Tagged By melbourne

Harmony – ‘Cacophonous Vibes’

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harmony

I picked up Harmony’s 7″ ‘Cacophonous Vibes’ on white vinyl today. It is a really nice track that immediately gets under your skin. The gorgeous slow tempo and ‘bop she bop’ harmony describes another era but then crashing drums and the husky vocals of Tom Lyngcoln come thundering in. Surprisingly the sweetness remains due to the lovely backing vocals. My flat mates have been loving my attempts at screaming these vocals about the house – not pretty.

Formed last year, with a debut album due very soon, Harmony feature Alex Kastaniotis and Jon Chapple with Amanda Roff, Quinn Veldhuis and Maria Kastaniotis forming the layered vocal ensemble. Hopefully these guys will play shows in support of the debut record as I missed the 7″ launch last month.

Listen to the track on bandcamp here.

Thanks to against the wood grain for the image.

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Melbourne’s Laneway Festival in words

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Let’s clear something up first, I’m gonna talk about international bands as I didn’t catch much of the Oz contingent. In case you have been living under a rock and didn’t notice, Australia’s weather has been off the charts lately. The night before Melbourne’s super well organised Laneway Festival it totally pissed down and washed out some gear on the river stage. Rat vs Possum was a casuality as staff got things under control. I chose to sleep in and spend my mid morning eating sweet ass scrambled eggs with carmelised onion down at A Minor place.I arrived quite dry and feeling pretty content not to have to blow $10 on dahl for lunch.

First up I caught Bear In Heaven down at the cart park stage and they sounded real nice from my lazily distant posi. Driving drums and atmospheric pysch pop from Brooklyn that creeps on you even in the middle of the day at a festival. I head up to the Mooreland stage before they finish to right some wrongs in my life. I openly admit that sometimes I do silly things, I once signed for White Stripes tickets at the post office then walked outside and re posted the blank envelope. Last week I sat around quite bored on a Tuesday night whilst my Beach House ticket lay on my coffee table in full view as I completely forget to go.

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Kimbra performing at the Forum Theatre, Melbourne.

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Kimbra-the-forum-melbourne-david-payne

Words by Melissa Tan – Pictures by David Payne

Typical pre-weekend crowd banter didn’t do anything to dampen Kimbra’s charm over the Forum on Friday night. Strutting the stage in a flouncy blue number, the NZ singer opened up the night with a bit of class dropping tunes from her upcoming record Vows. Looping pedals and a hysterical scat during the bridge lent a nice twist to Nina Simone’s ‘Plain Gold Ring’, while the disco riffs in a cover of Prince’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ ushered punters into a cheesy boogie. Kimbra knows how to flaunt her vocal range without wandering into self indulgent jazz singer territory.

A tight band threw in a varied mix of jazz, soul funk and pop, keeping the overall sound fresh. Shouldn’t go by without mentioning the drummers’ impeccably sculptured square ‘fro. Notable highlights included the Janelle Monae vibes of ‘Break’, and the incredibly uplifting chorus in ‘Cameo Lover’, which could well be the best smothering of pop to hit this town in a long time. After an interesting set, (shoulder popping and impulsive hand gesticulating included) it’s without a doubt that the crowd would’ve been keen to adopt this Kiwi as one of their own.

For more pictures, hit continue reading.

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The Holidays play the John Curtain in Melbourne

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The Holidays – ‘Golden Sky’ (mp3)

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The Holidays have been kicking about for a couple of years and I really liked an old self titled ep of theirs. Lately we have had a couple of singles released in anticipation of their debut LP, due in September. I was curious how the sound would translate live and I am glad to say they did a good job. It was a fairly packed John Curtain and there was a good energy in the crowd, despite the set consisting mostly of new and unheard material. Take a look through more pictures after the continue reading jump.

Keep an eye on these guys here – http://www.myspace.com/theholidays

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Perth band ‘Pond’ party at the Workers Club in Fitzroy

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perth band pond

Perth band Pond, was formed like a dream and that ‘fantasy’ feeling, beamed throughout the show that played to a packed Workers Club in Fitzroy on Sunday night.

Nick ‘Paisley Adams’ Allbrook on Vocals and glitter mayhem – he joked that he’ll probably have to clean up the place himself. Joseph Orion on bass and Jay Watson, the drummer of Tame Impala, make up the core members. Jay played a bunch of instruments, swapping around with Jamie Terry who plays guitar and keys in The Silents. Kevin Parker, Tame Impala’s lead guitar and vocals, played the driving drums that seemed to tie the whole room together, not unlike Lebowski’s rug. These guys are all very bloody talented and made the show one of the most fun gigs I have seen at this venue.

Look out for an album soon but check out their myspace now – http://www.myspace.com/mickmanmoose

More photos after the continue reading jump

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