Tagged By brisbane

LISTEN: Little Casino – ‘The Village’

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Little Casino have released their new EP All Fall Down recorded with Matt Redlich – the guy responsible for a huge output of hip Queensland-based music at the moment. Madeleine fed y’all a taste of these Brisbane / Byron Bay locals with a neat track ‘Bow and Arrows’ last year. That number sounded right to get our attention and because we like to nurture here at WTH; we are now pimping the fully fleshed-out EP with lead single ‘The Village’.

Let’s forget the ‘right sound’ they seem to have nailed and focus on the complete digress taken in this (brave) single. It’s a bursting set climax, with faint vocals and loads more soft pysch-thrash guitar and crashes. Kinda like a Stone Roses number – the sort of thing my ex would totally love to death. That’s what I see for this track. Passionate fans all hot and sweaty, packed into a dingy venue, peaking around 35 minutes in with ‘The Village’ becoming the rocking anthem of the night. I won’t be there but I want you to go and enjoy 🙂

‘The Village’ is available through digital stores and streaming services or pick up a limited edition, pre-release copy of their new EP at one of their shows:

3 April – Brisbane: Jet Black Cat Records (In-Store)

3 April – Brisbane: The End (DJ Set)

6 April – Melbourne: Toff In Town

7 April – Brisbane – Black Bear Lodge

11 April – Sydney – The Standard

12 April – Sydney – The Beresford Hotel

10 May- Byron Bay- The Northern

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LISTEN: MKO

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MKO

Calvin Harris once said creating a good pop song was like ‘making a ham sandwich’. Or something like that. While you should never reference smut from DJs in writing, ever – there’s definitely a correlation between listening to a good pop song and comfort food. This song does that. Whatever arguable things make up the general alchemy of impressionable pop (pre-chorus build-up, throwbacks, lyrics about getting laid), ‘Snarly’ by Brisbane’s MKO has all of them (and a singer that looks a little bit like Robyn).

Not sure how long MKO have been kicking around for, but Hannah Macklin (Hannah Macklin and the Maxwells) is definitely fronting a fantastic sound from this Brisbane group. Too many great things happening here to quantify this is as just a great single. Music on my computer usually plays in the background, but I closed all my windows just to pay attention to this one.

Between some clever production and a bit of urban groove, the first half of ‘Snarly’ sits on the slow burner. The track shows a lot of restraint, considering the belt-out content of the chorus that follows. Macklin winds up the vocal zoetrope that happens around 2:42. It”s little bit Amber Coffman, a little Becca Kauffman on Ava Luna’s ‘Ice Level’, maybe our old pal James Blake on the soprano pitch rocket. She’s got a great tone to her voice too, but it’s never excessive to the point of detracting from the effortlessness guild here.

‘Snarly’ is available as a free download at MKO’s bandcamp. They’ve also teamed up with 7 local illustrators and animators for some great shorts called ‘Scribs’ released over 7 weeks – worth a watch here.

 

Lily Lotus Orchid Sunflower is released March 15.

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LISTEN: James X. Boyd – ‘Elissa Says’

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On his first EP, Brisbane’s James X. Boyd tapped a vein of strikingly personal and deeply beautiful song writing. With a new record coming out this year, his first single ‘Elissa Says’ shows that there’s plenty more of this gold to come.

The track is marked by a combination of Boyd’s pretence-free vocals and completely plaintive lyrics. There’s a simple sweetness to this track that’s immediately nostalgic, but most of all – it’s honest.

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LISTEN: Cannon / Lovely Legs Split Tape – ‘Meatboys’

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Country and punk have always gone together like vodka and orange juice: never classy, but a cheap way to have a fucking great time. Brisbane’s Lovely Legs deliver this deadly combo with rare spite and snarl, and they’ve teamed up with local dirty garage punks Cannon to give us a split cassette of fantastic angry songs about shitty people and self-loathing (well, from the couple of lyrics I can understand). Lovely Legs’ side is all cracked out and accusatory; the way Alex Dunlop half screams, half drawls on ‘I Ain’t Goin’ To Waste’ is downright threatening. ‘Dumb’ is the standout track, with its stomping bass line and messy, shrieking guitar while the drums crash right through your brain and Dunlop sings – “all I touch turns to shit/ I don’t mind when I’m lyin’ in it”.

