Wrestling With Husker Dü Always Equalls A Dirty Nil

I had other concerns for the start of this week - interviews with some local bands for The Music magazine, hitting up more reviews for the upcoming Sonic Masala Records releases, new albums from Harmony and Guided By Voices - and all of those things are still in effect today - but I feel that I needed a more visceral, literal morning kick to the face to start the Australia Day public holiday. I'm sure there are some of you that are in a hangdog phase right now, where you either feel pins and needles in your face, or nothing at all. Well here is some straight up grunge rock punch from The Dirty Nil. Don't let the excellent song title throw you - 'Wrestle Yü To Hüsker Dü' is a grunge anthem in the Violent Soho vein. And that is an imminently excellent thing - I will always have a part of me trapped in the heart and soul of the early to mid 90s, sneaking into my bedroom to strap into these fat riffs, wails and thundering drums, flailing around on my bed like a lunatic, where no one else could see. This is another reason why music means so much - it makes you feel better, or better still, free. Cheers guys - the day can start now.


'Wrestle Yü To Hüsker Dü' is off The Dirty Nil's upcoming EP Smite, which is available here on 10" white vinyl.

Brendan's Favourite Songs of 2013

Whilst my other two top 10s will be a bit more definitive, here are TWENTY songs that stuck in my head a lot this year - whether they are the BEST twenty is of contention, even with me. Ah well, let's have at it then...

20. Mogwai - Remurdered

As if a list of songs from me wouldn't feature Mogwai. This song has taken a lot of people by surprise - but this is Mogwai now. And I can deal with it. Very much. This track is just as dark as their transcendent white pulse nightmares of Young Team, just from a different sonic universe.

19. FIDLAR - Cocaine

This isn't the best song from these guys, but they were excellent fun at the dire Splendour In The Grass this year, and Ron Swanson pisses on people. Fin.

18. Crying - Bodega Run

Chiptune guitar pop whimsy? That mosquito buzz at the beginning is painful...but give it a few seconds, and for the live instrumentation to crash on in, and everything makes sense. I'm stuck in a 90s 8bit skateboarding RPG!

17. Violent Soho - Covered In Chrome

I am so proud of these boys and their new album Hungry Ghost. I would have this at the top of every list if I was ten years younger - effervescent, virile grunge rock played at maximum velocity. The fact I still think it's a great album even when I rarely visit these realms anymore is a testament to its success. I've seen them play live four times this year alone and I felt the years melt away every time. And they are the best dudes on the planet. Keep killing it guys!

16. Porches. - Headsgiving

Porches.'s album Slow Dance In The Cosmos makes me wish that the Wolf Parades of the world hadn't gone so quietly into the dark dark night. This isn't slacker territory; just classic cracked intellect guitar rock. I love it.

15. Pale Earth - Coral Skulls


This foray for Benjamin Thompson to step way from the introspections of The Rational Academy continues to sprout myriad legs, and this track of the decidedly left-field Coral Corral release is the culmination of his propensity to push himself to the outer limits of his abilities, and then some. A track that may not be brilliant, but to me is a true testament to a work in progress; a stepping stone into the stratosphere.

14. Batpiss - Loose Screws

Not my favourite track from the trio's debut album Nuclear Winter, but it's a live staple, and this insane clip that accompanies it elevates it to cult status. If you don't feel a rush of blood to the head when listening to Batpiss, you are probably dead. Or at least about to be.

13. Dead - Scratching My Arts

A split with No Anchor is never an easy ask to stand out on, such is their brutal brilliance, but the underdogs of the Australian noise rock scene easily usurp their brethren here. Why isn't everyone championing these guys? With the amount of dark and twisted rock coming out of the bowels of our country, surely it's about time that people sat up and took notice?

12. Girls Names - The New Life

The longest track on the Irish band's new album, and for me the best by far. I really enjoyed the album, but it didn't stick with me as much as this song did.

11. Plant Parenthood - Transit Town

A small band from Knoxville who delivered what was the most listened to song on my playlists this year. Bizarre but true. See if you can ignored the sleepy, deceptive hooks. I can't. Shit, I'm listening to it on repeat again...

