Lower plenty accolades continue

No-bullshit record of the year

http://onebaseonanoverthrow.blogspot.com/2012/12/here-we-found-your-stupid-bike.html?m=1

lower plenty - hard rubbish

#1 with the M+N Critics
http://www.messandnoise.com/articles/4545242

#4 in the people's choices

http://messandnoise.com/articles/4546172

reviews from the counselor

ANTI-CLEANSE

Degreaser

Sweaty Hands LP

Negative Guest List NGL-040

A band named after my favorite cleaning product puts out a another solid record on my favorite Australian scum label; tis a hard day at the office! This, Degreaser's follow-up to 2011's quaking Bottom Feeder, continues main duder Tim Evans's well-illustrated commitment to the hungover-and-cranky corners of punk weirdness (see also his take on Pop Group dynamics in Bird Blobs and the mope-grind of Sea Scouts). Scoff if ya must at the Birthday Party apeage howlin' around these parts (i.e. Brooklyn) of late, but these folks don't fanny about like some. Though guitars rasp, throats moan and bellow, and the rhythm section clamps like a 1000-year-old die-cutter, as they have elsewhere and many a time before, it ain't always what ya do but how ya do. Feel me? Right from the jump on "Lizard," these lead-sinkers reach stoner-metal depths of heave-n-wheeze with nary a second to call out the fathoms. The focus remains a desperate thud on the deck of a listing boat, even through what I take to be a cover of "Eyes Without A Face" (?) on the flip. (No titles on this one; just guessin' from the Discogs entry.) Never do they leave the confines of their grem-clotted alley, but the hypnotism this lot casts was enough to keep me glued down. Nice!

 

EXHAUST-DJINN: A PAIR FROM ANTI-FADE

Useless Eaters

New Program b/w Expensive Taste & Smoke Alarm 45rpm

Anti-Fade ANTI-011

Bout the closest I ever get to garage is when I need help diggin' a spike outta my left front tire. Always thought there was somethin'...underachiever about it; for those about to maybe rock, ya know? But I reckon that's what folks find so galldern American about it: desperate, entrepreneurial shots at convincin' some local, maybe regional, and perhaps national, tail to shimmy. Just a little. It's that very attitude that makes it so suspect to me; I say, go XXXL or go sit a spell. Anyhoot & holler, perusin' the Anti-Fade back catalog gave me the spins, so I called up ol' Bertrand Russell for advice. Bein' a  loud skeptic of garage rock himself, I figgered he'd know the score. "In studying [a garage rock label], the right attitude is neither reverence nor contempt, but first a kind of hypothetical sympathy, until it is possible to know what it feels like to believe in [its releases], and only then a revival of the critical attitude, which should resemble, as far as possible, the state of mind of a person abandoning opinions which he hitherto held. Contempt," ol Betrand warned, "interferes with the first part of the process, and reverence with the second." Whatever you say, chief; I'll give it the ol' college. Maybe there's some new tricks a-turnin'?

Useless Eaters is helmed by one Seth Sutton outta Nashville, Tenn. A Nashville one-man garage band on a Victoria, AU label? Why not. Hell, he's already put out about 5 other records this year alone, and 9 others since turn of the decade; ain't many spots on this circuit he ain't shot through. A-side cut is either an indictment or winking endorsement of corporate drudgery in the guise of an android march. Another "why not" herein is Sutton's application of positively classic Athens GA moves. I detect the liver-spotted claw of Peter Buck on "Smoke Alarm," though it be fed through some homegrown Johnny Marr effects. In fact, this is near the Blank Dogs cult philosophy of tryin' to apply cheapie-creepie goth tactics to mopey drug punk. It's still a fair bit better--but just about anythin' is an improvement to that late model! But keepin' ol' Bertrand on the dome, I didn't mind the half dozen flips I gave it one bit. And I ain't about to jeer the folks that find the fun in this one second more.

Five hunnid hand-numbered.

The Bonniwells

Yesterdaisy 7" EP 33rpm

Anti-Fade ANT-008

What a pwecious wittle wecord. From the knitty-witty packaging to the Victorian cats & mice in eternal pursuit on the labels (wabels?), I was expecting either a So Cow offshoot or something light, feathery, with a sturdy inheritance. Which is to say, I was prepared to gag. But actually, this trio bears more marks from early K Records, the Vaselines and the Marine Girls than what I'd call garage rock. Maybe the rug on this whole genre done got yanked from under me, but these sunlit melodies, mid-tempos, and titles like "Pigeon Pizza" gimme those twee goosepimples. Some kids somewhere in Melbourne are dancin' their couch cushions to pieces and the sophomore in me kinda wants to join in. If it wasn't for my trick knee and all...

300 pressed on colored vinyl. Mine looks like rain-soaked pavement with a chewed gum smear. What you got?

