical hard-disk failure, and you have a rough diary for the recording process of the new record by Gotye (pronounced ‘gore-ti-yeah’).”

Instrumentally, Like Drawing Blood is a cut-and-paste affair, in a similar vein to DJ Shadow sans the hip-hop. All of this is topped off by Wally’s immaculate vocals. The end result is a fusion of genres and styles that’s a joy to listen to. We’ve got the track ‘Thanks For Your Time’ for your listening pleasure.

Gotye - ‘Thanks For Your Time’ (mp3)

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http://www.gotye.com/
http://www.myspace.com/gotye

Good music should transcend fads, fashions and genres. A good song is a good song, no matter what. One should keep this in mind when listening to Many Machines on Nine (MM9 for short). It’s true that their brand of industrial metal meets electro dance isn’t so hot right now… but goth trends are infiltrating mainstream fashion, so maybe there’s something there…

Many Machines On Nine

MM9 have been around for a couple of years now, and they’ve got some fairly notable members. Vocalist Dan Sutherland was involved in a solo project under the moniker Switchkicker, and drummer Ben Ellingworth is arguably the best rock drummer in Australia (sounds like a big call until you see this guy play!)

They’re an excellent band, and the cruel irony is if they were playing in America, they’d be signed by now. However, they’re still pulling roughly the same size crowd they have for the past few years. That signals to me that it’s the non-music side that the band is struggling with. They’ve got the songs, they now have to work on marketing themselves better, be it more radio play, better planned gigs, more media advertising, whatever… but for now, enjoy a sample of their song ‘Smile’

Many Machines on Nine - ‘Smile’ (mp3)

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http://www.manymachinesonnine.com/
http://www.myspace.com/manymachinesonnine