Australian favs Royal Chant have consistently been purveyors of 90s injected power pop and they’ve perfected the sound on their new long player ‘Minor Crush‘.
Taking the College Rock torch from names like Dramarama, Guided By Voices, The Church, and The Replacements as well as a hint of Beatlesque psychedelia ‘Minor Crush‘ is a rewarding collection of hook-laden power-chord rockers with both brains and brawn.
Yes we have a new album out and yes we have a bunch of film clips to go along with with it because that’s how we roll. This is “Hearing Voices Movement” and this snazz-tastic clip was done by James Robert Carthew, forever in Royal Chant but blessed/cursed with perpetual shore leave.
Royal Chant is a 2-piece garage band from the sleepy coastal town of Port Macquarie. Fast & fuzzed, slanted & slurred, they have spent the last 10+ years playing shows across Australia on stages big & small. After a handful of singles and a smashing on Triple-J with their single “Somedays”, their debut LP Raise Your Glass & Collapse was named Indie Album of the Week by the Brag amongst a flurry of press, and their raucous live show gained the band some serious attention.
Recently returned from their maiden tour of the USA, the duo is back to recording and touring, carving their own strange path out of the spotlight but somehow never far from it. They keep their heads down and the distortion up, creating an alternate world of pounding drums, walls of sound, & songs that speak with the ache and numbness of existence.
Minor Crush is our 6th studio album and is available wherever you get your music kicks these days.
I am regularly astonished by the vividness of the imagery Bianca Blackhall’s music creates in my mind. On her debut self-titled EP, she demonstrates her prowess as a teller of stories imbued with the textures of our country’s vast and varied landscapes.
The slow burning ‘Sharks’ simmers and heaves, and the members of Blackhall’s band melt together to form one swelling organism. The clamorous blare of a CFA siren slices through the haze at the song’s peak, before the surging tide turns and ebbs and the waves subside.
From the Apple Isle comes Bianca Blackhall and her four piece band, stepping into the fracture of alt country and moody pub rock. Propping up shimmering vocals with lurching rhythms and wily guitar, Bianca Blackhall brings you music of the lucky country – it’s land, loss and love. Songs to lean back and have a long guzzle of your Cascade to. Grief and apathy. A commentary of Australian life from the bewildered perspective of a 27 year old woman.
The band have played every dog-eared pub in Hobart as well as Falls and Unconformity Festival. Their first EP is out in July 2019 and can be found on band camp.
Debut single from Tasmanian artist Bianca Blackhall.
Band Members
Bianca Blackhall -vocals
Nick Milnes- lead guitar
Trent Thomas – bass
Hans Christian Ammitzboll – drums
In 2013,Jen Cloher, Mia DysonandLiz Stringercame together in the spirit of collaboration and experimentation to release an all-too-brief 3-track EP. They took their music deep into the heart of the country, playing more than 40 shows across every state and territory. Dyson Stringer Cloher was a moment in time that showed extraordinary promise. In the intervening six years they all pursued their solo careers – releasing a combined 8 studio albums, winning multiple awards and touring globally. Now, the trio mark their return with a new single & video ‘Falling Clouds’ out now on Milk! Records.
‘Falling Clouds’ reminisces a time when Jen saw The Clouds and Falling Joys at an underage gig in her hometown of Adelaide in the early 90s. “You kicked the door wide open so I could walk onto that stage” Jen sings, paying tribute to the axe wielding women in Australian music who showed those coming up that it could be done. In the same song, the bandquestions the absence of Australia’s female poet laureate, “Nothing against Paul or Nick, but if you want to be remembered, then you better have a dick.”
Of the video directed by Annelise Hickey, Jen explains, “Drag has always been a fun way to explore gender through performance. ‘Falling Clouds’ examines how the rules and privileges of gender have shaped the careers of women and non binary artists in Australia. Whilst it’s a serious subject, we decided to have some fun with it. Choosing to take on three of glam rocks most revered icons, we discovered that even masculinity is a performance. Ru Paul nailed it when he said, “We’re all born naked, the rest is drag.”
The new project of Australian artist Julia McFarlane.J McFarlane Reality Guest ,As a member of the group The Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. ‘Ta Da’ is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, ‘Ta Da’ will be released worldwide by Night School Records in June 2019. ‘Ta Da’ showcases McFarlane’s songwriting immersed in psychedelic music and synths.
It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun. McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in an unusual place. Reality Guest similarly draws on BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths, flute solos, palm-muted guitar and a sleepy, psychedelic tone that drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct.
From the album TA DA, available though Night School Records
The debut album from Amyl and the Sniffers is the sound of 21st century Australia recorded in Sheffield with producer Ross Orton. It’s primal and explosive with a love of glam, the 70’s Sharpie movement and good time rock n roll backed with lyrics that somehow are simultaneously bleak and nihilistic, yet humorous and celebratory. The album is full of beefy riffs and stomping drums that rages and rolls and lives up to all the hype. It has attitude, sass and Amy’s sore throat howl.
