Mess+Noise interview: Amy Findlay of Stonefield, 2011

An interview for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Interview – Stonefield: Rock ‘N’ Roll High School

Forget gimmickry, Stonefield’s Amy Findlay tells ANDREW MCMILLEN the all-sister quartet from country Victoria want to be known for their music.

There’s an endless fascination associated with staring into the musical past, as evidenced most recently with the Critics’ and Readers’ poll-topping debut by Perth-based psychedelic rock act Tame Impala. Seemingly from that same well of inspiration spring Stonefield: four sisters from country Victoria, aged 12 to 20 years old.

Brandishing a youthful take on 70s-inspired rock, they won last year’s triple j Unearthed High competition, and have since secured a booking at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival in the UK. Richard Kingsmill, music director of triple j, could be heard singing their praises at the One Movement festival in October last year: “They’ve just had an absolutely brilliant musical upbringing,” Kingsmill enthused. “They’ve got very wide and considerable depth in their music knowledge. They’re four sisters who can really play, and who can really belt it out. They’re already great live. I think they might be a band that might evolve into something.”

Ahead of their Glastonbury Festival slot in June, the Findlay sisters are booked to play the St Kilda Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and Pushover 2011 in the same month; a gruelling schedule, considering that half of the band members are still school-aged.

You’ve got a pretty full gig calendar coming up. Will it be a struggle to fit in rehearsal and gigs around Sarah and Holly’s school commitments?
Amy: Well, we managed to do it throughout last year when we had a lot of stuff coming up, but I think we’re going to have to do a bit of time management to fit in rehearsals after school. They’re going to have a few days off, obviously, and if it gets too much, they’re probably just going to be switching to home-schooling. So we’ll see how we go.

What does the band’s typical weekly schedule look like?
At the moment, because everybody’s on school holidays, we’re just practicing as much as we can every day. This month hasn’t been too full-on with gigs, so we’ve had lots of time to write, and rehearse old songs. But when it goes back to school, it’ll be band practice every afternoon that we can, and on the weekends, playing gigs as they pop up. And interviews during the week.

Of which you’re handling most. You’re the mouthpiece.
Yeah! [Laughs]

Were you elected into that position, or did the others not want to do it?
I just ended up doing it because I’m the older sister, I guess. It naturally happened that way.

Where do you rehearse?
We’ve got a shed on our farm, so we go in there and make as much noise as we like, and no-one really hears. Unless it’s a windy day, and the sound travels. [Laughs]

I saw a post on your MySpace blog where one of your wrote that you’d been “warned to look out for “sharks” in the music industry”. Who told you that?
A lot of people in the industry; managers and things. When we first won the triple j Unearthed High competition, I got as many phone numbers as I could and spoke to them, and got some advice. A lot of them said that there’s “sharks” in the industry that we should look out for. There’s also good people, of course. We haven’t really come across any of those sharks, just yet.

For the full interview, visit Mess+Noise. For more Stonefield, visit their Myspace. The music video for their song ‘Through The Clover‘ is embedded below.

Mess+Noise album review: Mr. Maps – ‘Wire Empire’

An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Mr. Maps – Wire Empire

When you hear the phrase “Brisbane music”, what comes to mind? The ironic, self-aware pop of The Go-Betweens? The swing-for-the-fences, stadium-ready grandeur of Powderfinger? The urgent, sneering, fuck-the-world aesthetic of The Saints? Whatever your answer, it’s unlikely that moody, instrumental post-rock will rate a mention. Yet Brisbane is where Mr. Maps are based, and it just goes to show that a band’s musical style cannot just be defined by their location.

The lack of vocals on the band’s debut album Wire Empire gives off a sense of disembodiment, though a sense of warmth runs through these 10 tracks. Wire Empire is an immersive listen. These are complex arrangements that demand full attention – lest you miss the finer points – but it works just as well in the background, as the subconscious mind happily rides out the peaks. This is tough music to criticise. Objectively, there is very little “wrong” here. The bass swoons, the piano twinkles, the cello yawns; the guitars either shimmer with distortion or ring clean, depending on the mood that’s attempting to be summoned.

For the full review, visit Mess+Noise. For more Mr. Maps, visit their Tumblr.

