Taking Bozmo B-hind A Tree At The Lakehouse

 

Bozmo’s back!

I was a big fan of the Boston garage rock band’s debut Hosanna In The Highest back in 2011, but they kinda fell off my radar after that. Now they have B A Tree out in 7” form, and the title track offers more of the infectious rock that I didn’t realise I was missing. There is even a bit of Ty Segall in some of the delivery, which never hurt ANYone. The B-side ‘Lakehouse’ takes things down a notch, but is even more likable – fun and breezy, less direct, even a bit croony. And that riff should be illegal, its so addictive. Good stuff boys – keep this ball rolling!

 

Grab the 7” here, whilst we wait with bated breath for that longplayer to come to fruition.

Bozmo - B A Tree

Never Bored of Wetting The Bed

 

I'll be honest with you - Ive seen Sydney four-piece Bed Wettin' Bad Boys once, and thought they erred on the wrong side of shambolic. Normally I don't mind that - it can intensify the experience - but on that occasion (I think it was at Woodland in 2011? Or was it the Zoo?) it just fell apart. I never truly wrote them off after that - I just didn't keep an eye on them.

What a mistake.

Their new album, Ready For Boredom, is currently my album of 2013. Early days, sure, but it's so...unpretentious. Coming from RIP Society and featuring the bassist from Royal Headache, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. But its the true fact that these guys are making unsentimental rock without worrying about trends, without dirtying the sound to cover the many imperfections, avoiding being a "party band" - this is a band that just enjoys - I mean, really fucking loves - playing together. There's no tricks, no flights of fancy, not bells and whistles, pop references, current cultural touchstones... Sure, it's all been heard before, but as is always the case, when done right, with heart and personality, it becomes new, original. But Ready For Boredom isn't even about referencing its influences, of which there are many - It's just four guys playing music. It isn't railing against the slacker vibe pervade the Aussie rock landscape at the moment, nor a kneejerk reaction to the ultra-slick and ultra-poor production styles that make up the vast majority of albums. It just...is. From the opening strains of 'Devotion' to the fading feedback of 'Keep It From You', I was hooked.

 

Bed Wettin' Bad Boys played here only a couple weeks ago, but I'm sure they'll be back in Brisbane very soon. Pick up Ready For Boredom here - I don't think I need to stress how much you need this.

Bed Wettin' Bad Boys - Devotion
Bed Wettin' Bad Boys - Bite My Tongue

These Strangers Aren't Losers

 

It's my birthday today, so I'm only giving short blasts of posts. The rest of the day is being spent doing nothing – watching Justified and Workaholics, and sleep probably. Not exciting, sure – but its sounds pretty rad to me.

This track ‘Loser’ comes from the debut vinyl 7” from local duo Strangers, not to be confused with that shitty Sydney hardcore band or any of the many other Strangers bands in the universe. They play Aussie grunge a la early Magic Dirt as if it never left us, yet imbue it with a gentler side as seen by the B-side cover of Nick Cave’s ‘The Ship Song’. Ash Kerley (of Bottlecock) has been Strangers for years now, this being her “solo” outlet with Linda Dark smashing the skins, fleshing things out towards their timely, apocalyptic conclusion. It rarely explodes, just holds that upper-level velocity and intensity, and in the right atmosphere Strangers can kill.

Strangers launch Loser at the Hideaway Bar this Thursday. $8 entry, with support coming from fellow female rocker Sabrina Lawrie. A good night out, and get the 7" there. Splash out on some beers too - the girls love it.
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Cascading Beach Weather Within A Room

 

I finished reading Room by Emma Donoghue today. An intriguing novel that doesn’t quite live up to its premise, yet its look at how solitary confinement, isolation and abuse can affect everyone directly or indirectly was commendable. I’ve been reading it for almost two months, and I waylaid writing this post just to put it to bed.

Why am I telling you this? Because I was listening to Cascadia, the debut EP by Beach Weather AKA 20 year old Henry Armbrecht. The melancholic existentialism and sepia-tinged fleeting memories that waft off the music is akin to that of Youth Lagoon, a clear influence here, further augmented by Armbrecht’s assertion that each song was conceptualised after having a particularly vivid dream. I think it’s quite impressive (although the way Armbrecht says “ghosts” in Autotune on ‘Ghosts' inexplicably irks me), and is a mesmerising listen that you can easily lose yourself in.

