New. Australian. Music.    

The Seabellies - ‘Song We Don’t Speak Of’ (mp3)

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I once got an SMS from one of my mates saying “Come down to the Hopetoun and watch the Seabells play.  It’s the finals fo the Fasterlouder comp”.  So I jumped on fasterlouder.com.au and searched for this band called the Seabells (the comp was to win a spot on the Australian V Festival lineup) and I couldn’t find them. And he kept raving about them.  And then I found out they were called The Seabellies.

Pointless story sure.  I don’t care.  It’s my blog.  Needless to say, these guys are awesome.  Jonno Seidler, former Who the Hell cohort, is a big fan of The Seabellies.  I’ve never seen them live, but I will endeavour to do so very soon.  There’s six members in the band, but they each play about a thousand instruments each - just check out the list on their MySpace site!  Don’t you just hate multi-talented people?  I hear they even swap instruments during their sets.  That’s cool.

They’re just unleashed their debut EP Wave Your Fingers To Make The Winters and I’m itching to grab a copy.  Their style is maybe what you’d call baroque pop: layered indie pop rock tunes, channelling 60s Beach Boys with a dab of Brian Eno.  Think Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Architecture in Helsinki, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah but not as aggressive (and in the case of CYHSY, much better singing).  They’re doing a handful of East Coast Australia dates, so keep an eye out for them and make sure you go see them. 

http://www.myspace.com/theseabellies

The Baggsmen - ‘Bubblegum’

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These guys produce the freshest beats in the country, and though their second album Eleven Stages did well on radio, in the stores, and earned them two Big Day Out tours, the did not make it big enough. Maybe their luck will change with this new album. The Baggsmen are producer/bassist Tony Buchen (who has done work with Macromantics, Kid Confucius and Earl Gray), drummer Lok Brahe and new addition to the lineup Welshman Brad Munn. In this record they again collaborated with friends Jake Stone of Bluejuice, who featured on this track, Janny Cassanova of Rastawookie and Earl Gray of, well Earl Gray. This is the only song that I have heard from the album, so looking forward to hearing more

www.myspace.com/baggsmen

I don’t mean to detract from Baggsmen’s musical merits, but for those of you who remember, Jake Stone was once arrested mid-show on stage for wearing a police uniform. He was cleared of all charges, but the accompanying youtube is priceless:

The Third Cycle - ‘The Turning Day’ (mp3)

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted something on Who The Hell.  Perhaps I was too busy.  Perhaps I was lazy.  Nah, not lazy, busy… I promise!

So these four Northern Beaches kids like to call themselves The Third Cycle.  If you’ve gone to at least a handful of gigs in the past few years where the bands on stage turn their amps up to eleven, then you’ve probably seen the members around, either in this band, or in their previous bands.  Vocalist Jess Donnellan used to play in an all-girl group called Charlie.  Bassist Clint Ossington and drummer Scott Chandler used to play in a band called Unsaid (Clint used to sing and Scotty used to play percussion).  And Matt Dobson… well, I just can’t remember what band he used to play in!

They hit the stage in 2006 surrounded by a lot of publicity - smart move really on their behalf: build the hype and watch the people come, which they did at their first official show at the Annandale Hotel (they played a warm-up show under the name “The Turning Day” - yep like the song - at The Lair, Metro Theatre in Sydney). 

They’ve played a bunch of shows, and are starting to build a pretty solid fanbase.  They’ve got a 3-track demo floating around, and you can hear all the songs off it on their MySpace page.  I think they’re currently recording an EP with producer Dave Petrovic, so keep your ears out for it.

Oh, and P.S. I don’t know what “The Third Cycle” actually is.

www.thethirdcycle.com
www.myspace.com/thethirdcycle

Grafton Primary - ‘Relativity’ (mp3)

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Grafton Primary are brothers Josh and Ben Garden from Sydney. Their previous track ‘Hidden Cycle’ rotated on lots of radio playlists round about last year. They’ve since recorded an album due to be out soon titled 2020 vision. ‘Relativity’ is so 80s in instrumentation, arrangement and lyrics I almost tuned the radio out, until it reached the bizzarely catchy hook of ‘we equal m c squared..’ ??? I can’t explain it but it’s a hook that would have worked twenty, thirty years ago, and thanks to the current music scene’s obsessions with 80s beats and synths is now working today.

www.myspace.com/graftonprimary

This song reminds me of a childhood favourite:

Thomas Dolby - ‘She Blinded Me With Science’

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Road to recovereeeeeeee…..

www.myspace.com/midnightjuggernauts

The Holidays - ‘Apparently Nothing’

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Rumour has it that The Holidays haven’t even been together a year, but chances are if you have been to a local Sydney gig in the last 5 months you would have seen them play at least twice, maybe even three times. Earning their stripes as a likable support act on a number of bills, most recently, opening for UK sensation Jamie T at Candy’s apartment, they seem to be the flavor of the month. I saw them opening for Wolf and Cub and their tunes are well written and to be completely honest, they’re boyishly handsome look and indie scruff appeal didn’t go unnoticed. Style over substance I hear you ask, definitely not! If the sudden shift into cooler weather has you feeling a little down, take a listen to this recording of ‘Apparently Nothing’ and let me know what you think of this musical holiday.

myspace.com/theholidays

Jackson Jackson - ‘Eliza’

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Just got this album yesterday and I gotta say it’s one of the more interesting albums I’ve heard from an Australian artist this year, both in its high production values and lyrical playfulness. They are playing the Corner Hotel in Melbourne tonight and I’m going so join me cos I heard they are pretty damn good live.

www.myspace.com/jacksonjacksonmusic

Plastic Palace Alice - ‘Empire Falls’

