Brisbane, Queensland
What defines a trend? Why do I now look at some of my jeans and say "Yo Vanilla Ice?"
In 2010 will I then look at my old jeans and say "its ssso-like emo?" All I know is that I am like everyone out there wearing skinny jeans, a victim. A victim of the don't-wash-it-cos-its-raw-denim, anti-label-but-its-certainly-not-target fashion regime. I was spitballing the idea today that if we (hypothetically) took away the current 'scene', the uber underground indie coolness, the a-symmetrical fringes and ultimately what I have dubbed the "skinny jean" factor, which bands would remain? Which bands would carry on doing what they supposedly 'love' and which bands would fade into the next uber cool trend (I hope its not linedancing). Could we predict the bands that would stay and those who would wash out? Name? Style? Sound, Influences, Genre, Success?.......Label? Would there be a winning formula?

Contrary to what you may or may not think about Sandwich Club we are all about the bands that stay raw. One of those which I hope doesn't achromatize is an unsigned band from Brisbane. If part of the 'fade' selection criteria was 'name' Skinny Jean would consequently be on the top of my list to fade away like your favorite pair of bleached, belted, black trusty denims. However listening to their sound the message was clear that such confronting similies weren't neccessary. SJ are a band with a sound unto their own. They have a range of influences and therefore their sound fluctuates from playful, prankish new wave pop in "Anhedonia" to sombre, sooty folk in "Aphids". Fade into the deep dark relm of linedancing these guys shall not.

MP3: Skinny Jean "Anhedonia"
MP3: Skinny Jean "Aphids"
mypace: Skinny Jean

In addition I have a tasty little treat of fairy bread for all those who check up on us more than once a day. We are waiting on a couple of sneaky tracks from the Of Montreal album "Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer" and limited edition Ep that accompanies it. Check back with us later on today and I promise you wont be disappointed.

Labels: Brisbane, Skinny Jean

California, US of A

Marc posted about these guys last week, but I thought it was high time their debut EP got an official look in. Not only because it's good (and it is damn good), but also because Modular have signed a band that'll finally shock those Van He's and She's right out of their Ksubis. "Where are the heavy beats? The poppy hooks? The uber-climactic structures? ...This is Modular, right? Shit there's something wrong with my stereo"

There's still the drum machines, handclaps and synths. But this little folktronic* fourpiece intertwines them all with a simple innocence that breaks completely from the Presets, Cut Copies and Klaxons that dominate the rest of the label. And if the tastemakers at Modular are looking for alternatives to neo electro/new rave/whatever-you-call-it, then firstly: THANK GOD, and secondly: Softlightes are a good one. The name of their first full length album (out next Feb) says it all - Say No To Being Cool Say Yes To Being Happy.

Imagine the Postal Service having a chamomile tea party with Architecture In Helsinki, while the Unicorns frollick around in the back garden, laughing merrily and pushing each other into shrubs and whatnot. It's carefree, but it's intelligent; there's a lot going on, but it's still wonderfully simple - and the two songs we're posting will flow over your Saturday morning with a sweet optimism sure to calm your aching hangover and violated eardrums.

MP3: Girlkillsbear (Lo-Fi-Fnk Remix)
MP3: Introduction To Sunshine
Myspace: here


*Yes. It's an actual genre. I checked wikipedia and everything.

Labels: Architecture In Helsinki, The Presets

Melbourne, Australia

Labels: Melbourne, Minimum Chips, Tom

Melbourne, Australia
Contrary to popular belief, there's only one way to skin a cat. I've tried the cheese grater. Unless you have ear plugs and a strong stomach, it ain't gonna work. I used a potato peeler and I ended up with a stir fry full of hair. The same goes for Children Collide. Here's a step-by-step guide to making good, drunk, Aussie indie rock:

Step 1: sing like you're one bourbon away from a stomach pump
Step 2: write lyrics about gay christian chicky babes you'd like to fuck
Step 3: change the tempo with complete disregard to convention
Step 4: thump the skins and go heavy on the bass
Step 5: scream every other word

They've just released their second EP after signing with Warner's indie lovechild, Flying Nun. It's a bleeding, raw, mess of a skinned cat, but tastes delightful on a sandwich. I think they used the grater.

