How come everyone from the sunshine state makes the rest of us look like a bunch of miserable fools? Either way, I love these dudes. They’re supporting The Death Set in Sydney in December, playing Big Day Out 2012 and have just notched up rad support slots for two big internationals early next year (which haven’t been announced yet). Gonna be a hectic summer @ Dune Rats camp.
Following on from Mel T’s interview with Geoffrey O’ Connor. I spoke to Husky Gawenda of Husky, another Australian band set to play the Laneway Festival circuit this summer. Husky have had a lot of love on the site for their singles and live shows. In October they released their debut record ‘Forever So’ and have been touring the country playing to sold out crowds and very happy fans.
I started by asking about the release of ‘Forever So’.
We finished the record last year so we were sitting on it for a little while. We’d spent a lot of time and energy and love on the record so waiting to release it was a bit hard in a way cause we really wanted to get it out there and have people hear it. So to finally put it out and start to get feedback in all sorts of different ways – on Facebook and twitter and all the ways you get feedback these days – it’s been quite amazing. The fact that there are people out there connecting with it and enjoying it is an amazing feeling.
and having that direct connection with fans?
Yeah, its a beautiful thing because in the past the only feedback you get other then meeting people at shows, which is a great way to get feedback but other then that the only feedback you get is from critics. That’s all good but it’s a different sort of feedback I think. So to be able to just read people responses to the album on our Facebook wall is great. It’s a great way to gauge how people are feeling about it.
How has playing shows and the time since writing the record changed the way you feel about the record ‘Forever So’?
It’s interesting, I don’t listen to the record. I don’t think that much about the actual record. Obviously we’ve been playing and touring a lot so the record has become a live creature. It’s a thing we do live, we’ve had to work on translating the recordings to a live setting and we’ve had a great opportunity to do that this year because we’ve had so many support tours and now we’ve had our own tour. I’m still feeling really good about the songs, I still feel that most of the time I can connect with them while I’m playing them. Sometimes they mean something different to me while I play them to perhaps what they meant when I wrote them but there is nothing wrong with that, that’s the nature of songs and any sort of art. I’m really enjoying playing the songs and seeing how people respond and connect with them – it’s great fun.
The arrangements on the record are quite unique, have you had trouble translating that to a live set – you have a lot of scope to play around with? (more…)
‘The Line’
‘Live Like It’s a Free Giveaway’
Tim Fitz is 21 year old producer/instrumentalist/singer out of Sydney. He put out his first EP Infinite Space in March, but his latest release Beforetime is definitely a rich picking. Some might hear genre spanning and others will hear indecisiveness, but there’s a great feel to this collection of tracks. ‘The Line’ is a good example of Fitz’ kaleido-instrumentals. Just as the flouncy percussion gets into the proper swing of things, we get bombarded by drive-high fuzz around the 1 min mark. It’s a little startling at first, but it suddenly breaks with a weird kind of comedic ease back into another crazy improv section.
Throwing about 6 different song ideas into three minutes, gives any tune the potential to get manic. And this does. However there’s something about the way it all comes together here that makes careful production sound like a casual afternoon jam sesh. From a production point of view, this guy has a lot of great ideas. Perhaps an 8 track EP just isn’t enough to fit all of them in. The chatty verse and loungey keyboards in ‘Hold Back a Second’ comes across as another general formula for those closing tracks on local ‘hip hop’ releases, while ‘Blanket of Love’ earns back redemption sounding like a dreamy Mesita remix. Then there’s title track, ‘Beforetime’ – oddly at contrast to the rest of the songs on the EP, but I guess a little introspective piano solo is good for making all of us a little less edgy.
Fitz sound is original, but the way he’s put his sounds together are still familiar enough to catch onto. One of the more enjoyable releases I’ve heard this year. More please.
You can hear the full EP at his bandcamp here.
Tim Fitz is playing with Telefonica and Atom Hawk (Daniel Cunningham of Parades) at The Gate on the 9th of December. It may well be the final send off for the portable music event that begun in the same humble backyard. I’m geographically frustrated that I’m in Melbs when this is happening, but there is every reason (outlined above) for you to get along if you’re in Sydney.
Outerwaves – ‘Big Cat’
(mp3)Cheers to personal blog fav East to West for the hot tip on this one. Truly great tune from Brisbane producer Outerwave, bringing the chill vibes without sounding like a re-hash of the last two years of Gorilla vs Bear posts. Looking forward to hearing more from this collective as a whole.
Boy and Bear continue the tour right through to the BDO in 2012. Dates here http://boyandbear.com/shows/ more pictures after the jump
‘So It Goes’
You’ve probably seen Ali Edmonds around most parts playing bass for Damn Terran and doing stuff for her other projects Little Athletics and Ferry Tails. She also runs a great zine called Death of a Scenester.
Many, many 90’s comforts about ‘So It Goes’. This is probably a little time machine for some of you to the earlier part of the last decade when JJJ didn’t playlist chicks trying to out-do each other’s best Kate Bush impression. More drums would give this a bigger backbone, but there’s something to be said for those pared back riffs which show off some great songwriting. It’s hard to shake those PJ pointers too (see here). If Ali tees up a tour with Adalita and Amaya, I will be a very happy soul.
“Are you sure channel V will play the video with a fish gutting bit?”
“Yeah for sure man, remember the fish flapping about in the Faith No More video – they loved that shit!”
So goes the creative decisions over at Lester The Fierce HQ. A simply beautiful song that gets an arty narrative and we end up with a fish head flailing about whilst some old folks dance in the street. It would’ve been tempting to extend the gorgeous shots used for the promo of the EP ‘The Summer Deluge’ but Lester The Fierce has gone on to make an interesting video with a story. Shot on what I imagine is a 5D, the shallow depth of field and lovely if not gloomy shots of Melbourne weave a tale that has a wonderful soundtrack from the very talented Anita Lester. I will definitely be checking out the EP launch at the Phoenix Public House on the 1st Dec.
Follow her here – http://www.facebook.com/Lesterthefierce?sk=info and Soundcloud the entire EP here –
Latest Comments
V
Still trying to purchase!!!ANTHONY J LANGFORD
Cool track. Congrats Joshua. Hope the release is a success.Tristan
Man I love these guys. I can't believe they are not releasing any new music. I've been to so many…sophie
^^ I love Grimes! Banoffee is one of my new favorite music artists! :) I love With Her, Reign Down,…Ace
Read your review then listened to the EP. Fantastic ! Different to most hardcore punk I listen to. Somewhat more…