Gyroscope - ‘Snakeskin’

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I remember many, many years ago being at a house party one Saturday afternoon in Newtown, which I got completely munted on beer and tequila - a lethal mix! I remember people at the party playing an early Gyroscope CD because they were obsessed with the song ‘Doctor Doctor’ which was one of the very first singles that garnered this Perth act national attention.

Since then they’ve had a string of mildly successful releases, which lean to the more rockeir side of the pop/punk spectrum, though ‘Doctor Doctor’ was more post-hardcore than what they are now. But their new single, ‘Snakeskin’, taken from their forthcoming album Breed Obsession, is the first Gyroscope song that I’ve actually paid attention to since the release of ‘Doctor Doctor’ which was a couple of years ago now.

There’s nothing really complex to this tune - it’s just damn catchy. Simple piano melody introduces the song, the vocals don’t do anything spectacular and the syncopated beat keeps you tapping your feet. You’ll be singing it for days.

Oh, P.S. This may just be the greatest photo ever taken… it’s from Band Capture Photography.

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

We usually save videos for the weekend, but it’s been a busy last few days and anyway, this is relevant after yesterday’s post. Here’s The Veronicas performing their new single on the red carpet just prior to the ARIA Awards.

http://www.theveronicas.com
http://www.myspace.com/theveronicas

So the Australian music industry’s night of nights has come and gone for another year. I didn’t make it to the ARIA Awards this year due to a number of factors - maybe it was lethargy; maybe it was the lack of a video camera to report from the red carpet with; maybe it was the ghost of Saturday night still haunting me. But this year’s awards was decidedly basic as compared to last year’s, ditching the usual cavalcade of pointless international guests and keeping the ceremony to just over two hours, which was a good move because, at the end of the day, there really isn’t an awards ceremony anywhere in the world that’s actually entertaining.

The red carpet kicked off early in the day with live performances from Ricki-Lee who was backed by a bevy of awkward looking dancers (check it out here - the dude with the afro cracks me up) and The Veronicas, who performed a rawer version of their current single ‘Hook Me Up’ which I reckon sounded better than the over-produced, electro-saturated studio version.

During the ceremony there were performances by Silverchair, Who the Hell fave Gotye, Kate Miller-Heidke, Australia’s most successful high school band Operator Please, John Butler Trio with Keith Urban, Sneaky Sound System and Missy Higgins. As this footage undoubtedly gets leaked online, we’ll put some up here.

The night belonged to Newcastle lads Silverchair who picked up five pointy awards, and their filmclip for ‘Straight Lines’ also garnered an ARIA. The lovely Sarah Blasko picked up a deserved award for her amazing album, and the ever-affable Wally de Backer (a.k.a. Gotye) won Best Male Artist. You Am I, who preceded the retro fad by an entire decade, won an award for Best DVD, and Nick Cave stuck it to the man during his Hall of Fame speech. In interviews during the week prior to the ARIAs, he’d spoken about his disdain for the awards and that he was going to duck out the back door after he received his award to go get a kebab. I wonder how it tasted…

Here’s a list of all the winners:

Best Breakthrough Album
Sneaky Sound System - Sneaky Sound System

Best Breakthrough Single
Operator Please - ‘Just A Song About Ping-Pong’

Best Ubran Release
Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road Restrung

Best Pop Release
Sarah Blasko - What the Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have

Best Country Release
Keith Urban - Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing

Best Independent Release
John Butler Trio - Grand National

Best Rock Album
Silverchair - Young Modern

Best Adult Contemporary Album
Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust

Best Music DVD
You Am I - Who Are They, These Rock Stars? Live at the Mint

Best Dance Release
Sneaky Sound System - Sneaky Sound System

Highest Selling Album
Damien Leith - The Winner’s Journey

Highest Selling Single
Silverchair - ‘Straight Lines’

Best Group
Silverchair

Best Cover Art 
Debaser (Powderfinger - Dream Days at the Hotel Existence)

Best Video 
Paul Goldman & Alice Bell (Silverchair - ‘Straight Lines’)

Engineer of the Year
Wayne Connolly (Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust)

Producer of the Year
Wayne Connolly & Josh Pyke (Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust)

Best Classical Album
Richard Tognetti & the Australian Chamber Orchestra - Bach Violin Concertos

Best Jazz Album
Mike Nock & Dave Leibman – Duologue

Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album
Choir Of Hard Knocks – Choir Of Hard Knocks

