Sunset Sounds Festival – Brisbane – 2009
We review Brisbane's inaugural Sunset Sounds Festival and see how the likes of The Hives, Santogold, The Kooks, Franz Ferdinand, Faker, The Grates, Tegan and Sara, I Heart Hiroshima and more measure up in the sweltering heat.
Generationals – Actor-Caster
Louisiana's Generationals Actor-Caster is a "treasure trove of indie pop rock songs". That's exactly the kind of booty we like around here.
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
No jokes about rock dinosaurs please, Mascis, Barlow and Murph defy expectation with their ninth disc.
Destroyer – Kaputt
Lyrically and musically, simply one of the best records you'll hear all year. Dan Bejar -- Genius. Kaputt -- Divine.
Deerhunter – Sydney – 20 June 2009
Having caught them a few weeks earlier in London, it was like witnessing an entirely different band in the throes of conquering new territory and playing to new audiences.
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Rough Trade, 2008 [7.5/10] Never has a record so wrong-footed me like Evil Urges has. Louisville's My Morning Jacket were always a band with broad influences in their sound. 2005's Z was the strongest indication
Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves
Putting aside Lightspeed Champion, the chameleon musician/producer known as Dev Hynes unveils his latest project Blood Orange.
HTRK – Work (Work, Work)
Work (Work, Work) is the sound of HTRK collecting themselves after tragedy and loss. A difficult time creates a difficult album.
Various Artists – SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers
A star-studded cast pay tribute on this anniversary compilation, but who invited Times New Viking?
A Place to Bury Strangers – Interviw with Oliver, Jason, Jonathan (Static, 2010)
We trap the loudest band the land - A Place to Bury Strangers - in the Static studios to talk the good talk about their beginnings, effects pedals and not being labeled shoegaze, but are disappointed to learn that they aren't in fact the loudest band from New York -- "Jono: It was Time Out New York, they came to our rehearsal studio and had a decibel meter while we were rehearsing, but then they went to Music Hall of Williamsburg, which is this huge 500-capacity venue and then they recorded Black Dice and they were louder than us."
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
Despite all the record's anomalisms, it's really gorgeous at its core, and there are more than enough enticing musical phrases to drive the listener back to wrestling with its eccentricities.
Who The Hell Are… Bleeding Knees Club?
There's not much point in asking where Bleeding Knees Club got their name. It's the kind of degenerate tag that you'd expect from a couple of Australian garage surf-punks, but for the innocent and curious alike the band spell it out below. If they happen to ask if you want to join their particular club, ladies just say 'no'. Hailing from Brisbane, where every home has its own swimming pool thanks to last year's insane floods, Alex and Jordan of Bleeding Knees Club have "won hearts and minds through a reckless live reputation and with a swag of super-catchy tunes on their debut EP Virginity".
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Andrew Bird takes flight with his latest album Noble Beast. Thankfully it's nothing at all like a Flock of Seagulls.
Contiuum Books 33 1/3 – Television, Rolling Stones, Dinosaur Jr
Behind every great album is more often than not, an even greater story waiting to be told. The pursuit for higher understanding of artists and their most influential pieces of work and how the two came to pass has long been the ultimate goal of the ardent music fan who thrives on having every recorded nuance and historical detail mapped out like a combined atlas and encyclopedia of the human body. One of the more indispensible series of music books published that actually does, more or less, what is expected above, has been Continuum's 33 1/3. With the recent addition of The Rolling Stones Some Girls, Dinosaur Jr's You're Living All Over Me and Television's Marquee Moon to their honour roll, 33 1/3 show no sign of scraping the bargain bin anytime soon.
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Impressive third album from these exemplary Scots. It sounds like the Winter Webcuts had... except more productive.
The Earthmen – Whoever’s Been Using This Bed
It was the Johnny Marr guitar flourishes at the start that first sucked me in. Here is the moment when a band who've been doggedly plying their guitar pop trade since the early 90s