Blue King Brown – ‘Come and check your head’ (mp3)

I’m not a big fan of the roots music scene – I can’t tell much difference between the songs. They all seem to revolve around politics, anti war creed or legalising weed. The message is usually about getting along with one another by way of discouraging racism, sexism, classism, materialism, or any other (insert here)-isms. Don’t get me wrong I’m not an ignorant bigot – I’ve had my share of discrimination. It’s just that I get tired of listening to acts who are hell bent in getting their ‘message’ out there that they don’t work hard enough on the melody or the actual music of the song.

So I was quite surprised to be cruising along in my car when this song came on and I really enjoyed it. Blue King Brown has managed to put the rhythm, melody and beat so far in front in this song that they are the highlight, not the message. And that’s the way it should be. Two members of the band are originally from Byron Bay but they packed up and drove down to Melbourne to find the right crew to eventually form the current line up. They play all the usual rootsy festivals like The Great Escape, Blues and Roots Festival and Woodford Festival, and this month are the main support for Michael Franti’s Spearhead national tour of Australia. As suspected, they are active in the political field, and they have important messages in all their songs, but it seems that aspect of songwriting isn’t so full on as Spearhead. The female voice makes it a much easier listening.

http://www.bluekingbrown.com
http://www.myspace.com/bluekingbrown

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photo by Josh Logue

Howling Bells – ‘Setting Sun’

I don’t like the name Howling Bells (sounds like a bad 80’s glam-metal act, possibly fronted by Bret Michaels), and for a while I didn’t like their music either. It took me quite a while to warm to their shoegaze/dark indie rock – plus I’m always wary of ‘hype’ bands ’cause quite often they’re shit, it’s just that the ‘right’ people think they’re cool. OK, enough of my tirade against the fickle music industry. Also, it helps when shit TV shows passed off as “drama” like The OC play one of your tunes (oh yeah, I hate The OC too – I watched half an hour of it once and had to turn it off. Come on, the acting is so bad, the script is full of cringe-worthy lines and the plot… well, who are we kidding, there is none! Oh, and people think I look like Seth!)

So, who are Howling Bells? Well most people only care about sexy frontwoman Juanita Stein (there was a rather obsessive-like tone to a certain Howling Bells article in Sydney street press music mag Drum Media a couple of months ago) – but the band consists of three former members of Waikiki who found a small amount of success in Australia with their pop/rock tunes. One minute they were there, and then they disappeared! And then, just as magically, Howling Bells appeared in Waikiki’s place.

Juanita Stein, live at the Annandale Hotel – photo by boudist.com

Howling Bells recorded their self-titled debut album with Coldplay producer Ken Nelson (interesting note – Juanita recorded her vocals in the dark), and there’s a definite Coldplay-esque sound to the recording, especially in the tone of the instruments and the mix. The album has been criticised for lacking variety throughout, and while they’re not a band I’d actively seek to see live, there are a couple of really solid tracks on the album which helped me to enjoy it more. At the end of the day, it’s nothing spectacular, but it’s not offensive, nobody’s gonna be pissed off ’cause it’s on, and it’s got a handful of solid tracks. Everyone’s gonna have a different opinion on this band… mine is that I like them, but I don’t love them. Listen and judge for yourself. The band are touring round Australia at the moment supporting Placebo before they embark on their own headlining tour of Australia and the UK.

http://www.howlingbells.com
http://www.myspace.com/howlingbells

P.S. Big shoutout to Daniel Boud (boudist.com) and the bloggers from whiteboydancefloor and The Sandwich Club who I met for the first time on Thursday at Candy’s Apartment for the launch of The Knife Factory. Excellent guys who run excellent blogs – we’re looking now towards a meeting of all Aussie blogs… kind of like a Blogapalooza or Blogacon…

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photo by Glen Wilke

Adrian Klumpes – ‘Weave In and Out’

Thanks to the lovely folks at The Leaf Label, we’ve been given an exclusive track off Be Still, the debut solo record by Adrian Klumpes, who you may know as the keyboardist from Triosk who I blogged about a little while ago. ‘Weave In and Out’ further explores similar territory to Triosk, with Boards of Canada-esque beats and rhymths beneath sparse, ambient piano melodies. If you check out Adrian’s MySpace page, there’s another track off the album that’s more piano-based, whereas ‘Weave In and Out’ demostrates Adrian’s more experimental edge. Can’t wait to hear the album – I was a big fan of Triosk’s LP and I’m sure Be Still will be just as good!

http://www.adrianklumpes.com
http://www.myspace.com/adrianklumpes

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Coda -‘Rocking Horse’

Coda sounds like they came from a place I’ve never been, some eastern European country I haven’t travelled yet. A lot of people compare their music to gypsy music, I wouldn’t know if this is true because I have never met an actual gypsy or done much research into the culture. There are seven members of this band, and they all just love to dress up in costumes on stage and put on a real big event, often featuring showgirls, aerialists and projections. In fact, I would say that the visual aspect of this band defines and lifts their image from mere world music contenders to almost performance art level. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re touring with Cirque du Soleil sometime. They are regulars performers in all sorts of music festivals around the world so it shouldn’t be hard to catch them live. The new album Calling Mission Mu is out soon.

