Who Owns Free Time?

Freewheeling dudes Free Time hit back in the new year with a new track, 'Who Owns The Moon?'. The band, comprised of totally mild twerps harbouring terrible truths from a panel of judges, is like Scott & Charlene's Wedding in that ringleader Dion Nania models his band around where he is, hence the appearance of Martin Frawley, Zach Schneider and Joe Alexander on the track. Its typically slow-paced, almost deliberately torpid in its sluggish approach, eyelids at half mast, hazily contemplating the lunar behemoth and the meaning of life lived/not lived. If you dig the aforementioned bands, or to a degree compatriot Summer Flake (especially her latest EP), or even borderline childlike lyrical conundrums placed alongside more giddily plaintive emotion, then you will get on board these relaxed, clearly Antipodean guitar pop shuffles. 'Who Owns The Moon?' precedes an incoming album, In Search Of Free Time (aren't we all?), through Bedroom Suck Records.

Blankets Of The Yung

Danish punks Yung are playing the Stag’s Head in London in a few hours – you should make your way down there (if you aren’t off to the Twerps show down in Brixton, that is…). They are following up ‘Nobody Cares’ with new single ‘Blanket’ (which is going to be on a 7” release through Tough Love Records, although it won’t be out until the tail end of July – pre-order it here to get a white vinyl version, there are only 100 available). They are young, having formed as teenagers and now only climbing into their twenties – which of course is perfect blasting grounds for mauled aggression and flayed tensions. However ‘Blanket’ also underlies the strength of this four-piece, as the melodies and songwriting are tempered and measured, the crystalline production perfectly molded to contain the fire until the glass is broken and all hell can break loose.

Jerking Beef Is Tragic

I'm loving Tragic, the debut long player from Sydney amiable slack jaws Beef Jerk. Coming from a wide cross-section of the city's DIY aesthetic (members come from bands such as Bad Guys, Housewives, Adults, Day Ravies, Snotty Babies and more), this four-piece/sometime-five-piece have punched out fifteen laconic ramblers that takes some of the token tropes of the much-maligned dole wave subset (droll, monotone vocals about underemployed middle-class malaise, drinking booze and specific city signifiers) and leaves it in the sun to warp in weird and wonderful ways. This isn't so much about being laconic as being smart-arses - song titles like 'Stay At Home Dads', 'Jerking Off' and 'The Last Chiko Roll', the latter with its references to the idiotic current PM and the iconic battered roll of cabbage, corn and glutinous gunk, make it clear that these boys just want to write songs that make them laugh, but that aren't novelty value either (their affinity with contemporary literate soothsayer Nathan Roche becomes evident here). There are melancholic meanders through maudlin sunsets ('Cotton'), jumbled jaunts through the detritus of humanity in the backstreets of the NSW capital ('Rhythm Infection', 'Aisle Ten'), and cantankerous canters through the jumbled thoughts of tetchy urban sages, sorting through the bowel-trails at the bottom of the public toilets for divinity ('Reissue', 'French Dish'). Beef Jerk always feel like they aren't trying, but rather than it being an affectation it's  because it seems honestly beyond them to do so - yet their unctuous delivery and style belies an extremely likable band with an interesting, amusing and epochal Australian voice, something that can't be said about many bands of this ilk really. Two thumbs up (especially when smashing tinnies on the bus).

Grab Tragic here. They supported Twerps on Friday night, but have a bunch of shows combing up and down the east coast in June/July (although none in Queensland - YET) - see below:

Friday June 12 – Grace Darling, Melbourne VIC (w/ Chook Race, Black Vacation, Gentlemane)

Monday June 15 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC

Saturday June 27 – Hermann's Bar, Sydney NSW (w/ Unity Floors)

Friday July 10 – Brighton Up Bar, Sydney NSW

Don't Mind The Twerps

My anticipation for Twerps' new album Range Anxiety just went up a couple hundred notches after hearing new cut 'I Don't Mind', a perambulating roller that incrementally builds, a lopsided grin and assured saunter intermittently broken by cascading sunlight. Martin Frawley has mined a rich seam of songwriting in holding onto internal doubts and brandishing them like shields against external threats - a self-galvanising force, inherently radiating with lackadaisical light. It's what makes each Twerps release such an ebullient event.

