Posts Tagged ‘Melbourne’

Melbourne psych/surf quintet Water Bear have just released a ripper of a new record in EP “Purple Jake”, the follow-up to their 2015 crazily titled debut Quackadilly Blip.

There’s a loose cosmic theme kicking things off here with the cover art and twangy opener ‘Interstellar Confusion’, which soon gives way to the more rollicking moments of ‘Simon Says’ or ‘Madhouse’, and the silken Eastern influences of ‘Good For Business’.

The lengthy semi-title track of ‘GodSpeed (Purple Jake)’ closes out a excellent varied little record with aplomb, making it very easy to jam this one on repeat as each song continues into each track.

Purple Jake  EP is out today through C’mon Records,

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King Gizz Just Dropped The First Single From Their Next Album

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have wasted no time getting back in action after their very recent album Nonagon Infinity, announcing their next album Flying Microtonal Banana and dropping the first single, ‘Rattlesnake’.

In true King Gizzard style, the track comes complete with a bonkers video clip courtesy of Jason Galea, another eye-searing collage of trippy digital effects. The track itself barrels along for almost eight minutes, driven by an insistent beat and sharp, robotic vox.

The record itself will be dropping on February 24th, the band have their own personal festival Gizzfest, coming up later this month in Australia. Flying Microtonal Banana is King Gizzard’s first-ever experience in microtonal tuning, which features intervals smaller than a semitone and not found in customary Western tuning octaves.

DIET – ” Your House ” EP

Posted: November 9, 2016 in MUSIC
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DIET. is a five-piece surf / shed rock outfit from Melbourne Australia. The band was formed in a North London lounge room between mates travelling through Europe. Upon bassist/songwriter, Carlos Tinsey’s, return from a year overseas, the band then began recording and playing shows in 2015.

The band combines members from local Melbourne artists Flamingo Jones (live), Elephant Ego and Seven Year Itch.

Their debut single ‘Your House’ (released October 2015) received a wide range of attention

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In 2015, DIET. played a heap of shows including support slots for Slum Sociable, Big White and Tempura Nights, as well as a headlined single launch. Their new single, The Rip, is another instalment from their debut EP, which is set to release in mid 2016. It sets out to further cement their fresh take on jangle and surf pop, as well as more crooning vocals from Ben O’Loughlin. The song tells the story of Ben’s childhood in sleepy Strathmore in the Western suburbs of Melbourne.

“Upbeat and poppy with just the right amount of jangle” – Indie Shuffle

“This comes from an alternate universe where Morrissey grew up beside the beach, which
sounds like a universe I’d like to inhabit.” – Triple J (Dom Alessio)

“The band lovingly reference the sounds of Beach Fossils and The Smiths, while maintaining
their own unique brand of indie rock.” – Tone Deaf

Debut single from the Melbourne 5-piece.

Members
Benny O – vocals/guitar
Carl – bass/vocals
Ted – guitar
Andy – guitar/vocals
Clance – drums

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Track By Track: Horror Psych Punks Horace Bones Talk New EP ‘Son Of The City’

Melbourne’s self-described “horror psych-punks” Horace Bones recently dropped their new EP Son of the City, lead by lead single ‘Jack The Knife’, taking strong inspiration from the Birthday Party with added dashes of ’60s garage and surf-rock. Son of the City is out now via MGM and available for your listening pleasure below, and the band have taken us through each track below.

TARANTULA
We wrote Tarantula about a year ago and it’s the oldest of our songs to make the EP. I guess that’s kind of fitting that it’s the first track, though there was no intention to portray a timeline. It serves as a mean gig closer because it’s fucking mental and a treat to play live.

The story is a dramatisation of a real event that recounts a night I was out with my girlfriend and this sleazy old dude kept hitting on her. He reminded me of some monstrous insect-like demon. I’m by no means a fighter but when I told him to give us some room he punched me right in the breadbasket. The bit about fist fighting a spider in outer space is an exaggeration.

JACK THE KNIFE
When we were living in our old share house together, there was this shifty dude that was always paying us a visit, trying to sell us his wares. That place had a few regulars that no one could remember inviting. We used to call this guy Jack the Knife because every time he tried to sell you something, he’d offer to throw in a knife to seal the deal. I think he watched too much shopping channel.