 

http://fuckyoucounselor.blogspot.com/

 

Some new reviews from still single

Southern Comfort – “Silver and Gold” b/w “Don’t Cry No Tears” 7” (Black Petal)





RECOMMENDED



Fuck this Blanche Blanche Blanche shit, how about Angela Angela Angela? That’s as in Bermuda, standing at the center of the storm that is (was?) Circle Pit, rockin’ hard in the Straight Arrows and Ruined Fortune, and stepping into the wind tunnel with Harriet Hudson of Ratsak for some two-guitar/no-drum steel-eyed staredown. Rock Music can exist without percussion, particularly when all the ambient room sound and peals of reverberated distortion coming out of their amps fill in the blanks for you. Anyone looking for that King Blood/Dum Dum Girls collab that never happened may get their insane wish here. Plus they gently push the Neil Young cover to its limit, with some seriously echoed-out soloing that punches a hole right in the horizon and sweeps upward. For me, right now, this record is perfect. Silkscreened looking panel covers, 265 copies. (http://www.blackpetal.com)

(Doug Mosurock)



Straight Arrows – First 2 Singles 7” EP (Anti-Fade)





RECOMMENDED



Straight Arrows’ full-length It’s Happening wasn’t the cleanest-sounding record (and come to think of it, sounds a good bit like the template for the way Owen Penglis produced the Royal Headache album), but the singles which came before it threaten to break the stylus and eat through the turntable, so corroded are they with blown-out, room-mic’d splay. If 2007 taught you anything, it should have been that crazy dimestore saturated recordings don’t cover up the bar band stink beneath, but there’s something about those who are so utterly ENTHUSED about the process that breaks through the layers of dead skin and crust to the spine of punk rock, and gives it a good hard squeeze. The Hospitals got there, Eat Skull got there, and the Straight Arrows got there on these records, a standalone 45 and a split 7” with the Creeteens from as many years back, the sweet SA songs from both comped on this #’d-to-300 reissue. “Can’t Count 1-22” is so fucked it was hard to tell if it was even on the right speed. Holy shit this record. #1 In Noise, plus bonus points for having a song called “Jeepster” that’s not a cover. (http://antifaderecords.webs.com)

(Doug Mosurock)



http://still-single.tumblr.com/

Brisbane doco

Brisbane 2012 from Joshua Watson on Vimeo.

yellow green red review

Gooch Palms R U 4 Sirius? 7″ (Anti Fade)


First Chook Race, now Gooch Palms? I can’t tell if these bands are messing with us or if there really is some new Australian dialect I am not privy to. The cover art was practically taunting me to flush this record down the toilet and pray it didn’t clog the pipes, but I gave Gooch Palms the benefit of the doubt. I had a feeling it’d be cool anyway, and yeah, Gooch Palms are quite alright – they play super-speedy jangle-punk ala Jay Reatard or The Dickies, tempering the bubblegum with grey shades of Naked Raygun here and there. I didn’t want to like a song called “Houston We Have A Problem”, but Gooch Palms somehow turn that line into a charged-up power-pop doozy – it’s like they set up these obstacles for themselves, just to make success more exciting. The other three tunes are real cool too, always verging on a cartoony level of giddiness but never to the point where it’s a detriment. Hey HoZac, you wanna do some good in this world? Sign up Gooch Palms for an LP!



http://www.yellowgreenred.com/

moving slow

Got back from the first vacation in years and i'm moving slow.  A ton of stuff coming in, so i had to redo the "warehouse", built new shelves tonight, trying to get it all cleaned up and an inventory done this weekend.  will list new items at some point this weekend as well

new reviews from The Wire

The Wire

September 2012

Page 76

The Wire

September 2012

Page 76

The Wire

September 2012

Page 76

The Wire

September 2012

Page 76

The Wire

September 2012

Page 76

The Wire

September 2012

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The Wire

September 2012

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Blank Realm - Falling Down the Stairs 7"

Due to problems with the pressing, which were left unresolved by the pressing plant, this 7” is being sold as one sided.  Exile in the Terrarium can be played but may cause harm to your needle.  Play at your own risk.

But, it is up for sale once again

southern comfort 7" coming soon

SOUTHERN COMFORT

wire mag reviews

The Wire

August 2012

Page 62

The Wire

August 2012

Page 62

The Wire

August 2012

Page 62

facebook

you can follow stuff there, alot of times there are video's that i can't post here on facebook. 

video for new per purpose 7"

should be here today, along with Hissey Miyake/Terrible Truths 7" and Knee Chin - Melting Upwards 7"

Bitch Prefect lp

just came in


BITCH PREFECT Big Time LP
Bitch Prefect are a pop group, three years old and they’ve learnt how to walk. The singers are complaining, the guitars are rhyming and the backbeat is on the dance floor. Two minute songs that speak the truth – you’ve heard it before and you need to hear it again. Don’t call it Melbourne lethargy, this is Adelaide desperation. The product is uncut. The LP is Big Time.

blurbage

Whores - mob reality 7" (RIP026)

RIP SOCIETY

I wanted to come up with a heaps sick little blurb for the debut 7" by Sydney's Whores but I spent the last week dealing with sewerage issues in house and getting sick due to these issues so my brain is dead. Something along the lines of.... they've consistently been one of the best, most intense live bands I've seen over the last few years.... they really sum up the often ugly, hostile atmosphere of Sydney.... although they don't really sound that much like feedtime or Venom P Stinger I reckon they're taking the same devolutionary path... Recorded by Andrew "Cured Pink" McLellan.... "brutal"(do people still say that?).... something about sounding like a "before the quarrel" era Cro-Mags sharing a practice space with the Electric Eels.... Excellent record, make thy purchase once available...

