A Million Farewells Is Never Enough For Tom & Katie

What do you make of a band called Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? When one of the members is ex-Pairs and Pale Head Xiao Zhong, you know to expect something brilliant - but the earnest excellence on show on standalone LP A Million Farewells is likely to throw most listeners. A shoegaze album that is filled with more melodic rhythm and direction than most pretenders can pin down; a breakup album and band that have predictably broken up, but unpredictably created songs that overflow with warmth and buoyant emotion. A flailing chaotic unleashing of feeling and tension into a nebulous sonic cloud, an unleashing of wild feeling and abandon. So you can start with the heart-stopping euphoric caterwaul of 'Come Back Home' put alongside the soaring countrified 'Bird Is Flying' that explodes into something else in the final third, and the creeping muted noise of 'Sam's Knife', without it feeling anything more than complete. In fact 'My Life Is Over' is 'Come Back Home' distilled into a two minute format - in case the set list is cut in half? Either way, it shows the fluidity that these guys hold. But the truly stunning thing about this band and this album is the beauty that hovers ever-present throughout. This is mostly due to the beautifully arresting vocals of CeeQ - when she unleashes, it catches your breath in your throat, your chest swells. Yep, the waves of emotion cascade down, and as Tom and Katie fade away, you won't be afraid to shed a tear too. To put it simply, A Million Farewells is a stunning gem that has risen out of nowhere, like the truest of stunning forces of nature, and just as quickly disappears - but should be witnessed by all. When describing this to my fiancee, she said 'so it's like the Northern Lights for you, then?' You know what? That'll do.*

*Yes, I may have shed a tear at the sight of the Northern Lights. Enhanced though I may have been, I stand by it.

INTERVIEW - Pale Heads' Rui Perreira

One of my favourite albums of the year, even though it's fresh outta the blocks, is Headless, the debut belter from Melbourne drongos Pale Heads. Featuring guys that spread all four corners of the Melbourne music scene (current and ex members of The Nation Blue, Harmony, Batpiss, The Drones and Bang!Bang!Aids!), these dudes have cobbled together an album that is relentless, throwaway, acerbic, abrasive and a hell of a lot of fun, all done off a handful of practices. The cobbled together nature of the record is what gives it its heft, and with this calibre of clientele this nuclear fusion is only going to get deadlier (whether they get tighter or looser though remains to be seen...) 

I spoke to Rui Pereira briefly as he stumbled around Sydney before Pale Heads' Blackwire Records show alongside Burlap, Dispolar and Roland Major.

SONIC MASALA - Headless was recorded in a series of blitzkrieg recordings at The Tote. Before these took place, how did Pale Heads come to pass?

RUI PEREIRA - Xiao Zhong, whose identity shall remain secret, lived in China for a good part of the 2000's. There he found a life for himself learning the ancient ways of making origami drum kits for the locals. A few years ago he came back to the Melbourne world, looking for excitement in the form of some boom boom, while in the midst of furnishing his abode. Tom Lyngcoln asked him to play percussion and Thomy Sloane, who straps the bass, joined soon after. I have been friends with both Thomy and Tom for yonks. They asked. I was thrilled to join.

SM - What has been the purpose of the band? Five or so practices and then recording and releasing an entire album is pretty solid going after all!


RP - I find there is this urgent sound to the album, raw as fuck, thousand miles an hour beats. Perhaps the main purpose was to keep the juices flowing. We were all taking breaks from our primary bands at the time so we thought it was a good idea to form another. 

 
SM - How much of the songwriting was/is shared around?


RP - Tom and Thomy pretty much wrote all the lyrics. They bring structure to the songs. We all put in musically.

SM - How do the different personalities glue together as a band? You have some loose units there... 


RP - Alright, alright... who have you been talking to? I've done my share of stupid shit while touring. Even lost my mental health one time looking at ginger bread houses in Switzerland. But as a band we all thrive on humour so that keeps us unified.  At the end of the day our similar tastes in music is the Araldite.

SM - Where does the name Pale Heads come from? Or the infatuation with heads (and the cutting off of them) for that matter? Especially with Tom's constant negative comments about his own mug, bringing it more attention seems counter-productive...


