Category Archives: cd

CD Review: The Boat People – Echo Stick Guitars

Review: Lana Harris

The Boat People   Are The Boat People benefiting from all the media coverage of a certain method of arrival upon our land girt by sea? Like the refugee boats, they’ve recently taken a new direction, ending up in previously unexplored waters. The audio land about turn has definitely benefited The Boat People. Previously an Indie pop band, the new single ‘Echo Stick Guitars’ presents the four piece as Australian electro pop. The song made me feel like I was joyfully stumbling through a fluro hued platform game, the lack of depth made up for by the easy accessibility
to a steady beat that bounces you along. Robin Waters (who penned the tune) says he came up with the chorus (hey champions, hey violins, hey echo stick guitars) by stringing together heroic sounding words in a Tasmanian gorge at night. I’m wondering which other spooky Australian landscape inspired the velodrome reference later on.

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Young Heretics EP Launch and Tour – Debut EP ‘The Dreamers’

Young Heretics   Click here to enter the Young Heretics debut EP “The Dreamers” Giveaway

Young Heretics are set to launch their debut EP ‘The Dreamers’ in early December. The two piece will be playing with a full backing band, bringing to life the epic layers and textures that have made the 4 song EP such a hit amongst media and fans alike. Formed early in 2009, Young Heretics is the brainchild of Matthew Wright and Kitty Hart, who have found a connection through their love of warped pop and sonic invention.
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Josh Pyke – Announces Debut DVD Release “The LightHouse”

Sydney’s prolific songsmith, Josh Pyke, announces the release of his debut DVD ‘The Lighthouse’, out November 13 through Ivy League.

The centre piece of the DVD is a unreleased documentary, beautifully shot at The Norah Head Lighthouse and surrounding grounds on NSW’s Central Coast in August 2009. The documentary examines 10 prominent songs from across Josh’s career and provides insights from the talented singer songwriter himself as to what motivated them, what they are about and how they have affected his successful and critically acclaimed career.
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CD Review: Dan Parsons – Run With Me

Dan Parsons – Run With Me
Review by: Lana Harris

Dan Parsons
Available at Dan Parsons 		   It’s a little known fact that record companies are the perpetuators of the idea that only by hearing a song can you get it out of your head – which conveniently places it in one thousand other people’s minds when you request it on the radio. Eventually people buy it for an always accessible cure, and thus the song’s place on the charts is secured.

‘Cut Off’, the B side track to ‘Run with Me’, is a song that gets stuck in your mind.

Verses open on drums and vocals, the guitars follow a few bars later, and soon enough the tempo has built up to the four word chorus. Tambourine and piano chords add more interest to the usual instruments that dominate guitar based singles. ‘Cut Off’ could be a stand alone single, as could ‘We Were so Young’, a track which screams ‘our song’ for girls with floral dresses and their childhood sweethearts. The B sides’ quality suggests that when the album is released, it will be an impressive offering.
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RATT: Legendary hard rock icons announce new album

ratt   Legendary hard rock icons RATT announced today that Infestation will be the title of their next album, due out in March 2010 via Loud & Proud/Roadrunner Records. Infestation is the band’s first studio album since 1999. The band, consisting of longtime members Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer, new guitarist Carlos
Cavazo (formerly of Quiet Riot) and Robbie Crane on bass, worked with producer Elvis Baskette (Chevelle, Incubus, Limp Bizkit). This collaboration marks the very first time in their storied career that RATT have recorded outside of Los Angeles. The band lived together at Elvis’ Virginia studio while recording Infestation.

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AIMEÉ NASH FROM THE BLACK RYDER FEATURES ON B.R.M.C SONG ON TWILIGHT ‘NEW MOON’ SOUNDTRACK

Black Ryder   AIMEÉ NASH FROM THE BLACK RYDER FEATURES ON B.R.M.C SONG ON TWILIGHT ‘NEW MOON’ SOUNDTRACK

As of yesterday, the duo posted their haunting track & accompanying short film for ‘Sweet Come Down’ online. The film was directed by acclaimed director Michael Spiccia, and was shot by cinematographer Stefan Duscio who has worked closely with Spiccia on various projects.

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Foxx On Fire release “White Sands” and Embark On East Coast Launch Tour

Foxx on Fire   “Finishing the night with a bang was the big labels A&R’s wet dream, Foxx On Fire. Give them a few years and they’ll be sharing stages with The Rapture and Bloc Party…Foxx on Fire are going to be big.” – Inpress.

Describing their music as ‘Apocalyptic Disco-Noir’ for the dance floor, this up and coming Melbourne four-piece have spent the last few months tucked away recording their debut EP White Sands. The EP will

launch today October 23 and they are now preparing to head out on the road in November and take their psychedelic sounds to the masses.

