AMM 2021 Feature Album, Day 3

 Courtney Barnett is an incredible and unique songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. She has a unique style of singing, almost half sung and half spoken, but she tells a great story and plays a mean guitar. This live set for MTV Unplugged (who knew that was still a thing, huh?) is relaxed and gives her space to jam and to get some friends in the process. One of whom is Paul Kelly....

Australian Music Month (AMM) Feature Album Day 1

 

Skulker were an all-female, four piece Alt.rock band from Sydney. This is their debut album and its exuberance is infectious. 

The title of the album is so named because they were kicked out of a potentially lucrative spot on the entertainment lineup of Club Med in Tahiti for being....

They at least got their vengeance by cheekily naming their debut after such a mortifying incident. 

Vale Scott Weiland

Vocalist for the Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver Scott Weiland has passed away at age 48 from an alleged overdose.

Stone Temple Pilots were unfairly derided as third-rate grunge wannabes in the early part of their career, however they hit their straps with their third LP and kept up the pace for the next few until Scott was sacked for his unreliability. He formed Velvet Revolver with some ex members of Guns and Roses for two albums and then maintained a sporadic solo career, occasionally moonlighting in the vocalist seat with the reunited Doors on occasion.

While anyone who dies young is tragic, Scott's problems with substances were well documented and, like many others, I wondered why this hadn't happened earlier. That's not to be negative or morbid, however he spent a great many years dicing with his death via his addictions. While the news is still sad, there was always the feeling that it was a matter of when, rather than if...

Scott had a sonorous voice that didn't necessarily have a wide range, but he elevated those songs into the stratosphere. He sang exactly what was required of the music and never anything more, with equal parts sweetness and grit.

I'm grateful for those handful of albums he made with STP and it is a tragedy that he no longer with us. Vale Scott, you will be missed.

100 LPs Shortlist #44: Icecream Hands - "Sweeter Than The Radio"

An awesome name for a band: one that could induce a sugar craving.

And an apt title for an album, if ever there was one. Here is a bunch of songs so sweet and so well written that they seem almost too good to share the airwaves with most of the crap that commercial radio deems fit for broadcast...

..however, I digress.

"Sweeter than the Radio" is an album that is probably the finest work in the relatively thin canon of works by Chuck Jenkins and his band the Icecream Hands. On this album, the songs were the smartest, most clever and eloquently written pieces, up until that point, of the band's career. Deep and complex lyrics married to gorgeous melodies and arrangements that float delicately around the room whenever this album is playing.

Only a band like Icecream Hands could write a song about a girlfriend having an accidental wardrobe malfunction and make it sound like a lost pop classic ("Nipple"). "Dodgy" was the hit single that never was, a complex lyric set against a charging arrangement. Only Chuck, a former record store clerk, could write a break up song framed around the splitting up of a record collection.

"Sweeter Than The Radio" is an album that aches at its core but cushions the pain in uplifting music. It is music that will meet the listener where they are at and takes them to a better place, almost sympathising with them. This music really is sweeter than most radio fodder because it has a beating heart at the centre of it. It is real music, human music, where so much other stuff around is vacuous and shallow.

This was the album that should have broken the band nationally and should have sold double platinum. It earned the band two ARIA nominations but the band carried away no awards. This album was followed up by Broken UFO in 2002 and The Good China in 2007, both fine albums in their own right. However it is this one that stands tall as their finest, in my view.

Take a listen for yourself below.

Ice Sea Dead People split up

Recent favourites of mine Ice, Sea, Dead People have split up. The band had been touring around the UK as support to Traams and many other bands, and out of the blue an announcement came via the band's Facebook page that the band had split.

Starting about 2009, ISDP started with a focus to play loudly, but with an arts focus. They incorporated their music with fine arts and clever visual arts ideas on their records, not least with their 2013 7-inch single release "You Could Be A Model".



The band made a tentative start with the self released LP "Teeth Union" in 2010 but the band nailed their sound in 2013 with a thumping, squalling noise fest befitting its title "If It's Broken, Break It More".

