Redeeming The Stickmen

The Tasmanian music scene has always mirrored the way us mainland Aussies treat the Apple Islers – as outsiders, bereft of this country in most respects, left to their own devices. I love Tasmania – its possibly the most beautiful place in Australia. This geographical ostracism is what allows this beauty to remain untouched – but is also why those persistent inter-family rumours also persist. Its nasty and untrue (I assume).

But being ostracised and forced into inbreeding does bring about great dividends (stay with me…) Because of this ostracism, both geographically and musically, the Tasmanian musical community was left to fester and ferment, scrounging together the smallest scraps of sonic alleviation and epiphany to carve out whatever they could. Thus the music that came out of Hobart in the late 90s and early 2000s is acrid, warped, coruscated – and utterly mesmeric. Most people will know about The Nation Blue and their rise from this bastion of musical barbarity, but there were many bands strangling instruments and concepts with blue-veined glee. (If you haven’t listened to Sea Scouts, for example, do yourself a favour and sort that out RIGHT NOW).

Another of these young bands doing incredible things within this nebulous musical landscape was The Stickmen. Their music was instantly recognisable yet deliberately obfuscated the accepted norm – taking the supposed trappings of post-punk and hewing out of them a nervy, chaotic dynamism that was instantly recognisable. Plenty of likeminded bands exist now that mirror this aesthetic, but the Stickmen were one of a unique few bands that truly challenged any form of sonic norm. And the inclusion of turntables is probably the only time I can think of where it belongs in rock music. It’s a bizarre concept, but when you hear the skittish scratches on songs like the excellent ‘Who Said’, it is a stroke of ardent genius. And on songs like ‘Night’, Aldous Kelly could stand up alongside the greats of the post-punk beginners, his wail as impassioned, as cathartic, as confronting.

 The Stickmen brought out two albums only – 1998’s self-titled debut, and Man Made Stars the following year. And that was it – this combustible ball finally imploded. But they never truly left the ether of the aggravated Australian musical fringes, and when The Drones convinced the band to reform for last year’s ATP Melbourne, they were an unbelievable surprise package for most – myself included. Tom Lyngcoln of The Nation Blue insisted I catch their set – and I am forever in his debt. Whilst the Per Purposes and indeed The Drones’ of the world are a breathtaking menagerie of energy and unease, it was somehow more engrossing to see The Stickmen easily in command of their raw, rancid realm.

Now the great Melbourne imprint Homeless Records have released both of these “lost” albums on 12” vinyl. If you don’t partake in this frontier freneticism, you have no right walking this earth. Tap in to something inherently visceral, a fission of collective fidgeting energies, and enjoy.

Sunbathing With Animals On The Courts

I don't have much time, I'm heading into the city to eat Thai, see Harmony, and drink with Harmony et al on my back deck - rough life. Made so much sweeter when I hear the new Parquet Courts song. It's goddamn brilliant. Listen to that drum kit - he is playing the same beat like his life depends on it. Riffs, rants, rad. Sunbathing Animal the album is out in June - can not WAIT.

Innocence WAAAAAAAAAAASTEEEEEEEEEEEEED

I have made no bones about my immense for the fried psych squalls that inventive brothers Carney develop as Pontiak. Yet even I was surprised by the brevity of the tracks that litter Innocence, their latest album on Thrill Jockey. I'm not complaining - one of my all-time favourite tracks of last year was the title track, all two minutes and 17 seconds of it, and it came out at the tail end of the year. Every time I hear the crunch, the scree, the wails, the moans, the groove - fuck everything else, I'm out the door and gone to lose myself. The rest of the album doesn't entirely live up to such a balltearer of an opening, but with the sludgy groove of 'Lake Lustre Rush', the insistent crunch driving forth 'Ghosts', the fat 'Sabotage' bass and fuzzed out and deep Black Sabbath riffs of 'Surrounded By Diamonds' - there is just so much blasted rock here to enjoy.



There has been a bit of stick thrown at Innocence though, mainly reserved for a triptych of songs in the middle third - 'It's The Greatest', 'Noble Heads' and 'Wildfires'. I must say that having these slower tracks after the hectic opening is a bit strange - on first listen. But after a while it's like John Cusack says on High Fidelity - you have to take it down a notch, you don't want to blow your wad too early. And these tracks are great - an organ-fuelled malaise floods the first track here, before becoming an arms outstretched ode to Jason Molina at his most Neil Young/Crazy Horse; 'Noble Heads' is actually a sonorous country ballad that resonates the more it gets played. 'Wildfires' is quite sedate, and this is where I think this is my love of the band that allows me to rise above the lull. Those crashing cymbals and brotherly harmonies, though!


Pontiak - Wildfires from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Innocence roars out of town after this on a brace of pretty killer tracks, especially closer 'We've Got It Wrong', what I can't help but think that I've actually experience the truest example of an album that displays the band's personalities. There is a ruggedness, a playfulness, an innocence that comes from being in a close-knit group, heightened all the more by the fact that the trio are kin. And whilst the next album might see them back to their brilliantly experimental full-bore psych ways, Innocence stands as an album that shows that Pontiak can do pretty much whatever they want and turn it into gold.

