Seagull – ‘Trucks Are Sheep’

Seagull is the stage name of Melbourne singer-songwriter Chris Bolton who produces simple but affecting indie folk music. The broad sonic palette of the album’s production adds depth to his songs and elevates their aesthetic above the usual acoustic affair. ‘Trucks Are Sheep’ mixes stereo acoustic guitars and intimate vocals with minimal, ringing keys, a cymbal that occasionally crashes in the distance and subtle injections of guitar squall punctuation.

Seagull recently performed at Falls Festival as winner of the Triple J Unearthed competition. His debut album, Goodbye Weather, is out now and features the outstanding song that won him that festival slot, ‘Dust Storm.’ Definitely a destination for those interested to hear folk music with such diverse arrangements and interesting production.

www.myspace.com/seagullmusic

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Nikko – ‘Fists’

The prefix “post” is a fairly dangerous tag in music – it’s fairly hit and miss and not every genre needs to be reconstructed or extended into more avant-garde territory. Increasingly, it seems to me that “post” has come to signal the substitution of proper song-writing with reverb and IDM beats. My reductive view and cynical stance is the result of many years of listening to “post-(insert genre)” music and, as a result, having been over-exposed to the dregs of that musical terrain. Luckily, there are always songs out there like ‘Fists’ that remind you why you liked this stuff in the first place.

Like many other post-rock songs, ‘Fists’ is built around the tension and release of impending instrumental crescendos, but these louder moments aren’t included to offset the pedestrian slower/qiueter moments. Rather, the surging dynamics seems like the logical conclusion to the crawling anxiety of the verses. The fact that Nikko also manage to include a spoken-word sample without it seeming gratuitous or overly pretentious is further credit to their abilities within the genre.

They’ve only a couple of EPs to their name but they seem to pop up on stage every fortnight or so.

www.myspace.com/nikkoband

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Do you live in Melbourne? Do you have a passion for finding new Aussie music? Are you able to write engagingly, articulately and intelligently?

The Who The Hell team is looking for a Melbourne-based gig goer/music lover to contribute to the blog. If you can contribute at least once a week and find your own MP3s for said posts, email music@whothehell.net with some examples of your work.

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Tara Simmons –  ‘Domino’

Forgive me for making  a broad statement, but it seems to me that most  piano-based female singer-songwriters in the 21st Century come from one of three strains:
The Tori Amos strain;
The Missy Higgins strain or
The Imogen Heap strain.

Brisbane singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tara Simmons shows the influence of all of the above (strings from Amos, jazzy phrasing from Higgins, glitchy beats and impressive self-production skills from Heap) but creates music far beyond the sum of her influences.
‘Domino’  is incredibly well-written and arranged, from opening lyrical couplet “So we like a reason so we don’t forget our place/if you lie a little, you might just be getting brave” over lush strings to the killer saxophone solo towards the end of the track.
Just quietly, Simmons is a major talent who is just getting started.

‘Domino’ is from Tara Simmons’ debut album Spilt Milk, which she is launching at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre  on the 14th of February.

http://www.myspace.com/tarasimmonsmusic

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Villians of Wilhelm – ‘Angelina’

Villians of Wilhelm are a  four piece indie rock band from Brisbane with a punk sensbility and style that belies the pop undertones of their songs.

‘Angelina’ – and I use this comparison as a point of reference and not to sound reductive or critical – sounds a lot like Franz Ferdinand with Australian accents. From the punchy guitars, bouncing rhythm section and the “Ba ba ba da ba” refrain, Villians of Wilhelm manage to convey the same sense of sexual angst through danceable guitar songs as their Scottish contemporaries have done for a while now. The chorus, however,  is more power-chordy, syncopated and shouted than anything Franz would include but this only helps delineate the band from their influences and exhibits a talent for arrangements beyond dependable but going-stale four-on-the-floor routines.

This is a great single that’s being launched around the country over the next month.

www.myspace.com/villainsofwilhelm

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Shot on location on the very familiar streets of Darlinghurst, Sydney.

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