RP - It's interesting what other people's interpretation of someone else's lyrics are. For instance, I thought most of the content on the album was about peace, love and scoring lots of weed... with the occasional head chop. The beheading element is perhaps a metaphor for most humans. They are either in a day dream daze with their heads in another state or trying to chop one off to get ahead.

SM - How have the live components of the show gone so far? I heard that your first show was a bit of a balls-up...


RP - Yep. First show was at the Old Bar in Melbourne. Was a fairly noisy affair. By the end Thomy's pedals didn't work as they got drenched in beer, accidentally poured by someone who shall remain nameless. Since then we've naturally progressed live. The ins and outs of what works on stage can only be refined on the road.  Like Paul Kelly once said, 'venues are my universities'.

SM - You have lined yourselves up with Poison City to release Headless - what was the attraction to joining up with Andrew and co?


RP - Andrew was attracted to us. He and Tom had dealings in the past with Harmony and pretty soon the second Batpiss record will also be under their wing. Keeping it in the family I guess.

SM - Any particular gigs lined up that you are pumped for?


RP - Yes. 16th July 2015 @ The Convent in Abbotsford Melbourne. Playing with Flour, The Meanies and Screamfeeder. See you there.




SM - What does the future hold for Pale Heads? Will there be other releases? Will it follow the same rushed MO?


RP - We already started writing/recording the second LP. It will take a little longer to put together mainly due to Thomy touring with his other group and Tom about to be a Dad! So from this August on, till next year there will be no Pale Heads shows. Just lots of nappies.

SM - What have you been up to in particular Rui? Is Pale Heads a major ongoing concern, or are there other irons in the fire/fingers in pies?


RP - I'll be concentrating with Pale Heads in the next few months. I also work at Bakehouse studios in Richmond, 12 rehearsal spaces with one zen courtyard. That's kept me fairly fit the last five years. I dig working there. A real productive environment. My band other band 'RIGHT!' is in the process of mixing and mastering our first record. I also draw and paint in my spare time, often with my head buried in paper and ink. That will keep me busy for life.



Headless is out now - buy it here - it's an imperative.

Losing My Pale Head

As if I wasn't going to love the fuck out of Headless, the new (and wholly unexpected) album from Pale Heads, the hastily assembled Melbourne super/uber/shitgroup. Featuring Batpissers, Nation Bluers, Harmonisers, Droners, and a Pair, Pale Heads come together as a rusted barrel mess, sloshing their wrecked memories, battered bodies, and twisted limbs into one destructive black mass that rides the pendulum between these guys' past influences (blue collar nihilism, violent drunk diatribes, bucolic flannel punk, frenetic numbskull noise), the filaments drawn into a swirling abyss of madness and mayhem.

From the brilliantly explosive (and slightly unhinged) 'Thomy Cut Off A Head' Headless careens off all of the walls - the dour-with-weird-effects 'Pale Head', the charged throbbing rock of 'I Can't Lose You', the caterwauling black hole and SY instrument annihilating of 'Milk Eyes', the nobrain attack of 'Transitioning Out' with the stumbling moments of tooth-nerve-ending bloodcurdling screams of madness masquerading as lucidity; the singalong skree of 'Devotion', the melancholy outro to 'Homeless'; the roughhousing spit-drenched outlier 'Small Town Casualty'; the twisted out of shape bent sonics and wrenched emotions of 'Power & Privilege'; the inherent vitriol spewed forth out of 'The Pits'; the charged groove and growl of 'Chrome'; the gleeful destruction and Morricone twang undercurrents of 'Accountancy Is Hard' (a great track this one); and the closing title track, which feels the closest to a true amalgam of the band members' former selves (and the last few seconds of banter IS the band).

There isn't much cohesion amongst the songs per se, but seeing as the band played together five times before slamming these down on tape at The Tote is a huge reason why Headless remains so loose. But it is a badge of honour too - these guys have bashed out songs that are jammed, crushed, gutted and burnt into their contorted, blackened angularities, and are all the more cathartic for it. For something so instinctual and instantaneous to be so brutally accomplished (albeit streamlined and battered) is bloody good. Imagine what the boys will be like when in each other's faces for a little while longer. There might be more scabs and scratches on those pale heads, but the ferocity and noisy abandon could be monumental. Headless is out now through Poison City Records on blue, red or black vinyl - get in.

