Throwing Gold Shade On World War 4

Sam Wightman and Roland Hlavka have a lot of time on their hands. Not content to have second LP WORLD WIDE WEBBS out (through Sonic Masala Records no less - get at it here), the duo are involved in a myriad other projects. The most prolific of those is Hlavka's solo outfit Barbiturates (often with Cobwebbs drummer Elliot D'Arcy at his beck and call), whilst Wightman's Police Force continues to get better and more malignant. Yet there are other, more festered outlets for these boys to let the demons out (these guys have a hard drive of material that may never see the light of day), and Canberra-based label Moontown Tapes has seen fit to give undead life to two of them. A split that is fused through communal spit and unease, the cassette opens with Wightman's World War 4 - and first track 'X-Ray Visitor' is the cleanest thing I think he has ever committed himself to. Drone crawl from the bottom floor, invading the senses, hip hop beats and lysergic treats for the narcoleptic dranker in us all. Then there is Hlavka's Gold Shade, a even more twisted chemtrail of an excursion, burning across the ozone like a VHS nightmare in neon chrome. 'Super Survivor' could be a Not Not Fun banger hit of the apocalyptic summer. Yes, these guys are in too many bands. Yes, they are all varying levels of awesome. Get this now - it's too good to ignore.

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

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

  

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

Rubbing Salt Into Your Sacred Institute

Institute are outta Austin, Texas. You'd be excused for double-taking at that, seeing as their geographical brethren would be more akin to the Scandinavian nihilist post-punk set. Lower, Iceage, Holograms - they all know how to remain seductively melodic even as they are stripping layers off the inner walls of your skull. They include members of bands such as Wiccans and Glue (who you will hear more of next week), and from the tense, tetanus-infused squalls of their initial demos to the more fleshed out sound of new EP Salt (out on Sacred Bones), it's clear that Institute isn't part of the system.

Pre-order Salt here.

Celestial Shore What Her Name Is

There is a kind of glad disjointedness in Celestial Shore's new track ‘Gloria’. Like watching the room spin around the fan as someone lulls you into sleep, only to rouse you excitedly with an exuberant invitation to keep going. Where, you ask? Well, we’re not really sure – New York City, maybe? – but wherever it is we’re going to enjoy ourselves.


Get on board Enter Ghost through Hometapes soon.

Partying In The Ocean Wading Pool

I spent the nights of Gazar Strips' tour of Melbourne back in May on the floor of a little house in Brunswick. I watched a lot of 90s desktop games getting played on the television and spoke a lot of shit to a lot of great guys. These guys all form The Ocean Party. I got a sneak peek/listen at two of the tracks of their upcoming album, including this one, 'Wading In'. You can see the laconic nature of this ensemble's outlook and playing style still remains firmly in check (check the lyrics "It's all the same/Nothing really ever changes/Wading in through/The mess that was made/Is this it/Is this how it goes" or the imagery of cigarette ash on once-white bedsheets), but there is a decidedly layered about-turn in the aesthetics here. The 80s synthetic sheen that permeates 'Wading In' is a welcome extrapolation on the band's early-twentysomething malaise, and judging on the words tumbling forth about it globally, I certainly hope this is the song and album (coming out soon on Spunk Records) that gives these great guys their due.

Video Vacuum - Dollar Bar, Beach Arabs, Wireheads, Sneers, Peter Escott

I am scurrying around London trying to find a job. Not having much luck to be honest. Still, I'm trying to be patient. Plus it gives me time to sit down and listen to some great music. But then I get stir crazy and need my visuals stimulated too. So here are five vids that are doing the bizniz.

