Fri 12 Mar 2010
Photos by Michael Harvey
More photos of Street Chant, The Transistors and The Datsuns
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Thu 11 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Deerhoof, Grayson Gilmour and Seth Frightening live photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Thu 11 Mar 2010
SCREENS’ press release caught my eye when I noticed that they are touring with another one of my favourite bands, Aa. They’ve also got a whole stack of shows coming up (including SXSW) with Beach Fossils, Vivian Girls, Death Sentence: Panda! and Male Bonding. The four piece, who joined forces in Brooklyn, New York, after playing in various other bands across the US (Apes, The Mall, Medications), make rather fucked up noise similar to HEALTH, but with less gadgets and raw power. They rely on percussion to punch their music into shape, while Casio keyboards squiggle and Breck Brunson sends vocals whistling through a reverb box. Their music gets bent into shape rather than taking an obvious melodic path, running through a gauntlet of flailing fists before reaching its final destination. They have just finished recording their debut album, however its release date is still unknown.
Posted by Nick Fulton under Brooklyn, New York
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Wed 10 Mar 2010
Disappointment struck me yesterday when I read that one of my favourite bands of 2009 had split. But the bad news was quickly overcome when I learnt that The Widow Babies had just downscaled and changed their name to Rare Grooves, with guitarist Danny Millar and drummer Tabor Allen continuing to work together. They’ve also managed to draft legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt into the fold, to hit the strings on their first official release, due out in late March.
When I interviewed Danny last year he spoke openly of his friendship with Tabor, and briefly mentioned that before forming The Widow Babies he and Tabor had been in other bands together. “Tabor, Elise McCuthchen (The Widow Babies’ vocalist) and I all met at our high school in Santa Ana, Orange County. Tabor and I met in PE class and we had a mutual love for Led Zeppelin and Marilyn Manson so we really hit it off. We played in bands for a couple of years together and then Tabor started dating Elise so we started a side project called The Widow Babies.” The “side project” later became their main project.
No explanation has been given for the split, but a statement on the band’s myspace confirms, “we are very sad to announce that The Widow Babies have broken up.”
Danny and Tabor have wasted no time getting Rare Grooves off the ground. Yesterday they unveiled their first offering, a limited edition 7″ vinyl containing the songs ‘Cause For Concern’ and ‘No Garden’. Both songs were recorded with Mike Watt playing bass guitar, a dream come true for the pair whose first Widow Babies release was a homage to their hero, titled The Mike Watt EP. The songs were produced by Chris Schlarb, who produced both The Mike Watt EP and The Widow Babies’ full length album Jetpacks.
As could be somewhat expected, Rare Grooves sound reasonably similar to The Widow Babies, especially with Danny’s signature guitar playing remaining the main focus of the band. However both songs have a much more chilled out vibe, with less punk rock elements and more California surf, teetering on the edge between chillwave and post-punk but not really bowing to either genre. They meander and glide rather than chug and twist, adopting more of a natural flow that is less spastic and has a much simpler song structure.
You can pre-order Rare Grooves’ debut 7″ via Sounds Are Active for a special pre-sale price of $3.99 (US). It will be officially released towards the end of March.
Rare Grooves- Cause For Concern: MP3
Posted by Nick Fulton under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Tue 9 Mar 2010
Imbuing a ramshackle country quality to their magical, jangly folk pop, brother-sister duo Camille and Alexander McGregor have been making music under the heart-explodingly cute moniker Ponies In The Surf for five years. Their crafty tales are executed with swooning, sighing play off voices and gentle acoustic guitar on ‘Ventricle’, elsewhere lather on a foamy, energetic pace in the rockier ‘Holes In The Walls’. The brilliance of PITS is that they aren’t painfully cutesy or sickeningly sweet. Their songs are clever and a little bit fruity in their laid back, weird and fraying attire. Alexander, on organs, guitar, bass and cornet, sings in his boyish, conversational tone against Camille’s sweet, gentle lulls while Andrew Churchman of Pants Yell! plays minimal but energetic drums. Their songs are like old friends you’ve known all your life – comfortable to be around, fun and endearing. PITS have a few releases on Darla Records and Asaurus Records.
