Totally Mild Time

I stumbled across Totally Mild pretty much by accident in February 2013. The year before I'd asked Melbourne troubadour du jour Lehmann B Smith to come up to Brisbane to play a show for a Lofly gig. I missed it due to an emergency operation, but we kept in touch, and I finally caught him in the flesh when I was in Melbourne to see the MBV & Drones ATP (also playing that night at Bar Open - The Menstrual Cycle AKA Snowy Halliwell Nasdaq et al). He was playing in a friend's band which was - yep - Totally Mild. I really dug it.




It's great to see Elizabeth Mitchell's brainchild not only metamorphose into a larger band concern, or because my memory that night has always been hazy (I raced into Bar Open after two days of drinking at the Altona sweatbox, and had just finished up with Einstürzende Neubaten). It is that Mitchell's melodic music is excellent and deserves to be tickling at everyone's spine. Down Time is TM's debut LP (out through Bedroom Suck and Fire), and it is chock full of pop altruisms and melancholic mantras, knitted together with an elegance and a subtle mischievousness that is impossible to ignore. 


 
A stunning achievement, Down Time can be grabbed here.

There's More Lehmann On The Inside Than The Outside, Honey

I don't often pay lip service to folk here - it's a loaded moniker nowadays anyway, but also it isn't a genre I visit that often. And I'm not saying that Lehmann B Smith is a folk troubadour, at all. But there are many folk and country flourishes on his latest Thank God For My Body (out through Special Award) and the wry introspective lyricism on display here lends itself to that description. the difference here is that these songs manage to haunt and lift simultaneously, like only the best can do. Think Bill Callahan, or Neil Young. Thank God... is a rumination on how the body works in all its form - as a physical bag of muscle, flesh and bone, allowing to do us so much and restricting us to doing so little; the mental anguish and acuity that emanates from each mortal vessel; the time that hovers menacingly over every waking itch and sleeping twitch; and the metaphysical expanse outside of our bodies, whether we belong in those bodies of water, of weather, of the cosmos. The bluesy melancholy of 'Blue Lake, S.A.' lingers just as it rises, euphoric; the honky-tonk ramble of 'Time' belies a Young-esque instrumental expulsion, both ebullient and broken, that bleeds out like a White Album meltdown; a reverent opening is eschewed to a more plaintive number in 'Inside/Outside'. Smith creates a warm album that is both simplistic and intricate in instrumentation and design; inquisitive without being overtly cerebral; moving and implacable. These juxtapositions also stand not to alienate but to align the listener with Smith's inquisitions - we too wonder about our own organic machinations, our spiritual yearnings, our emotional reach and longings. An existential exploration it may be, but Thank God For My Body is also a wondrous, striking body of work, irrespective of whether Smith finds the answers he's searching for. Maybe he never will; maybe that isn't the point. And like this Yarra Brown record, the world continues to turn, begins and comes to an end, and we fall in love and enjoy the ride while our bodies let us.

Buy Thank God For My Body here. Stunning.

Revelling In Lehmann's Body

I was just saying to a friend of mine the other day that I missed Lehmann B Smith. The Melbourne multi-instrumentalist is a criminally underrated composer of pop ingenuity - his Girlfriends and Roominations records are stunning (and his contribution to the still-dormant Sonic Masala compilation is breathtaking - I hope to get it out into your ears soon...) Plus Lehmann is one of the loveliest, and funniest, guys I have ever met - and I've only met him a handful of times. He hasn't been quiet either - his work doing cameos with the likes of The Ocean Party and especially Totally Mild has seen him around the traps. But it's the fact that his solo stuff is finally about to hit the spotlight (hopefully, probably not, but it bloody well should) through new record Thank God For My Body out through Special Award next month. "Time' has a honky hoariness to it, like Lennon channelled through other Smiths who also are no longer with us; while 'No Such Thing As A View' is so heartrendingly beautiful that the eyes mist even without the family visuals of the film clip below. Pre-order the album here. I cannot wait to hear this - a truly talented treasure.

Totally Mild Down Time

One of the albums I'm anticipating in 2015 is Down Time, the debut longplayer from subdued pop chanteuses (and boys) Totally Mild, who are the latest converts to the Bedroom Suck religion. I saw them play at Bar Open back in 2013, directly after obliterating my headspace all day at ATP - I think TM were supporting Liam 'Snow Nasdaq from The Ocean Party' Halliwell's solo thing The Menstrual Cycle - I don't truly remember, I was pretty shattered. The band is the brainchild of Elizabeth Mitchell but also enlists the aid of Lehmann B Smith (if you haven't heard his stuff before, goddamn rectify that asap), Ashley Bundang (Zone Out, Hot Palms) and Zach Schneider (Full Ugly). The first taste off the album is 'Christa', and it's a languid corker. The band are about to embark on a national tour with best buds The Ocean Party (I feel like a mouthpiece for those guys!), and you can catch 'em at the following places:

Thurs, Jan 29 – The Phoenix, Canberra, ACT [w/The Ocean Party, Black Springs + Eadie and the Doodles]

Fri, Jan 30 – The Lansdowne, Sydney, NSW [w/The Ocean Party, Black Springs + King Single]

Sun, Feb 1 – Black Bear Lodge , Brisbane, QLD [w/The Ocean Party, Workshop + Curlew]

Sun, Feb 8 – Ceres, Melbourne, VIC [10am, w/The Ocean Party, two sets each]

Sat, Feb 14 – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS [6pm, w/Bitch Prefect, Peter Escott, Old Mate, Superstar, Pines, Small Black Lambs + All the Weathers]

Tues, Feb 24 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC [w/The Ocean Party + Real Estate]

That Brisbane show with Workshop and SM faves Curlew looks fantastic... Get along you donkeys!