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Part of the new breed of multi-instrumental indie bands directly influenced by the Arcade Fire phenom, Melbourne’s Plastic Palace Alice is getting some buzz locally, owing to frequent gigging with their Sydney counterpart The Seabellies and favourable spins on Triple J and local community stations. This song was produced by Jonathan Burnside who has done some work with The Sleepy Jackson, The Melvins, and local Nova FM favourites Dukes of Windsor. Check them out tonight at the Public Bar at The Espy, St. Kilda.

www.myspace.com/plasticpalacealiceband

The Checks - ‘Take Me There’

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Their songs sound like any old retro rock band to me, kinda a bit of Jet, a bit of The Exploders, or any of those retro rock revivalist bands from the 80s, 90s or today. They are around 19-20 years old, been together as a band since they were 15 and originate from New Zealand. As the story goes, The Checks were playing a gig when they were ‘discovered’ by NME’s Editor who happen to be on holiday at the time in Auckland. He offered them a spot in the NME new music tour, and so they relocated to London, scored a record deal and recorded and released their debut album Hunting Whales. Next Noel Gallagher himself chose them to be the support for an Oasis tour in Australia. And then the chance to came up to support The Hives in Japan. Quite the rock n roll story so far. They’re touring Australia in late May playing small venues like Hopetoun and The Tote before going on the road for the Jet tour support. Catch them if you dig this song.

www.myspace.com/thechecks

Old Man River - ‘La’

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Ohad Rein has an obvious and uplifting love of the Beatles, and ‘La’ has all the oddball romatic meanderings of a Sergeant Pepper cacophony, layered with hums, squalls, birdcalls and a crowd of supporters whose joyful enthusiasm will not be contained. The band plods merrily, the lyrics are silly and the melody rings with a familiar echo, but it’s clear Old Man River is really, truly in it for the music

www.myspace.com/oldmanriver

The Androids - ‘Whole Lotta Love’

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Those boys who wanted to do Madonna return, with an opening riff that smells a bit like Jessie’s Girl. Otherwise, they rock dogmatically while preaching about how all we need is love because the times they are a changing, and besides which, war, what is it good for? They got whole lotta ordinary, is what.

www.myspace.com/theandroids

DJ Bonez - ‘The Hot (feat Blade)’

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This sounds nothing likw Australian hip hop and I know a lot of people hate this kind of hip hop that makes itself sound so American, but I suppose that was probably the aim of this record, to blur the boundary between local and overseas production skills. DJ Bonez is one of the house producers of local hip hop giant Obese Records, based in Melbourne. He has produced for most artists on the label includes Hyjak n Torcha, label boss Pegz, Plutonic Lab, the country’s biggest hip hoppers Hilltop Hoods, and about 20 other releases listed on his myspace site.

Now I’m never gonna be saying that I’m an authority on the subject of hip hop, or even know it well enough to be a good critic/reviewer. I mean this sounds pretty good to me. To make things complicated I’ve been told that Ninja Art, the album that this track is taken off, is not even an original album but a rework/remix of another album of the same name. Hmm?

I try to keep an open mind however with Australian hip hop because it’s interesting to observe how the scene has been divided into two big camps and that is this Obese Records crew based in Melbourne, and the Elephant Traks crew based in Sydney whom I posted about yesterday. They each retain their own sound flavour because they seem to keep their circle of producers between themselves. Everyone else, like Macromantics for example, is pretty much outside of this scene. I hope to one day know enough to map out this scene but at this point in time I’m pretty much an outside observer. If anyone here knows more please do comment.

www.myspace.com/deejaybonez

Unkle Ho - ‘Big Bad Rag’

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I’ve been meaning to write on the elefant traks crew for a while now but I never really had the time to properly research them and their extensive crew of producers, rappers and beat makers. One of these guys is Unkle Ho, a member of the hip hop group The Herd, who has released an album previously in 2005, but still largely unknown in the music listening public in Australia, ie Triple J listeners.

As the press release goes, Unkle Ho was born in Hong Kong but moved to Sydney when young, and has made beats and design graphics for the Elephant Traks crew in general. This track does not show any hint of hip hop leanings but instead gives away a rich sonic melting pot of Asian instrumentation on top of a jazzy rhythm, the melodies cut up so fine it feels almost organic. Perhaps it could do with some singing on top of the beats cos I was waiting for vocals to kick in to lift up the track. But maybe it’s better leaving it as an instrumental, as a showcase of his production skills. This guy is well worth investigating more.

www.myspace.com/unkleho

The Locus Scene - ‘Chinese Whispers (demo)’ (mp3)

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Maybe it’s pop, maybe it’s rock, maybe it’s just a sweet song… this is the first offering from The Locus Scene, a band that won the MusicOz Award in 2004 for Best Rock Artist, and they hadn’t even played a gig!

It’s been great to see this band come so far: from their first gig at the Annandale Hotel, which admittedly was a bit shaky, to now being confident, and having a slew of fantastic songs (personal fave: ‘Crowded Room’), many of which will appear on their upcoming debut EP In Technicolour.  Locus Scene frontman Luis Rojas is the brains behind most of the songwriting and recording of this EP, and if his band-in-hiatus, Shanghai, is anything to go by, there’s no doubt this EP will be an eclectic mixture of styles and instruments.  He’s just finished producing the new EP from Mz Ann Thropik ao hopefully the Locus Scene EP will be of the same recording quality.

It’s been a couple of months since these guys played live, as they’re searching for a new guitarist, but keep an eye out for their return, and their super-amazing drummer Stassy!

http://www.thelocusscene.com
http://www.myspace.com/thelocusscene