Tagged By melbourne

MAP December 2014

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Melbourne garage rockers ScotDrakula are the Australian submission for this month’s Music Alliance Pact, the excellent ‘Shazon’ featuring alongside tracks from around the world – from Denmark to the Dominican Republic.

Check out all 17 entries below, and keep your eyes peeled for Robbie’s Mapcast, coming soon to Soundcloud.

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 17-track compilation through Dropbox here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Pablo Dacal y Fer Isella – Los Caminos

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Singer-songwriter Pablo Dacal (MAP February 2009) invited fellow musician and friend Fer Isella to perform a concert together. In return, Isella proposed that they record an album. After years of conversations they finally got together, then the two artists visited Ulises Conti (MAP March 2009) at his Buenos Aires studio and invited him to produce the album. Right there, the newly-form trio recorded piano, vocals and other arrangements. The resulting album is called Los Caminos and here’s the self-titled first single.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
ScotDrakula – Shazon

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Steeped in a love for fuzz and 60s rock’n’roll, Melbourne trio ScotDrakula transcend the novelty of their name with songs so catchy they make Gangnam Style look about as appealing as week-old haggis. The band has just released their debut album and it’s drowning in two/three-minute garage super-soakers. Shazon is irresistibly charming, enough to convert the stalest individual to a headbangin’ conqueror of the dancefloor.

CANADA: Ride The Tempo
LYON – Cut Me Loose

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Cut Me Loose is the latest track from Toronto’s Lauren Malyon aka LYON. It’s a difficult one to get out of your head once you listen to it, like the girl next door you can’t forget.

Hear the full list after the jump:

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PREMIERE: Cool Sounds – ‘Headset’

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Melbourne sextet Cool Sounds come from that wonderful part of the world (read: Brunswick) that gave us Ciggie Witch, Zone Out, Velcro and the Ocean Party. Predictably, lad-about-town Liam Halliwell – aka Snowy Nasdaq – has got a piece of the pie, joining the band on saxophone.

In August Cool Sounds released their debut LP, Melbourne Fashion – a title that, like the band name, suggests these guys aren’t entertaining any self-aggrandising ideas. In their own words, Cool Sounds are ‘jangle enforcers’ producing ‘stadium dolewave’. They write about all the big issues – Degrassi Junior High, Katie Holmes movies, friends having babies, friends going away for the week, ‘cringe-y’ love stories. Their latest track is a blow-by-blow account of waiting on hold to speak to a telco operator.

‘Headset’ is the first single from Cool Sounds’ forthcoming record, Healing Crystals. It’s brighter and cleaner than the washed-out tracks of Melbourne Fashion, but it’s still got that heat-shimmer effect – sustained by layers of vocals, sax and whammy bar.

Healing Crystals will be out on 9 January through Beko Disques, the French label that’s put out material from locals Day Ravies, Nathan Roche, Parading and Wizard Oz. (Check out their recent compilation of Australian jangle, Oz Do It Better!).

Cool Sounds have a bunch of shows coming up in support of the new album, including a Sunday afternoon residency at the Tote for the launch of ‘Headset’. Details below:

20/12/14 @ The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford w/ Dan Kelly, Civil Civic (UK) and Bayou

02/01/15 @ Purple Hen Winery, Phillip Island w/ The Ocean Party

04/01/15 @ The Tote w/ Juicy Lolstar (Lucas Heenan) & Ciggie Witch

11/01/15 @ The Tote w/ Crepes & Good Mornings

15/01/15 @ Phoenix Bar, Canberra w/ TBA

16/01/15 @ The Record Crete, Sydney w/ Black Springs

18/01/15 @ The Tote w/ Full Ugly

25/01/15 @ The Tote w/ Palm Springs & Tam Vantage

04/04/15 @ Boogie, Tallarook

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INTRODUCING: Kids of Zoo

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kidsofzoo

Not to be confused with kids at zoo, a search for which will inevitably lead to compilations of kids laughing and pointing at a chimp that hates itself, Kids of Zoo are a Melbourne punk band that sound like something your mum would absolutely hate. They’re loud, brash and more sneering than I imagine Tony Abbott would’ve been when making his cuts to those hippies at the ABC and SBS.

