All posts tagged pop

  • The Vine album review: We All Want To – ‘We All Want To’, December 2010

    An album review for The Vine. Excerpt below.

    We All Want ToWe All Want To

    Damn, that Tim Steward can really write a song.

    In 2010, this is no real revelation: after all, Steward’s distinctive vocal delivery previously led the wonderful Screamfeeder, a Brisbane-based, self-proclaimed ‘noisy pop’ trio who emerged in the early 1990s. While they never quite achieved the wider success of alternative rock peers like You Am I or Jebediah, they remain one of the nation’s finest acts. Though Screamfeeder never quite hung up their boots – last year, they even toured a Don’t Look Back-style reprisal of their 1996 classic Kitten Licks – Steward’s creative soul evidently remains restless.

    In many ways, We All Want To could be considered a spiritual sequel to the songwriter’s past affiliations. Here, alongside four collaborators, several of Steward’s stylistic hallmarks remain intact. Minus one exception in the recorder-based ‘A La Mode’, the songs are arranged around guitar, which alternates between clean-picked phrases and sheets of pleasantly-distorted chords. Like Screamfeeder, central to this band’s appeal is the vocal interplay between genders. In co-singer Skye Staniford, Steward has found a remarkable foil. Their softly-spoken melodies entwine beautifully on standout track ‘Japan’, whose lyrics concern a sense of equilibrium often overlooked when travelling the world. Steward counts off the destinations he’s visited (“There’s stamps in my passport that say I’ve been to Japan / Germany, and Mexico / I watched the Christmas lights come on in Amsterdam / The sky was all aglow”) – but there’s always “as many goodbyes as there are hellos”. He and Staniford conclude that “The stamps in my passport mostly say / There’s as many comebacks as gone-aways”. They seize and reprise that final line in the coda, as their bandmates crash around them in tightly-orchestrated chaos. Forgive the extended analysis of just one track, but in ‘Japan’, We All Want To reveal their songwriting template: mood, restraint, tension, release.

    Full review at The Vine. More of We All Want To on their website. The music video their song ‘Back To The Car‘ is embedded below.

  • triple j mag story: ‘Robert Forster interviews The John Steel Singers’, November 2010

    This is a feature story which was published in the November 2010 issue of triple j mag, but it was an unconventional one: the editor assigned me to observe Robert Forster interviewing Brisbane pop act The John Steel Singers. Forster produced their debut album, Tangalooma, so there was a nice synchronicity to it all.

    Click the below image for a closer look, or read the article text underneath. Photograph taken by the wonderful Stephen Booth.

    Under The Bridge: The John Steel Singers

    Brisbane-based six-piece The John Steel Singers release their debut album, Tangalooma, on November 5 through Dew Process. Produced by Queensland’s pop statesman, Robert Forster – co-founder of The Go-Betweens, the widely-loved pop group after whom Brisbane’s Go Between Bridge was named – Tangalooma showcases The John Steel Singers’ lively, colourful take on indie pop. We asked Robert to interview three of the band members for triple j magazine and sent Andrew McMillen along to a pub in Brisbane’s West End as the, um, go-between.

    Robert Forster: What was the ambition of the band at the start?
    Tim Morrissey (guitar/vocals): We always wanted to go overseas. Not necessarily to be ‘successful’ overseas, but to go overseas as an experience. Which we’ve since done a little bit of, but my goals at the start were just to play with certain bands and do certain shows.

    Robert: When you started the band, was playing Splendour one of the things you wanted to achieve? [The band played there this year.]
    Tim: I don’t know that Splendour was necessarily on my radar at that point, but a festival of that stature, for sure. I remember going to the early Valley Fiestas, though [Brisbane’s annual street music festival, held in Fortitude Valley], and thought it’d be really nice to play a Valley Fiesta in a good slot. Which we did, on the weekend! That felt a little bit surreal.

