Papa Versus Pretty - ‘Casanova 2.5′ (mp3)
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Curious name for an intriguing band, because I can’t even find a photo for this post. Unlike other local bloggers I have not seen this very young Sydney trio comprised of Tom Rawle, Kristjan Garcia Lamerton and Andrew Brown, all aged 15-16. This song does not hint anything about their age tho, it’s got a very mature temperament and none of the lyrics show any inexperience in writing. I understand that this is just a demo to what is an upcoming EP. Polaroids of Androids wrote that they kicked off one of their live sets with a cover of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. I usually have low expectations from a band that covers one of the most randomly interpreted depressive tunes ever recorded, but somehow I’m hopeful with these guys.
www.myspace.com/papavspretty
Rand and Holland - ‘It’s Alright’
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I’m back in Sydney for a week and a bit for some work and also to attend the V Festival that has decided to skip Melbourne for some weirdo reason. I was at a dinner party on Sunday night, thrown by an ex-girlfriend who had decided to cook me a lamb roast as a thank you for showing her around Melbourne when she visited a few weeks ago. The soundtrack was provided by her Ipod, which I have filled up with albums that I thought she would like. On high rotation were The Shins, Of Montreal, and locals Rand and Holland. To my envy she saw the duo the night before at the Hopetoun the night before, which I had decided to spend quietly cos I didn’t think there was anything worth going out for. Anyway dinner was good but some people got drunker than I was so it got boring/annoying and I left as soon as I got the chance. The point of this story is, even though the dinner experience didn’t end up as great as I thought it would, as long as the soundtrack for the night is great you’ll remember it as a good night anyway. Especially if you have these guys on the stereo.
Melbourne people: catch them live at Northcote SC tonight!
www.myspace.com/randandholland
Ghetto Pussy - ‘Cassette Sex’ (mp3)
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Just when dirty electro couldn’t get any dirtier… along comes Sydney’s Ghetto Pussy. Hell, it’s bordering on 90s happy hardcore! With members like Pussy Tiger Lyck, Samurai Pizza Phat and CJ Hooker, it’s hard to know who these people actually are. I did a bit of MySpace scrounging and found out that one member is Craig McVea from Lucy and the Pheromones and Charchie Ink. The other two members may be someone named Rizzo (I don’t think it’s the same Rizzo from Rizzo & Pizzo though) and Anastasia. But I may be waaay off the mark.
It’s late-night, liquor-soaked party music for kids in dark indie clubs wearing stovepipe jeans to be dancing til they pass out from heat exhaustion. It’s in your face, bold and brash and unabashed sex music. This kind of uber-dirty electro seems to really be taking off now, with acts like the aforementioned Rizzo & Pizzo and Gameboy/Gamegirl gaining a lot of popularity. I guess it’s just fun music to dance to. What more could you ask for!
www.myspace.com/ghettopussymusic
The Evening Son - ‘Lemming’ (mp3)
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Who said that Silverchair were the only good band to come out of Newcastle? ‘Lemming’, from Novocastrian three-piece The Evening Son, has been getting a flogging on my stereo lately. It has an old-school Stone Temple Pilots vibe to it, especially because of the electric and acoustic guitar combo.
The band formed in mid-2005 out of the ashes of another great Newcastle band, Paperhalo. They’re hitting the studio soon to record an EP, so hopefully that’ll mean these guys will start playing around more often, particularly in Sydney.
http://www.myspace.com/theeveningson
Soft Tigers - ‘M.A.R.I.A’
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Bucky of Soft Tigers gave me a demo of this song well before it went to radio and getting picked up by Triple J. I do believe this was the song that got them the Triple J Spotlight artist during Australian Music Month back in November. At the first few listens I cannot stop thinking how the feel of the guitar melodies in this song remind me of old Rick Springfield songs. They are different riffs, but just the general vibe of the song makes it very familiar and friendly. I love how they namedrop places in Sydney, makes me feel not as bad for spending too much time hanging out at those watering holes.
Simone’s Review:
Sydney love song where drunk kids carouse and out cool each other in the inner city. There’s a beery squall in the background and some bustling sound from the late night streets, a splash of colour here and there and a quiet break in the stop and start action at one point. Soft Tigers bring a hair’s breath of originality to the jarring jam of the Oz Indie Goes Eighties plague, but it’s a hair. Less with the fashion, more with the songwriting.
www.myspace.com/softtigers
Donnie Sloan - ‘Call You Up’ (mp3)
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Don’t really know much about this guy, there’s no bios on his myspace. Tried to get him to give me a bit of a story but he never really got back to me. I hear this song get dropped quite often in clubs here and it has that 1980s Miami Horror feel to it. Should be handy for your next party.
www.myspace.com/donniesloan
Batrider - ‘Trouble (demo)’ (mp3)
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A DVD just hit the market here in Australia called Sticky Fingers which is a “rockumentary” on the underground Melbourne music scene, and in particular the punk-rock sub-scene. Amongst the blurred amateur live footage which poor-quality, and some even poorer-quality bands, a few stood out. One such band was Batrider, a visceral four-piece punk rock band.