Pale Heads launch the album this Saturday in Melbourne at the Gasometer with excellent support from the likes of Spinning Rooms, Steve Miller Band and Slab Knackers (an Eddy Current Suppression Ring "side" project), and play two shows in Sydney the following weekend. I'm sure there are more shows to follow (Brisbane, watch out). 

Pale And Headless

Ever since the neanderthal lurk of Pale Heads crawls out of the gutter of the mind, this lethal band are on the up and up. They are on the cusp of launching their debut record Headless (out through Poison City Records - what AREN'T these guys responsible for lately?) - and with the conscious coupling of Nation Blue/Batpiss/Drones/Pairs seed, this is gonna be one beautifully ugly bastard child. Have a listen to 'Devotion' and 'Thomy Cut Off A Head' - its dirty, rusted arse pub rock n roll at its most backward. Goddamn fucking delicious.





Pale Heads have some killer shows in the next couple months. They are supporting Sun God Replica on Monday night at the Tote, Against Me! in June 7 - and the launch of the album the day before, June 6 at Gasometer, with support from Spinning Rooms, Slab Knackers (2 of Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and Steve Miller Band. Get in.

Old, Pale Rock Heads

Should be called Rough Heads. The cream of the noise crop have come together to create some buzzsaw punk as Pale Heads, as Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue), Riu Periera (ex The Drones), Thom Cones (Batpiss) and Xiao Zhong (Pairs and Bang! Bang! Aids!) belt each other around at The Tote, pressed to tape. The resultant mess is Headless, a thirteen track piece of rough-as-guts suck punch rock that comes out mid-year. 'Transitioning Out' is breakneck, and with Lyngcoln's rusted throttle on display it's a 94 second nugget of sewer gold.

 

Getting Paired Up Briefly With A Lesbian

Oh the hilarity that such a situational comedy could have with that premise! Hmmm...

Cantankerous, ridiculous and excellent ne’er do wells Pairs are breaking up in a couple months. Basically due to Aussie ex-pat Rhys leaving Shanghai for Melbourne once more – it’s a shame, as it is due to him that much of Shanghai’s current music scene exists, let alone is accessible outside Chinese borders. But they aren’t leaving us empty handed, releasing not one but TWO albums before that imminent parting of ways comes about. The first cab off the rank is free download album Brief Lesbian, recorded with another ex-pat, this time Canadian Adam McCrae (Reykjavictim), and its a typically rambunctious, long winded, caustic affair, with ridiculous song titles and fits of deconstructed sonic mewling throughout. The highlight is 'Bloodshot' which features the familiar blood-curdling wails of flannel-shirted despair that only Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue/Harmony) can muster, and East Brunswick All Girls Choir's Marcus Hobbs doing FOURTEEN guitar solos over each other. But truth be told, the whole thing is a demented form of imploding genius, with McCrae's synths bringing another cracked element to an already battered aesthetic...

Brief Lesbian is available now. It's pretty great - go and get it now. Can't wait to see what their finale will look/sound like...

Splits Are Double Trouble...

Fancy doing the splits? You should - especially if they come out as good as this quad of demented beauties...

Sonic Masala regulars Pairs have paired up (fitting really) with equally nutso Shanghai-based band Stegosaurus? (pictured doing the grooming thing above), another bunch of ex-pat lunatics all about strangling instruments and ranting and raving into blasted microphones. The release is a direct challenge - Splits Don't Work is a work of halves, as a split should be, but each band tries their hand at each others' songs, thus highlighting the anarchic thrashing of Stegosaurus? and the beauty in repetition that Pairs can create, when they aren't tearing the room apart (except for the last song 'Parasite', which is a typical Pairs rant ending in a dustbin rancour - that's good, by the way). It's a lot of fun for sure.

