I'm Totally Mild

I mentioned earlier today And So I Watch You From Afar, and how the discovery of one track on the internet led to checking them out in a so-so musical establishment in Kilburn, London, and becoming an instant fan. Another is to walk in off the street to find something that really rocks your boat. Totally Mild was that band for me on Sunday night. Bizarrely hungry for more music after two days of ATP in Melbourne (and seeing Einsturzende Neubaten close things out), I travelled into Collingwood to Bar Open. Maybe it was the beers, the slight pretense of air conditioning, the comfy chairs – but the Melbourne four piece really impressed in their own shambolic way. It’s Liz Mitchell’s baby (she of Tequila Mockingbirds fame), alongside ex-TM drummer Zac, Lehmann B Smith (Kes Band, as well as his mightily prolific solo material – I brought him up to Brisbane earlier this month for a show opposite Seaplane and Ultra Material) and Yuko Kono. It shuffles between shoegazing (as in the gazing at shoes), tweeing, laconicisms and sudden bursts of melancholic rock. Is that a true indicator of what they sound like? Of course not. But I was shitfaced. And they WERE awesome. Promise?

Here are some old tracks. Hunt them down. They are worthy.