The Tail End Wags - Great Aussie Releases From Now And The Future

I haven't been able to write on here for a while, but that is the extent of it - I am writing now. And before I list my year's end thing, I thought I would do a MASSIVE wrap up of bands and releases from Australia that really deserve either attention or anticipation. So without further adieu...

I thought I would get the self-aggrandising out of the way and show the last two singles from Sonic Masala Records bands for 2014. The first is 'Different Order', the second single from Tape/Off's debut album 'Chipper', a great song that is aided and abetted (maybe?) by a clip of what apparently happens during a TO rehearsal. Jeremy Neale of Velociraptor and many other bands and exercises is also on hand to smash some Branko-lite drummage.

Now here is a band that we have loved for some time, put them on a bunch of shows, and are now putting out their first EP. Barge With An Antenna On It are a duo who like wrapping repetitive riffs and smashed-out drums into some sort of metronomic mayhem - imagine My Disco as they might have grown up in Brisbane under the William Jolly Bridge. It's going to be a split LP though with another great band, Danyl Jesu, who are beginning the New Year recording for their debut LP over in the US with Phil Elverum (Mt Eerie, The Microphones) - you will hear a lot more about that soon... (NOTE: This is the second single from a band in our roster to record a video of them playing in a van. This could catch on?)

Now for some bands that don't need much introduction. Twerps are bringing out what is probably my first anticipated releases of 2015 with Range Anxiety (January with Chapter Music) and seeing how quality their Underlay EP was I think it will be a sonorous winner. 'Shoulders' certainly seems to accentuate this fact - Jules McFarlane's wonderful vocals/lyrics, the chiming, rousing guitars - I feel that if the Flying Nun comparison hadn't been made before (and by God it's been flogged), this track would be the true tipping point. Amazing.

Dick Diver also have a hot record on its way - their 3rd - in Melbourne, Florida (also out through Chapter Music, this one in March). 'Waste The Alphabet' is more chugging pop than anything we have experienced from this amazing band in the past - it is a borderline MOR languid rock tune that overflowed the stadiums of 80s yore. Yet as with Twerps there is that affinity with the jangle-pop legends from across the Tasman that permeates this track and imbues it with warmth and integrity.

The off-the-wall-charts Gooch Palms tore up the US earlier this year, managing to link up with Trouble In Mind Records in the process. They are relocating there in March, so their January tour is likely to be their last Australian tour for 2015. Don't fret though - they will hopefully have their second album ready. Here is a new track - 'Trackside Daze' - that will be on a 7" out through Urinal Cake Records in the New Year.

The lead singer of Brisbane band Naked Maja Cedie Janson occasionally ventures out on his own (he actually played the first Sonic Masala solo series Campfire Tales back in 2013). He is bringing out a cassette on Lost Race Records next year, and 'Light Curve' is the first taste of it - it's a glitchy electronic wash of crystalline shards of sound cascading down on a reverberating percussive beat murmur, Janson's vocals floating like vapour in and out of the frenetic waves. As always, impressive stuff.

While on the subject of Lost Race Records, label founder Danny Venzin's band Nite Fields is finally preparing to release their debut album Depersonalisation upon the world (through Lost Race and Felt Records). It's a goddamn great album that drifts along in its own dreamscapes, Venzin's vocals like a dosed-up Ian Curtis, holed up inside his own head (which when you think about how this has taken nigh on four years to come to fruition, isn't too far from the truth). The band take to Europe in January and February, playing in London on February 23 at the Old Blue Last.

Canberrans Wives are something of ACT punk royalty, even if not widely known (yet). Formerly known as Sweet Shoppe and featuring past and present members of the likes of Assassins 88, TV Colours and Sex Noises, Wives have launched into a harrowing post-punk underworld in their sonic inebriation. 'Buried' is a track on the latest Cinnamon Records mixtape and is darkly seductive. The band intend to bring out their debut album last year (I have been lucky enough to hear it - it's incredible) - expect big things from these guys in 2015

Another band outta Canberra that has just recently reared its ugly head is the excellent Agency, featuring members of Hoodlum Shouts, Spartak and A Drone Coda. The band are intent on making a noisy mess of everything they touch - a Shellac-esque Midas. They are currently recording for their first official release, but in the meantime get a taste of their wares on the unmastered track 'High Heat'. I live for this serrated melody and destruction.