10. TEEN - Ambient



A cut from the Brooklyn band's In Limbo recordings. That was a great album of 2012, yet it baffles me how this didn't make the cut, even as a longwinded outro. All cyclical psych, all killer.

9. Per Purpose - Eureka


Probably not the best song Per Purpose put out this year - 'Warburton' was amazing, as is most off their new (and missed out of my year review yesterday) LP Circle The Stains - but every incarnation of the band is present and accounted for in this nine-minute dirge. Caustic brilliance.

8. Double Dagger - Heretic Hymn



The excellent Baltimore punks called it a day last year, then surprised us with a posthumous album, 333, in time for Record Store Day. This is a fitting farewell if I've ever heard one - Nolen's vocals say it all.

7. Pissed Jeans - You're Different In Person

The irascible howlers slayed it once more with new album Honeys, and this is the track that buried its sordid hooks furthest into my soul this year. It's typically dirty, raucous, serrated and blackly funny. You just can't fuck with this.

6. Ides - Prisms

Alanna McArdle might be more recognisable as part of Joanna Gruesome, who brought out a great LP this year. But it's her solo endeavour Ides that moved me most this year, and 'Prisms' really slays me. Every time. I cannot listen to this without getting whispers of the maudlin shakes and the longing that love and the loss of it can bury within you. Hauntingly beautiful.

5. Totem - See Saw Girl

I'm sure most of you won't agree with this one, but this track was played ad nauseum for weeks on Planet Masala. It's like a voodoo mantra, maniacal in its bubblegum hooks disguised as dark motorik. I'm not sure if Totem will ever match the heady heights of this one song, and I'm not sure if I care. This is enough.

4. Lake Mary & Nathan Wheeler - Agrimony (Porch Music)


A lot of great experimental and drone music crossed my desk this year, and there are so many tracks that I return to in my dark den of iniquity that its unfair to focus on one. Yet 'Agrimony (Porch Music)' is one that took me completely by surprise, and I find new pieces of beauty in it with each listen. A great improvisational track, and one I never want to end.

3. Gooch Palms - We Get By

I could have this here for the video alone. I interviewed Leroy from the band earlier in the year for a national magazine and it was a lot of fun. The fact that their LP NOVOs isn't a complete shambles but a combustible ball of playful energy and soulful intent is a further surprise. This track, though - quintessential party music. Well, a party in a grimed-out Queenslander with holes in the shirts and bottomless cans of beer. So, my kind of party then.

2. Pontiak - Innocence



This is a fresh one, but the Carney brothers are in my opinion one of the greatest psych rock bands going round. Why? Because the emphasis is on rock. Every album they have put together is strong, and 'Innocence' intimates that the next one will be a killer as well. All together now...'WAAAAAAAAASTED!'

1. Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener

This is the only song that is solidly in place as numero uno. I have loved this song ever since I first heard it. A woozy guitar track that feels country and slacker at the same time; Barnett's hilarious lyrics about a panic attack are prescient, acerbic and, whilst delivered in a flippant way, are defiant in the way they shape who Barnett is. No pretentions here, just a meteoric talent on the rise.

Tomorrow - my top 7"/10"/EPs...

Eleven from Thirteen

It's pretty hot in Brisbane today. I have no memory of who my secret Santa is anymore. But there's some things I'll never be able to forget about this year (in no particular order and with some of them actually released last year):

Violent Soho - 'In the Aisle'

Violent Soho have killed it this year. There is something behind this that I still can't quite put my finger on. That's a good thing. Plus, I can find no better contender for a nude bike riding anthem.



Parquet Courts - 'Stoned and Starving'

This is the first Parquet Courts track I ever heard. I went straight home and ordered the album on the strength of it. The best feedback of the year. The best solo of the year.



White Walls - 'Transmission'

The White Walls album spent the most time out of any on my player this year. There is a dirge that runs through these gems. The tone at 0:40 here is un-fucking-believably good.



Mogwai - 'Re-murdered'

From most played last year to an early contender for next year already. Brendan told me he listened to this 16 times in a row. I didn't believe him. Then I listened to it. Then I believed him. The I listened to it  fifteen more times. The bass tone at 3:17 could surely be used in place of a defibrillator.