    Robert: The John Steel Singers: realising dreams. What are the next couple of dreams?
    Tim: A bridge!
    Robert: Okay. I know the Lord Mayor. I’ll put the word in. So between playing Valley Fiesta and the magic heights of having a bridge named after you, what are the other steps in between?
    Scott Bromiley (trumpet/keys/vocals): The healthy evolution of our music.
    Robert: Oh, that’s good.
    Scott: No radical left turns, or anything like that.

    triple j mag: Is touring overseas still a goal?
    Tim: Definitely. Go overseas, sell three albums, live in squalor for six months, then come back with egg on our faces.
    Robert: Where overseas?
    Tim: Anywhere that will have us, I guess. I’d love to go to the US, Berlin, UK…

    Robert: Thinking about the band’s sound, where can you hear that being best received at the moment?
    Scott: Ballarat.
    Tim: Geelong.
    Scott: Bendigo, perhaps. Albury. Wodonga.

    Robert: Okay. Let’s get Tame Impala out of the way. Great album. What’s the vibe about going on tour with them in October?
    Scott: We’re good friends with those guys.
    Pete Bernoth (trombone/keys): We’ve known them since Southbound 2008. We hung out backstage and stole Faker’s rider together. We were young and stupid; we’re not like that anymore.
    Robert: Are you scared that the next couple of songs you write are going to be guitar-oriented psychedelia?
    Scott: Yeah. We constantly try to avoid that.

    Robert: But playing with them, won’t that only bring it out more?
    Scott: Perhaps. But maybe they’ll take in some of our influences, and start writing keyboard-flavoured pop gems.

    Robert: You get the call to play Big Day Out. What do you say?
    Scott: “I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
    Tim: After hearing those stories about Grant [McLennan, Go-Betweens co-founder, who died in 2006] – definitely there in a jiffy. I want to play cricket with Coldplay, and stuff.

    triple j mag: What are these Grant stories?

    Robert: I got bowled by Coldplay’s drummer [Will Champion]. They are very good cricket players; they’re probably better cricket players then they are as a band. (Everyone laughs) Really! Chris Martin’s very good, and Champion bowled me on an off-cutter. Unbelievable!
    Scott: I just thought of a montage: Chris Martin training in a tracksuit, with Brian Eno holding a whistle.

    Robert: Okay, this is an imagined scenario. You’re in Adelaide one afternoon. You’ve soundchecked. You come out of the building, and there’s a young three-piece band on the street. They ask, “What advice can you give us – a) musically, and b) career-wise?”
    Scott: a) Get yourself a disgruntled redhead trombone player. [referring to Pete]
    Pete: Hook your claws into some stupidly talented dude who can play everything, like Scott.
    Tim: b) If you’re in Adelaide, use the free bike paths. When you ride your bike, that’s a good time to think of songs.

    Robert: Do you find cycling conducive to songwriting?
    Tim: Damn straight. I’d say I write 70% of my melody ideas on the bike; 30% in the jam room.
    Pete: My advice is that even if you’re playing to no-one, don’t treat it as a joke. Try to take every show seriously. It’s hard, and sometimes you fail miserably, but every show’s a show. Do your best.

    Robert: Let’s say I’m from a record company called Dew Process. I’m an A&R rep, and I’m going to give The John Steel Singers $100,000 to record their next album. Spend it as you will. What are you going to do, what would I hear, where would it be done?
    Scott: Well, you’d probably hear it about five years later!
    Robert: Good! Brilliant!
    Tim: We’d definitely stay in Australia. We’d go either Darling Downs, or the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. We’d hire a house out for six months, and we’d deck it out with some nice studio gear. We’d fly Nicholas [Vernhes, the Brooklyn-based engineer who mixed Tangalooma] out, and we’d spend six months recording. That’s it.

    triple j mag: What did The John Steel Singers learn from their debut album producer?
    Robert: You can’t ask that in front of me! I’ll go to the toilet. (He leaves)
    Scott: Everything, really. There wasn’t much that we didn’t [learn]. Just what a fantastic presence he is in any given situation.
    Pete: He took our songs back to basics.
    Scott: That’s right. Robert’s got a way of distilling everything down to its purest form so that you can see what the true value of a song is, without it being hidden by production.
    Tim: And he’s a very competitive ping-pong player.

