Video Vacuum - Big Ups, Black Vacation, Smile, Food Court, Bad Vision, White Lodge

Lots of people are back at work today. Not me. This post was written and posted last Thursday, my last day of work for a while; I have altered some of the stuff here to make it more "prevalent". Hope it gets you out of the back to work doldrums, for a little while at least...

Big Ups play tomorrow night, which I cannot make because I have my own gig on at The Victoria with Shitwife, Nitkowski and Girl Sweat (not even sorry about the promotion here - seriously, come along, it's a fiver for three of the best bands going around here). I am bummed to miss them - their last album 18 Hours Of Static has been a favourite, and the new one Before A Million Universes looks to be just as good. 'National Parks' has a severe Slint complex in the first half before launching into the Big Ups diatribe that we are more familiar with. The film clip is glossy, with plenty of interpretive dance and a heavy undercurrent of tragedy.

It's been a while since I have seen or heard new stuff from Aussie down-and-outers Black Vacation, but Dan Ford surprised me with this newie. 'For Fear' sees the man with a form of forlorn roto-scoping - an injection of Waking Life into the Melbourne slackersphere. The reverb-heavy vocals can't hide the mourn and malaise, and even animated he remains - well - inanimate. But again, as always, Black Vacation nail it. When's the next release coming out already?

Speaking of inanimate objects/people/faces in Melbourne - Smile have released their video for 'Holiday' featuring a sexy full-size mannequin, getting ready for work, dealing with PPTs and synergy, smashing mid afternoon tins and dreaming of that much-deserved city break. It's a great song, made all the better with the Tim & Eric meets Lynch coda.

Jumping up to Sydney for a bit now with Food Court. 'For The Morning' shows the band in true sporting and synchronized dancing mode - is there anything they cannot do? As you will see, there is quite a lot. Features the best appearance from a bear since The Bear (that one that ripped up Leo is such a poseur...) I love that it comes together (helps when the song rollicks along like a train with Seagal on board), but also looks incredibly half-arsed. Sometimes things work in spite of themselves.

Which brings us back to Melbourne, where Bad Vision take their jauntier punk approach to a house situation that looks classy (look at that stocked bookshelf! is that a clean 4WD in the driveway?), volatile (fusbal fisticuffs!), and jaunty (spinning unbrellas!). These guys are one of the most fun bands in the city, and their upcoming album promises to keep pushing the ante.

And we close out with the VHS stylings of 'Labour of Love' from Gold Coast woozy garage goons White Lodge. Basically this is looking back at the good times, a time capsule compendium of the band's wildness and idiocy. The album is out soon (watch new single 'Bella-Union Creeps' also below) - their stagger assault on the world continues...

Now get back to work!

Draaging A Melancholy Smile - A Triptych Of Tracks...And I Fall

This post is waaaaaaay old, but I like these bands, and I'm barely coherent to do much else, so fuck it, here you are.

New Zealanders Trust Punks. I don't trust em. 'Draag' doesn't make me change my mind either. But then Ill still give em beer money, because I'm stupid like that. Nah, they are pretty damn ace. They supported Wire in Auckland the other day. That's all you really need to know.

A shoegaze Joy Division is what one mate told me when I played Brighton band Morning Smoke's 'Melancholy' to him. High praise. I see where he's coming from, but there are more interesting things going on than a likeminded work shifted to a different genre. I can spin superlatives all night long, but I'm wasted, so just listen to the cavernous sound. I mentioned them a while back, and my opinion hasn't shifted. They have an EP on the very near horizon, are playing a Daytrotter session in April too - so this is the start.

We all need a Smile every now and again, and with something this jangly that still refuses to sit down and take it easy, you have to be pretty coldhearted to not return the favour. They brought out an album last year in Life Choices... My words are failing me - sorry guys - but rest assured that this is a great track from a Melbourne band that should get theirs in 2014.



Man, this was a nothing post. Just listen to the music over and again - that's what it's all about. Night. True Detective, Steam and Anchor Pale Ale and Pizza Capers munging beckons. I got paid - time to get my dues.

Hits From The Box #13 - Not Not Unlucky

Well, the year is flying by isnt it! April Fools has come and gone, and we are already up to the thirteenth installment of our celebration of the musical battler otherwise known as Hits From The Box. Many say there is so much luck involved in the music biz, and its true. But I think that luck is relative. So either these are the luckiest six bands to ever grace the Hits From The Box page, or they have made their own luck, or this moment wont even cause a ripple in the pool of time. Whatever it may be, I dont really give a shit - music lives!

