Review: Victoria Nugent
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The latest offering from Brisbane art rock band Drawn from Bees is their new single Run Away, a melodious, Powderfinger-esque sample of their particular brand of indie rock.
Honest lyrics are teamed with a full-bodied acoustic sound to produce this mellow sounding single, hinting at more good things to come from the band’s upcoming album – |
Fear Not the Footsteps of the Departed, to be released on May 21 2010. Continue reading CD Review: Drawn From Bees – “Run Away”
Review: Victoria Nugent
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Mapleton’s Origami Army is an infectiously cheery blend of indie pop tunes that bring a smile to the face and make the listener want to sing along.
Mapletons started life as a duo with guitarist Derek Orr and keyboardist Kane Mazlin winning national songwriting awards. When Mazlin left to pursue other musical avenues, rather than abandoning Mapletons, |
Orr rallied around the creative hub to create a new line up, with Anita Goldsworthy on keyboard and lead vocals, Carl Roosmale-Cocq on bass and programming duties, and Mitch Clark on drums. Continue reading CD Review: Mapletons – “Origami Army”
Do you want a double pass to the BALL PARK MUSIC – Conquer the Town, Easy as Cake EP Launch @ The Zoo, Brisbane on the 21st May 2010? See below for details.
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As the freshest faces on the Brisbane rock block, Ball Park Music have quickly developed a reputation as one of the most exciting bands around. Just ask the likes of fellow pop-purveyors Philadelphia Grand Jury, Deep Sea Arcade, Boy & Bear, Hungry Kids of Hungary and The Boat People and they will tell you that the six-headed pop juggernaut are an onstage force to be reckoned with. |
Brisbane-reared, Brooklyn-based noise merchants Violent Soho have announced long awaited homecoming dates to celebrate the release of their self titled new album.
Violent Soho’s self titled album is being released worldwide in 2010 via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label and is without doubt one of the most powerful rock albums you will hear this year. Lead single ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend’ is already causing major waves on radio stations across the globe, and currently sits in the Billboard Top 40 rock songs chart and the Canadian Top 20 airplay chart. Continue reading VIOLENT SOHO album release + homecoming tour dates
If there’s one band in this country who has sold in excess of half a million albums, singles, DVDs collectively across their relatively short career, it’s the always get on ya feet and dance, The Cat Empire!
EMI Music Australia proudly announced that Melbourne’s own The Cat Empire have re-signed with the label and set to celebrate their successful 6 year relationship with the release of their fourth studio album ‘Cinema’ on Friday June 25. Continue reading The Cat Empire Announce New Album ‘Cinema’ and Tour
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Sydney quartet The Holidays announce East Coast headline dates to coincide with the release of their imminent new single Golden Sky. Summer’s throes may have vanished but the band has emerged from their Sydney studio with another sun-drenched tune that channels warm nights and cloudless skies. Golden Sky, delivered to radio shortly, blends wild percussion, sing-a-long chant choruses, falsetto vocals and squawking guitars into an action packed, yet equally sublime journey. |
It comes hot on the heels of the acclaimed single Moonlight Hours, which reached # 1 on Triple J’s playlist earlier this year and re-configured the band’s musical GPS. Continue reading The Holidays – East Coast Headliner Tour May-June 2010
Easy To Love is the new autumn offering by Sydney four piece The Jezabels, another prominent track off the band’s second EP She’s So Hard (November 2009). Trailing the infectious first single ‘Hurt Me’, Easy To Love further cements the band’s signature drum/guitar shuffle, highlighting the effective dynamics of a well-placed silence, filled with the haunting and harmoniously sweet backing vocals of keyboardist Heather Shannon. Continue reading The Jezabels New Single – Easy To Love
Review: Lauren Sherritt
Rearrange Beds recalls in lurid, dreamlike detail memories of adolescent youth; of mistimed love, desperation and a need for just a little bit of control, and as the debut album for Australian two piece An Horse it acts as a solid showcase of the band’s notable talents. It’s honest, edgy and just a little bit off centre and will speak to anybody who remembers that baffling and awkward experience that is emerging into adulthood.
Continue reading CD Review: An Horse – Rearrange Beds
Review: Lana Harris
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club burst from the deep south of the USA and appeared on the music scene at around the same time as we were all worrying about the millennium bug. They were often touted as being ‘the band to take rock forward into the new millennium’ and with this expectation yapping at their heels they crossed the century border.
