by Chris Familton With a reputation born mainly from their sweat and swagger live shows, The Jim Jones Revue have finally captured some of that frantic magic on their third and best album The Savage Heart. Breathing new life into purist rock n roll isn’t an easy task when you consider the originators of the genre and the huge number of the bands over the … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Jim Jones Revue | The Savage Heart
by Chris Familton The LA quartet return with their sophomore album that finds them throwing more influences into the mix while still maintaining their highly melodic indie rock sound. Strapped feels like a step up for a band that specialized in efficient garage rock dispatches and even though they have softened their rawer edges they have compensated by dialing in more expansive textures and song … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Soft Pack | Strapped
New Zealand trio Popstrangers have a new album Antipodes coming out late Feb/early March (depending where you are) and they’ve done the decent thing and released the first song from it, Heaven on Soundcloud. It’s a super hooky piece of guitar pop/rock that gets gloriously woozy in the chorus and choppy in the verses. The band released some singles on Flying Nun before signing with Carpark … Continue reading LISTEN: Popstrangers | Heaven – from their new album ‘Antipodes’
A NEW FLIGHT PATH FAT FREDDY’S DROP ARE ABOUT TO TAKE LEAVE FROM RECORDING THEIR NEW ALBUM TO PREVIEW IT AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. KEYBOARDIST DOBIE BLAZE GIVES CHRIS FAMILTON AN INSIGHT ON THE TOURING LIFESTYLE AND THE BAND’S CREATIVE PROCESS. New albums aren’t a common occurrence in the world of Fat Freddy’s Drop. To date there has only been 2005’s debut Based On … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Fat Freddy’s Drop
Sydney independent label Popfrenzy have announced a trifecta of exciting releases in the last week. Songs have a video for their new song Alone When I’m With You from the forthcoming (early 2013) album Malabar. The song can be purchased HERE for a measly 99c. Next up is the first single on the label from Sydney band Day Ravies. Double Act follows up … Continue reading NEWS: New musical delights from the Popfrenzy label
by Chris Familton Musical pairings are a common event for individual songs but two artists collaborating to produce an album’s worth of music doesn’t happen as often as one would expect. David Byrne has always been a songwriter with a strong sense of curiosity and communality, whether it be the polymorphic approach to his work in Talking Heads and their melding of funk, pop, soul … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: David Byrne & St. Vincent | Love This Giant
It is great to see Christopher Owens remaining active and releasing his first solo album so soon after the Girls split was announced. His new album Lysandre will be released on January 14th, 2013 via Turnstile Music. According to the press release for the album: Lysandre follows Owens from San Francisco – where he’s filled with excitement after writing his band’s Album – to New York … Continue reading NEWS: Ex-Girls Christopher Owens announces solo album details
I’ve dug everything I’ve heard from Bad//Dreems (SA) so far, especially the brilliant Chills and now they’ve released a new track, Tomorrow Mountain as a stream and/or ‘name your price’ (including free) download on their Bandcamp page. It sees them heading into a darker, atmospheric place that feels more spacious but at the same time the lyrics and cavernous, slashing guitar sound conjures up feelings of dread and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Bad//Dreems release new song Tomorrow Mountain
Melbourne duo I Dream In Transit have recently released the wonderful new single Absolute Peace backed with the equally great Night Dog. They’ve pressed it as a 7″ too so for those of you who covet the black circle you can grab a limited edition pressing if you are quick. Head over to their Bandcamp page to order now and/or stream and buy a digital … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: I Dream In Transit | Absolute Peace 7″
Perth’s Mining Boom have just released a new clip for their excellent track Craigie. The clip features crazy tripped out digital distortion over a collection of images. The song is built on a great droning backdrop with some melanbcholic guitar in contrast to the lyrics of bashing and gyms. Craigie comes on the back of the previously released PDA, a killer Interpol meets The Strokes … Continue reading WATCH: Mining Boom | Craigie
by Chris Familton Though Sola Rosa continues to be an increasingly collaborative project, the signature sound still comes from Andrew Spraggon who has been on the New Zealand music scene for two decades, predominately as Sola Rosa but also early on as the singer and guitarist for indie rock band Cicada. The transition from guitars to samplers came at a time when he was running … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Sola Rosa
Continuing on today’s electronic tip that started with Thom Yorke’s new Atoms For Peace single, here is a great new track/video from Ross Fish with a killer mechanical shuffle and glitchy whirs and bleeps. The vocals work perfectly too, whether in their natural form or slowed stretched or pitched up. Fish is a musician/producer out of Savannah, GA in the United States and you can … Continue reading WATCH: Ross Fish | A349M
Doubtful Sounds 