This is a Record Store Day 2020 item. It will be available to purchase from our stores from 9am 20th June. Remaining stock will be available to purchase from this page at 12pm 21st June.
Hatchie and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart cover the Jesus and Mary Chain. Both tracks are previously unreleased. Hatchie has released a new 7″ exclusive vinyl to Bandcamp and 100% of proceeds will also go to The Movement for Black Lives and The Loveland Foundation. The 7″ vinyl includes “Sometimes Always” — a collaborative cover with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, originally by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Hope Sandoval. Side B includes the 2018 Adult Swim single “Adored”
Hatchie is the world of Harriette Pilbeam. Step inside her mind; a dreamy landscape where cascading synths, jangling guitars, propulsive rhythms and white noise undulate beneath irresistible pop melodies. Rather than focusing on the external world of her life in Brisbane, Pilbeam turns her gaze inwards, making a soundtrack out of her daydreams, setting her emotional life to song,
“Sometimes Always”, originally performed by The Jesus and Mary Chain. A collaborative cover from Hatchie & The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.
7″ vinyl available at midnight EST on June 5th. Items will not ship until
The Citradels are a band of Melbournites who defy time and space. Sitars, handheld shakers, rattlers and rollers, open-D fuzz jams and unstoppable feedback driven 3 guitar odysseys that force unwary listeners to stare deeply into the depths of an infinite nothingness, The Citradels make some of the darkest, most intense drone music I’ve heard in a long time and make The Black Angels look like a pop group. The latest release from the Geelong five piece, drawing on all the regular spaced out influences from The Velvet Underground to JMC.
Drone music uses the interplay of different musical tones and timbres to create interesting music. In doing so, it fervently avoids things like key changes, melodic riffing or even chord changes in some instances. This means that listening to a drone album is like stepping into a black hole.
Tracs is the 10th album the band has produced in 7 years. Recorded over the space of a year in their home studio in rural Victoria, this album we have stripped back a lot of the instrumentation of our previous releases, taking songwriting and arrangement inspiration from the likes of Neil Young, The Band, The Byrds, Big Star and Cut Worms. We hope you find enjoyment listening to it.
The dark themes and hymn-esque vocals of the beginning of the album, this time revisiting the musicality of the entire album in one short mix. By short, I mean 8 minutes. There’s sweet atonal organ licks, some bent, screaming lead guitar and splashy, cymbal heavy percussion –
The band have been launching their LP relentlessly all over the east coast and have already cracked out the 12 string acoustics, the teardrops and the sitars to start production on their fourth album. If you’re into prolific psych jams, check em out and pay some money for their album – lord knows they deserve it.
“The True Story of Bananagun” in the form of “The Master, Regarding the track, bandleader Nick van Bakel stated: “The Master is kind of about evacuating yourself from the absurd but typical life of working your arse into the ground for someone else and how no matter where you’re working or how high up the ladder you are in that world, there’s always a person up higher bossing you around or someone you’re trying to please. I just hate when people flex too much and don’t respect people; that’s what the majority of people deal with their whole life. It’s miserable and there’s no room for stuff to blossom. The trash that’s suggested in school, movies, and everything; have all your milestones planned out. You wanna make god laugh tell him you’ve got your life planned!”
The track is out now on streaming services alongside previous singles “Out Of Reach” and the BBC 6 Music-playlisted “People Talk Too Much.”
Melbourne 5 piece who dress like Os Mutantes and dance like Bobby Gillespie, but their grooves are impeccable. Let the sunshine in.” – MOJO, Jun 2020
Taken from “The True Story of Bananagun” out 26th June
Pacing around the stern of an Etihad flight from Sydney to Europe – at a point in her life where everything was ending, Sophie Payten – the folk-pop singer and producer known as Gordi – chose to begin her new record, ‘Our Two Skins’. Payten had recently completed her medical exams after years of studying to be a doctor, and began the process of ending her “nice, safe, but stagnant” long-term relationship. Coming to terms with a new truth in her identity – which played out against the backdrop of the same-sex marriage vote in Australia – led to an isolated internal state, further fuelled by distance, trying communication and lost love ones.
Written in 20 anxious minutes on that lonely plane to an isolated six weeks in Europe, Payten penned album opener “Aeroplane Bathroom”. “It’s like all the adrenaline of the last two months just dropped away and I had a little nervous breakdown, “says Payten, “thinking about all these big changes. I was seeing my life that I thought was evolving in one direction is now evolving in this other direction.” The song and record open with a question: “Do you see yourself unravelling?”