This goes without saying - y'all should be picking up Innocence right this minute.

Getting Paired Up Briefly With A Lesbian

Oh the hilarity that such a situational comedy could have with that premise! Hmmm...

Cantankerous, ridiculous and excellent ne’er do wells Pairs are breaking up in a couple months. Basically due to Aussie ex-pat Rhys leaving Shanghai for Melbourne once more – it’s a shame, as it is due to him that much of Shanghai’s current music scene exists, let alone is accessible outside Chinese borders. But they aren’t leaving us empty handed, releasing not one but TWO albums before that imminent parting of ways comes about. The first cab off the rank is free download album Brief Lesbian, recorded with another ex-pat, this time Canadian Adam McCrae (Reykjavictim), and its a typically rambunctious, long winded, caustic affair, with ridiculous song titles and fits of deconstructed sonic mewling throughout. The highlight is 'Bloodshot' which features the familiar blood-curdling wails of flannel-shirted despair that only Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue/Harmony) can muster, and East Brunswick All Girls Choir's Marcus Hobbs doing FOURTEEN guitar solos over each other. But truth be told, the whole thing is a demented form of imploding genius, with McCrae's synths bringing another cracked element to an already battered aesthetic...

Brief Lesbian is available now. It's pretty great - go and get it now. Can't wait to see what their finale will look/sound like...

A Warm Soda For A Young Reckless, Ageless Heart

For better or worse, I'm a massive fan of Warm Soda. The band. Warm soda is all kinds of awful. In fact, it’s not soda, it’s soft drink. Or pop. But let’s not digress too much…

Matthew Melton has a way of crafting and recording simple jangly garage rock compositions that are shone through a sepia, nostalgic prism – and I don’t mean Instagram selfie do a quick alteration and everything is groovy either. Like fellow Californian Mikal Cronin, Melton’s Warm Soda feels displaced, as if unearthed cryofrozen from a time capsule from a sunnier, sappier era of which history shows no sign of, like a decade . Something For You is a constant for me when I want to just relax with a goofy grin, and whilst newie Young Reckless Hearts (also out through ever-excellent Castle Face Records) pares things back a dash, the lack of a roaring rock track is compensated by unadulterated love and superfluous melodies flowing forth like bathing honey. Is it old? New? From a kid’s perspective looking forward? An ageing hippy looking back? Any of these things? None? It's a space-age contraption that came from ancient times...or something. I'm sleep deprived. All I know is, Young Reckless Hearts traverses time, space and sensibilities to nestle in the cockles of the (melted) heart.

Young Reckless Hearts is out now. These may be gone, but as always Castle Face are dabbling in weird colour vinyl schemes, and this version is called Pentacolor AND the first 69 bought receive a fridge magnet from the cluttered cover from Melton himself. Don't worry if you miss out though - the next batch is a milky clear vinyl with grape splatter. Seriously enough to give anyone the horn.

Mega Aussie Video Vacuum Of Death

It's been far too long since I've done one of these. So take an hour off from work, and revel in the beauty of the moving image - coupled with killer songs. Ill try to keep a Sonic Masala thread through this too...

Dollar Bar kick us off with 'Half The Battle'. Love how Pat rides around Tokyo, giving the 'cool' one-finger wave. This is definitely a highlight right now. The band play the Ela Stiles (Songs/Bushwalking) show that Sonic Masala is putting on alongside Bedroom Suck Records in what is an amazing joint venture. Also supported by Primitive Motion and J. Francis, this gig is on at Electric Playground this Friday!!! COME!

I'd be remiss if I didn't have two of my label roster's videos here. First up is Roku Music, who are finishing the first half of their massive national tour tonight in Melbourne (playing Monday Night Mass alongside Bored Nothing, Barbiturates (the great little Brissy band/dude now stationed in Melbourne),Vowel Movement and the J. Arthur Keenes Band from Canada - if you are are around I suggest you head there right now.  Anyway, this is 'Ended', a great shoegaze track with mirrored languorous footage from Helena Papageorg.

Tape/Off will be releasing their first album Chipper on Sonic Masala Records in June. Here is the first single, 'Pedestal Fan'. Sub two minutes of the band smashing the track out in the back of their now sadly departed tour van, it's fun, frenetic and a great taste of what is to come. These guys have a good bunch of shows lined up for that tour too, so stay tuned.

One of the tracks on Tape/Off's upcoming album features vocals from none other than Tom Lyngcoln, the rugged genius behind The Nation Blue and Harmony. It's the latter band that he is pouring everything into 2014 with the brilliant Carpetbombing album, and the clip for 'Water Runs Cold' could also be the best of 2014. Haunting, haunted, heartrending, and rustically beautiful. Harmony play Black Bear Lounge this Thursday with excellent support with Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side and Per Purpose.