You wouldnt expect to see many surfers wandering the street of Helsinki, surfboards in one hand, smoked salmon in the other - and you probably wont. You will find these guys though. Big Wave Riders endeavour to sculpt fresh music with edgy garage/punk the ultimate goal. They are as yet unsigned, but an EP is on the way. (NB - I initially wrote "Surf's up!" at the end of this then scrapped it to save face. Then I wrote this. Glutton for punishment...)

Big Wave Riders -Skate Or Die

The guys who make up Minnesota's Phantom Vibration are fresh out of school, yet that doesnt mean that their sound - an amalgam of chamber and dream pop - is in any way perfunctory or immature. In fact the instrumentation at play - organ, guitar, drums, fiddle, and celeste, all crafting layered songs that take time to build with an ephemeral climax - shows a real nuance for music appreciation. With influences spanning the decades of folk and avant pop, from Nico to Fleet Foxes, you can see that Phantom Vibration are striving for something a little left of centre. Kids is their debut EP, and is the first in a triptych of concept EPs - the other two are set to be out by July. Not to rest on their laurels, an LP is then set for a July/August release. Exciting times indeed!

Phantom Vibration - Gilded

I almost passed over Cutting Shapes, an indie trio from Wellington, New Zealand, as their literal moniker evoked a sub-par disco rock pastiche that would lack verve or vision. And whilst they do aim to get the audience moving and 'cutting shapes', the sound evoked from the songs that constitute their latest EP entitled ▲ (nice) is much more comfortable channeling earlier Holy Fuck and Foals. Ive always found that technical noodling and dancing have made strange yet attractive bedfellows, and Cutting Shapes intend to make this one night stand an encounter to last the test of time - or at least until the beer taps are drained dry.

Cutting Shapes - Trees

The Violet May are a Sheffield, UK act who have been making ripples for a while now due to their debut single release Brighter Or Better back in May last year. This could be for a number of reasons. Could be that the Guardian hyped the shit out of them for no apparent reason when they were basically unheard of last year. Could be that every UK hack under the sun has attempted to shine the sun up their arses, culminating in their headlinging some NME event. Could be that the lead singer, Chris McClure, is the guy smoking on the front of the Arctic Monkeys' iconic debut album Whatever You Say I Am, That's What Im Not, or that he is the brother of that other McClure from Reverend & The Makers. Or it could be that they are actually a pretty electrifying band. Id have to say - just bypass all the hype and possible detractors, as they have a new single to put out, What You Say, and it has enough to get it out of the gates and down the runway of its own making...maybe.

The Violet May - What You Say

The name 'Smile' is neither ironic nor literal, but figurative. Use your imagination and take that image you have of a smile to symbolize something else entirely, knock yourself out, whatever. Smile are a rock band from Reading in the UK, and with such a proximity to the perennially awesome rock festival there and having been indoctrinated on the likes of Nirvana and The Jesus Lizard, it was only a matter of time before music proved to be their escape pod. Closer, the band’s debut EP, shall be self-released on April 11th. The track on display is uniformly snotty and slacker-ly, but there's enthusiasm that helps to propel these guys along. They have been playing the London traps of late, with their next show being at the Monarch on Thursday 7th. If you like them - and you should - go check em out.

Smile - Closer

There's this south Wales four-piece called Saturday's Kids that caught my attention as I was fumbling through the myriad releases the other night. Influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Mission Of Burma and ...Trails Of Dead, I was immediately bi-curious (and by that I meant I was curious to find out if they were any good and if they were shit in equal measures. At least I think. Maybe Im bi-confused...) Anyway, Saturday's Kids is a 10" EP due out on April 7 through Art For Blind, Time As Colour and Bombed Out. Whilst they may have started out as a pretty much no frills punk band blaring out 2 minute punk songs, these five songs are edging into more experimental ground and opt for more distorted layers, tense build ups, and sometimes pensive sounds. And for you r information, the early Trail Of Dead comment is pretty much warranted.

Saturday's Kids - I Am A Runner
Saturday's Kids - The Old Comedians

Happy Sunday!