Ruined Fortune - bulls eye 7" (RIP027) - angie from circle pit playing with nic from rip society/bed wetting bad boys, closer to earlier circle pit then their recent foray into jesus and mary chain territory

 

Meat Thump - box of wine 7" (NGL038)

brendon from neg guest list/white cop along with matt/kitchens floor and jimi/slug guts devolve the white cop sound 

 

Mad Macka - adidas tracksuit 7" (SH-04)

guitarist from onya's and cosmic psycho's strikes out on his own, gtr sounds are distinctly his.  upcoming appearance at gonerfest

interview with matt kennedy

i think it airs wed morning in the states


http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/program/eternalsoundcheck

BOSMC lp cut sleeves

one that i had forgotten, coming very soon, here's a link to a few songs

http://soundcloud.com/bosmc

New Stuff

A ton of new stuff is on the way. NGL,rip society and a bunch of self produced. probably forgetting someone, but it's alot of stuff.

Mad Macka - adidas tracksuit 7" (SH-04)
Meat Thump - box of wine 7" (NGL038)
Whores - mob reality 7" (RIP026)
Ruined Fortune - bulls eye 7" (RIP027) just arrived

Rettman interviews Scraps

http://www.vice.com/read/scraps-makes-classic-shits-and-beautiful-videos

Lower Plenty review

Music

Lower Plenty 'Hard Rubbish'

by SHAUNP on May 21 2012, 04:35PM

Lower Plenty
Hard Rubbish
(Special Award/Easter Bilby)

This is a sad record. It's all lonely interstate road trips, hopeless men, homes fallen to disrepair, and love left to die through inaction. Hard Rubbish is quiet country for weekday afternoons spent staring at the sky in the backyard, waiting for something to happen. “Loneliness is the biggest killer of them all,” Jensen Tjhung sings during 'Strange Beast'. This record sounds like needing company, but not getting it. It sounds like waiting for a phone call.

Lower Plenty features members from Melbourne bands Deaf Wish, Dick Diver and Total Control, among others. It's a thoroughly Melbourne-sounding record too, the chiming and lazy instrumentation belied by the chronic sadness of the group's three vocalists. It sounds like the type of record that would mark the end of an era: the slow dawning of middle age and the sudden importance of not being alone. The realisation that time is passing quickly even while the individual hours seem to drag.

'Work in the Morning' has Al Montfort getting out of bed, but not getting much further. As he recounts his first steps the song's narrative dissolves into nonsense, a kind of delirium brought by inaction. Elsewhere, 'Nullarbor' and 'Grass' play out like companion pieces: in the former Montfort attempts to salvage a broken love, while in the latter Sarah Heyward recounts why it can never be. 'Close Enough' ends the record on a dark note, a dirging march toward a fading light, a reinforcement of the record's already established severity.

Hard Rubbish is unrelentingly bleak. The music carefully insinuates a barrenness, a lazy futility, that the group's sometimes cryptic lyricism cannot, and the whole record acts as a catalyst for the type of deep introspection that can ruin entire weekends. But it's undeniably beautiful too. Cripplingly so. Consume with moderation.

Shaun Prescott


http://www.thevine.com.au/music/album-reviews/lower-plenty-hard-rubbish/

MRR review

maximum rock n roll:

STAG - get used to it 7"

Holy SHIIIIITTTT. Witch spells sung as girl group hits through a lens of stiff minimalism. "Goin Out" is the hiy of the century. Psychedelic key flourishes, bedroom dance drums, vocals that run the gamut from bored drones to torch song sing alongs to shrill scream outs, the bass keeping it groovy. It's like the best parts of Jefferson Airplane, Kleenex, and the Slits. Seriously, blowing my mind. (MM)
(Disembraining)

Lower Plenty - Hard Rubbish

Volcanic Tongue write ups

Lower Plenty Hard Rubbish Easter Bilby EB-001 LP Beautiful LP from this Australian group that features members of UV Race, Total Control , Deaf Wish and The Focus. This is frail, deeply atmospheric downer folk/country with a nod towards Brian Crook’s Renderers via boy/girl vocals that come across like the swooning Jandek/Nancy duets or even Pip Proud-does-Leonard Cohen. The music has a fried rural quality that situates it somewhere between MV & EE’s Barn Nova, the whole Terry/Jim Collins cultus and US Saucer but with that ineffable Australian underground pop sensibility giving it a timeless pop appeal. Some of the weirder tracks have a similar awkward narrative style to the Kiwi Animal while the female vocal material conjures the faraway ghost of The Marine Girls and Tracey Thorn’s 1982 DIY classic A Distant Shore LP. Another stunning set from Australia that works to restore your faith in the ability of ‘simple’ ‘songs’ to break your goddamn heart every time. This one gets to me as much as the first Beat Happening album and I can’t think of higher praise than that.