A decade on, BRMC are still making rock records, their most recent offering entitled Beat the Devil’s Tattoo. The band’s sound has since acquired other labels and modifiers including garage rock, |
swamp rock, blues, country, indie pop and psych-garage. Elements of stoner rock appear in Beat The Devil’s Tattoo too, the characteristic fuzzy guitars and drawling lyrics of the genre weaved with a 70’s rock vibe. Nowhere is this more prevalent than on tracks ‘War Machine’ and ‘Aya’, droning slow burners bloated with distorted guitars that alternatively smoulder and blister. Continue reading CD Review: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
Review: Lana Harris
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Thinking about Cairns, music is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. And when the brain cells do get around to firing in the melodic direction, the image drawn most frequently is that of cover bands playing ‘Down Under’ to hopelessly intoxicated backpackers. So it’s good to know that there are original, independent muso’s inhabiting the tourist Mecca, artists who can battle the salty humidity and lure of cheap pink drinks to produce a unique contribution to the Australian music scene.
The artists in question are known as The Medics, a four-piece emotive indie outfit with an arrangement of electric and |
acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion and vocals. Their contribution is their second EP This Boat We Call Love. Continue reading CD Review: The Medics – This Boat We Call Love
It starts with what sounds like an alien morse code transmission; Earth bound signals bouncing off the side of orbiting space debris. Snatches of voices found out in the ether cut through the machine fog, drifting across burbling analogue equipment lovingly kept working long after supposed sell-by date. By the time the click and thump of snare and bass drum arrive, the sounds are all-encompassing, swirling around you with dizzying, disorientating effect. Noises come untethered by constraints of volume, seemingly leaping from the speakers with a life of their own. For a band used to dealing in psychedelics, this time round The Chemical Brothers have really pushed the proverbial envelope. Continue reading The Chemical Brothers – New Album ‘Further’ Released 4 June 2010
Review: Duncan McKimm
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Following the brilliance of Tones of Town, it appeared Field Music were entering a possibly terminal hiatus due to the Brewis brothers’ aversion to touring and their seemingly disparate musical desires. However, a couple of excellent solo projects in the form of School of Language (David’s baby) and The Week That Was (Peter’s) appear to have not only brought the focus back to Field Music, but also added some excitement to the flagship band. Maybe the critical success of the two side-projects and the removal of tour pressure during this time (which the brothers hate) reinvigorated the old girl – but whatever it was, she’s sounding fantastic. |
Review: Lauren Sherritt
Welsh singer songwriter Cate Le Bon’s quiet, haunting tunes featured on her debut album Me Oh My will follow you for a long time after the CD finishes playing. Filled with melancholy lyrics, soft repetitive choruses and a darkly ever present awareness of mortality, this album is about as far away from pop as you could get.
Cate’s claim that she only ever writes songs in the dark is indeed accounted for in the lyrics on Me Oh My. Phrases such as “I fought the night and the night fought me/Knocked on the door and used its key” (Me Oh My), “Eyes so bright they just steal the night” (Eyes So Bright) and “It’s just baby I’m headed for the black” (Sad Sad Feet) pepper the album, which holds a resigned heaviness for its entire length.
Continue reading CD Review: Cate Le Bon – Me Oh My
Review: Lauren Sherritt
It’s difficult to describe what exactly the phenomenon of Ebony Bones’ music is like, only safe to say that listening to it is an experience like not many others. This is perhaps why the first track on her new album Bone of My Bones begins with a deep, rumbling introduction stating simply that “this is the sounds of Ebony Bones!.” What I can say is that it’s intense, it’s unique, and if for some reason you’re opposed to having a good dance about the house; be careful, because this record is overwhelmingly movement inspiring.
It’s hard to believe that this psychedelic, carnivalesque album was produced mainly by Miss Bones herself in her small London bedroom.
Continue reading Ebony Bones! – Bone Of My Bones : CD Review
Review: Lana Harris
  – Click here for John Butler Trio at iTunes |
John Butler and his newly revised trio (bringing Nicky Bomba to drums/ percussion and Byron Luiters to bass) have made every effort to make April Uprising an accessible folk rock record. Single ‘One Way Road’ was available for free download from several media outlets last year, on top of being the summer promo track on a certain digital sports channel, which guaranteed the single reached new ears. The Trio have also value added the LP by including a poster, environmentally friendly sized lyrics booklet and free trucker’s hat to those who buy the physical CD rather than download. |
Continue reading CD Review: John Butler Trio – April Uprising