And as the poignant, bittersweet ending of Room came to a close, it lent a certain level of gravitas that I wasn’t expecting. And this is why I love music – when it encapsulates a feeling or emotion to the point that they become indelibly entwined. A very impressive debut.

You can grab Cascadia here.

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

Learn How To Always Love Mission Of Burma

 

I mentioned yesterday about the venue Birthdays in Dalston, London, the Vice-sponsored basement that is merely an alleyway that doesn’t promote good musical experiences but does promote bullshit hipsterisms. Word on the street is that Vice is about to pull the pin on their support of the place, and it couldn’t happen fast enough in my opinion. I went to the Mission of Burma show there in December, and whilst the performance was good, it was more memorable for all the wrong reasons – and great comedian Stewart Lee incessantly yelling out “Just play the hits!” (and he kinda had a point…) Of course the trio were promoting new record Unsound, which is fair – but Fire Records had the right idea, bringing together some of their “hits” in a two-disc compilation Learn How: The Essential Mission of Burma. And goddamn, if this isn’t one of the best comps I’ve heard in a while. A precursor to the band reissuing all of their output – ALL OF IT – it does everything a “Best Of” should do, and reminds you just how underappreciated these fuckers are. Their reformation in 2002 has lasted, brought about some incredible albums, and cemented their status as an incendiary punk rock band that should have been shoulder to shoulder with Wire in this lil dude’s opinion.

Anyway, the gig was still memorable – they played a few of my faves, I saw a sweaty Lee in the flesh, and caught up, drank and smoked too many cigarettes with some dear friends. And listening to Learn How, I mingle those memories with my childhood ones, and that’s all you can really wish for.

 

You can get Learn How here.

Mission of Burma – Dirt
Mission of Burma – That’s When I Reach For My Revolver
Mission of Burma – That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate

Don't Call The Curtain On This Team Of Ghosts

 

I enjoy a little M83 – 'Midnight City' is pretty rad, and their Before The Dawn Heals Us LP of 2005 was at one point in my life a high-rotation chillout album. But after the screw around that was their closing slot on 2012’s Laneway Festival in Brisbane (which wasn’t entirely their fault, but after a day of rain, ridiculously priced midstrength drinks and reviewing an entire festival ON MY OWN, my patience left the grounds hours earlier) I've cooled right off the French band. So when I saw that Team Ghost’s frontman was Nicholas Fromageau, once one half of M83, I was book/cover dubious.

Lucky I pay attention to well-worn clichés though – I dived straight into the Parisian quintet’s new EP Curtains and haven’t yet resurfaced, preferring to remain submerged in the glassy darkness. Fromageau describes the title track as trying to sound like Thurston Moore jamming with Peter Hook, with electronics filling in the blanks. It makes for a dissonant track and the perfect introduction into the squalling futuristic hell that Team Ghost champion. A good song that tips into serrated greatness halfway through, it’ll leave you salivating. Great stuff.

 

Curtains is out later this month through wSphere, with their debut LP Rituals following suit in March. Can’t wait. Don’t expect them down on Australian shores anytime soon – but they are playing in London – Birthdays to be exact (and a lead-in to my next post…) – in April, you lucky sods.

DIY Is Good - DIT Is Better

 

I came across the trailer for this documentary earlier this week, and have spent the consequent time trying to find out what the hell it's all about. Do It Yourself is a collective of youngsters based in Amsterdam who create new media and organise events, bringing together creative people who like and make honest and independent art. Yet the endeavour is to stress that this is global. Currently, their main project is a documentary [named, funnily enough, Do It Together]. It explores the life of independent artists who struggle to survive making music in a changing world, with a large number of DIY artists taking part, giving their opinions and ideas of where this medium is heading to, along with plenty of great live performances. The movie is focused on the DIY ideology and the artists' independence, today's music industry issues, copyright matters, young artists barriers, the experience that people have and new ways they find to spread their art.