 Ragtime Frank The Truth Negative Guest List NGL-031 LP “Pre-War Blues + Avant-Noise = Rock N Roll” reads the equation on the sleeve and it’s the perfect description of the sonics within, a Wildman amalgam of crude country blues, brokedown swing and post-Velvets free rock. Imagine Hasil Adkins and The Cramps cutting a ‘real people’ record with a buncha Nicodemus’s no-count biker mates as a backing band and with a vision of the future where the concept of established technique runs counter to the revolutionary demands of rock/roll and a vocalist who testifies like a black preacher on the make and you’re somewhere close to the liberated appeal of this crucial side. Guitarist, harpist and vocalist Ragtime Frank alongside percussionist Leighton Craig are/were members of legendary Australian underground group The Lost Domain and this feels like a stripped down glimpse of the mutant DNA that makes the mothership such a beautifully confusing spectacle. If your listening tastes run towards Dock Boggs as much as Rudolph Grey – and what are you doing reading VT if they ain’t? – then this is the sucker for you. Comes packaged in classy paste-on bootleg-style sleeves in an edition of only 100 copies, instantly sold out from the label, highly recommended.



 Sky Needle Rave Cave Negative Guest List NGL-029 Lp The first couple of broadcasts from this amazing group from Brisbane Australia were some of the most defiantly original sides of outsider rock/pop to reach these ears in many, many years so it was with some excitement that we unpacked this one, the debut full-length from Joel Stern, Sarah Byrne, Alex Cuffe and Ross Manning playing all their own invented instruments. The feel is still of a fantasy Godz-play-Moondog session but given the space to really stretch out the group reveal themselves as equally proficient in radical free improvisation. Byrne’s vocals are particularly boggling, ululating all over the honking, scraping, huffing rhythms and melodies with an elastic a-formal approach that has few parallels but that orbits a similar universe to Meredith Monk and Amy Sheffer. The group’s tonal palette is truly singular odd, with brokedown rhythms illuminated by percussive tones and sawing folk drones in a way that sounds like Tago Mago played with nothing but Harry Bertoia’s sound sculptures. Indeed, their evisceration of song is every bit as far-reaching as Damo-era Can, building to peaks of nowhere with a hands-on tactile feel that is supremely satisfying while Byrne works mysterious/evocative tongues around every starry shape. This is atavistic folk music w/a heady hobbyist edge and the kinda sublimely out atmosphere that says ESP-Disk like nothing else. If the newly activated ESP really had an ear to the underground then they would have snapped this group up: Rave Cave is easily the equal of any of the original label’s wildest avant/rock releases. Right now Sky Needle are one of the most radically original and self-sufficient performance units in the world and this is one of the most beautifully skewed releases of the year. Truly, you never heard such sounds. Simply can’t recommend this enough.

Hammering The Cramps s/t Wormwood Grasshopper Records WG-02 LP Totally fantastic archival unearthing documenting this pre-Drunk Elk project from Hobart, Tasmania. The sound is classic edge-of-the-world hypnotically degraded avant lurch, with the kinda grasp of extended rock tongue that defined the more damaged group sounds coming out of the Xpressway stable but with an emphatically powerful grasp of massed No Wave guitar movements and the kinda higher-mind feel for tortuously beautiful melodies of This Kind Of Punishment. But it’s the walls of endless strung-out guitars that really seal the deal with a euphoric repeating aspect that comes over like a Valkyrie Dead C or The Clean play Glenn Branca topped off with classic wasted/desperate vocals. Hard to believe they kept themselves a secret for so long but this is fantastic. Edition of 300 copies. Highly recommended!

 http://www.volcanictongue.com/recent

first proper lower plenty review

http://www.messandnoise.com/releases/2001036

some new reviews from yellow green red

Drunk Elk Under Neon Lights LP (Wormwood Grasshopper)
Nice full-length outing for Drunk Elk, perhaps the loneliest-sounding band out there today. They’re from Tasmania, which has got to be pretty isolating as is, but these songs really do sound like they were recorded a million miles away, off on some small tuft of land with nary a shopping center or coffee shop. I dug their 7″, but Under Neon Lights is even better, borrowing “I Want To Be Your Pet” off the single along with seven new ones, all incredibly delicate, strangely beautiful and occasionally unnerving. It’s kind of as if Pink Reason met up with The American Analog Set in an awkward first date – there’s angst and pain behind the sweetness. It’s almost kinda “emo”, too, although they clearly have a much closer geographical distance to the Xpressway label than they do to Bright Eyes or Indian Summer. Makes for great nighttime listening, particularly after enduring a stressful day… Drunk Elk are built for commiseration.

Mad Nanna If I Don’t Sleep Tonight 7″ (Wormwood Grasshopper)
More Mad Nanna, this time brought to us by the fine folks at Wormwood Grasshopper Records. “If I Don’t Sleep Tonight” might be my favorite Mad Nanna track thus far – the main guy repeats the title and is all thumbs on the guitar while some other band member recreates the sounds my stomach makes when I’m having trouble sleeping at night. Although it’s constantly on the verge of devolving into a Menstruation Sisters-style compost heap, Mad Nanna always hold the song together by one thin hair, capped off by a celebratory whooping of the crowd (looks like this was a live cut). The ostensibly untitled b-side is less to my liking – sounds like the group pared down to an acoustic guitar duo, strumming their basic chords like they just missed the bus and had an unexpected three hours to kill. Had I heard this track first, I may very well have never ventured further into the world of Mad Nanna, so thank God that’s not the case. On the strength of the a-side, and with acknowledgement of the b-side’s subtle charm, this one’s worth keeping too.

