With bands such as Nation Of Ulysses, Weird War and The Make-Up, Ian Sevonious has been a underground garage rock provocateur for nearly 30 years. As Chain And The Gang, he’s distilled the essence of what does, right down to it’s bare rhythmic essentials – drums, bass, guitar and vocals.
They’re a highly economical and effective combo, stripped to simple gang chants, sparse riffs and grooves that snake and pulse with vaguely sleazy appeal. The remit of the band is a kind of rock ’n’ roll reverse psychology – Devitalize, Why Not, I See Progress and others embracing deconstruction with a playful approach to ultimate nihilism.
This is primal garage rock with infectious, minimal R&B rhythms and they nail it with tongue-in-cheek attitude, strut and swagger.
Album number three for this Sydney quartet (previously a trio). The addition of bass guitar adds another layer of rhythm and movement to their sound as they tackle the experiences of women over different generations via their dark and swirling post punk.
It can be a claustrophobic listen at times, the guitar acting like mesh and gauze with its washes of distortion and clanging reverb, while Amy Wilson sings in a stentorian manner, the obvious comparison being a tougher Siouxsie Sioux shapeshifting with the fluidity of Warpaint. Drive and Numb are two highpoint on a very strong album that manages to simultaneously sound sweeping and intimate.
The Tall Grass (Peter Fenton & Jamie Hutchings) recently launched their debut album Down The Unmarked Road, marking the occasion with a couple of full band shows. Now they have a video clip for one of the album’s many highlights, ‘Moller’. The song references King St, Newtown and the song’s namesake, friend and fellow musician Chris Moller (Midget, Starboard, Blood Relative) who died five years ago.
Lee Ranaldo has announced he has a brand new album called Electric Trim coming out on September 15th via Mute Records.
His prime collaborator on the album was producer Raül “Refree” Fernandez and as well as his usual band The Dust (Steve Shelley, Alan Licht, Tim Luntzel), he also invited in guests Nels Cline and Sharon Van Etten.
Here’s the first taste of the new album – ‘Circular (Right As Rain)’.
ELECTRIC TRIM TRACKLISTING:
Moroccan Mountains
Uncle Skeleton
Let’s Start Again
Last Looks (with Sharon Van Etten)
Circular (Right As Rain)
Electric Trim
Purloined
Thrown Over The Wall
New Thing
PLAYERS:
Lee Ranaldo – vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, electronics, drums, marimba
Raül Refree – acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, electronics and programming, bass, drums, backing vocals
Sharon Van Etten – vocals
Alan Licht – electric guitar
Tim Luntzel – bajo
Nels Cline – electric guitar
Steve Shelley – drums
Kid Millions – drums
Xavi de la Salud – trumpets and flugelhorns
Cody Ranaldo – electronics
Mar Girona – backing vocals
Down the line from LA, where he’s between tours with Pond and Mac DeMarco, Kirin J. Callinan gives Chris Familton an insight into the creative process behind his new album Bravado and why it took four years to complete.
Kirin J. Callinan is something of a modern day renaissance man, a polymorphic pop provocateur who revels in stretching creative boundaries and treading a fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous. His debut album Embracism explored industrial tension and bittersweet balladry but Bravado takes a different kind of maximalist approach, combining brash, over-the-top EDM synths with Callinan’s trademark effect-laden guitar playing, answerphones, didgeridoos, whistling and that voice that recalls the orotund tones of Scott Walker, Matt Johnson (The The) and Alan Vega (Suicide). It’s a bold transition, yet it’s not a great departure from his core aesthetic.
“I wanted to make the same record again and explore the same ideas and the weirdness I’d created but push it further. In the past there was this moody, kind of violent, shadowy, industrial murkiness with all these spiritual ballads. I wanted those electronic sounds that were previously industrial and threatening to now be inclusive and fun. The ballads were previously more poetic and self-serious. I wanted the new ones to have a more heightened sentimentality and be more inclusive and accessible, rather than the idea of being elitist or cool. I wanted to do away with all that and make it fun,” he stresses.
“I kind of hated this record and didn’t feel motivated to finish it,” recalls Callinan, when asked why four years have passed since he released his debut solo album. “The truth is that the vast majority of this record was a made in 2014. The songs were written then and they haven’t changed much since mid-2015. I guess what did change was my perspective. I was able to flick a switch and love all the things I hated about it and see it for what it was and understand its beauty and humanity and the truth in its ugliness, bombast and bravado.”
Callinan was encouraged to finish the album when “a bunch of different guests, who made cameos on the record, heard what I had and wanted to be part of it. That definitely fills you with confidence when you have doubt over something.” Some collaborations were with friends while others such as Jimmy Barnes and the Finn family were happy accidents that he pursued. “I emailed Jimmy and told him I was a fan of his music and particularly his scream. I didn’t hear back for months and eventually I landed in LA and in my inbox he’d sent me a bunch of WAV files of him screaming and I worked it into the song which was cool!” enthuses Callinan.
When it comes to how Bravado will be received, Callinan is already looking ahead to the next album. “I already have a completely crystallised view of what I want the next album to be. I’m going to start work on it in Las Vegas where there is absurdity, amorality and the idea that there is no good or bad, just wanton desire. It’s a strange place with a mix of families, tourists, gambling, prostitution, extreme wealth and poverty, the desert and bright neon lights. I’ll be getting to work on that at the first opportunity.”
“No matter what people say about Bravado, it’s original and singular which is more than can be said for a lot of things. I’ve been and excited and validated by the response to it so far. It’s nothing new for me to be divisive. If they like it or hate it, who gives a fuck.”
Cash Savage & The Last Drinks, Mere Women, Jep and Dep @ The Factory Floor, Sydney (26.05.17)
Jep and Dep are on the downhill run to the release of their second LP, due for release in August, making this a chance to hear a brace of new tracks alongside songs from their debut Word Got Out. As is their fascinating dynamic, the duo exchanged barbed witty comments with each other and the audience before dovetailing into stark and dark folk songs framed by Darren Cross’ fine acoustic fingerpicking and Jessica Cassar’s high and lonesome voice which hung in the air with melancholic poise.
Mere Women are a band who’ve slowly built a strong reputation in the last few years with their three albums that showcase their engaging post-punk sound. Live they delivered and in some cases exceeded expectations. Front-person Amy Wilson is the human conduit into their jagged, coruscating sound where the drums stopped, started and tumbled, the bass provided the heartbeat and Flyn McKinnirey’s guitar created washes of sound and urgent collisions of effect-laden notes. It was a big and intense sound but one that was wholly the sum of its impressive parts.
Cash Savage is still riding high on the critical success of last year’s album One Of Us and based on this performance the songs have become even more vibrant and dynamic than when the band first toured them upon the album’s release. There was a relaxed intensity that permeated the set, the songs surging on with an ebb and flow and the band enjoying the sonic ride in their slipstream. Savage is still the focal point, that resolute stare across the audience, the clenching of teeth, stalking of the stage and slow-mo ducking and weaving like a boxer coyly sizing up their opponent. There was both a menace and euphoria to her voice as The Last Drinks traveled the length of One Of Us, drawing power and passion from Run With The Dogs, Rat-a-Tat-Tat and the album’s title track, just three highlights among many. A faultless performance from one of this country’s finest.