http://www.codaplanet.com
http://www.myspace.com/codaplanet

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Dukes of Windsor – ‘The Others’

The five boys in Dukes of Windsor all originated from the Melbourne suburb of Prahran, and contrary to local rumours they did not take that name from the now defunct rock venue in Fitzroy. Their music sounded nothing like the rock/punk/alternative description displayed on their MySpace, but lean more towards the heavier electro-rock territory dominated by low synth-like bass grooves and streaks of high vocal yelping that highlight the bulk of their songs of their debut album. Vocalist Jack Weaving has no trouble hitting those Darkness-like high notes when I saw them at The Espy a few months ago.

They’re getting decent airplay on national youth broadcaster Triple J, and the band are on the road as unlikely supports for hard rockers The Butterfly Effect. I wasn’t particularly taken by the whole album, there are some two or three standout radio tracks, but most of the songs just aren’t my kind of thing. But what I really find interesting about this band is how the whole record was made possible and brought together by some smart thinking management.

The traditional way of getting a commercial album funded is to record an EP, get some songs on radio, invite record label people for a showcase and if one of them was impressed enough, they band would sign a deal, get an advance to record with a name producer, and have a record that would hopefully get do well on radio. The Dukes and their management have completely gone around this whole process and married their music business approach with product endorsement and sponsorship. Taking a page out of professional sports marketing, portable music player manufacturer iRiver came on board the project agreeing to fund the album in return of logo placements on their website, CD, bass drum skin and all related advertisements. The Dukes of Windsor bravely took on corporate sponsorship in return of album funding, while still maintaining ownership of masters.

With big dosh to spend the five piece enlisted no less than hot producer Jonathan Burnside (The Sleepy Jackson, Dappled Cities Fly, Faith No More) to track the album in Melbourne and sent it off to Tonteknik Studios in Sweden to be mixed by famed hardcore producers Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstrom. In case the names don’t ring a bell, Henricsson produced one of the all time best punk albums: Refused’s Shape of Punk To Come, which is on par with what Radiohead’s OK Computer is to alternative/rock music.

So with some ingenuine thinking, the band now has a top notched produced record with a promising live schedule to expose them to win new fans. Could this be the way independent records will be funded in the future, with corporate sponsorship? This strategy could not work with all forms of music, but it sure beats getting owned by major labels. This is a very different case from the Lenny Kravitz /Absolute Vodka cash in deal, and I’m looking forward to hearing more product endorsed bands and albums like this.

http://www.dukesofwindsor.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/dukesofwindsor

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photo by boudist.com

N’fa – ‘Universal King (Left Right Left)’

It’s a momentous day for Who The Bloody Hell Are They – our first hip-hop blog! Though you overseas folk may not know, there is actually a booming Aussie hip-hop scene, and I’m sure many of the acts will be blogged about in the near future.

N’fa started his career in a hip-hop outfit called 1200 Techniques, who released two LPs – Choose One & Consistency Theory – before “going on hiatus” in 2005 after 5 years together.  1200 Techniques’ breakthrough hit was the track ‘Karma’ which entered the Top 40 charts in Australia, and had a great film clip which won Best Video at the 2002 ARIA Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Grammys).

So while 1200 are on “hiatus”, N’fa gathered some of his mates together including Roots Manuva, Mr Yoshiaki from the Black Eyed Peas, DJ Peril and the Deceptikonz and made his debut solo record, Cause An Effect.  While 1200 Techniques were more of a live hip-hop act, incorporating guitars and (I think) sometimes drums (someone will correct me if I’m wrong), Cause An Effect is more of a straight-up hip-hop release.  In typical Aussie hip-hop fashion, it contains a lot of solid grooves and the Australian lyrical flavour.  Some of this album I really dig, other tracks I’m not so sold on – it’s probably a bit long and can get a tad repetitive, but then again I’m not the world’s biggest hip-hop fan.  However, I love ‘Universal King (Left Right Left)’ – it’s got that great groove and you’ll be singing “left, right, left” for hours.

http://www.nfamusic.net
http://www.myspace.com/nfamusic

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Dappled Cities Fly – ‘Cream’

One of the best bands in Australia, if not the world, just got better. Tonight I had the pleasure of watching Dappled Cities Fly showcase new material from their upcoming album Grandance. What Dappled have in store for us lucky listeners are amazingly crafted indie future classics, accentuated with typical high pitched filled with even more layers, courtesy of new touring member Ned (formerly of Sydney band Oblique/The Glass Age). I was very impressed with the sounds that came out from the four/five piece tonight, they’re very fortunate to have two vocalists both capable hitting high notes, giving them a large palette of songwriting material. Without a track of the new album it’s difficult to say how great the show was, so you’ll have to do with an old favourite ‘Cream’ – one of my favourite songs ever – taken from their debut album A Smile. Listen out for the incredible dual guitar riffs in the bridge.

www.dappledcitiesfly.com
www.myspace.com/dappledcitiesfly

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