Best World Music Album
Zulya - 3 Nights

Best Children’s Album
The Wiggles - Pop Goes The Wiggles

Best Comedy Release
Dave Hughes - Live

Best Blues & Roots Album
John Butler Trio - Grand National

Best Female Artist
Missy Higgins

Best Male Artist
Wally de Backer (Gotye)

Hall of Fame Inductees
Nick Cave

Single of the Year
Silverchair - ‘Straight Lines’

Album of the Year
Silverchair - Young Modern

http://www.aria.com.au
http://www.ariaawards.com.au

http://www.loveofdiagrams.com
http://www.myspace.com/loveofdiagrams

The divine Ms B and the gorgeous song ‘Planet New Year’.

http://www.sarahblasko.com
http://www.myspace.com/sarahblasko

Dardanelles - ‘Mirror Mirror’

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Australian bands have a fascination with the Eighties. Whether it’s the nasal snark of electro, or the dark echoes of post-punk - and occasionally the fashion sense - Aussie musos love to delve back into the era of big hair and power ballads.

Melbourne’s Dardanelles are no exception. Taking lead from bands of that era like The Cure (particularly Disintegration / Pornography era), Joy Division and artists of that ilk, they’ve built themselves up quite a following here with their combination of reverb-heavy guitars, baritone vocals and driving rhythms. .

Mirror Mirror is their debut record, recorded by acclaimed producer Pauk “Woody” Annison who’s produced, amongst others, Sydney act Red Riders’ debut record Replica Replica. Aside from similarities in album titles, their sounds both hark back to the post-punk / new-wave movement of the late 70s/early 80s, however Dardanelles throw in the extra element of keys which adds a serene ambience to a number of their tunes.

I didn’t think I’d like this album, because I’ve pretty much missed the whole punk revivalist movement, but this is rather cool.

http://www.myspace.com/dardanelles

Cog - ‘Sharing Space’

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Another taste of the forthcoming album from Sydney three-piece Cog: this time it’s the title track to the LP, Sharing Space. Once again, it’s musical gold for the band that effortlessly mixes Tool-esque progressive elements with a melodic richness that makes it palpable even to those who despise loud guitars.

Focussing more on hooks and melody than the first single off the album, ‘What If’, ‘Sharing Space’ continuously drives along, thanks in part to Lucius Borich’s constant kick drum, thumping away on the beat. The production is superb, with multi-layered vocals giving the song a rich texture and plenty of melody. There’s no monstorous riffs in this song which is somewhat of a departure for the band, and it seems they’ve wanted to listener to focus more on the vocals and the beat. There’s some deft use of electronic drums as well which adds an extra element of interest.

If ‘Sharing Space’ and ‘What If’ are anything to go by, this next album is going to be one amazing CD.

http://www.cog.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/cogrockmusic

The Saturns - ‘I’ll Be Alright’ (mp3)

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I’m a late convert to the church of The Saturns. I really only discovered their joyous blues and 70s inspired rock and roll a couple of weeks ago when I put on their debut EP Here’s The Saturns. If you’re sick of Jet peddling the retro vibe and killing it for every other band because they saturated the market, then perhaps you should throw on The Saturns to restore your faith in bands who are looking into the past for inspiration, and doing it with joie de vivre.

Vocalist Nathan Carr has the perfect rock voice, and in ’I Could Be The One’ he shows it off with some great vocal howls in a song based around the 12 bar blues and it doesn’t sound stale at all. ‘Ease My Mind’ has guitars that twang along; the whole song having a Rolling Stones kinda vibe.

It’s all about fun for this Sydney five piece who burst out of your stereo with excitement, energy and uncontrollable foot-tapping rhymths.

http://www.thesaturns.com
http://www.myspace.com/heresthesaturns

photo by Melinda Comerford

Nina May - ‘It’s Easy To Be Worst’

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So this blog’s been in existence for over a year now and surprisingly, one of our most popular posts has been my inaugural post on Brisbane outfit Nina May over 10 months ago. A lot of things have changed since that post - namely, they’ve released their debut EP Make Love To Your Stereo; gone are the poor quality demos on their MySpace and in their place are rocking tunes from the EP; and I’ve hung out with their lovely vocalist Erinn Swan a couple of times and found out what she’s actually singing about in ‘Monsters In The Dark’… is it too late to renege my comments about said song’s lyrics?