‘Our Two Skins’ chronicles the intense and impossible time Payten spent renegotiating who she is and how she fits in the world. Payten was eager to bottle the isolation and emptiness she felt during this period of rediscovery of her identity, and the remoteness of Canowindra, the tiny town where Payten’s family has lived for over a century, proved the right location. Here, her internal state – one she describes as being alone and fearful, and with “a galaxy of space” around her – could be seen, felt and recorded. She called upon her friends Chris Messina and Zach Hanson – the producers and engineers responsible for much of the music that comes out of Bon Iver’s April Base studio amongst other things – to help her achieve this sonic goal. No phone reception, no wi-fi, and an outhouse located in a nearby shearing shed. “It was very removed, very isolated,” Payten says. Payten, Hanson and Messina each selected their favourite few instruments and studio tools, and restricted themselves to just those resources while making ‘Our Two Skins’. “We cut ourselves off from all things, including choice, forcing us to be a lot more minimalist in the way that we can create stuff. I find I’m much more creative when I’m surrounded by nothing than when I’m surrounded by lots.”
Gordi shares her new single, “Sandwiches”, a soaring, post-new wave anthem. “Sandwiches” is Gordi’s first new recordingsince her 2017 debut album, Reservoir. Since then, Gordi has collaborated with Troye Sivan, toured with Sam Smith, Julien Baker and more, performed at Eaux Claires alongside The National, Bon Iver and Big Red Machine, and finished her medical degree to become a qualified doctor.
‘Volcanic’, my new track from ‘Our Two Skins’ is now available in all your favourite places. At the heart of the record sit a pair of songs, Volcanic and Radiator. The twin ballads fizzle with the urge to be close to a person – a bittersweet truth knowing Payten was far from her partner and reckoning with the love of her family as she made them. “I wrote Volcanic that night. It was a kind of exorcism.” Radiator is similarly loaded with stakes, a resignation and a great letting go: of course I have to love you.
At a piano in a warehouse on a river in Berlin beside the old East Germany broadcast centre, I finished writing ‘Volcanic’. I had written the lyrics while I was in Stockholm about the warring states I sometimes find myself in; shutting down and exploding. I thought of a volcano – sitting dormant, appearing as though all is calm while ferociously bubbling to the surface and spilling over before you have time to process what has happened.
I recorded this song with Chris Messina and Zach Hanson in a small cottage built in the 1860s on my parents’ farm outside of Canowindra, along with the rest of the record. The video for ‘Volcanic’ was made in Canowinda, too. My talented friend Madeleine Purdy directed it on a 43-degree-celsius day. Go check it out to see me diving in a pool repeatedly as a dust storm rolls in.
“A big theme of the record is: there’s nothing to hide behind. We didn’t have all the bells and whistles. You’re just standing there, with your hands in your pockets going: this is me. This is it. This is all I have.”
Tom Compagnoni’s film The Forgotten Sydney Of AC/DC is launched online – features archive footage and interview clips with band’s early members,
A new documentary exploring AC/DC’s early days in Sydney has been launched online. The project was helmed by Tom Compagnoni and features archive footage along with interviews with early band members Dave Evans, Mark Evans, Noel Taylor, Rob Bailey and Tony Currenti. The Forgotten Sydney of AC/DC sees them sharing their recollections from the mid-70s, including rehearsals, filming their first video at Cronulla’s The Last Picture Show, and the moment Angus Young first appeared in his famous schoolboy uniform at Victoria Park Pool.
A statement on the film reads: “AC/DC was indisputably born and bred in Sydney but there aren’t the statues, plaques and laneways that other cities have to show the origins of one of the biggest rock bands of all time.
“Take a high-voltage trip through Sydney and learn about the forgotten haunts and the story that shaped AC/DC.”
The film also has footage from after Malcolm Young’s funeral in the city, while the guys lament the decline of Sydney’s live music scene.
The story of AC/DC’s formative years in Sydney is told through the recollections of early members Mark Evans (bass player 1975-77), Noel Taylor (drummer 1974) and Rob Bailey (bass player 1975-75). They recall band rehearsals and social events at the Young family home in Burwood, seeing Angus first don his schoolboy outfit at Victoria Park Pool, filming the first video clip in The Last Picture Show in Cronulla and recording their first album at Albert Studios on King St in the heart of Sydney.