Back to Roku Music. When I joined them with their Sydney/Newcastle leg of the tour the other weekend, we agreed that the only record better than their own was Jersey Flegg, the debut album from Sydney band You Beauty. The album is a concept album based on a fictitious rugby league player whose rising star fades as he hovers in NSW metropolitan obscurity. Seriously. But the brilliance of this record isn't just the silliness and brilliant Ocker one-liners ('you could have had Whispering Jack play at your wedding' being a definite watershed lyric), but that the songs themselves are inimitably listenable. The four band members of Roku knew much of these tracks off by heart, and with good reason. Here is 'Healin' Spirit' - if you don't like it, you don't know music.

One of the dirtiest excuses for a garage band, Thee Hugs brought out this little chestnut last month. The demented genius of 'Bashar Al-Assad' is in the blatant ridiculousness of the headdresses and the terrorist overtones, yet it still lending the track the requisite amount of sweat-stained tension. Donnie from Roku recorded this malignant mess - and we should all be proud of this unholy birth.

Yuri Johnson filmed the above film clip, and here he is playing guitar in his band Keep On Dancin's. The four-piece's loooooong-awaited sophomore album Hunter is on its way, and 'Grey Ghost' is the band at their most powerful (albeit measured - nothing is ever thrown to chance here). Yes, this has been out since last year, but I forgot to show it. And I need to extend this tenuous link (other than the Australian connection, which will break too I'm sure). Can't wait for this album guys!!

Local ratbags done good DZ Deathrays get slicker and  louder, and 'Gina Works At Hearts' is the perfect embodiment of that. It isn't their strongest song, but you have to support these rad dudes who continue to do their thing, strongly influenced by DFA79, and continue to slay it. They are also in Velociraptor that includes the Thee Hugs and KOD heathens, so keeping the love alive.

One of the most excellent and eccentric acts that graced the Sonic Masala showcases last year was the last show of the year, when Melbourne "guy" Orlando Furious brought his woozy, crushed percolator pop to Brisbane. It was a captivating performance (and chunky chunky chains) that has stuck with me, even now. His cassette Popular is great. 'Nu Body' is the perfect example of what to expect from this charismatic enigma. i wish he lived up here so I could put him on a whole bunch more shows. Guess Ill have to live with Orlando Furious through his hop-hip cracked muzak.

Possibly my favourite show that I've put on was the second anniversary of Sonic Masala shows last October. We had the debut performance of Landing In The Presence of Enemy Jaguars, Advanced (or just Landpres), the gritty punk stylings of Big Richard Insect (and their Neil Young cover!), and FINALLY getting my favourite Brisbane band EVER Turnpike to play a set. But it was getting Melbourne rustic monsters The Spinning Rooms to play not one but two shows. I cannot stress enough how good this band is, and their two albums are underrated gems of the modern Australian music era. Here is a clip for 'It Can't Not' - seriously brilliant band.

Up here that particular day to play alongside The Nation Blue (there's that Lyngcoln again...) were another excellent, raucous pack of bastards, Batpiss. And whilst this isn't their video, the trio do make a cameo as the druggos in the shitters for King Parrot's "seminal" video clip for 'Dead End' - throwing off at The Shining with enough Melbourne degenerates that prop up the scene there to make this a veritable who's who. But who cares when the track is this bloody great.

A couple weeks ago I put on a little show for Matt Banham (No Through Road). Good friend Stephanie Crase was up here too, playing her Summer Flake material solo at one of the final shows to be played at the Hideaway. Here she is again, playing guitar in her good friend Ellen Carey's outfit Fair Maiden - they shot the video too. It's a great song from what is likely to be a great record (out on Bedroom Suck - see the connections continue to flow!)

Fair Maiden - Lady of Fortune from BSR on Vimeo.

The next few tracks are here because they have or will be supporting Sonic Masala Records bands in the next few months. Doctopus will be playing in Western Australia alongside Roku Music; Milkk will join Gazar Strips in their Sydney shows in May; and Bad Vision and Cull will (hopefully) help Tape/Off launch their record in June. They are great bands in their own right, of course - Doctopus surprise, not being a third-tier NZ dub band instead being a psychy garage mish-mash of gargantuan proportions; Milkk's woozy weirdness is mirrored by this lo-fi tackfest; Bad Vision play their straight-up rock, well, straight up; and Cull conitnue to explore the outer realms of delay-altered realities. Keep marching forward, fellow harbingers of noise!

One of my favourite 00s bands was Melbourne two-piece Sodastream. Here is songsmith Karl Smith and his very cute video for 'Slow Short Story'. You all need to listen to his solo record, Kites, right now.

Slow Short Story - Karl Smith from Karl Smith on Vimeo.

Let's finish up with THE band I'd like to play a Sonic Masala show. Melbourne crackpots Ooga Boogas. Im gonna try, I promise...

NOW GET BACK TO WORK?

Multiple Men

I mentioned earlier today that I think Brainbeau is one of the best bands in Brisbane. Well, I think Multiple Man are right up there, the nihilist yin to Brainbeau's hypercoloured yang. The Brothers Campion brought out one of my favourite 7"s of last year with Body Double (out through the great Major Crimes label), and have a new 7" in the form of Guilt Culture. It's more dissonance, more disdain, more cerebral crucifixion and flagellation. It's a seductive, leering, dominant future punk secretion that floods the synapses and renders them (and you) obsolete. It's Multiple Man, and they're coming to get you (lovely dudes, but).

