Sydney trio Middle Kids released their impressive debut single “Edge Of Town” earlier this month, The song is anchored by Hannah Joy’s gripping vocals and some of the most natural and non-overpowering slide guitar work I have heard to date. It all builds to a gradual tempo change that brings the track to a blistering finale. The video, directed by guitarist Tim Fitz together with Ro Miles, cuts back and forth from a steady shot of Joy walking down the street, interspersed with clips of the trio performing the song in a house, drinking tea, and Joy singing to her reflection in the mirror. A statement from the band:
We wrote the video clip and filmed it with friends. We wanted it to be interesting without being too distracting, something raw and casual like a Pixies clip. It also contains a loose narrative of what happens when a mysterious visitor shows up at your door wearing a crown. But it is predominantly a series of domestic images with a surreal undertone: the watering of dead plants, the closed door, the ticking of a metronome, a lonely man playing slide guitar, a woman walking at twilight.
Australian three-piece Middle Kids first came to public attention with the release of their debut single “Edge Of Town” in May last year. Elton John declared himself a fan, Triple J placed the song on high rotation, and across North America the track received significant radio support on over 30 AAA/Alt stations.
To date, ‘Edge Of Town’ has accumulated more than 3 million streams on Spotify. Not bad for a band that, when they recorded the single, hadn’t played a single show. Now, Middle Kids have shows in Australia, America, and Europe under their belt; and they’re preparing for a major tour across the US with Cold War Kids, with headline shows and a stop at SXSW also plotted – big achievements for a band that is destined for so many more, starting with the release of their debut EP, out February 17th on Domino Recordings.
Sydney folksters All Our Exes Live In Texas have just unearthed a new musical gem from their soon-to-be-released album, When We Fall. Dubbed ‘Boundary Road’, the sweet little single comes packing a sweet music video that showcases the gals’ on-stage chops.
The clip was shot during the group’s Sydney single launch at Oxford Art Factory in October of last year, and will likely bring a smile to your face as the song brings a tear to your eye.
“Boundary Street is a street in West End – a suburb in Brisbane that I spent a lot of time in as a uni student,” explains singer and guitarist Katie Wighton, who reckons the idea for the song was sparked by a brekky date with her mum. “My Mum and I would often eat brekky there on a Saturday morning,” she says. “We had this one… ‘discussion’ that got quite heated and ended with her saying ‘What if I want to be the one to fall apart once in a while’. She’s a singer/songwriter which means she is generally accidentally poetic. So I stole those words and made them into the chorus for ‘Boundary Road’.
Boundary Road from All Our Exes Live in Texas debut album ‘When We Fall’.
The Explorers Club mark their return with “Together”, the quintet’s third album of harmony laden sounds. Hot off the heels of “Freedom Wind”, their first release which showcased their Beach Boys influences, and the triumphant follow-up “Grand Hotel”, an exploration of Classic soft pop ideals, “Together” is sure to bring you a little of summer in your mind as we approach these cold wintery days.
Jason Brewer, founder and visionary of the band, has patterned the album in the mold of post-Pet Sounds BeachBoys classics such as Friends, Sunflower and Love You, while adding his own unique touches and flourishes of inspiration with his band mates.
Listeners can expect exquisite harmonies, tight musicianship, flowing melodies, and gorgeous vocals. Standout tracks include the modern sunshine doo-wop of “California’s Calling Ya”, the bouncy pop of “Once In A While” and the contemplative “Quietly”.
“Together” is a must for fans of well-crafted pop music.
Imogen Clark has had a pretty big year built on the bedrock of her debut album Love & Lovely Lies and its two lead singles “Take Me For A Ride” and “You’ll only Break My Heart”. The latter is Clark’s most mature offering to date, making the most of her big voice and lyric driven song writing. Her EPs to date have all been pretty strong but it feels like Love & Lovely Lies realises Imogen Clark’s potential as a singer and a songwriter – which is not at all hurt by the slick production and fantastic band she has behind her. Imogen Clark is touted as an alt-country singer (and we’ve been known to use that label as well) but I feel there’s a pop sensibility to her music that’s had a country sheen added to it courtesy of her band, but regardless of the genre “You’ll only Break My Heart” heralds big things to come from the Sydney singer-songwriter.
