Tagged By Sydney

SEQUENCE: Bligh Twyford-Moore

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Bligh plays in Sydney band Post Paint, recently capped off a month-long stint hosting a Bill Murray ‘Murrathon’ for Fringe Fest – and was banned from the internet this week for uploading an image of Tony Abbott with a really small dick.

This guy has also turned ‘stalking’ into a literal art. Earlier this year, Bligh decided to begin painting portraits of all his internet friends. I’m not sure what number he’s up to, but he’s made his way out of Sydney because I found one of my shady internet snaps turned into a neat little portrait the other week. Thought we’d return the favour by enlisting photographer Jack Toohey to turn up at Bligh’s Newtown terrance and trail him for a whole Sunday afternoon for our next SEQUENCE photo essay.

If you’d like to contact Bligh for commissions, click here. If you’d like your portrait painted, click here. If you want to know what happens when a photographer returns with a rad set of photos and a portrait by an artist completely stoned, then keep scrolling.

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JACK TOOHEY: Facebook / Web 

BLIGH TWYFORD-MOORE: Facebook / Web

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WATCH: Lime Cordial – ‘Sleeping At Your Door’

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New video from Lime Cordial for the single ‘Sleeping At Your Door’ lifted from their sweet EP Falling Up The Stairs released last week. Lime Cordial are spunky brothers Oli and Louis Leimback with help from James Jennings on awesome drums, Brendan Champion play’n Bone and Tim Fitz on Keys/Guitar. Their brand new EP Falling Up The Stairs is a real catchy, melodic, tingly, and cheeky collection of tracks. We could lob them into a North Sydney tropical sound (Holiday’s) or more rhythmic hippiness (Jinja Safari) but I reckon they’ve got a slicker, surfier vibe. It’s sunny pop with good vocals and neat song-writing. The EP has a lot going on and the production is impressive. The boys are on tour with UK friends Cosmo Jarvis, following a few local shows.

The video kinda does have a Wes Anderson feel (thanks youtube commentator) in the zooms and saturated colour but really it’s just a band playing on a barge. But it should get the girls/boys going and it’s a good track. Oh and I like the tinny cruising past.

Director & Editor: Oliver Leimbach
Director of Photography: Max Seager

YouTube Preview Image

Sep 19 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne.

Sep 27 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney.

Sep 28 – North Manly Bowling Club, Manly

with Cosmo Jarvis:

Sunday 13 October – BEETLE BAR, BRISBANE

Tuesday 15 October – NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB, MELBOURNE

Wednesday 16 October – WORKERS CLUB, MELBOURNE

Friday 18 October – KAROVA LOUNGE, BALLARAT

Saturday 19 October – BRIDGE HOTEL, CASTLEMAINE

Sunday 20 October – BARWON CLUB, GEELONG (MATINEE)

Thursday 24 October – ANNANDALE HOTEL, SYDNEY

Friday 25 October – MONAVALE HOTEL, THE ATTIC, MONAVALE

Sunday 27 October – YOURS AND OWLS, WOLLONGONG

Facebook/Soundcloud

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LISTEN: Bushwalking – ‘High Hogs’

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Bushwalking is yet another local supergroup, this time a Sydney-Melbourne cross-border operation. They originally got together to record some tracks for the solo project of Songs‘ Ela Stiles, but the combination of Stiles, Karl Scullin from Kes Trio and Fabulous Diamonds‘ Nisa Venerosa worked so well that they decided to just get it over with and form a band already.

At first they called themselves Zsa Zsa, after the serial monogamist (she had nine husbands) and one-time Miss Hungary Zsa Zsa Gabor, but I guess that didn’t quite sum it up, because they quickly switched to the more true blue Bushwalking. Their first album came out on US label Army of Bad Luck, which is run by none other than former Deerhunter bassist Josh Fauver. It featured a bunch of engrossing psych jams that were heavy on the innuendo, with names like ‘Natural Vagina’, ‘Bath Sex’ and ‘First Time’.

Now they’re back, with second album No Enter coming out on 6 September (this Friday!) through Chapter. ‘High Hogs’ is the lead single, and it’s off the flipping chain. Driven in equal measure by Stiles’ grubby bass line, Scullin’s angular, twisting guitar and the girls’ meditative harmonising, it’s got a wild, almost primitive feel – which is very much enhanced by Venerosa’s pensive drumming and the animal ‘whoop’ that punctuates the verses. ‘Verse’ isn’t really the right word though; ‘High Hogs’ unfolds in the spiralling structure of a drone, closer to the experiments of Fabulous Diamonds and Kes Trio than to any traditional rock song. But it’s still tight as hell – for all its proggy impulses, this track is visceral, direct and very loud.

 

You can catch Bushwalking in their respective home towns on these dates:

Friday, 11 Oct – Red Rattler, Sydney (tickets via Moshtix)

Saturday, 12 Oct – John Curtin Hotel, Melbourne (tickets available through the John Curtin website)

Facebook / Bandcamp

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LISTEN: Elizabeth Rose – ‘The Good Life’

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‘The Good Life’ opens with dark sounds suited to A Clockwork Orange but quickly bounces back to dance-pop and Rose’s very high-level production. Writing of her aspiration to leave the family home and start searching the world for her own piece of the elusive ‘Good Life’, this track is as catchy as any dance party anthem but somewhat understated by Rose’s reserved indie vocals. Mastered in London with award winning engineer Matt Colton (James Blake, Coldplay… what??), ‘The Good Life’ follows her awesome debut EP in 2012, Crystallise.