Guilt Culture is out on Detonic Recordings.

I've got 0.0001 Excuses and Brainbeau Ain't One

I'm so happy that local neon synth weirdniks Brainbeau have got a vinyl release - SO HAPPY! I have said a few times already that I think the duo might just be the best thing in Brisbane's music scene, and I hope this is just another step in the right direction. Hell, Scraps is on Fire Records nowadays, why can't Brainbeau reach such heady heights?

Anyway, the new 0.0001 Excuses EP 7" is out now through new label Good Samaritron. It features old classic '50c Casio Rave'. Its got handmade stickers that come with it. It sounds like a Euro nightclub that is in a bunker in the middle of nowhere in the mid 80s, the club filled with disinterested Amazons in minidresses and hairy furballs in velour, all of them trapped in a convulsing lava lamp. It's ridiculous. And insidious. And oh so satisfying.

And '50c Casio Rave' is still killer, the best banger from Brisbane ever likely to exist - until Kat and Chelvis write a new one.

Make Out In Your Sleep

I'll always be a tragic for good, squalling, straight up garage punk rock. Aussie band Bad Vision is one that doesn't veer off this path one iota, and I love em for it. Sweden's Makeouts are the same, and their Back To Sleep LP is all the more great for such steadfastness. They are a tight yet shambolic tour de force who have played alongisde the who's who of the current upper echelons of the modern garage rock movement (Jay Reatard, Ty Segall, King Khan, Nobunny, Hunx & His Punx - the list continues to roll out unabated), and this album shows them as a dexterous, devastating atomic fuzz bomb of a band. Seriously, this is the kind of record that should garner a lot more accolades than its likely to get - because its perfectly measured and paced, with innumerable reply value. An album that is always going to pick you up and put you on the path to partydom - nothing more needs to be said. The straight-up rock of "Hamburger Hill' to the closing lurker 'Creeps', it is all solid gold. Time to make out.

You can buy Back To Sleep through Austrian label Bachelor Records here, and you really should, because this record KILLS.

Hits From The Box #82 - 24 Hour Spiral Party

See that above? I got stuck in that... The start of a weird, costly, annoying week. Just when I was starting to think Sydney was OK, I got financially raped by the environment, the train system, a "jovial" cabbie, and a collusion between Tiger and Qantas Airways. But it finished with a Sonic Masala showcase on Friday night with three of the best young bands I have seen in a long long time - seriously keep your eye out for No Sister, Hypnotic Bedrooms and Cassette Cathedral. I also heard newly recorded tracks by Curlew (NOT the dude who writes for the Thousands by the way - might need a new name dude), Bremen Town Musician and Tape/Off, and have locked down releases three and four for the label.

I also slept for 12 hours today. The first time I have had more than 7 hours for over a month. So no more spiral. I'm refreshed and ready for more! So come along, let's check out some new tunes.

Doorbells is Ohio dude Nic Berlin. Afterlife is a beautifully understated EP that echoes with exhausted malaise, yet with a glimmer of hope shining through. Berlin wrote these songs whilst living with someone he was on the cusp of leaving them. 'Dancing With A Ghost' is pregnant with meaning after this knowledge, and all the more euphoric for it. The dissolution of a relationship is never nice, but when the emancipation that comes from getting out from under a situation that has become untenable, whether mutual or exclusive in nature, it makes for joyous expulsion of pent-up anguishes. And Afterlife presents such complicated feelings in an indelibly beautiful way. Kudos, Doorbells.

Canadian garage dwellers Betrayers have a rollicking killer on their hands with new album Let The Good Times Die (out through Perfect Master Records, in green wax no less). Two drum kits ensure the rumbling engine room keeps chugging on like a punishing psychedelic juggernaut, and an organ is firmly wedged onto the thirteenth floor elevator. It's got some T-Rex glam there too, hence the comparisons to King Tuff that are littered around the place, but Betrayers are much more moody and entrenched in the backwaters of a undulating kaleidoscopic mind melt. And 'Hey Now Mary' is a goddamn cool song with all these elements at their redlining best. Lackadaisical psych rock for pick-me-ups and put-me-downs - a trip for all the family.

Let's get reckless. Remember when Coca-Cola brought out the new Coke, and it was all kinds of shit? Why screw with a world-conquering formula, right? Florida's New Coke have chosen the right moniker then, as their three-track Duct Tape Your Mouth EP 7" through Black Gladiator/Slovenly Records. Danny Morales' vocals are almost post-punk glam, on top over razorblade lyrics and thundering, ramshackle garage scuzz instrumentation with more than a few schizophrenic shifts of tone and delivery to throw you off the game. 'I Am Drunk, I Have A Gun, I Want Names' meanwhile is not only a great song title, but an insidious noir lurker of a song hidden within a dirgey garage rock tune. The band sound like how New Coke should have tasted - dirty, weird, and a little orgiastic. New Coke...is...PEOPLE!