Next up is a split cassette that Nashville label Paco Tapes put out showcasing the talents of New Orleans trio Woozy and hometown raucous dreamers Dogtooth. Now sold out, Somebody Else's Problem is in turns a calamitous chugging ride through the desert, and a squalling party song drifting into the sky like a helium-filled balloon.

The next split sees us continue in the intercontinental vein, as we touch down in Aberdeen, Scotland, and the backyard of Cool Your Jets Records. The first release from the newly minted label is this 7" that features laconic punks Pinact and Min Diesel. The 7", imaginatively titled Pin Diesel, shows both bands thrashing out their guitar rock with typical laissez faire, distorted abandon, and reminds you why playing guitar in the 90s was so much more fun than most people playing guitar in the 00s. Dirty, devilish, dangerous - delicious.

Finally we'll settle in the lower bowels of the UK where Art Is Hard Records reigns supreme. The next in their long list of fascinating releases comes this delectable slice of 7" wax, featuring Exeter loose cannons Birdskulls on one side, and scuzzy kids Bloody Knees on the other. The bands provide two songs each for the record, of which Birdskulls' 'Alley Gorey' is the first cut. Preorder the release here.

The Tightly Wound Pairing Of God And Math

One of my all-time favourite bands, God Bows To Math, did some recording with all-time fave man Donnie Miller in his Nowhere Audio studio (AKA his home) when the NZ trio played Brisbane earlier this year. That show left an indelible mark on those who saw it (Cam Smith of The Waiting Room has it in his top five gigs since the seminal venue opened its doors two years ago), and the fruits of the subsequent recordings are about to be heard as the band release a 7" split with another rambunctious maelstrom of a band, Shanghai's Pairs. The 7" itself comes with pop-up artwork and a zine - awesome in and of itself - but if 'Tightly Wound' is a judge of character, then GBtM are at their face-melting best once more. It takes its time, builds the tension, then flays the skin and muscle from your bones. Rattling stuff. The record comes out next Monday - pre-order this sucker now, there are only 50 available. Now, about that next trip to Australia...

VIDEO VACUUM - Violent Soho, Pairs, Arundel, Beat Radio

Man, I'm done for the day (can't wait for the weekend to kick off), but I know some of you are just about to wrap up for the week (and a few are just starting...) Either way, let's waste those last/first moments on some visual toons...



We've already posted about 'In The Aisle', the new track from local miscreants Violent Soho and a taste of new album Hungry Ghost (read what Nathan thought here). This video is brilliant for two reasons - it shows why it's great to live in Brisbane...and it's solely about a dude riding his bike in the nude, putting up flyers about nude bike riding. That's it. These two things aren't mutually exclusive (although in my eyes they are - sorry Dario), but it makes a killer video (congrats Dario!)



Next we have Shanghai maelstrom Pairs, another SM fave of late. They have just out out this video for 'Mean Buzz', a great little number off their double LP If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will (out on Metal Postcard Records). The album is ace; the track typically droll, ramshackle and loud; and the vid is under two minutes of the duo in a warehouse getting shit thrown on them. Nice.

Another band that Nathan paid lip service to recently was NY's Beat Radio. They have released this video for 'Hurricanes, XO' (their best track IMO), and the stock  B&W footage of watersports of the 50s (some rather bizarre) somehow perfectly complements this fuzzy beauty (it also makes me miss Screamfeeder).



Let's finish off with an understated gem by another Brisbane native, Arundel. 'Flourish' found its way on the latest New Weird Australia compilation Sixes & Twelves (and is my fave compilation of theirs thus far - albeit with many friends' acts finding their way in there...) and he has synced it up here with re-cut scenes from the excellent 2011 movie Monsters. Truly beautiful and the best way to bliss out, fading to black.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Libyan Hit Squad Get Round-Eyed

I got this crazy slice of punk skronk insanity from Genjing Records (the Chinese subsidiary for Maybe Mars Records) and Orlando, Florida's Ripping Records. Full Circle grabs a band from each locale - Round Eye from Shanghai, Libyan Hit Squad from Florida - and lets them go no holds barred at each other. The result is bullshit crazy, bullshit awesome. Black Flag's Greg Ginn chimes in! LHS keep things off-kilter, swinging between breakneck SST punk annihilation ('Blown Asshole'), Descendents sensibilities ('Rubber Shoes'), and the more harmonious ends of Fugazi ('Brave New World').