    Needless to say, this was a fun conversation to observe. Forster really got into the interviewer role, which really comes across in the article.

    Elsewhere: an extended interview with Robert Forster earlier this year for the Mess+Noise ‘Icons’ series; a review of The John Steel Singers’ debut album, Tangalooma, for The Vine.

  • The Vine album review: The John Steel Singers – ‘Tangalooma’, November 2010

    An album review for The Vine. Excerpt below.

    The John Steel SingersTangalooma

    Less a particular colour than a whole rainbow, Tangalooma is the debut album from Brisbane six-piece The John Steel Singers, whose invigorating take on indie pop is distinguished by their ample use of brass instruments. But despite their pomp and bluster, it’s the subtleties that JSS inject into their sound which makesTangalooma a truly great record – and importantly, not just a ‘great debut’.

    Check out the banjo counter-melody in ‘Once I’. The whirligig of subtle guitar effects that close out ‘Dying Tree’, and then lead into the grinding bassline of ‘Rainbow Kraut’. The unexpected percussion throughout ‘Toes And Fingers’, which sounds like drummer Ross Chandler is tapping on glasses filled with different water levels. Chandler is an integral force within the band, and not for the obvious reason that he provides the backbeat: his mind seems to work unlike the average drummer, seemingly obsessed as it is with eschewing the obvious in favour of the peculiar. His stuttering beat ushers in ‘Masochist’, while Pete Bernoth’s trombone and Damien Hammond’s bass place emphasis on a three-note flourish. Chandler isn’t beyond playing it straight, though, as in ‘You’ve Got Nothing To Be Proud Of’, a bass-heavy pop jam that sounds unlike anything the band have done before. Bernoth’s trombone and Scott Bromiley’s trumpet team-ups could easily be shrugged off as a gimmick if they weren’t interwoven into each track’s narrative, but they compute. Take, for instance, the assured trombone tones of ‘Cause Of Self’, which lends the song a regal, military vibe. (It reminds me of the Streets level in GoldenEye 007, which is awesome.)

    Full album review on The Vine. More of The John Steel Singers on MySpace. The music video for their song ‘Overpass‘ is embedded below.

  • Mess+Noise album review: The Holidays – ‘Post Paradise’, November 2010

    An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

    The HolidaysPost 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.

  • Mess+Noise album review: Surf City – ‘Kudos’, October 2010

    An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

    Surf CityKudos

    Kudos is an anachronism. It simply shouldn’t be. It is the antithesis to modern music. While every other band is doing their best to sound like the future, New Zealanders Surf City are stuck in the past. There’s nothing futuristic about it, and yet, like a Magic Eye image, if you stare into their gaping sonic void for long enough, a conclusion reveals itself. Suddenly, it all makes sense: Surf City sound so fresh because they’re not trying to sound fresh.

    From the moment the first glassy guitar notes of ‘Crazy Rulers Of The World’ stream from the speakers, it’s clear that the six years the band have spent working toward their debut were worth it. In fact, just why Kudos succeeds so resolutely could be put down to the band’s patience. Their self-titled EP wasn’t released until 2008; likewise, nothing about Kudos feels rushed. Again, Surf City is antithetical to modern music, and the forever fast-forwarded release cycle perpetuated by tech-savvy musicians. Their social networking sites are neglected. Too busy making amazing music, I guess.

    Full review on Mess+Noise. More Surf City on MySpace.

    I wish I could embed a video or something to show you just how amazing this band is, but there’s fuck-all info about them online. You can stream the album’s best track, ‘Icy Lakes’, via Polaroids Of Androids, however. Do it.

  • Rolling Stone story: ‘Hungry Kids Of Hungary Stay Close to Home for Debut Disc’, October 2010

    A story for the November 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, on Brisbane band Hungry Kids Of Hungary.