First up are these perennial clownish nice guys, Dollar Bar. They were "big" in some sense back in the '00s, then gave up on the idea of chasing the Triple J buck, before reuniting for a mate's 40th, realised they still dug playing all of these GBV guitar pop games, jammed a bunch, played a bit, and put out new record Paddington Worker's Club. They are playing the excellent looking Blurst of Times festival in October alongside the likes of Blank Realm, Dick Diver, UV Race, Hard Ons, TV Colours, Day Ravies and our very own Roku Music. Word is that Dollar Bar themselves might be joining the SM stable in 2015... Watching this video of '(You're Blind) Baby' (directed by Matt Banham) of guitarist/singer Chris Yates having "the time of his life" and see if this is a good move... What party animals, I feel the hangover kicking in just watching this...

Beach Arabs - "Drifters" from Mouca on Vimeo.

Getting a bit more jumped up (and following in the trend of doing 60s/70s montages as film clips - which I am really digging incidentally) is Liz Hogg's outfit Beach Arabs. Helps that this is a great menagerie of seaside party times. Wild Movement was a good lil album, and Hogg is currently playing around Spain and other parts of continental Europe - well worth checking out if you can.

Wireheads - Five Grand from Format Records on Vimeo.

Damn I love Adelaide idiots Wireheads. Their album The Late Great Wireheads is killer - somewhere between Bed Wettin Bad Boys and more downtuned, downtrodden, dirty fare (Per Purpose comes to mind). This ode to Adelaide showcases the whiny, strained, unhinged vocal delivery of Dom Trimboli and crunched, screwed violin of Tom Spall - and how easy it is to get drunk at a mate's place on Coopers Red and make a killer video. I think I have listened to this song eleven times today - and it's not even close to the best song on the album. Bloody great stuff.

I missed out on writing about Berlin-based nihilists Sneers' last record For Our Soul - Uplifting Lights To Shine As Fires (out through Brigadisco - trust me, you really need this) so here is a video of 'Self-Atoning Apostasy' to get you fanging for it. Watching a couple eating surrounded by red velvet; flashes of goth darkness, domestic violence, blood-caked skin, caressing foliage, self-mutilation, shotguns, prostate sex, all soundtracked by dissonance and fear. I really love these guys. It's all sordid and evil no wave wailings - right up my alley.

And as a final bonus, here is Native Cat Peter Escott doing his own thing. He has just released solo album The Long O through Bedroom Suck (I reviewed the album briefly at The Music over here) - it's a fascinating portraiture of an artist both confident and insecure, flamboyant and subdued. Great lyrics, beguiling compositions. And I really like this film clip too - especially Escott's dance moves. There is something emotionally bare about them, yet hidden due to the secluded nature of the surroundings, that resonates with me. Plus it makes me homesick for Australia. It truly does.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Slap Yourself A Smile, Honey Bucket

(Post written by Fred Savage Beasts)

Sometimes I look at the runtimes on the track listings for albums and make a snap judgement. Like, if there are at least three songs less than two minutes, I’m fully down for that shit. It’s not a time cost-benefit-analysis thing, it’s an attitude thing. If a band is willing to write, record and release a bunch of songs under a couple of minutes I am right there with them. That’s how life really happens – immediately.

I wasn’t let down with this one. No more than I have been with how life really happens, anyway. Get your paws into Honey Bucket. Here are the thoughts that you always had but never wrote down. The kind of things that occur to you as you squint at the sun walking down the street past the trees feeding off the bodies in the graveyards they’re rooted in. Those kinds of things - there is splendour (all the splendour you’ll ever need) in the grass and the leaves and the tape machines and two minutes - the things that make you smile when you realise you’re realising them.


Get the cassette for Futon now at their Bandcamp.

When Is Tomorrow('s Tulips)?

Time to get drowned. Drowned in a somnambulist's drift. Drowned in a malfunctioning smoke machine. Drowned in sweat from the back of your narcotic-fuelled lover(s). Drowned in the glue that holds life together. Drowned in the Tulips...



 It's great to have Tomorrow's Tulips back in action, and on Burger Records to boot. Grab When here.

No One Is Leaving Here Homeless

There is something going on in Sydney. Something very different to what the harbourside restaurants, beaches and opera houses would have you believe. There is something soaking up through the drains, rising through the damp. And it’s asking questions. What about the rest of us? The ones who don’t get a run in your elevators and views and corner offices?