Sydney continues to surprise me with the bands that are coming forth, shirking the indie art fare that littered the joint for some time for more interesting guitar based music (at least to me). One of two bands that are really impressing me lately (the other being You Beauty, of which we will talk at length soon) is Food Court, who despite the name are eschewing the dolewave malapropisms for a more raucous, 90s guitar rock drive. There is nothing serious here, it's a lot of silly fun with a build up of scum, just what the doctor ordered. Hopefully we will hear a lot more from these guys soon - including another venture up north perhaps?

Now here is an interesting one. New York collective Sun Looks Down offer up a contemplative, gossamer soundscape with the operatic wavering vocals of Diana Flanagan, and each song on their Sungaze EP feels like it's moving more into the type of art-pop that the band George used to specialise in - shudder... But then the instrumentation builds and coalesces to a heady summit before it explodes in a cascading miasma of controlled yet forceful noise, and the songs are turned on their head. It's like post-rock brutality for the mainstream, or unhinged chamber pop noise, or something... Or maybe it's what George should have been all along. In fact, it's like another long lost Brisbane band - Gota Cola. Not as good, mind, but if you liked those guys, a good chance you will like Sun Looks Down. I wouldn't normally like this kind of thing - in fact, I often think this kind of "experiment" shouldn't work. But it does, and I do.

Let's finish up with some scrappy guitar pop from Wimps, a lil Seattle band that has some serious pedigree. Featuring former members of SM faves The Intelligence and Meth Teeth, Wimps have brought out a 7" EP in the form of Party At The Wrong Time, and it's a lot of fun (as you'd expect). 'Secret Message' is a killer opening track which is worth the purchase alone. Get it now.




Happy Sunday everyone!

Bad Sleeping Patterns - Helm and Spyros Polychronopoulos

This post should be much longer. I've been lecturing, planning a couple new Sonic Masala releases, packing for the Roku Music tour (Sydney/Newcastle, see you in a bit), setting up some upcoming Sonic Masala gigs...and I'm struggling with sleep. So I'm trying to drift off now. But the music I've chosen is likely to give me nightmares - the cryptic, sinuous piano explorations of Spyros Polychronopoulos (Piano Acts, out through Room40), and the industrial droning scree of Helm (this year's The Hollow Organ EP on PAN). Still, these nightmares are likely to be the most profound and vivid - so I'll risk it. Abstract and beautiful - like watching crystal shatter in slow motion, or the sun disintegrate, one black spot at a time.

Spiralling Down Into Theremin-Fuelled Night Terrors

The Night Terrors are an interesting band in that they manage to straddle the boundaries of tension, murky darkness, and garish monochrome lushness at the flick of a hand at a Theremin antenna. Miles Brown’s infatuation with the much-maligned instrument has gleaned some otherworldly and exciting results, none moreso than the band’s latest opus Spiral Vortex. It goes without saying that a band with a Theremin in it is going to be lumbered with horror score tropes – in fact this is heightened by the vintage synth that permeates each track. But this is never a bad thing, especially when you have such an intense skinsman as Damien Coward (Heirs) propelling things inexorably forward. It also makes sense why Spencer Hickman from famed horror soundtrack enthusiasts Death Waltz Records would be such a fervent fan.

I personally think Spiral Vortex is brilliant. It is the kind of late night spiral (it can’t be helped) into the black hole of feverish lament and Giallo deconstruction (and dismemberment). And the spectral cinematics are evidently something the band revels in – titles like ‘Lasers For Eyes’, ‘Monster’ and especially ‘The Devil Played Backwards’ serves to drive this heavy theme home. Brown’s utterly jaw dropping control of the Theremin notwithstanding, though, Spiral Vortex belongs to the synthesiser and its Master Controllers, Brown and Sarah Lim. There are artists out there on labels such as Not Not Fun or Dark Entries that take these sounds to dark and sensuous places, but never have I revelled in the deliciousness that borderline macabre cheese can bring. 70s/80s expressionism is subliminally evoked in every lush line that flows forth – Prince Of Darkness, Lifeforce, Phantasm, Suspiria, all of these movies that are schizophrenic and ridiculous and yet so seductive in their lurid imagery and use of colour. Spiral Vortex easily encompasses these elements – and at times easily surpasses them.

Spiral Vortex is out now through Homeless Records – grab it here.

Tense Men Are Neither Dull Nor Forgotten

I’ve always had an unhealthy affinity for minimalist, repetitive, cold, spiky post punk. I can’t remember which particular band turned me onto this. I do remember the first time I heard the Language of Numbers EP and rightly realised that My Disco were gods. Or hearing Unknown Pleasures for the first time and not known what planet I was on. Or why the cold bastards of Iceage, Holograms and Lower energise and excite. The intermingling of cold, stark guitar lines with motorik drums and deep drawled/chanted lyrics seems hardwired into my loins. So it’s a no brainer that I am a massive fan of new band Tense Men, which is a project for Oliver Fischer (Cold Pumas) and Rich Phoenix (Sauna Youth), and their EP Where Dull Care Is Forgotten. Opener ‘Stages of Boredom’ hovers with burly indecision, wanting to burst forth but not ready to give in; but it’s ‘RNRFON’ where the restraint comes in full form. There is no indecision here – Tense Men want to lead you on, light the fires under your soul, have you writhe around in agony and ecstasy – and never extinguish those tetchy flames. The band is now a trio, having gleaned a drummer on the way (from Omi Palone, who are releasing a self-titled album through the ever excellent Faux Discx who are responsible for this EP too), and the looped transgressions displayed here stresses how more claustrophobic and constricting these guys could be in a live arena. It’s still a band experimenting with the form – I like ‘Lie Heavy’ without being enamoured with it (except when the sketchiness is relieved as the toms are left alone for a more free flowing rhythm in the final third), but the last two tracks 'Nonentities' and especially 'Opiate Glow' are stone cold killers. Where Dull Care Is Forgotten is a great brooding entrée – bring on the piece a la resistance…

You can get Tense Men’s EP from here.

