Racing The Chooks To Your Door

The beginning of last year Melbourne's Chook Race finally brought out their debut record, the aptly spun About Time. I really liked it - it had the right mix of The Clean, Electrelane, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Dick Diver coursing through its veins. Well the trio aren't sitting on their laurels this time around - they have linked with the excellent Tenth Court Records (Wireheads, Thigh Master, Mope City) for their follow-up Around The House later this year. The first taste of it is 'At Your Door' - not really a Paul Kelly nod, but there are some similarities when you consider the lyrics - the plaintive Aussie blue-collar Romanticism of grafting out your own patch, from the ground up. The difference here is the wistfulness is palpable - this house built out of wood and clay may be a short-lived Valhalla, if not a perennial pipe dream. The ramshackle nature of Chook Race's delivery makes things feel loose and carefree, but that just helps to further underscore the melancholy shadow underneath. Australia has this bright spark instrumentation/maudlin content delivery down pat - I think it's a good thing, it's dry, it's unsentimental. Can't wait to see what else is dredged up around the house.

Keep Your Talk Tight During These Rolling Blackouts

There is probably a lot I could say about Melbourne rabblerousing guitar top-o-the-popsters Rolling Blackouts and their new EP Talk Tight. I could wax lyrical about the laconic sun-drenched meandering jangle of 'Tender Is The Neck', reminiscent as it is of the backwards-looking-forward warm fuzz that The Ocean Party happily inhabit. I could ramble on about the heady motorik rhythms and wavering effects that propel the rumbling rock of 'Wide Eyes', a track that has country twang, psych circularity and garage grit bashing out in a dingy basement bar, a gleeful blast that is as much a jailbreak run for the sun as it is a jam spilling into the early hours of a drunken bender. I could embrace wholeheartedly the upbeat canter of 'Wither With You', a sparkling bit of rough guitar pop that evokes a jagged Jonathan Richman or a young and carefree Paul Kelly, riding a steam engine of melancholy into the heart of the sun, the warm explosion masking the chagrin. I could even talk about the rambling on of 'Heard You're Moving', an Ocker Boss-type, maybe an Outback town Elvis Costello, revelling in adolescent masculine misadventures, the big fish frying in the small pond, as the wall comes down. But I can't keep hitting on 'Clean Slate' and wiping the slate clean, a raucous belter that starts off a little like Eddy Current's 'Rush To Relax' before we enter more parochial, golden-age Aussie rock realms, a shambolic jam (still...) that is the way I want to start every day.

Shit, I did say a lot, didn't I? Enough then. Get addicted to Talk Tight (through Ivy League) now.

Spectral Slumbers Left Up On The Mantle

It's funny how people's taste can be so similar yet so different. A good friend James is into the Fortuna Pop!/Slumberland Records camp 4 lyf, loving the twee ambling pop that comes from these stables. I tend to find that I have to tread carefully in this realm, as for every Veronica Falls there is a mortally twee release that just rubs me up the wrong way. So we often find ourselves at odds when discussing records of this ilk, and nothing has polarised more than Yorkshire bro's Spectrals. Whilst I didn't think much of their debut Bad Penny (here's what I put here), James raved about it being one of the better releases of 2011. Sob Story is their sophomore release, and the tide has turned. Whilst James laments the Jones' turns at countrified twang, I find these slower rambles disarming, especially the title track (probably James' most hated song, so there you go). Louis Jones' voice is incredibly stronger, the confidence dripping off every phrase, whilst the jangly guitars are pristine (thanks to ex-Girl(s) JR White's pretty fantastic production work). I was not expecting much from this album, but from the jumpy washes that echo through 'Milky Way' to the college-radio ramble of 'Karaoke', Sob Story barely puts a foot wrong here. If I still had a car, this would be jammed in the player ad nauseum. Great stuff.

Spectrals - Karaoke 
Spectrals - Milky Way

Yet James and I kissed and made up over Long Enough To Leave, the second LP from San Franciscans The Mantles. I was quietly confident about this one - their Raspberry Thighs 7" from 2011 was a fave of mine - and whilst it mainly avoids the scuzzy garage leanings of prior releases, The Mantles are becoming masters of their minimal garage pop realm. It's still ramshackle, it's filled with more hooks than Moby Dick, it still feels like it's been recorded in the rickety shed at the farthest reach of the backyard, fuelled with cheap wine and Beatles regalia - and it still enamours endlessly. Again, confidence plays a part here - there is no cacophonous outburst because bluster and subterfuge isn't needed to distract from what are essentially warm, relatable pop tunes. 'Reason's Run' is currently my favourite track on here, with it's more ragged, dangerous preamble ('When you saw me ahead, you should’ve crossed the street… you must be more careful about who you meet"), but it's hard to sit still on this. Think early Paul Kelly, the Feelies, the Clean - think whatever you like. The Mantles are holding the whole room together, and it's about time you noticed this.

The Mantles - Raspberry Thighs
The Mantles - Reason's Run

Both albums are available through Slumberland Records - you can get them here.

The Fall And Rise Of The Capstan Shafts' Kind Empire

Dean Wells sent me an email about a month ago, one I neglected to do anything about until about four days previously. I was rooting around the emails, trying to do some serious culling of old messages, when I stumbled over it. I wondered why Id left it behind. When I opened it up, all it had was a Bandcamp link to a band called The Capstan Shafts - no other kind of conversational devices or salutations at all. Now usually I toss these - there are too many things going on than just having something thrown at me without the decency of even the smallest amount of info - but I was itchy with procrastination, so I gave it a shot.


Kind Empires has a killer opener in 'Degenerate Era Sweetheaert', and it goes from there. Wells has a voice not far removed from revered Aussie troubadour Paul Kelly, if he was doing Guided By Voices and Thermals covers. It doesn't always work, but Kind Empires is a worthy listen just for the opening track, and there are other songs of its calibre littered throughout. Furthermore, it seems Wells is rather prolific, with a vast array of releases under his belt - I think that by fishing through the back catalogue you could muster up a pretty decent retrospective of an artist that is unfortunately flying too far under the radar.

Capstan Shafts - Degenerate Era Sweetheart
Capstan Shafts - Like Theme From "Arthouse Floozy"