Take a look at the collaborators: So far we have many artists involved in this film. To name some:
- Devo [US]
- Steve Albini [US]
- Flux Information Sciences [US]
- Shipping News [US]
- David Yow /The Jesus Lizard [US]
- Lite [JP]
- John Dikeman [NL]
- Adebisi Shank [IE]
- Hella [US]
- Julien Fernandez [IT]
- Polvo [US]
- Tera Melos [US]
- Giraffes? Giraffes! [US]
- Chevreuil [FR] - Deerhoof [USA]
- The Ex [NL]
- Knalpot [NL]
- Le Singe Blanc [FR]
- Boutros Bubba [NL]
- Petrol [RS]
- Parts & Labor [US]
- Aural [UK]
- Deformica [ARG]
- Pneu [FR]
- Aucan [IT]
- Dan Deacon - [US]
- Part Chimp [UK]
- Al Scorch [US]
- Nelson Can [DK]
- Hurtmold [BR]
- Gijs Gieske [NL]
- The Bulletproof Tiger [CA]
- Kit [US]
- Selfkill [TWN]

That's a mere fraction. With the documentary due out in March, the collective aim to conduct some workshops to teach people how to do audio engineering and lights at shows, to get people more involved in their respective DIY communities. I'm very keen to see how this progresses, and what local communities already in existence think of this. You can visit their website here, and by all means, leave your thoughts below. You can also email them here if you are interested in finding out more.

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.

Gazing Down A Dead End

 

I haven’t been able to get ‘I Found The Ending’, the first taste of Dead Gaze’s self-titled compilation of past releases out of my head. A shimmering cross-section of 60s pop, 80s New Wave and Julee Cruise basslines, the song mirrors a time in the artist’s life (his mum calls him Cole Furlow) when he moved into a new house and realised that the things he held dear – material possessions, possessive ideas – weren’t what was important in life. It holds simultaneously a melancholic air, the realisation that so much energy has been put into meaningless tasks, and a release, a wary hope that things will be better after this epiphany. The whole song from concept to conception is stellar – a glossy pop bliss bomb.

Dead Gaze has put out many minor releases through the likes of Fire Talk and Clan Destine, all of which are long sold out, so its great to see Fat Cat imprint Palmist Records collate all these tracks together. Dead Gaze is a great record, but is exciting in that it puts an end to this chapter of Furlow’s musical life, as he prepares to venture out in the world with new material and a backing band to boot. Colour me excited.

 

Dead Gaze isn’t out until March – pre-order it here.

Double Discipline Is Electric

 

There aren’t many bands out there sound as frenetically intricate and cryptic as Battles, yet French trio Electric Electric come damn close on their latest LP Discipline (out through Africantape). Weaving looped and live guitars, drums and electronics into a heaving, tightly coiled whole, the band have crafted eleven feverish songs of breathtaking complexity. The trio like to see their music as electronica or dance music – even “pop”. Discipline is anything but.

However the album title is incredibly close to the bone – the rigour taken in the repetition, the metronomic swings in these angular sojourns into the darker regions of the unknown proffers precision and dexterity that most bands could only dream of. Like the more vicious step-brother of Errors, Electric Electric are so scintillating they have to repeat their name twice – and with good reason. This kind of instrumental music will infuriate, perplex, hyperventilate, but above all else arouse. If this were the future of guitar music, Id be a willing drone to the cause.

 

Discipline can be bought here – this is a highly original album that takes what the aforementioned Battles are renowned for and hybridises it with the aesthetics of Holy Fuck, !!!, The Faint and My Disco. A shitstorm ensues. Make sure you get stuck in it.

Electric Electric –La Centrale
Electric Electric – xx2

Going Easy On Blank Realm

 

Blank Realm have been one of the best bands in Brisbane for a while now. It wasn’t whether they would make the next step into awesomeness, but when – 2012 saw them support many killer acts (Mark McGuire, Maria Minerva, Zola Jesus, Blues Control, Sun Araw), and their releases on Not Not Fun and Bedroom Suck kept pushing them into the slipstream. But when I heard that Siltbreeze was going to be putting their next record out (in America at least – Bedroom Suck distributed it here, and Fire Records will do the Euro route in March), I thought “This is it.” And goddamn if Go Easy isn’t one of the best records of last, or any, year to come out of Australia. Seriously.

