1 2 3 4 5 Reviewed for FasterLouder Shayne Carter is one of those musicians who has an unbroken run of albums, not a dud or misstep among them. From his formative days in Dunedin punk bands Bored Games and Double Happys, through the golden years of Straitjacket Fits and more recently as Dimmer. Now onto his fourth album under that name he has produced … Continue reading REVIEW: DIMMER – Degrees Of Existence
1 2 3 4 5 Reviewed for FasterLouder Over the last ten years Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have formed a tight musical partnership with Ellis becoming a lynchpin of The Bad Seeds and superseding Mick Harvey as Cave’s right hand man. Cave in turn has on occasion joined Ellis’s The Dirty Three on stage as accompanying pianist. This cross pollination of bands and music … Continue reading REVIEW: NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS – White Lunar
The Forum always reminds me of an 80s nightclub with its mirrored ceilings and three storeys looking down on the stage. This gave the evening a somewhat club feeling that benefited Fat Freddy’s Drop by highlighting the electronic side of their sound. Too often they are lumped in with the dub/reggae genre when in fact they are much more than that. Theirs is a sound … Continue reading REVIEW: FAT FREDDY’S DROP @ The Forum, Sydney (17/10/09)
1 2 3 4 5 Reviewed for The Dwarf Rowland S. Howard is one of those perennial Australian musicians that has survived a rock & roll lifestyle and like his contemporaries Nick Cave, Kim Salmon and Tex Perkins is still conjuring up life affirming and in most cases fantastic new music. Pop Crimes sees him tackling his second solo album and it is a cohesive, … Continue reading REVIEW: ROWLAND S. HOWARD – Pop Crimes
1 2 3 4 5 White Denim are Texan punk rock reprobates who retired to a trailer in the secluded woods and conjured up one of the wildest concoctions of sound and style this year. Just as you settle into one groove or mood on Fits they flip it, twist and change the genre blender. Radio Milk How Can You Stand It is a spastic … Continue reading REVIEW: WHITE DENIM – Fits
1 2 3 4 5 reviewed for FasterLouder Reunions, reunions… They are a dime a dozen these days, ranging from the heavyweights like Pixies, Led Zeppelin, Blur and Pavement to those that don’t garner the same column inches but are just as important like Magazine and Gang Of Four. Alice In Chains are in a slightly different boat in that they lost their singer Layne … Continue reading REVIEW: ALICE IN CHAINS – Black Gives Way To Blue
1 2 3 4 5 Each year there seems to be one new band that stands out from all the others in the indie world and captures the attention of a wider audience with scant mainstream promotion and hype. Last year it was Bon Iver and in 2009 it is the year of Girls. As far as debut albums go, theirs is an absolute gem. … Continue reading REVIEW: GIRLS – Album
The Mess Hall have had an extended break from live shows to record their new album For The Birds (out next month) so their show at the intimate Oxford Art Factory was a great opportunity to check out some of the new songs and see where the band is heading. Daisy Tully opened the night to a sparse early crowed and showed her talents extend … Continue reading REVIEW: THE MESS HALL live @ OAF, Sydney (16/10/09)
1 2 3 4 5 reviewed for Cyclic Defrost… Feral Media are up to number eight of ten releases in their POWWOW series of new music. This latest album is the work of Sydney’s Travis Baird who splits his time between his band The Woods Themselves and live and recording work for the likes of El Mopa and Sounds Like Sunset. Blackout Music sees him … Continue reading REVIEW: AFXJIM – Blackout Music
1 2 3 4 5 reviewed for The Dwarf… James Chapman of Maps turned in a pretty good debut album with 2007’s We Can Create. Solely created by himself it was a hazy, distorted piece of bedroom pop that was given a human touch with his fragile keening vocals. Two years down the track and Turning The Mind is a different beast. Gone are the … Continue reading REVIEW: MAPS – Turning The Mind
Shihad have been fully committed to ‘rock’ for 21 years and over that time they have had their fair share of ups and downs with the death of their manager Gerald Dwyer during 1995s Big Day Out tour and the ill fated name change to Pacifier in a bid for more commercial success. 2009 sees an interesting time for the band with a new album … Continue reading REVIEW: SHIHAD @ The Annandale, Sydney (18/09/09)
1 2 3 4 5 Reviewed for Cyclic Defrost Square Root Records describes this release as 21st century lo-fi, a fairly apt phrase as Conifer Rock fuses electronic technology with guitars and ends up with something that sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track cassette machine. Exploded Views is his latest EP release. Conifer Rock is the sole creation of Trevor Edmonds, his guitar, … Continue reading REVIEW: CONIFER ROCK – Exploded View
Doubtful Sounds 