Tagged By New Music

LISTEN: Love Signs – ‘Hold You Down’

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Love signs pic

One of the best things in the world for music writers/fans in general is when a brand new band you loved from the very start exceeds even your expectations – and Brisbane four-piece Love Signs have totally done that for me.

Their previous single, ‘Wish at Home‘, was a mood piece, dreamy and romantically downbeat. With ‘Hold You Down’ they’ve given us a real single, a beautiful jangly pop hit with guts as well as atmosphere. A lot of this comes from the added lead guitar (which they freely admit takes a lot from the Go-Betweens – but when has that ever been a bad thing?), which cuts a spiralling path towards the layered, driving chorus. Izzy Mellor’s classic breathy vocals also work really well against the cynical lyrics to create a bit of friction in all that prettiness.

It’s just so cool to see a band deliver on their promise and develop this confidently in such a short space of time. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on Love Signs.

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LISTEN: Cull – Nasty Drought

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It’s here – the first taste from Sydney shoegazing wunderlords Cull’s debut album. They’ve been floating into our earholes with streamlined Deeerhunter-via-interdimension-travel-through-the-cosmos since early 2013, when their track ‘Good People Disappear’ first surfaced on the WTH waves.  Since then, they’ve dropped their gorgeous Ba Noi EP, and a fantastically ethereal cover of Pavement’s ‘Shady Lane’.

But not simply content with ruling our hearts with mere singles, Cull have decided upon an album release for early 2015, simply titled Aloft. The name rings surely with their sound, simple pop music that’s held mightily high upon swirling masses of pedal effects and distortion.

‘Nasty Drought’ is the first taste of the album, and it indicates the record will be a colourful and engaging one indeed. Sticky vocals ensue, before unfurling into the kind of unfurling shimmer that we all <3 Cull for.

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INTRODUCING: Dictaphone Blues

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dictatophone blues

Dictaphone Blues is the bedroom project turned full band project of Edward Castellow, Auckland’s favourite southern adoptee. A new release is a reason to get excited, as Ed has managed to put out some of the most consistently righteous fuzzed-out guitar pop you’d be likely to find this side of your cool uncle’s record collection. Two albums on, Dictaphone Blues’ next album Mufti Day looks like it’ll go bigger and more ambitious than its predecessors.

Following on from lead single ‘Her Heart Breaks Like a Wave‘, heralding the release of Mufti Day is ‘365’, a catchy duet featuring guest vocals from Emily Edrosa (who also recently released an excellent EP). Under the guise of an upbeat summer jam the track escalates rapidly from themes of obsession to imaginary intrusion before a final meltdown.

Mufti Day is out on the 5th of December. The band will embark on national tour of New Zealand next month.

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WATCH: Charging Stallion – ‘Eddie McGuire’

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Everybody loves a good local hero. Austria’s got Arnie Schwarznegger, Canada have Nickelback, and even bloody Belgium can hold up Gotye as their own. However, that’s not to say that Australia is lacking in the talent department. We’ve got a plethora of folks on the Legends Board on the RSL, from Damo who skulled 12 beers before passing out, and Jimmy, who ran into Oprah and managed to cop a sneaky snap for the pool room. But Melbourne comic pub-rockers Charging Stallion, they know exactly who their idols are, and even breathing the name can cause shivers down the spine of even Buddy Franklin. The one, the only: Eddie. Fucking. McGuire.

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Charging Stallion, they need the world to know about the bloody legend, nay myth, of Eddie McGuire. With a sound that slots alongside mates like Drunk Mums, The Living Eyes and WOD very nicely, Charging Stallion pay their dues via a Collingwood ‘n’ mullet adorned clip. And why not? This is a bloke who is “more Melbourne than a scarf out of a window” and “drinks tomato sauce right out of the bottle”. Although Charging Stallion probably won’t meet their idol any time soon, the least they’ve done is create one hell of an anthem around it. This is an anthemic riot worth even Mr McGuire’s ears.

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INTRODUCING: Total Giovanni

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Newly signed to Two Bright Lakes and Remote Control, Total Giovanni last week released their debut single, ‘Human Animal’. The band’s reputation for outrageous live shows preceded them, and before the public got a taste of Total Giovanni’s recorded efforts they were booked to play Dark Mofo, Melbourne Music Week, Golden Plains and Paradise Music Festival. But even the on-stage spectacle of five grown men in berets and leopard-print hot pants, performing synchronised dance moves to the strains of crotch-sniffing Italo-disco, could not have prepared us for how accomplished Total Giovanni sound in the studio.

A part of this year’s sweeping boogie revival, ‘Human Animal’ is also heavily indebted to the Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem (its opening lines – ‘I’m having so little impact/I’m having so little impact’ – immediately recall the melancholic jibes of James Murphy’s ‘Losing My Edge’). Total Giovanni jammed together for months before embarking on their many live dates, and they sound great as a result – as ‘Human Animal’ demonstrates. This is smooth, tight and extremely danceable stuff.

Catch Total Giovanni this Friday at Melbourne Music Week’s opening night, and on the final weekend of November, at Paradise Music Festival.

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LISTEN: Teen Sensations – ‘Monster Beach Party’

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Jeremy Neale seems to have a new hobby: releasing what are ostensibly novelty songs, but then making them too goddamn good to be novelty songs. With his solo band earlier this year he put out ‘Stallion Rider’ – a power metal song so outside his usual sound it had to be at least kind of a joke, but done with an obvious love and respect for that kind of music. It was so badarse it gave meaning back to a way overused descriptor: fucken EPIC.

Now with Beach Boys worshipping surf-pop outfit Teen Sensations he’s gone and done it again, releasing the Halloween-themed single ‘Monster Beach Party’ on new Brisbane label Heath Street Wax. Sure, this kind of thing aint for everyone (lookin’ at you, SRS Music fan), and I know, I know – you’re ten seconds in and you’re hearing teen-idol vocals and lyrics about zombies and werewolves and it’s all a bit cute. But then that vocal hook in the chorus comes in, and the wonderful songwriting that makes this band so hard to dismiss as a joke shines through.

Yuri Johnson’s also given it a bit of sad surf guitar in the chorus, which is a smart move because this, combined with Neale’s semi-pleading ‘I avoid the sunlight baby, so stick around’, gives you some emotional pathos that takes this song out of the realm of ‘forgettable fun’ and into ‘Hang on – this is actually good’ territory.

You can check ’em on tour on the east coast in the next couple of months, on the following dates:

Sat 29 November – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane (with Love Signs)

Fri 5 December – The Gallery Bar, Sydney (with The Electric Vogues & Dr. Spaceman)

Sat 6 December – The Toff, Melbourne

Thurs 11 December – Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane (with Pluto Jonze).

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PREMIERE: Born Joy Dead – ‘Hey Blood’

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Born Joy Dead

Is that an extended Kanye sample at the start of your track, Born Joy Dead? (Mix it backwards for reference by association, guarantee #1 hit tune). Even sans sample, this new one by Brisbane four piece Born Joy Dead is a bit of a belter, we think. The band’s new track, ‘Hey Blood’ kicks off with a generous lot of pop verve and stadium-rawk merit. There’s no wasting hum-a-long guitar licks and flail-ya-hands in the air choruses when a former Hungry Kids of Hungary member (Ben Dalton) is at the helm here. Happy days!

‘Hey Blood’ will be available on iTunes as of tomorrow.

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