Perfect Sweet Talk

If you aren’t in love with Austin punks Sweet Talk after their Ramones-meets-Bolan brain buzz opener ‘Someone Else’ screams out of the speakers from their new LP Double Perfect, then we probably will never be friends. Taking punchy punk and freebasing pop nous wholesale, the four-piece tracks here are fast, loose and addictive as all hell. It can be incredibly buoyant and pop-centric, almost teeth-rottingly so, but therein lies their inherent charm. Take ‘Your Touch’, the penultimate track that feels like a day-glo guitar pop pastiche, Buddy Holly on Ritalin, then floats out in an extended instrumental coda with sci-fi synth, a great bassline left to hang out on its own at the death… The band is tight, playing songs that bounce and stick (straying towards shtick without crossing that line), and held in check by a rigidity that only comes from kicking out the jams every once in a while. Double Perfect was recorded in part by Matthew Melton of Bare Wires and Warm Soda – bands also dealing in polishing the past with the fervent energy and unabashed dynamism of the present – and OBN III’s Orville Neeley, so although these songs are shiny, they retain an inherent grit. Double Perfect ain’t perfect, but is so subliminally entrenched in the rock and roll psyche of yore that your tinnitus will fall in sync with their tunes. Grab it here.

Southpaw Women Look At The Mirror

This isn't so new now - most Australian websites mentioned this about a month ago - but Sydney band Mere Women (whose Old Life album of last year was an underrated gem) have a little release coming out soon on American label Southpaw Records (who've put out gear from the likes of Ty Segall, Warm Soda and Bare Wires - excellent garage rock, in other words). Not the kind of avenue I would expect to pick up the band at the best of times; furthermore, the track they are airing from it, 'Hands & Face', was NOT what I expected. That faint, sinuous synth for starters is something you expect to hear emanating out of a Not Not Fun cassette. This is all lysergic menace, with spectral guitar moaning in the background, Amy Wilson's vocals elegiac yet defiant. It's a cavernous slowburner - and I never expected to use either of those superlatives to describe Mere Women, but there you go. And you know what? I goddamn love it. What this means for the weird, cantankerous trio for the future remains to be seen, but if they can balance this kind of track with more virile fare, then 2014 should be a huge one.

Warming Your Soda For You

Someone For You, the debut from Warm Soda has been out for a while, but I managed to pick up a reissued vinyl earlier this week (thanks to the ever-excellent Castle Face Records). The Oakland-based four-piece have risen from the smouldering ashes of Bare Wires to have crafted an album of raucous, loose garage rock and pop, their cocks in one hand and their heart in the other. Simple, dumb, sincere, drunken, fun with a capital F-U-N. My favourite is always swinging - today it's 'Waiting For Your Call'. Whatever - it's all the same, all the time. Seriously this record gets better with every listen - and they are already recording a follow up.

You can buy Someone For You here in either white or bubblegum blue vinyl with rainbow spatterings - party time on the turntable!

Backwards Looking Forwards 2011 - Bad Sports, AIDS Wolf, Acid Baby Jesus

OK, so here are three more releases that I "discovered" over my two-month sabbatical that, whilst not anything overly groundbreaking, were a hell of a lot of fun.


Bad Sports, on their 2nd LP Kings Of The Weekend, have chiseled out some major disaffected pop rock that'll tear holes in the seat of your jeans. The Denton, Texas trio are made for summer benders with a sleazy bent. Dirtnap Records put out this fun-loving, fuzzy gem, and it reverently does what it says on the tin. I guess there are elements of Bare Wires about Bad Sports, albeit with more protopunk snarl, which makes me like these guys all the more.

Bad Sports - Can't Just Be Friends


Richie Follin's sister Madeline of Cults' fame will be here on Saturday as a part of the Laneway festival, so it would be remiss of me to mention Guards' Do It Again 7" that came out in December that I found quite delectable. Put out by White Iris, these tracks cement two facts - that Richie Follin knows how to pen a heck of a hook, and that they need to bring out their debut album STAT.

