photo by Marcus Flack

Justin Grounds – ‘Cathedral Bells’ (mp3)

So, there’s been some whiplash from The White Room post, and I’ve learnt my lesson about overhyping bands. Sort of. In the spirit of fair blogging, I’ve signed up to Superlatives Anonymous to get help. To pass the time between meetings, I’m going post on someone else I think deserves a mention; who ISN’T from Sydney, but Jerry’s new hometown of Melbourne.

I discovered Justin Grounds during one of those typical 3-am-too-drunk-to-sleep-myspace-trawling evenings, and I’ve been hooked for a while. I guess I’m just a bit disillusioned with the whole spiky-indie-retro thing going on at the moment and finding someone who just writes proper songs is a breath of fresh air. And it’s also cool because it doesn’t lean towards that uber-popular brand of alt-folk that only very talented guys like Ryan Adams can pull off. Simply put, it’s a nice white boy crying his heart out – and there’s always room for more of them, if they’re good enough. This guy is going to be slapped with some rampant comparisons to fellow lost souls Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. His voice leans more towards the latter, and he’s also got some serious proficiency on the guitar. And there’s some whacked out hippie lyrics happening, which is rad ‘cos you can start hypothesisng about whether Justin had his heart broken by some vegetarian mystic named Moonbeam. Pretty much, it’s chilled music for the soul. Nuff said, go have a listen.

http://www.justingrounds.com/
http://www.myspace.com/justingrounds

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The Suitable Few – ‘The Fringe Of Society’

When something becomes extremely massive, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the subject of parody.  Enter The Suitable Few and their song ‘The Fringe of Society’.

They’re not exactly hip-hop, but they’re not exactly rock, and they’re sure as hell not rap-metal or nü-metal or any of those late 90s alternative disaster scenes.  This Sydney five piece have been kicking around for a few years creating their own special brand of live hip-hop.  They released a self-titled EP in 2004 which contained a lot of live favourites, but didn’t properly capture their great on-stage energy.  It’s been their live set that has propelled The Suitable Few up the social music ladder, especially their ‘Topic Jams’ – improvised songs where MCs Adikkal and Balistik freestyle about topics suggested by the audience.  It’s so simple, but its brilliance lies in its simplicity, and the audience responds so well to them.  The fun nature of The Suitable Few is infectious, and you can’t help but smile and dance along to their tunes.  They’ve supported some of the biggest names in the local Aussie hip hop scene such as The Herd, Downsyde and Fast Crew but also more rock-oriented acts such as 28 Days and Spiderbait. 

And that’s where ‘The Fringe of Society’ comes in, The Suitable Few’s brand new song off their as-yet untitled EP, due for release in 2007.  This song is hilarious and takes a shot at the ultra-serious emo scene.  It was only a matter of time before someone did an emo parody, and thank God it was these guys because they do it so well.  Live, this song is even funnier because often the emo kids don’t think it’s a parody! There’s also a great filmclip to accompany this song, which can be viewed at the band’s website.

http://www.myspace.com/thesuitablefew

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Macromantics – ‘Miss Macro’

One of the most talented performers stepping into the spotlight for the year is Melbourne based MC Romy Hoffman aka Macromantics. Her debut album Moments in Movement has received lots of love from reviewers and Triple J has blessed it with a J-award album of the year nomination and consistent airplay. Produced by Sydney based Tony Buchen of the Baggsmen, her songs are dominated by tongue twisting word chains and her rapping focussed on speedy delivery with a very distinct Macromantics accent. It’s this accent that sets her apart from fellow Aussie hip hop contemporaries, and could potentially make her the first Australian hip hop artist to make serious grounds in the USA.