Pop. 1280 - 'Nailhouse'

This Pop. 1280 record is also full of all things good for the soul - especially 'Nailhouse'. I was listening to this on headphones in my lounge room so that my housemates could hear the telly. Too bad for them when the "in a nailhouse" part came along. If I could do this on Karaoke, I would go to Karaoke every night.



Yes I'm Leaving - 'Creepy Man'

The Yes I'm Leaving we put on at the Waiting Room this year was really up there for me. And this song live is a revelation. If you haven't got Mission Bulb, don't worry. Tenzenmen have got your copy (and the Yes I'm Leaving back catalogue) waiting for you.



Cloud Nothings - 'Wasted Days'

Though technically released in 2012 - same with the Whitewalls album, actually... - I only got 'round to listening to this this year. I love bands who aren't afraid to hold a groove for as long as needs to be held.  I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate the 'Wasted days' sentiment either.



Dollar Bar - 'Everyone's Everyone'

Oh, man, talk about feeling good about music in Brisbane this year. These guys are bloody legends who write bloody great pop songs. The album launch at the Beetle Bar was a damn love-in. And rightly so! When do Dollarbar get there plaque on Brunswick street?



Courtney Barnett - 'Avant Gardener'

Another singer who writes bloody good, bloody clever, pop songs. Never have I smiled so much after hearing a song. I fucking hate gardening and now have a legitimate excuse in the medium of song. Hedging on genius.



Batpiss - 'Loose Screws'

Genius again here. Evil Genius. A Bat Pisses on a dude. This band is formed. If there is a necessary connection between animal urine and insanely rad music, here's hoping for further such incidents.



The Spinning Rooms - 'Julia'

The Spinning Rooms at the Waiting Room (and then at Tym's the next day) was the best gig of the year for me. Hands down. Frenetic, pacing, torpid they are really something to behold.


If I've forgotten anything (which I have), I blame the weather. And budget cuts to my brain.

Let Straight Arrows Make Up Your Mind For You

Its hard to believe that Sydney reprobates Straight Arrows haven't put out a record in three years. Well, they haven't, so deal with it. They have released a lot of smaller stuff, toured around the world, played with pretty much all the cool kids on the planet. They even came up to Brisbane a couple times.

2014 will see the record set...straight...when the four-piece will bring out their next LP through Rice Is Nice. Lead burger Owen Penglis has been sharpening his fangs on producing a lot of records around town of late (Royal Headache, Gooch Palms, Frowning Clouds, Thee Nugs etc), so we can expect this to be something special. Don't believe me? You jackpot noodle. Then here is some aural evidence that debunks your negativity, bucko. It's very Ty Segall, which is awesome. That's pretty much all you need to know.

Catch Straight Arrows as they tour the country in support of other local rad dudes Violent Soho:

TOUR DATES:

Thursday Oct 24 - The Great Northern, Byron Bay
Friday Oct 25 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday Oct 26 - The Zoo, Brisbane - SOLD OUT
Sunday Oct 27 - The Zoo, Brisbane
Thursday Oct 31 - Mojo's, Fremantle
Friday Nov 1 - Amplifier, Perth
Saturday Nov 2 - Uni Bar, Adelaide
Monday Nov 4 - The Corner, Melbourne

VIDEO VACUUM - Bushwalking, Violent Soho, Chicks Who Love Guns, Naked Maja

No preamble today, straight into the (full Oz) audio visual goodness...



Let's take a boat out on the bay with Bushwalking. The Melbourne trio can't walk on water (as far as I'm aware) but they can head out into Sydney Harbour and serenade you, topping it all off with a gourmet picnic and sun amongst the trees. 'In My Hair' comes fresh off their No Enter release. Definitely an exciting proposition - now about that show in Brisbane...



Speaking of Brisbane, Violent Soho just keep kicking goals don't they? Here is the video for latest single off their Hungry Ghost LP, 'Covered In Chrome.' All filmed at bassist Luke Henery's place, with some bite-sized cameos from the likes of Simon from DZ Deathrays, its a frenetic, cathartic one-take headbanger for the whole family. Really takes me back to my teenage angst-ridden days, hunkered in the darkness of my room, a green light bulb and my broiling thoughts...ha. Just don't go burning down that Hills Hoist just yet - it IS bushfire season after all...