This song itself was really easy to record and only took about an hour all up. Christian (the drummer) came up with the driving bongo bridge at the last minute and it’s probably my favourite part of the song.

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OUTSIDE
We were listening to a lot of Lou Reed around the time of putting this song to paper. Lyrically I’ve always shied away from writing “relationship” songs but then I realised that when Lou isn’t singing about heroin he’s usually writing about a girl, or both and that I should just grow up and give it a crack. Also sticking a few La la la’s in there never hurt no chicken.

So this is our unashamedly catchy number. Id say it’s sort of in the vein of an old ’60s garage tune, like from the Nuggets compilations, but with some grungy guitar and bass.

SON OF THE CITY
An ode to Melbourne, this song is about walking the streets at night, listening to music and feeling like you own the place.

The guitars came out really large and frightening thanks to Caz (the Guitarist, duh) going ape shit in the studio. Actually I reckon this track shows each of us at our best. I’m hollering and screaming in between a little crooning, Christian’s drumming sounds like a hell flung train to Footscray and Derny’s playing bass lines that could really give your bladder some grief.

Listen out for our cheeky bassist playing his own name just before the second chorus, “Dery Derny”.

LIKE DUST
There was an alternate track for the EP that was going to go in place of this one. However, the week before we were due to record, the band was over in Adelaide playing a couple of shows. On the long drive back I was getting my usual cabin fever and ranting to the ire of the other guys. Eventually Christian told me in so many words to save my breath and handed me a notebook and pen, so I proceeded to write down all the words as they’re sung in ‘Like Dust’.

The day before we went into the studio we came up with a rough idea of the music and then went in and put it down. The backing vocals at the end came about at about three in the morning on our last day in the studio. The overwhelming guitar sounds was a perfect way to end the whole thing.

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Listening back, I suppose I must have been coming down a bit in the car because it’s pretty nihilistic. Though I find it uplifting because it’s saying that we’re nothing and nothing matters so what you worried for?

Members
Oisin Kelly
Ryan Caswell
Danny Cockburn
Christian Fish

Born from late night jam sessions in singer/guitarist Fran Keaney’s bedroom and honed in the thrumming confines of Melbourne’s live music venues, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever began to take shape as audiences got moving. Sharing tastes and songwriting duties, cousins Joe White and Fran Keaney, brothers Tom and Joe Russo, and drummer Marcel Tussie started out with softer, melody-focused songs. The more shows they played, the more those driving rhythms that now trademark their songs emerged. Since then, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever rode that wave from strength to strength. Touring around the country on headline bills and festival slots, they entrenched themselves with their thrilling live shows.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s songs have always had all the page-turning qualities of a good yarn. Somewhere between impressionists and fabulists, lyricists Keaney, Russo and White often start with something rooted in real life before building them into clever, quick vignettes. The result is lines blurred between fiction and reality – vibrant stories which get closer at a particular truth than either could alone.

In early 2016, the band released Talk Tight , their first EP. That effort put the group on the map with glowing reviews from SPIN, Stereogum, and Pitchfork, praising them as standouts even among the fertile landscape of Melbourne music scene. Chock full of snappy riffs, spritely drumming and quick-witted wordplay, Talk Tight was praised “for the precision of their melodies, the streamlined sophistication of their arrangements, and the undercurrent of melancholy that motivates every note.”

”Julies Place” is the first single off Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s forthcoming EP for Sub Pop, levels up on everything that made Talk Tight such an immediate draw.

“Julie’s Place” from the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever forthcoming EP due out Spring 2017

Alex Lahey

Earlier this year, Melbourne’s Alex Lahey released her debut EP, “B-Grade University”, which is the kind of startlingly impressive debut that you just know is going to catch on . It’s five songs and with such super-specific lyrics which Alex normally delivers in a melodic deadpan that each one is instantly distinguishable from the rest.