A very new band on the Brisbane scene is 100%, the trio divulging a torrent of glacial electronic elegance not often found in Sir Joh's graveyard. The girls have mostly been in punk and hardcore bands in the past (Chloe still drums for Cannon) and that edge is evident on the urgent 'Phantom Game'. But this BDSM tainted tantric swirl of a demo is very much stuck to the red-light-lit, velvet draped underbelly of cyberpunk seduction. Think Nun but a bit glam underneath the black couture - this is fucking amazing.

ScotDrakula are pushing hard to ensure that the garage rock phenomenon in Australia doesn't dwindle away amongst other trends and concerns with their self-titled LP that came out last month. When bands like Step-Panther change things up and Velociraptor teeter on the edge of novelty, something as silly and simple as 'Shazon' is all the world really needs to justify its existence - plus they have other songs called 'Wendigo' and 'Pig Eyes' so you know, they have my vote. Grab the album here.

Lotta post punk coming out of Australia. Another band (who I spoke about not too long ago) is Melbourne four-piece Halt Ever, who are prepping a 7" launch early in 2015 around the time they will be supporting Eagulls - a double chamber hit for the band. 'Vicious Decor' is the A-Side and it starts in a squall of frenetic noise that blows arteries before the incessant melody comes forcibly to the surface. They cite Sonic Youth and The Wipers - seriously, this is my gear. Gearing up as a powerhouse live act, 2015 might actually see Halt Ever burst through to the upper echelons of Australian artists next year. And seeing as they have a song called 'Bruce Springsteen's Tears', so they bloody well should.

Another new band to blow me away in an instant is yet another Melbourne band, PLY/RS. The capitals/no vowels combo throws you deliberately off track, as the trio (formerly/betterly known as McBain) blast through the speakers with an aberrant scree of schizophrenic punk annihilation on Gold Mine, Gold Yours (recorded by Scul Hazzards' Steven Smith). The former plays out like an epileptic nightmare, whilst Gold Yours stretches things out to five times the length, and is all the more fearful because of it. In short, it's brilliant. They are releasing a new album in 2015 - if only this was a Sonic Masala release... The fact this exists is enough yuletide fare though for me.

Chook Race only brought out a split EP with Unity Floors not that long ago, but they are preparing to launch their new album aptly named About Time. First taste off it is 'Dentists' and it has the fidgety, somehow muscular jangle of Eddy Current Suppression Ring with the buoyancy that Chook Race pin down so effortlessly. It is being distributed throughout the US via Easter Bilby Records so hopefully a push over the pond is on the cards for these excellent dudes.

Another hotly anticipated release comes from a band that have been an indelible part of my DNA since the mid-2000s, Love Of Diagrams. Seriously, their instrumental debut The Target Is You is still stellar, one of the underrated albums of this century. Of course the lyrics have since come fully to the fore, but that doesn't mean their warm intricate interplay doesn't continue to weave aural magic and roots you to the spot. The new album Blast comes out on Bedroom Suck Records in March. Recorded at Steve Albini's Chicago Mastering Studio. Photo above taken by Bob Weston. ENOUGH! Blast cannot come soon enough!

Joe Saxby, once of short-lived Tabletop Lamps, now masquerades as These Guy. His productions are always pretty fun. Well he released an EP through Wood and Wire Records earlier this year called Human Language, and it's, in his words, "I found it only appropriate to make a kind of tepid, grammatically inadequate play on this idea and call myself These Guy and make beats and melodies and etcetera just like every other whiteboy with a computer." The discombobulated musings here all float around the notion that the most psychologically damaging thing to a human is human language itself, with all its nuances, discrepancies and failings. The album itself overlaps and floats in and out of recorded sounds, "whiteboy computerings" and a sharp insightful mind. In short, this is the calling card for an artist of considerable talent. Small Fact - he also played a Campfire Songs session, so there you go - I know what I'm on about.

