Monthly Archives For February 2013

EXPAT: Civil Civic

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Civil Civil’s music kinda sounds like Sonic Youth soundtracking a porno in space. Which is good if you like Sonic Youth.

The Aussie born, now London residing expats met in Barcelona. Aaron Cupples met Ben Green after a tip off from mutual friends The Drones. Emails were exchanged, Ben flew to Barcelona ‘blind-date’ style to meet Aaron, they made some tunes. Now the the duo spend their days on an indefinite working holiday with a flashing LED box for a drummer.

Upon their triumphant return to Oz for their upcoming tour, we asked guys to fill us in with some photos. They sent us some snaps of themselves near yachts and mountaineering topless in Italy.

Captions by Ben.

We visit monuments and ruins and go “Ooooooh, don’t have one those back in Melbs!”. So here we are at some historic spot near Verona with our our Italian handler, the magical Paolo Vizio. He was one of the only people in Italy who wasn’t ashamed to be photographed with us.

 

One of the most obvious but frequently overlooked things about touring is that it is a form of tourism. When me and my good buddy Aaron ‘Flopsie’ Cupples are actually setting up or soundchecking or playing we are a band. Total professionalism, no fucking around.  But the rest of the time we’re just a couple of dorky Australian tourists. I mean look at us.

We’re dickheads on a weird, boozy working holiday.

 

 Whenever we’re flogging our hire-car through the Maritime Alps we usually take time to climb a mountain and take some creepy, homo-erotic photos of ourselves.

 

We stare and point and laugh at anything we don’t understand. Here we see Aaron trying to figure out what to make of what appears to be a massive, overpowered scooter with a barrel-themed trailer at a German servo. I’m just out of shot pointing and laughing.

 

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LISTEN: Rainy Day Women – ‘Friends’

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Rainy Day Women are a four-piece from Fremantle, WA that knock out summer gems like SPF 50+ knocks out UV. Seriously, slip slop and slap kids. Their new EP Friends is happy times with production by Andy Lawson, the wizard that makes Eskimo Joe appear to actually sound good. I’ve posted the title track ‘Friends’ which is a cute tune that has the right mix of vintage fuzz with sweet melody to be perfectly on-trend with the current West Coast sound. Someone send them to the States.

Of course these guys have also sewn up the summer must-have festival slots at Southbound Festival, Big Day Out (Perth) and St Jerome’s Laneway Festivals in Perth. They continue on for an east coast tour that looks like this:

Fri, March 8: Amplifier Bar, PERTH w/ Bastian’s Happy Flight + Special Guests

Thurs, March 13: Black Bear Lodge, BRISBANE w/ Oceanics + Ben Fahey

Fri, March 15: FBI Social, SYDNEY Hot Spoke + Special Guests

Sat, March 16: The Workers Club, MELBOURNE w/ Split Seconds + The Red Lights + Hudson

 

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LISTEN: POND – ‘Giant Tortoise’

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If you feed seagulls Alka Seltzer or Diet Coke, they don’t wind up in purgatory floating past stained glass windows as this cover suggests.

They keel over and foam at the mouth. Feeling a little bit like that after listening to this new one.

Snag a free download of ‘Giant Tortoise’ here. New record Hobo Rocket will be out soon – but in the meantime, catch Paisley Adams taking his Vitamin C meds and the rest of the POND guys at Laneway this weekend.

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LOOK: Northside Records – 10th Birthday

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I’ve always been jealous of Fitzroy’s Gertrude St. For those of you not living in the World’s Most Liveable city, let me put it this way. SYD think Newtown, and BRIS think Fortitude Valley (the rest of you, well, make it up). Once a thoroughfare seen as the embodiment of Melbourne’s polar socio-economic disadvantage, the street has gone on to transform itself into one of Melbourne’s most hallowed hang out spots. And while the throes of gentrification have taken most of old Gertrude, she’s still got her soul, and quite a ragin’ one at that.

Northside Records has perched itself on top of Gertrude for 10 years now this month, and it’s fitting that a proposed in-store celebration turned into an accidental street party.

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LISTEN: Flamingo – ‘Watch It Blow Up’

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Flamingo are from Adelaide… no seriously they are from Adelaide. I don’t know why that seems crazy but it does when I listen to this stuff. Sure, guys making beats at home can draw from anywhere now and create a sound that doesn’t have to fit their scene or landscape or whatever but make no mistake – it is way harder. Mostly because it’s difficult to know what’s good. The feedback is on yourself which is why I’m impressed by the way these guys have worked up this sound. Check their soundcloud for an ‘EP’ of sorts. The first half of O.T.H.A.F.A sounds straight out of Brooklyn and the rest is all worth a spin too. Some dub step beats and sparse jamie xx bass as well. Yes, it’s a mish mash but the highs out way the missteps. ‘Watch It Blow Up’ is our choice cut. Enjoy.

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