Elsewhere: Mr. Maps’ EP ‘Nice Fights’ reviewed for Mess+Noise

Mess+Noise interview: Brent DeBoer of Immigrant Union, 2011

An interview for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Immigrant Union: ‘We’re Six-Sevenths Australian’

Dandy Warhol Brent DeBoer has made a fresh start in Melbourne with a new seven-piece band Immigrant Union and a down-home country-rock sound. Ahead of a residency at The Tote, he talks to ANDREW MCMILLEN about the farmhouse jam that started it all, the status of the Dandy’s new album and whether his residency claim is legit. Photos by CARLIN SUNDELL.

Take one part Dandy Warhol, one part Lazy Son and one part Galvatron and you’ve got Immigrant Union, a new Melbourne-based act that more readily adheres to the Dylan/Young model of country-folk songwriting than any of those aforementioned acts. After meeting at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar and discovering their mutual appreciation for strumming classic country on acoustic guitars, the Dandy Warhols’ drummer Brent DeBoer and The Lazy Sons’ singer Bob Harrow recruited keyboardist Peter ‘Gamma’ Lubulwa of The Galvatrons to record together.

Between each band member’s touring commitments, DeBoer – who now lives in Melbourne, and last performed in Australia with the Dandys in September 2010 as part of the Parklife Festival tour – brought Harrow and Lubulwa across to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, in March 2010 to record with producer Gregg Williams (The Dandy Warhols). Though the results of their sessions haven’t yet been released, Immigrant Union are set to play a Thursday night Tote residency alongside Stonefield throughout February.

I want to clarify a few things in the band’s bio. It says that 24 hours after first meeting, Bob and yourself “ended up on a farm outside Nagambie [in Victoria] drinking VB and strumming classic country rock‘n’roll”. Is this a euphemism for something else?
No, no! We met that night at Cherry Bar. Matt Hollywood from the Brian Jonestown Massacre and I were hanging out there, and Bob came up and said, “Are you guys playing a gig? What’s going on?” He thought that maybe Jonestown and Dandys were on tour together, or something. We talked to him for a while, and hung out at Cherry all night. The next day, we were going on a road trip to a family friend’s farm, and we asked if Bob wanted to go. He rode along, and we just sat on the porch and did what dudes like us do, which is sit around and strum guitar.

That sounds like a pretty organic way to start a band.
Oh, hell yeah. It was just so fun. That night, Bob played a couple of the songs he’d written, and they sounded really cool. I did the same, and Matt did the same. Of course, Hollywood was really busy in a couple of other bands. But when I started dating Sarah – who is now my wife – I was here [in Australia] quite a bit, so I’d always call up Bob and we’d always end up doing the same thing, strumming guitars. Sooner or later, we started to realise we had quite a few songs going, and started recruited more members.

And it just so happened that you and Bob were fond of the same specific genre of music, which you now play.
At the time, Bob was in The Lazy Sons. He was the lead singer, and they’re pretty hard-rocking. He sings really high and loud. It’s kind of in that AC/DC, almost Axl Rose style. Real extreme. It’s really impressive, but he also has a thing for Dylan, Neil Young, and stuff like that. He’s getting his ya-yas out at that side of the spectrum at the moment.

For the full interview, visit Mess+Noise. For more Immigrant Union, visit their Myspace.

Elsewhere: a video interview with The Dandy Warhols in Portland, September 2010; the transcript from the same interview.

Mess+Noise story: Lofly Hangar: 2007-2010

A feature for Mess+Noise about a much-loved Brisbane venue.

Lofly Hangar: 2007-2010

ANDREW MCMILLEN laments the loss of short-lived Brisbane venue Lofly Hangar, which shut its doors in late 2010.

Nestled under a party goods store on Musgrave Road in Red Hill, the Lofly Hangar always seemed an unlikely meeting place for Brisbane’s independent music community. Located far from the dedicated entertainment precinct in Fortitude Valley – where the majority of the city’s live music venues are based – Red Hill is very much a residential area. Yet since it first opened its doors to the public in 2007, the Hangar built a reputation for delivering quality music to curious listeners in an intimate setting.