I'm sure being totally independent, touring and releasing your own records in 2014 was a real challenge and probably brought the band members to boiling point. I am, of course, surmising as the band have given no official reason for splitting up. This is a clear example of a band with a unique sound and a unique vision about their art whom I thought deserved a bright future. Alas it's not to be. The band whose name described the plot of the film "Titanic" with the precision of a haiku is now no more.

Go over to their bandcamp page and buy some music. Check out the band's latest blaster of an album below on Spotify.

New Music: Purple

Screaming and thumping their way out of Texas is a three piece indie-punks Purple. They are just starting to make waves in indie circles with a thumping, punk-infused sound that is full of energy and spunk.

The band is unusual in that it is led by singing drummer Hannah Brewer, whose riot-grrl inspired vocals set the tone for the band's music - huge mosh-pit anthems, high on energy, dripping with attitude and with heaps of memorable choruses. In Purple videos and in their press shots, Hannah has positioned herself with an image as one slightly unhinged and crazy girl. But her talent is undeniable, and her ability to sing with such passion and drum those intricate drum parts is incredible.

The band is fleshed out with Taylor Busby on guitars and Smitty Smith on Bass. They provide a front line sound that is solid and accessible.

The band are currently making waves in England doing a small club tour in advance of their debut LP, which drops on November 10.

There's plenty of great music on the band's YouTube Channel. Check some of it out below. I think they have a bright future ahead of them and I hope they get to play in Australia in support of this album.

Sunday Sessions: Sugar

It's been a while since we've had a Sunday Session! But this one is truly a cracker.

Sugar were a sadly short-lived 90s indie band fronted by ex-Husker Du frontman Bob Mould. Musically,the band had leanings towards grunge but were far more melodic than any most of the bands tagged with the term.

The band only lasted two albums but such was the calibre of their output that everything Bob Mould released during his subsequent solo career has been compared (often unfavourably) to his work in Sugar.

This track, "Your Favourite Thing" was a single from the band's second album "File Under Easy Listening", from 1994. If you like what you hear here, seek out the album and their unimpeachable first record "Copper Blue".

So, enjoy Sugar!

Leave the night light on...

How many hit records can you name whose lyrics are all about a night light?

I can name one: "Birdhouse in your Soul" by They Might Be Giants.

They Might Be Giants are a duo of New Yorkers John Linnell and John Flansburgh who got their start in music with an ingenious idea: record a song every day, record it to an answering machine, attach said answering machine to a local New York state phone number and charge people to call it and hear the song.

The Dial-a-Song idea influenced their songwriting. It meant the songs had to be short, as catchy as possible and and as clearly articulated as possible so as to be properly heard down a phone line. Catchy, in so much as they warrant repeated listens and you don't get tired of them. The songs are clever enough that detail keeps unraveling in every listen.

"Birdhouse..." is classic TMBG: If you have a musicological bent, there is heaps to learn and appreciate, and yet it is charming enough to be appealing to children. It's genius.

And yes this is a song about a night light. One with a blue canary on it.

"Blue canary.in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you..."

The cleverness of the lyrics is offset by the bouncy music driven by their ever faithful drum machine. Lay upon layer of keyboards and a sneaky accordion snuck in there as well.

Written from the point of view of the night light itself, it makes an astonishing assessment of its abilities in the second verse:

"There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts..."

Comparing a nightlight to a lighthouse and to the various functions they perform, where one keeps ships safe from real dangers and the other keeps a little person safe from (in some cases) imagined dangers is surreal. At the same time it's a viewpoint that has completely escaped me previously.

It's very clever stuff. Despite only being three minutes long, there's so much going on that you more than get your money's worth.

This is regarded as one of They Might Be Giants' finest songs, along side a rich catalog of many, many more great songs. If you've never heard them before, start with this one and then dig deeper into their works.

August 2014 Mixtape

We've hit Spring on the east coast! But it's still bloody cold and wet. Time to heat things up with another great mix tape.

200+ songs including great tunes from:

• Bellowhead
• Richard Clapton
• Gaslight Anthem
• Weird Al Yankovic
• Free
• Sensitive New Age Cowpersons
• The Hummingbirds
• Phil Ochs
• The Sundays

and heaps heaps more.