Kids of Zoo have been around since early 2009, when their first 7″ was released, and they’ve had a constant stream of material since. They’ve just put out second album Welcome to Parrot Eyes on legendary punk label Every Night is a Saturday Night Records (Batpiss, the Spinning Rooms, Bad Vision).

But classic Green Day puns are not all that’s amazing about Kids of Zoo. Welcome to Parrot Eyes boasts one-and-a-half-minute punk bliss, straight up ragers – like Refused compressed to an even more frantic pace. If Eddy Current Suppression Ring wanted to be Die! Die! Die!, they would’ve tumbled into what Kids Of Zoo are now. They fit in well with the current scene of thrashers in Australia, such as Us the Band, Heads of Charm and Super Best Friends.

Songs like ‘Drop the Penny’, ‘A Clean Shave’ and ‘Young Children’ are punk rock revellers, brutal and impassioned, but still incredibly fun. For those who have their necks switched to permanent headbanging position, Kids of Zoo are perfect.

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LISTEN: Pool Shop – ‘Lower Now (demo)’

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Pool Shop is the solo project of Major Leagues guitarist Jamie Fryer, and though it’s been a thing for a couple of years now (lucky Melbourne people have even had a couple of chances to see her live since Fryer moved from Brisbane in mid-2014), this demo is the first track she’s recorded. ‘Lower Now (Demo)’ is lo fi and sparse but full of promise and crystalline beauty.

The down-and-out sweetness of the vocals is ‘Lower Now’s most immediate element, drawing you in from the first breath. Fryer’s delivery is clipped and restrained, hinting at some pretty deep hurt below the surface, but never really letting you in. She also gives us a taste of her talent for beautiful, shoegazey guitar lines with a drawn-out riff that comes in towards the end of the song and fades out far too quickly. Everything about this track seems designed to make you want more, so let’s hope this is a sign of great things to come rather than just a lovely one-off.

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PARADISE MIXTAPE: Darcy Baylis

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We’ve got another Paradise Festival mix for you today (only two days to go!). This one was sent in by Melbourne’s own Darcy Baylis, whose debut EP, ‘How Can I Live?’/’Ecstasy’, is out now through Downtime. Currently studying composition at VCA, Baylis was only just out of high school when he released his first album, Celestial Love, under the nom de guerre Naminé. He produces nostalgic dance music with a whole lot of heart, his introspective vocals dealing with depression, heartbreak and delusion.

Baylis has made us an exquisite mix of deep house, post punk and atmospheric techno, including excellent showings from locals Amateur Dance and Total Control. Check it out below, and don’t miss his set from 3.00 to 4.00 this Saturday night in Club Land.

 

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PREMIERE: Sagamore – Longer EP

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Sagamore - Longer EP

I have good feelings towards this band – and generally anyone who thinks employing a horn section is worthwhile, so I’m going to call this one out as a decent dad-jam record worth your ears (Fraser A Gorman not trailing far behind). Melbourne’s Sagamore are putting out their new EP, Longer – recorded over the span of a year between Christmas Hills, Thornbury and North Melbourne before being mastered by Lawrence Greenwood (Whitley) at his Hiss and Hum studio.

Sagamore aren’t changing any frontiers of sound – although but they seem a little more interested than the rest of jangle-gate. They’ve set themselves in a comfortable counterpoint between middle America and a Thornbury backyard. The interchangeable harmonies between Sam and Sophia are warm (‘You Can Take Me My Love’) and rhythms are replete with community hall dance moves from yesteryear (‘Iodine’, ‘Feelings’). Longer is sets off at a slower pace compared to the hook driven self-titled release. The band do edge on running bar chord devotionals and lyrical repetition into the ground, but lead Sam Cooper manages to deliver any leftover passiveness into a warmth only Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy could run off with. 

Sagamore are launching Longer at the Gasometer Hotel in Melbourne tomorrow, followed by a stint at the Queenscliff Music Festival on the weekend.

Longer is out on the 28th of Nov via Flightless. 

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PARADISE MIXTAPE: ESC

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ESC

Next up in our mixtape series, featuring artists playing Paradise Music Festival on 28-30 November, are Melbourne post-punkers ESC, who have sent in their ideal soundtrack for the drive to the festival site at Lake Mountain. It’s a wonderfully eclectic mix, featuring everything from vapourwave to future beats – plus a cheeky little nod to the folks at Paradise tucked away at the end.

ESC are working up a new album as we speak, so keep your eyes peeled.

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