Another band delving elbow deep into the grunge is Chicks Who Loves Guns, and their clip for 'Pencil Neck' is an oft-explored one - pour liquids and foods all over people. Yet as with most videos of its kind, it's a hell of a lot of fun, there is a lot of multicolours and love being spread around, and the song really goes for it, no holds barred. Bonus - these types of videos always remind me of You Can't Do That On Television. Please tell me there are people reading this who remember this...





Finally we come back home to Brisbane and Naked Maja. I spoke about their new single '#59' on Wednesday, and here is the video for their last single 'Take'. Filled with lustrous waifs lounging around in ethereal, gauche or suburban surroundings, it's all ambiguous, mysterious stuff - like Picnic At Hanging Rock remade by Sofia Coppola. Not that I'd want to see that - I'm much happier that we have this in our lives. This debut album from the band is looking to be an absolute corker...

Damn Terran Don't Lose Restraint...yet

There is a part in the filmclip to Damn Terran's new single 'Lost' where the soapy dyed water looks like a top down MRI of a brain and eyeball. That kind of sums it up for me. Still singular in their aims but kind of a cleaned-up a bit. Thinking person's rock; still slippery in parts.

I must admit, though, it frustrated me at first. There is a chord change early on which hints that this one might push the gain through the roof. It remains but a hint. This track is an effort of far more restraint. More the leaning against the wall after everything has caught up with you, less climbing the bar, demanding people, henceforth, refer to you only as DDP. But on a second listen, that second verse grabbed me. It wasn't the lyrics, it was that tone - what a voice. There is something lurking behind this. I have a feeling that, live, any pretense of it holding back won't last past the chord change. Diamond Cutter!

You can get a hold on 'Lost' here and tickets to the show at Liberty Social, August 14 (with the mighty Violent Soho here.

VIDEO VACUUM - Violent Soho, Pairs, Arundel, Beat Radio

Man, I'm done for the day (can't wait for the weekend to kick off), but I know some of you are just about to wrap up for the week (and a few are just starting...) Either way, let's waste those last/first moments on some visual toons...



We've already posted about 'In The Aisle', the new track from local miscreants Violent Soho and a taste of new album Hungry Ghost (read what Nathan thought here). This video is brilliant for two reasons - it shows why it's great to live in Brisbane...and it's solely about a dude riding his bike in the nude, putting up flyers about nude bike riding. That's it. These two things aren't mutually exclusive (although in my eyes they are - sorry Dario), but it makes a killer video (congrats Dario!)



Next we have Shanghai maelstrom Pairs, another SM fave of late. They have just out out this video for 'Mean Buzz', a great little number off their double LP If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will (out on Metal Postcard Records). The album is ace; the track typically droll, ramshackle and loud; and the vid is under two minutes of the duo in a warehouse getting shit thrown on them. Nice.

Another band that Nathan paid lip service to recently was NY's Beat Radio. They have released this video for 'Hurricanes, XO' (their best track IMO), and the stock  B&W footage of watersports of the 50s (some rather bizarre) somehow perfectly complements this fuzzy beauty (it also makes me miss Screamfeeder).



Let's finish off with an understated gem by another Brisbane native, Arundel. 'Flourish' found its way on the latest New Weird Australia compilation Sixes & Twelves (and is my fave compilation of theirs thus far - albeit with many friends' acts finding their way in there...) and he has synced it up here with re-cut scenes from the excellent 2011 movie Monsters. Truly beautiful and the best way to bliss out, fading to black.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

In the Aisle, Under the Carpet, Beyond Hope

Can something sound hollow? How much does the way something sounds have to do with the way you hear it? Maybe it's not the sound that feels hollow.

'Hope' is not big enough a word to cover all the ideas it's supposed to. Hope can be graceful, slim, false, misleading, even eternal. And we believe in the whole mess because it seems like we have to. What else would we fill ourselves with if not that ethereal carrot - the one that, well might it spring, only ever recedes when we draw close.

The Hungry Ghost of the Buddhist tradition (The upcoming album Hungry Ghost's namesake) is doomed to walk the earth full of desires it cannot sate. It is pulled along by hope - the antecedent for the rage that will burn on the kindling of these longings unfulfilled. Giving up hope might be the best thing it ever did. It might be the best thing all of us ever do.