Stag Get Used To It 7″ (Disembraining Machine)
Imagine if Carcass used cookbooks instead of medical journals for their Reek Of Putrefaction cover collage – that’s what you get with Stag’s Get Used To It 7″. I could’ve gone for some gastronomy-based death metal, but Stag’s sound is equally cool – danceable, early-’00s post-punk that sounds like the best parts of Hot Hot Heat and Sleater Kinney collaged together in an attempt to resemble Kleenex. Powerful, pep-rally vocals lead disco-drum beats and needle-y guitars to a pretty nice result. Not sure if everyone is ready for “indie dance parties” all over again (we’re all too busy getting our “goth nights” started), but Stag make a pretty good case why certain styles will always work when performed by a select few. Don’t worry, Stag – I’m used to it, and I dig it.

Terrible Truths Terrible Truths 7″ (Small Town City Living)
Terrific post-punk from Terrible Truths, yet another cool new Aussie group. Four songs here, but I could go for an album right off the bat – they’ve got a vibe similar in spirit to The Slits and The Raincoats, but Terrible Truths seem a bit more subdued, like they probably don’t jump around on stage and wouldn’t be out of place opening for The xx. Kinda funky, but just because the bass lines are so moist and thick… it makes for pretty much the only funkiness I would want out of my post-punk. The two singers seem to sing most of the lyrics at the exact same time, and it really sounds great that way. I don’t know, Terrible Truths are doing a pretty specific thing, but they seem to have gotten it perfectly right, straight out of the gate. Did a little Googling, and apparently Bedroom Suck will be next to bring us some new Terrible Truths… I can’t wait.

http://www.yellowgreenred.com/

Easter Bilby 001

thanks for the article tim!

http://www.messandnoise.com/news/4450343

review from your flesh

THE LOST DOMAIN Blondes Chew More Gum 2xLP

Peter Davis | Mar 29, 2012 | Comments 0 |

Brisbarbarian no-fi sludge-drone from 1995 cassette re-issued. This is the first ever vinyl pressing of The Lost Domain’s sprawling Blondes Chew More Gum, brought to us by the inestimably tune-wise blokes down (under) at Negative Guest List. Featuring a lineup of three drummers, a very uncorked Dave MacKinnon yowling electric guitar, and mumbled spoken vocals from Simon Ellaby. The groove here is deep, distant, astral, tribal, and yet immediate, like somebody field recorded a gutter-punk drum circle on one of the moons of Saturn. Fans of the Axemen, Greg Ginn instrumental Black Flag tracks, Ya Ho Wa 13-style tribal chant psych, and blackout drinking should definitely check out this epic of loose, fuzzed out and spacious group-gropes. [Negative Guest List]

-Paula Permanent

http://yourfleshmag.com/music/the-lost-domain-blondes-chew-more-gum-2xlp/

review from rettman

SCRAPS – Secret Paradise (Disembraining, 7”)
That Scraps LP from last year certainly won my ‘Best Record Title’ for ’11 award (Classic Shits) but I didn’t really find myself listening to it more than once or twice. And that’s not to say it was lousy or anything; it just failed to register in my barely pumping brain. But this three songer from the lady from Brisbane is having the opposite effect on me; it’s registering out the wazoo! Those unfortunate enough to return to my house after a night of carousing will know I have a great fondness for the first two singles by Thick Pigeon and Ms. Scraps (Laura Hill if you’re nasty) seems to have nailed down the pristine, creepy electro feel of those tiny little discs on this single, for sure. I could assuredly see this 45 being lined up after a sauced jamming of Subway or Dog the next time I come home from a liver damaging session. Max Milgram: you have been warned. - TR
http://200lbu.blogspot.com/

mark it in your calender

APRIL 10 IS JEFF EVANS DAY!

Tuesday, April 10 will be declared
Jeff Evans Day
by the Mayor of Memphis. For real!
A showing of
Ron Franklin's surreal Jeff Evans documentary
THE MAN WHO LOVED COUCH DANCING
will be shown at the Blue Monkey in Midtown.
This was last seen in Memphis during Gonerfest 4 in 2007.
Not known at this time if it will be shown anywhere else.
If you are into this stuff, I would not miss this!
After the film, there will be a performance by Msr Evans
with Ross Johnson & Ron Franklin and possibly others.
Insane Memphis night in Midtown!

still single reviews

http://still-single.tumblr.com/

Scraps – Secret Paradise 7” EP (Disembraining)

RECOMMENDED

Laura Hill (Scraps to the outside world) turned up here a little while back with Classic Shits, an album’s worth of Casio pop from a number of years ago out of her bedroom in Brisbane. Years later, the project is still active, and even better, with three new songs which have more of an eye on what’s going on now, and a better understanding of the “button” a good pop song needs to come across as well as these ones do. What’s more, she gets it done through a very limited means of expression (‘80s synths and vocals, run through ProTools and arranged to her satisfaction) that works for what she’s doing. “1982” is like a two-minute dash through the recorded histories of both Stereolab and Broadcast, but against the cadence of a jilted wordsmith, staying on the beat and cramming the whole thinig with contextually novel lyrics. It’s so great I just listened to it again. “Simple Mind” runs a racing beat and rides some high-frequency scales up and down in its drive to get you moving, and “Secret Paradise” features this killer vocal break that puts me in the mind of Nite Jewel. Every one of these songs stands out, and the single is so short you’ll just flip it over and start again. Might be on the twee/pop side of things for some of my readers, but others who know better will want to track this down, no matter what. (http://disembraining.tumblr.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
19 hours ago • 0 notes
Terrible Truths – s/t 7” EP (Small Town City Living)