Yes I’m Leaving are at the forefront of it. The forefront of a disaffected noise that pummels and pummels at the wrought iron bars of old Sydney. Forget your interior design anxieties and fall back into your foam mattress; this is a world away from the innocuous pleasantries of the latest inner city wine bar. It’s stained and loud and open to everyone.


Pre-order your copy of Slow Release from Homeless Records to get one of the hundred Grey Splatter versions. Because if ‘One’ is anything to go by, Grey Splatter is the colour this should be. They are honestly one of the best bands in Australia.

Scared Of Christian Fitness

Being a rabid Mclusky/Future Of The Left fan, it would be remiss of me if I didn't shine some light on Falco's "solo" gear, Christian Fitness. A project that came about due to unexpected unemployment (yes, even the best of us are privy to corporate buggery), the album I Am Scared Of Everything That Isn't Me (the amazing titles never cease) doesn't feel throwaway but a natural extension of FOTL, flitting back and forth from the delightfully acerbic bilge pump of a Welshman's canon with zeal. And why not? When touring and playing music is your lifeblood yet monetary constrainst don't allow for continual stints of sonic sustenance, and even the promise of funds through the millstone of the 9-to-5 is skittishly torn from your mewling mouth, what better is there to pour the frustrated energy into a new creative more? It's difficult to focus on one element, but I will state that I always like the slow-fast, quiet-loud changeovers that Falkous employs in songs - it doesn't have the breakneck velocity/ferocity of possibly the best of his songs, but he knows when it is important to revel in the lead-in, the tension, the slow build, the lyrics underscored before the noise falls in. They tend to the longest songs on the album, and oft overlooked, yet their lack of brevity is calibrated for impact. Therefore 'Disturbing The Ache' is my current favourite on the album. It doesn't have the same impact on me as say 'Lapsed Catholics', but that's probably because 'Disturbing The Ache' is more...twisted. Although it changes daily - tomorrow I'm likely to be obsessed with 'Teeth' or maybe the straight up punk swirl flaildown that is 'Feel Good Hit Of The Second Trimester' or the viscous closer 'The Earth Keeps Its Secrets'... And that is where I Am Scared... is at - it's a twisted melange of twiddling thumbs and itchy trigger fingers, forked tongues and flying spit, grins of chagrins and howls of maniacal disdain. And may he never change. Grab the CD here - he needs the money - and believe me, you do too.

Belated Miles Brown Electrics

This release, the first for newly minted Australian label It Records, came out at the beginning of the year and I meant to give it some lip service then. Then Miles Brown's "day job", The Night Terrors, released Spiral Vortex and that took my attention away from his solo 7" Electrics, which is pretty damn fun I must say. It came up on my peripheral vision again when I tried to book both Brown and his band for the Gazar Strips tour of Melbourne in May but to no avail... Anyway, no more excuses! Let's talk about Electrics, a small-player that shows the more aggressively playful side of Brown. Still using theremin (he is a theremin musician after all), Brown has included more febrile synth pop compositions here. Nothing ever veers to far from the darkened corners of The Night Terrors, but with 'Electrics' there is a lilting synth line that feels graphically driven, a cel-coloured flicker through the digital landscape of a forever-night megacity, whilst Brown's hushed vocals drip silken androgyny; whilst the B-side 'Night Time' is even more visceral, a widescreen synthetic freakout fuelling the best kind of futurist noir. Not as nihilistic or silly as Multiple Man (remembering that therein holds that band's infinite charm), yet Brown's sepulchral segues are exciting deluges in multilayered electrics - hence the name...


You can buy Electrics here. There is also an amazing remix compilation of Electrics that features twelve - yes, TWELVE - remixes of the single, from the likes of Kangaroo Skull (of My Disco), Prolife (ex-Slug Guts members), Justin Fuller (of ZOND) and more. As you know I am often wary of such things, but this one is incredible. Get it here.

