Cola Wars – ‘Giving It Up’

Last year, after more than a decade of riffs and tours, singer/guitarist Cam Baines and drummer Shane Wakker called time on their seminal punk band Bodyjar. Their new vehicle is former side-project Cola Wars, and if you’d told me this was new Bodyjar I wouldn’t have blinked an eyelid. It’s in the Hot Water Music/New Found Glory/Polar Bear Club vein of melodic punk, which basically guarantees fun shows and crowd singalongs. If you liked Bodyjar, you’ll like this. In fact, if you squint your eyes you could almost pretend it is Bodyjar.

If you sign up to the band’s mailing list on their website, you land yourself a free mp3 0f the above track.

www.colawars.org

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Via Tania – ‘Fields’ (mp3)

‘Fields’ is the new single from Chicago-based Australian Via Tania (aka Tania-May Bowers). Originally a bonus track on the US edition of her 2007 album Moon Sweet Moon (released Stateside only last year), I guess Bowerss realised that it was too good to resign to obscurity in her backcatalogue and decided to put it out as a digital stand-alone back home.

With a simple, repetitive structure and minimal instrumentation, the song relies and thrives on Bowers’ breathy, double-tracked vocals and buoyant melody. One of those songs that’s better to just kind of float along with, picturing the titular fields she is singing about.

www.myspace.com/viatania

Video for the track below:

Via Tania – Fields (Directed by Rhett Wade-Ferrell for MOOP JAW) from Moop Jaw on Vimeo.

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Ernest Ellis – ‘When I Feel Like Jesus Son The World Will Feel Much Different’ (mp3)

I love this guy and I’ve made no secret about it over the past couple of years, fawning over every track sent my way like aural porn. That said, I was concerned that Ellis was steadily descending into ‘uncool’ territory – I mean, it’s 2k10 and not even Bon Iver sounds like ‘Bon Iver’ any more. Was Ellis getting a bit derivative? Was he two years too late on the scene? Is his falsetto up to Justin Vernon/Kyp Malone standards?

For the most part, the above questions will probably remain hovering around Ernest Ellis. He had’t done much to silence those who’ve dismissed him as another pastoral, production-heavy indie folkster, continuing to mine that style on each successive single. He did, however, answer those barbs through the sheer quality of his song-writing. In what’s already been a strong year for local releases, ‘Loveless’ still stand out as a highlight. With the above track, Ellis has broadened his range somewhat with a weightless, semi-stoner jam that’s unlikely to see much radio play  but is still pretty damn good. It opens with two minutes of delayed guitars before his multi-tracked falsetto drops in carrying a patient, floating melody that I’m pretty sure this song features his highest note on record so far.

‘When I Feel Like Jesus Son The World Will Feel Much Different’ is from his debut album Hunting, which is out next month.

www.myspace.com/ernestellis

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It’s not often two rock front men form a side project and make it work, but Jake Grigg from Something With Numbers and Shawn Harris from The Matches are giving it a red-hot go. Is this the pop-punk version of Empire of The Sun? Possibly.

Instead of the bog-standard EP with single + video clip, they’ve utilised the power of the internet to make what they’re calling an “extended play video” – basically one continuous and changeable video for the four songs on their debut EP. It’s a little bit hard to explain, but really effective – check it out here. No really, you should do it right now.

Once you’ve recovered from the novelty of the EPV, have a look on the site for a link to the band’s MySpace profile. Couldn’t find it? THAT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ONE. The music is pop-rock that is pleasant enough, but the marketing is a step forward for the music industry. Nice one.

www.maniacmania.com

PS – I know The Matches aren’t an Australian band, and I don’t care. It’s relevant.

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