RECOMMENDED

Australia’s hit parade continues, now with Terrible Truths, a lady-led trio from Adelaide working the unadorned post-punk angle. This one’s great if you were looking for something unadorned and sinewy, geometrically correct post-punk plane drawings with great, uplifting vocals in the early Siouxsie/Annie Anxiety/Delta 5 camp. This sort of thing has been done so many times, and is very hard to get wrong – you need that groove, you need to work both for and against it, and you’ll achieve the rest based on what else you can bring to it. Guitarist Stacey Wilson and bassist Rani Rose understand this, and work with their own voices to bring a sense of urgency to the music. I will probably never get tired of this sort of thing and I doubt a lot of you will, either. Four great songs, with the side A tracks shining a bit more brightly (especially “Lift Weights”). Liam Kenny of Kitchen’s Floor plays the drums and boxes things in quite nicely as well. 300 numbered copies, gold vinyl. Grab a few. (http://terrible-truths.tumblr.com)
(Doug Mosurock)

interview with DX/ total control

http://www.yellowgreenred.com/

stillsingle reviews

Low Life – Sydney Darbs 7” EP (Negative Guest List)

RECOMMENDED

Four blasts of weatherbeaten downer punk from a Sydney trio that gives “a special thanx to anyone who embraces the 9-5, day in day out, mundane, soul destroying, mindless, clock work thinking because you are why we do this.. and we fucking detest you.” That kind of attitude is still needed in punk/the seething world, and the music of Low Life suits it, all dirgelike chords, flange pedal and space-absorbing vocals that suck most of the air out of this recording, like putting a plastic bag over your head and drawing deep. Sounds like it crawled out of a pit to harass shopping centre patrons with hopelessness, blight, and demands for cigarettes. Nods to dark early ‘80s UK punk are evident, if not necessarily intentional; it all adds up to a hissing, nasty, bruising music that has nothing but disdain for the outside world, and an inner sanctum held together by symbols and mythology. In the wake of Brendon’s passing, I do hope that their album will be coming out regardless, and that this single will not be any harder to find. A real day-ruiner, and not in an easy or obvious way. Put your shoes on, dump water in them, then go about your day, and you’ll probably be upset enough to make this kind of record yourself. Visit this link for reference only: (http://negativeguestlist.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago • 1 note
Skyneedle – Creepertown 7” (Independent Press)

RECOMMENDED

Brisbane’s Skyneedle plies a refreshing stripe of avant “rock” that relies not on earsplitting electronics or feelbad atmospheres. Driven by an incessant hooting from some kind of pump-driven horn, “Howlway” shambles along in an odd danceable mode. Singer Sarah Byrne juxtaposes a sultry vocal with the mutating caveman rhythm, tunelessly plucked slack-strings and an intermittent low-end grind produced by something else entirely (presumably the “Speakerboxbass” as operated by one of the quartet of noisemakers, Alex Cuffe).vWith instruments like the “Strungpanel,” and the “Latex Leghorn Drum Machine” credited, part of this record’s fun is in imagining what these homemade doodads even look like. Owing to their design and the resulting arbitrariness of the pitches produced, they evoke a crude junkyard/industrial version of far-eastern folk music. And the instrumental B-side “Creepertown” has that in droves, accompanied by a stumble of sheet-metal percussion and more of that rhythmic two or three-note hooting that alternately recalls some of Elliott Sharp/Carbon’s early large ensemble works and/or Canada’s pep-peps of noise, the Nihilist Spasm Band. It would be tempting to pigeonhole this (inaccurately) in some kind of no-wave or even neo-primitive revival, but Skyneedle’s atavism is less ritualistic/confrontational and much more playful. It might be the influence of the medium here, but the unit also deserves credit for keeping these tracks brief, wrapping them up after ideas are explored with sufficient thoroughness and before they would meander into self-indulgence. The whole limited-to-200 copies shebang is packaged in a jacket screenprinted with high-contrast, retina-confounding patterns, only adding to its mutant appeal. http://www.skyneedle.org)
(Adam MacGregor)

http://still-single.tumblr.com/

from volcanic tongue

Hammering The Cramps
s/t
Wormwood Grasshopper Records WG-02
Totally fantastic archival unearthing documenting this pre-Drunk Elk project from Hobart, Tasmania. The sound is classic edge-of-the-world hypnotically degraded avant lurch, with the kinda grasp of extended rock tongue that defined the more damaged group sounds coming out of the Xpressway stable but with an emphatically powerful grasp of massed No Wave guitar movements and the kinda higher-mind feel for tortuously beautiful melodies of This Kind Of Punishment. But it’s the walls of endless strung-out guitars that really seal the deal with a euphoric repeating aspect that comes over like a Valkyrie Dead C or The Clean play Glenn Branca topped off with classic wasted/desperate vocals. Hard to believe they kept themselves a secret for so long but this is fantastic. Edition of 300 copies. Highly recommended!