 

'Acting Strange' kicks things off, a dirty, chaotic, feverish melange of noise played loose and free. Dan and Sarah Spencer’s vocals intertwine in equal doses of laconicism and high-pitched anxiety. The synth is broken glass on the spine of the melody. Luke Walsh’s guitar roils and spits as only the most fervent No Wave acolytes know how. But there is tightness within; the quartet is more in control of their id than ever before, and is even more adept at spinning on a dime. 'Cleaning Up My Mess' is all loose limbs and slack-jawed grins stretched to breaking point, offering an interesting amalgam of the Victorian slacker-pop zeitgeist with glacial wear and tear, and a guitar solo that could be locked in the Flying Nun archives. 'Working On Love' seems like the closest the band will come to a straight up garage rocker, before the insidious barbiturate-pop of 'Growing Inside' scratches at the inside of the skull once more, an evilly charismatic heart-burner. The band even split 'The Crackle' in half, leaving a post-punk abrasion on one side and an indolent down-the-rabbit-hole percussive nightmare on the other.

Ending with excellent guitar wigout 'Pendulum Swing' and the delectable amble of the title track (one of my favourite songs of last year, and of the summer), there is no doubt that Blank Realm is deserved of high praise and prized support slots. Hell – don’t be surprised if the tides turn; this album has the bent swagger to warrant headline turns. A brilliant record. Grab Go Easy here, here, or pre-order here.

Blank Realm – Cleaning Up My Mess
Blank Realm – Growing Inside
Blank Realm – Go Easy

Faspeedelay Offer Skittish Atmospherics With Ghost On The Waterfront

 

Last year I got to see exciting Melbourne instrumental trio Faspeedelay do a show at the Waiting Room in Brisbane as part of a Ghost Notes vinyl launch (The Scrapes also played – it was a great lineup). Faspeedelay offer up the kind of asymmetrical, rhythmic sonics that are often found wanting in other instrumental rock bands – these guys are more steeped in the experimental noise side of things, preferring references of post-punkers like Wipers and Gang of Four rather than the quiet/loud dynamism of the Mogwais and Monos of the genre.

And now we can revel in the release of their debut LP Ghost On The Waterfront, - seven tracks of wiry, combustible energy and serrated time signatures. I especially like opener 'Goat Dance', the skitter and swirl of 'Don’t Let Me Go' and the understated atmospherics of 'In The Zone'. Faspeedelay insist that the listener invests time in their music – and if you oblige, you will be rewarded with a heady, cerebral mind melt with the mother lode of payoffs.

 

You can glean Ghost On The Waterfront (out through Audio Actions) here.

Blase Histrionics & Cacophonous Vibes - Two Weeks Of Scott & Charlene's Wedding

 

Last year was absolutely stellar for Aussie rock albums, whether they were narcissistic (Slug Guts, Spinning Rooms), or narcoleptic (Bitch Prefect, Pageants). Possibly at the top of the heap was Craig Dermody AKA Scott & Charlene's Wedding. Starting with the struggling ne'er-do-well in 'Gammy Leg', the ambling spirit of Para Vista Social Club which also graced the excellent split record with fellow Australian slackers Peak Twins. It's Dermody's scratchy, blase observations of the minutiae of Australian life that elevates his music, which continues onwards even after he has moved to New York. The bare-bones honesty is endearing and relatable, as can be seen on the title track to his about-to-be-released mini-album (through Critical Heights), Two Weeks. There are only a couple of new tracks on here, but with a new album in the wings we won't have long to hear how the misplaced Dermody views life in the Big Apple. Odds on, its same shit, different day. Hopefully that leg of his has healed...

Scott & Charlene's Wedding - Two Weeks

A Godly Triptych

Carrying on with the wordly connections, Im linking three acts that all aspire to connect with God (well, have God in their name somewhere...)

 

First up is another MUZAI alumni and SM faves God Bows To Math. Now whilst a new album is a little while off, on the cusp of New Years' the dissonant trio dropped a single, a barbed taste of things to come. 'The Only Good Fnord Is A Dead Fnord' is as strong a nihilistic diatribe driven by wanton bursts of noise as anything the boys have put to tape, which only heightens the expectations for whatever releases are in store throughout 2013 - and seeing as they have ten releases on various formats and guises over the past three years, there could be a few.

God Bows To Math - The Only Good Fnord Is A Dead Fnord

 

Another SM-endorsed label, UK's Gravy Records, is preparing to release (along with Distorted Tapes) Wolverhampton trio God Damn's I'm A Lazer, You're A Radar single. Its abrasive, silly, raucous, and fully of grungey hooks and hairy brethren. Expect much in the way of sweat, maniacal grins and tinnitus.