What else would it take to overcome empty desires? What if we just did things anyway? What if we just took to life without waiting for the false promise of a fulfillment? Sure, we might have to forget about a whole bunch of things that people have told us about the world. Hell, we might even be left with no fucking idea what to do. But if we start, we might almost feel something; we might catch a glimpse of something beyond any of our initial groping ambitions (listen from 2:20 to 2:22). 

So we might stay hollow, with hope as our stopgap, or we might choose instead to yell into the void, to truly empty it and let what come of it come. My guess listening to the snare hits here is that Violent Soho have a message for you: fuck hope, fuck desire, fuck waiting for heaven; live and let yourself be filled.

You can pre-order the album (out through I OH YOU) here. If you're lucky you might still be able to grab a ticket to one of the preview shows (14-16 August - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) where you too can shout along with the chorus.

A Communal Late Night At Gaza

I thought I would end on this piece of ambient brilliance tonight. I'm physically and mentally drained, and 'Nablus' from NY's Ajnabi (the song is one of two abstract reflections/meditations on the situation in Palestine crafted after spending a time volunteering in the West Bank) has me close to tears. I had a conversation only yesterday with James, the guitarist from Violent Soho, about those moments where music moves you in such a way, and that those moments don't appear as often as you get older, or wiser, or more cynical...I don't know. I still remember when I saw the emotion on display at the 2009 Glastonbury when Blur reformed. I didn't get it, that much invested emotion into one thing... But songs like 'Nablus' pulls me back. Ive been looking over the twinkling lights of Brisbane, this plugged into my cerebral vortex, and I started to remember all the moments when it DID mean something: dancing to Mogwai by the side of the road at 4.30am, the fog starting to lift, the sun starting to rear its weary head; listening to Sigur Ros as the sunset lit up Mt Cook in New Zealand in various pastel hues; Radiohead causing my breath to catch when 'Like Spinning Plates' staggered over an awestruck Melbourne crowd. The list kept spooling forth - listening to My Father My King for the first time, or Raveonettes' Whip It On ad nauseum one heady evening, or when Source Tags & Codes first came out...then there is the first time I heard The Who's 'The Seeker', or Led Zep's 'When The Levee Breaks'; Alex Maas sing 'The Sniper', or Dad playing Born In The USA. All of these things are me, they make me who I am. And at this very moment, at this core second within the miasma of infinite seconds, I am Ajnabi too.

Ajnabi - Nablus

Big Sound stuff

And so it begins...The 2012 Brisbane Big Sound conference and live showcase promises to be the biggest yet, and already is touted as the Southern Hemisphere's fledgling answer to SXSW. Big shoes to emulate, but there is credence in such claims. With the likes of Steve Earle and the like taking part in Q&As, panel discussions and masterclasses, it has the potential to be an industry icon - as far as that goes, I suppose. I for one can see why some people consider these kinds of things a bit of a wank, but it gets people interested in all facets of music, which can't be a bad thing.

But the most exciting thing about Big Sound is...the sound! Big Sound Live showcases 120 bands within a two block radius all playing over the next two nights. There are some amazing bands that are playing, some of which I have spoken about at length in previous posts (Violent Soho, Transistors, Kirin J Callinan, Velociraptor), but there is a huge list of great acts doing the rounds. Below is a "hitlist" of artists to try and check out. Have a listen, then if you are on the ground check out where/when they are playing here. Ill be around and about reviewing, taking snaps, and other things I won't dare to mention here. See you on the beach!

Straight Arrows



Super Wild Horses



Step-Panther



King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard



Courtney Barnett



Bearhug



Drunk Mums



Go Violets



Geoffrey O'Connor



Jeremy Neale



Shady Lane



The DC3



The Gooch Palms

Nine Black Alps

Manchester's Nine Black Alps have been a little quiet of late, but all that is about to change with their fourth studio album Sirens set for release in October through Brew with the single for 'My One and Only' preceding the album on 23rd September. Its the best thing that these guys have ever laid claim to, really letting fly whilst also keeping things simple, justifying the years hiding under the covers. Loving their grunge overtones, it's what I love about Violent Soho too. They will be touring the UK shortly after its release too, so heady times ahead. Here's a couple of tasters anyway, let's get dumb, loud, and awesome.