Stacey Wilson (Rites Wild)'s noise/drone experiment Regional Curse released a self-titled record back in September through Not Not Fun/Format, and it is incredible. Mastered by Lawrence English (who had a great year himself with his excellent Wilderness of Mirrors album), the album is a dark and meditative journey through the lesser-explored regions of insecurity and regret, before a surreal sensuous reawakening occurs, the emergence out of the chrysalis, reborn. It is this kind of electronic drone that I truly enjoy - something that coalesces inside of you and around you, not just a bludgeoning apocalyptic nadir.

Another misnomer of a moniker is Kids of Zoo - these kids are anything BUT family-friendly. The punks never let up throughout the entirety of new album Welcome To Parrot Eyes, with the longest track barely scraping the underbelly of two-and-a-half minutes. There are McLusky moments ('Bad Nanna'), there are Hot Snakes moments, there are Jesus Lizard moments, there are even local touchstones like The Kremlings in there - but above all else, it is a electric rod into the groin that drives you around like a horny marionette, the sex punk parody of Weekend At Bernies with added cocaine. Out through Every Night Is A Saturday Night (The Spinning Rooms, Batpiss), this album is a powerhouse injection in both ears, an aural colonoscopy, a sonic desecration, a noise-laden lynching. Maybe it is for all the family after all...

Sydney dreamers Cull have another single out in the form of 'Nasty Drought', which will feature on their debut LP Aloft in early 2015. It's another dreamworld that is not of this world - the skewed bent notes that throw the balance off the cathartic release, the operatic sighs and warbles that belie the muscularity that drives the band forward... Cull are an elliptic band - hard to pin down, even harder to resist. They are playing Petersham Bowls Club Sunday Jan 18 supporting Ghost Notes' Moonlight State launch (sorry, had to fit in one more plug!) - expect to hear more from these guys next year.

Brisbane wired degenerates Bent played one of their first shows at a Sonic Masala show at Trainspotters (supporting Beef Jerk) and have continued to skew all notions of song-based writing on their rusted corkscrew. It's post-punk a la Trash Kit, but decidedly more unhinged - Heidi Cutlack's vocals and lyrics veer well off the track, a stream of unconsciousness, whilst Glen Schenau's guitar is just as breathtaking and off-the-wall as we have come to expect from the Per Purpose frontman. Non Soon (out on Virtual Cool) is eighteen songs of broken wails and cathartic chemtrails - an epiphany from the madman in the skies.

I feel remiss already having not covered the two singles off their new record, called, err, Record, so here is a mention to Brisbane sludgy degenerates Bottlecock who launched said album last weekend. 'Girt By Dickheads' and 'Karaoke Quickie' are great songs, even if my favourite is the newly offered 'Caant' which upholds those early drilled into the hole Magic Dirt references mainly due to Ash Cock's growl and sneer. A very underrated band - but then again, they don't really give a fuck - they are called Bottlecock after all. Nevertheless, get behind these clowns, they are great. Vote #1 Dickheads indeed.

Adam Scott has played in a plethora of Brisbane punk bands such as Eat Laser Scumbag! and Undead Apes. He is also responsible for Future Shocks, an 80s cyberpunk odyssey as imagined by the Sierra gaming studio. So it holds all the Scott staples then - heavy Ramones influence, tongue firmly in cheek, droll film clip (from the ever prolific Alex Dunlop). The sadness would by devastating if it wasn't so hilarious. Touche, Mr Shocks, touche.

Another day, another Dunlop production. This time its for Pleasure Symbols, another synth downer act from Brisbane - I mean that in the best possible way, because the glacial grind that this duo breaks out is the sensuous counterpoint to Multiple Man's sneering arrogance, yet still with the same level of disdain. I really dig these guys, and hope to hear heaps more of them in 2015.

I have mentioned Kurt Eckardt AKA Astral Skulls in the past. Well he has released another couple of songs recently, and they are both pretty ace. 'In The Sky' is this languid pulse with a gnarled electric guitar jam that underpins it all - but with Eckardt's monotone vocals dripping of melancholy and abject despair - yet still makes you feel pretty great. The party jumps back in with 'This Party Bites', and I know that it's these DZ-meets-a-puerile-Total Control-esque tracks that get a lot of people's blood pumping, but I prefer the shuffle rather than the sprint here. Anyway, regardless, I'm looking forward to hearing the album Mystery Loves Company when it comes out.

