Love Of Diagrams - ‘The Pyramid’

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After four months living in Melbourne I’ve identified a few qualities that to me define a subset of the Melbourne sound: the Fitzroy bands. Big bottom end, statement-type lyrics and a clear disregard for pop songwriting structures. Fitzroy is a self declared chic suburb of Melbourne akin to Sydney’s King St side of Newtown, but which still has a fertile music scene thanks to the multiple small venues that are allowed to operate under Melbourne’s more sensible entertainment laws. Going for an excursion into this scene every second person I meet is in a band and they all more or less follow the same values when it comes to songwriting, or even performance. It’s not big on punk, and has idealised notions of cool, inner city independence and don’t give a fuck attitude.

Numerous bands play in the scene, some of which has been covered here (have a guess at which ones). But the most famous and successful export has got to be Love of Diagrams. Signed to Matador and getting critical live reviews overseas LOD looks the most equiped and is in the best position to take this sound out to the world. I have to admit after seeing so many bands in this scene, if I didn’t know LOD beforehand I probably will not be able to pick them out from the rest. But they got lucky, their song or the first few bars of the catchy ‘No Way Out’ was played in the OC, and good breaks came after that. This song is the first single out taken from their upcoming album ‘Mosaic’, recorded by Bob Weston (Shellac) in Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studios.

Miami Horror - ‘Don’t Be On With Her’ (mp3)

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Miami Horror is 20 year old Ben Plant from Melbourne have garnered some blog loving overseas recently with his production work for Gameboy/Gamegirl. This is track is a preview from an upcoming debut full length Bravado. There’s not much detail as he doesn’t really play live except for DJing gigs, but his obvious influences from 80s clubbing favourites Prince and early Madonna gives a fresh take on the jagged electro beats dominant of dance floors today. This would fit perfectly in the next installment of Grand Theft Auto Vice City soundtrack. Thanks to Discodust for the file.

www.myspace.com/miamihorror

Lenka - ‘Chance’

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The beautiful Lenka has updated us with an exclusive track from her worldwide travels. Currently in Los Angeles for shows and songwriting, she will be flying over to Paris to live for a month. Lucky!

www.myspace.com/lenkamusic 

Young Lovers - ‘Talking in French’

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You couldn’t ask for a more appropriate or fitting title to the debut single of Melbourne five piece Young Lovers than ‘Talking in French’ which is due for radio release in the coming months, with a debut E.P to follow shortly after. Though French maybe the language of lovers, this single will surly speak to the suitors of pop driven indie; romantic vocals, yet enough rhythm to shake up the dance floor. Though I found it quite similar, and might I dare add, not as immediately catchy as Starky, before you shrug of these romantics as yet another indie band, have a listen to the demo version of ‘Talking in French’ or catch them in live music haunts in and around Melbourne and let me know what you think.

www.myspace.com/wearetheyounglovers 

Tiptronik vs M.I.A. - ‘Uraqt’

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Everyone loves a thumping bootleg mashup, and they don’t get much better, or illegal, than Tiptronik’s reworking of the M.I.A track ‘Uraqt’.  Rumour is M.I.A’s camp may be suing the Sydney duo because of this track.  So, in protest, we’re going to spread the love, exclusively on this blog!

So who are Tiptronik?  Well aside from being one of the most-hyped new acts on the Sydney electronic scene, they actually have a fairly well-known past.  Seshan Moodley makes up one half of the duo: he was a one-time member of rap/metal outfit Parkside Killers who supported Ice-T and The Beastie Boys.  The other 50% of Tiptronik is Ramesh Sathiah, who aside from being creative director at Song Zu also has a history in composition and production, having produced Grinspoon’s first EP. 

They’ve got a tonne of experience behind them, and they’re set to be the next big thing in the Sydney electro scene.  Check out their MySpace site for some more original material: you can get theirs track ‘Crash and Burn (nodoze)’ and ‘Away’ on iTunes but no doubt they’ll be an album sometime soon.  They’re also working on a track with Grinspoon vocalist Phil Jamieson too.  They’re making their liive debut in March so make sure you keep an eye and ear out for them.

http://www.myspace.com/tiptronikmusic

My Disco - ‘Calling Cure’

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My Disco are an odd band.  Amazing, but nonetheless odd.  I never thought I’d wholeheartedly enjoy a band which such monotone vocals.  But it probably helps that they’re one of the most rhythmically-addictive bands I’ve seen or heard in qutie a while.