Eighteen Ways To Keel Her

The self-titled debut from Rose Keeler-Schäffeler’s creative wellspring, Keel Her, is important to note on a couple of levels. No one is going to say that the seventeen tracks (eighteen if you count ‘Intro’ – and you may as well)laid out here are cohesive, fleshed-out or at times even make sense. Nor will many people find this an easy listen due to the slight schizophrenia on display. But that is also the beauty and power of Keel Her – it is a murky blueprint of the creative prowess that Keeler-Schäffeler has broiling inside her. A restlessness pervades throughout that evokes a creative maelstrom, something that Keel Her acolytes are already well accustomed to due to the proliferation of her uploaded musical ventures over the past couple of years. There is a whiff of Ariel Pink in the explosion of vision, continually churning out material of varying genres and degrees of precision and effectiveness. But it is also important that a label like Critical Heights (Lower Plenty, Greg Boring) would endeavour to give voice to such a haphazard sonic explorer, whose skittish genre-jumping could just as well have been mashed disaster. Yet also like Pink, Keel Her has great energy and lively pop nous pulsing through these fuzzed out sine waves. Can't wait to see what she cooks up next - and we won't have to wait long I'm sure.

You can grab Keel Her here - otherwise check out her MASSIVE back catalogue here.

Infamy and Ruined Fortune

Angie Bermuda has been very busy of the past few years, Musically alone she has been involved in cyclical cesspit Circle Pit, rambunctious Injuns Straight Arrows, strung out stoners Sourthern Comfort, and she brought out her excellent debut solo album Turning last year; and pushing on, she has Ruined Fortune, a band she has formed with Nic Warnock (RIP Society). The band itself sounds like demented thugs, a two-piece enamoured with disarray and destruction, ans the spaces between the spaces. 'In A Hole' is a scuzzy driving behemoth of an opener, all snarls wrapped in suffocating cellophane - so deliciously evil. 'All Seeing Eye' is heavy metal for the unwilling, a dirge into the funereal gutters of unlit alleys and abandoned squats. 'Transparent Faces' is almost a pop song - as near as these nihilists will let the candy coated come close to the white noise orgy.'On The Screen' holds The Velvet Underground up to the light and under a searing magnifying glass; ‘Closing Till’ is particularly enthralling, with Warnock monotonously reciting lines from interview inanities and application forms over a simplistic Casio drum beat and Angie’s squalling guitar providing a hypnotic bedrock. Then there is the eight-minute spiralling cataclysm that is 'That Strain, That Spark/End of Day' is an exercise in dealing with cacophony like a lackadaisical masochist - which is pretty much the best way. Spacemen 3 on ice?

Suffice to say, Ruined Fortune is bloody incredible. Angie, Nic (with excellent help from Dan Spencer (Blank Realm) and Joe Alexander (Per Purpose, Terrible Truths) on skins) - thank you for the catastrophe of the year - a face melting triumph of the damaged will. Get it through the excellent Hozac Records here.

A Fortnight Of Silence...Then Axxa/Abraxas

The Roku Music roadshow has started – the album Collider is out, Sonic Masala Records is officially out of the gates, and the band have played their first brace of regional shows. It has been a whirlwind fortnight to be sure – but poor ol blog has been neglected in the meantime! My head is foggy thanks to a number of beers consumed in the Time Machine (one of Queensland’s best stores, hands down – get out to Nambour and check it out!) and some amazing Roku Music and Dreamtime-inspired noise, so I need a nice, smooth introduction to the week…and Atlanta’s Axxa/Abraxas is providing me with just that.

Out on Captured Tracks last week, this self-titled debut from Axxa/Abraxas (real name Ben Asbury) plays like Kurt Vile if he fronted Real Estate in the 60s and sang a good few octaves higher. There is a base element here, the paring back of all but the bare elements that makes up the DNA of psych pop – and whilst the flourishes like a guitar solo (which always shadows the background) exist, they aren’t given weight. There is a breathy weightlessness to these tracks that give Axxa/Abraxas a vintage quality, like stumbling over some dust-covered 8 track in the basement of the resident recluse, giving a sneak peak into what their life might have been like. ‘Painted Blue’ allows for a more open-ended psych flourish, but in the main the album remains at a sedate pace, an ebullient meander through sepia shadows. It almost makes working on a Monday bearable…

Axxa/Abraxas is out now.