Woollen Kits
s/t
RIP Society RIP-024

Great wide-eyed stumble punk from this Australian group who mine the more melodic/primitive end of the Flying Nun catalogue, with keen dual vocals over two guitars and stand-up drums. There’s a hint of the Sound Of Young Scotland here, with a DIY aesthetic that reflects on Postcard Records as well as associated satellites like the early VU-worshipping Go-Betweens sides while there’s a little of The Smashchords to the way the twin guitars tangle around each other and some of the ‘deeper’ male vocals summon the ghost of Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson, which is to say that is a great side of DIY teenage rock with a classy non-musicianly appeal and the kinda winning naivety of your favourite bedroom rocker. Comes with a download. Recommended.

yellow green red

Mad Nanna I Hit A Wall 7″ (Quemada)
Mad Nanna is one of the few Australian acts with a handful of 7″s that I’ve yet to previously experience, so this I Hit A Wall single arrived just in time. It’s pretty much what I was expecting – barely functional guitar-strumming duct-taped to drums that sound like they’re slowly disintegrating as the song progresses (although “progresses” is probably the wrong verb for a song like “I Hit A Wall”). Rather, the a-side plugs away like a malnourished Swell Maps, groggy and annoyed. The untitled b-side moves faster, but it’s equally unpolished, telling a serious story that is just slightly too muffled to parse. I was expecting a real bare-bones, shambolic DIY thing, and I certainly got it. I find myself just as likely to hate something like Mad Nanna as much as like it – maybe it’s the killer nonsense artwork that’s all over the cover and center stickers, or just the combined vibe of both tracks, but I can truly say I’m on board with the Mad Nanna mission. Hoping to figure out what other 7″ or two are the essential ones, and that I don’t have to delve into the sad world of CDrs to properly sustain my fix.

Rettman's got a 'zine coming soon

MAD NANNA – I Hit a Wall (Quemeda, 7”)
That last Mad Nanna 7” on Wormwood Grasshopper really blew me a new one; so I was all too ‘cited to see this surprise in my mailbox a few weeks back. Laying an ear to this recent 45 has made me realize these young gents are a rare breed. They seem like the types who can wear many hats and still have you admiring just the shape of their head. Case in pernt: The above mentioned 7” seemed to be a single minded reach for the sun in an almost hippy fashion. Now on this un, both sides seem propelled by tiny, potent riffs that both tingle and chug. Sorta like a Lost Cause informed take on 3rd LP Velvets or Fowley produced Modern Lovers. And although it sounds absolutely nothing like the single before it or the single before that one (on Little Big Chief here in the U.S) they still got me on the line. I’m guessing an LP by these would be a smorgasbord of different stabs at greatness…so let’s fuckin’ hear it. – TR

http://200lbu.blogspot.com/

still single review

Woollen Kits – s/t LP (R.I.P. Society) / “22/09/11” CS (Fan Death)

RECOMMENDED

Whatever was missing with regards to legit/genuine undergrad punk/lo-fi response as provided by Woollen Kits’ first single is remedied here. They’re an Australian trio (two guitars and drums when I saw them, though there seems to be a bass on some of the album tracks), cut and decorated to fit in between the rancorous sentiments of non-mersh Midwestern American rocknroll and the soft, longing side of twee and indie pop. Certainly the band’s lyrics – usually in the “I will love you forever/But you must be true” sort of simple, idealized facsimile of 20th century pop – could raise some eyebrows, as would the foghorn vocals of guitarist Tom (last name unknown), who at best matches the slumber party timbre of Calvin Johnson. Hey, it’s the voice the dude was born with, so I’m cutting him a break. It took a few spins, and seeing this band live, to get it all to click, and I’m happy to say that it now does, their overall blare and the uncomplicated, positive energy they pass around in concert mode (duly represented in Fan Death’s cassette/MP3 download of the Kits’ performance somewhere back home), somewhere in between the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and Beat Happening, a rugged sound with a lovable core. They’re two fine releases that further cement Australia’s current land-dominance of quality rock music. (http://ripsocietyrecords.tumblr.com) (http://www.fandeathrecords.com)
(Doug Mosurock)

pretty good article from everett true

Underground music scene proves punk's not dead

by: Everett True
From: The Australian
February 25, 2012 12:00AM



FOR several years Brisbane musician Matt Kennedy has been a prime mover in a tiny musical scene.

Every few weeks, great bands - ranging from psychedelic dance-trance (Brisbane's Blank Realm) to hardcore punk rock (Sydney's Naked On The Vague) to melodic noise (Adelaide's Bitch Prefect) to early 80s electronic (Hobart's The Native Cats, Brisbane's Primitive Motion) - play shows in unorthodox locations, sold by word-of-mouth and often attended mostly only by other musicians. This world exists far away from the government-funded safety of Triple J and from the commercial radio stations. This world has little to do with careers.

try first link here http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=underground+music+proves+punks+not+dead&psj=1&oq=underground+music+proves+punks+not+dead&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1190l11238l0l11588l39l39l0l5l5l1l474l7249l0.13.19.1.1l34l0&fp=1&biw=1430&bih=714&cad=b&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb

just cause i like it

southern comfort

have a 7" coming in a couple monthes

SOUTHERN COMFORT - SILVER + GOLD from Angela Bermuda on Vimeo.

terminal boredom

there are some new reviews and year end lists up, here's one i grabbed, for purely self serving reasons