Byron Bay's dirtiest garage mavens The Ganaschz have more no-fi dribblings on offer, which are always nice. 'Wow Kapow' is a surprisingly well-executed video featuring fake beards, fake crocodiles, real knives and balloons - lots of balloons. The song itself is breakneck, a breathless balltearer - as you would expect from these degenerates. Are they bringing out an album? I can never tell with these guys what the fuck is going on. Ah well - at least we have this.

The calm before the storm - the penultimate band release on this relentlessly gargantuan post is the 7" split between two unheralded acts out of Melbourne, Hot Palms and Soda Eaves. 'Muss Blues' and 'Lolly Water' are as meditative and breathtaking as ever, a somnambulist sojourn through mid-dusk netherworlds, where the feet lift from the ground and the shadows flee your body. It's stuff like this that makes me miss Australia so much. You can buy the 7" now - and you really really should. Soda Eaves will also be supporting Ghost Notes on their Moonlight State tour - this show at the Public Bar at Sunday January 25.

And to finish off, another much anticipated Australian release - Captains of Industry by noise deviants DEAD. It's actually been out for a while, but the vinyl has been a times' coming. I'm not gonna say much now - partly because I have been doing this post on and off for six hours, but also because it deserves a stand-alone review - but suffice to say it is brilliant, and may feature in my best of list to end out the year. Just sayin. Buy this ASAP.

Video Vacuum - Twerps, September Girls, Magic Bones, Los Angeles Police Department

It's starting to cool down/heat up in here (depending on your end of the world), but we all like music and not working, so let's link hands as one and skive off, yeah?

Twerps - Back to You (Official Music Video) from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Twerps' new single 'Back To You' makes me so happy. Its so bright and bubbling and happy (sounding) - and the random footage of Aussie exteriors, both commercial, industrial and residential - it really gives me the warm and fuzzies. That dog too, Jesus, did someone film a dream of mine? If so, I wouldn't mind this being my theme tune. And hopefully it all keeps coming back - to this, and to you.

The bewitching September Girls take things one step further on the video for 'Veneer', going deep Goth that puts the hex firmly on those Craft wannabes. The last frame, of the black dripping on the floor - for the woman to now have white hair - is a pretty cool concept. Shedding physicalities through a viscous liquid. A killer song (figuratively), a killer clip (literally).

Yet another addition to the burgeoning cesspool of Aussie garage rock antics, Magic Bones comes barrelling forth with a video for new track 'Anytime Anywhere', a song that holds firmly onto the nutso schizoid Thee Oh Sees mantra and doesn't quit. It's a really fun song. The video is normal garage lunacy - by which I mean it's anything but normal - further heightened by a drummer that is a mic between Wolf Creek's Mick Taylor and The Muppets' Animal (and a blink-and-you'll miss it floating head on a 70s Test batsman).

Finally, let's hang with Los Angeles Police Department! Not the force, just this one guy. Fred has been pretty much in love with LAPD's new album, and while I wait for him to put his skewed thoughts in check to write about it, I thought I would show off 'Enough Is Enough' in audio-visual form. It's a languid jam (as are all of LAPD's songs), but it is also pretty effortless, and the dude looks like a cool guy to hang around with. He also looks a bit like Brian Gibson from Lightning Bolt, but I'm pretty sure the polar opposites of those musical streams speak for themselves. A knitted Giants jumper is a nice touch too dude.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Merge Into The Underlay, Twerp(s)!