Cannon’s side is a reissue of their Blerndaddy EP from earlier in the year, but their blunt, guileless tracks are still the most charming kind of atrocious noise out there. If you like music with a little more spit than shine, chances are you’ll dig the hell out of this.

Buy the tape from the Long Gone Records website. If tapes ain’t your thing, you can listen and download Lovely Legs’ side here and Cannon’s side here.

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LISTEN: Yale – ‘Yale’ EP

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Complete with cracking cover art and replete with cues to the impending Australian summer, here comes the debut self-titled EP from Brisbane lads Yale. Anything but the stuffy George W-producing University of the same name, their sound harks back to that golden period of disco-pop of the early-2000s where producers like Paul Mac were running the Australian dance scene. Vocals sashay between duo, Stefan Emslie and Mark Maxwell, riding over layered synths and those ‘whup-whup’ bass lines that seemed to pervade early 2000s dance releases (Madison Avenue anyone?)

Self described as an exploration of “being young”, the EP presents a dance-ready release teetering between the Chillout Sessions and the more traditional dance-pop that catapulted PNAU and Cut Copy to the fore. Tracks like ‘Private School Girl’ reach the EP’s conceptual pinnacle, dissecting the moors of upper-middle class privilege, opening with lyrics “always went to the most expensive school” and “Channel and Louis Vuitton” for starters.

The EP picks up in stature by ‘The One That Got Away’, a track that probably veers towards stronger elements of house, rather than pure dance-pop. Here you’ll find flurries of synths validating this EP’s calls of being ‘euphoric’. Towards the chorus you’ll find yourself immersed in the type of woozy synths which TEED seem to have conquered. Accompanying Yale’s EP is a remix package of ‘The One That Got Away’ featuring cameos from YesYou, The Kite String Tangle, and Meare.

The closer, ‘Lost in the Crowd’ sums up EP with smooth, breezy vocals that begs for this to become part of your summer mixtape. For a debut, the boys from Yale have given us a refined release that says a lot about the duo’s musicianship. With melodic sensibilities and a penchant for making great dance-pop, this is definitely a sleek release from this Brisbane duo.

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LOOK: Good Sniff draws ‘Pig City’

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Local illustrator Good Sniff has gone to the liberty of sketching more than 300 individual faces belonging to 106 Brisbane bands.

“It got to a point about midyear where I’d be scooting around in the Valley and I’d recognise people because I’d drawn their faces. Which is creepy.”

She describes it as “character design exercise that got waaaay out of hand”.

Do take a closer look at this. It’s scarily accurate, even if there’s at least one member of every act who looks a little seedy <Gung Ho>.My favourites are Violent Soho looking doing 50 shades o’ Nazareth, JSS’s hair diversity, typical bong-eyed Dune Rats and the left Origliasso twin who looks like Julia Zemiro on meth.

Apparently she’s doing more revisions to this one, but I’d definitely like to see her take on another state.

Find the full res image here.

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LISTEN: Jeremy Neale – ‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’

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‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’ is the new single from Brisbane’s spy rock Star Jeremy Neale. This track is more of a melancholy outing than previous singles ‘Darlin’ and ‘Winter Was The Time’, but Neale’s talent for deliciously constructed pop songs with breezy immediacy is still out in full force. The chorus sneaks up on you, ripping through a hazy vocal and spring-loaded beat. Like the other tracks we’ve heard from Neale, this one puts his vocal squarely front and centre, which is a great move cause he’s got a hell of a voice that can charm your pants off and knock you out of your chair at the same time.

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