Set it to shuffle, crank it up and ENJOY!!!

Vale Jay Curley

Jay Curley, bassist for Wollongong rockers Tumbleweed has been found dead in his home. He was 42.

It's truly sad to hear this news. From all accounts the party never ended for him, whatever that means....

Tumbleweed were a crushingly loud band, anchored in Jay's rich, sonorous bass. He was the lynch pin on which pivoted a very tight, very heavy band.

In a live setting, the band's high volume riffage was cathartic. The band's two finest records, 1995's "Galactaphonic" and 1997's "Return to Earth" are probably the best examples of the band's work, with Curley's deep pulsating bass runs vibrating through your rib cage - there's nothing finer.

Jay, you will be missed. Vale.

Calling All Astronauts - "Hands Up Who Wants To Die?" EP

So here's the latest from Calling All Astronauts.

"Hands Up, Who Wants to Die?" Cheery imposition, isn't it? And, not surprisingly, I don't see too many hands up either.

What's interesting about this release is also one of the more confusing aspects to it. The contents of the EP are made up of 6 remixes of the eponymous song. Each remix is retitled after the style of music it has been remixed into - "Hands up who Wants EBM?", "Hands Up Who Wants Metal?", "Hands Up Who Wants Dubstep?" and so on. A novel concept, to be sure. But it's confusing because what does the original version sound like? Which version on the EP is actually the original version?

Still, what you have here is a version in one of 6 different styles, playing to the strengths of the band and cleverly using a broad knowledge of music in which to transmute their sound. The result allows the song to be played in different arenas for different purposes - on alternative rock radio, in a goth club, in a warehouse rave party DJ set.

The "Metal" version is probably the closest to the Astronauts signature sound. Chugging guitars, swirling synths and David Bury's strangled-seagull vocal delivery. He tends to oscillate wildly between a man channeling Johnny Cash in goth makeup and someone having their teeth extracted as the numbness wears off. Seriously, it's a very arresting combination, and it's the version that works best in my view. That's not to take anything away from the remixes, each of which have their own unique character and flavour, while staying true to the core elements of the band's sound.

It's an interesting experiment, and one worthy of a serious listen. Get into it below.

Replacement vocalists

It must be difficult, if you're in a major rock band, so decide what to do when a core member of your band decides to split. Especially if it is the frontman. And even more so if the vocalist is the one that most people associate with your band. In Queen's case it must have been especially difficult - the singer they had for 21 years died rather suddenly. Freddie was iconic. No matter who replaced him, that person would be constantly evaluated against the late great Fred. But for the band, what decision do you make? Do you retire the passion of your life's work? Or do you keep going, knowing that the gamble could possibly only deliver ever diminishing returns?

Here are a few bands who decided to replace their original lead singers after only a few releases. These bands didn't descend into quagmire as a result, but rather they went from strength to strength.

Van Halen
David Lee Roth replaced with Sammy Hagar

David Lee Roth was with Van Halen for 10 years, from their inception in 1974 to his acrimonious split with them in late 1984. It was always going to be a big task to replace him, and yet Montrose guitarist and solo artist Sammy Hagar has more than comfortably handled the role. If there was any backlash as a result of the switch, it was very short lived, as the bands first 4 records with Sammy hit #1 in the US album charts.

Deep Purple
Rod Evans replaced with Ian Gillan

Rod Evans was the founding vocalist for Deep Purple . He sang on the band's first three LPs "Shades of Deep Purple", "The Book of Taliesyn" and "Deep Purple" before he was either sacked or he resigned - most sources seem to contradict each other. He fronted what is regarded as the "Mark I" lineup. The Gillan years are known as the "Mark II" lineup, most famous for the albums "Deep Purple In Rock", "Fireball", "Machine Head" and "Made In Japan".

Iron Maiden
Paul Di'Anno replaced with Bruce Dickinson

Paul DiAnno wasn't the first vocal with Maiden, but Paul Di'Anno sang on the first two albums. His increasingly erratic off-stage behaviour led to the band replacing him with Bruce Dickinson in 1982. From that point on, the band was unstoppable.