Originally from Wellington in New Zealand, I’m not sure when they immigrated to Australia because there’s not a lot of info on the band on the net. Blogs such as Polaroids of Androids and Get Big, Little Kid have screamed the praise of the band, and there’s a great interview with the intense frontwoman Sarah Chadwick at Mess + Noise.
Sleater-Kinney and Young & Restless are two bands that Batrider have been compared to, and I guess that’s because of the female vocal onslaught. It’s dark, it’s punk, it’s angry. There’s not much more to say.
http://www.batrider.com
http://www.myspace.com/batrider
KIM - ‘Wet n Wild (Riot In Belgium Mix)’ (mp3)
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La decadanse had blogged this early in February and if you’re an overseas club dj deeply interested in the Australian electro scene then this type of incestuous remixing is probably your dream mix that you’d drop in the next Ipod battle night or whatever. This track was taken off KIM’s oh-so exclusive Japan only released album System Breakdown. Not entirely sure why he didn’t release this in Australia, must be some marketing strategy of some sort. I’ve just listened to the track a few times and I think I like the original version better, or at least the one that I hear in clubs here anyway. For all I know it could be some sort of Bang Gang Van She Tech dub mix or whatever.
www.myspace.com/kimberleyisaacmoyes
Stature:Statue - ‘Make Haste Roman’
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I used to live in a house of 6 people, 3 of which are big fans the prog rock/metal genre who think Omar from Mars Volta could be the second coming of the Christ. Of course I quickly got tired of it and just like the 1970s reaction to overbloated and self indulged ‘progressive’ music I turned to punk. It’s been a few years since I’ve given a serious listen to anything that can be roughly described as ‘prog’ but a few weeks ago I saw a band from Queensland called Stature:Statue. They’re definitely worth catching at least once even if you hate this kind of music as I did when I saw them. Very impressive live, I am only going to describe their sound as a cross between At The Drive-In and Blood Brothers. Anymore than that I’d be using overused and oft misunderstood adjectives that shouldn’t be used in music reviews, but common in bad label press releases. Anyway these recordings don’t do them justice, catch them live when they’re touring next in your town.
www.myspace.com/staturestatue
Belles Will Ring - ‘Mad Love’ (Adam Baby! remix)
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I like this remix even though it reminds me a lot of those INXS club remixes very common in the early 2000s (what are they calling this decade, noughties?). Adam Inglis’ been making music since 80s in various bands before switching to DJing and club remixes under the moniker adambaby, did plenty of bootleg type remixes of old artists one of which earned him a play with BBC Radio One’s Pete Tong. He seems to have a big catalog of music work on his website. For me these kind of remixes are real hit or miss, but if you find something you enjoy from his repertoire do link me up.
www.adambaby.com
http://www.myspace.com/pointysquared
Soft Tigers - ‘Mr. Ice Cream’
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This song came out more than a year ago as a demo rotated on FBi Radio and managed to get some spot plays on national broadcaster Triple J. Even though they got the attention then, it took Soft Tigers a long time before coming out with a finished album. They’ve signed to Below Par Records/OK!Relax an unlikely label to be interested more known for their punkish leaning roster of Kisschasy, Something With Numbers, Die!Die!Die! and The Scare. This song has a classic ageless summer anthem to it, that if it were to gain the favour of mainstream radio it probably will be played for years to come in classic fm stations. Wait out for the hilarious line in the bridge that suggests the Soft Tigers guys weren’t really thinking about ice cream when they wrote this song.
www.myspace.com/softtigers
Since 1987 South by South West (SXSW) has been held as an annual Music and Media conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. Every year show casing hundreds of musical acts from all over the world, this year there are a number of Australian artists and bands taking the stage to represent this nook of the world from the 14-18th March. I scraped together a list of the bands that are playing at one of the many venues across downtown Austin. Though I’m certain I might have missed a few, I’m predicting these performers would love to receive messages of support from friends and fans back home.
From Perth we have Andrew Winton Duo and The Panda Band, and from Brisbane The Zebras. From Sydney-town there is rocker’s Expatriate, Electro kids The Presets, SPOD, Josh Pyke, Macromantics, Brave Rader, and for all those O.C loving Americans, Youth Group. Plus representing the old school is Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I.
Then from Melbourne comes Children Collide, experimentalists Sunwrae, Ian Wedley, Architecture in Helsinki (who I have it on good account are also shooting a new film clip in Mexico at the moment) Airbourne, Dallas Crane, The Beasts of Bourbon, Borne, noisy pop artists Via Tania and The Gear.