One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in Sydney releases a debut to be proud of, paving the way for bigger things to come.
Honest songwriting and insight beyond her years are at the core of Julia Jacklin’s debut album, Don’t Let the Kids Win. This Australian Sydney singer-songwriter’s lyrical prowess shines over understated guitar, making her exploration into the anxieties of growing older all the more compelling. ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ finds beauty in its universal truth. Its simplicity speaks louder than any metaphor ever could. Julia Jacklin’s structures centre around a rhetoric that encourages self-reflection, urging you to seek answers from the past that will eventually allow you to step into a unclouded and hopeful future. A wonderful album and one of the strongest releases this year she played a great set recently , So looking forward to her return early next year.
Whatever the decision Ryan Adams made to take his news songs and new band to only two public concerts, one in Sydney and the other in Tokyo, for the fans of his music, in those two locales consider themselves blessed. The new band may have been christened The Nuts on Instagram over the last two days, but whatever they end up being called, they truly ignited the sold out Enmore Theatre on Tuesday night.
The buzz of anticipation is always present when Ryan Adams comes to town and tonight was no exception. After doing a surprise invite only gig for a few hundred the previous night at The Factory, tonight was the first paid public performance by this new collective. The crowd was wondering what the band would deliver from Adam’s catalogue and the band were eager to get out in front of a crowd and get some feedback and to show off their licks.
‘Magnolia Mountain’, the song he recorded with The Cardinals, was the starting point tonight.
New material was peppered all the way through, with the bold, damaged songs boasting titles such as ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Prisoner’. Oddly enough, in some ways the tunes most closely resembled numbers from his underrated and oft-ignored heavy metal record, Orion, but in terms of lyrical content they seemed cut from the same tear-and-spit-stained cloth of Cold Roses. But as ‘Gimme Something Good’ rear-ended into ‘Kim’, with the audience following every power-popped chord, such concerns faded away. Maybe we’ve always been too academic about Adams; too concerned about defining something that does not need to be defined.
As he played the audience up and out with ‘When The Stars Go Blue’, it seemed redundant to confuse personality with art, or try to make cerebral sense out of the music . A gag about the thematic similarity between his songs led to an improvised number about his love of toast and Joy Division bootlegs, and songs like ‘Magnolia Mountain’ were transformed into long, riff-heavy numbers that teetered thrillingly on the edge of collapse
With Ben Alleman on keys, long term producer and bassist Charle Stavish, Nate Lotz on drum and BennyYurco (from Grace Potter and The Nocturnals) joining in on lead guitars, this was a rock and roll show. The lyrical content of the new songs are raw emotions. As Adams said, “these songs are so raw, that if you were to eat them you would get worms”. Raw they may be, but they do rock and roll and not wither in melancholia.
‘Dirty Rain”, from Ashes and Fire, was delivered with a punch and ‘Do You Still Love Me?’ from the new album Prisoner churned with powerful chords and aching lyrics. With 7 of the 21 songs being brand new to the audience, there was a chance of there being some disappointment in not hearing old favourites. Adams jokingly advised the crowd “not to be scared” of the new songs, but there was no fear at all, as the crowd truly engaged with the new numbers and the new band.
Prisoner appears to be an album of songs that don’t linger long on the jam, but come out with six strings on fire. Alleman played some beautiful keyboard solos through the set, and Yurco and Adams connected perfectly in guitar synchronicity. Even when the amplifiers lost power for a bit and the band waited patiently, Adams was so keen to get going and hoped they would fix them soon because he stated ‘we just want to rock”.