Children Collide - Stranger Love.mp3
Children Collide - Brave Robot.mp3
Myspace

Labels: Children Collide, Melbourne

Photos from the Sandwich Club night last week are up...
A big thanks to everyone who rocked up as well as the bands. Great people, great bands - twas in the true spirit of music.
Next up... The Sandwich Club Christmas Party
Go to gallery

V Festival AU Lineup - First Announcement

Just stumbled home from the V Festival launch party, and am putting off my luxurious bed to type up a list of confirmed names - just for you. They appear in the order of My Interest. And the Pixies are not just a rumour this time.

THE PIXIES. Pet Shop Boys (I find this unjustifiably exciting). Phoenix. The Rapture. Softlightes. The Temper Trap. 2 Many DJs. Mercy Arms. Bumblebeez. Groove Armada. Gnarls Barkley and many more to be announced.

Here are a few songs to tide you over until March 31st '07 if you're in Sydney, and April 1st if you're in the Gold Coast.

MP3: The Pixies - Debaser
MP3: Phoenix - Consolation Prizes
MP3: The Temper Trap - Sirens
MP3: Mercy Arms - Half Right

Labels: Bumblebeez, Mercy Arms, The Temper Trap

Portland, USA

I approached this album with cautious excitement. Hands shaking, breath quickening, mouth salivating to an extent generally deemed socially inappropriate. Could the Shins do it again? Create another album that would reinvent itself from the last while still sustaining the essence of their music that delights their loyal fans? Or would they revert to repetition, offer up merely a replicate of Chutes Too Narrow and cower shamefully under the damning eyes of NME, Pitchfork and all the other taste-makers so critical over any band's third attempt at a full length.

But worry not, O ye of little faith. Worry not. Doubt not the magnificence that is the Shins. Sub Pop Records deserve none of your unfounded skepticism. Cast aside your irrational doubts and rest comforted in the knowledge that both band and label have proved again entirely unable of publishing anything worthy of complaint.

Yes folks, I'm happy to report that Wincing The Night Away was no disappointment - rather, it cast a deliciously warm and reassuring glow on my entire weekend which will be sure to continue. Following the thoughtful opener, the second track 'Australia' will throw you right back into the delightfully childlike arms of Chutes Too Narrow and Oh! Inverted World - and from there until the close, with one or two exceptions, all you'll really feel like doing is riding a bicycle in the sun. With your best friend and an ice block. It's a tandem bicycle, and you're barefoot and everything...

This album offers those characteristic suspended melodies that twist and turn unpredictably, while still retaining that Shins-esque simplicity: long term fans will not be disappointed. But while tracks like 'Phantom Limb' and 'Australia' could sit comfortably on either of the previous full length albums, the Shins have yet again upped the production and sound engineering. Synths, distortions and lo-fi effects are present throughout - and on the odd occasion they even get a little funky. No, seriously.

Perhaps the most profound display of development in the band lies in the unexpected moodiness of Wincing. 'Black Wave' has a hollow mystery both lyrically and melodically, as though it was written and recorded atop an old and empty lighthouse - miles away from anything cute and/or pastel. The darker, deeper sound of 'A Comet Appears' - my favourite track - finishes the album off with lyrics like "Lets carve my aging face off/ fetch us a knife, start with my eyes/ down so the lines form a grimacing smile". Mercer? Is that YOU?

And for those playing at home, I predict 'Sea Legs' as a forecast of where the band intends to go from here - there's strings, there's windpipes and there's that eerie depth you won't find as much of in the previous albums, with the intricate structure of the song well complemented by the typically convoluted lyrics.

Wincing comes out in January next year. Yeah, it's been leaked all over the web. But don't steal it. Worth the wait.