What else has changed is that this four-piece has become somewhat of a musical juggernaut, thanks in part to a fantastic 6-track EP recorded at Modern Music Studios in Brisbane. When I originally heard ‘Monsters In The Dark’ I was enamoured by that song but the other tracks that were up on their MySpace page didn’t really do much for me. But since its release, the EP has been one of my favourite local releases for 2007. I’ve said many, many times that I’m a sucker for a rock group with a sassy female vocalist, and there’s not many that do it better in Australia than Nina May. A lazy comparison might be to recent visitors to our shores Paramore, but Nina May mix progressive and alt. rock elements with their love of a good pop hook.

Case in point: ‘It’s Easy To Be Worst’, the dark finale to Make Love To Your Stereo. It features backing vocals courtesy of The Veronicas Jessica Origliasso and what sets this song apart from the rest of the EP is that it sees the band branching out with their sounds and song structures - there’s great use of acoustic guitar and bass swells, and it crescendos into a thundering ending before abruptly being ripped back to a minimal harmonised guitar line. There’s hooks as well as some killer riffs.

Kudos goes to either Erinn or Jess who have some excellent screams in this song, and to Simon who’s the king of pinch/artificial harmonics. The band are also going to be playing live on MTV’s The Lair this Thursday night so anyone in Australia with Foxtel or Austar should keep an eye out for this band on their TV sets.

http://www.myspace.com/ninamaymusic

The Captain’s Package - ‘Out of Focus’

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To propagate my laziness, I’ll just quote a review I wrote of The Captain’s Package for The Brag sometime last year: “A melting pot of Faith No More and Mr Bungle-esque sounds with a B-52s mentality, their music isn’t easily contained within whimsical musical adjectives… (it’s) a side-step away from what most bands are composing around Sydney.”

At that stage, The Captain’s Package had some enthralling musical elements in place but some songs were better than others and they seemed to be searching for what “their sound” could be. Now they’re set to release their brand new record Happiness which was recorded with producer Evan McHugh and if the first taste of the CD is anything to go by, ‘Out Of Focus’, they’ve found their niche in a crowded scene. It’s a song akin to ‘House of Fun’-era Madness with the male-female duelling vocals of the B-52s. Ska meets pop meets avant-garde. They’re launching Happiness on December 1 at Bar Broadway in Sydney, and it should be a night of decadence and extravagance.

http://www.myspace.com/thecaptainspackage

http://www.regurgitator.net
http://www.myspace.com/regurgitators

Get your pop on while Ricki-Lee gets her boobs out.

Sorry, no MC Hammer here.

http://www.myspace.com/rickileeofficial

The Chaperones - ‘Jacqueline’ (mp3)

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It’s an apt time to post about two-piece garage rockers The Chaperones because we’re smack bang in the middle of their month-long residency in the darkened interior of The Excelsior Hotel in Sydney’s Surry Hills where they’re playing every Wednesday night.

The Chaperones are the girl-boy combination of the rather cute drummer Marissa Gillies (I’m not sure if she’s in any way related to Silverchair’s stickman Ben Gillies) and frontman Matt Vince (the girls will have to decide whether he’s cute or not… sorry Matt!) and, like a number of bands in this post White Stripes world, they’ve deemed a bass player unnecessary. To me, not having a bass player is a cardinal sin because there’s a whole frequency range missing and unless you build a custom guitar/bass like Local H’s Scott Lucas or have someone playing droning low-octave keys a la The Red Sun Band, you’re never going to actually hide the fact you’re missing a bass player.

This duo plays with plenty of panache and energy and have some really lo-fi, groovy tunes. Overdriven guitars and solid drum patterns give The Chaperones that indie/garage aesthetic and their debut EP has been garnering some healthy reviews. Still, a bass player would be nice…

http://www.thechaperones.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/chaperones

Lady Strangelove - ‘Rotate (Part 2)’ (mp3)

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It’s been a while since I’ve heard a band actually do old-skool psychedelica. There’s been a booming undercurrent of psychedelica-inspired bands in my home town of Sydney, but who knew they actually did it properly in Adelaide? Lady Strangelove are a funky rainbow cocktail of Wolf & Cub style rhymths, Hendrix inspired lead guitars which screech throughout and delay-heavy vocals which bring to mind Led Zep’s Robert Plant and former Pink Floyd vocalist Syd Barrett.