    Click the below image for a closer look, or read the article text underneath.

    Hungry Kids of Hungary Stay Close to Home for Debut Disc

    Queenslanders finally drop their debut after a pair of promising EPs

    For Brisbane-based indie pop quartet Hungry Kids Of Hungary, the three-year path to their debut album was paved with transcontinental correspondence, two EP releases, and a stack of national tours supporting the likes of OK Go, Little Birdy and Bertie Blackman.

    Escapades took shape in the suburban home of producer Matt Redlich, with whom the band recorded their second EP, last year’s Mega Mountain. Over cold drinks on a warm Brisbane day, singer/guitarist Dean McGrath and singer/keyboardist Kane Mazlin reflect on a recording process that began in January 2010 and concluded six months later.

    Ultimately, the band were faced with a choice: record with a familiar face in a comfortable, inexpensive environment, or return to Tony Buchen’s studio in Sydney, where the band recorded earlier single “Let You Down”.

    As an indie band faced with financial realities, though, the decision to remain Brisbane-bound seemed simple. “We love Matt’s recording space,” says McGrath. “It’s underneath his house; it’s just cosy, and suits us down in the ground. There’s a pool out the back. We started recording in January – when it was far hotter than this – so we could do takes and then go for a swim. I was interested in doing something different and pushing us out of our comfort zone, but I think the right decision got made in the end.”

    The band also found that removing time and money constraints had a positive effect on their songwriting. “We actually did some pre-production this time,” reveals Mazlin, in reference to an exhaustive process of rehearsal, deconstruction and rearrangement of each song.

    “Sometimes you end up putting it together exactly the same as you started,” says McGrath,”but I think it’s a dangerous thing to have an album’s worth of songs ready and then just recording those 12. The cool thing about stretching it out over a long time is there’s four songs on the record now that weren’t written at the start of the recording process.”

    Hungry Kids formed in mid-2007. Drummer Ryan Strathie had played in separate bands with both Mazlin and bassist Ben Dalton; McGrath was a mutual friend. As McGrath and Mazlin share vocal duties, the band agonised over Escapades‘  tracklisting. “It was always going to be a little tricky for us to make everything flow,” says Mazlin. “But I think we managed it.”

    When asked to pinpoint the band’s sound, McGrath is laconic. “Pop’s the simplest way to describe it. It’s what we do. I think it’s unnecessarily complicated to give it a whole bunch of sub-genres.”

    More Hungry Kids Of Hungary on MySpace. The music video for their song ‘Coming Around‘ is embedded below.

  • Mess+Noise EP review: Bigstrongbrute – ‘We Can Sleep Under Trees In The Morning’, September 2010

    An EP review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.

    Bigstrongbrute – We Can Sleep Under Trees In The Morning

    Bigstrongbrute - 'We Can Sleep Under Trees In The Morning' EP coverWritten partly between “a brutal Brisbane summer and a bitter New Jersey winter”, this EP from Bigstrongbrute – musical alter ego of Paul Donoughue – is the successor to his self-released album, Gardens In The Gutter (2008, now out of print). What began as a solo project has blossomed into a group effort, both on stage and within this release: friends lend bass, trumpet, flute and piano to augment Donoughue’s frail guitar tone. Besides a contribution from Jessie Warren (aka Carry Nation), who provides guest vocals on ‘In My Own Mind’, it’s Donoughue’s deep, distinctive voice that dominates the mix. His songs are meticulously crafted, yet the end product is played loosely enough by the band to impart a sense of spontaneity and charm.

    Although the middle tracks are populated with guests and musical bluster – Fergus Hill’s trumpet on ‘You Were Always Right’, a jarring, distorted electric guitar solo by Andrew Ford on ‘Supply & Demand’ – the EP begins with Donoughue alone, backed by acoustic guitar and piano. These six songs are kept intentionally uncomplicated and lo-fi (though Todd Dixon’s recording is clear and warm). They’re the sounds of loneliness forced into social interaction, before again seeking solace.