Australia’sAmyl and The Sniffers reputation for raucous garage-punk mayhem has garnered huge buzz around the world, and today they’ve finally released their hotly anticipated debut album. Amyl and The Sniffers was produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys) and features 11 blistering tracks boasting 70’s throwback anthemic guitars and breakneck drumming with human firecracker Amy Taylor leading the 29-minute auditory assault.
“Aussie punk outfit Amyl & The Sniffers continued to stake their claim as one of the planet’s most explosive new bands – NME “Amy Taylor cements her rock star status” – Pitchfork
“Taylor is a certified butt-kicking, drink-sculling, rock star…” 4/5The Herald Sun “Amid the aggro, Taylor’s intense stack-heeled charisma dominates: whether raging (Gacked On Anger) or romancing (“Beer in the cupboard, your eyes to mine”), she’s the queen of this glorious chunder from Down Under.” – Mojo 4/5 album review
“Its 11 breathless tracks bottle the barely-controlled explosion of energy that masquerades as their live show, then sprays it all out again like cheap lager.” – Q Magazine. 4/5 album review
“Amyl and The Sniffers is a thumping, screaming, wailing, magnet for misfits, losers, and outcasts, a clarion call for rejects and mis-shapes that is also an obscenely good time.” – Clash *8/10 Review
There’s an inherent flaw in the perennially alternating “rock is back” and “rock is dead” arguments: they are based on the idea that rock music is a logic-based choice a person consciously chooses to make. Contrary to the critics who are looking to suss out cultural trends and movements (but have never actually lifted a greasy bass cab onto a stage in order to entertain a couple dozen people), the decision to play loud, distorted, unabashed guitar-rock isn’t a strategic move but a higher calling (or curse, depending on one’s point of view). Some might say the pursuit of rocking out via deafening amplifiers, crusty drums and a beer-battered PA is a spiritual one, an affliction that either strikes or doesn’t. Few groups today embody this sentiment like Melbourne’s aptly-named Deaf Wish.
Australian band Deaf Wish will release new album Lithium Zion on July 27 via Sub Pop Records. They’ve shared two tracks from the album so far and you can check out “The Rat is Back” and ripper “FFS” below.
“The Rat Is Back” from the album Lithium Zion (Release Date: July 27, 2018)
They’re more likely to ask a fellow musician what they do for their “real” job (for one, guitarist Jensen Tjhung works as a builder) than talk shop about publicists, ticket counts and online promotions. They’re a grisly rock group and they’ve already signed to Sub Pop, which is to say they’ve already succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, so anything that comes after (performing in strange new cities, meeting like-minded souls, maybe even selling a t-shirt or two) is a bonus.
Lithium Zion is their fifth full-length album (and second for Sub Pop following 2015’s Pain), and while it’s a rare case that a group’s fifth album is their best, particularly any band operating under a “loud fast rules” ethos, Deaf Wish make a strong case as the exception. Their previous albums were all recorded in makeshift studios (Is that a basement with some quilts stapled to the ceiling? Now it’s a “studio”!), which of course is a wise aesthetic choice for capturing the hazardous riffing, chemically-stained vocals and fiery rhythms conjured by a group such as this, but this step toward a slightly more professional sound only enhances their power – think of the difference between a tangled pile of firecrackers and a red stick of TNT lodged in a hornets nest. The record opens with “Easy”, a languid rocker in the rich Australian tradition of groups like X and The Scientists. From there it’s onto “FFS”, a moody downhill rocker sung by guitarist Sarah Hardiman (“I feel like a fool / out playing pool / hitting on you”) that confirms Deaf Wish’s relation to fellow Sub Pop employees like feedtime and Hot Snakes. “The Rat Is Back” is tense and epic; “Hitachi Jackhammer” pays a brief and noisy tribute to Hitachi’s second most notable device (you’d be forgiven for assuming this song is about vibrators). Lithium Zion is a veritable buffet of garage-punk energy, post-punk pathos, sardonic wit and the fearlessness that comes with Aussie rock, a natural consequence for anyone living on a continent teeming with grapefruit-sized spiders and man-eating mosquito swarms.
As has always been the case, the whole group shares vocal duties, even drummer Daniel Twomey (you know the band is slightly unhinged if they’re letting the drummer sing). Hardiman and Tjhung are as ragged and hairy as ever, chugging along as though krautrock was trying to speed past the late ‘70s but got caught in the sticky grasp of punk. Such is the way of Deaf Wish, a group destined to write songs that are simultaneously stupid and sublime, vulnerable and ferocious, and play them with the unbridled intensity they demand. Anyone serving a life sentence to rock will surely concur.
