Monthly Archives For December 2013

LOOK: Major Leagues

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Major Leagues 1

 

I ran out of lazy adjectives and miscellaneous blogger labels to describe Brisbane bands a long time ago (see also ‘tweewave,’ ‘summertime pop’ etc.). Here are some awesome studio photos Major Leagues sent us recently. All the usual studio behaviour here; drop tuning, fondling pets and gazing dreamily into the camera while hanging off a wooden slat from the roof.

The band are capping off a big year touring with Jeremy Neale, The Preatures, landing the Australian support slots for Beach Fossils & Wild Nothing – and releasing their excellent debut EP Weird Season a few weeks ago. Not to mention, putting together the most appeasing video clip you’ll ever watch of a bunch of young people slobbering over tacos. A national tour has just been announced for early next year and Wagga via Osborne St pals The Ocean Party are tagging along for the ride. Contrary to the smug faces that appear in all of their press shots.. this looks like fun! Tour dates below.

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INTRODUCING: André

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After he released Do Whatchya Wanna in February this year, André (solo project of André Vanderwert from Pencil and Hot Palms) is back already with debut single ‘Friends’ from his upcoming album Smooth Move.

If the promo pictures are to be believed, André is nothing but a tousle-haired bandit afflicted with a thousand-yard stare, who never strays far from his trusty motorised stallion. Along with his band, which features members of the Ocean Party, Soda Eaves and Hot Palms, he makes slow-burners heavy on the fuzz and meandering guitar solos.

Previous single ‘Mend’ was one of my favourite tracks of 2013; its washed-out cynicism permeating every chord change and crack in Vanderwert’s delivery. ‘Friends’ is executed in similar style, with Vanderwert crooning, ‘You know it isn’t easy to be your friend’. It’s perhaps less nihilistic than the chorus of ‘Mend’ – ‘I’m staring at the ceiling’ – but it’s up there.

 

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MAP December 2013

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Joining the MAP pack this month from Aus are House of Laurence with their track ‘Just Don’t Move Me’. Plenty of new music action from our blog friends around the globe below, keep scrolling. Our latest MAPCAST podcast is now streaming over at FBi Radio online too.This month’s podcast is coming soon. If your patience is waning already – stream and download last month’s compilation over at our Soundcloud.

 

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Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 27-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie

Cam Beszkin – Cucharita De Manual

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We came across Cam Beszkin’s music when she was a member of Las Bailarinas Anarquistas, Mariana Bianchini’s solo band. This song is from Cam’s sophomore album Este Amor Ya No Es Para Tanto, in which her potent vocals adds up to a solid guitar and drum rock duet.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?

House Of Laurence – Just Don’t Move Me

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Let’s be real – if the industry was a caste system, psychedelic/prog music would sit on the lower rung. Thankfully, we don’t fear throwback in this country. We embrace it with open arms and wild, flailing John the Baptist hair. Just Don’t Move Me is the brand new track from Melbourne band House Of Laurence. If the image of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in a white pressed suit, struttin’ (barefoot) down the Fremantle boardwalk makes your insides feel like goo then this is dedicated to you.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig

Hella Comet – Tinker Boat

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The post-punk sound of four-piece Hella Comet calls for Sonic Youth comparisons, although their freshly-released second album Wild Honey, from which Tinker Boat is taken, is not afraid of pop either. Hella Comet were selected as one of 18 bands to represent this year’s focus country Austria at Europe’s most important music festival/conference Eurosonic.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado

Castello Branco – Necessidade

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Necessidade is taken from Castello Branco’s first album Serviço. It’s typical of the easygoing feeling he generates to make songs that speak directly to our souls.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts

Rebekah Higgs – Loneliness

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Rebekah Higgs’ new release Sha La La is shot through with the spirit of 60s girl groups minus the innocence and politeness of those times. Higgs gets down and dirty climbing Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. She throws classic doo-wop pop down an echo chamber and what comes out the other end is a gauzy, hazy doo-wop/drone-rock hybrid that’s utterly compelling. Loneliness has never sounded better.

