No Limits to Jack Lee (And Petersham)

Jack Lee has done it again.

Stepping out of Beef Jerk to do things on his own once more, Lee's record No Limits (out through Osborne Again) is a bruised and battered slab of broken thoughts, moods, dreams, gaffer-taped together to punish and revere. 'Slip On Piss', the opening track, is killer - a dour diatribe on the shitty "adult situations I keep gettin' in". Lee's lip curled, lyrics drawled/spat, pummelling, feeling like shit. It's a self-loathing backwater dirge of brilliance. Of course the album doesn't hold an even keel, going through wonky pop dreams and broken ruminations of getting stuck in Sydney and ukelele/karaoke sessions in Mullumbimby, dog parks, bottle shops, footy and crates of beer, all centred around the suburb of Petersham. It has the downer vocal/lyrical power of Kitchens Floor, the dry spoken-word wit of James Boyd or Nathan Roche (who makes an appearance on 'Sagres'), the wry loquaciousness of  Dag (whose Dusty Anastassiou also pops in to co-write and "star" in the excellent 'Stuck In Sydney'). It has the ramshackle energy of the best hardscrabble bands coming out of Australia like cockroaches abandoning a fiery building. The best parts of Australian outlier downhearted rock then. I love this record. Grab No Limits here.

Pained Murray On A Ciggie Break

Zac Denton and his not-so-merry men (and wo-man) Ciggie Witch are back with 'Look of Pain' (out through Lost & Lonesome and Osborne Again - although no longer on Osborne St RIP *sigh*), a sonorous yet maudlin jaunt, the juxtaposition between sunny composition and wryly morose exposition, continuing to make the same mistakes, only at the expense of himself. The last lines, "Don't even worry yourself/It's my groundhog day" are bittersweet - a hangdog expression, woe-is-me, right? But we all know that Bill Murray came out of it smelling of roses, stopped being shit and became a better man with a film that still gets good Nielsen hits even though Channel 10 play it once a quarter. Who knows - maybe Denton will finally get his Andie MacDowall? We can dream and hope. Fave CW song yet.

Ciggie Witch are cruisin around being ciggie witches with Cool Sounds - catch them here and there:

June 25 — Canberra @ Phoenix w/ Cool Sounds + California Girls
June 26 — Sydney @ The Union w/ Cool Sounds + Staunch Nation
June 27 — Ballarat @ The Eastern w/ Cool Sounds + Crepes + Bleach Boys
July 24 — Castlemaine @ The Bridge w/ Cool Sounds
July 25 — Melbourne @ The Shadow Electric — Lost And Lonesome Leaps & Bounds Festival Party w/ The Zebras + Milk Teddy + Footy + Tim Richmond + Monnone Alone

Drinking The Juice of Young Ciggie Witches

The latest in a long line of acts to come out of Osborne Street in Brunswick, Melbourne (although it’s been a week so more may have spawned) is Ciggie Witch, and their debut album Rock & Roll Juice hits all the hallmarks of this highly creative hub. It opens with a predictable summer jangle about languid Melbourne living, 'Long Weekend', before we get the more baritone vocals of Mitch Clemens on 'Broken Nose' – and it makes sense. It's this particular counterpoint of voice, tone and worldview that works on disparities like wondering why you'd bother getting out of bed if you will only surf the 'Net in, er,  'The Internet' or waiting for your brother to come to the servo to pay for your petrol because you have no money in 'Point Cook'.

Resplendent in shimmering beauty (thanks to some wonderful instrumentation from Ocean Party/Zone Out/Alek & the Ramps alumni) and a measured production from Dusty Anastassiou (Brisbane brother in arms from Dag), Rock & Roll Juice is the perfect aural equivalent of diary entries for these guys and gals – the kind of lackadaisical, ponderous, easy-livin’ existences that do indeed exist, seem point- and fruitless, yet are rich in existential whimsy, introverted melancholy, yet an overall love of living life in the moment, as it comes, without worrying too much about where the 2 minute noodles or toilet paper will come from one week to the next because there is a footy to kick, a beer to drink, a Sega emulator to play, a guitar to strum and a smile to crack.

Rock & Roll Juice is available on limited vinyl here.

Belated Friday Cover Up(s) - Nadja, Powder Blue, Jack Lee

I'm a bit rusty with the posts - I'm even getting the Friday Cover Up done on a Saturday! Pay no mind, though, as I have three beauties for your perusal... Starting with something a little more psychedelic, with this slow cerebral interpretation of The Rolling Stones' 'Play With Fire' by Canadian quartet Powder Blue. This is the kind of slow-burn, subtle psych that my head needs right now, and the female crown lends this that little bit more melancholy laced with menace. I need to hear more from these girls for sure!

Now let's scruff it up some. Jack Lee is in Sydney's slacker beer swillers Beef Jerk (they wrote that addictive tune 'Schooners' last year) and is venturing out with a solo release on Osborne Again Records. Here is the first taste, a cover of Australian indie stalwarts The Cannanes' 'Stories To Be Kept Under Lock And Key' (we all have an abundance of those...). It's a predictably scrappy affair with a healthy does of sunlit brevity, tilted off-key warbles, and wasted grins. Perfecto.

Finally let's drone ourselves into the ground with the ever excellent Nadja. They have covered The Cure's 'Faith', a 12 minute delving into the underworld that you can find on Berlin label SPÄTI PALACE's second compilation collection, which you can get for free here. It's incredible, and also includes songs from SM fave Crystal Shipsss and also Soda Fabric, who you will hear about also soon enough...but until then, revel in the down.