Meanwhile in Penshurst, Tony Currenti, an Italian immigrant and owner of Tonino’s Penshurst Pizzeria, tells the story of how he unexpectedly became the drummer on AC/DC’s debut album, High Voltage. After completing work on the album, Tony declined an offer to formally join the band – and then watched as they became one of the biggest groups in the world. Tony still works in the pizza shop, its walls lovingly adorned with AC/DC posters, records and photos from his brief time in the band.
All members reflect on Sydney’s role in shaping AC/DC and more generally on the decline of Sydney as a live music hub.
Earlier this month, Vocalist Brian Johnson sent a message to AC/DC fans during the online Bonfest celebrations.
There’s been much speculation about his return to the fold after he was forced to stop touring with AC/DC back in 2016.
He appeared to confirm his return to the band back in January last year after being spotted outside a Vancouver studio with drummer Phil Rudd in August 2018.
Stonefox’s “Time” acoustic video invites us to dwell in a moment of hopelessness and hurt, fracture and fragility. There are numerous ways to create intimacy through music, and Stonefox know them all very well. The Melbourne indie pop trio have been creating safe spaces full of sonic and emotional depth for years now, and their latest release is only the icing on the cake: Raw, vulnerable, and stripped-down.
Stonefox’s new song “Time,” originally released April 9th via Seeking Blue Records. The latest single off the band’s forthcoming EP (due to release in early August), “Time” finds the Australian indie band in a particularly contemplative headspace – waxing philosophical over purpose, place, and meaning, the group wonder aloud in a sea of “what it’s all about” and “why we’re here“. They’re classic questions, for which there are no answers; and yet, these topics never go stale.
Nuance and poignance have long been a part of Stonefox’s ethos: Their very first single, 2014’s “All I Want,” introduced Jenna Russo, Monica Spasaro, and Tim Carroll as a minimalist, introspective musical project along the same vein as The xx and Daughter. Six years after their debut, Stonefox retain that intimate composure and minimalist edge that makes so much of their earlier work as compelling as they are engulfed in feeling.
“Time” is, in all respects, a quintessential Stonefox song. “’Time’ is about looking at a difficult time in your life from an outside perspective,” Stonefox’s lead singer Jenna Russo “It describes the second stage of being hurt, feeling hopeless and defeated. One of the more philosophical moments on the record, it’s about feeling so low that everything you do in life seems like wasted time. Like looking at the night sky and feeling insignificant in the scale of it all. It’s about realising that everyday life can be exhausting and wanting to have someone alongside you to go through the motions with.”
The “Time” acoustic video marks a special moment for the band, as it is drummer Monica Spasaro’s first time on lead vocals. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a little while now but the right moment hadn’t really ever presented itself,” Spasaro explains. “When we had the idea to make the acoustic video we were all sitting around our home studio deciding the best way to pull it off, and there was this moment we all looked at each other, a little smirk on Tim and Jenna’s face. If I was ever going to try my hand in backing vocals this was it. It was nice that there wasn’t ever any pressure, Tim and Jen gave me lots of great pointers and were always encouraging about it all, and practising and singing three part harmonies with them just seemed to work.
All of that hard work paid off for Spasaro and her bandmates, as she so beautifully wraps listeners in waves of haunting emotion. Stonefox tap into a moment of a raw clarity in their chorus, as Spasaro bears her soul:
Shot at Princes Pier in Port Melbourne by Dan Parish (The Hybrid Minds), Stonefox’s acoustic performance is truly a knockout. Stonefox have completely transformed their song without tampering with its core – it’s as pained and aching as its more dressed-up, electric alternate.
“The song is all about looking at the bigger picture and coming at things from an outside perspective during difficult moments. We wanted the setting to be vast, moody and capture the message behind the song,” Russo says of the video concept. “As songwriters we draw a lot of inspiration from the ocean and there are a lot of references to it throughout the EP.”
Something about this indie pop Australian band always makes me smile, and “On the Line” is no exception: With a beachy bounce and sun-kissed warmth reminiscent of say Prefab Sprout, San Cisco’s latest single heralds the long-awaited return of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. If only we could go out and take advantage!
Yet music can, and so often is its own escape. Those glazed guitar riffs and “could you love me one more time?” chants welcome us to close our eyes and slip into a bright, buoyant new reality. A catchy indie pop “bop,” this is the song that will get us dancing all over the room, letting loose whatever stiffness has been building in our bones as we throw caution to the four winds and let it all out. I remember hopping around to songs like “Fred Astaire” eight years ago – that was always my favourite track off San Cisco’s 2012 self-titled. You never know where a band will go over time, and indeed so many of this group’s contemporaries are no longer together, or have gone on to new projects. I’m glad San Cisco are doing what they’re doing, because they do it so darn well: Every song is a delightful burst of sunlight, not to mention a sweet kiss upon the cheek. Listen to “On the Line” and indulge; a track so full of urgency and hope, San Cisco’s newest offering will fill an empty room with dazzling, gleaming light.