Get along to one of her spectacular live shows at Bigsound or the OutsideIn Festival:

Wednesday 11 September – Bigsound, Brisbane

Thursday 12 September – Bigsound Showcase at Bakery Lane, Brisbane

Saturday 21 September – OutsideIn Festival, Sydney

Facebook/Soundcloud

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PREMIERE: Gang of Youths – ‘Evangelists’

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Gang of Youths describe themselves on their Facebook page as ‘HUNGRY BROS’ who ‘ACCEPT ALL PAYMENTS; CHEQUE, CASH OR CARD’. They also tell us they make music that sounds like ‘EMOTIONAL-ASS, 10-TRACK CONCEPT ROCK’. While the band seem to have a penchant for writing everything on the internet in caps, all that yelling makes sense when you listen to lyrics of their new track ‘Evangelists’. 

We first noticed this band in May after listening to their earlier demos, which were super impressive. So surprised the labels haven’t come scrambling yet. Yet.

‘Evangelists’ was co-produced with The Preatures’ Jack Moffitt and mastered by Chicago-based engineer Carl Saf. The track was “penned in a hospital waiting room after battling with an extended period of writer’s block”. It’s a cathartic track with straightforward lyrics (I have made more friends in Hell than I have in Jesus land..) all of which suggest the mater nerves very close to a plight of personal experience, rather than just some case of regular writer’s block.

So their lead singer sounds like an angry Brandon Flowers on this track – and their pop sound is radio presenter’s wet dream, but there is something really poignant about the lead vocal. I previously described Gang of Youths’ sound is as a ‘Win Butler at your birthday/Casablancas at your funeral’ band after spinning air-punching stadium number ‘A Sudden Light’. However, these guys shine most when they sing out from the place that defies whatever shit bands like The Jungle Giants harp on about. And with that ‘Evangelists’ picks up where incredible ‘Riverlands’ left off.

Gang of Youths will be supporting Cloud Control on their upcoming national tour. It’s probably the last time you’ll get to catch them, since the band will be relocating to the USA after the tour (a good place to purge to the Mormon population).

Give these guys 6 months (maybe less) to start filling venues and exhausting radio play. A band like this deserves good things. Preach.

‘Evangelists’ will be available to purchase online this Friday.

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LISTEN: Straight Arrows – ‘Never Enough’

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The line up of Sydney’s Straight Arrows reads like a local who’s who. Fronted by Owen Penglis, a somewhat hands-off recording engineer (he records to tape in his kitchen) who’s worked with bands like Royal Headache and The Frowning Clouds, the band features Al Grigg of Red Riders and Palms fame, and Angie Bermuda from Circle Pit. Straight Arrows’ first full-length release, 2010’s It’s Happening, was a high-energy, low-fidelity offering, packed with jams inspired by 60’s UK garage. It was recorded at their mate Tim Done’s house on his collection of 50’s-era American gear.

The latest Straight Arrows release, ‘Never Enough’, is louder and brasher than anything the band’s done before. It’s also quite sludgy – in a bad-ass, high-octane kind of way, à la the Sonics. The song moves along giddily, the tempo lifting to deliver a call-and-response chorus before the drunk and wailing guitar lick pulls it back into the fray.

Chicago-based label Hozac Records has released the Never Enough EP as part of its exclusive 7″ club. The band have been selling any remaining copies on tour, but thankfully the EP is also available for a measly two bucks on Bandcamp.

Straight Arrows will be playing two Victorian single launch shows, supported by the charming Bits of Shit, on Friday, 16 August at the Barwon Club in South Geelong and Saturday, 17 August at Melbourne’s Grace Darling Hotel. They’re also on the bill for FBi’s 10th birthday party, which will be held at Carriage Works on Sunday, 8 September.

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LISTEN: Rainbow Chan – ‘Haircut’

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Sydney artist Rainbow Chan‘s debut EP, Long Vacation, has arrived. It’s named after a 1996 Japanese soap that the Chan family watched together after moving from Hong Kong to Australia. Unable to understand the Japanese dialogue, and too young at six to read the Chinese subtitles, it was the the show’s soundtrack that resonated with Chan. In fact, she’s got a thing for all kinds of oriental populism; J Pop, old anime theme songs, Chinese folk music – these influences crop up in one way or another in her music.

Chan recorded Long Vacation in her bedroom closet. Whether that was for acoustics or out of necessity I wouldn’t have a clue, but a girl called Rainbow (yes, that’s her real name) playing harp and sequencing beats in her wardrobe is a fitting image to accompany the skewed pop that she’s created. Made using tape loops, vintage toys (a circuit-bent toy cow is a recent acquisition Chan’s cited), keyboards, music boxes and glockenspiels, Long Vacation matches Chan’s experimental streak with playful organic sounds and a great sense of melody.

‘Haircut’ is the second single from the EP. According to Chan, it’s “a tongue-in-cheek song about that old cliche, the post break-up haircut”. The point is pretty much summed up with the line ‘I don’t need you anymore, honey – I got a haircut today’. Featuring a detuned harp, programmed beats, what sounds like a kid’s keyboard and a bunch of sample-based sequences along the way, the song is basically a showcase of everything that’s good about Rainbow Chan. She can sing, too, and her voice is on full display in the gorgeous, multi-tracked chorus.

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Chan is already working on a follow-up album, and she’s got plans to start a noise pop band with her sister. A tour taking in capital cities around Australia and New Zealand has been scheduled for August.

Be sure to catch her on these dates:

Thursday 8th August – Lambda, Brisbane QLD

Saturday 10th August – Ghost Ships, Adelaide VIC

Friday 16th August – Civic Underground, Sydney NSW with Moon Holiday & Black Vanilla

Thursday 22nd August – Boney, Melbourne VIC with Sui Zhen

Saturday 24th August – The Front, Canberra ACT

Friday 30th August – Cassette Nine, Auckland NZ

Saturday 31st August – Mighty Mighty, Wellington NZ

 

Facebook / Bandcamp

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