Finally my favourites Wolf and Cub from Adelaide, who will be back in town with Wolfmother next month- yay! And finally a mention to the Kiwi kids, Die!Die!Die! plus The Mint Chicks and heavy rockers Blindspott. Phew… It would be extremely cool to be there, though any stories which detail encounters with The Who’s Pete Townshend, one of the speakers at SXSW (about God knows what) would perhaps suffice, at least for this year.
FourPlay - ‘Reptilia’
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FourPlay describes themselves as a “Sydney, Australia based indie rock band who happen to be an electric string quartet”. And I couldn’t put it much better myself.
This is not your average string quartet. In a similar vein to other string quartets such as Kronos (the troupe who composed the score to Requiem for a Dream), their style and compositions are quite non-traditional and left of centre. Also, a typical string quartet is made up of two violins, one viola and one cello, whereas FourPlay use two violas, one violin and one cello “to produce a thicker, deeper sound”.
They’ve also been known to do some amazing cover versions of popular songs, such as The Strokes’ ‘Reptilia’ which I’ve posted with this blog. They also do a stunning version of Radiohead’s ‘2+2=5′, which is one of my fave Radiohead songs. Their most recent album Now To The Future came out last year and you can hear a few tracks from that on their MySpace page.
http://www.fourplay.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/fourplaystringquartet
Photo by Melinda Comerford
Nina May - ‘The Feeling’ (mp3)
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Wanna know what the kids are going crazy about at the moment? Then say hello to Brisbane four-piece Nina May and their new song ‘The Feeling’, which I think may be the demo version of a track that will make it onto their EP which is coming out at some stage during the Year of the Pig.
Aside from amassing around 1000 times more friends on MySpace than I, at the point of writing this blog, Nina May were the top-rated band on Australia’s premier music website Faster Louder. Hell, they’ve even got a street team! Talk about a lot of l-o-v-e.
Though it doesn’t look like the troupe have toured much outside their home state of Queensland, no doubt with their burgeoning success you’ll see their name around your state fairly soon.
http://www.myspace.com/ninamaymusic
Emergency! Emergency! - ‘gameb0yz’
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My earliest memory of live music is, for the large part, of Sydney’s experimental underground scene. Basically, my friends and I were underage and not having the means of going to licensed venues, we discovered this band of parties and performances that would be held in abandoned spaces. Some might remember a collective called Systems Corrupt who housed (often illegal) parties at venues like 61 Regent Street and the now demolished Graffiti Hall of Fame (drop me a line if your curious to hear more). The music that came out of these parties was largely experimental dance, early electronic and often noisy - this was the days before BANG GANG! Though just recently, at the opening night of a new Sydney Indie night I heard Sydney two-piece Emergency Emergency and all this nostalgic liking to experimental music returned.
Katerina and Stephen used a number of instruments in the making of their music, and have a great balance between melody and noise which made the set challenging but enjoyable. I’m becoming increasingly fond of bands which sit outside the indie/electro mould, and these two have seemed to find something largely untouched. With just enough ‘song’ ingredients to here is the very cool GameBoyz to have a listen too. I would love to know what you think.
http://www.myspace.com/emergencyemergencymusic
Jamie Lloyd - ‘Michael’
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Another Future Classic release; another fantastic, diverse record; another Sydney artist! The profile of Jamie Lloyd has been growing steadily ever greater over the past 18 months since releasing his debut 12″ single ‘Adoris Kitchen’ which became somewhat of a favourite with DJs around the place. Late 2006 then saw the release of Jamie’s first full length LP Trouble Within, which demonstrates Jamie’s wide musical influences.
Jamie actually began his musical career singing (and later dabbling in guitar) in the more progressive rock band Element. Australian TV junkies may remember a violin-weidling house member called Mirabai Peart in the second series of Big Brother Australia which aired in 2002. Well she was a one-time member of Element. though once she departed from the group they became far more progressive and, in my opinion, a lot better.
Like I mentioned before, Trouble Within really covers a lot of electronic musical ground, ranging from the more ambient/lounge sounds to trip hop, dance and even glitch. It’s this earnestness to incorporate a wide variety of instruments and sounds that seems to be setting Jamie aside from the crowded pack of electronic artists. His unique approach to composition also means that the end product is qutie different to what’s out there at the moment.
The track I’ve chosen from the album is ‘Michael’, which happens to be written about a friend of mine and Jerry’s, Michael Noel, who sadly passed away from cancer a few years ago. Vocals on the track were contributed by Rachel Pike, singer of the now-defunct Sydney group Endusk, which Michael was a part of, and a band who often shared the stage with Jamie’s former group. But to get a clearer overview of Trouble Within, I implore you to check out Jamie’s MySpace page to hear more tunes for this great record.
http://www.myspace.com/jamielloyd7
Kidzen - ‘Um, Ah!’
