Lost AT E Minor

The Woods Themselves

There’s an early Split Enz feel about the music of Sydney indie rock band, The Woods Themselves. It’s particularly evident in the double-tracked vocals and the offbeat arrangements that the group employ. So we checked in with frontman Davey Cotsios and asked if the legendary New Zealand outfit were an influence?
 ‘That’s so insane it’s brilliant! Had you have said Crowded House, then we’d have some real beef. Seriously, I’d find you and punish you. I really do dig Split Enz, but I can’t say I’ve ever had them close in mind, and I’ve never looked to them for guidance. My buddy Danno – he lived below me years back – gave me this Enz record that we found in his mum’s attic. We’d get messed up on Tuesday nights and jam it. That Leaky Boat song was a favourite. We thought we heard the guy across the street beating on his woman one time while we were jamming that Leaky Boat song. We watched the cops arrive and she denied it in tears from the front door. We kicked his motorbike over later. Just to be sure, you know. Bad neighbourhood man’. The Woods Themselves’ album, (C’Mon) Do The Beach Thing, is out now on Understandation through Inertia.

Download their track, Groove Wind

The Grates: an ongoing diary by Patience

We love Australian band The Grates. So much so that we asked their frontwoman Patience to write an exclusive diary for Lost At E Minor over the next week, giving us the inside word on what the band are up to. We’ll run a new posting from it each day. This is her entry from last Saturday: ‘Today nothing happened. Actually, that’s not true. Today by sheer coincidence we all went and saw Batman independently. Awesome. So good. Don’t see Batman because you want to, see it because you need to. I don’t care what you think, just see it. Spend your money. At the very least it will give you something to debate with your friends about. This is something we do all the time at Grates headquarters. It’s a fun way to find out more about your friends and also solidify your own opinions. Who knows when your already explored opinion on weather it’s okay to kick a robot dog will be challenged. Trust me, something like this will one day happen to you and if you take part in regular debates with friends you will be more than able to cope with the situation’.

Listen to The Grates track, Sukkafish.

The Paper Scissors’ play The Bandit

Sydney indie heroes (in the nicest possible way), The Paper Scissors (TPS to those that know the secret handshake) have made a video for their new single, The Bandit. And it’s good. Damn good.

Urs Fischer’s installations

New York and Zurich-based artist Urs Fischer’s entropic sculptures and installations blows apart people’s expectations of what to expect at a gallery. Last year’s installation, You, at Gavin Brown was a 38-foot-by-30-foot crater dug into the gallery floor. His huge, ambitious works seem frantic and impulsive despite the immense planning and meticulous execution they often require. His mockery of physics, and the enormous scale and shock-and-awe quality of his work suggest the god-like potency of an artist, at least within a gallery space. Read more

Paper Water Bottle

Design company BrandImage has just come out with their line of paper water bottles made out of renewable resources. The bottles themselves are recyclable, and while not as reusable as a plastic bottle, can still be reused a few times. These are cool designs, even if they still pander to our on-the-go, single-serving, throw-away culture. Their environmental friendliness is also dubious, considering most people will still choose to throw these things in the trash rather than taking the time to find a recycling bin.

Faith No More reunion

Very few band reunions get me excited, but I’ve consistently loved Faith No More since I was 13. I loved their pre-Mike Patton era, I loved King for a Day, and I even loved their track with Boo Yah Tribe on the Judgment Night soundtrack. Kerrang recently hinted that a FNM reformation is in the works for ‘09, and though bassist Billy Gould has emphatically denied the rumors, the general consensus is that the reunion is on.