Faux Seattle Has Fallen

After taking in the jagged exorcism that is Brisbane band Clever's new track, it feels a jump to be launching into Fall Seattle, the eponymous debut record from the North Virginian quartet. Out through the excellent Faux Discx label (Sauna Youth, Monotony, Hookworms, Tense Men), it is a lucky dip of  the past, reappropriated in bedrooms, kitchens and basements, crystallising into a sonorous sojourn sparkling with jangle and noise, introversion and extroverted emulsions. There is a Deerhunter-meets-The Raincoats-meets-Grandaddy esoteric clarity to opener 'Carol'; a sundrenched meander through Lotus Plaza's back garden on 'Wanda Jackson'; a Yo La Tengo hopped-up malaise to 'Time'. 'New York' could be Ratcat trying their hand at Dinosaur Jr, a suitably fractious racket with cavernous space that still feels intimate amid the throat-tearing catharsis. The twang and meandering space of 'Boyhood' has me entranced - it is the central song, and the centrifugal force of the album, somehow slowing everything down but bringing it all into focus. The opening drums for 'Blau' is ominous before the onslaught, a shimmering menace not unlike the inimitable Women (which is why it is probably my favourite track here); 'Suburban Stain' is a guitar dream, off the books via the Books; the jumped up yet broody pop of 'Nothing You Can Hold On To' meanwhile sets it all free. 'Demon Son' takes us into black-spark shoegaze territory, albeit with bottom-of-the-well reverb sparseness in fits and bursts (another great song). Fall Seattle close up shop with 'Separation Anxiety', a mild, contemplative that burbles and percolates, a sepia-burnt daydream rumination on all that has come before. This is an incredibly strong record - there have been some Real Estate comparisons (which I can see in part), but despite my constant attraction to band signifiers above, the bowerbird genre splicing here makes the album a unique and highly rewardable listen. I really like this one - you should all grab Fall Seattle here.

Being With Brat Farrar That Night

Brat Farrar continues to deal in rock subterfuge, delivering Being With You That Night seemingly under the cover of darkness (possibly in a coffin, if the rad Bela Lugosi cover is anything to go by). Brat (AKA Sam Agostino of Digger & the Pussycats) continues to mine various seams of rock tangents, kicking off with the fuzz-punk-glam w/ drum machine mania of the title track, before delving into more bubblegum rock circa Ratcat via a Bolan-led Laid Thenardier (check em out) in 'Let It Go'. He finishes out this fun 7" with 'Feel This Way', going widescreen with the guitar buzz, a perfect palate cleanser before starting all over again. Pick it up here.

A Loose River of Alcoholic Snakes

Ben Wrecker from Melbourne destructive rock label Bro Fidelity sent me this to the Facebook inbox last week, and it reminded me that I haven't yet talked about my love of one of their roster's albums. But before we get to that, let's focus on perennial brutal blasters Hotel Wrecking City Traders and their latest single 'Loose Alcoholic.' Seven minutes and forty nine seconds of visceral propulsive rock, corkscrewing into your brains and setting things on fire, an aural incendiary bomb. The two-piece (Ben on drums, Toby on guitar) is joined here by Raul Sanchez (Magic Dirt, Midnight Woolf) taking on the indecipherable howling, itself another bludgeoning bile-flinging instrument of death. The repetitive growl of the riffs and explosive drumming here is the key though - there is nothing innately loose about this at all.

Now to the band that this brought back to me with a vengeance (and the photos may have given it all away...). The cantankerous trio River Of Snakes (who features the aforementioned Sanchez, The Loveless' Elissa Rose and Mr Bro Fidelity himself on the drums) brought an album out back around July 2014 called Black Noise, and it is a heady amalgam of introspective, downer Australian pub rock, squalling no-wave destruction and bottom-heavy blues, coming out like a black wave of aggression tempered with maniacal grins. 'Beauty' is my key track, but the Kim Gordon channelling on 'Hacksaw', the nihilistic desolation of 'Slater' and the fuzzed-out Ratcat echoes on 'I Wanna Be Your Baby' ensures the album gets off to a killer start. 'Middening' should be much bigger seeing the love for Brisbane miscreants HITS' latest record Hikikomori before fading out into a purgatorial ambiance, and tracks such as the cathartic crawl of  'I Lied' and straight up RnR of 'The Words I Love You (Ain't Enough) ensure the album steams the full distance into the rock abyss. 

Jeff Is The Champion

Nashville irreverent psych pop rockers JEFF The Brotherhood have been mining the the predictability of their innate unpredictability for some eight or so years now, and its very likely that most of you haven't amply sampled their wares. Well, this year's We Are The Champions is probably the best chance you will get to understand what this duo - brothers Jamin and Jake Orrall - are all about. And what they are all about is creating imminently catchy psych punk soundbytes with errant speed and mania that invoke the gamut of bands of their ilk, from Ratcat to the Ramones, and then infuse it all with more than a dollop of pop writing acumen. The good Weezer references have been rife, and admittedly fair enough, yet I can't get over how addictive this whole shebang is. The duo are clearly all about the rock out - check out 'Bummer' or 'Shredder' for instance - but then get a load of 'Diamond Way' and you will be happy that if you like your rock, and you like your smart pop, here's a way you can have your cake and eat it too (which is a fucked reference by the way. Why else would you have the cake? Unless you are obliged to give it to a bake sale, or you have inserted a file in it with the sole purpose of breaking your lover out of the pen. In which case, make extra fool!)


We Are The Champions is available on the brothers' own label, Infinity Cat - also home to ace bands Natural Child and HAM1. June also sees them doing some dates Stateside with Fucked Up, and one with iceage - awwwwww yeah!

JEFF The Brotherhood - Shredder
JEFF The Brotherhood - Diamond Way