We are always excited about a new Twerps release here on Planet Masala. The news that the Melbourne band have a new EP out called Underlay is monumental – and the fact that it is so compact and realised is a reminder as to why they are much-loved here and overseas. Overlay is the first recorded output with Alex MacFarlane (The Stevens) in tow, and he slots in effortlessly. We also see Jules McFarlane taking a bit more of the vocal duties this time – not as in more in more songs, but in responsibility and strength. 'Conditional Report' and 'Raft' stand as two incredibly strong tracks. But there are other elements to be excited about too…the joviality and jaunty roll of ‘Heavy Hands’, the sleepy drawl of ‘California Clay’, the raucous shambolism of ‘Hypocrite’ – even the weird instrumental title track, which feels like the theme tune to some bizarre ABC children’s program. EPs are ripe for experimentation, but it is also great to have so many feelgood hits in the bunch – as the sunny amble of ‘Consecutive Seasons’ trundles into the sunset, shoulders a little shrugged, a beer hanging loosely at the side, it’s time to flip sides once more. Twerps are becoming a real institution, aren’t they?

The band have also announced their signing to Merge Records, which means their global exposure is about to explode even further. Underlay is available in limited edition 12” vinyl through Chapter Music – get it ASAP.

Friday Cover Up WORLD EXCLUSIVE - Kenny Has Billy's Idol Without A Face

It's always nice to open Friday with something special - a present before the gift of the weekend to come. And Liam Kenny doesn't want to disappoint so he is pulling out all the stops with the next track from his upcoming A Kenny For Your Thoughts LP (out soon through it Records). The cover he has chosen? None other than Billy Idol's "classic" 'Eyes Without A Face.' The almost six-minute track is a candy-cane kaleidoscope of confection, featuring some lovely echoing backing vocals from Amy Hill (Constant Mongrel, School of Radiant Living). Kenny does well to sound many things at once here - fragile, vulnerable, confident, sultry, ironic, ardent. You could just about see him belting this out at an RSL near you, all sequin jacket and knock-off Ray-Bans worn indoors, a faux-Stevie Wonder waver of the head in the process. But its the instrumentation that pushes this into the stratosphere - offering the emotional heft that Idol could never achieve. There is something about basic drum machine beats with Kenny Loggins groove and a surreal sonic swirl that plucks one's heartstrings, doesn't one think? Yes, one most definitely does.

  

A Kenny For Your Thoughts is Kenny's first solo album, and it promises to be something incredibly unique, on a par with the other outre projects he has on the burn. Jack Farley's production here can be seen as a collaboration of sorts, whilst Kenny is helped out by the cream of Melbourne music's crop - alongside Hill, Martin Frawley (Twerps), Ela Stiles (Songs/Bushwalking), Joel Carey (Peak Twins), Justin Fuller (Zond), Al Montfort (Dick Diver/Total Control/UV Race/Lower Plenty/Eastlink), Pat Telfer (Bitch Prefect), Amy Franz (Super Wild Horses) and Jack Mannix (Circle Pit). Can't bloody wait.

Gettin' Me Some Free Time

Our current predilection with jangly slacker rock that is slowed to an amble, tin in one hand and Centrelink rejection letter in the other, has been striking a chord globally - the success of the likes of Twerps, Dick Diver and Scott & Charlene's Wedding in particular are testament to this. These bands are going on European and US jaunts, plus getting picked up and taken home by Pitchfork and the likes - dirty stop-outs. But it makes sense that by throwing your love around willy-nilly, you will eventually mete out praise to something that deserves it, so kudos to them.

Before this post disappears into waffle mumblecore, I'm stating all this because the trend doesn't look to be abating, and ex-pats are now taking it to the international man as well. Free Time is a Melbourne four-pieces featuring Dion Nania (of Panel Of Judges fame, who also has played with S&CW and Twerps in the past), and their relocation to the Big Apple hasn't blunted their influences at all. Their debut LP (out through Underwater Peoples) has been doing the rounds for the past couple of months, I feel it warrants another mention. Why? Because it's a cracker - not content to move at its own pace, the album goes slower than even it seems wont to do, then speeding  up and slowing down like awkward lovers. I love it. You can understand why the Kurt Vile comparisons have been made too - although Free Time remains decidedly Antipodean. The song 'Nothin But Nice' rolls along like a merry narcoleptic on a beach-bound road trip, with an able and willing accomplice steering from the passenger seat when things become too much. Deliberately ramshackle yet always in control - it's a difficult thing to harness and maintain, yet Free Time have all the time in the world to get it right and make it their own.

Free Time can be gleaned here - well worth it.