Round Eye (ANOTHER ex-pat band from China! sharing a leadman too) then offer a more dissonant edge, complete with melting brass, and in my opinion take things up a couple of notches. 'Kenting' even pins down some of that wonky Springsteen-aping rock that Titus Andronicus have made their bread and butter. 'I'm So Young' slips the mickey to a doo-wop number that would be cute if it weren't so slurred and devious; whilst the one-two punch closers 'Carne Seca' and 'Got Her Runnin'' energise and pulverise. Two bands I'd never heard of before joining forces to slay - intercontinental shitstirrers.

You can grab Full Circle here. It is very, very good - get on this quick smart.

Libyan Hit Squad - Blown Asshole
Libyan Hit Squad (ft Greg Ginn) - Full Circle 

Round Eye - Kenting
Round Eye - Carne Seca

Eloise's Winter (Tenzenmen Update #4)

I've been a big fan of mysterious Chinese shoegazers Dear Eloise, and the fairly prolific duo have another release at their disposal. The Winter Has Disappeared 7" is two tracks that glisten in the darkness, shimmer in the shifting sands, a beauteous mirage. There tends to be an ambiguity or distance put in place when bands travel down the shoegaze route, but Dear Eloise manage to sidestep that with 'Vanishing Winter' - not only immediate, but attractive and inviting. 'The Place In White Light' is the aftermath - stumbling forth, trying to grasp that wavering nirvana, falling into the dirt with empty hands, eyes and soul. The ying and yang, then.

You can buy The Winter Has Disappeared here in translucent green vinyl. As a side note, all throughout June you can go to the Tenzenmen website and make a bit of a comment on their page. And when you do, you get a 30% discount on all Tenzenmen releases through their Bandcamp! What a sweet deal. There are more releases I'll be insisting you jump on in the ensuing days too, so start cracking open your Dollarmite money banks...

When You Kill A Giant, Blood Pours Out (Tenzenmen Update #3)

I finished up a week's look at Metal Postcard Records recently. The founder Sean Hocking sees Shanghai duo Pairs as an incredible band (and so clearly do we), following every half-baked venture the duo head out on. So to close out the week we are (figuratively) travelling back to Shanghai (via another Shaun, he of Tenzenmen Records) to look at another ex-pat band that calls the Chinese city their home, Death To Giants.  Death To Giants are even harder to define, a true amalgam of genres seemingly at odds with each other - math rock, metal, and hardcore, to jazz, pop (with moments verging on the fey)... With no guitar, the duo use yelps, a trombone and an array of collaborations (including scoring muted films, traditional Mongolian folk music and a System Of A Down tribute band) to flesh out whatever whims they come up with. Its a heady, insane mixture of molasses to swallow, especially over the course of a full album. But with Blood Pours Out, the duo start to make sense - like naive art drawn by a limbless Charles Manson might. 'Anyone Can Learn To Count In Chinese' feels like Deerhoof distilled through a Blood Brothers woodchipper; 'Jared Leto' and 'Girth vs Length' are maniacal gems that rot your teeth and eviscerate your stomach. And to add to the obliterated fourth wall, there is an instrumental version of 'Anyone Can Learn To Count In Chinese' for free download so that you can make your own remixes, submit them to deathtogiants@gmail.com and the band will choose their favourites for a future release. Death-pop indeed.

You can buy Blood Pours Out here.