Guards - Do It Again


There was a stage when I seemed to be listening to a lot of Athens, Georgia acts back in 2010 - kickstarted probably by my love of Tunabunny - and it's more than possible that Acid Baby Jesus is going to bring that love full circle. Yet these clowns are from the "other" Athens - the one that proclaims to be the capital of Greece, the starting point (and possibly the endpoint - oh, political controversy!!) of civilisation as we know it. Their self-titled debut came out in October last year on Slovenly Recordings, and it sounds like another 2011 fave of mine, Human Eye, in its insistence of sounding like psych punk played by Ming The Merciless off Flash Gordon. Such space jams are morbid and strange, and oh so goddamn rad. This is a pretty killer album, and may have made the top 40 of 2011 if I'd heard it sooner. 2012 also has them firing up to join the biggest and best lineup yet for the Austin Psych Fest. Live long and prosper, you awesome weirdos.

Acid Baby Jesus - Tooth To Toe

Bare Wires Stay Cheap, Smell Golden

Those slackers Bare Wires have pumped out their third album, aptly titled Cheap Perfume, and it shows a continuation down the road of sleazy dispropriety. There is nothing new here, either by Bare Wires' standards nor by the standards of musical history. These dudes do what they do, when they want to do it. The more I listen to this, the more I enjoy the easy shambolism, the heady heavy-lidded promiscuity, the abject fun of it all. Don't talk to me about a revolution - if its as full of charismatic malaise as this, I don't have a problem with that at all.

Bare Wires - Cheap Perfume
Bare Wires - Dirt Beach

Idolising a Waxen Future

Awesomeness abounds when throwing on this 7" (through the inimitable HoZaC) by SF punks Wax Idols. These formidable female-fronted pop wonders are not who you may already believe or expect. Led by the ex-Hunx & His Punx (meh), Bare Wires (rad) and member of CastleFace Records' Blasted Canyons (awesome) Heather Fedewa (aka Hether Fortune), Wax Idols "straddle the line between ripping tough/tender post-punk/goth-pop, and irresistibly anthemic indie rock hooks, somewhat like Joan Jett would sound like tearing through Best Coast with a chainsaw." Note the quotations? Not my comment. But Hozac press dude, I agree entirely. There is something wholly enthralling by seeing women take back punk from the faux-rockers, yet infuse it with a narcotically addictive sense of melody. These girls have it in spades. No Future is the LP - but it's a misnomer when you consider what these girls might be capable of.



No Future is available here - its well worth the purchase, let me tell you! Also, check out Fortune's band-led tumblr site here, its pretty ace.




Wax Idols - Dead Like You
Wax Idols - Gold Sneakers

Hits From The Box #5

Wow. Its strange to be back in Australia on what is the eve of the first anniversary of Sonic Masala! Whats even weirder has been my body sleep patterns. A 31 hour flight with very little sleep and a lot of Bloody Marys and Tiger beers set me up for a monumental does of jetlag, but Mother Nature is also doing her part, screwing me around with going from 7.30am sun ups to 5.30am sunrises. Im averaging 5 hours a day, and this is seeing me tell even lengthier, mindnumbing stories than the usual. Case in point - I spoke for an hour about The Woman In Black, Silent Hill, [REC] and The Strangers, all whilst not allowing my partner in conversation to say anything. No shit. Although we may have been incredibly hungover, it still was a subhuman feat of inanity. So we get to the first Hits From The Box from Down Under, and I am praying that I can hold it together to properly present what has been an interesting and easily our strongest week in new music.

Old Monk start us off. The Brooklyn indie three piece are readying to drop their first album, Birds of Belize, in February through Supermartyr Records, and its a very very good release that demands your attention. Simply put, Old Monk are a band that offer up concise cuts of aggressive indie pop, using cultural touchstones as varied as Cassius Clay and Thomas Pynchon to give us a skewed narrative of the world they, and we, live in. Its intriguing, beguiling, arresting, but overall joyous in its overt exuberance and penchant for the shiniest of guitar pop hooks. Modest Mouse via Superchunk? I think we're onto a winner here...