 

 

 

And back to Brisbane with Extrafoxx. Now I haven't mentioned Conwae Burrell's home recorded output much, yet this crackedc guitar pop has provided some great live experiences for me over the past couple of years, so when Love Is God came out last month it was something that I needed to have in my life. Ten lo-fi reflections on a lysergic, drunken Queensland existence, Love Is God is imbued with hooks and melodies that belie the laidback nature with which they are delivered. Well worth the visit.

A Double Dose Of Urinary Confection

It's not often that you get excited about the act of urination - well, I DON'T, I can't speak for you - but today I have been listening to not one but TWO albums by bands enamoured with pissing.

 

Pissed Jeans have lain a bit quiet for a while, which isn't like those misogynist bastards (although the Sam Kinison Woman 7" with 'The L Word' featuring Brendan Suppression was awesome). Yet 2013 promises to be all about the Philly four-piece as they release the nihilistic Honeys on Subpop. It could very well be the best album they have put out - there is the gnashing of teeth, Jesus Lizard-whisperer 'You're Different (In Person)', the laconic crawl of 'Cafeteria Food' or the breakneck nihilism of ‘Bathroom Laughter’. Brad Fry is in scintillating form on guitar duties here, and vocal shredder Matt Korvette is in brilliant lyrical mode too. It all adds up to another demonic ball-tearer that inexplicably infused with killer hooks amongst the dirge and debris. No one know how this works, or why – just be thankful it does.

 

If you preorder now, you can get a T-shirt bundle and go into the running to get the record in orange vinyl AND a 7" of some of their long-lost first demos!

Pissed Jeans - Bathroom Laughter
Pissed Jeans - Cathouse

 

Now I thought the name Pissed Jeans was disconcerting - that is until Benjii from MUZAI Records sent me the second LP from Auckland band Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing. Their music fits their moniker too - offputting, disturbing, morbid, perverse, and (for some) extremely attractive. Eeling is the kind of record that crawls inside your every pore, lays eggs and hatches inside you. Painful and horrifying, yet indelibly a part of you from that point on. Cronenberg for the aural masses. This four-piece (two boys and two girls, just so that you know gender plays no part in these depravities) weave nightmarish visions at a funereal pace. You might hear some primitive post-punk in there; some subliminal hardcore; some hypnotic rhythms of unease a la My Disco; some feverish rails a la the defunct Snowman. Eeling is a dark wonder, a disturbed revelation, a manifesto for the people under the stairs, gimp suit and all.

Dose yourself in piss.

Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing - Fingers Down The Throat Of Love

Haunted Party Tapes Will Catch You A Ghostly Death

 

Whilst Death Cassettes aren't the first band to send me something to listen to in 2013 - I'm still trawling through 700+ emails - they were the first ones to grab me. Their Ghost Party EP is six songs of solid gold. The Viriginian band have a an immediacy, inhabiting the garage rock format that SF alumni Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall make their bread and butter, yet with a laconic, slacker vibe that bands closer to home can identify with. So where faster paced tracks like 'I Don't Care' are great albeit interchangeable with any number of great garage rock bands of 2012, the slack-jawed amble of 'The Fool' and 'Upset' offers another sardonic edge. Usually when bands of this ilk take their foot off the pedal their focus shifts - with Death Cassettes, you feel even more at home. They claim Jay Reatard and SM faves Spook Houses as reference points - enough said. A promising introduction indeed.

Head to their Bandcamp to get Ghost Party - it's free, and really really good.

Death Cassettes - Stereo Spell
Death Cassettes - The Fool

Dead Angels and Black Meadows As We Wash Into The Sea...

 

This week the announcement of new albums from two of the world's premiere psych rock bands hit the streets, and it would be remiss of me not to shine considerable light on them both - especially as these bands have the tinge of the Apocalypse about them, with their search for the greater realms and all, and seeing as its getting all environmentally apocalyptic here in Brisbane, it is befitting to use these guys as the soundtrack to our demise...

 

Firstly, I have writ large on my love of Texans The Black Angels throughout these "illustrious" pages - the fact that their set at a hail-plagued and frankly underwhelming Harvest Festival this year was a clear highlight that their effect over me is far from diminished. The fact that their guitarist Christian Bland is responsible for one of the best curated festivals on the planet, the Austin Psych Fest, ups the ante. The fact that they accepted SM local faves Dreamtime to join the fray this year is cherry on top. So the announcement of Indigo Meadow, The Black Angels' fourth longplayer, piqued my interest no end. The first taste comes in the form of 'Don't Play With Guns', which is not about the Aurora Colorado Dark Knight shootings, but could very well be.