MP3:| The Shins - Phantom Limb (off Subpop website) Thanks Oz!

myspace:| The Shins

website:| The Shins

Portland, USA


MP3: The Minders - Don't Stop
MP3: Elliot Smith - Hooray For Tuesday (The Minders Cover)
myspace: The Minders

Sydney, Australia



MP3: Minder - Closure
myspace: Minder

Labels: Minder, Sydney

The Gaelic Club, Sydney

AM Eyewear threw a delightful end of year bash at the Gaelic Club for all who could bear to line up for an hour (and this was a fashion party so "ugh. Let's go. I don't do queues" was pretty much the catch-cry of the evening.)

The night began with the hot hot hooks of NZ fourpiece Shaky Hands who showed off their EP, and let loose on a couple of new tracks too. Their music is always fun, accessible and thoroughly delectable, and the boys never fail to offer a tight live sound. Yet in front of such a small and nonchalant crowd still warming up, the overexcited antics characteristic of frontman Nick Johnston seemed a little out of place. Bounding from speakers to the balcony and landing on the loft above the stage, he hurled down the mic (was he aiming for the drummer?) after only a few songs, breaking it and leaving the bassist without a voice for the rest of the set. An engaging lead singer is great, but over-the-top stage crashing kinda only works on Craig Nicholls - and even then it can get a little irritating.

MP3: Shaky Hands - You And I

Still, the music had an infectious energy, and by the time the Temper Trap came on the party goers were more than ready for a dance - and the Melbournians didn't disappoint. The EP they launched last week is a fun-packed mix of genre- defying goodness, but heavily tipped towards the toe-tapping pop rock that's all the rage with kids these days. Their live set showed off their other side that, rather than clean and catchy hooks, revels in a heavier, deeper and almost experimental sound. It's a sound which, thanks in no small part to Dougie's gripping vocals, has far more to do with Arcade Fire or Mars Volta than their EP suggests. It's this well-executed genre leaping that's sure to take these guys further than the rest.

Had Temper Trap headlined, the night would have ended on a supurb note - but the party was closed instead by electroclash duo The Death Set who released a pretty quality EP in 2005, but live seemed to be trying to do too much with too little. The result was a messy concoction that failed to captivate most of the crowd, despite their being plied with the disturbingly-flavoured free drinks on offer throughout the evening.

Photo Gallery

Labels: Cut Off Your Hands, NZ, The Death Set, The Temper Trap

Apologies, but we're all still suffering from writers block after too many beers on Thursday night. Seeing as its a week to summer, I thought I'd stick up an old post to inspire you all to grab a towel and hit the beach. Tamarama. 2 o'clock.

Sydney, Australia
I'd been told about Suite505 once or twice, briefly. I knew it was in Surrey Hills. It turned out harder to find than a burrito in Burma. After braving a rustic elevator and following a maze of corridors I got there. A funky warehouse studio with beanbags, Chinese lanterns, posters, a band, and more feng shui than you could poke a stick of incense at.

Nestled amongst the jungle in the corner, was the stage. It was packed with brass and strings. I remember looking around at the mixed bag that was the audience. Punks, suits, indie kids, jazz cats, glams, rastas..... and me.
On every face, a smile. A big fuck'n smile.

Resurrectors are a nine piece dub reggae group with members from all over the world, but based in Sydney. And their vibe hit me like that first icy cold Ribena on a summers day. I don't think there is any way to pay justice to their live show. It's understated, flawlessly rehearsed and simply emanating contentment. I figure they're just a bunch of people that love music and are kind enough to let punters sit around and listen to them jam.

Here's some songs off their album Healing. The last track had everyone up skankin' their shizz!