There’s no genre you could tag this Melbourne three-piece with that would encompass their sound.  “Progressive” captures their lack of song structure, but it conjures up images of 12 minute songs a la Tool.  And even then real prog rock is bands like King Crimson and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.  “Minimalist” is true in the sense that their simple lineup and lack of effects is minimal, but it’s by no means minimalist in the sense of ambient beat-less electronic.  “Indie” may be closer to the mark because of My Disco’s infectious groove, but then bands like Dappled Cities Fly are indie.  Maybe we’ll still to rock.  Or maybe My Disco are impossible to describe using words.

Benjamin and Liam Andrews used to play in one of my favourite Australian bands, Clann Zu.  My Disco was a side project during the time of Clann Zu, and a number of rough 7″ and CD-R recordings used to be available.  Once Clann Zu kicked the bucket, My Disco became a full time project.  They’ve toured fairly extensively around the world so there’s a lot of My Disco fans around the world.  The band released their first CD album last year, entitled Cancer, and I managed to see them support Mogwai at The Metro Theatre in Sydney last July.  There was so much bass the roof was rattling.  Amazing.

P.S. Someone called these guys “math rock”.  Way off!

http://www.mydisco.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/mdband

Mercy Arms - ‘Kept Low’

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Cast your live music memories back to last year and you might remember the band that was hand picked by American dreams The Strokes to support them on a sold out Australia tour. A band I’m already very fond of, Sydney’s Mercy Arms [not The Mercy Arms] will be releasing! After a road trip south to Adelaide to record with producers from Sound Works Studios, Thom, Kiren, Julian and Ashley are back in town with a yet to be titled E.P for release just in time for their festival debut at V-Festival, with dates in Sydney and Brisbane. I have been lucky enough to hear a preview of this release and can report it is a five track musical journey along a path of dance floor favourites, large stadium chorus, catchy guitar leads with a delicately ambient ending.

I am particularly bias towards the quality song writing, but thank god there is finally a small taste of Mercy Arms you can take home, and from what I gather, it’s just going to leave you anxious for more. It’s without a doubt going to be a big year for this quartet, so here is the demo version of ‘Kept Low’, the first single from Sydney’s own Major label lads.

www.myspace.com/mercyarms

Ladyhawke - ‘Back Of The Van’

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I’ve been hunting down this song for ages and finally got it from a friend who emailed it to me a few days ago. It’s one of the catchiest tune I’ve heard in ages and though it is shamelessly retro, it has a timeless mood and melody to it that I know you will enjoy. As mentioned previously Ladyhawke aka Pip is from Sydney and she plays guitar for Teenager. Rumours are she has a deal in the works with a major and is currently going round the world on a writing trip…whatever that means.

www.myspace.com/ladyhawkerock

photo by boudist.com

Belles Will Ring - ‘Mad Love’

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We’ve blogged them before, but this single has scored Belles Will Ring national airplay on Triple J. It is taken out of a three track EP that will lead to an album soon, entitled Mood Patterns. This song takes the same path of the revivalist mod pop of their previous material, but with a bit more beat and build up.

www.myspace.com/belleswillring

The Instant - ‘Drifting Westward’

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Here’s the new single of Notes & Errata, the brilliant debut album by The Instant.  Yes, who would of thought a plus 10 minute song would actually be a single! 

Though the album’s been out for a while, the band are officially launching it tonight in Sydney at Boobytrap (Melt Bar: 12 Kellett St, Kings Cross), with support from Warhorse, Pivot DJs and I’m sure there’s more, but it’s early in the morning and I’m still not functioning at full capacity.  But since I can’t go to the gig tonight, you must go instead!  Yes - you!

http://www.myspace.com/theinstantmusic

Red Riders - ‘My Love Is Stronger Than Your Love’

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Sydney four piece Red Riders have been kicking around the scene for around four years now.  Throughout the years they’ve gained a tonne of supports, most notably Franz Ferdinand, The Shins, Kaiser Chiefs and Death From Above 1979, as well as release two popular EPs in Red Riders (2004) and The Plan A (2005).  The band’s momentum culminated in October last year, with the release of their debut full-length LP Replica Replica. 