If you are in Brisbane tonight, get along to either the Mad Nanna show out at Chardons Corner, or Canadian punk reprobates Thee Nodes will be smashing the 199 artspace with help from lurking jerks from Melbourne Gentlemen - you will see me at either/both.

Pencil Pushers

Yet another Melbourne act branching out of the Osborne Street crew that's spawned the likes of The Ocean Party, Velcro, Hot Palms, Zone Out and Andre, Pencil is the wonky pop brainchild of TOC bassist Liam Halliwell (AKA Snowy Nasdaq, who amongst moonlighting with Mining Boom and doing his own things like Menstrual Cycle, as well as recording and mixing stuff, is a busy boy indeed). Halliwell is joined in Pencil by Ashley Bundang (Hot Palms, Zone Out), Jordan Thompson (The Ocean Party), Andre Vanderwert (Andre, Hot Palms), and Zahra Khamissa (Hot Palms, Zone Out) - a petri dish of the Osborne Again/Why Don't You Believe Me? rota. It's more blissfully laid back than The Ocean Party (if you can believe that possible), and deserved of their own spot on the shelf of an already overloaded Melbourne soundscape.

Pencil have a few little releases to their name, most recently their Good Excuse EP. It's sold out, but you can pick up the digitals (and a limited number of their earlier self-titled and Sydney Weekender EPs) at their Bandcamp.  What will these guys come up with next...

Something Less To Zone Out About

Another great little release is Something Less, the debut EP from Melbourne's Zone Out, and it's the perfect way to see out the night. The quartet features members of the bands Hot Palms, Pencil, Totally Mild, Scotdracula and is the bedroom daydreams of one Ashley Bundang, and each release gets decidedly more wistful and sepia-toned - a cloud of nostalgia, heavy burdens, metaphysical fatigue and the light touch of hope. It saunters along absentmindedly, a dancehall slowdance for those about to drop out, but the tracks here never feel listless. There is a majesty here that hints at a lot more substance just around the corner. That shimmering guitar on 'Greeves Street' also imbues a wasted elegance - being opulent and sundrunk on a VHS rerun.

Something Less is out now in cassette (through Osborne Again) and CD (Why Don't You Believe Me?) forms.

Zoned Out In This Place

Oops - I somehow posted this as the email I received from Lachlan at Osborne Again Music - MY BAD. So here is the actual post...

Enough people have mentioned to me in the past month the "fact" that too many people play in too many bands in this day and age that their efforts are wasted IE they should focus on making one thing the best it possibly can, rather than hedging bets with a plethora of acts that are variants on the same theme. I see their point - there are bands that are filled with half-formed ideas, merely because friends wanted to play together and it's so easy to record stuff rather than work and work on it until you have the money to go into a studio and make it right. Osborne Again Music is the kind of label that will fall into this category for some, seeing as every band on the "label" have a member or members from the same Osborne Street house in Melbourne. Beef Jerk, Velcro, Feline Fine, Shark Alarm...they all have that jangly, slacker, wasted suburban debasement vibe. 

Then there is Zone Out. Featuring members of Hot Palms (who are playing our September 6 gig extravaganza alongside the aforementioned Velcro crew' and hence the co-release of the EP through Hot Palms' Why Don't You Believe Me? record label), Pencil, Totally Mild (who I got to see the last time I was in Melbourne, they were pretty rad) and Scotdrakula, Zone Out has more of a considered, cosmopolitan touch (IE this doesn't feel burped out after a half carton and box of pizza has been consumed on a Tuesday morning). Their upcoming EP Something Less is one of spatial awareness - the band know their limits but are willing to surpass them, travel out into the glacial wilderness, their noise exacerbated by their willingness to drift and dream. 

Something Less is out on Friday. I'm quietly confident that this one will be a slowburner that will light your fire.

Feline Fine Under The Soda Eaves

Here are a couple of small Aussie releases that are deserved of everyone's attention, from members of a number of other bands - isn't that the way these days?

First up we have Soda Eaves, the project from Hot Palms guitarist Jake Core (he also has some tomes of poetry out there). Like Drapes Either Side will be his debut release in his solo venture, and 'Doll' is the first taste. It's a more raucous affair than the studied emotions that Hot Palms plumb, but that isn't to say that this rocks. It hulks, sulks and saunters into the fast approaching twilight, sucking furiously on a tailor-made cigarette, collar up against the wind, eyes stormy. Core clearly has a way with words, and with his distinctive Aussie drawl, blown-out fuzz and cheap production, he sidesteps the suburban slacker rock revolution by being resolutely maudlin and obtuse - and therefore, ironically, a genuine article. I cannot wait to hear more - and will get a chance to, when Soda Eaves plays the Waiting Room Saturday September 7 with McKisko.


Another band from the Osborne Again label (of Velcro and other Ocean Party offshoot Shark Alarm, mainly because these bands all come from the same house in Osborne Street in Melbourne's Brunswick) is Feline Fine, made up of members of The Ocean Party and Beef Jerk. Sunny twang, cat puns, boozy ramblings, vocals everything and nothing, existence meaningful and meaningless. When ARE you coming back?

Giving Rise To Velcro

Curtis Wakeling's solo endeavours as Velcro continues to thrive. Not only has it fleshed out into a five-piece that includes most of his Ocean Party buddies, but he is about to release a compilation cassette called Tidal Wave 2009-2013, made up some of his demos that are yet to be released (on Curtis' Velcro and The Ocean Party bandmate Lachlan Denton's new label, Osborne Again). The first taste from it is called 'Rise', and its awash with languid reverb and a sauntering weariness - a melancholy weight hanging over the seemingly perfunctory effort of getting out of bed. I've always wanted a maudlin downer to take with my morning murmurs - this fits the bill.

Velcro - Rise