Nine Black Alps - Living In A Dream
Nine Black Alps - Don't Forget To Breathe

Propagandhi Have Not Failed

This is as much of a thank you post as it is a "hey, come listen to this y'all" post. I haven't really partaken in any Propagandhi malarkey since uni days, so wasn't even aware they were still a thing let alone putting out albums. Up until a couple of years ago that is, when I started listening sporadically to 2001's Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes and realised how damn great a punk album it really is. Still, that was as far as my appreciation of the Winnipeg collective went. That is, until Tuesday, when I went into work and spoke to James Tidswell, who does sales/accounts for Time Off, one of the music street press magazines that I work for in Brisbane, but also occasionally play guitar for grungeheads Violent Soho. He asked if I was reviewing Failed States, and I had to ask him what he was putting in his crack pipe. But I went home and listened - and goddamn these guys are doing things that I have criminally overlooked all these years. Especially Todd Kowalski's all out assaults - I don't know how many times Ive listened to 'Rattan Case' this week. Seriously killer record. So, once again, thank you James.


Failed States is out today here. Below is the final track. And you can stream the entire record here.

Propagandhi - Duplicate Keys Icaro (An Interim Report)

Violent Soho Are About To Explode - Again

Seems like forever since Mansfield's finest Violent Soho produced something new - probably because it has been. But now Brisbane's exponents of visceral grunge are back with a double A-side 7" (out through I Oh You), the first taste of which is 'Tinder Box'. It promises a quantum leap in sonic depth for the quartet, whilst maintaining the aggression (can aggression be fun? This is definitely fun...). Love the art work too dudes. (Oh and the band leant their gear to Iowa in their Sonic Masala show last weekend, even though they weren't at the show, which is the best. I've said thanks, but again - thanks!). The next chance to see em destroy is in a fortnight at BigSound, I suggest you get there pronto.

Thurston-backed purveyors of grunge to flay yr ears

Just a quick post - Club Fandango have joined with Rock Sound and are bringing Australian exponents of all things grunge Violent Soho to the UK next week. Good times for all! Recently picked up by Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore's ever-growing label Ecstatic Peace, and about to launch their 2nd album in the upcoming months (its been out in North America since March - fuckers! But its basically a rehashed version of their 1st album We Dont Belong Here - hunt that down), Violent Soho will do their best to destroy all in their path when they play alongside Japanese Voyeurs and Little Death at Chalk Farm's The Monarch this Monday. They've just finished a month long Statewide tour with The Bronx, so they are primed! 5 squid, can't go wrong! They play at 9.15pm. They will also be playing the Great Escape next weekend. Great way to continue the Aussie musical onslaught...

6 Degrees of Sonic Youth #3 - Violent Soho

The 3rd piece in my Sonic Youth triptych is an introduction for you (most likely anyway), and a reunion of sorts for me. Hailing from Queensland, Australia (and as they proudly attest, from Mansfield, postcode 4122), young grunge worshippers Violent Soho have been ripping apart all and sundry for the best part of 5 years now. I had the pleasure of seeing them just before I left Australia back in 2008, and once again they made my head explode with their energetic fury. I always thought they had the opportunity to go far. Not long after I had arrived in London, they did a whirligig tour of Europe, dropping in at the 100 Club to fuck things up before they disappeared surreptitiously from my radar. But the boys from Mansfield have been anything BUT quiet, and 2009 was a watershed year for them, seeing them touring the US extensively with the likes of Band of Skulls, Built to Spill and the Dead Weather, all under the watchful gaze of Thurston Moore, who has signed them onto his Ecstatic Peace label. It feels great to have a 'I told you so' moment of seeing a small group rise up and get the recognition you knew they always deserved. Their 2nd LP (and the 1st under Ecstatic Peace) Violent Soho is out in a week - get it!!!

Oh, and they are playing with Society's Ills AND Thurston Moore (solo) @ the Ecstatic Peace showcase gig at SXSW on March 19...

Now enjoy a couple clips of the band, including a chat with Moore...