From the beginning, $10 got you inside – a cost which was maintained through until the final show in December 2010, except for the occasional special event – and since it was classed as a private residence, there was no liquor licensing regulations involved. You’d bring your own booze, and since the main area was adorned with couches, it didn’t feel dissimilar from your living room. Such was the charm of the Hangar: interesting people and new sounds, experienced in comfort. Upon entering, you’d be almost guaranteed to have a great – and cheap – night out.

The line-ups were curated by the Lofly brains trust – Phil Laidlaw, Andrew White, Greg Cooper, Chris Perren, and Joel Edmondson – and even if you’d never heard of the bands playing, the sounds emanating from the adjoining band room were almost always diverse and intriguing. The stage, however, was non-existent. The bands played on the floor, set up in front of a wall of old televisions. The venue’s PA wasn’t amazing, but it got the job done. An unspoken, Meredith-like “no dickheads” policy seemed to be in play throughout its existence. To visit the Hangar was to be among open-minded music fans. It was a beautiful thing.

The final Hangar was held on December 11, 2010; coincidentally, it was the 100th public show held at the venue. A few weeks beforehand, three Hangar co-organisers – Laidlaw, White, and Cooper, each musicians themselves with aheadphonehome, Restream, and Toy Balloon, respectively – reflected on their time at the forefront of the Brisbane independent music scene.

Genesis

Andrew White: We got a warehouse and leased it to practise and record in, and have parties with our friends’ bands. Then we started having more people coming. The idea came about to have it as a regular thing, every month. We were interested in putting on music that we liked. Having the parties has been a way of paying the bills. It was never a profit thing; it was just something that we wanted to keep going.

Phil Laidlaw: At the time [2007], there were around three or four venues [in Brisbane] – The Troubadour, Ric’s, The Zoo. So we’d approach people asking them to play, and they’d respond with, “What are you talking about?” The model of warehouse party shows wasn’t happening. There wasn’t a lot of faith in it. It was very difficult to get bands that we thought were good bands to play. But the culture of the space evolved from the parties we were having. There was no need for security, because we knew everyone here.

For the full article, visit Mess+Noise. For more on Lofly, visit their website.

With this story, I tried something I’d never done before: I went for an ‘oral history’ angle. I chatted with Andrew, Phil and Greg for over an hour on the evening of the last Hangar nights, and shaped the best / most relevant bits of that conversation into a narrative structure. I think it turned out OK.

Mess+Noise album review: ‘He Will Have His Way’

An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Various Artists – He Will Have His Way: The Songs Of Tim & Neil Finn

The songs of Tim and Neil Finn – from Split Enz to Crowded House, and their respective solo careers – are cherished by many Antipodeans. To do them justice is to walk a tightrope; iron will and resolute self-belief are required.

He Will Have His Way comes five years after the release of She Will Have Her Way, whose original concept was to invite female musicians to sing the Finns’ songs. Here, it’s the blokes’ turn, and the array of talent sourced isn’t to be sniffed at. Many of these covers are faithful to the source material, so let’s deal with the two strangest birds of an otherwise uniform flock.

Electro-rock trio Art Vs Science do ‘I See Red’. They’re full of piss and vinegar, as usual, both musically and lyrically. Led by waves of pulsing synths, a breakneck drumbeat and a high-speed finger-tapped guitar solo, it’s a garish tribute to an already energetic song. In the coda, they opt for a heavy groove flanked by natural harmonics and guitar effects. In a word, it’s ridiculous. But a band like Art Vs Science were never going to play it straight, and their contribution here is memorable if only for the sheer velocity and enthusiasm they bring to the project.

For the full review, visit Mess+Noise. For more on He Will Have His Way, visit the project website. The music video for Oh Mercy’s version of ‘I Feel Possessed‘ is embedded below.

Mess+Noise Critics Poll 2010: Tame Impala, My Disco, You Am I

Each year, the Mess+Noise critics are asked to choose their 10 favourite Australian albums of the year. In 2010, I chose:

1. My Disco – Little Joy
2. You Am I – You Am I
3. The Gin Club – Deathwish
4. Parades – Foreign Tapes
5. The John Steel Singers – Tangalooma
6. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
7. Washington – I Believe You Liar
8. Faux Pas – Noiseworks
9. We All Want To – We All Want To
10. Halfway – An Outpost Of Promise

My top 5 Australian songs of 2010 were:

1. My Disco – ‘A Turreted Berg’
2. Halfway – ‘Sweetheart Please Don’t Start’
3. Parades – ‘Marigold’
4. You Am I – ‘The Ocean’
5. The John Steel Singers – ‘Sleep’

I was asked by my editor to write a short summary of three albums that placed in the top 10: Tame Impala (#1), My Disco (#5), and You Am I (#9).