The first time I saw the band live I have to admit I wasn’t entirely sold on them.  They were one of those bands that had the potential, but just weren’t pulling it together live.  But Replica Replica actually surprised me: I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I do.  The firsr single off the album, ‘Slide In Next To Me’, went to #96 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown this year.  That’s not a bad effort really, considering there’s tens of thousands of songs released a year. 

The Red Riders create music with an indie inflection but which manages to maintain a driving pulse; good enough to dance to.  They’re obviously influenced by British acts, and you can definitely hear it in the vocals.  But their new single, ‘My Love Is Stronger Than You Love’, is one of my favourites off their album.  Definitely a band to keep an eye on.

http://www.redriders.net
http://www.myspace.com/redridersmusic

Warhorse - ‘Kotter’

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So you don’t have a significant other to spend Valentines Day with this year? Sydney band Warhorse is staging a St. Valentines Day Massacre to honor the unlucky in love or those in love and want to kill each other anyway. I’m not quite sure what to expect from the night but Warhorse, having been together for about a year and play a type of sub-psyche rock, should be well worth the heart break. They’ve recently come out of the studio where they have been working with Burke Reid (Gerling) recording their E.P, and have played a number of shows around Sydney. Presently going through a change of line up with the drummer, last time I saw Warhorse was at the Snowman album launch show in Sydney and it was a pretty dirty show. If you’re in Sydney, you can catch them this Friday the 16th at Boobytrap at Melt Bar, this time supporting The Instant for the launch of their album Notes & Errata. Jasper is a rather obnoxiously entertaining front man but if you want something other than flowers and chocolate, Warhorse just might be the perfect date.

www.myspace.com/warhorserocknroll

Wolfmother - ‘Woman’ (Avalanches remix)

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Well congratulations is in order. Who would’ve thought they’d go all the way to winning a GRAMMY? From their early gig in Hopetoun, their legendary industry gig at 161 in Melbourne, many many gigs, festivals and radio play later their very first song ‘Woman’ wins the golden grammaphone. Well done boys, and to all the label and management team too of course, was one hell of a good punt!

www.myspace.com/wolfmother

Oh Mercy - ‘We Shouldn’t Miss The Market’

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Oh Mercy are the Triple J Unearthed winners of the Big Day Out competition in Victoria. Two Sundays ago they opened the local stage and played to 500 people which I was told their biggest crowd ever. The band is really Alexander Gow’s vehicle for performing self penned songs and well arranged covers. I’ve seen them twice in Melbourne, both times they manage to gather indifferent punters in the venue and got them standing up and transfixed to renditions of relaxed, down tempo folk tunes that at times borders on alt-country. This command over the audience is largely to Gow’s easy going stage charm and natural troubadour’s swagger, qualities that is all too often missing or worse badly faked in most young singer-songwriters. It is quite a hard genre to stand out of, partly because there are so many players in the game and partly because these kind of songs don’t exactly jump and grab people’s attention. It’s challenging for such a young band such as Oh Mercy, all of whom are under 20, to write folk tunes relevant to most of the genre’s fans because most of the anecdotal experience needed occurs after living through one’s early 20s. Nevertheless this is a very promising start for Gow and his band, and I hope I will keep hearing more from them in the next few years.

www.myspace.com/ohmercyband

The Hiptones - ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’

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OK these guys are cool.  Not in the modern sense of the word, but more in the vernacular circa 1950s, like “Frank Sinatra is a cool cat”.  The Hiptones blend contemporary Australian blues and roots with a New Orleans sense of funk and soul.  Hammond organ and guitar thick with slap-back echo create a mood akin to a hazy lounge bar.

Vocalist Snooks La Vie, utilising the great vintage sounds of old-school microphones, has a smoky R&B style voice that suits the retro-inspired music of the band.  The 62 T-bird. the clothes and the music all scream retro, and the band are riding the current pre-60s trend that acts such as The Basics are leading the way in.  It was through a glowing review of their debut album Right Now in The Brag magazine in Sydney that I decided to give these guys a chance, and it is one of the coolest (there’s that word again) albums I’ve heard in quite a while.

They’ve recently signed to Sony BMG, but from what I can tell this Adelaide four piece has been kicking around since 2001.  But info on their beginnings is fairly hazy, but they’ve supported Chris Isaac and played at a number of jazz festivals.  They’ve got a previous recording to their name - Meet Me At The Sands - but I reckon you’d be hard-pressed to actually find a copy of it.