AC/DC
Dave Evans replaced with Bon Scott
And you thought I was referring to Brian Johnson, right? Dave Evans was the first singer in AC/DC. The band released their first single "Can I Sit Next To You, Girl?"/"Rockin' In The Parlour" in 1974, but it was a very glam rock/platform boot style of music. Malcolm hated it, and as that was the direction that Dave wanted the band to head in, Malcolm sacked him. Dave took his platform boots with him and formed Rabbit, which lasted two albums, while AC/DC cranked up the amps and added Bon's working class swagger to the mix and the rest, as they say, is history...

Wall of Voodoo
Stan Ridgeway replaced by Andy Prieboy
Wall of Voodoo started out as a project for providing music for film soundtracks, started by Stan Ridgway. They eventually morphed into a band for a while and had one hit record in the US: "Mexican Radio". It was a bigger hit in the UK and Australia, but it was the last time they troubled the US charts. Most of the band had started to develop drug issues so Ridgeway left in 1983. The band got their act together and recruited vocalist Andy Prieboy for the big local hit single "Far Side of Crazy" and the album "Seven Days in Sammystown".

Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Mick Rogers replaced by Chris Thompson
Manfred Mann has had a long and convoluted career. His first eponymous pop band had two major lineups until 1969, when he changed direction into a heavy progressive jazz-rock sound as Manfred Mann Chapter Three, before settling in for the duration as Manfred Mann's Earth Band (by far the worst name of all of them). England-via-Australia guitarist Mick Rogers was stellar on the Earth Band's first 6 albums, but then he left for a solo career that went nowhere. In came Chris Thompson, who saw the band hit #1 in America with their version of Springsteen's "Blinded By The Light", but Mick's departure left such a void that another guitarist had to be drafted in. When Chris left in 1979, the Earth Band had a revolving door of vocalists that even saw Chris and Mick singing on some records over the intervening years, but as to who is the vocalist in the band today is anybody's guess. These days it could be any or all of the above!

Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne replaced by Ronnie James Dio
Replacing Ozzy in Black Sabbath was always going to be a hard task. Especially since, as soon as he left, his solo career took flight in a huge way, and this made it tough for his old band to compete. The band drafted in former Blackmore's Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio for two spirited albums, before a revolving door of vocalists ensured the band's fortunes were to decline for the rest of their career.

Faith No More
Chuck Moseley replaced by Mike Patton
Faith No More are a classic example of a band with a revolving door membership. The band went through no less than five vocalists before settling on Chuck, who lasted two albums before being fired for erratic behaviour, including falling asleep on stage during an album launch of their second LP "Introduce Yourself". Mike Patton joined, bringing with him his gonzo sense of humour and massive vocal range to make classic albums such as "The Real Thing" and "Angel Dust". Mike stayed with the band until their initial demise in 1998.

Anthrax
Neil Turbin replaced by Joey Belladonna
There seems to be a lot of conjecture about how Neil Turbin was ejected from Anthrax. Did he jump, or was he pushed? It is this writer's opinion that the band were better served by the vocal stylings of Joey Belladonna anyway, and I think that classic records like "Among The Living" and "Persistence of Time" would have been very different albums (and not for the better) had Neil still been in the band.

Check out all the before and after vocalists in the playlist below. Let us know of any we have forgotten.

April 2014 Playlist

Welcome to the start of a new month. The air is getting cooler here on the east coast of NSW, and so we bring you a new playlist to warm up your heart and raise your blood pressure.

Taking in tracks from artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Do Re Mi, Swoop, Osibisa, Babaganouj, Nirvana, Killing Joke, Charlie Hunter and heaps more.

There's over 250 songs within to heat the home with. Set the playlist to shuffle, crank it up, pour out some of your favourite vino and ENJOY!

The Musical History of Adelaide Part 3

Here is the final in our series of amazing talent from Adelaide, South Australia.

Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope are NOT the same band as the US psychedelic band of the 1960s. These guys play a kind of noisy, catchy post-grunge with a small degree of feminist leanings in the lyrics. Bassist Kylie Cowling and her partner Craig Lewis have been instrumental in nurturing many bands in the Adelaide area with showcase events like "Show Us Your Riffs" and producing music for other artists in their own studio.



The Superjesus
The Superjesus formed in 1994. They took their name in homage to the many bands who have "Super" and "Jesus" in their name (i.e. Supertramp, Superchunk, Supergrass, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Jesus Lizard, Jesus Jones et al). They had a sound that was equal parts Smashing Pumpkins-esque gutteral rumble and sweet songbird pop, thanks to the layers of overdriven guitars throughout their music, with Sarah McLeod's sweet vocals floating over the top. Their lineup was destabilised after founding member Chris Tennant left in 1999, but then Tim Henwood joined and the band went from strength to strength. But then he left and the band laboured on for a final album as a three piece before calling it a day in 2004.



Testeagles
The Testeagles were a band that fused hip-hop, rap, techno and metal into a furious blend. Known for their fiery live performances, they have been plagued with issues with record labels, resulting in most of the music not actually reaching the general public. Their only LP, "Non Comprehendus", issued in 2000, summed up their sound in the most intense, speaker-damaging fashion, riding the wave of Nu-Metal that was current at the time (and they did it better than most of the better known exponents of that style), but were dropped by their label not long after it was issued. They laboured for the next few years, picking up many shows on the Festival circuit and called it a day in 2008.



Groove Terminator
Groove Terminator is a hip-hop DJ and producer who achieved notoriety in the late 1990s-early 2000s with infectious party jams like "Here Comes Another One". He has also mixed a few Ministry of Sound compilations and is still a highly sought after performer on the club circuit.



The Mark Of Cain
The Mark Of Cain formed in 1984 by two brothers, both ex-Army members, John and Kim Scott. It took the band four years to get their first releases out, on Sydney indie label Phantom, and their popularity was at its peak between 1995 and 2002. Their sound is extremely heavy and aggressive, inspired by combat, with songs like "Battlesick" and "Ill At Ease". They are a ferocious live band, and can count among their fans such rock music heavyweights as Black Flag singer Henry Rollins.


The Audreys
The Audreys are a rootsy folk band formed in 2004. Usually consisting of two core members, lead singer Taasha Coates and guitarist Tristan Goodall, the band is often augmented with a number of session musicians and live players for tours. Their albums are highly rated by critics and they have a solid live following.



The Mad Turks from Istanbul
The Mad Turks from Istanbul started as a power-pop band featuring a young Charles Jenkins (now of Charles Jenkins and the Zhivagos) on vocals. They were signed to Greasy Pop records in 1987. After the release of their first record, Cafe Istanbul in 1988, they relocated to Melbourne and renamed themselves The Mad Turks. After the failure of their second album, "Toast" in 1990, the band split up and regrouped in 1992 under the name Icecream Hands, and went on to be far more successful, with the ARIA nominated album "Sweeter Than The Radio" in 1999.



Hilltop Hoods
Hilltop Hoods are a hip-hop collective from the Adelaide suburb of Eden Hills. They formed in 1991 and comprise of MC Suffa, MC Pressure and DJ Debris. They are now one of the most well known, if not THE most well known, Australian rappers, but they haven't had it easy. It took years for Australians to warm to the sound of Australians rapping in their own accent, with most people only accepting rap music performed by Americans (the nation who actually invented the form). Despite this, in 2006 their album "A Hard Road" was one of the best selling locally produced albums that year. Their last three album releases have shot to the top of the local album charts and they have a voracious live following.



This marks the end of our musical trip to Adelaide. We hope you have enjoyed it.

Next stop, we head west to Perth. See you then.

Alice In Chains Unplugged

It's interesting evaluating an artist's work after his or her passing. Especially one whose life and work was so heavily marked and affected by their own life choices.

With Alice In Chains, of course I'm talking about the late Layne Staley, whose heroin addiction was the prism through which his world view was seen, and as such that is the prism that, for better or worse, his lyrics and music was filtered through.