Old Monk - Butter And Toast
Old Monk - Warm Moustache

Halls is Sam Howard, a one man ambient master, who Ive been monitoring for a few months now. Im pleased to announce that his first self-titled EP is out now (through Two Tap Digital) and can be gleaned here. The tracks are artfully constructed to bleed the emotion out of every loop, reverb and hushed effect, offering a nuanced beauty that is often missing from such ambient soundscapes. Its a measured and assured release, and here's hoping this is the first of many masterstrokes we'll receive from the Londoner. And we wont have long to wait and find out either - a second EP will be out at the end of February.

Halls - Kaleidoscope

Firesuite are finally dropping their new LP, You're An Ocean Deep, My Brother. The UK hard rock act mesh emotive vocals with a wall of sound that for the most part doesnt mesh all that well for me - like fronting My Bloody Valentine with an emo crooner... There are some amazing tracks here though, none more so than 'Sammy Davis Jr Jr', a short blast of viscera that takes you utterly by surprise. I know I havent sounded that positive here, but Firesuite deserve kudos for this track alone, and their musicianship rivals anything being thrown up in the local shoegaze scene - making them an interesting band to check out live methinks.

Firesuite - Sammy Davis Jr Jr
Firesuite - Amity


London's Chapter 24 are prepping for a massive 2011, starting with a debut EP that has some amazing extras. The band have collaborated with artist/comic illustrator James Nash on both the ace cover art and a short comic for each of the four tracks - well worthy! Its a great release too, packed tightly together to paint a picture of sonic elasticity, bastardised tropical noise and manic maelstroms of stomping Slits-lite joy, best showcased by opener 'She Said' and 'LOVE', which we have below. Travelling hot on the heels of this are a few London shows in February, including the EP launch at the Drop, before they embark on their first US tour, including a stopover in Austin for the SXSW festival before assaulting both LA and San Fran. They are take take taking, and I cant wait to see how far they will explode come Jesus' bday comes around.

Chapter 24 - LOVE

Bare Wires are an Oakland California trio whose brand of garage rock errs on the side of stodgy glam greatness. Because of this the band have an uncanny knack of sounding older than the others of their ilk, transferring their sound into the 60s and 70s at will, yet retaining a sense of youthful exuberance. You can hear the differences that they create in tempo, melody and sudden bouts of ball tearing veracity in the below tracks - 'Dont Ever Change', the new single out on Robot Elephant, takes a 60s swinging rock feel and simplistic lyrics and smears it with a dollop of garage grease; whilst 'Family Heat' off LP Cheap Perfume is all long hair, leather, Ray Bans and spit. Bare Wires are playing no fewer than SIX shows at SXSW in March, also playing gigs in other parts of the US and a rad festival in Mexico called NRMAL (also featuring Thee Oh Sees, Strange Boys and The Black Angels) - they are plying their trade mercilessly.

Bare Wires - Family Heat
Bare Wires - Dont Ever Change


Our last band for the week are Londoners Pet Scenes. They may be a new band, but they are actually an old band - huh? Well, they were Panic Attract (whose offshoot A Sofa Made Of Dust we have featured on here numerous times, and will feature again next month), but have gone in a newer, grimier direction, hence the new moniker. They are still at the 'finding their feet' stage, but if their demos are any indication the change in tack is a sleazily refreshing one. You can check em out in their infancy before they Hiroshima the world with their warped pheromones - this Thursday (3rd February) at Catch in Shoreditch, whilst on Saturday (5th February) they plan to refurbish The George Tavern, on Commercial Road (E1) with their blood, sweat and manly tears.

Pet Scenes - That Thing On His Face

There, get that into ya! Happy Sunday!