Lower Plenty "Mean" cassette
Acoustic Australian ensemble featuring members of Deaf Wish, UV Race and other less well known acts. Operating on the same emotionally fragile and haunted ground that the the first Dutchess & Duke LP traipsed upon, these ten tracks dissect painful relationships and difficult times for the most part. Compostions are construced very well: multiple acoustic guitars, minimal and creative percussion (slight drums, maracas, wind chimes, bongos, bells and just about anything else...) and some very pretty and very sad vocal harmonies. The vocals themselves are split three ways (two male, one female), I'm assuming whoever wrote the song sings it, and they all resonate rather well. The girl's songs might have a little more hope in their expression, the guys' have a bit more worldbeaten/downtrodden feel. A little K Records at times, a little New Zealandy at others, it's dreary music for recalling grey days done rather skillfully. Look out for vinyl on Easter Bilby records in the '12, you know it's quality if it gets the Saltmarsh seal of approval.. 100 copies.(RK)
(Radio Records // radiorecordsmelbourne.tumblr.com)

http://terminal-boredom.com/blog/

'nother new review

Hammering the Cramps – s/t LP (Wormwood Grasshopper)

RECOMMENDED

A fantastic record with no band to back it up. Hammering the Cramps existed from 2005 through 2007 or thereabouts; members are now doing time in the band Drunk Elk. Perhaps this band/this album was a bit ahead of its time, as the kind of people who are now just discovering New Zealand bands will no doubt flock to this effort, whereas it was still a bit of an antiquity back when this oddly-named group was alive and kicking in Hobart, Tasmania, the kind of place that hasn’t been known to let its wayward coordinates stop great bands (Sea Scouts, The Native Cats, Paint Your Golden Face) from surfacing to the rest of the world. Point is, this one shouldn’t have slipped through the cracks, a real rager that combines the room pressure of Trapdoor Fucking Exit-era Dead C. with the sort of frenetic psychedelic heft of any great Wayne and Kate Village band (hearing Crystalized Movements in the crashing percussion, Major Stars in the overall riff-force and keyed-up delivery), and the sun-blinded free spirit that rises into the air anytime someone plays the Plagal Grind 12”. It sounds as if it could have surfaced as some ambitious Xpressway offshoot back in 1988, the presence of four guys with the third dimension flickering on and off, banging on their cages and letting tiny, powerfully-focused beams of light pierce the painted black walls and rip through to a late afternoon blue sky. That’s a feeling I rarely have about any sort of music anymore, so consider this a must-own, and check to see if you white-knuckled at any point during the raucous middle portion of this fine LP like I did. “Seahorse Song” – good god! 300 copies. (http://wormwoodgrasshopper.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)

some coley reviews

The Wire

March 2012

Page 71

The Wire

March 2012

Page 71

The Wire

March 2012

Page 71

deaf wish

give them a vote http://www.mtviggy.com/blog-posts/artist-of-the-week-vote-for-your-favorite-54/

Deaf Wish

Australia’s Deaf Wish could be one of the greatest rock bands that almost didn’t happen. They’re a signal that fades in and out. But whenever they are seen or heard from, word spreads quickly. You see, they are the finest blast of well-structured noise to emerge from Australia since Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Like ECSR, they walk that fine line between a drone and groove until your brain starts to shake itself apart. Their second album Reality and Visions is like a slurry of all the best weird punk from the ’80s and ’90s blended with terrifying force. Make sure to tune into their magnificently decaying signal and hope it’s not the last that you hear of them.

R.I.P. Brendon Annesley

A bad time for deaths within the global music community these past few weeks. There's been Johnny Otis and Etta James, and just this week there was artist/musician Mike Kelley (from Destroy All Monsters), who tragically killed himself, and, closer to home, there was Brendon Annesley. Brendon was mostly known for his music writing and highly prolific fanzine production: he ripped out an astonishing 33 issues of Negative Guest List in the past four years, as well as producing the HC zine, Dirty Alleys, Dirty Minds, penning for other publications, running the NGL label and playing in various bands. He helped my brother out w/ a few gigs and interviewed him for an issue of NGL, too. He was, from all reports, the epicentre of any music worth hearing which eminated from the city of Brisbane. I only knew him via email and fanzine trading. Last year he sent me a pile of back issues of NGL and I was impressed that folks of his age - he died this week at the age of 22 - were still putting words to print and getting it out there. If anything, his efforts made me feel old, lazy and guilty. His 'zines covered many of the greats I'd written about in a prior life - Pere Ubu, Electric Eels, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Vertical Slit, SST cronies, '90s rock & roll from the Dog Meat stable, the giants of first-wave HC - as well as contemporary bands I'm too pathetic to listen to. His writing was smart, succinct and obnoxious, and had he stuck around, he could've given the world a whole lot more of his worthy bile. In other words, another one of the good guys has gone, and that's just a damn fucking shame. But you and I, thankfully, are still here. RIP, Mr. Annesley. http://manwithoutshame.blogspot.com/

bunch of new reviews

http://www.yellowgreenred.com/

Brisbane scene article

The Wire

January 2012

Page 16

The Wire

January 2012

Page 72

tony rettman's pazz and jop poll

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2011/1529305/

dead farmers

lower plenty - hard rubbish

getting pretty excited, the first release from easter bilby records (actually a co-release with special award records) will be coming in early 2012