“FFS” from the album Lithium Zion (Release Date: July 27, 2018) Sub Pop Records
“Smoke Inside”, the crunchy blues waltz from Australian singer-songwriter Harmony Byrne, is definitely worth a listen this week. The track is taken from Byrne’s upcoming album Heavy Doors and features her amazing voice alongside some really slick production.
“As a child I was told that I was a drama queen,” Harmony Byrne says of the track. “Initially, I mistook this as being a negative aspect of my personality and struggled to express myself. But thankfully, I was also taught to have self-worth, honesty, integrity, and that I only ever need be myself in a world full of frauds. “Smoke Inside” is all about valuing who you are, no matter how wild or tame, and that if someone you love doesn’t let you light up inside, then they are not the match for you.”
Harmony Byrne – “Smoke Inside” (Official Video) “Smoke Inside” from Harmony Byrne’s upcoming debut album, “Heavy Doors”
There’s something simultaneously wonderful and woeful about being able to meet up with friends for a fleeting moment. Despite enjoying your time together, you know it won’t last long and something’s changed about them that you can’t quite put your finger on. It’s a bittersweet feeling that increases as adulthood marches on, and gets thrown into high gear if you’re a touring musician spending most of your time on the road. Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly explores the consequences of a transitory life on her newly released single “Lunch,” from her debut album “Beware of the Dogs”. Her voice rises up high and clear, like an Australian version of CHVRCHES’ Lauren Mayberry, as she sings, “You’ve got plots and persuasions and time to explain / But I’ve only got time for lunch / And I get homesick before I go away.”
This is taken from Stella Donnelly’s debut album, Beware Of The Dogs, due out 8th March. “This is my favourite song on the record,” she says. “I wrote this about the feeling of displacement I get when I go on tour and come back and nothing feels the same. There’s a disconnect there.”
“Lunch” by Stella Donnelly off ‘Beware of the Dogs,’ out March 8th on Secretly Canadian
Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly has announced her debut album, “Beware of the Dogs“, due out on March 8th via Secretly Canadian, and the news arrived with a great new single, “Old Man” and its accompanying ‘90s-inspired music video. On the song, Donnelly serves up more of her signature biting critique with extra helpings of humor and ballsiness. “Oh are you scared of me old man, or are you scared of what I’ll do?,” she sings, almost teasing, but meaning business. Another timely lyric follows: “You grabbed me with an open hand. The world is grabbing back at you.” Donnelly sings sweetly, but the men in her songs ranging from her mean boss in “Mechanical Bull” to the powerful desk-dwellers in “Old Man” are anything but.
Donnelly sticks up for herself with grace and wit, and if this first single is any indication, Beware of the Dogs will be a smart, satirical introduction to what’s sure to be an exciting career in music. The Perth songwriter has a U.K Tour set for April/May She will be at the Bodega on the 5th May 2019.
Melbourne’s Terry has perfected a blasé, disaffected take on indie pop that smartly avoids cynicism and sarcasm. Last year’s I’m Terry, their third album in three years, is another strong collection of unassuming pop hits—often flat and plodding in that Australian way but always richly melodic, and with a warm homemade aesthetic that reflects the modesty typically found down under. Terry’s one of those bands that could’ve existed at any point in the last 30 or 40 years—they would’ve fit right in on Flying Nun—but are also always unmistakably themselves.
I’m Terry.
They are Terry. Three LPs in three years that continue to fulfil their promise of their first 7”s: one moment a witty “art” punk Wire scramble, the next moment a dumb “pub” punk oi stomper, the next a beautifully orchestrated shimmering soundscape of rudimentary melodies cascading over one another; the point being these are disparate but always succinct songs soaked in melodies, vocal harmonies that sing-song verses and terrace chant choruses, all peppered with flourishes of synths, horns and violins.
They perfected this almost immediately, and each record is a masterful fulfillment, and so…I’m Terry.
There are so few bands attempting lyrics along these lines, so it’s worth to point toward them, as this is Terry: please be kind. We are spared the righteous indignation of identity politicians, but the empathy here for those under the boot of the colony, of the fortress, of the rich and privileged, and the disappointment and disgust at the effects of what we are calling toxic masculinity informs their more aggressive lambast, and this is delivered in an overt lyricism that doesn’t disintegrate into preach or self loathing lamentation.
There’s an unbridled joy in Terry at the experience of making songs in times they are clearly contrary to, the empathy and the pleas for kindness and all that… I’m Terry is an expression of a humbling kindness, and 2018 needs more Terry!
Well, I'm dyslexic so writing about something I love: Music, might help but it's most likely just full of mistakes. That title is also lyrics from The Drones song called I Don't Want To Change. Oh, my name is William and thanks for having a look.