    Full review at Mess+Noise, where you can also stream the track ‘You Were Always Right’.

    More Bigstrongbrute on MySpace. Highly recommended.

  • Mess+Noise track review: Cut Copy – ‘Where I’m Going’, July 2010

    A track review for Mess+Noise.

    'Where I'm Going' single cover by Cut CopyCut Copy – ‘Where I’m Going’

    Viewed in light of their past releases, ‘Where I’m Going’ is a black sheep, for never before have Cut Copy leaned so far toward the pop end of the musical spectrum. All four singles from 2008’s chart-topping In Ghost Colours – ‘Hearts On Fire’, ‘So Haunted’, ‘Lights & Music’ and ‘Far Away’ – had both feet planted firmly on the dancefloor. Here, the Melbourne-based act – a newly-minted quartet with bassist Ben Browning joining full-time – ease off the multi-layered synths that characterised their second LP in favour of a prominent rhythm section and a winning vocal melody.

    Full review at Mess+Noise. More Cut Copy at MySpace; you can also download this track for free at their website, if you give ’em your email address.

  • The Vine album review: The Boat People – ‘Dear Darkly’, July 2010

    An album review for The Vine.

    'Dear Darkly' album cover by Brisbane/Melbourne band The Boat PeopleThe Boat PeopleDear Darkly

    Over three decades ago, a pair of aspiring Brisbane musicians set down two rules that they’d follow throughout their long partnership: they were to equally share the amount of songs that appeared on each album between themselves, and they’d never do anything without the other’s permission. That pair was Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who founded seminal pop band The Go-Betweens in 1978. In 2010, whether conscious or not, another pair of Brisbane pop writers – James O’Brien and Robin Waters – have tapped into this same ethos for their band The Boat People’s third album, Dear Darkly. Like every Go-Betweens album, they touch upon romance and melancholy in equal measure. And like every Go-Betweens album, Dear Darkly consistently errs on the side of greatness.

    Augmented by guitarist Charles Dugan and drummer Tony Garrett, the duo each author six songs on an album that exhibits the best work of their decade-long career. Though their last LP, 2008’s Chandeliers, was subject to a three-year gestation process, they’ve opted to work faster this time around. The result is their most eclectic collection to date.

    Full review at The Vine. More Boat People on their MySpace. Music video for ‘Soporific‘ is embedded below.

  • The Vine album review: ‘Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane’, June 2010

    An album review for The Vine.

    Mike PattonMondo Cane

    Mike Patton - Mondo Cane album coverI’m coming clean: I wouldn’t be listening to Mondo Cane if Mike Patton’s name wasn’t on the cover; I can’t understand Italian, and I’ve never heard the original versions of these songs (barring one track, ‘Deep Down’, which was the theme song to ace 1968 comic book film adaption Danger:Diabolik). These factors could conspire against my capacity to enjoy this album – but they don’t. Mondo Cane is a wholly thrilling ride. Patton possesses one of rock music’s most distinctive and admired voices, and while he’s the star here, these 11 songs are filled out with depth and colour by the contributions of some 65 orchestral performers.

    While recent Faith No More converts – via their widely-celebrated reunion world tour – might find Patton’s latest project a little too challenging, I’d argue that Mondo Cane shows the singer fronting his most accessible act yet. This music speaks to me in a language that the average rock band can’t fathom, and I’m not just referring to Patton’s fluently-sung Italian. I’m of the opinion that orchestral music moves humans far beyond the emotions that can be summoned by any configuration of guitar, bass and drums; here, Mondo Cane proves my point. From the opening strains of ‘Il Cielo In Una Stanza’, I’m hooked.

    Full review at The Vine. This album is the shit. To get an idea of what the hell I’m talking about, watch the video embedded below.

    Elsewhere: I interviewed Mike Patton for The Vine about Mondo Cane. Read it here.