The Church’s Of Skins and Heart
The Church are a great Australian new wave band that were sadly overlooked in the rest of the world through much of their career. I’ve been listening to their first album, Of Skins and Heart, and it’s really an excellent collection of jangly, proto indie pop songs. There are some great, off-kilter harmonies and beats, but it stays cohesive, restrained, and really catchy. There’s a consistency on this record that their more famous contemporaries never attained, and there is definitely more to them than funny haircuts. Over the past quarter century, they’ve evolved through many different styles to varying degrees of success, but their first effort is definitely a cut above what most other people were doing at the time. If you like XTC or Echo and the Bunnymen, check these guys out.
Tagged: Australian bands, new wave bands, pop music
RELATED
Producing a string of international hits without releasing an album in the space of four years isn’t the norm for most artists. But Australian electro-pop outfit Miami Horror aren’t your average musicians playing by the rules. The band started off as a solo endeavour turned augmented four-piece live incarnation who incessantly test the boundaries of electro territory. I chatted with founding mastermind Benjamin Plant about their recently released debut album, Illumination Read more
The music behind the new Howling Bells album, Radio Wars
The last time I caught up with London-based, Australian band, Howling Bells, was in New York in early 2007 when they played a show at one of the many seedy Lower East Side bars. Since then, they’ve recorded a new album, the aptly named Radio Wars [listen to their song, Treasure Hunt, below], a remarkable follow-up to their 2006 self-titled debut. I checked in with guitarist Joel Stein to find out what music the four-piece had been listening to around the time the album was written: ‘The Byrds’ Eight Miles High always sounds so futuristic to me. It has one of the best guitar sounds ever and really moves me with its color and power. Every time I hear the Tortoise track, I Set My Face to the Hillside, I instantly get transported to the ocean. Beautiful! Joy Division’s Isolation is incredible. I love the intro keyboard riff, in particular (the keyboard was self-built). It expresses urgency and truth. And then there’s Neu!’s Hallogallo, a truly inspiring instrumental track that I always want to go on for longer. Its fuzzy guitars are so warm and vibrant. Perfect!’ Read frontwoman Juanita Stein’s Playlist of inspiring songs.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Oh boy, this song reminds me of the misspent years of my early-twenties, living large within the cloistered, sweltering surrounds of Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Marvin The Album was a typical Saturday morning soundtrack, a bouncy kickstart to the weekend ahead, as I dusted off the mental cobwebs from the night before and looked out over my balcony onto this vast beckoning expanse of sun-kissed sand. Yes, beam me back Scotty! To those days of relative innocence, where the subtle swing of a feel-good song was only ever a couple of hotsteps away. Frente! were like the icing on a lush chocolate cupcake: a little sweet, kind of gooey, but always concealing something a little darker just beneath the surface.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Also by GERRY MAK
Anatomical cross-sections made from Japanese tissue paper
Lisa Nilsson’s Tissue Series consists of anatomical cross-sections made from Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. Read more
Designed by Patrick Jouffret of French design studion agency 360, this unisex bicycle helmet folds up into a compact shape small enough to fit in your purse or backpack, so you’re not left wondering what to do with it after you’ve locked up your bike.
Millennium Falcon fort built for young leukemia patient
Christian, a nine-year-old leukemia patient, wished for a backyard fort shaped like the Millennium Falcon. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted his wish. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
When photographer Sasu Tei and his team showed us their images created as an expression of their ongoing fears for the future after the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and subsequent radiation meltdown, we loved them. But we also thought it would be interesting to ask the four artists to give us some personal thoughts on their experience, on their ongoing anxieties and their thoughts for the future. [Read these interviews on Flux here] Read more
Sometimes the Deviant Art community throws up a gem of a piece. And this one by Papa Ninja is a star. Somehow it’s funny, sexy, and artistically compelling at the same time. Or perhaps that’s just because I’m two hours into the day and haven’t had a coffee yet.
Produced by our talented friends over at Miami-based studio, Common Machine, this is the first installment of a new bi-monthly series of exclusive Lost At E Minor videos that they will be putting together for us. This one is on marionette maker, Pablo Cano, who uses ‘mundane objects to create magic on a string’. And he does. We hope you enjoy!
71 is the kind of place which is small enough to miss, but once you see it, you realize everyone somehow knows about it. It’s set three steps down from the sidewalk level, and it’s always packed, except for week late nights and mid-mornings. Even though their service is not the friendliest — like any other spot in New York that’s too cool for school — 71 has a noticeably loyal clientele. Lots of writers hang out with their computers, while photographers check out the scene, and artists meet up with their reps. Besides hot and cold drinks, including their own coffee, they also offer a great selection of pastries, sandwiches and my friend Nicolas’ favorite chicken soup ever.
Nineteen pages of a Tumblr treat. Personal Awesome People Hanging Out Together highlights include Karl Lagerfeld and Grace Coddington in 1974. Read more
Not all dark, epic music has to be harsh. British songstress Rose Kemp builds operatic folk tunes that crescendo from acoustic, string-infused atmospherics into menacing, down-tuned heaviness, drawing as much from Neurosis as she does from PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, and even Massive Attack. Read more
Bikes, text messages, objects found in her apartment … there seems to be nothing that artist Olek can’t crochet. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Honest Food Preparation Instructions
Yes, we’ve all been there: the chinese food from last week that still looks edible amongst the bare surrounds of an empty fridge. But really, we shouldn’t. Just let it be. Or College Humor will expose you! Read more
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
Mathematics? Leave me out. Fashematics? Now you’re talking! This gem of a site is a runway equation that adds up to a whole lot of wonderful.
Made from 100 percent organic cotton and eco-friendly, this super soft tee celebrates a sinister world of kaleidoscopic colours and ripples of psychedelia, of serenading Queens, of dancing flamingos, of unimaginable euphoria. It’s all the work of Sydney label, Das Monk and it’s available through the Lost At E Minor online store for just US$40. Now, there’s one hell of a Christmas present, even if we do say so ourselves!
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it's not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
Nova said | 20 May, 2009
‘Heyday’ is my favorite Church album, and it has been on my top ten fav album/CD list since it came out.
I saw them at Rockefeller’s in Houston, Texas in the late 80′s – wonderful – small venue, got to say hello to them backstage. Big unrequited crush on Steve Kilby… life as it should be.
I would add that if you like echoing bell-like guitar and poetic lyrics you will like these guys