MP3:| Resurrectors - Deep
MP3:| Resurrectors - Let Rhythms Flow
MP3:| Resurrectors - Rasta Live
myspace:| Resurrectors

Adelaide, South Australia

Labels: Adelaide, Bird Automatic, Dance With Voices, Fire Santa Rosa Fire, Marching Room, Papa vs Pretty, Tokyo Blonde

Candy's Apartment, Sydney
There's a good feeling in the air back at the Sandwich Clubhouse. Another month has ticked on by and tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary of the Sandwich Club show down at Candy's Apartment. In preparation, I've been sitting here enjoying a few tunes while I work (doing online crosswords.. damn cryptic).
It's only just grasped me about the calibre of acts we have on show for tomorrow night.

Marching Room, one of Sydney's biggest up and comers, playing their much anticipated EP launch, Run Rabbit Run.
Marching Room - Knee Jerk Reaction.mp3
MySpace

Tokyo Blonde who has just floored me and my colleagues - crisp chick rock similar to Metric - I am salivating all over my keyboard.
Tokyo Blonde - Megalomaniac.mp3
MySpace

The dreamy Bird Automatic are also in. Their recent EP release, Comfortably Optimistic, is not short of incredible and is one of my favourites of this year.
Bird Automatic - Comfortably Optimistic.mp3
MySpace

Back that all up with electro rockers Dance With Voices who've just finished their whirlwind tour with UK band Infadels. Their music is awesome and it won't be long till they're joining the ranks with fellow Melbournites Midnight Juggernauts as one of Australia's best electronic exports.
Dance With Voices - Send My Regards To The Lonely Nightlife.mp3
MySpace

For dessert we have Blank DJ's. They played last time but we just had to have them back. Anyone who can keep people dancing till 4am on a Thursday night are very special indeed. I blame them for calling into work that Friday drunk. Not sick. Drunk.

THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER
CANDY'S APT.
KINGS CROSS, SYDNEY
$10

Labels: Bird Automatic, Dance With Voices, Marching Room, Tokyo Blonde

After rudely assaulting me yesterday with their virtual taser gun, I think the blogger police just sampled way too much of some illegal drug intercepted on some cargo ship in the world wide waters. They've decided to stream a new Bloc Party song. Not that I would condone the use of illicit drugs or the listening of new Bloc Party songs (cos the new album sux), but you're all adults and I trust you'll listen responsibly...

Bloc Party - The Prayer (Tight-arse Stream only)

And here's a short interview with Kele Okokookoo (I think he's on the same drugs as the blogger police)

Bloc Party - inane rambling by Kele Okokookoo.mp3

ps. check out this Ben Folds stunt. It's a corker.

Labels: Bloc Party, Tom

Berkeley, California
RL Burnside with Lyrics Born - Going Down South.mp3
Lyrics Born - Callin' Out (IronE remix).mp3 (winner of Triple J remix comp)
MySpace

Labels: Jack Ladder

Perth, Australia
Love was a battlefield For Pat Benetar, love was a bitch for cranky Spanish chick-rockers Dover, and a living Hell for poor old Ryan Adams.
But for most of us, love is far from a tragedy. Alannah Myles reassures us that love is what you want it to be. It can be in the air, in your fingers and your bones, or in the back seat of your cadillac. It can be kisses in a bean bag chair, a dick in your head, or something you smoke. Love can be your religion, love can be your oxygen, or, as one young record label proclaims, love can be that mammalian drive that determines our every move. Love is our velocity.

Holding hands with not one, but four of Australia's best emerging artists, it wasn't long before I fell head-over-heels for this pretty young indie label out of Perth. Love is My Velocity are unpretentious indie specialists who rise above the image consciousness of other fad labels, and rather focus their attention on the music itself, and the love this inspires. With 2 cracker 7-inch releases under their belt, Im expecting big things from these tastemakers when they release split-single #3!

The birds do it, the bees do it, even educated fleas do it. So let's do it, let's fall in love...