1. Tame Impala
Innerspeaker (Modular)

Following Wolfmother’s success in recent years, Tame Impala’s premise was never going to be particularly risky. By gazing into the past and mining the annals of psychedelic rock, this Perth act – a quartet when playing live – produced a debut full-length characterised by spaced-out guitars, lyrics of social dissociation, and complementary, distant vocals.

Led by singer/guitarist/conductor/producer Kevin Parker, Innerspeaker is very nearly a solo album – he plays the vast majority of the instruments – but upon hearing the finished product, you wouldn’t pick it. His ear for song dynamics is remarkable, and at no point does it sound like anything other than a full band jamming in a smoke-filled room. The cover art requires a double take to process, but the music doesn’t: Parker’s production is immaculate, and his songwriting accessible. Ultimately, Innerspeaker struck a chord this year not because of the human fascination with revisiting sounds of the past, but because Tame Impala threw themselves so entirely into ensuring a high quality experience. “It’s all we really do at home, think about music or record music in some way or another,” Kevin Parker told M+N earlier this year. Long may they continue.

5. My Disco
Little Joy (Shock)

This Melbourne trio have defined themselves through minimalism, repetition and unrelenting force. On Little Joy, they’ve amplified all of the above to craft their finest set yet. “It was the longest we have ever spent time-wise on a record,” guitarist Ben Andrews told M+N, “and I think it really shows with the finished product”. He’s not wrong. Every sustained guitar sound, every metronomic drum part, every chanted lyric is calculated to precision, yet none of the inherent, confronting bleakness and brutality of their music has been lost (despite their decision to stick Scott Horscroft – best known for his work with The Presets and Silverchair – behind the mixing desk). My Disco adhere to the old-school aesthetic of album-as-document; as a result, cherry-picking individual tracks from Little Joy doesn’t really work: its potency is derived from the mood they conjure and sustain. From Andrews’ first jarring chord (‘Turn’) to the record’s elegant, all-inclusive conclusion (‘A Turreted Berg’), My Disco have bettered themselves in every way, and the outcome is nothing short of joyous.

9. You Am I
You Am I (Other Tongues)

Recorded over “a couple of days” and driven by a mutual desire to impress each other, You Am I’s ninth album is an enduring delight – and it’s largely because the band sounds so at ease. Their role as forerunners of contemporary Australian rock music has long since been assured, and it’s telling they’ve no one to impress now but themselves. In ‘Shuck’, the album’s lead single, Tim Rogers sings of a desire to shuck “the past, my poise, the background noise”, and it’s this insular approach – four musicians in a room, banging it out, fuck everyone else – which has certified the album as a true classic. It’s a genuine anomaly for a band’s ninth record to rate among their best work, but You Am I once again remind us just how vital their contribution to Australian music has been, still is, and will continue to be.

For the full 2010 critics poll, visit Mess+Noise.

Mess+Noise EP review: Bleeding Knees Club

An EP review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Bleeding Knees Club – Virginity

The approach for Gold Coast duo Bleeding Knees Club is disarmingly simple, and on Virginity, their first release – five tracks, and barely 11 minutes in total – they sound simultaneously loose and confident. It works so well purely because there’s nothing else to get in the way of Alex Wall thrashing away at a shitty old drumkit while singing about his offsider being 20, him being 21, them both being drunk, and about how guitarist Jordan Malane “found my cigarettes” and “took three”. Throw in an incessantly-shaken tambourine and a harmonised vocal melody and you’ve got everything you could possibly want from a simple, dumb, awesome indie-punk tune.

There’s a killer middle-eight in ‘Truth Or Dare’ that sounds like the wheels are about to fall off. This same sense of barely-contained enthusiasm propels Virginity along like Wall and Malane have nothing to lose.