They call their music “psychedelica dance-rock” or “prog-dance”. It’s all very 60s technicolour/acid inspired with a touch of Mars Volta and The Music thrown in. I’d love to see these guys play live if they didn’t live so far away. Here’s hoping they come by the Annandale Hotel sometime soon.

http://www.myspace.com/ladystrangelove

Pomomofo - ‘Island’

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It’s been a while since we heard the disco grunge of Sydney’s Pomomofo. The now familiar sounds of dirty bass, hi-hats on the upbeat and 80s synths has become a stalwart on the airways of local radio stations around Australia and has seen the kids lining up down the streets to see acts like Midnight Juggernauts, Muscles, Dukes of Windsor, Plug-In City and more.

Which may just be the problem for Pomomofo. When they hit the scenea couple of years back, they were exciting and fresh but now the sound has been carbon copied so much that this three-piece has lost that initial buzz about them. What does set Pomomofo apart though is their energetic and thoroughly enjoyable live show, which may help save them from drowning in a sea of Aussie electro acts. Their set opening for Cornelius last year, including their cover of ‘Mr. Wendell’ WITH Speech from Arrested Development equaled pure musical orgasmic joy.

Check out what we wrote about them over a year ago.

http://www.myspace.com/pomomofo

Brian Campeau - ‘Reinventing Myself’ (mp3)

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Wow, we are so late on Brian Campeau it’s not funny.

This is a man who deserves immediate attention. I fell in love with the Sydney troubadour straight away after hearing ‘Reinventing Myself’, a song that marries Eastern samples, beautiful finger-plucked acoustic guitar and some rather abstract electronic elements. These disparate parts I’ve never really heard crammed into one song, which I think is the beauty of Brian’s music - he’s trying something a little different, and succeeding so brilliantly at it.

The Sandwich Club have written an excellent summation of Brian, his sound and his live performance, saying it better than I could have. Check it out, along with a selection of MP3s. 

http://www.briancampeau.com/
http://www.myspace.com/briancampeau

The Bumblebeez - ‘Rio’

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So the debut Bumblebeez album is finally out. Rumoured to cost over $200,000 over a few years and several mixers to make, is it really worth the wait? Was anyone waiting for it anyway? The previous Triple J Unearthed winners disappeared from attention so long ago I’m not sure many remembered. But I have to say the tracks that I’ve heard so far sounds amazing. It sounds, and I’ve said this before, nothing like any other Australian artists. Except maybe the Avalanches but they’re taking even longer for a followup record. I’m keen to get this album, but I won’t see them live because from what I heard from pretty much everyone they are not much entertainment on the stage. The one and only time I saw them was when they were supporting Radiohead in 2004 in Melbourne, and I walked out of their show then.

www.myspace.com/thebumblebeez

Brand new single from Sydneysiders The Paper Scissors. Enjoy!

http://www.thepaperscissors.com
http://www.myspace.com/thepaperscissors

Oh Faker… what the hell were you thinking when whichever God forsaken director presented you with the concept for this film clip?

Here’s a breakdown of Faker’s brand new filmclip, second by second:

00:00 - Oh, an electrocardiograph… how LITERAL!

00:04 - it’s our first look at the new Faker, because front man Nathan Hudson has made twenty three members of the band redundant in the ten years they’ve been around. Also, what’s with the O Brother Where Art Thou? get-up? Plus they’re in a white room with a green stripe… O-kay…

00:16 - after numerous frames of the band sporting stupid facial expressions, we get our first glipse of a girl decked out in fluoro nursewear. Oh crap, what’s the rest of this clip got in store for us if they’re bringing out fluoro-clad girls? FLUORO for christ’s sake…

00:23 - Phil, or Stefan, whichever guitarist you are… do you think you’re in Red Riders?

00:35 - we’re hitting the chorus people, get ready for the sing-along and ooh ahh ahhs

00:37 - the fluoro-clad girl-Faker equivalent have drips with fluoro colour in them? Huh?? If you’ve made it this far, could somebody please tell me what the concept for this video is?

00:50 - we’ve hit the chorus - “this heart attack… I gotta get away, not coming back.” I know how you feel dude.

01:13 - OMFG! What’s with that chick’s makeup?

01:17 - Oooooooooooooh! Get angry Nathan.

01:29 - oh no, it’s a mime-off between Faker and girl Faker! I thought Marcel Marceau was taking that artform to the grave?

01:33 - at least this girl is putting some energy into her performance.

01:47 - probably should have mentioned this earlier, but Paul Berryman, decked out in all black and a skinny tie, really looks like he belongs the behind the drums for an emo band…

02:00 - is anyone winning this mime-off, or is the audience the loser amongst it all?