Institut Ploaire - Mamonaku
The Bank Holidays - Tread Easy
Airport City Shuffle - Dive In (Weed File)
Tucker B's - The Turning
more info

London, UK
A little birdy shat in my lap the other day. It was the new Bloc Party album. I now know why the band released a remix tape - because they've struggled to write any good new songs. Silent Alarm was such an impressive debut that it was always going to be hard for them to escape the dreaded "sophomore curse". Weekends In The City is an embarrassment on par with Gwyneth Paltrow's duet with Huey Lewis. I reluctantly salvaged these two tracks from my trash can, the best of a disappointingly bad bunch...

Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
Bloc Party - Uniform
(sorry, but the blogger police pulled their virtual taser guns on us!)

so here's a few more songs about that profound feeling of tender affection:
Love Is All - Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up
McLusky - To Hell With Good Intentions
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
Cody ChestnuTT - Smoke & Love
Nikola Sarcevic - Love Trap

Labels: Airport City Shuffle, Institut Polaire, Love Is My Velocity, The Bank Holidays, Tom, Tucker B's

Because it's Saturday....

Architecture In Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind (Hot Chip Remix).mp3
Midnight Juggernauts - Devil Within (Presets Remix).mp3
Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends.mp3
Brazilian Girls - Jique (MSTRKRFT remix).mp3
Ladytron vs Johnny Cash - Man Comes Around In Blue Jeans.mp3
Modest Mouse - Bukowski (Congleton & Godbey remix).mp3
Tom Vek - Nothing But Green Lights (Digitalism remix).mp3
The Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control (Soulwax Remix).mp3

Labels: Architecture In Helsinki

Sandwichville, Sydney

Labels: Bird Automatic, Dance With Voices, Marching Room, Tokyo Blonde

Adelaide, South Australia,
I love how our surroundings dictate our daily movements. Suffice to say that it dictates our musical 'flavas' too. Well this little piggy anyway. In my desperation to escape the Sydney ice age I moved to my secret stash of Irish whiskey tunes locked safely in my redwood iTunes box. With a quick shot of No Through Road's album "Lo-Fi Sandwich" I was wrapped up in a flannelette blanket of lulling guitar hooks, vocal distortions and lo-fi beats. I was rosey cheeked and cheerful as the harsh whispy cold was turned away at my front door probably to find some other poor soul clutching at the pinboard fabric of their cubicle for insulation. Having just completed their latest album launch for "Too Much or Not Enough" in the company of bands such as Batrider, Richard in Your Mind and The Desks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this 6 piece should be whispering in everyones ears in the near future.

No Through Road - Girl.mp3
No Through Road "Lo-fi Sandwich" Internet Album
No Through Road website
No Through Road myspace

Brooklyn, NYC
Making short work of the winding road to popularity The Muggabears have just recently become one of my most frequently gnawed at tidbits. Each tune has its own rant matched only by Bright Eyes' best. It sounds like an accolade well beyond this little known 3 piece but place some faith in "Married to the Moon" and all your comparison qualms will be quashed.
The Muggabears - Maried to the Moon.mp3
The Muggabears website

Labels: No Through Road

Thursday 16th November
with Dance With Voices + Flamingo Crash + Banshee
The Zoo, Brisbane
$39 + bf (buy here)

Friday 17th November
with Dance With Voices + Moscow Schoolboy + Banshee
The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
$38 + bf (buy here)

Saturday 18th November
with Dance With Voices + The Ghosts + Banshee
Gaelic Theatre, Sydney
$37 + bf (buy here)

Infadels - Love Like Semtex.mp3
Infadels - Steady As She Goes (Raconteur's Cover).mp3 (Highly Recommended)
MySpace

I have invented a new word - or rather, an art form. I call it "promastication". It's a portmanteau of "procrastination" and everyone's favourite sounds-dirty-but-it's-not synonym for chewing, and it means "the practice of eating when one should be working". I have just now decided that the art of promastication also involves the consumption of huge amounts of tasty new tunes. I have realised in horror that I have not actually posted for weeks, for which I will blame the fact that uni has eaten my soul. But I have managed to nibble on some damn delicious little sambos in this time of trial - including the squee-worthy, long-awaited goodness of the new Red Riders album, Replica Replica, which you can buy here.