Death To Giants - Anyone Can Learn To Count In Chinese
Death To Giants - Girth vs Length

Summer Dick Blues

Man. What to say about this record. Made by ex-pat Rhys O'Loughlin from Shanghai duo Pairs, and his mate Marcus Hobbs (you may remember their band Bang! Bang! Aids!) under the moniker Summer Dick, Blues Dog is nineteen incredibly verbose tales that have been pulled verbatim from the guys' back-and-forth emails. So what you have is out-of-tune warblings about glory holes, travel insurance, Soundwave revellers, pets, record labels, bogans, well dressed Japanese people, being railed for not going to see Iggy Pop - basically two dudes shooting the shit, in audio form. O'Loughlin hinted at these kind of incredibly strange leanings with Pairs' last album Eltham Join, but here has captured the banality and hilarity that often co-exists within the conversations between long-time buddies. And some of it is enthralling - and then there is the song played to the tune of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' that references concerns of dog shit seeping through old shoes... Blues Dog won't be for everyone - this is something made by mates to amuse themselves - but this experiment is bloody funny, whilst providing a few bona fide lo-fi gems. Check it out.

The Dub Chieftain Marches Through Stalin Gardens (Metal Postcard Update #3 & 4)

I missed the post I was going to do updating what Metal Postcard Records is involved with of recent months, so I'm jamming two together, starting with Shanghai's Stalin Gardens.

A Chinese band influenced by Swans and the Birthday Party? You better believe it. Shanghai Void plays like the film Jacob's Ladder directed by Gaspar Noe - rooted in the real world, yet a creeping sense of dread pervades throughout, with sudden bursts of feverish noise, intertwining confrontational sexuality and violence with stop/start convulsions. This kind of bowel punk, like Gira and Moore hanging around the basements of Copenhagen, is even more disembodied due to the geography that it screams out of. Even on their Bandcamp the trio fuck with you, charging between $100 and $600 for the download of one song.

Stalin Gardens - Osteosarcoma
Stalin Gardens - Night Apartment

Also recently shot out the birth canal is Skill, Stamina and Luck, the decidedly weird album from Glasgow native Dub Chieftain. This record took me a couple listens to truly get what was going on. Whilst some tracks are immediately penetrable (the 8 minute frenetic instrumental opener 'In Amongst It', 8-bit friendly 'Erraweetrack' and the mewling, geek-hop 'New to Me' come with candy embedded within their sonic DNA), it is the warbled half-speed early-Beck ramblings of 'Increase the Dose' and the dub-centric 'Four Track Mind' that at first seem out of place. The intermittent use of mandolin and banjo throughout further distances Skill... from any sense of reality. Yet its the eclecticism and off-kilter humour in the brogue-inflected vocals that string these aural beads into a gaudy, garish yet palatable sugar-rush whole, like a Lifesaver bracelet.

Dub Chieftain - In Amongst It
Dub Chieftain - Erraweetrack

You can grab both albums here.

Fangin' For A White High (Metal Postcard Update #2)

You want wonky, diseased stoned guitar slop pop? Portland's White Fang have you covered. High Expectations (out through Metal Postcard) offers shoddy, gif/ppt related cover art, fuzzy distortion, vomit, urine and big swinging dicks, all with the kind of stoner off-handedness that makes you want to give the stuff up forever, even as you stuff your yellow alien bong with an overabundance of purple-veined buds. It remains sharp and spiky, even when phased out closer Far Out Journey threatens to disappear through the temporal hole in the ozone layer. It's the longest song at just over four minutes. And seriously, you couldn't wish for anything more. This is a ride around the neighbourhood, making cocked-up social commentary whilst sequestered away in your mobile dutchie. Above all else, it is surreptitiously addictive - like everything else that's bad for you. Just shut up, breathe in, hit repeat and spin out.

High Expectations can be got at here. Do it. Seriously. Champion Wavves all you want - Nathan Williams is a fucking brand. This is the real deal, and as they say, "you can't deal with being real."

White Fang - Can't Deal With Being Real
White Fang - Christopher's Dick

Eating Asian Pears With Elton John - A Dyslexic's Journey (Metal Postcard Update #1)

The last fortnight we have looked at Thrill Jockey releases; this week we look at something a little more obscure. In fact this post is a tangential lead-in, but whatever.

Metal Postcard Records come out of Hong Kong in China. Named after a Siousxie & the Banshees track, it is run by Sean Hocking who started it in 2002 in Sydney, residing for a while in New York but now calls Asia home. The idea is to release music in a range of formats, remain outside of genre specificity, and avoid the strictures of the "music industry" as much as humanly possible, thus granting complete artistic control to band that otherwise would most likely be ignored.. It also helps to shine a lot on an area of the world where the music scene isn't as readily accessible.