02:30 - with limbs flailing and competing members getting up close and personal, really nothing much is happening. You haven’t missed anything up until this point. And here comes the bridge…

02:43 - rapid-fire frame changes, showing how girl Faker is perhaps the alter-ego of original Faker? So inside every boy is there a girl? And inside every man wearing braces, there’s a girl wearing fluoro waiting to be freed from the eternal shackles of introversion? Deep man, so deep…

02:53 - “I got your back. But you don’t got mine.” Hey Nathan, I’m sure you’re upset man, and I can see it in that arm-thrusting of yours, but that doesn’t excuse poor grammar.

03:03 - we’re at the climax of the mime-off… strap yourself in!

03:38 - girl Faker have decided to free themselves from their fluoro drips and throw it in the air. Yay, we’re all fucking happy little munchkins. I think they think they’re at Parklife. Look at them dance!

03:52 - it’s over…. what the hell was that all about??? What’s any of that mindless meandering got to do with a heart attack? I want 3:52 of my life back*.

http://www.myspace.com/fakertheband

 - quote courtesy of You Know Who from a magazine…

Cloud Control - ‘Fine Teacher’

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They’ve been building a bit of a buzz lately, and now Cloud Control, who hail from the more Western parts outside Sydney in a beautifully-named location called the Blue Mountains, are set to release their debut EP this week.

Our blogging brethren The Sandwich Club are sponsoring a new night at The Loft Bar at the University of Technology in Sydney called Art, Bitch (awesome name hah) and the Cloudies will be there this Saturday to launch their new EP.

‘Fine Teacher’ is my favourite song off the EP - I just love the honky-tonk piano line.

http://www.myspace.com/cloudcontrol

photo by Joshua Weinfeld

Cog - ‘What If’

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It’s always a nice thing to say… exclusive! Nowhere else on the internet can you hear the brand single from Bondi’s favourite sons Cog. Called ‘What If’, it comes from their sophomore record Sharing Space. This single will be officially released in November, coinciding with a massive Australian-wide tour (in true Cog form, of course) but its been sent to radio this week and we’ve got your first taste of it right here!

You gotta love a band who have the audacity to release as the first single a song which alternates unconventional time signatures - jumping from 5/4 to 3/4 throughout. The mood of this song is reminiscent of Cog’s older Just Visiting Part 2 EP, with ‘What If’ progressing from a melodic beginning into a epic distortion-drenched finale.

All the Cog staples are here: progressive song structures, Flynn Gower’s politically-tinged lyrics, Lucius Borich’s blindingly impressive drum skills and Luke Gower’s melodic bass lines. In that respect, Cog haven’t so much deviated from the sound found on their debut record The New Normal, but rather honed and refined their music more. ‘What If’ fits more within the dimensions of radio play but still maintains that left-of-centre, alternative/progressive edge.

Cog have been one of my favourite bands for many years, so I’m very keen to hear what the rest of their new album sounds like. They haven’t set a release date yet though.

http://www.cog.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/cogrockmusic

Faker - ‘This Heart Attack’

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Took me a while to get into this song, my first thought was that they could do better. But after a few listens I actually like it. Nathan’s voice does take a bit of getting used to before I could trust what he was singing, but now I’m sold. Taken from their upcoming sophomore record Be The Twilight.

www.myspace.com/fakertheband

Cassette Kids - ‘We Are’

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Another track from these hip Sydney kids, this one reminds me a lot of Comanechi. Caught them while I was in town last week, the guitarist had a lot of interesting ideas on some songs but doesn’t carry it well enough throughout the set to keep my attention. The girl sure is a looker.

www.myspace.com/cassettekids

Roam The Hello Clouds - ‘Pretender’s Hand’

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Most of the stuff get sent to this blog nowadays are either indie rock/pop, electro clash or singer songwriter stuff. So it’s refreshing to get this one that does not fit into any of the above. This is very obscure, so much so when the label sent me more info on another website, it’s in German. I guess that they’re some sort of internationally aimed laptop-jazz-world music outfit with little or no expectation of making dosh anytime soon. It features Laurence Pike of Pivot/Triosk on drums. This guy’s drumming skills is worth the price of admission, and he shows it off again on these songs.

www.myspace.com/roamthehelloclouds

http://www.chairpage.com
http://www.myspace.com/silverchair

We actually blogged about this Melbourne act last year and now they’ve been signed to tastemaker label Modular Records.

http://www.plug-incity.com
http://www.myspace.com/plugincity

The Scientists Of Modern Music - ‘Easy’

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Last week my mate Rohan bought a $700 Korg keyboard. Soon another mate Ross was showing off his skills with the built in vocoding effects, I believe his words were something to the effect of “give us a few weeks and we’ll write better songs than the (Midnight) Juggies!”