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I think the best description of the music of Kidzen I’ve read is “future jazz”, because it encapsulates the musical sensibility of the project so succinctly. It’s steeped in jazz sounds and themes, but structurally it’s re-imagined, re-invented and re-thought to form a new jazz mold; one that is unafraid of embracing electronica, progressive and freeform ideas.
Kidzen’s self-titled debut album was one of the most diverse records I heard in 2006, running the gamut of musical genres: from the more jazz-based like the wickedly awesome ‘Um, Ah!’ to the more electronic/dub sounds of ‘Supersticious’. World music rears its head on ‘Superpeople’ and tracks like ‘Burn’ (which features the unique husky voice of Inga Liljestrom) and ‘Calm’ demonstrate the band’s more electronic elements.
Kidzen is the brainchild of Sydney bass player extraordinaire Cameron Undy, who has leant his talents to bands such as Inga Liljestrom, Bugz In The Atttic, Jamie Lloyd and Numerology, as well as being a founding member of Jazzgroove, an organisation set up to benefit the Australian jazz scene. The album also comes with a cool remix disc, with tracks from the album being given a once-over by a bunch of artists including Jamie Lloyd, Deepchild, Rephrase and Jimi Polar. Kidzen was released by the record label Future Classic, known more for its electronica/dance releases, so kudos to the label for releasing such a challenging and leftfield record.
It was basically impossible to pick a track that adequetly summarises the album, so I went with my favourite track off the record: opening song ‘Um, Ah!’
http://www.kidzen.com.au/
http://www.futureclassic.com.au
Josh Pyke - ‘Lines On Palms’
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Sydney troubadour Josh Pyke launches his excellent debut record Memories & Dust this week. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a copy of the album for about a month now, and I can definitely say it’s a great album, built around Josh’s wonderfully engaging lyrics and sweet acoustic guitar melodies. And who can forget his fantastic voice.
This is the second single off Memories & Dust, and there’s also a filmclip for ‘Lines On Palms’ on YouTube, and you can watch it here.
I recently sat down with Josh to have a chat about all things Pyke-related for Fasterlouder, and you can read my interview with him here.
More Josh Pyke
Rand and Holland - ‘Night is Only Young’
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Last week Rand and Holland’s manager Eliza emailed me about their new stuff and warned me that this was more folk oriented than the kind of music I usually blog about. She’s kinda right, but I was a big fan of acoustic music and can still appreciate good songwriting over the now dominant beat in modern songs that’s oh-so-now. I’ve heard of these guys before and I have their previous recording. I wasn’t so impressed and I guess it’s very easy to be ageists when it comes to evaluating music - listening to hundreds of demos a week gets the ear tired pretty quick.
But Night is Only Young is a true gem of a find. Although the subject matter is about late night hanging out, somehow I get the feel that if I were to listen to this song on Sunday afternoon nursing a hangover, I would just feel better. It’s soothing. It makes things slightly easier. It would remind me why I drank so much the night before.
I don’t know much else about the duo, except that their record will be coming out on the prestigious Spunk label who is also home to locals Clue to Kalo and Holly Throsby. I’ve yet to hear this track on the radio, so hopefully someone will pick it up soon.
www.myspace.com/randandholland
Mr Wednesday - ‘On The Tail Of Day One’
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Hailing from Adelaide, Mr Wednesday play music that sounds like it’s eminating from a distant radio, from a time or place not of this world or universe, perhaps residing in another universe or another brane (depending if you’re a believer of String Theory). It’s the music of old ghosts, of hazy memories; emotive, moving and haunting.
Call it what you will - post rock, perhaps, though it’s probably the least-favoured genre tag in all of music - but Mr Wednesday create ethereal pieces of music that gracefully wander along. There’s no definitive structure, with the music lacking any remnants of verses or choruses. The tunes are densely layered affairs, making use of soft piano melodies, reverb-soaked guitars, lush strings and what their bio aptly describes as “corroded electronics”. You could point your finger at acts like Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mum, Radiohead and Boards of Canada as influences on their ambient movements.
Their debut album The Garden Where Parties Grow resurrects the long-lost art of the concept album. The album is described as: “a thirteen-track album that follows a three day sequence in the life of Mr Wednesday as he comes to terms with the world according to Mr Industry. To put it simply, the title is the city. An almost uninhabitable place where social functions form the breadth of existence, work is a means to success and the art of being seen is an enviable talent”. Self-indulgent, perhaps, but beautiful nonetheless.
http://www.mrwednesday.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/mrwednesday
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