 

(click after the jump for the full list of tracks…)

 

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INTRODUCING: Milwaukee Banks

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Before this year, I don’t think I’d ever heard an Australian hip hop track that I liked. More accurately: before this year, I don’t think I’d heard an Australian hip hop track to which I did not take active aversion. There was a passing tween phase where I listened to a lot of friendly, melodic hip hop like De La Soul and Jurassic 5, but generally the stuff that appealed to me was lean, lo fi and tough as shit. The garish samples and relentless optimism of groups like Hilltop Hoods made me feel a bit like puking.

In July, Melbourne’s Brothers Hand Mirror dropped the Picture Tape EP. ‘We Don’t Hide’, featuring HTML Flowers‘ odd flow and quiet lines on friendship, and Oscar Key Sung‘s honeyed refrain, became one of my favourite tracks of the year. In September, Dream Damage put out Psycho Shower Scene by POWER MOVES – a collaboration between Austin Buckett (Golden Blonde) and Thomas William. The EP’s tortured beats recalled some of the standout underground Southern rap of the previous year.

Then there was Milwaukee Banks, with beats by Adrian ‘Edo’ Rafter (Flight Tonight) and words by the happily named Dylan Thomas (Polo Club). For no particular reason their name’s a nod to both the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Tyra Banks of America’s Next Top Model (and, more importantly, in my opinion, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). The vapour-logged synths and rolling snares of first single ‘Pluto Bounce’ have an unsettling effect that brings to mind the words ‘horror-core’, while heavily treated vocals and lopsided rhythms point to the influence of UK bass. The lyrics are understated – there are nights out, girls to impress and a broken ankle in jelly bean coloured socks – which in the Australian context, is kind of refreshing.

A video for ‘Pluto Bounce’ came out last week. It was filmed around Wonthaggi and Hayfield in Victoria, on 16mm infrared film (and if you’re not sure what that means, just watch and it will become apparent).

 

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LISTEN: Banoffee – ‘Reign Down’

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We introduced you to Banoffee back in July, when she released her brilliant first single, ‘Ninja’. Since then she’s been thriving, with a video for ‘Reign Down’ premiering on the Fader and appearing on a host of other international sites. It even showed up on SaintHeron.com, the website affiliated with Solange’s Saint Records, home to progressive R’n’B talent like Sampha, Kelela and Cassie.

‘Reign Down’ was produced by Oscar Key Sung and features the pitched-down vocal loops, dance floor-inspired synth arpeggios and sharp high hats familiar from his most recent output. Like ‘Ninja’, which closed with the lines ‘You thought you could kill me now/ Well, honey, I’d like to see how/ I’m a fuckin’ ninja now’, ‘Reign Down’ is a kind of Martha Brown-certified course in assertiveness and resolve. In her own words:

‘Reign Down’ was written in quite a pivotal period in my life, where I realised that not much ever eventuated with taking action. For me, it is about being in a place that you might be comfortable, even if its not particularly enjoyable – and choosing to take the grittier option in search of a better outcome. Whether it’s a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a destructive way of living or whatever, ‘Reign Down’ is kind of like a ‘screw you universe, I’m going to rule at doing things my way’ sort of song. If I was Mariah I’d be singing ‘Shake It Off’. Wish I was Mariah.’

Check out the video – which features outbreaks of quaint dance moves at some low-key Collingwood sites – below.

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WTH PRESENTS: Fifth Floor Warehouse Party III, Berlin

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(Photo by Bec Capp)

Australians will flock to Berlin for other reasons apart from buds and bratwursts. We’re putting on another party with FIFTH FLOOR in Berlin this Saturday.

The line up features a selection of German pscyh arts The Blue Angel Lounge, The Third Sound and ASCETIC – an Australian now Berlin based band who comprise members of The Process. Projections by the very talented Astral Projection Artwork, Melbourne’s Thom Russell. Also presenting the event is Unknown Pleasures is an international multi-disciplined arts production company founded by Valentina Veil, a Berlin/Melbourne based musician artist, curator & writer. If you’re in Berlin or just travelling through, tell your friends.

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FIFTH FLOOR III WAREHOUSE PARTY
presented by Who The Hell, Unknown Pleasures Factory & 8MM Muzik

 

The Blue Angel Lounge

The Third Sound

ASCETIC

Two Step Horror

The Sun & The Wolf

Brace / Choir

 

Tickets are €12. Find out more details at the Facebook event here.

FIFTH FLOOR / Unknown Pleasures Factory 

 

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