The coolest cats this side of the equator.

http://www.thehiptones.com
http://www.myspace.com/thehiptones

Cut Copy - ‘Hearts On Fire’

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New track from my favourite Modular band, Cut Copy returns with a track that could easily be taken out of Bright Like Neon Love album, and towards the end of the song, a baseline straight out of New Order’s songbook. Perhaps it’s a cue for party djs to drop True Faith? Some might think it’s more of the same, but I’m digging this. No word on the album yet but they’re trekking around the country and Singapore on the Good Vibrations Festival.

Update: I’ve just received word that Cut Copy has released this track ahead of the rest of the album to coincide with their Good Vibes dates and a Nokia promotion tie in. They’re flying to NY after the festival to record their album to be out in July, but before all that happens this Friday (tomorrow!) they are playing a FREE set at Melbourne’s Federation square as part of their Nokia promo to showcase their new material, starts at 7.30pm.

www.myspace.com/cutcopy

Teenager - ‘Alone Again’

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We’ve covered what one half of Pnau, Pete Mayes did with himself, this is the other side / new project. Nick Littlemore has kept himself busy with dj gigs, producing The Valentinos and Damn Arms, and working on this new band Teenager, not to be confused with The Teenagers or even teenagersintokyo. I’m not sure how long the album took to record but it was at least a good year and a half before I heard anything new from them since they released Liquid Cement on a compilation made by Sydney’s FBi Radio. This track features the guitarist Pip doing vocal duties.

www.myspace.com/teenagerband

photo by Sir Wheatley

Muscles - ‘Ice Cream’

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I’m risking overloading on Muscles goodness here, but he’s worth the hype. Last time we wrote on the trance boy wonder I said that he was taking time off to rejig his live set up as a band. That was the plan I believe until he just got more and more gig offers. Now there’s a national tour on the cards in April with a certain big Australian band I’m not supposed to blog yet. Anyway, the thought of seeing him with a full live band is pretty exciting. Last week I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of what his sound/setup could be in the near future.

Muscles was headlining Click Click on Saturday, he’s played there maybe twice before so this time a week before the gig he made an open call on myspace for ‘band members’ to perform the first three songs during his set: Marshmellow, One Inch Badge Pin and Ice Cream. The stage was packed with an 8 (or maybe more) guest musicians including photographer/muso Ryan Wheatley of Learn The Splits, Tranter of Gameboy/Gamegirl, the guys from Julian Nation and Popolice both of whom supported the bill, another band I didn’t quite catch the name off, and resident party animal Phil Burns.

It was quite an impromptu and very candid set up, everyone was given lyric sheets with the major chord changes in it, though I don’t think anyone paid much attention to any of it and just sorta jammed through the set following Chris Muscles’ lead on the keyboard riff. There were no prior rehearsals so some in band weren’t sure when to dive in for their parts, but I must say the rhythm section did very well with Wheatley’s backing vocals giving One Inch Badge Pin a much thicker singalong texture that was a highlight of the set for me.

More on Muscles.

http://www.myspace.com/musclesmusic

photo by boudist.com

It’s now only three hundred and fifty something days until the next Big Day Out, and if you had the kind of day I did you are going to need every one of those days to recover! Big Day Out 2007 has come and gone along with the entourage of international artists who flew south for the occasion. For the curious, the off shore acts that wowed were synth tinkers Hot Chip and English egos Kasabian.

I arrived with two friends after some very early drinks (in true Big Day Out spirit, though it just happened to be the day of my birth too) though almost instantly I found myself solo. My friends had scampered off ahead to see central coasters Something With Numbers reporting back later that they were surprised at the size of the crowd that were at the stage, (this being a worthy call considering they’ve been long term fans from the beginning). The band was ecstatic to be at this gig, and security could control the fans invading the stage in excitement.

Meanwhile, I made my way to Scribe at the main stage. It was an interesting decision having this huge kiwi rap lord play on the main stage considering he hasn’t released anything since 2005 (his second full length album is due out this year). Scribe made a guest appearance at the Lupe Fiasco side show two nights before and killed it. Though he played too early in the day and isn’t quite a stadium act, he threw everything at the audience, and remains my favourite hip hop artist this side of the world.