SM'S ACTION BEAT SHOWCASE

Tomorrow evening if you are in London you should really make your way to The Lexington. I have seen some incredible gigs there - the My Disco/Factory Floor/Snowman one still resonates, but there have been LOADS. But tomorrow looks like it could surpass these. Why? Because besides the hellishly exciting lineup, including spiked stalwarts Trash Kit, abrasive bruisers Silent Front, the discombobulated musings of Grimm Grimm, the atomic bomb in an electrical storm that is WEM and the devilish dervish Skinny Girl Diet, an extremely rare headline act awaits. Bletchley's finest pack of noise drunkards Action Beat are collating friends and ferals alike in a tour de force performance, fronted by none other than founder of Dutch blitzkrieg kings themselves The Ex, GW Sok. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW. It kicks off 5pm tomorrow. Want more reason? Try a five quid entry. You have been told...

So in anticipation of a mixtape "thing" that we are looking to start doing here (although a Soundcloud playlist is super easy to conduct - I promise things will be more intricate next time...) here is a playlist of what the band/s have been doing in the past year (except Trash Kit, but they are Trash Kit, you should know their MO already).

An Accident Every Couple of Hours

(Post by Fred Savage Beasts)

This Bi-Hour EP is really great. Unedited mind spasms show themselves for what they are. It’s like your mate at the pub just got ahold of a bunch of B52’s albums and has decided to give you a fairly well thought out overview of the drudgery and low water marks of Australian culture (music and otherwise) amid a volley of personal concerns and half memories. It’s strangely compelling in the way that only strange things can be, and all the while only because it’s so heart-achingly ‘normal’.
Out through legends Vacant Valley (check out the supremely excellent Rough End of the Stick compilation while you’re there)

G. Green Can Get (Brain)Fucked

What's with the foulmouthed headings this week? I don't know anymore...the youth these days...rabble rabble rabble...

G. Green won't care. Their latest song is called 'Brain Fuck' so, you know, peer pressure and all. But the Sacramento four-piece don't just dish out vitriol and swears, for the track is more about flailing limbs and destroying spaces with a euphoric yet glazed expression on your face. And these guys certainly have tightened things riiiiiiight up since last record Crap Culture. Not that people getting more proficient is always beneficial, but here it lends a supreme urgency that the band didn't own before, and means that they can literally lead us anywhere. Including down an alleyway of our mind from some sordid cross-wrist action.

'Brain Fuck' will be out on Area Codes, their new LP on Mt.St.Mtn. Records. 

Bearhug’s with Borders

(Post by Fred Savage Beasts)

New Bearhug. Nuff said. But, yeah, any band that releases a track like this to promote their upcoming album is two things: fucking awesome and okay in my books. Actually, I take that back, this is more than OKAY in my books - it’s rad. This is sounds against reality TV! Fuck you nationally airing karaoke programs, this is sounds, and tone, and energy, and noise! Take your sheen and stick it. Damn am I looking forward to the album ‘So Gone’, out through Spunk soon. Not soon enough in my books! (ED - The album is soooooo good Fred!)
 

Hittin' The Gubba

If you have been following Jonathan Boulet before now, rest assured that you have NOT been following Jonathan Boulet. More known for his sojourns into atmospheric rock with Sydney band Parades, or his "shouty-indie" solo fare (especially on the success of 2012's sophomore effort We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart). But Boulet and his band have bigger, doomier riffs to fry, and third album Gubba is about to shatter whatever preconceptions you may have had of the band before now. You see, Boulet is all about stretching parameters as far as they can go whilst getting the crowd/listener to collectively use it AND lose it. Gubba is a hodgepodge of rock explosions a la the best of John Dwyer's Thee Oh Sees efforts, just with added dirge and a tongue parked permanently in cheek. It's funny, heady, silly, heavy, and cool. In short - this is the Jonathan Boulet we've been waiting for all this time...


Gubba is out now through Popfrenzy in Australia, with Europe to follow suit later this month. Boulet is based in London nowadays (lucky me!), but is launching the album throughout August, with a show in Brisbane at Black Bear Lodge.

