Cat Rapes Bat – ‘Grease and Sugar’ (mp3)

DZ and Howl have thrown party rock back into the zeitgeist and I, for one, am thankful. I’m also of the firm belief that city-dwellers don’t know how to party anywhere near as hard as country bumpkins, so it’s only fitting that my new favourite party-rockers are from a place well outside the reach of reliable public transit.

Cat Rapes Bat are a three-piece from a little town on the Capricorn Coast called Yeppoon (ya mum’s poon!) and frankly, a breath of fresh air from a scene more used to metal bands of dubious quality.

Sure, they wear their influences on their sleeve, but this sort of music isn’t about innovation as much as it is about good times.

www.myspace.com/catrapesbat

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Matt Van Schie – ‘Journey’ (Memory Tapes Remix) (mp3)

Matt Van Schie is the bass player in Sydney electro outfit Van She, who were pretty ubiquitous in Australia a couple of years ago. And just in case the ‘Van S(c)h(i)e’ name wasn’t floating about the electro world enough, the dude also has a solo EP called Balmy Nights. Make of that what you will.

I don’t think his main band really delivered on the promise of their early hype and decent live shows, but then I don’t own any fluero thus demarcating me outside of their target demographic. Either way, New Jersey resident and ‘chillwave’ bro Memory Tapes (aka Memory Cassette aka Weird Tapes aka Dayve Hawk) has leant his deft touch to lead single ‘Journey,’ after having earlier this year remixed Midnight Juggernauts’ ‘This New Technology.’ Apparently the dude likes his Aussie electro.

www.myspace.com/mattvanschiemusic

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Pikelet – ‘Weakest Link’ (mp3)

Depsite released over a month ago, it’s taken me this long to post about Pikelet largely because I’ve struggles to pick a track worth highlighting above the others. Stem is one of the strongest local releases this year, mixing bedroom pop with more experimental idiosyncrasies and the odd middle-eastern diversion.

‘Weakest Link’ has probably best endured many a-listen. Although I definitely appreciate the less direct tracks on the album and think they greatly contribute to its overall effectiveness, it’s this pop tune, appearing in the album’s final third, that is always stuck in my head.

Evelyn Morris catchy harmonies muse on the subject inadequacy above little more than a driving 8-note bass line. Simple structure, cute lyrics and an irresistible vocal hook – ‘Weakest Link’ is a top tune pulled from a top album that I recommend you check out if you’ve not already.

www.myspace.com/ovalyn

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Matt Corby – My False (mp3)

Let’s be frank here. Reality TV hasn’t bred much musical goodwill. Apart from John Foreman’s attempts at matching an Andre Rieu face, Marcia Hines using any opportunity to wear a jumpsuit on live TV or watching Bug Eye introduce every song with an expression that looks like he’s being constantly raped from behind, I’d rather digest my dinner with some with something of substance. Natalie Gauci? Anthony Callea? Can’t forget my personal favourite, Casey Donovan. I’m sure they’re all forging their music careers fronting 80‘s cover bands out in the eastern suburbs, frying fish and chips for the local community or gatecrashing the e-grade social pages at the back of the Herald Sun.

So what really does come after the big hoo-ha of winning a crappy Hyundai and a big ass record deal that requires you to personally polish Jay-Dee Springbett’s bald patch and shit out an album in three days? Mass rotation on the generic Kmart store CD, perhaps the 5 dollar bargain bins at JB, regular Westfield gigs maybe. If you’re lucky like a former top 20 contestant your track may get the opportunity to feature in a UK laundry detergent commercial. Contest me if I’m wrong, but if I was a muso, the thought of a domestic British female scrubbing the skidmarks off her toddler’s cloth nappy in perfect 4/4 time to my my track probably wouldn’t measure the crux of where I’d want my career to be heading.

It was inevitable that when I went to a gig when I was visiting Sydney earlier this year – and saw that Matt Corby was on the bill, I smirked a very wry little smirk. However, hidden away at the back of a Spanish restaurant, walking into the intimate, amber lit gig space was something on an entire different level.

I’ve never used the words ‘moving’ to describe a gig. For me, going out to see bands in Melbourne means having drongos spill beer on your good pants and watching incompetent garage band vocalists abuse sound dudes. Gigs are usually brash, raw and somewhat energetic, but far from compelling the shudder-and-goosebumps sort of thing.When I walked in to this Syd gig, Corby was already in the middle of his set. Although I’m quite fond of hyperbole, I’m far from exaggerating when I say you couldn’t hear a fucking pin drop in the place.

