The more astute among you may have noticed that there hasn't been a Before Hollywood update in a while. That's because Gav is currently in China and I'm travelling around Europe/Africa. Normal programming should return in mid-January.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that.
It's been kind of a busy week so I've missed a few good gigs that have already occurred. Here's what's on for the remainder of the weekend. I know that Brisbane residents tend to stay indoors at the slightest hint of bad weather, but don't let the rain keep you at home!
The John Steel Singers are doing some pretty big things these days - I can't imagine them fitting into Ric's anymore. After their debut EP (which was re-released with some extra tracks as The Beagle And The Dove) and some significant tours with bands like The Polyphonic Spree and The Grates, they've released a new EP in the form of The John Steel Singers: In Colour.
Lots on this weekend. Too much, even.
I don't like to get self-referential in a review, but I feel that I can only talk about the Brisbane Sounds 2008 compilation in relation to Before Hollywood's own compilation. Though I have to point out that it should be seen less as a competitive relationship and more as a companion piece of sorts. Indeed, Brisbane Sounds 2008 manages to only cross paths with Stranded on the inclusion of 6 bands; an incredible indication of the depth on Brisbane's music talent given the breadth of each compilation.
Brisbane Sounds 2008 is the brainchild of one Blair Hughes. The Brisbane music afficianado is currently travelling through Europe, using Brisbane Sounds 2008 as a launch pad to advertise and advance the cause of local bands.
The twenty-four bands featured on Brisbane Sounds 2008 mostly flit around the vague genres of pop/rock and alternative rock, but there are a number of widely varying inclusions. Andrew Morris' 'Here You Are, There You Go' opens proceedings with Morris stealing some of Josh Pyke's more commendable traits, while managing to still keep things interesting. The song flows on nicely to The Gin Club's '10 Paces Away' (My previous comments on this song can be seen here), followed by a trio of decent pop/rock songs from Kate Bradley And The Goodbye Horses, The Westminsters, and The Boat People. 'Macy And Me' is Texas Tea doing what they do best (i.e. country-rock); the wistful yet fast paced song is somewhat reminiscent of some of Emmylou Harris' recent work.
Dick Desert & The Shotgun Country Club start to take proceedings in a more rock direction with the surreal 'George Bush's Chicken'. Intercooler and Regurgitator deliver with a brace of pop-punk tunes, while Sixfthick's 'White Light, Wet Heat' is exactly what you'd expect from a band that lists smashing beer glasses on their faces as a hobby. Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade's contribution, 'Gift Horse', isn't quite on par with their current material, but entertaining none the less. The Butcher Birds' 'The Deal' is a rumbling grunge number, followed by the Warm Guns' unique 60's girl band/garage rock combination, and Black Mustang's ultimately forgettable Stereophonics/T.Rex mashup, 'The One'.
The Vegas Kings' witty 'I Great Ape' is one of the highlights of the compilation, but it rubs up against the frankly horrible 'Sense Of Falling'; Upsize's contribution sounds like a karoake version of a forgotten Cold Chisel song. I Heart Hiroshima thankfully rescue things with the excellent 'Punks' (Previously reviewed here), and Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side maintain the quality. Big Red Candle's 'Tropic Of Cancer' is a strange mix of The Fall and Black Flag, which, amazingly, they manage to pull off successfully. Butterfingers' serve up a slice of their unique brand of hip-hop with 'Nothin' Much Happens'. Personally I'm not a fan, but they definitely have their audience; basically if you like Hilltop Hoods, Blink 182, and Eminem, you'll probably enjoy this.
The Whats' 'Ants' is next, and, I have to say, I was pleasantly suprised by this song. The almost 8-bit track has an excellent set of lyrics, but it fits uncomfortably between Butterfingers and the next act, Kissy Trouble Company, who provide an interesting take on the current blue-eyed soul revival (i.e. Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Adele, etc.) by taking the voice and backing it with an electronic sound akin to Jamie Lidell or Fujiya & Miyagi. The Late Great Russian Revolution's 'Gettin Lucky' is an interesting instrumental punk track, but it feels somewhat like filler here at the end of the compilation, whereas the closing song, 'Alcohol' by Spitfireliar, is just downright dumb Oi! punk.
The drop in quality towards the end of the compilation doesn't detract too much from the overall experience, however. Brisbane Sounds 2008 is an interesting and rewarding take on one of the many spectrums of Brisbane's musical output. Hughes has made a valiant effort here, and he can only be wished luck in his mission to spread the gospel of Brisbane sounds.
Here's a smattering of shows for the weekend.
There's a lot on all through this week. Plenty of Halloween gigs if you want to get your dress up on.
On paper this looks like some sort of dream local lineup... and that's pretty much how it was in actuality - two of Brisbane best noise-rock bands (Turnpike and No Anchor), two of its most respected punk acts (Dick Nasty and ELS) and the city's premiere early 90s revivalists. What more could any volume loving music fan ask for in a local show?
Like the title says. First, apologies; it's been quite some time between posts from me. My enthusiasm had temporarilly lapsed, but now it's back, an hopefully for good. As you might know, I'm currently living in central China, but I've brought with me a decent supply of Brisbane music. This brings me to my promise; I plan on posting an article weekly. At least until I run out of albums to review!