Soon after the album was released she announced her signing to superb American indie label Kill Rock Stars, home to Sleater Kinney, The Gossip, Deerhoof and Bikini Kill to list a few. I’ve seen her performed three times, and I admit it was hard to get her songs without listening to the album first. On Saturday she stole the stage as support for the rather underwhelming labelmate Erase Errata. As a solo performer backed by an almost invisible DJ Macromantics has an enormous amount of energy and stage presence. She exudes great confidence and harbours charisma that is hard to pinpoint why but will hold your attention right to the end.

www.myspace.com/macromantics
http://www.macromantics.com/

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The Instant – ‘Fight The Valentine’

I was complaining not too long ago about the lack of instrumental rock (or dare I say, ‘post rock’) bands coming out of Australia. Then out of nowhere, all these awesome instrumental bands have started appearing, many of which I’ll blog about in the near future, but at the moment a band that’s pushing all the right buttons for me is The Instant, a four piece out of Newcastle, NSW.

I don’t know much about these guys, and their bio doesn’t help either: “The Instant are the bastard offspring of experimental tunings, savage precise drums and a mining town filled with minimal and spacious industrial sounds that echo throughout their debut album Notes And Errata.” Said album is a beauty I must say, and it was The Brag’s Indie Album of the Week in last week’s mag. It brings to mind the angular guitars of early 90s acts such as Sonic Youth and bands of that ilk, but it’s instrumental and the lack of vocals is by no means a noticeable omission. In fact, it’s the singer-less nature of the music that makes it so endearing and so emotional.

I’ve heard that these guys are only around 17 years old – I don’t know if that’s true or not, maybe they’ll drop by and correct me, but if it is then they’re doing an awesome job for a band so young, and I can’t wait to see what else they’ve got coming up.

http://www.theinstant.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/theinstantmusic

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With all the blog loving that these guys are getting, do we really need another entry? You bet! This tube shows the boys getting creative to kill the boredom on the road. A hilarious amateur reenactment the boys shot while en route to Lorne for the Victorian leg of the annual Falls Festival. Shot at the famous Bells Beach where the last scene of the movie was set.

Previous posts: Dappled Cities Fly: Live, Dappled Cities Fly: ‘Within Hours’

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photo by Angelo Soulas

Belinda Emmett – ‘Less Than Perfect’ (mp3)

To those not familiar with the name, Belinda Emmett was an ex Home and Away soapie actress/singer who recently passed away, losing a tabloid covered battle against cancer. She was Rove McManus‘s wife, host to the popular talk show on free to air TV channel 10. Her family recently released an mp3 of a recording meant to be part of her solo album which she never finished. The Age described it as a ‘heart wrenching ballad’. While circumstance and a media love-in drew me to the song more than its musical merit, I find it interesting that her family decided to publish the song online as a free download. Did they do it to share their grief with the masses of tabloid readers and Rove fans? Do people do that nowadays, when a family member passes? Put out mp3s on the net instead of just playing sad songs in funerals? The last funeral I went to a few years back was for a friend whose band I was involved with, he also lost his fight to cancer at 25 years old. The remaining band members sang him a song in the church. They didn’t record and put out an mp3 online. Would it have made anyone better if they did?

Belinda Emmett – Wikipedia 

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Temper Trap – ‘My Sun’

Ok so after 5 weeks in Melbourne I finally have broadband, a working computer and time to blog again. It has been frustratingly slow to resettle in Australia’s 2nd biggest city, but I’ve used that time to get out and familiarise myself with the local scene. In Sydney every second person I meet is a DJ, but here in M-town, everyone is in a band. Which is good in a way, but also means that there are a lot of shit art school bands playing around the numerous venues.

Fortunately I’ve found a few gems. One band of Melbournites that stand out from the cacophony are the Temper Trap boys. They used to call themselves Temper Temper but apparently there’s a few other bands in the world with the same idea. A few weeks ago I met Dougy the singer while hanging out at St. Jerome’s laneway bar, home to the annual Laneway Festival, a very indie, small capacity gathering that tops at 2500 capacity in 3 cities next year in early 2007. Turns out he’s from Bali. Doug has a voice that cuts through any given room. They very recently put out an EP on Liberation Records and are playing some shows around town. They will be in Sydney this Saturday playing at Spectrum with Triple J Unearthed winners Young & Restless. Catch them yo.

http://www.myspace.com/thetempertrap

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