Purling Hiss have just released their new album Water On Mars via Drag City/Mistletone and we’re hooked on first listen. They’ve refined the noise and boosted all the great elements of psych, pop and garage rock to produce an album that embraces all the greatness of 90s guitar music from Nirvana to Dinosaur Jr to The Lemonheads. The band come out of the same loose … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Purling Hiss | Mercury Retrograde
by Chris Familton Popstrangers are the latest in a long line of New Zealand bands to emerge with a psychedelic and moody take on pop-tinged post punk. Their debut album Antipodes proves the band aren’t just riding on the hype of a few singles, instead it shows they have a strong idea of the sounds and ideas they want to capture, though Joel Flyger is … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Popstrangers
Melbourne is throwing up some great soul and funk bands of late, particularly the ones with a subtle strain of garage rock running through their grooves. Saskwatch have released a new single this month which was recorded by go-to-guy Mikey Young. It is out now digitally and will be followed by a 7″ vinyl release on Northside Records. Keep an eye on their Bandcamp page … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Saskwatch | I Get Lonely
Forces are a Melbourne duo who have been refining their 80s influenced industrial synth sound, playing a bunch of shows and some sweet international supports such as Zola Jesus in the last year or two. Overland (In My Mind) comes from their debut 12″ EP on Siberia Records and it caused a cavalcade of flashbacks to my 80s youth listening to the likes of Depeche Mode, … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Forces | Overland (In My Mind)
by Chris Familton Seemingly emerging out of nowhere, Matthew E. White’s Big Inner is quickly spreading via word-of-mouth as one of the first great albums of 2013. Those accolades are well and truly deserved for a record that balances intimacy and grand gestures so well. The ideas are simple (love and religion) yet the prolific melodies and strength of composition make it sound like a … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Matthew E. White | Big Inner
by Chris Familton Rules is the debut album from two Australian expats who met in Barcelona and spent the next two years constructing its songs. As the title suggest they set themselves some strict guidelines with which to write the instrumental music that would comprise their debut album, a record that thrives on energy, ebullient yet melancholic melodies and some brutal and primitive rhythms. Instrumental … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Civil Civic | Rules
Melbourne musician Suzie Stapleton has only just come onto our radar but it only took 30 seconds of the first song we heard to get drawn into her dark and moody sound that equally draws on gothic blues and swamp rock, mixing it all up in a contemporary rock miasma. The thing that anchors it all is her jaw dropping voice with its rich and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Suzie Stapleton | Obladi Diablo
The new releases are coming thick and fast at the moment as record labels look to release albums they most held over from the end of 2012 to get maximum exposure as we kick off 2013. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have already released one song (We No Who UR) from their new album Push The Sky Away and here’s another. Jubilee Street is … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Pissed Jeans and The Men
Out of the ashes of Betty Airs and a bunch of other bands comes a new Sydney group called Food Court. Straight outta Glebe, they’ve announced their arrival with a tasty video featuring the use and abuse of food in the spirit of poptastic garage rock n roll. Continue reading VIDEO: Food Court | Not Enough
by Chris Familton These are prolific times for Neil Young, even more so than usual with the release of two Crazy Horse albums, a memoir, continued work on next volume of Archives and the development of a new high-end digital music format. Add in touring to promote all of the above and it is something of a landmark year for the 67 year old. Psychedelic … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Psychedelic Pill
by Chris Familton After an eight year recording hiatus The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have returned with an album that finds them in fighting form and returning to some of the touchstones that made them such an exciting and visceral rock n roll band in the 90s. Meat + Bone recaptures some of that stripped down blues and funk that the band built their name … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion | Meat + Bone
We look at six songs that stand out as important moments in modern music, changing the playing field and inspiring legions of other musicians… JEFF BUCKLEY – GRACE (1994) With alternative music (as it was known at the time) in the grip of grunge and hard rock it took a sensitive young man with an angelic voice, good looks and a mesmerizing guitar style to … Continue reading FEATURE: Signposts in Modern Music
Doubtful Sounds 