Scrabbling still solo through the masses I made it to The Vines who absolutely nailed it, having all beers raised, kids going ballistic and ended the set with a token smash up. The songs have melodies and Craig Nicholls had just enough sanity to maintain them, and so little that keeps a Vines show one of the greatest Aussie grunge acts to date. Perth outfit Snowman were on the same stage later on, and these guys are growing into their live shows very quickly, though the impact of their defining quirkiness was lost in festival fever.

Bob Evans played at dusk and provided the perfect escape from large crowds, evasive rock music and general festival seediness. Most might not even have been familiar with all his tunes but his easy listening acoustic set was just right for those wanting to chill. Finally for the Australian headliners, I didn’t make it to Jet, though I’ve heard from a number of lips that it was perhaps the biggest anticlimax of the day, expressed passionately by so many, I would love to know what went wrong?

Finally, The Presets, who’ve come a long way since their twelve noon Boiler room set just a year ago. Julian and Kim had an all adoring and largely rowdy crowd, articulating their love for the Sydney audience; it really did feel that this massive local gig was perhaps the best show of their career. I jumped when Kim did and left Big Day Out just after, with sore legs and ringing ears; I’m thinking it might just be my last.

photo by Micheal Curtis

Dead Letter Circus - ‘Lines’

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Here’s the next offering from a band who are fast becoming the darlings of the Brisbane alternative scene.  Dead Letter Circus are making some powerful friends in The Butterfly Effect, Karnivool and renowned producer Forrester Savell.  This track ‘Lines’ comes from their debut EP, which was produced by Forrester and is getting the final touches put on it before the band launch it in April.  Just like the previous track ‘The Mile’ that we previewed here, the boys lay on a healthy does of delay-soaked guitar and falsetto vocals, giving the track a rather dramatic feel, which is combined with the light and shade of the music.

Dead Letter Circus will be traversing the East Coast of Australia over the next four to six weeks, so check out their MySpace page for all the dates.

Previous post: Dead Letter Circus

http://www.myspace.com/deadlettercircus

Courtesy of FasterLouder.com.au

Switchkicker - ‘Ever Wonder’

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A couple of months ago - 4 months to be exact - I wrote up a post entitled Retrospective #1: Where The Bloody Hell Are They?; a post which basically highlighted some lesser-known acts that aren’t around anymore and if they were around, we would have blogged about them.  And I promise I’ll write up #2 soon!

But then one band went and screwed everything up by coming out of a self-imposed exile.  Switchkicker was presumed dead (not literally) following their last show at the Annandale Hotel in May 2006, but lo and behold Dan Sutherland, the brainchild behind Switchkicker, has resurrected the music and reinvigorated it by taking on an acoustic/electronica lifeform.  This means new songs, but a farewell to possibly a lot of the older material that was written in the vein of Nine Inch Nails electronica.  No doubt radio favourites such as ‘We’re Not Apart’ and ‘Drown’ will still remain though; songs which sound just as good acoustic as electric.

Not much is known about the new form of Switchkicker except that it will contain Dan and drummer Ben Ellingsworth, both of whom play in Many Machines On Nine, and from what I can assume they’ll run a backing track as well.  I think the acoustic format will definitely help differentiate Switchkicker from the more metal/industrial sounds of MM9.  It seems a natural progression for Switchkicker too as the most recent record Method 2 contained a fair dose of melody and acoustic guitar, as compared to the more Nine Inch Nails-influenced debut 17102.

But although it’s completely ruined my previous post, it’s great to have Switchkicker back live.  Those living in Sydney can catch him tonight at The Basement in Circular Quay.

http://www.switchkicker.com
http://www.myspace.com/switchkicker

The Hate Game - ‘Don’t Pretend’ (mp3)

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New name, same old sound… because of legal threats the Vendettas have had to change their name to The Hate Game.  So don’t go to their old MySpace site, because some 39 year old guy from the States named John has stolen the URL. 

Anyway, none of this is going to stop the band, who are currently recording their debut EP at Soundwork Studios in Sydney, after which they’ll be playing a slew of shows, including taking a trip to Melbourne in March.  Check out a demo of their new track called ‘Don’t Pretend’ - kinda reminiscent of The Cure at the beginning.

http://www.myspace.com/hategame