Sydney, Australia
I have ranted before about the injustices of demos that don't, um, do justice to the sound of a really great band. So I won't bore you again. Instead, I will tell you some things that do not bore me about Bird Automatic:
1) The fact that in the space of the three songs that constitute their Comfortably Optimistic EP, they manage to segue from a sweetly sad pop song to the synthy, darker goodness of "Wake Up", reminding me by turns of Gersey, The Stills, and a less oblique Album Leaf, and still sound like themselves.
2) How unabashedly sweet "Comfortably Optimistic" is. Boys (that is, the ones with any kind of self-awareness) just do not write enough sugar into their songs these days. They're all terrified of being chucked in the Keane box, so they temper the sweet with existential pain, or convoluted quirk. But here it's like an extra half-teaspoon of CSR in your tea - at first you notice it's a little more than you normally like, but after just a couple of sips you're taken back to your younger days when you used to have, like five spoons. In your Nesquik. And you never, ever got cavities. Because everything was always OK! Mmmm. Sugar.
3) The way "Wake Up" sounds like the beginning half of Tunng's Bloc Party cover, "Pioneers", (you know, before it descends into that weird twangy shit). I love the sample-y vocal bits, the buzzy darkness and the way the guitar buggers off into the gloom and then wanders back, muttering.
4) The feeling I get that Bird Automatic will do some very cool things to these already-very-cool tunes in their live show. And the premonition I have that said live show is coming soon to an apartment near you... Ahem.

Bird Automatic - Comfortably Optimistic.mp3
Bird Automatic - Wake Up.mp3
MySpace



Somewhere in Scandinavia
I adore "Young Folks". How could you not? It's so freakin' cute, it's like the aural equivalent of that big-eyed look Puss In Boots pulls in Shrek 2. But it's a delicate little wisp of a song, with Victoria's voice sounding like it's about to break in half, and you don't feel like you can do anything more robust than whistling along with that pre-school spaghetti-western twinkle. If you want to just go nuts, this is your song. If Belle & Sebastian put down their books and went for a breezy summer drive in a bright-blue convertible, just to show their ex how much FUN they're having without them, this would be the soundtrack. The little piano, the big and irresistible "WOO HOO!"s, and an earwormy guitar that's like the twee equivalent of the one from Moloko's "The Time Is Now" - try and listen with a straight face. (I kiss the impeccably shod feet of The Rich Girls Are Weeping for bringing this to my attention.)

Deportees - Missing You, Missing Me.mp3
MySpace

Labels: Bird Automatic

Monica of now defunct K-Baby Mag, recently rolled out to the Big Orient. She discovered that even when free speech can be supressed, guitars can't. Have a read and a listen.

Beijing, China
I take pride in being able to suss out a country's music scene. Don't get me wrong, my trip to China was all about deserts and ding-dong noodle and bicycles and spitting and traffic and hutongs. But in Beijing I also took a quick detour into China's small but stellar music world.

Through the power of MySpace I managed to find out about a night proclaiming the bands on their bill as "Beijing's best indie rock." In a city of 15 million that might seem like a bold statement, but then again indie rock tends to be a weedy white man's game so the scene isn't so big in the East (apparently heavy metal is, however, popular here.)

Next time you're in Beijing be sure to head to the club D-22, a narrow shoebox sort of place in the university district. First on stage Cars Sick Cars: two boys and a chick drummer who play serious and sound solemn with lots of extended instrumentals. I'm sorry not to be able to bring you a link for Houhai Sharks because these kids knew how to do indie-pop to a tee. The night was rounded up by China's Queens of Rock, Hang On The Box, who have been around for a good many years now. The music they showcased shows just how far they've moved from the garage rock sounds of their early days to the more experimental, post-punk sounds they're playing with now. Imagine E.S.G. having just listened to some early Sonic Youth.

Xiexie and Zaijian!