For the full review, visit Mess+Noise, where you can also stream the track ‘Bad Guys’. For more Bleeding Knees Club, visit their Myspace. Live footage of their song ‘Camp Out‘ is embedded below.

Mess+Noise album review: The Key Of Sea

An ‘on rotation’ album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

Various Artists – The Key Of Sea

A new compilation sticks up the middle finger at the oft-repeated “stop the boats” refrain, writes ANDREW MCMILLEN.

This is more than a collection of songs. It’s a middle-finger to the unending dialogue surrounding the hideously offensive phrase “stop the boats”.

That dog whistle sounded long and loud across the land earlier this year, as politicians and their supporters attempted to shield racist ideals under the guise of protecting national interests in an election year. The Key Of Sea is the compassionate antidote to narrow-minded xenophobia. All proceeds from the sale of the album – which pairs well-known Australian artists with refugee musicians – go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, and Refugees Survivors and Ex Detainees. Its co-founders encourage listeners to “think deep, dig deep, and enjoy a unique musical journey”. It’s an apt disclaimer.

These 11 narratives are drawn from disparate inspirations. Knowing each song’s genesis only adds to their impact. Urthboy’s collaboration with Group 120, ‘Letters From Jamshed’, has its roots in the MC’s sister trading mail with an asylum seeker named Jamshed, who was being held in the Nairu detention centre. Featuring lyrics taken from Jamshed’s correspondence, the song’s chorus – set among hip-hop beats, a circular nylon-string guitar riff, and Group 120′s choir of sighs – presents the question that lies at the heart of the asylum seeker debate: “Do you mind, if you and I/We share the sky?”. Alongside Blue King Brown and Diafrix’s ‘Streets Are Getting Hot’, it’s the album’s most upbeat track, and among the most memorable.

For the full review, visit Mess+Noise. For more on The Key Of Sea, visit their website, or watch the project documentary embedded below.

Elsewhere: a story for Rolling Stone about The Cat Empire’s involvement with The Key Of Sea

Mess+Noise single review: The Middle East

A single review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

The Middle East – ‘Jesus Came To My Birthday Party’

The cat’s out of the bag! Hints of Christianity were dotted throughout Townsville indie pop collective The Middle East’s past recorded material – their 2008 album The Recordings of The Middle East, and last year’s re-released EP of the same name – but never before has it been so overt. On ‘Jesus Came To My Birthday Party’, keyboardist Bree Tranter takes lead vocals for a tale concerning the Messiah’s birthday visit: “When I was seventeen/I thought it was a dream/It was a long time ago”. (“I haven’t seen him in a while”, she later admits, before spotting him in the eye of strangers while “down in the city” at night.)

A dirty guitar bookends the narrative, and is allowed an extended run midway through, but it sounds a little forced among the earnestly-strummed acoustic guitars and tambourine-assisted percussion.

For the full review, visit Mess+Noise, where you can also stream the track. For more of The Middle East, visit their website. The music video for their song ‘Blood‘ is embedded below.

Mess+Noise album review: The Holidays

An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

The Holidays – Post Paradise

Somewhere between Cut Copy’s electro wonderland, Gypsy And The Cat’s soft rock, and Empire Of The Sun’s delusions of pop grandeur sits Post Paradise, the debut from Sydney’s The Holidays. Despite such reference points, the album somehow remains interesting. Put it down to the strength of the songs, which unerringly achieve that rare pop trifecta: accessibility, originality and memorability. Tony Espie, who’s worked with The Avalanches, Midnight Juggernauts and Cut Copy, has mixed the album, which may account for its overall slickness and sheen.

Favourite moments? The way the guitars intercut the vocal melody in ‘Broken Bones’; the ethereal introduction to ‘6AM’, which dissipates upon meeting the sound of an alarm clock and takes a right turn into tropical pop-land; the double-tracked phaser effect applied to the guitars in ‘2 Days’, and the joyous, nonsensical vocal hook in its chorus; and the seemingly effortless chillwave upon which ‘Conga’ rides (accompanied by bongos, widdly-widdly guitars and an incessant, sensual bass throb).

Full review at Mess+Noise. More of The Holidays on MySpace. The music video for ‘Golden Sky‘ is embedded below.