Ultimately, it was this addiction that claimed his life, but it also incapacitated him, and effectively ran the band off the road, right at the height of their career in the mid-1990s.

When I first heard the band's breakthrough single "Would?" in 1992 at the insistence of a schoolmate of mine, I hated it. As the band's legend grew, and their reputation as hard drug users, my interest in the band was killed off.

It was this unplugged show that changed my mind. Hearing it purely in audio format, the power of the music is what shone through. The songs are uniformly strong and almost always feature the bands trademark harmonies, which are almost always a perfect fifth, lacking a major or minor tonal centre.

The beauty of the "Unplugged" format was that you got to see and hear the artists without the layers of effects and distortion applied to their instruments. This didn't work too well for Nirvana (in my view) but in the case of Alice In Chains, it was a perfect demonstration of their strengths while removing the aspects of their sound that they would usually hide behind.

This album proved to me that here was a band with a strong back catalog with talented musicians who can blend their various talents in an impressive format.

The band obviously draw heavily from their two acoustic EPs "Jar of Flies" and "Sap", but they treat us to acoustic arrangements of songs from their heavy albums too. Of particular note is the acoustic treatment of "Down In A Hole" which sounds like it should have been acoustic all along.

Recorded in 1996, it turns out that this was one of the last public performances by Alice In Chains. It was the first for some time, and one of the last with Layne, who died in early 2002. As such, Layne looks like he spent the entire show in a typical kind of narcotic haze that makes you wonder how he managed to play this show at all. Still, it is great to have such a wonderful souvenir of the band's talents in their rawest form.

Apparently, tickets were extremely hard to come by to this show, and were offered up at something like US$300 a pop (unheard of at the time). The four members of Metallica had front row seats. Bassist Mike Inez wasted no time getting stuck into the Metallica lads and their (then) brand-new short haired look (it's a heinous crime to cut your hair if you're a metal band, apparently) by scrawling "Friends don't let friends get friends haircuts..." (sic) on his bass.

Anyway, here below is the full performance of Alice In Chains unplugged, complete with between-song improv stuff, and a stuff-up and retake of "Sludge Factory". There is a few choice words in this broadcast that would make it somewhat Not Safe For Work and small children, just so that you are warned.

Enjoy!

February 2014 Playlist

Welcome to the latest Sound and the Fury Playlist, loving curated by hand and ear during February 2014.

This month, you get:

Aussie gems from: Australian Crawl, The Butterfly Effect, Custard, Chad Morgan, The Cruel Sea, Delta Riggs, Even, INXS, James Reyne and more
Punk bashers from Bracket, Asteroid B-612, Green Day, Slapshot, Six Ft Hick and more
Awesome jazz from Dave Brubeck, Larry Carlton, LA Express, Ahmad Jamal,

and a whole mountain of other great songs.

Crank it up and ENJOY!!!

6 Ft Hick: "Train Crash"

image source: Amazon

This album serves somewhat as an unofficial album of the week.

This week has seen me blasting out the one and only live album by Queensland swamp rockers Six Foot Hick entitled "Train Crash".

Six Foot Hick have existed for a bit over 15 years now and they continue to inflict their unique brand of calamitous and riotous rock on the unsuspecting as well as the faithful. They mine a sound not unlike The Beasts of Bourbon or the Scientists at their peak, or even Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They existed in a kind of Brisbane-based mini-scene with bands like Blowhard and The Onyas. What stands the 'Hick apart somewhat is they lack the Onyas' blatant crudity.

The album was recorded in both Sydney and Melbourne during 2005 and it serves as a potent reminder of what an unstable tinderbox of a band they are.

Slamming through 14 songs in around 40 minutes, the band are full of fire and brimstone. This a non stop display of energy coupled with high octane songs played at ear splitting volume.

The stars of this, well, train crash if you will, are the Corbett brothers, Ben and Gregory, who are completely off the chain on this record. They sing scream and howl their way through the set of rudimentary garage rockers like men possessed; no doubt exorcising the horrors of a bogan farm upbringing behind the Banana curtain.* If this is anything to go by, life in Queensland under Sir Joh's iron fist was really horrible!