Finally, the request. One of our readers, Stuart, has been kind enought to post a review of 'Stranded' on Rate Your Music, and we were hoping to hear feedback from more of you. If you go to the page for the compilation you can post any comments; be they positive or negative. You can also rate 'Stranded'. Currently it's sitting at #474 for 2008 releases, but with a little help we could possibly hit the top 100! The general consensus when putting the compilation together was that if we got an enthusiastic enough response, we would try to do it again in the future. So if you are anticipating a 'Stranded:2008-2009', then you're going to have to put a little effort in!
I've been meaning to review this album for months now (along with a number of others), so I apologise for it being a little late. BigStrongBrute is a five piece led by singer/songwriter Paul Donoughue (who has also been a member of The Rational Academy, Tragic/Athletic, and Yeow Meow), and they have proved themselves capable of chanelling the spirit of bands such as those found on Elephant 6 and K Records. Indeed, Gardens In The Gutter could be described as pleasantly lo-fi, at least as much as something can be called lo-fi in this digital age.
'Marriage' is a brief, opening track; a simple acoustic number with layered vocals. While the song isn't all that remarkable, Donoughue's refrain, "I complain too much", manages to set the mood for the album quite well. 'Annulment', on the other hand, is an enigma to me. Every part of the song seems wrong, from the rhythm section lifted from Le Tigre's 'Deceptacon', to the ridiculously corny lyrics ("I'm getting hungry like a small pack of wolves"), yet BigStrongBrute somehow manage to pull it off.
Even if 'Annulment' was the car crash that it really should be, the next track, 'Children', would be the jaws of life that saves the day. Donoughue's lyrics are at their best here ("Cross my legs like a child/Sit straight back and just fucking smile."), as is the rest of the band. The track is a dense pastiche of acoustic guitar, reverbing drums, panning vocals, and rusty brass soloing. The slow, stomping "Everything All At Once" follows on; the sound is almost Gallic, calling to mind Beirut's The Flying Club Cup. "Don't Sweat It, Honey" is another standout. The rhythm section feels to be constantly teetering on the edge of collapse, at least until the song hits the chorus. At this point every aspect of the song comes together to create a simple, yet effective sound.
The somewhat underwhelming title track is next. While Donoughue's lyrics are only slightly below-par here in comparison to the rest of the album, 'Gardens In The Gutter' is musicaly lacking. It also feels like BigStrongBrute knew this, resulting in a minute of jamming and electronic trickery being tacked onto the end of the track; the outcome being that the song detracts from the coherency of the album as a whole. 'Birds And Elephants' sees the quality of the album picking up again, with its slow, rolling, almost country sound mixing well with the 'bunch of drunk mates jamming'-vibe the song exudes (Quick disclaimer: This song was featured on the compilation, Stranded, that we recently released). The untitled closing track sees Donoughue dueting with bandmate Nadia Aguilar-Hernandez. The song is simple, yet effective, with Donoughue showcasing his playful lyrics ("I don't need no rocking chair/I can rock most anywhere, darling"), as well as a suprising dislike for Baltimore (The Wire fan maybe?).
Gardens In The Gutter can be a little shaky in places. As mentioned, the lyrics can verge on cliched and corny, the music can be patchy and even bland in places, and the recording style may put off some listenets. But the lows are not so low that they detract from the highs, and the latter outnumbers the former here. Donoughue is a promising lyrical talent, and, with time, BigStrongBrute may grow to meet his potential. For a self-recorded debut, Gardens In The Gutter is an excellent effort, and hopefully a launching pad for further releases from the band.
Update: Apparently the closing track is a cover of an Entrance song. Thanks Joel for pointing that out!
Friday 24th:
Blue Carousel have been playing their mix of synth and guitar driven indie-rock around Brisbane venues with pretty great regularity for the last couple of years, and have now dropped their first proper release in the form of the Mussee EP. With a sound that contains equal measures synth-rock grooves and sinewy guitars, the band have less in common with the indie-dance fad of a few years back than they do with such bands as Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips and Sunset Rubdown. The comparisons are extended when the high-pitched, breathy (and usually double-tracked) vocals of lead singer Valdis are thrown into the mix. He has one of those 'love-it-or-hate-it' voices, much like the singers from the three previously mentioned bands.
There should be a record review up this afternoon, but for now here's the weekend's gig guide.
While Gav is away in China I've been trying to keep the articles to gigs posts at around a 1:1 ratio, but unfortunately I've been pretty busy this week so here we have another Gigs of the Week without a more substantial article preceding it. In any case, there's a fair bit this weekend to see.
It's a big weekend, this. If you're not planning to spend all of your time and money at one of the many shows for the bands who are coming down for the cancelled Great Escape festival, you could attend one of these shows:
Mel Ralph has been playing around Brisbane under the moniker of Jane Woody for a few good years now, ever since she left I Heart Hiroshima and DIY-heroes Kicks in the middle of this decade. A few months ago she released her debut album Big Breaths Little Lungs on the local Valve label, and... well, that's about it. I've barely heard anything from her since then (I think she perhaps played a few shows around the time of its release, and her myspace indicates that she has since been out of the city / in Alice Springs?).