I have a feeling similar proclamations could have been made when Tasmanian duo The Scientists of Modern Music started out. Maybe they are victims of bad timing, but their sound is a bit old now considering how ubiquitous Oz electro-clash is. Signed to Rubber Records and recorded by Daniel Jones (of Savage Garden, remember them?) they’re not short on resources to come up with quality record, but the material and style is not exactly fresh.

Too bad because they are pretty good live, and the organisers of Falls Festival must really like them because they are playing both days this year. I saw them played on new years’ eve last year and they sounded pretty good then. Funny thing is the promoter told me “give these guys a year they will be bigger than the Midnight Juggernauts!!” True story.

www.myspace.com/thescientistsofmodernmusic

The John Steele Singers - ‘Smashing the speed of Sound on An Empty Lake In Utah’

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A while ago I posted a band called Stature:Statue. The drummer Ross emailed me a few weeks ago about his side project, The John Steele Singers, 6 piece Beach Boys-ish brass/pop band from Brisbane. I went to see them play in Melbourne in Geddes Lane and unfortunately for them that was the shittiest sounding room in town, so they played a really short set and didn’t show off much after travelling over 2000kms for this gig. But the recordings sounds great, and they were once approached by the late Grant McLennan of the Go Betweens after a performance in Brisbane. Talk about a confidence booster. Their 5 track EP is out now, watch out for an album.

www.myspace.com/thejohnsteelsingers

Regurgitator - ‘Blood and Spunk’

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For one reason or another it’s been a while since I’ve listened to Regurgitator, but ‘Blood and Spunk’ is an electric reminder that these profoundly creative, funny and forward-thinking musicians are the godfather’s of our ubiquitous electro-clash scene. The first single from their eighth album sees the band return to stylized, sample-driven punk with the usual pulse-quickening results. The muted four-on-the-floor bass bulging darkly from the room next door is a particularly nice touch.

www.myspace.com/regurgitators

Naked On The Vague - ‘All Aboard’

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The first time I met Lucy Phelan, one half of Sydney duo Naked On The Vague, was at about 1am last year in the FBi studios. She had just finished her presenter course, and she was paired up with me for a couple of hours of a graveyard shift so I could guide her through her first on-air shift. I’m crippled with the inability to explain anything (I would be the world’s worst teacher), but she’s still hanging around the studio, so perhaps what I showed her stuck?

Lucy, along with Matt Hopkins, creates a cacophonous melange of no-wave, psychedelica, ravenous punk and electronic soundscape. Their abberant, seemingly non-directional noise tunes are fucked-up lo-fi pieces of music that jab straight at your eardrums. It’s almost bordering on art moreso than music - I’m hesitant to call it “noise art” because that brings to mind 11 minutes of static. The music found on their debut record, The Blood Pressure Sessions, is monochromatic, dense and at times claustrophobic - thrashed-out guitars, jackhammer drum beats, Lucy and Matt’s throaty vocals and waves of keyboards conjures music brimming with an anarchic punk ethos.

They’ve previously released a self-titled 7″ record, and the Sad Sun EP. They’re launching their debut record (being released through Dual Plover Records) at Sydney’s coolest new venue, the Oxford Arts Factory, on Saturday October 12. Guaranteed to be weird, but in a good way, not the Britney Spears way.

http://www.myspace.com/nakedonthevague

Kat Frankie - ‘Serves You Right For Using Violence’

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A friend of mine described Kat Frankie to me as “sounding like angry lesbian music”. Kat definitely echoes the sounds of the 90’s alternative female rockers like Cat Power, Kristen Hersh and Ani DiFranco - but her voice reminds me a lot of Wendy Matthews. Have a listen to ‘The Day You Went Away’ here and tell me what you think.

Though she’s spent most of her life in Sydney, her music career began when she went to the creative hub of the Earth, Berlin. This is where she recorded her debut record, Pocketknife which was released only recently. She’ll get lumped into the folk genre, only because of her use of acoustic guitar, but its as folk as PJ Harvey is. Kat’s tunes are dark and fiesty and though I haven’t heard much of the record, I’m digging ‘Serves You Right For Using Violence’.

http://www.katfrankie.com
http://www.myspace.com/katfrankie