The great thing about Corby is that this guy can sing. You could feel each tempered phrase and each swathing falsetto engulf the tiny, dimly lit space in some sort of creepy supernatural aura. Could have been just the combination of some eerie Bon Iver-esque sample cues, a heavily potent glass (can’t you Sydney people mix drinks?!) and a hazy cloud of smoke billowing from the Spanish kitchen next door – but Corby’s set was incredible. I’ve seen a lot of bands try and compensate for the meagre skills of their frontman by recruiting an attractive female to hit a triangle in the background, whacking in overbearing solos or donning hideous matching outfits to fill the void (you know who you are).  At the end of the day, there is nothing more refreshing than a voice that compels and convicts. There are no wasted phrases here.

‘My False’ kicks off with a ghostly call to arms, before moving into a wave of pastoral nostalgia. The progression of the melody has a beautiful folk-hymnal quality to it. It’s all angelic falsettos, gospel stomps and cascading vocals, so if you were looking forward to a thorough Idol bashing, you probably won’t find it here from me.

(For the record, I still own two copies of the ‘Angels Brought Me Here’ (limited edition, mind you) I purchased as a completely clueless thirteen year old.The first copy sits at the bottom of my wardrobe filed next to Delta Goodrem, Evanescence and a wad of tragic So Fresh compilations, while the second copy doubles up as a coaster.)

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Epithets – ‘As Far Away As Amsterdam’ (mp3)

Nick Smethurst has been responsible, whether indirectly or indirectly, for many of the better things to come from of Brisbane’s music community. Sadly missed Valley venue 610 and the brilliant guitar work on Mr. Maps’ 2009 EP come to mind, as well as his membership in folk collective Lion Island.

Epithets is the latest incarnation of his solo work, and it’s best described as wistful pop-songs in the vein of Bright Eyes, Ben Gibbard and other sad white American dudes. The album is due out in late May – I eagerly await its arrival.

www.myspace.com/letsnotbutsaywedid

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Joseph Liddy and the Skeleton Horse – ‘Talking Humidity Blues’ (mp3)

This was one of those songs by dudes I knew nothing about. I was just chilling, doing some work with our SoundCloud account playing in the background and then BOOM. Joseph Liddy drops. Crunchy blues-punk guitar riffs leading into Liddy’s gruff howl. ‘Talking Humidity Blues’ is sloppy, lo-fi blues-punk the way it should be.

So I was like, “who the fuck are these guys?” Then I went to their Myspace and I was like, “woah, they look just like The Middle East.” Then I did a bit more google-ing (as a verb, yes) and was like, “woah, these guys ARE (kinda) The Middle East.”

Yes, THAT Middle East that plays every Australian festival and played SXSW and Coachella and has a shitload of blog buzz. The line-up isn’t identical, but it consists of the two lead singers and the banjo player. The big difference here is that whereas Jordan Ireland and Rohan Jones takes lead vox many a-Middle East track, this project is all about Joseph ‘Liddy’ Ireland tearing up the microphone.

Sometimes The Middle East are so quiet you can barely hear them. Joseph Liddy and The Skeleton Horse sound nothing like The Middle East, but they are pretty fucking awesome and likely to generate some buzz of their own.

www.myspace.com/josephliddyandtheskeletonhorse

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Midnight Juggernauts – ‘Get Connected’ (mp3)

I’ve never been a huge fan of Midnight Juggernauts. Good for them, they seem like funny guys and more power to Australian electro etc, but I’ve never considered their music to be as good as their bulging profile would suggest. Still, they have some great songs – and ‘Vital Signs’ is one of them, mainly because it breaks from the formula a bit (ie. it sounds like they went through more than a few synth presets before settling on its ‘sound’) (ouch). But the b-side to ‘Vital Signs’ is even better, even if it does eventually fall back on the same heavy handed space-organ chords that appear in every Midnight Juggernauts song and they should consider getting trademarked.

That song is ‘Get Connected,’ and if it’s a b-side then maybe their new album should be pretty rad. Or maybe they have terrible self-editing skills. I don’t know. I honestly don’t mean to dump on them since the stuff I’ve heard from them lately is pretty good. But you know, have a listen and let me know what you think.

www.myspace.com/midnightjuggernauts

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