Each song has a line or a hook that that gets stuck in your head right away, for one reason or another. “I went to B-Grade University and got myself an arts degree,” she sings on the chorus to opener “Ivy League.” “Let’s go out and have fun tonight / let’s go out and get drunk tonight,” goes the next song “Let’s Go Out.” It may sound simple on paper, but it sounds like a rallying cry when Alex Lahey sings it.
The best line might be the intro to “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me.” “All I want is to have cleanskin wine, and watch Mulholland Drive with you.” Non-Australians may need to look up what cleanskin wine is, but otherwise, the same people who look forward to a night in with cheap alcohol and a hip counter-culture film are the people who are gonna dig Alex Lahey’s music. (On that note, there’s also a song on this EP called “Wes Anderson.”) Instrumentally, the EP pulls from the last two decades of indie rock. It’s punky, but mannered.


Being a wordy, deadpan indie rocker from Melbourne, Alex has of course gotten some Courtney Barnett comparisons (and while she admires Courtney’s music, she’s tired of them). I’d say she does sound a bit like Courtney sometimes, particularly on “Wes Anderson” and closing track “L-L-L-Leave Me Alone,” and this EP has me feeling about as excited as Courtney’s debut EP did. Get hip to Alex now .

Thanks to Brooklyn Vegan

Electro darkwave never sounding so good as it does coming from Melbourne trio Togetherapart on new single ‘Still Here’.

Recorded and produced by Lisa Wojciechowski (vocals), Zoe Lloyd (guitar) and Drew Wheway (bass, drum machine, sampler, synths) of Togetherapart (mixed and mastered by Simon Lam of KLLO), the follow-up to ‘Too Far’ from earlier this spring, builds on their lush dreampop-synthgaze roots, bringing in reverberating guitars and the haunting vocals of Wojciechowski.

There’s an atmospheric spark created by Togetherapart right from the opening notes of ‘Still Here’ that is hard to forget once heard

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BATTS – ” Lie To Me “

Posted: October 14, 2016 in MUSIC
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BATTS is the project of Melbourne-based musician Tanya Batt. Working hand in hand with England based producer Ficci, she seems to have found the perfect balance of electronic and organic elements within her cinematic emotive sound.

Batts released her debut single Morals last year and it took the music world by storm. It received over one million plays both online and from radio with airplay from BBC Radio 1 with Huw Stephens, support from BBC Introducing, and Triple J.  The second single For That, I’m Sorry also received support from BBC Introducing, Triple J and KCRW. With worldwide exposure Batts is on her way to becoming a household name.

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Australian band Going Swimming usually produce and record their own songs, which has given them a real DIY vibe to their tracks. However, the band have gone and taken a left-turn on their latest track and broken their self-recorded streak, recruiting the likes of Rohan Sforcina (Dune Rats, Gold Class) and Ash Briody (Empat Lima, Sugar Fed Leopards) to get some fresh ears on their surf rock punk styled sound.

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Their latest song ‘Debt Collector’ creates a dirty surf-rock sound which will leave you feeling washed up on shore, With punk-infused vocals and ’60s-inspired backing vox, Along with tracks like “Together To Get Her” is at its core a surf-rock revival song showcasing the best sounds the genre can offer.

Going Swimming  live in the flesh, are a great night out they are out on tour ‘Swimming In Debt’ tour,

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One listen into Gabriella Cohen’s wonderful new single, Downtown you should be hooked, where are all these Australian Singer Songwriters making fabulous Americana records coming from ? You may know her as the front woman of rock ‘n’ roll band, The Furrs, but Cohen has recently emerged with two striking singles, ‘I Don’t Feel So Alive’, and ‘Sever The Walls’, off her self-produced 10 track album, “Full Closure And No Details”, set to be independently released later this year.

Gabriella Cohen is heading out on a tour of her home country with Julia Jacklin should come as a surprise to nobody, because this pair of Antipodean’s songwriters are singing the heartbroken blues,

Pitched somewhere between the hazy-60’s influenced Americana-soul of Cass McCombs and the lilting dream pop of Mazzy Star, Downtown is the latest track to be lifted from Gabriella’s debut album, which should be getting a UK release in December, to coincide with her first European dates. Check out the dates above with a message from Gabrielle, Pleased to announce ‘A Crepe and A Nightcap’ tour, extending to England, America and Canada. Oh Canada. I’ve also just dropped the latest song off my album. It’s called ‘Downtown’ and it’s a song for lovers

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Full Closure and No Details is out in the UK on December 2nd.

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