Lost In The Caprice With The Old Man And You

You might know Michael Whitney from underrated Brisbane brooders Nite Fields (who actually have that long-gestating album on the way - Chinese Democracy mk II!!!) but he has also been floating around in the ether as the incredibly difficult to do anything with moniker, You. The subtle, embryonic pop that Whitney styles as You has brought about some intimate and affecting shows in the past. Having brought on Luke Zahnleiter (ex Tape/Off and The Rational Academy guitarist) though You takes on a new light, with Whitney becoming increasingly bolder in his compositions. His first physical release is coming in the form of a 7" out through Lost Race Records (responsible for Nite Fields, Cobwebbs and Loomer releases), and you can sample the discombobulated jazz blues of 'Caprice' below. The haunting sax is such a beautiful touch here, somehow sparking Whitney's dreary, downtrodden warble into life (just) and providing a shimmering layered sound. Then there is the B-side 'Old Man', which is a studied strum on laconic downer spirals, designed solely to spirit ice down your spine. Breathtaking.


You can get You's limited edition 7" on Friday - pre-order it here. You plays in full band mode (Heidi Cutlack and Alec Tullio round out You) Thursday August 7 at The Bearded Lady in Brisbane alongside SM faves Dag and No Magic.

Like Sounds Through the Hourglass Tonight

(Post by Fred Savage Beasts)

I’ve been slightly scared for me to sit down and write something about the new Sounds Like Sunset album. This has been a band that I’ve always, in the truest sense of the word, admired. That might sound like a worrying start to a review. Rest assured however, this is no “Dinosaur Jr. has a lot to answer for…”

The tough part is this: Sounds Like Sunset songs have always sidled in at fairly massive turning points in my and many of my friends' lives. They have slowly worked their way through space and time to come to define moments, the best and the worst. Sounds Like Sunset songs are weddings, moving out, getting busted by the cops, moving home after getting busted by the cops. If you can grasp the sense of this, you’re closer to understanding why putting this album on for the first time made me both nostalgic and worried that my wife might be suddenly pregnant – or want a divorce.

There is real beauty to be found in ‘We Could Leave Tonight’. It’s honest and self-effacing and glows the colour of burning tubes. It is an album that doesn’t demand you listen to it, and it won’t whine when you don’t, but you’ll listen to it anyway. It’s lost but it’s finding its way. It’s turning in circles and falling over. It’s looking up at the stars while it’s down there. That might read as lame to you. Maybe so. But you probably never greened out on a cop's shoes and had to move back in with your parents to sort your life out.


Available now on Brisbane’s legendary Tym Records - grab it here.

Spraying Paint Over Those Upsetting Fuck Words

I am a massive fan of Texans Spray Paint - their self-titled album from last year was one of my favourites of the year - and of the last five. And now they are back, albeit with a 7" courtesy of Upset The Rhythm, and it's a goddamn bristling sledgehammer of abrasion and spit. It's got more of the Parquet Courts ranting in the vocals this time around, but remains more driven in dark detritus. It chugs and chimes with disturbed intent, and leaves far too early - the sign that they have exited at the right time then. Replay value at 1000%. Destruction imminent. Get on this NOW - you can pre-order the 7" here. Let it kickstart a killer weekend...

Blasting The Lucern Haze Through The Ozone

Luke Reilly, he of much missed London malcontents Sex Beet (the band) and most recently PNKSLM (the label), has been sequestered in Sweden helping the likes of Al Lover, Sudakistan and Black Mekon get their fetid faces out there. Now he is doing the rock and roll thang of his own devising, under the name Lucern Raze, and the debut single 'Sunshine Blues' is silly, loud, raucous, sunny, scuzzed up ecstasy.

Grab the limited 7" here. PNKSLM are busy with shows all over the shop, including a showcase at the Liverpool Psych Fest and their Label Mates day at Shacklewell Arms late August, so expect the party juggernaut to roll psychotically on.