Australian alt/pop artist Tia Gostelow makes us all feel a little more normal in her honest new single “Psycho.” Showing us that we’re really all the same when it comes to playing the relationship roulette, Gostelow wants to remind you to never lose track of who you are and what you want.
Through relaxed soundscapes, sun-soaked melodies and soulful, glowing tones, Gostelow paints a relatable picture of modern day dating. In a world full of uncertainty, it’s important to remember who you are and although at times we may come across a little crazy, we’re definitely not “psycho.” I wrote this song a little while ago with my friend @aidanhogg at @plutoniumstudios. I really wanted to share a little bit about the meaning behind it before it comes out going into the session I felt like I really wanted to write a song about something that was really prominent in the media at the time and was also something personal to me and a lot of my friends. conversations about gaslighting in relationships/friendships was all I was reading about on my phone, it was all over my Facebook and Instagram.⠀
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It forced me to really think about the situations and relationships myself and my friends have been in where we’ve experienced gaslighting and how it made us go fucking crazy. I feel like when you are in these circumstances, it feels like you’re going insane. I felt like I was turning into this psycho person and it seemed like nobody else saw where I was coming from or understood why i was acting this way.⠀
Seeing all of these other people speaking up about it, made me deal with my emotions that I had just ignored and I finally felt like I could put all of my anger and frustration into something that means something. I hope this song helps other people who may be feeling or experiencing the same things
Stu Larsen has no fixed residence…all he owns is a suitcase. You can find him in his native Australia, in Spain, Japan or South America before he picks up and leaves for his next destination. The Queensland, Australia-born singer-songwriter, and narrator packed up his life in a suitcase and has circled the globe on a near twelve-year and five-continent international trip. He has chronicled this journey through his music, including his newest full-length album “Marigold”.
On April 3rd, singer-songwriter Stu Larsen will release his most intimate album-to-date, “Marigold” (via Nettwerk Records). The eleven tracks on Marigold speak to Larsen’s external and internal progression, bookended by first single “Whisky & Blankets (A Tu Lado)” and the final cut on the album, “Phone Call From My Lover.” In between Marigold and his earlier LP Resolute,Larsen fell in love only to fall into heartbreak and, ultimately, find the inspiration to write straight from the heart. The latest single, “Hurricane” is about the emotional force of love which swept – quickly and unexpectedly – in (and out) of his life.
“I came into her life so unexpectedly and turned everything upside down, she felt things she hadn’t felt before and maybe didn’t know how to respond, which turned the relationship into such a rollercoaster. ‘Hurricane’ is a short and punchy song that starts and finishes before you have a chance to settle into it,” says Larsen.
Currently, Stu Larsen has no fixed residence…all he owns is a suitcase, a guitar and a couple of cameras. You can find him in his native Australia, in Spain, Japan or South America before he picks up and leaves for his new destination. The Queensland, Australia-born singer, songwriter, and narrator packed up his life in a suitcase and circled the globe on a near twelve-year and five-continent international trip, as chronicled in photography and music.
Stu has now toured the globe numerous times over, cultivating fans with sold-out concerts around the world. As a result, fan favorites like “San Francisco” and “Thirteen Sad Farewells” have earned 100 million+ combined streams across digital platforms. In addition to documenting his travels through photos, Stu has lived numerous adventures, including an emergency appendectomy in Indonesia and being surprised by a jaguar at a party in Mexico City. Last month, Larsen announced his latest globe-trotting adventure that would take him through 11 countries in 31 days. But, with that, he still plans to return to North American this Spring.
Melbourne four-piece Jade Imagine have returned with their brand new single, “Coastal Pines”. The track is their follow-up to their debut album Basic Love and last year’s tour that included support slots with Pond across the U.K.
“Coastal Pines” is perfectly timed to release during the emerging summer months, with a groovy psych-infused jam that just radiates a cool sun-soaked warmth and free-spirited imagery.
Talking about the single, frontwoman Jade McInally describes Coastal Pines to be:
A song about the head verses the heart. For me, it’s the never ending struggle between the city and the ocean pulling in two different directions.”
The Fat Angel Sings 