LAUNCH - Sonic Masala Records' First Release, ROKU MUSIC'S DEBUT LP COLLIDER

Today is certainly a watershed day for me, as I release into the world the first record from the Sonic Masala Records stables. Roku Music's Collider is a monumental album, one Im very close to and hold dear, and Im humbled and honoured to have this album as the flagship release for the label. The record is vinyl-only (well, digital too, but so is everything these days), and at $25AUD is a pretty tidy steal. Listen to the entire album below, and head over to the Sonic Masala Records Bandcamp to purchase one before they inevitably go racing out the door.

Look at how amazing the record's turned out! Very happy indeed :) Roku Music are launching Collider on a huge national tour that encompasses pretty much the entire continent (proudly sponsored by Sonic Masala Records, Tym Guitars and Australian Arts Council). Make sure you get along to a show near you - they are likely to be playing a portaloo at your local country show at this rate. You might even see me in the flesh at a few of these shows - come say hi and get a record/beer/good time!

Friday March 7 - USQ Uni Bar, Toowoomba QLD (w/ Dreamtime & wadethroughthegloss)

Saturday March 8 - Tym Guitars (Instore), Brisbane QLD (w/ No Sister)

Friday March 14 - O'Dowds Hotel, Rockhampton QLD (w/ Majora's Mask Devils)

Saturday March 15 - The Grand Hotel, Bundaberg QLD (w/ Phantom Fires & ET And The Alien)

Sunday March 16 - The Time Machine, Nambour QLD (w/ Dreamtime & Cactus Demon Doom)

Thursday March 20 - The Tatts Hotel, Lismore NSW (w/ Dreamtime & Spanx)

Friday March 21 - The Square, Sydney NSW (W/ Yes I'm Leaving, Narrow Lands & Broadcasting Transmitter)

Saturday March 22 - The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW (w/ TBC)

Sunday March 23 - Blackwire Records, Sydney NSW (w/ Beast and Flood & Sounds Like Sunset)

Monday March 24 - The Phoenix, Canberra ACT (w/ Sweet Shoppe & A Drone Coda)

Wednesday March 26 - The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC (w/TBC)

Thursday March 27 - The Eastern Hotel, Ballarat VIC (w/ TBC)

Friday March 28 - The Old Bar, Melbourne VIC (w/Infinite VOid, Shaking Hell & Bonnie Mercer)

Saturday March 29 - The Metro, Adelaide SA (w/ Divine Rip)

Sunday March 30 - Barwon Club, Geelong VIC (w/ TBC)

Monday March 31 - "Monday Night Mass" @ Northcote Social Club, Northcote VIC (w/ Bored Nothing & Barbiturates)

Wednesday April 2 - Hi Fi Bar, Brisbane QLD (supporting Kylesa)

Saturday April 5 - Homestead, Hobart TAS (w/ All Fires, Battered Sac & Ben Salter)

Friday April 11 - The Roundy, Murwillumbah NSW (w/ Dreamtime, more TBA)

Saturday April 12 - The Bird, Perth WA (w/ Mudlark, Smrts & Usurpers of Modern Medicine)

Sunday April 13 - Mojo, Fremantle WA (w/ Doctopus & The Flower Drums)

Thursday April 17 - Todd Tavern, Alice Springs NT (w/ TBC)

Friday April 18 - Happy Yess, Darwin NT (w/ Curcuma & Álfheimr

Saturday April 19 - The Underdog, Brisbane QLD (w/ Cobwebbs, Occults and Deadshred)

Into The Plantagenet 3's Dark Ages

I salute to the dusty night with a desert-fried ode to the blistering heat and smoldering sense of retribution that is the tale of the dark Western. Plantagenet 3 has joined forces with A Little Orchestra to bring forth 7" The Dark Ages - Morricone would be proud. You can preorder it here.

Hits From The Box #81 - Feel The Burn

I went up to the Sunshine Coast this weekend with a few old friends, and it was great. It was probably the first time in a while that I tried to put every little stress and strain to the wayside, and just relax. I also realised that it was the first time I had been to the beach (notwithstanding gale-force winds at Brighton around Christmas) for over two years. WTF? This is what happens when your fiancee lives in England and your only holidays fall over the Christmas/New Year's break... Anyway, the time was revitalising, sunburn, hangover and all.

Let's get back into the swing of things then!

Today's Hits From The Box is fairly guitar-rock-heavy, so I'm going to bookend this post with some synth-heavy perversions, starting with the great gothic delusions of To London Or The Lake, the sophomore release from one-man brooder Night Sins (out through the great Avant! Records). There are still plenty of guitars here, but also a lot more latex, mascara, black clothing and wanton yearning. All the touchstones are here - Peter Murphy, Gary Numan, Sisters of Mercy...but the excellence of Night Sins (AKA Kyle Kimball, drummer for the great shoegaze derelicts Nothing) is how entrenched in the sordid backalleys of the 80s his brand of dark wave ephemera is. It is in turns sensuous, salacious, coy and cathartic - a soundtrack to a weekend of BDSM euphoria with a forbidden lover. Kimball sees the album akin to something like the soundtrack of a 2013 Lost Boys remake. If anyone decided to do a remake (and I'm sure it's just around the corner...), you could only hope they gave Night Sins the sonic reigns.