The only reason I have been introduced to this amazing endeavour is because of Shanghai duo Pairs, whose excellent noise-rock double LP If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will was brought to my attention earlier in the year. The band have not only released an about-turn piano-and-vocals only album Eltham Join, till barbed with the crooked lyrics that makes Pairs such a bright, amusing prospect, but also enters into the avant-slacker realm of ballads that are atonal, hammered out with slapdash and carelessness, out-of-tune vocals (and yes, Xiao Zhong is indeed an Aussie, if the vocals didn't give it away) and yet an effusive mood is created throughout. This album should be horrible - and some people will think exactly that - but I think that there should be more of this. Think Amateur Childbirth meets Lehmann B Smith.

You can get Eltham Join for free here. Metal Postcard also champions a mixtape that Pairs put together made up of other likeminded bands from China. Head here to get it - it's rad as. The listing is below the two tracks. Pairs are also doing a split with NZ noise-rockers God Bows To Math, and Zhong does other stuff like stand-up and DJing - so expect to hear a hell of a lot more from these guys on these here pages.

Pairs - You're No More A Doctor Than I'm A Good Singer
Pairs - Red Light Green Light

Tracklist:

1. Yantiao - 扭曲的房间  

2. Colourful Z-bra - 和谐号 

3. Belly Mountain - Traveling 

4. Alpine Decline - Alligator 

5. 比卡超- 鬼斯通(现场)

6. Islet -二十

7. 炸脖龙 - 合适 

8. The Fuzz - Postpunk is cold (demo)

9. Chinese Football - ·飞鱼转身（DEMO

10. Round Eye - Carne Seca

11. Cheesemind - Bush with heart-shaped leaves

12. Your Boyfriend Sucks - 波兰首都是上海(live acoustic)

13. Naohai - Outsider 

14. LowBow - FAST EDDY 

15. Deer - Fade into the night 

16. Next Year's Love - I know 

17. 吴维纯 - Night Side B XL 

18. Thruoutin - Chicano Heaven Blast

19. 路新配 - Fail 

20. The Last Three Minutes - 青蛙 

Shanghai Grows A Pair(s)

 

Got this self-deprecating email last week from Pairs, an intense two-piece based in Shanghai. The band is one of opposites – boy/girl (Xiao Zhong on drums and vocals, F on guitar), Australian/Chinese, nihilistic/silly, angular/pop “that goes alright sometimes.” At times Xiang’s vocals are droll, a plaintive Australian drawl a la Brendan Suppression, whilst the musicianship hinges on F’s gunshot switches from slacker strumming to squalls of white noise, Zhou’s drumming hovering between a tight metronome and a sledgehammer.

Pairs have been fairly prolific, putting out a live recording, an eight track album and a double LP in the past few months, whilst they have dabbled extensively in videos and various formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, DVD, USB). They have come close to Aussie shores, having toured New Zealand thanks to SM mates MUZAI Records, whilst spreading their wares to much of Asia. They are intrinsically tied to China though, being part of a dun Shanghai that may be small but with enough bouncing off the walls to constantly refill the creative well.

But what do they sound like? Well, in the past the band have slated influences such as Royal Headache, Die! Die! Die!, Batrider, Kes…and Jason Molina. Seriously. And to be honest, there are moments on tracks such as ‘Cat Food’ from their If This Cockroach Doesn’t Die, I Will double album that I can take the bait. There is lo-fi slacker pop requiems to be taken, but in the main this is zany art noise with extra crunch (like those moments in Shooting At Unarmed Men when Jon Chapple nailed it – that was hit and miss, but Pairs get it closer to the mark) – which is built into my lifeblood.

Head over to Pairs’ Bandcamp to sample/buy any/all of their releases. Sonic Masala would love to get these guys to come to Australia for a tour – leave a comment or email them me if you agree!

Pairs – Gig Of The Week (from Grandparents)
Pairs – Mean Buzz (from If This Cockroach Doesn’t Die, I Will)