A Milk Teddy With Real Zing

 

I wouldn't exactly say I snoozed on Zingers, the debut (and apparently long-awaited) record from Melbourne trio Milk Teddy, out through Lost & Lonesome and Knock Yr Socks Off. It's that I had never heard of them until Lost & Lonesome sent through the record in December. It only took one revolution for me to be a convert, yet my trip to Europe and subsequent hospitalisation delayed my revisit. But it's important that I air my thoughts, because Zingers is a record that stands apart from a lot of the good music that Melbourne, and indeed the rest of Australia, is tapping into, mainly for their inability to sit still. No one song is the same, which is refreshing and frustrating in equal measure. I hate it when a band becomes too monotonous and staid, but too much genre hopping can indicate a band without any focus, identity or form. Yet most of these tracks - whether delving into 80s guitar pop a la the obvious-titled 'XTC', to the Flying Nun flicks of the title track, to the dreamy reverb drenched doo-wop of 'Michael' and soaring synth euphoria of 'Night Worker'. It's all taken with a liberal dollop of irreverence, and Thomas Mendelovits's vocals anchor everything together (reminds me of a mix between The Shins' James Mercer and Real Estate's Martin Courtney).

There has been considerable efforts to lump these boys into the Twerps/Dick Diver set, yet such shoehorning is unwarranted (only the title track really comes close to such a mind set). There is far too much variance to apply such reputations on Milk Teddy. Yet the murky, underdone production of Zingers has copped a bit of stick, and for good reason - at times such an understated approach dulls the impact of these songs. Which has put them to the forefront of bands I need to see live - if these tracks are this good without a clear production, imagine what it'll be like on stage.

   

You can grab the ever intriguing Zingers here. This is the kind of album that will grow on you, I feel. Give it a slug.

Milk Teddy - Going To Sri Lanka
Milk Teddy - Zingers

The Men Are Electric

 

The Men played in Brisbane as part of this year’s Laneway Festival, which also featured the likes of Cloud Nothings, Japandroids and Twerps. It was quite a good lineup. I was supposed to go. Alas, what has stopped me from going to most gigs the past three weeks – the fact I’ve just had major surgery, and cant do much for a sustained period of time without wanting to collapse – stopped me from attending. The Men are really killing at the moment, and I hope I get a chance to actually see them live in the near future.

At least I have the Electric/Water Babies 7” to soothe my troubled soul, with the nearby release of their New Moon LP to come out on Sacred Bones very soon. If you have seen The Men, leave your experience in the comments below – it may hurt, but I need to know, and it’s no worse than losing an organ…right?

 

Get the 7" here.

The Men – Electric

Diving Down For Water Damage - A Taste Of Calendar Days

 

Perennial Melbourne slackers Dick Diver really nailed the "melancholic, drunken Go-Betweens sweltering underneath the verandah in the suburbs" sonic malaise on 2011's debut LP New Start Again - it was a real slowburner, and one of the best records to come out of Australia that year. Now they are prepping their followup, Calendar Days, and 'Water Damage' is the first cut. There is something calm and cozy about this track, all jangle and morosely demure, a bittersweet sojourn through the waning summer shade that sounds so easy to make, yet is nigh on impossible to bottle. Twerps may get much of the kudos, and UV Race more of the vigorous virtue, but this "offshoot" have more of the class and character that intimates that their records will still be spinning many years from now. To say this release has me in an anticipatory mood is a massive understatement.

 

Calendar Days will be out through the excellent Chapter Music March 16.

Four Girls & Their Woollen Kits

 

I really like Woollen Kits. I hope I'm not being rude or patronising here, but I really like Woollen Kits because they are easy on the ears. That is often the kind of reason your mother gives you for listening to Il Divo or Kenny G. What I mean is that the Melbourne trio have a way with their slapdash jangly garage punk pop that seems so casual, so relaxed. It is that little bit far removed from the likes of doyens of slacker pop Twerps and Dick Diver, what with their feet firmly rooted in the Sixties era of the Troggs, but still retains that loose sunny ethos that makes it so endearing. I bought a mate their Maths 7”, knowing that it is usually at the opposite end of the noise-avant-garde-experimental spectrum that he enjoys, but not surprised when he fell in love with it.