Slothrust are a Brooklyn based trio who have just released their second record Of Course You Do on Ba Da Bing Records - and it is one of those 90s-entrenched guitar rock maelstroms that I love so much. Me digging this was a no-brainer. But the thing here is that lead Leah Wellbaum adds another dimension to these tracks, somehow imbuing both fragility and not-giving-a-fuck in the one instant - her low timbre, impassioned yet wry, angry yet sarcastic - and then the raw power of the riffs all combine to oft-devastating effect. And with lyrics such as "Don't shake hands with the lonely kids/cos I hear that shit's contagious" and "I like cats/Do you like cats?/Of course you do you sassy motherfucker" (both from excellent track 'Crockpot') - well, it doesn't get much better than this. With bands like Speedy Ortiz and Palehound doing the rounds, it seems that Slothrust have picked the best time to burst forth out of the pack. The band are kicking off a massive tour of the States tomorrow where they will join the likes of Whores, Bad Canoes and White Mystery on stage, whilst also playing an Impose Magazine show at SXSW alongside Future Islands, Big Ups (more on those dudes soon), Guerilla Toss and Potty Mouth - well, 2014 is all coming up Slothrust.

In a similar vein is Flagland, an NYC trio also enamoured with the harmonious noises of the Nineties. They have released a couple of albums and have done a split with Big Ups (there they are again...), but it's third LP Love Hard (on Father/Daughter Records) that has really struck a chord with me. Twenty tracks that swing precariously from The Unicorns-esque sugar-pop insistence and Parquet Courts-esque raucous laconicism - or like if David Byrne joined Robert Pollard at the front of early GBV (probably an outrageous call, but I'm standing by it). Plenty of favourites on this record, but the bass on 'Searchers' gets me every time. The album was mixed by Paul Gold (Double Dagger), so there is another SM tick of approval. They've just played hows with Ovlov and Earl Boykins...this is just getting too cosy.

Another band about to the the road Stateside is Dim Peaks. The Californians actually released their debut album Time Of Joy last year on Gold Robot Records, but I only stumbled across it last week. It's a sombre, hushed ramble through the kaleidoscopic daydreams and half-realities of Niilo Smeds, put on tape alongside nylon stringed guitar, some keys and tempered rhythms, and its hushed, measured ramblings are made for introspective times amongst pastoral climes. It's an album that creeps up on you, and is likely to stick in the mind like a burr as the snow thaws/leaves fall - a seasonal delight. And Smeds in 'Slumberland' sounds like a cross between Stephen Malkmus and Lou Reed - I'm not sure how, or why, but it makes an already great song almost sublime.

Stepping out of the shadows and into the falling confetti is the garage-pop Tweens, a self-confessed trash pop band from Cincinnati that seem determined to blow the doors of Fun and let it all flow out. For a band yet to put out a record they are making some serious waves, touring extensively with the Breeders as well as playing support to The Black Lips. Bridget Battle's sweet lyrics hold an undercurrent of sly steeliness that sits well with the incessant garage dirge of the guitar, and if their demos and single 'Be Mean' are anything to go by, their self-titled debut (out in April) is something to queue up for. Not since The Donnas have we had a band that sounds both overtly sexual, filled to the brim with attitude, but also just good fun.

And so here we are at the end of Hits From The Box #81 - and let's get with Slow Violence, a Canberran studying in the US at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, making a mesmeric tapestry of sonorous found sounds melding with ghost-in-the-machine ambiance. A heavily processed record of distorted hip-hop beats and undulating yet uneasy synthetic manipulation that nevertheless has the "nerve" to go into pastoral guitar lullaby on final track 'Kidz', New Teen Angst Pt. 2 (out through Dream Damage) is a treasure trove of personal endeavours, a Pandora's box of possibilities, an unlocked diary of the unfurling of wings. Slow Violence is on the pulse here.



Happy Sunday everyone!

Getting Finked At The Royal Witherspoon

I don't know anything much about Melbourne wistful kids The Finks (except they aren't likely to be burly bikers with eccies and shotties - although it could still be the skinny hipster above). I was looking around the Milk! Records (Courtney Barnett, Jen Cloher) store the other day and stumbled across this EP, At The Royal Witherspoon, and it's been the salve to the wounds of a stress-heavy week. Why? The six songs on this cassette reverberates through my bones, the kind of jangly slow paced indie joys that Aussies pumped out with heady regularity some fifteen years ago. These humourous, verbose songs strike a chord, taking me back to those early 2000s where space, guitar and personal lyrics involved witticisms and personal letdowns as opposed to dilapidated house parties and missed Centrelink forms. Let it inform your weekend - these Finks may be sorry excuses, but as the battler entrenched in the barstool next to you down at your local, you couldn't wish for a nicer inebriated wingman. Especially when Sam Cooper tells his incredible narrative 'Alternate Histories'. Choc tops, serial killer projectionists, Benson & Hedges, smoking with matches - man, I love this EP. This is going to be a great weekend...

There's 8 copies of the cassette still available, so if I were you I'd get in now.