Melbourne Can Handle The Moonlight Malaise

There is something poetic about the way Melbourne Cans construct their music. It’s probably more the nostalgic quality of their sonic tapestry – the way I'm made to think of lazy afternoons, the birth of my love of The Wedding Present, the warmth of the guitar tones and keys on songs like ‘Boys’… There is a deliberate sense of wistful recognition on debut LP Moonlight Malaise (out through Lost and Lonesome) though, especially the shift in vocal duties from the dulcet croon of Ian Wallace (ex-Pageants – whatever happened to this excellent band??? - and the Edwyn Collins affectations are not missed here!) and Nina Renee. It’s like a sleepier, Merseyside-via-Northcote version of The Cannanes – with a hard crush on the Big O. With all the doo-wop pretensions that are thrown about in this day and age, you cannot get more to-the-bone than ‘Fallen Angels’ – I could feel the tears of my imagined prom date soak through my shoulder-padded suit jacket at my graduation in 1965. The fact that such ruminations come to bear, despite the fact I was born some sixteen years later, belies the power that Melbourne Cans hold in their hands. Plus the urgency that penultimate (and lengthy) track ‘Hot In The Head’ holds is the kind of incessant brooding guitar-solo-heavy slowburner that fires up the cockles in this “old” man’s heart. Melbourne Cans are a square peg/round hole proposition in this day and age – but when geniuses like Lehmann B Smith make a living out of crafting perfect melodies that happily sit far outside the common scene denominators, why shouldn’t these guys too? 

You can grab Moonlight Malaise here.

Cooking Up Some Belated Xmas Cheer With Lehmann

I know, I know, Christmas is over for another year. So I've missed the boat on Christmas-themed tunes, right?

Geddouddahere.

Melbourne rascal Lehmann B Smith wrote a great little pop song about Christmas, albeit dapper and downbeat, and the funds raised go to charity - to the fund for Typhoon Haiyan. 'Xmas Has Already Come' is a classy number, one that like most of Smith's oeuvre surreptitiously burrows beneath the skin, regardless of the festive season, and gives me a rash and a grin. And with lyrics like 'Your cooking oil's made a rainbow in my heart', there is no denying the ridiculous charm that is simmering on the stereo. Spare some change - we can give 365 days a year, you know...

Kes Is Better In Twos

I wrote recently about the new album from Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Kes, Duets, for The Music not all that long ago it should be coming out soon. Suffice to say that it is goddamn killer, an ambient melange of collaborations from varied artists such as Sonic Masala faves Lehmann B Smith and Justin Fuller (Zond) to Paddy Mann (Grand Salvo) and Laura Jean, and I discover new, amazing sounds every time I give it a spin. It's an incredible exploration of sonics with a wide array of objects, instruments and found sounds. Throw it on tonight, see where it takes you. Thank me later. 

Out through Polyester Records, you can pick up Duets here.

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 

What Would Hot Palms Do?

I've been digging the new stuff from freshly-squeezed Melbourne collective Hot Palms. J.C. (out through Why Don't You Believe Me? Records, who have also put out gear from Lehmann B Smith and Velcro in the past) is the new EP, featuring three musical adaptions of poems by Jake Core (from his book Expecting to be Loved for Nothing), with Alec Marshall responsible for the instrumentals, playing and recording it all with Emma Russack writing and performing vocal duties and Jordan Ireland (The Middle East) on back-up. This novel approach is augmented by the band's fluctuating membership - much like England's Action Beat or Brisbane's Secret Birds, shows have been anywhere from a duo right up to the full eleven-person-deep rollout, with variants of this done based on who is available when.

J.C. itself plays like a strung-out mirage, skewed and medicated - Picnic At Hanging Rock with goon bags and paint huffers. 'Sunday In Milan' is a masterclass in subtle eeriness; 'Adelaide' lurks in the corners, a wraith in gossamer synth and gauze; 'Benny and the Jets' a wasted dream that wakes you in an acrid sweat, fearful, yet afraid that you will never fall back into it no matter who long you sleep. The ethereal wafts over everything...

You can buy J.C. in CD-R or digital form from here. Hot Palms aren't likely to play many shows in the near future as they hunker down to write and record a new 7" and hopefully an LP. 2013 is looking like a blistering year.


Normally I'd have a Friday Cover Up here, but in lieu of that, let's use a track off the EP that is named after a famous song. Not a cover, I'm assured. Hmmm...well, Beastie Boys had that covered ages ago anyway. This song is just so damn rad. Enjoy.

Hot Palms - Benny And The Jets

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.