Wonderful news to wake up to today, Califone have a new album called villagers in the can and set for release on May 19th via Jealous Butcher Records. On the first single ‘Habsburg Jaw‘, Tim Rutili is sounding in fine form, still weaving that fascinating mix of melodic immediacy and skewed experimental pop – a sonic junk shop of the accessible and the avant garde. … Continue reading CALIFONE ANNOUNCE NEW 2023 LP AND RELEASE FIRST SINGLE
I’m a big fan of RVG, their last album Feral was one of my favourites in 2020, so having a new single in the inbox this morning was a real treat. They deliver 100% too. ‘Nothing Really Changes‘ is a glorious slow-building rock track that glistens with retro synths over a muscular rhythm section. Frontperson Romy Vager is in exultant, brooding and defiant form, nailing … Continue reading RVG RETURN WITH A STELLAR AND STRIKING NEW 2023 SINGLE
NSW songwriter and filmmaker (WAITING: The Van Duren Story) Wade Jackson has released his new single ‘Limelight’ (Broken Stone Records), his first new music since his 2020 album Sensationalized. ‘Limelight‘ emerges twitching, writhing, pulsing and electronically convulsing. Like Bowie and Suicide in hi-fidelity 4K, ‘Limelight’ is hypnotic, with waning vintage synths and tribal-esque drums, the latter evolving from the coal freight trains passing through regional NSW. The middle … Continue reading WADE JACKSON STEPS INTO THE LIMELIGHT WITH NEW SINGLE
Returning after a ten-year sojourn, freshly stewed from the mind of legendary rock outlier J Mascis, instrumental psych sideshow Heavy Blanket are back with the release of new album Moon Is on Outer Battery Records. Forever the creator and custodian of noise in all its inimitable forms, Mascis’ recent raid on a stash of unused riffs has yielded an exceptionally heavy trove of new tracks. Over six … Continue reading NEW HEAVY BLANKET (J. MASCIS) LP OUT END OF JANUARY
ARTIST PHOTO: Rachael Cassells The new single ‘Ashes, Ashes’, by Meg Baird, taken from the forthcoming new LP Furling, out on LP/CD/Digital on January 27, 2023 on Drag City. Furling moves through the breadth of Meg’s musical fascinations and the environments around them—edges of memory, daydreams spanning years, loose ends, divergent paths, secret conversations under stars—all led by a stirring, singular voice calling experience and enlightenment, elation, … Continue reading LISTEN TO THE DREAMY DRIFT AND SMOKEY SWAY OF MEG BAIRD’S NEW SINGLE
Our final video premiere for 2022 and it’s a damn fine one to go out on. The glistening, synth slow-burn of Ben deHoedt‘s new single ‘Divided Souls‘. Seemingly with one foot in the 80s and one in the future, De Hoedt pays tribute to the iconic TV series Miami Vice, transforming it into a gritty, stylised noir that, as deHoedt explains, is “a re-imagining of … Continue reading VIDEO PREMIERE: Ben deHoedt – Divided Souls
The Fragments are an indie rock band from Sydney, originally active from 2001 to 2006, and reformed in 2022. While active, The Fragments only put out two singles! So, in 2019, they released ‘Transporter Volume I’ and ‘Transporter Volume II’, a double album compilation of music recorded in the 2000s. The two volumes are available on Bandcamp and streaming services. In 2022, the band set up a mobile recording studio in a … Continue reading SYDNEY BAND THE FRAGMENTS RETURN WITH FIRST NEW SINGLE IN NEARLY 20 YEARS
After celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary last year, Metallica have today released the official music video for ‘Lux Æterna,’ from the album 72 Seasons available April 14th, 2023. James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich co-produced the 77-minute, 12-song album with their longtime producer, Greg Fidelman. The record is a rumination of sorts on childhood, with “72 seasons” representing the number of seasons we live through … Continue reading Metallica release first new single in six years and announce new album
Dave Graney / Clare Moore will release their new album In A Mistly next Friday (Nov 11th) and the first single from it is the intoxicating pulse and seductive fuzz and croon of ‘Tang’. Like a wonky version of Stereolab in a psych-pop and krautrock altered dream-state, the single beautifully blends an insistent rhythmic undercurrent with Graney’s sartorial and poetic eloquence in free flow, urging … Continue reading DAVE GRANEY AND CLARE MOORE SEDUCE AND HYPNOTISE ON NEW SINGLE ‘TANG’
Sydney songwriter and author Lo Carmen has been busy of late, on the promo trail for her excellent book Lovers Dreamers Fighters and a run of live shows with her band The Great Beyond. Now the recorded fruits of their labour has arrived with the new single ‘Half Girl Half Beast‘ which slithers from the swamp in a sultry and ghostly crawl – a long overdue … Continue reading LO CARMEN GETS GLORIOUSLY DREAMY AND SWAMPY ON NEW SINGLE ‘HALF GIRL HALF BEAST’
In little more than one and a half minutes, Italian post-punk band Leatherette create a consummate serving of post-punk imbued shoegaze. Brittle yet warm, like cascading sheets of distorted rain and melodic vocal anguish, ‘Sunbathing’ is an urgent dispatch, an existential howl and yelp over glorious harmonic noise that ends too soon, yet delivers all that’s required. The group are based in Bologna, but all … Continue reading ITALY’S LEATHERETTE CREATE A FRANTIC AND ANGULAR WASH OF DISTORTION AND MELODY ON NEW SINGLE
I’m loving the sound of this new single from Manchester quintet splint. There are shades of Black Country New Road, Sonic Youth, Courtney Barnettt and Life Without Buildings in their sound. On ‘145‘, tumbling notes, both frantic and meditative unfurl over rock drums. The whole thing builds into a brisk melancholy with the vocal of Giulia Bonometti countering and balancing the nervy electricity of the guitars. … Continue reading SPLINT CREATE A HOLISTIC POST-PUNK WORLD ON NEW SINGLE ‘145’
Doubtful Sounds 