Cars Sick Cars - Zhong Nan Hai.mp3
mypace

Hang On The Box - Shanghai.mp3
myspace

This tasty sandwich by K-Baby!

Delaware, United States
There are three types of people in the world. Those that own 'The Wrens - The Meadowlands', those that wish they did, and those who don't have a fucking clue what I'm talking about. For the best part of my life I was in the third group. Just over two years ago I joined the second group. It is with tears in my eyes that I can proudly say I will soon own a copy of the aforementioned album. Many thanks to our friends at Etch'n'Sketch who have finally given it an Australian release.

The Wrens are a 5 piece US indie rock outfit who have done it tough. They average out at about 38years old these days. The Meadowlands album was released in 2003, 7 years after their previous album. It was recorded in a band-member's dining room and only 2000 copies were pressed at the time. They may have underestimated slightly. It has gone on to become one of the indie classics of this decade, and a personal favourite of SCLUB. This album has no filler, it is a must own. But then I'm a fan. If you take Pitchfork's opinions more seriously than mine, then check this out: Wrens Review

That's right. Nine point five.
If Jesus teamed up with David Copperfield, he would have trouble beating that.

The Wrens - Happy.mp3
The Wrens - She Sends Kisses.mp3
The Wrens - Ex-Girl Collection.mp3
myspace

Keep an eye out for a doco being shot on the band.

No Through Road - Stand Up Bob Dylan, You're A Star.mp3 (Highly Recommended)
No Through Road - Die For Something.mp3
No Through Road - Heya (Outkast Cover).mp3


London, England & Brooklyn, USA

Pipas - Riff Raff.mp3 (Highly Recommended)
Pipas - Wells Street.mp3
MySpace

Labels: No Through Road

Labels: Perth, The Wednesday Society

Labels: Perth, The Dee Dee Dums

Simian - La Breeze.mp3 (Highly Recommended)
Simian - Never Be Alone.mp3
Website

Also I just saw this video of The Vines recorded back in 2003 on UK show Jools Holland. Awesome performance that gets looser and looser. Watch the whole thing and you'll know what I mean. I am now of the opinion that The Vines are Australia's best music export - They should get ARIA awards every year, forever.
Rock. On.

The Vines - Outtathaway! (Live Jools Holland) Video

MySpace

Labels: Simian, The Vines

Labels: The Blow

Labels: Dardanelles, Kids From Russia, Tic Toc Tokyo

Labels: Opanoni And The Raindrops, Sydney

Actually he probably deserved it.

Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy) once sang that music is the 'soundtrack to life' so if I was ever to find a soundtrack to hateful vendettas I would have to go no further than New Zealand band Die! Die! Die! (three times a charm).

Yeah this band kind of puts me on edge a bit. I'm thinking Wolf & Cub albeit a nasty Wolf & Cub... must be because they come from New Zealand. Add a bit of Test Icicles too... It's great stuff though. Lots of high pitched guitar riffs, fast paced drum beats justs makes you want to well, fuck something up! (Come on, we all have a penchant for aggression sometimes).

These dudes are heading out to play a few dates in Oz soon. They're bloody awesome and the fact they made this year's Homebake bill means they're awesome enough to be called Australian! (that was the last of the New Zealand jokes)

Dates in Australia:
Nov 30 2006; The Shamrock Hotel; Brisbane
Dec 2 2006; HOMEBAKE FESTIVAL; Sydney
Dec 8 2006; Cambridge Hotel; Newcastle
Dec 9 2006 Spectrum; Sydney
Dec 16 2006 Bootleg at Geddes Lane; Melbourne

Die! Die! Die! - 155.mp3
Die! Die! Die! - Year Nine Yeah.mp3
MySpace

And on the subject of New Zealand bands, if you're in Sydney tomorrow night, make sure you check out Shaky Hands at Spectrum they're the biggest thing to come out of NZ since Jonah Lomu's infected kidneys (I lied).

Shaky Hands - You and I.mp3
Previous Post
MySpace

Labels: Cut Off Your Hands, Die Die Die