 

Four Girls is their sophomore record, coming out in a couple weeks on RIP Society (co-released by Chicago’s Trouble In Mind). The four girls – Shelley, Sandra, Cheryl and Susannah – are the focal points of four tracks on an album that has been cleaned up considerably since their smaller releases a couple years ago, and even shows a marked growth since their debut only in January this year (yes, 2012 has flown…). I can’t think of a better record, or band, to bring in the weekend - it will get you into the beergarden/park/backyard/verandah drinking mood.

Woollen Kits – Susannah
Woollen Kits - Be You

Mining Boom In Your Dining Room

Mining Boom is a Perth based trio that liken themselves to Royal Headache, Boomgates, Twerps and the like. Great reference points. And I'm happy to say that their debut release Dining Room fits in rather nicely with these sounds. 'PDA' is laconic, sunny, with a lazy-sounding guitar hook that surreptitiously sinks its barbs in and has you humming along. There is something lackadaisical yet focused about these acts, and Mining Boom, whilst a little more hushed than their contemporaries, offer a lithe kitchen sink glimpse into inner suburban malaise. Furthermore on 'Craigie', we have the humorous titular tale of Craig that definitely isn't going to be charging the charts, but is an incredible sub-two minute scraggy pop tune. This is definitely one band to watch.

Mining Boom - PDA
Mining Boom - Craigie

More Twerps In Stock!

Lotsa good news concerning the very great Twerps, who came out of the blue (at least to me) and floored me with their self-titled debut nigh on a year ago now. First up they are releasing a rad lil 7" on Underwater Peoples and Chapter Music called Work It Out - the great jangle of 'He's In Stock' is the B-side. And Brisbane punters can check em out on September 22 as part of Brisbane Festival's Out The Back series (supported by Kitchens Floor, no less). You can get tix for that one here.


Work It Out is out October - pre-order it here.

Opening The Cerebral Frame Of A High Wolf

I have to say that this year's Sound Summit in Newcastle looks to be by far the best one yet. Headlined by the inimitable Blues Control (whose Valley Tangents LP I am yet to hear, but all reports is it's a best of 2012 contender), Home Blitz, Rites Wild, Twerps, Straight Arrows, Mist - and French avant garde sound extrapolator High Wolf. Now it is highly unlikely I will make this year - I will working on a special project, more about which later, that goes into the first day of the conference - but it is likely that I will get to see most of these acts.

First one announced to come say hi (other than Straight Arrows playing the BigSound convention mid-September) will be High Wolf who, along with USA-based multi-instrumentalist Benoit Pioulard and synth cowboys Mist (which includes John Elliott from Emeralds) are a part of Open Frame 2012, an initiative at the Brisbane Powerhouse put on by Room40 to celebrate the sonic Underworld. High Wolf is a master of mystic interrogation and manipulation, playing with form and repetition to reconnect with the third eye, holding a strong connection to Middle Eastern and Asian musical tropes also. He puts out many releases - the current one doing the rounds at Planet Masala is the Know Thyself cassette he put out through Sun Ark, contemporary Sun Araw's label - and this promises to be an electric, eye-opening program. Not to be missed.

The first Open Frame event featuring, Benoit Pioulard, High Wolf and Mist is on at the Powerhouse on Thursday October 4. You can get your tickets here - I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes to be adventurous with your sonic palate. Your earbuds will never be the same.


You can grab Know Thyself (and by extension a plethora of High Wolf's releases) here.

High Wolf - Side A (from Know Thyself - song titles are Landslide, Obsessions History, and MLK)

Frankly, I Do Give A Damn!

Just as the media ruckus that was BigSound dies down, a festival rears its beautifully deformed head. It's here, the Frankly! Its a Pop Festival. Starting at 5pm, expect to see some avante garde pop rock in the form of LA Vampires (Not Not Fun Records' Amanda Brown, who co-curated this boutique festival), Wet Hair (Shawn Reed of Night People Records' band, pictured), The Twerps, Pikelet, Angel Eyes, Blank Realm, Miko, Ytamo and so much more! It all at the Brisbane Powerhouse - you can still grab tickets! Support a truly unique festival, right here on our doorstep.

Wet Hair : Echo Lady by destijlrecs