Turning this album up loud you can almost feel the sweat and spit of the experience. It is completely wild and unhinged. You can't help but feel alive and invigorated from investing your time into this record. This is music that is raw, real and lived in. The kind of stuff that makes Independent music worthwhile.

Check it out below. Enjoy!

* The term "Behind the Banana Curtain" refers to the culture shock that a traveller from New South Wales heading north into Queensland sometimes experienced, especially from the 1960s through to the 1980s. It inferred that Queensland was a cultural and social backwater, substantially behind the times compared to the rest of the nation. 

Life Coach

One of the best new discoveries I have made in recent weeks is Life Coach, a Washington DC based band that has evolved from another band, indie-rock darlings Trans Am.

The guitarist from Trans Am, Philip Manley, wanted to start a Kraut-rock styled experimental project, heavy on the electronics. He issued one solo album called "Life Coach" and then decided to flesh out a band with live musicians in order to play the music live. What you have is a band that pitches themselves somewhere between ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's experimentalism and Pink Floyd's space-iness, with all the lumbering crunch of Tool.

Their debut album "Alphawaves", released last year on the awesome indie label Thrill Jockey, is 40 minutes of strategically organised noise that is as compelling as it is inviting. The instrumental first half contains so much depth, its layers unveil themselves with repeated listens. Track 5, "Fireball", features a Zeppelin-esque groove, but much, much heavier, with a solo so awesome it'd make Jimmy Page blush.

This is a record that is highly recommended, and well worth listening to a few times, especially to get the full benefit out of it. It requires VOLUME! So play it LOUD!

Enjoy!!

The Tea Party

Nostalgia time and here's a band that I saw live more than any other, and who have created music that still stirs emotions like no other: The Tea Party.

The Tea Party, one of many amazing bands out of Canada, have found a spiritual home in Australia as much as their rabid fanbase here have almost adopted them as our own.  Indiciatively I never saw the band in a major venue like The Hordern Pavillion. I always saw them in small venues like Leagues clubs and the like, because the band, when doing a major tour of large venues, would often venture off the beaten track to places like The Central Coast of NSW, or Newcastle, and play smaller shows to between 200 to 500 people. Indeed, some of these shows were among the wildest shows I've ever seen. From the crowds going nuts to long, extended versions of their songs, their live shows are some of my most treasured memories.

The band have taken a lot of flak for what critics perceive as their slavish copying of both Led Zeppelin and the Doors. But in fact they sound nothing like either of them, despite lead singer Jeff Martin having a haircut like Jim Morrison, and sometimes using a violin bow on his Les Paul.

The band split circa 2005 but reformed in 2012 for an Australian tour and a live album. The live album kicks some serious butt and is almost like being there, without the crowds...or the actual band being on stage in front of you. The only real issue I have is that the audience noise wasn't continuous throughout the entire record. Rather it is faded out to silence at the end of each track, but this is a minor quibble. The music is amazing.

Check it out below.

Sunday Sessions: Things of Stone and Wood

In keeping with Australian Music Month, this week we take a listen to Melbourne Hippie Folk-Rockers Things of Stone and Wood.

I was playing my Spotify Australian classic playlist yesterday and ToSaW's "Share This Wine" came on. It's such a great song, although the video is horribly dated, with the ghastly hippy-trippy day-glo clothing and dreadful dancing. (See Below).

The song the band is known for is "Happy Birthday Helen", which, while hugely catchy and popular, I'm not a big fan of. "Share This Wine" has a much more interesting and potent lyric, but the love songs always get the punters in.

Still, the Melbourne-centric, mandolin adorned strum-along tunes have held up remarkably well in my view since their first release in 1992. Their second LP "Junk Theatre" was moderately successful but it had no real hit singles, despite having a number of great songs on it. The band were dropped by their label Sony Music not long after. They released a few independent albums before calling it quits around 1997.

According to Wikipedia, lead singer Greg Arnold now produces records for Skipping Girl Vinegar (among others) and is a lecturer in music for the Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

For this week, kick back and chill out to the sounds of Things of Stone and Wood.

Enjoy!