One thing that always pleases us about Ryan Adams is his penchant for jamming off into the sunset. A fairly rote song like Peaceful Valley became a bulging ten-minute opus that allowed his band to flex their muscles and find each other in the maelstrom. It was one of many instances that the group let fly. They work exceptionally well together, and the results were spectacular passages of slick riffing and tumbling minor scale conversations.
‘Kim’, ‘Gimme Something Good’ and ‘I just Might’ were a trio of songs off his eponymous 2014 record that fit into the attitude of the set list tonight. There was to be no acoustic guitars and harmonica, this was a rock concert simple and beautiful. ‘Cold Roses’ bookended the set with some more meandering gorgeous guitar jams and truly a magical moment on the night.
The band seemed like they wanted to play for hours more but they closed it down by getting to a couple of classics.
‘Shakedown On 9th Street’ from Heartbreaker had the room vibrating one more time with everyone joining in on the chorus. For the fans who wanted something from Gold, they were left wanting more, after a splendid closing version of ‘When the Stars Go Blue’.
Ryan Adams And The Nuts truly demonstrated a pulsating delivery of the new songs from Prisoner and this will truly be one of his best records based on the first instalment of them done live. I do believe this band will morph into something very special once the tour proper kicks off next year his fans hope they come back to show us what they have achieved a year from now. You know what else? Ryan Adams is funny as shit.
Much buzzed-about Australian based Sydney outfit Green Buzzard have been cocking ears and turning heads since they erupted onto the local Aussie music scene last year with their debut single ‘Zoo Fly’, which they’ve followed up with a string of blazing new singles, including the latest number, ‘Do You Ever Glow?’.
“Ayeeee… gather round wee children, let me tell you a tale from a looong looong time agooo. A time of myth and legend, where dragons soared high above and a song, of great power, was first sung . I was there, one of the few to hear it, and it goes a little like this,” said frontman Paddy Harrowsmith of the new single.
The track premiered last night on triple j’s Good Nights and serves as the first single to be taken from GreenBuzzard’s eagerly anticipated forthcoming EP. The track was recorded and mixed by the talented Burke Reid, best known for his work with the likes of Courtney Barnett and DZ Deathrays.
The Australian musician and 21 year old Sydney indie-folk singer songwriter known as Gordi recently covered her Jagjaguwar labelmate Bon Iver’s “00000 Million.”
On the decision to do an acapella cover, the musician says, “I think words can be best understood when they are all you can hear.” Listen to Gordi’s beautiful and haunting cover
Gordi will support Bon Iver at his upcoming Hammerstein Ballroom show in New York on December. 10th. Leading up to that show, she will support The Tallest Man on Earth for a string of Australian dates.
Sophie Payten, better known as Gordi. Growing up on her Canowindra family farm ‘Alfalfa’ and sprouting (rare Alfalfa gag) , the now Sydney based artist has integrated elements of electronica into her more folky roots with her stunning voice still taking centre stage.
“Can We Work It Out” is the pulsating follow up to “Nothing’s As It Seems” and “Taken Blame”, the first 2 singles from Sydney-based, Gordi. The 22 year-old indie folk artist evokes a kind of nostalgia that lingers long after her strumming stops. A diverse musical diet including classic folk icons like Carole King, Paul Kelly and Joni Mitchell and their modern counterparts in The Tallest Man on Earth, Asgeir Trausti and Laura Marling bring a welcome sense of familiarity to her songs. But the craft in her songwriting is found partly in the emotional spectrum that her tracks span – from wistful aching to spirited celebration, her lyrical journeys take us places in our memories and imaginations that belie her 22 years. The candour in Gordi’s songs is matched by a vocal tone that is at once fractured and brimming with richness. Combining vintage vocal layering and earthy guitar textures with delicate modern electronic production, Gordi’s sonic palette is one she can call her own.
The Fat Angel Sings 