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CD Review: Suffocation – The Close of a Chapter (Live in Quebec)

Suffocation: The Close of a Chapter (Live in Quebec) 2005
Review: Lana Harris

Suffocation   ‘This is … Brutal!’ yells Frank Mullen at the end of The Close of a Chapter’s opening track, “Infecting the Crypts”. This is Suffocation. Birthed from the insomniac New York Underground, Suffocation clawed their way to the top of the death metal pit in the early nineties, with shadows of their unrelenting riffs and Mike Smith’s seminal blast beats cast across lesser black drum kits ever since. Suffocation captures the energy of a single moment of explosion and sticks it on endless repeat. And the lyrics are about killing people. Yeah, it’s brutal. But this isn’t a
dissection of the value of Suffocation’s music. That blood spattered throne has already been carved.

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Thirty Seconds To Mars : Album ‘THIS IS WAR’ Released 20 November 2009

THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS New Studio Album ‘THIS IS WAR’ set to hit November 20 on EMI’s Virgin Records

Following up on their incredibly successful sophomore release, A Beautiful Lie, multi-platinum rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars are hard at work on their highly anticipated upcoming record, “THIS IS WAR” (EMI’s Virgin Records) set to hit on November 20. The album was produced by Flood (U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails), Steve Lillywhite (The Rolling Stones, U2) and Thirty Seconds To Mars. First single Kings and Queens at radio early next month.
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CD Review: Heavy Water Experiments

Review by: Stuart Blythe

Heavy Water Experiments   Stemming from LA, Heavy Water Experiments offer an extraordinary debut album. Primarily fitting, but not limited to, the psychedelic, progressive indie/rock genre.

From the floating, trippy and heavy bass of opening tracks GoldenThroat and Mirror the Sky, the psychedelic experimental rock is delivered with style. But there are surprises ahead with tracks the like of Anodyne and Neverlove that are psych pop rock/trance with well layered grooves that are more anthem rock.

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BIG SOUND 2009 Summit & Showcases : Free MP3 Downloads

BIG SOUND 2009 Summit & Showcases http://www.bigsound.org.au
   Download 20 free Big Sound – New Music Sampler tracks.by clicking the Big Sound image.

The Live program is bigger than ever this year, with over 60 acts, including Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo – USA), The Airborn Toxic Event (USA), Bob Evans (WA), Bertie Blackman (NSW), Old Man River (NSW), The Middle East (QLD) and more, taking the stage across two nights at 6 venues throughout the Fortitude Valley.

See www.bigsound.org.au for the full program of 60 live acts, and to book tickets.
(Artist List Below)
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Tinpan Orange New Album – The Bottom Of The Lake


Tinpan Orange   Tinpan Orange New Album – The Bottom Of The Lake

Melbourne folk outfit Tinpan Orange are putting the finishing touches on their third LP, The Bottom Of The Lake, due in store August 17th 2009, through Vitamin Records, it is the follow up to their 2007 gem Death, Love and Buildings.

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Philadelphia Grand Jury Celebrate Debut EP With Headline Tour! – July 2009

Philadelphia Grand Jury   Australia’s best/only independent punk-soul trio PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY are set to leg it down the East Coast for their first ever headline tour, in support of their first release, the ‘Going To The Casino’ EP, which debuted at no. 5 on the iTunes Alternative chart.

With current single ‘I’m Going To Kill You’ all over the radio, and a brand new clip for the indie hit ‘Going To The Casino (Tomorrow Night)’ getting regular spins on the tellie, Berkfinger, MC Bad Genius and Dan W Sweat are steadily gaining a rep for inducing old-fashioned hip-swinging hysteria at their live shows.

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CD Review: The Little Stevies – Love Your Band

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by Felicity Rennie –

The Little Stevies - Love Your Band    I am not convinced that the use of a rainstick (or a very convincing similar effect) in the opening strains of Sunshower, the first track and first single from The Little Stevies’ debut album Love Your Band, is a coincidence. An instrument noted for its relaxation qualities, it says a lot about the album that follows, which, like a rainstick, is carefully constructed, filled with surprise gems, and is unequivocally soothing. This is a strong, inspired debut from a very promising three piece.

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CD Review: Karnivool “Sound Awake”

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Review by: Stuart Blythe
karnivoolcdIt’s been four years in the making but after setting a new benchmark in Australian heavy rock with their debut album “Themata”, the pressure was on. Fortunately the wait has been worth it!!

Re-enlisting Themata’s producer Forrester Savell, the album was recorded at Perth’s Blackbird and Kingdom Studios over several months, and later mixed at Melbourne’s famous Sing Sing Studios’. Savell has done a superb job on this record with each band member clear in the mix, and the various landscapes of sound captured impeccably. Singer Ian Kenny relays “It was a no-brainer in the end. Once we made the decision to let him into our space, we really relied on him to don the heavy black boots and start kicking heads, which he did. Plus, the guy’s got the goods musically – he’s like the cleaner who comes in after a murder.”
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