“Our music has always tried to shed light on issues that may be hard to deal with or confront,” says singer/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas. “If people think they can ignore the issues they are wrong. Don't play with guns, don't touch a hot stove, don't give your child a poisonous snake, don't turn the cheek when artists are willing to discuss these issues. In ‘Don't Play With Guns’ the antagonist is a female who has the power of persuasion over a man,” he continues. “Substitute the female antagonist with a Nation, substitute the manipulated man with yourself. Heed the warning: Don't Play With Guns.”

 

We mustn't get too carried away - this is a psych band that loooooove getting high - but their notions are spot on here, and the song is true BA black magic.

 

Trek to the West Coast though, and you find a band equally as adept at wielding the dark, chugging death rattle of psychedelic dirge. Los Angeles' Dead Meadow are resurfacing after a break in creative output (2010's The Three Kings was an exhaustive trip, albeit one bristling with darkly rich undercurrents), prepping a double LP to be titled Warble Womb (put out by Xemu Records). This is doubly exciting seeing as it marks the first album to feature returning original member and contributing songwriter Mark Laughlin (drums) since 2001’s Howls From The Hills. The reunited original trio of Laughlin, Jason Simon (guitar/vocals) and Steven Kille (bass) released the following statement on the new material. “The new material will strike many as a return to the heavier side of our first albums. However, it still retains a good deal of the psych-pop element that was more prominent on our Matador Records releases. The way Warble Womb came out, we are viewing it as almost a follow-up to Howls from the Hills.”

Hole. E. Shit. Colour me all kinds of LSD-induced excited. Now as long as I ride this wild weather out...

3 Years Of Spinning Rooms and Waking In Fright

 

Planet Masala disappeared behind an ash cloud for a couple months there. Its sole inhabitant busy with trekking the darker corridors of Europe, eating, drinking and laughing maniacally, having the time of my life with friends and lovers away from my actual life. Unfortunately it all came to pass - in a painful reminder of reality too, as what was thought to be a bout of indigestion ended up with a week of agony, bile drooling and a removed gall bladder. But we are back! I thought of starting this, the 3rd year anniversary of Sonic Masala, with something special - a look back at favourite articles, interviews, emails, songs, records, barbed retorts, death threats. Even fixing up what my fave albums of 2012 would suffice.

But no. I'm moving on up, and so should you.

Although choosing this as my first slice of life after a couple months off is more about desperately diving into the dirt rather than soaring for the sun. Melbourne's purveyors of small town despair The Spinning Rooms released one of the sweatiest, feverish, paranoid killers at the tail end of last year with their eponymous debut (recorded by The Nation Blue/Harmony's Tom Lyngcoln), and it is pure schizophrenic epiphany. I wrote favourably about it a couple weeks ago for The Music - check out that review here - but all I'll say is that this is the real aural equivalent of an Aussie suburban horror. Slug Guts be damned - these boys understand fear and depravity (and the true sinuous power of the saxophone), whether they want to or not. Shit just got real.

 

You can - nay, must - get The Spinning Rooms here. I aim to see these punks this year, even if I have to unleash them on Brisbane myself. Stay tuned.

A Self Promoting Plea For Attention From Uncle Masala

Hey guys and gals, sorry about my absence over the last month of the year! There is lots of great music that deserves a spotlight - and I will endeavour to do so in at least bite-size chunk at the beginning of 2013 - but Im floating around Europe so my internet access is minimal at best. So Im basically lumping this at your feet - a self-aggrandising "PLEASE VOTE FOR ME" pitch that, if won, will allow me more opportunities to work this blog, and push the bands that I believe deserve it. The competition is for Expedia as they search to broaden their musical horizons, and the other nominees are ballaches (the scientific term Im sure), so I hope you can click the below link and help Sonic Masala out.

Unfortunately you know what I look like now - looks like Ill have to lose the beard and garner a healthy heroin addiction just to stay incognito...

 There will be a couple more posts before the bells toll on 2012, but not before Xmas, so...merry Xmas! And vote below - that is enough of a present for me!