Monthly Archives For August 2008

The Devoted Few

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The Devoted Few – “The Death Of Us” (mp3)

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The Devoted Few had a real catchy song on the radio a few years ago called Sleepless of an album of the same name, but they never followed it up with a second single that I remembered. The second album came and went. They now have readied a third album and a fresh taster single off it. This self funded effort was recorded with Scott Horscroft at Sydney’s Big Jesus Burger studio, a favourite for Sydney bands, and then sent to the US for mixing. I’m sure a tour is to follow soon.

www.myspace.com/thedevotedfew

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Andy Bull

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Andy Bull – ‘Small Town Girl’

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I’m glad that Andy Bull have finally got a good single out on a label big enough to push his music out to the mainstream market. I first learnt about Andy through his manager the lovely Julia Kosky whom I met in an industry forum. On her recommendation I checked Andy out on a small gig at Sydney’s Ruby Rabbit, not really a venue but a long terrace bar/club style. Andy was behind a set of keys and on the bass was producer Tony Buchen aka Buchman aka one of the Baggsmen. Young Andy Bull had a great voice, a soulful voice for a boy from Sydney whom I thought would be too ‘American’ to work the indie gigging circuit in Australia. That was a few years ago and I thought he has disappeared or given up or moved away but fortunately he has come back with a fantastic pop soul number. Small Town Girl is a classic soundtrack tune; I get flashbacks of the Cameron Crowe movie Almost Famous, the scene when Zooey Deschanel‘s character leaves the family home to become an airline stewardes. If that movie wasn’t set in the 70s, this song would be perfect. Actually, it doesn’t matter when it’s set cos this song has an ageless quality.

www.myspace.com/andybull

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Calling All Cars

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Calling All Cars – ‘Animal’

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Calling All Cars is a collision of myriad different styles – lo-fi garage rock (just listen those overdriven single-coil electric guitars), punk rock (there is a definite palpable energy here), pop-punk (inflected within the chorus) and straight-out Aussie pub rock (ummm… I’m stuck for another bracketed sentence).

Real Aussie rock seems imbued into the collective unconscious of Australians; there’s something about a rough’n’ready band sweating it out on a pub stage that automatically endears us towards them. There’s an exploding Aussie rock scene at the moment, although sadly there’s a tendency towards mediocre output on record (Gyroscope, I’m looking at you). Calling All Cars is perhaps slightly generic in their delivery, but their point of difference is a gruff heart that bleeds out onto their music. It’s not blowing me away, but it’s not shunning me either. And it’s certainly an evolution in the right direction. I reckon the chorus would rock live.

I’m intrigued.

http://www.myspace.com/callingallcars

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