My computer was having difficulties last week so there was no gig guide (and there were some good shows on, too). This week I thought I'd put the gig guide up a fraction earlier to make amends.
I remember seeing Tragic/Athletic starting out as a noisy little three-piece back in the days of 610 and Jamie's carpark. They were like a little version of Turnpike (which is no bad thing). Who would have thought that a few years later, with a couple of releases under their belt, they'd come out with something like their new 10" EP Brakes? While there are certainly still echoes of that past band, their sound has grown to encompass a wider range of instruments and moods, no doubt influenced by Paul Donoghue's country-infused BigStrongBrute and Ollie Mackay's time in the shoegaze-esque The Rational Academy. I mean, who would have thought that an entity like MTV would one day pick them as one of their five favourite up-and-coming Brisbane bands (as they did just recently as part of the MTV Kickstart competition)?
This is a busy week. There's Valley Fiesta, Big Sound and plenty of other shows. I'm not going to list the shows related to those two events, since you can check them out via the links and there's too many for me to be bothered typing out (although I will make mention of the Ups & Downs show on Saturday night in the Chinatown Mall, I'm definitely going to that since I missed the Pig City Festival - was in Melbourne at the time).
Back at the start of the year I posted a list of bands to keep an eye on in 2008. One of those bands was Rooftop Nightwatch, who played a number of excellent gigs last year, but have since slipped beneath the waves. Fortunately, the band lives on in the guise of Little Scout, which features Rooftop Nightwatchers Mel Tickle and Pat Elliott, as well as new additions Kirsty Tickle and a part-time drum machine.
The result of this collaboration is The Dead Loss EP, which features 5 songs, some which are old Rooftop tracks and some that are newer ones. The opening track, 'Festival' is part of the former group. The graceful tale of love and loss at a carnival begins with understated electric guitar and beautifully subtle vocals, before moving into a chorus reminiscent of Broken Social Scene's more upbeat moments. Trombone and backup vocals from Elliott help to give the song a misleading amount of size, with the song segueing between the quieter and louder moments with ease.
The second track, 'Dead Loss' starts of with a minutes worth of Eno-esque synth swirls before the motorik-style drum loop kicks in. Mel Tickle's vocals swerve 'Dead Loss' in a direction other then Berlin, however, and by the time the extra drums appear halfway through (actual drums, not a machine this time) Little Scout have stamped out their own little slice of pop. The result is that the impressive 'Dead Loss' comes off as the perfect middle ground between the twee rave-up of Belle and Sebastian's 'Electronic Renaissance', and Slowdive's shoegaze come down 'Catch The Breeze'.
The last three tracks of the EP come close to reaching the potential of 'Festival' and 'Dead Loss'. 'Train On Time' is the best of the three, with Elliott and Tickle splitting the vocal duties for this wistful ballad full of chimes, glockenspiel, and even a bit of a capella towards the end. 'The Dress' is another duet, but this time with a bit more pace, and is reminiscent of The Lucksmiths (but again with extra glockenspiel!). 'Seven Day Week' works well as a closing song, with the production leading the song to sound somewhat distant, and, combined with Tickle's resigned vocals, the song manages to convey quite a lot of emotion.
It will be interesting to see what future course the band takes. While the majority of the EP sticks to the acoustic twee pop that Rooftop Nightwatch came up with, Little Scout's dip into electronica on 'Dead Loss' results in the strongest song here, and if the bands recent live shows are anything to go by then that might be the direction they are headed in. But in the meantime the Dead Loss EP provides a nice combination of both styles, and any fan of indie pop will certainly enjoy this release.
N.B. You may have noticed that I haven't posted much in recent times. Well that's because I'm now living in China! I plan to continue writing, however, as I have about half a dozen albums I still havent reviewed. This review might also seem a bit disjointed as well. I began writing it a month and a bit a go, but due to the move I had to put it on hold.
You know how we've been promising to have some substantial posts soon? Well we should have a few posts on some relatively new local releases in the near future. Anyway, here are some shows to see over the next few days:
Friday 22nd:
We launched our Brisbane Music compilation 'Stranded' at The Zoo on Friday night. The evening was a great success, all of the bands played fantastic sets (I believe I actually used the phrase 'everyone brough their A-game' on the night, which I'm pretty sure I nabbed from a Dark Knight review). Brendan aka Ex-King-John recorded the majority of the night (with the exception of Monster Monster and the very start of The Rational Academy's set), so head over to his blog to download the mp3s and read his thoughts on the evening.
This is the sort of night that The Hangar is made for. Four local acts with a central core aesthetic but that each have their own unique sound. Two of the bands were launching new albums - in one corner there was Lawrence English, the old stalwart and Brisbane's ordained king of all things glitchy and synthetic, while in the other corner were the new kids on the block (at least in terms of their current project, though in truth both members of the band have been a part Brisbane's music community for many years) in No Anchor.
