Category Archives: Natalie Salvo

Single Review : The John Steel Singers – Weekend Lover

By: Natalie Salvo
johnsteel
They’ve done krautrock, guitar pop, folk-rock and even psychedelia and now Brisbane’s John Steel Singers have added another feather to their caps with, “Weekend Lover”. The single is from their forthcoming third album, Midnight At The Plutonium (named after their record label and studio) and sees a mix of seventies funk and soul.
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Live Review: The Beatle Boys @ State Theatre, Sydney – June 21, 2014

By Natalie Salvo
Beatle BoysIt was fifty years ago today that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. Not quite, but it has been that long since The Beatles did their first and only tour of Australia. The tribute band, The Beatle Boys would recreate their 1964 set as well as play another full set of classics, favourites and some obscure songs at the State Theatre. It proved to be one fun night and respectful tribute to the Fab Four.

The first act went for just 35 minutes but this was how long a headline act would typically perform for in 1964. The concert started with video containing black and white archive footage from the Australian tour when Beatlemania was in full force. From there, The Beatle Boys (John Kater as Paul, Christopher Lee Frazer as John, Rodney Auld as George and Michael Brady as Ringo) launched into the chugging pop of “I Saw Her Standing There”.
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Album Review: Stonefield – Stonefield (Debut Album)

Review by Natalie Salvo
Ever since they won Triple J’s Unearthed High in 2010 the four gorgeous Findlay sisters known as Stonefield (and previously Iotah) have had to face their fair share of criticism over their image and being discounted as a “teenage gimmick”. The quartet was surrounded by lots of hype as the band is made up of four sisters who range in age from being teenagers to in their early twenties. They also got to play Glastonbury festival quite early but they do have the talent to back it all up. On their eponymous, debut record they continue to thumb their noses at their detractors as they offer one solid and promising effort.
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Album Review: Alex Lloyd – Urban Wilderness

Review by Natalie Salvo
It has been five years since Alex Lloyd released a solo album but in that time he had a break like John Lennon. He was busy caring for his brood of children (he now has four) and was busy writing music for other acts (like Passenger) plus producing and working on soundtracks (including collaborating with the Pigram Brothers for the Mad Bastards OST). This period – like much of his career – has been a rich and varied one and this is also the most striking element on his sixth studio record.

Urban Wilderness was written in a piecemeal fashion with one of the tracks dating back as far as 2008. It covers his time spent living abroad in Queens Park in the UK and his return home to the Central Coast in 2012. The title hints at being lost in a sea of uncertainty and this is reflective of Lloyd’s initial mindset with regards to returning to solo music. This changed though, when he shared his demos with artist and producer, Shane Nicholson (who is famous for his collaborations with his then-wife, Kasey Chambers). Nicholson pushed Lloyd and insisted that he had an album and the rest is all history.
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Live Review: Stone Music Festival Day 2 – ANZ Stadium, Sydney – April 21, 2013

By Natalie Salvo
If Stone Music Festival’s first day was a salute to rock then day two proved a little more difficult to pigeonhole. The bill included an American piano man, two elder statesmen of Oz music, a new band and two former Australian Idol contestants. I suppose we’ll just have to say that this unlikely grouping meant that this was a celebration of music, pure and simple.

L.A. band, Illumination Road is a duo that was making their worldwide, live debut. The pair had three additional musicians on hand and they played rock music which took its reference points from some of the greats from the golden period in the sixties and seventies. “What We Say” closed the set and had a decent tune and with time these guys look poised to be ones to watch.
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Live Review: Stone Music Festival Day 1 – ANZ Stadium, Sydney – April 20, 2013

By Natalie Salvo
Sydney was wet and it wasn’t David Lee Roth’s fault. Saturday morning had seen the heavens open again and again but rock ain’t about being comfortable and a little water never killed anyone. On day one of the inaugural Stone Music Festival, guitar heroes were king and no one was going to let a few showers rain on their musical parade.

A small but dedicated crowd watched LA Band, Buckcherry make their Sydney debut. They ploughed through hard rock songs like “Rescue Me” while “Gluttony” saw the rock ‘n’ roll forced up to 11. Lead singer, Josh Todd closed the set by asking how many crazy b**ches were in the house and it warmed my heart to see people getting into the spirit of the fest (i.e. “celebrating music, life and freedom”) by hollering about the deranged.
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Album Review: Björk – Bastards (Biophilia Remixes)

By Natalie Salvo
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Björk is an artist that never fails to be eccentric and interesting. Last year’s Biophilia album was a sprawling, mixed media affair where the music was released as an album alongside shows, educational projects and a special app for every single song. In 2012, Bastards draws together remixes of virtually all of these tracks.

Björk has acknowledged that these particular remixes took the listener somewhere else. The cuts were all chosen by the fine lady herself, because she says they contain much sturdier legs to dance on thanks to their rather heavy reliance on synths and beats. These particular songs have all been offered on the Internet as downloads at different times and this release collects them together in a handy but rather unnecessary package.
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Album Review: thenewno2 – thefearofmissingout

By Natalie Salvo
thenewno2’s debut album sounded more like Beck than the output of Beatle progeny. The comparison to the Fab Four was inevitable as the project is the brainchild of Dhani Harrison (son of George Harrison). And while Dhani looks and sounds like his famous father, the music actually falls on the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Again, Harrison has teamed up with his friend and famed engineer, Paul Hicks (son of The Hollies’ Tony Hicks) and it’s clear the two share their tastes in modern music.

Their sophomore effort, thefearofmissingout is generation Y to a tee. The concept is a contemporary problem used to describe an individual’s restlessness at wanting to do it all (no doubt a product of seeing their friends on Instagram and Facebook at exotic locations and doing all sorts of exciting things). It means you don’t want to miss a thing, whether it’s going to the next party or meeting the next guy or gal and this often manifests itself as an awful lot of indecision.
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Ladytron – Gravity The Seducer | Album Review

Review by Natalie Salvo
By now fans of Ladytron will be well-acquainted with their parallels to Roxy Music. The English quartet were named after the latter’s song; two members once posed as Roxy-like pinups for their remix album “Softcore Jukebox”; and there are certainly elements of the glam pop sound permeating their music. But while the group had previously aligned aspects of themselves with the latter’s frontman, Bryan Ferry, on album number five, “Gravity The Seducer” they seem to be taking a leaf out of his former bandmate’s book (and later solo work), i.e. Brian Eno and his famed atmospherics.
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The Black Keys – “Brothers” [CD Review]

Review: Natalie Salvo
This is a record review about The Black Keys. But you already knew that didn’t you? So while we’re giving you ‘helpful’ but unnecessary statements, “Brothers” is the sixth studio album from the Ohio-based blues-rock duo.

The pair has been rather busy as of late with guitarist, Dan Auerbach dropping a solo album while Patrick Carney produced the aptly titled side project, Drummer. The boys then collaborated with a bunch of rappers for the hip-hop record, Blakroc.
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