Monthly Archives For October 2013

WATCH: The Golden Awesome – ‘Autumn’

, , No Comment

golden-awesome

So a shoegazer falls in the forest. They probably won’t make too much of a sound, especially in this EDM climate anyway. I like m b v, JMC, Ride and everything The Laurels have ever committed to. But you know, on a good day – sometimes I think I’d feel more stimulated watching Mazzy Star’s corpse eat a bowl of porridge. Although, when G R E A T, atmospheric bands somehow trod my path, I digress.

I came across The Golden Awesome recently. The Wellington band released their debut album back in 2011, but the video to the title track ‘Autumn’ was only released in March this year (my justification for being late to this). The band pluck their prime cuts off early NZ bands of the 90s – there’s echoes of Bailter Space and some of the other early acts spawned by the Flying Nun label in their early days. The result is a slower accolade of the ‘Dunedin sound’, that’s still equitably lush and glorious without seeping your attention. Stef Animal on vocals is Hope Sandoval with a power chord. There’s a whole lot of harmonizing and not a whole lot of lyrical staunch but as with any bout of expansive, hazy shoegaze – ‘feeling’ is probably the only feeling happening here.

There’s an immersive weight that backs ‘Autumn’, and the band have channeled all of that into the accompanying video.The video features an array of helicopter shots panning over an expansive North Island, combined with some pretty intense animation of trees scaling the colour spectrum. I’m not sure whether I’m meant to feel intoxicated or entirely motivated, but I like it.

YouTube Preview Image

The Golden Awesome are playing a show at Public Bar (Vic) this Thursday, 10th of October. They’ll also stopping by The Gasometer this Friday for a headline show with Contrast and Glaciers.

 

Facebook / Bandcamp / Blog

 

 

Read Post →

LISTEN: Boomgates – ‘Widow Maker’

, , No Comment

049_cover_hires

Australia, you may have noticed, is really flipping big. There’s a lot of distance between our urban capitals, and we’re a heck of a long way from most of the so-called ‘Western world’. We sometimes feel a bit isolated, on our own all the way down here, and we get a bit defensive of our cultural exports – not to mention fiercely supportive of their creators.

These factors tend to make our music scene kind of incestuous. Enthusiastic music journos toss the word ‘supergroup’ around with gay abandon, but when every drummer plays in about five different bands the term doesn’t always mean that much. Boomgates, however, have one of the most drool-worthy line-ups upon this vast continent, featuring Eddy Current Suppression Ring frontman, Brendan Huntley, Dick Diver‘s Steph Hughes and Rick Milovanovic from the Twerps.

These guys have actually crossed the ditch for their latest release (in a sense – no one actually had to leave their hometown, let’s not get crazy), a split single with Kiwi group the Bats from that country’s own great export and singular pride, the Flying Nun roster. Boomgates’ contribution to the 7″, ‘Widow Maker’, is a jangly existential ode to the mundane. It opens with a great riff, open strings singing, then clicks into a bright, guitar-led groove with a steady forward momentum. Huntley memorialises a few moment-to-moment pleasures (‘I wear my diamond necklace just to show it off / I tie my shoes just to tie the knot’) – the take-home message being don’t take this stuff for granted, because at any old time that eponymous widow maker could snap off and wipe you out. Like most Boomgates tracks, ‘Widow Maker’ turns on the counterpoint between Huntley’s roughshod, half-sung, half-spoken delivery and Hughes’ soothing harmonies, as well as the loose interplay of the two guitars.

 

The Bat’s contribution to the split, ‘December Ice’, is an outtake from their sessions at Seacliff Asylum, a 19th century psychiatric institution located at a village on the country’s South Island. The singles were released digitally yesterday, with vinyl coming on 1 November. You can preorder the 7″ from Bedroom Sucks or Mistletone. Both bands will be playing a huge show for Melbourne Music Week’s opening night, on 15 November, alongside Montero and San Francisco’s Sonny and the Sunsets. Get your tickets here!

Facebook

Read Post →

WATCH: Courtney Barnett – ‘Avant Gardener’

, , No Comment

barnett

Fark, sorry all we’ve offered you this week is some shameless product placement. To make up for it, here is the awesomely goofy new video by Charlie Ford from Melbourne’s Courtney Barnett for the lovely ‘Avant Gardener’. Can’t help but think this should’ve been cricket instead of tennis but I reckon it was shaped for a US market. Featuring some really nice filming of Barnett straight down the barrel singing what is one of my favourite tunes this year. Barnett has combined two EP’s for a new release The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, released on House Anxiety / Marathon Artists / Milk! Records which you can pick up from her label here.

YouTube Preview Image

Tour Dates:

WED – Oct 16, 2013 CMJ – Dates to be announced New York

TUE – Oct 22, 2013 Notting Hill Arts Club London

WED – Oct 23, 2013 Servants Jazz Quarters London

THU – Oct 24, 2013 Old Blue Last London

SAT – Oct 26, 2013 La Fléche d’Or Paris

FRI – Nov 08, 2013 “How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose” EP Launch Shadow Electric at Abbotsford Convent,

VIC FRI – Dec 06, 2013 California Design Up Late Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane QLD

SAT – Dec 14, 2013 Meredith Music Festival Melbourne, VIC SOLD OUT

Supporting Billy Bragg:

SUN – Mar 09, 2014 – Perth Concert Hall, Perth WA

WED – Mar 12, 2014 – Federation Hall, Hobart TAS

THU – Mar 13, 2014 – The Palais Theatre, St Kilda VIC

SUN – Mar 16, 2014 – The Sydney Opera House, NSW

WED – Mar 19, 2014 – Canberra Theatre, ACT

THU – Mar 20, 2014 – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD

Website/Facebook

Read Post →

INTRODUCING: The Creases

, , No Comment

creases sc600

Housemates Joe Agius and Jarrod Mahon had only been writing songs as The Creases for a couple of months when they got an email from iconic indie label Rough Trade asking to release their debut single.

A couple of commentators have attributed this early success – basically every slacker’s wet dream – to Triple J presenter/manager extraordinaire Maggie Collins, but personally I’d pin it on the tunes. We hear a lot of lo-fi, low stakes garage pop in Australia, and all too often it’s more style than substance. But the effortless sound of The Creases’ debut single ‘I Won’t Wait’ belies a flair for simple songwriting. The rising chorus with its backing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ is a charming exercise in tension and release, not to mention harmony.

 

‘I Won’t Wait’, along with b-side ‘Fun to Lose’, will be out digitally and on 7″ vinyl from 11 November, and preorders are now open via the Rough Trade webstore. The Creases have rounded out their line up with bassist Aimon Clark and drummer Bridie McQueenie and, with a few shows now under their belt, they’ll be supporting the Jungle Giants on their national tour, which starts this Thursday in Hobart.

Facebook/Twitter

Read Post →