Ponies In The Surf- Fairy In My House: MP3
Posted by Sarah Gooding under Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A
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Mon 8 Mar 2010
Mixing Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s sincerity and speedy drum machine beats with Moldy Peaches’ ramshackle insecurity and Daniel Johnston’s wavering tone of despair, California’s Jon Barba, AKA Nicole Kidman, makes cautiously heart-on-sleeve, scratchy pop music. ‘Thirst For God’ is a speedy attack aiming straight for the heart, and ‘Obsessed’ could have been plucked straight from Johnston’s catalog; its traditional structure with wobbling, soul-crushing lyrics overtake the crunchy guitar at the very last moment. ‘Tyrone’, written and produced with Kevin Greenspon, will stick in your head for days with its short and simple chorus hook. Barba knows a thing or two about simple, succinct pop songs. ‘Miley Is Awesome’ epitomises the girl-crushing guitar-strumming approach and shows Barba’s true talents as a songwriter. Playing regular gigs in LA’s cultural melting pot with the likes of Foot Village and Former Ghosts, Barba has a CD-R and a 7″ pending to add to his collection of cassettes and CDs released on Greenspon’s label Bridgetown Records.
Nicole Kidman- Thirst For God: MP3
Nicole Kidman & Kevin Greenspon- Tyrone: MP3
Posted by Sarah Gooding under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Sat 6 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Mint Chicks, Die! Die! Die! and BANG BANG ECHE live photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Sat 6 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Street Chant and Nevernudes photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Thu 4 Mar 2010
“… Pearl fires insults into a twisted catch phrase, singing “so run along and act all snarky, super faggy and talk about art.” Reuben Winter’s guitar riffs blast like a cannon before erupting into a wall of spastic, wobbly noise and Daniel McBride’s drumming keeps the music in rhythm and stops it from falling apart.”
“The parts are all there and when they’re executed well Nice Birds sound like a solid post-punk band. Unfortunately at times they become bogged down, lost in a mist that turns their defining instrumental parts into one big clump of mud.”
Nice Birds- F. Scott Fitzgerald Book Club: MP3
Buy Both EPs at Muzai Records’ Online Shop
Posted by Nick Fulton under Featured Reviews
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Wed 3 Mar 2010
Sydney band Megastick Fanfare has been playing away ‘not so quietly’ up and down the East Coast of Australia for a few years now and they’re ready to grab your attention with their first official release. The five guys started playing together in high school where they played Of Montreal and Belle & Sebastian covers; but things really got going in early 2008 when they entered a university band competition in Sydney. For that, original material was required, and they’ve been writing and gigging ever since.
Musically, all five members share a love for bands like Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. It’s evident where the melody meets the freak-psychedelia; wiggly synth and analog lines fly all over the place and get carried along on drifty loop-scapes. Add in each members’ personal tastes, different elements of your favourite blog-scure bands, and combine it with a supportive and inspirational local music scene. Guitarist/vocalist/tape loopsman Danny Keig says, “The Sydney music scene is great at the moment. There are heaps of really special bands that we love and respect and want to collaborate with. Bands like Seekae, Ghoul, Bearhug, Danimals and Kyü. Everyone just wants to support each other.”
The band has been recording their debut album for the past six months, and as a taster has released the track ‘Brain Tooth’ on 7″ vinyl. The recording process has been drawn out by an abundance of ideas, with all five members tinkering and playing around. “When recording, I think that we tend to include older ideas and new ideas in a song and it definitely makes you consider what the essential sounds are. That is exactly where we are up to now with our recording, going through the sessions, picking and choosing. It’s a difficult but satisfying process”
Practice is a similar brainstorm, with sounds flying and input from all directions. “It’s safe to say that all our songs come from jams. Sometimes we will start with absolutely nothing and other times someone will bring a small idea. The idea usually changes considerably when we all start to contribute. It morphs into something else. I don’t think we would ever just accept an idea as it comes. By the time we have all had input it’s often something very different.”
True to their name, the band starts each set with an original piece of fanfare. “The name was a joke suggestion by our friend, which we slightly altered. The megastick doesn’t refer to anything, but the fanfare has turned out to be a large part of the band. The name came
first, then the fanfare, then the realisation that there is a piece of music called ‘Majestic Fanfare’. Weird.” Not just a gimmick, it opens the set with a declaration. “We tend to work on fanfares a lot when we can. Sometimes they are semi-improvised but I think we feel that it’s better to start the show as strong as possible and sometimes improvisation doesn’t quite cut it.” On stage there’s a whole mash of equipment. “It’s always a challenge to fit,” drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and synthesizers, digital loops and tape loops, samplers and lots of additional percussion. “Two of us sing and do our own vocal effects.”
After all the work and live performances you can expect their debut album sometime soon; a representation of all the ideas and experimentation they’ve been playing with.
Megastick Fanfare- Brain Tooth: MP3
Posted by David Klein under Australia, Sydney
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