Posts tagged with Melbourne bands
May 6, 2009 | New Music | 
by Xavier Toby |
No gimmicks, no explosions, no hundred-dollar haircuts. I first saw The Drones in a gritty Melbourne venue about six years ago and they played to only twenty people. They were amazing then and they play with the same intensity and vigor now. The best musicians play for themselves, not the audience and that’s exactly how The Drones do it. Their music is so full of emotion that it can be intimidating.
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May 5, 2009 | New Music | by Xavier Toby |
Some bands never get the respect nor the notoriety they deserve. Last year, The Supporters released a full-length album and, very quietly, it collected a swag of rave reviews. Then whenever they played gigs, they blew away whoever had the good sense to show up. Today they still play criminally small venues, and they are still totally under-appreciated. If fast, uncompromising Aussie rock is your thing, The Supporters are your band. It doesn’t come any grittier and satisfying than this.
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December 16, 2008 | New Music | 
by Huna Amweero |
It’s hard to find a misstep on the full-length debut from Melbourne band, Children Collide. The Long Now doesn’t sound like a first album: its mature, yet completely varied sound and lyrical concept makes it feel like something you’d expect from a band on their third or fourth album (you know, after the ‘cursed’ second album). Children Collide are most definitely in control, something that could have been lost while working with big-name producer, Dave Sardy. It’s rare that you pick up a CD and feel like the band has decided on everything, right down to the artwork that encases their killer album. We threw guitarist-singer Johnny Mackay a few questions about how they managed to wrap everything up in such a … errr … tight little package. Read more
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November 19, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Zolton |
A little while back, we ran a week long diary from Australian pop band, The Grates. It was kinda to get a window into the world. Hell, voyeurism is the new black. So we asked Melbourne-based rock band, The Basics, to do the same thing as they bring their music to the deepest reaches of Australia’s Northern Territory. These are the words of bassist and vocalist, Kris Schroeder: ‘Friday November 7. Darwin. It’s a weird old joint this one — I can probably compare it closest to Queensland’s Cairns, with the backpacker industry making up the life and character of the Central Business District. This makes it particularly good for bands, as you’ve got a ready audience staying only metres away from the music venues. Today was our first Darwin gig (at Monsoons), and it was a ripper. I’d organised with my mate Nathan to bring up the Sunshine Reggae Band from Ikuntji in the Western Desert, and they were going to be the first Indigenous band to play in the main street of Darwin, which is apparently quite a cultural breakthrough. The best bit was how well received they were, someone saying “This is great, because it’s what you should expect to see in Darwin, not just bloody cover bands all the time.” Quite chuffed. By the time we played it was packed out, and everyone was loving it. Job done’. Read more
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September 18, 2008 | New Music | by Huna Amweero 
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Last week when the 2008 ARIA nominations were released, I was so happy to see the recognition of Melbourne’s Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Their album Primary Colours is pure, unadulterated Aussie rock, standing out from the numerous electro releases we’ve had this year. The band manages to capture that wonderful pub-vibe without any pretension or tragic nostalgia. Primary Colours speaks to people who still seek an existence that is all about wearing ripped jeans, loitering and punching people in the face … not in a violent way, but because your fist flailed in that direction while you were thrashing around front of stage.
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September 2, 2008 | Video | 
by Huna Amweero |
This is the first video from the debut LP of Melbournites Little Red. Witchdoctor has a fantastic old school feel, with its barbershop vocals and 60s pop sensibilities and collar-shirted young men. It’s funny how a video featuring beautifully delinquent young women appeals to the small part of me that is still somewhat wholesome. I’m anticipating huge things for this band.
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April 11, 2008 | New Music | by Stuart McPhee |
Every artist has a selling point, from Pete Doherty (smackhead) to 50 Cent (bullet-proof) and even Train (blandness). What separates them from the William Hung’s of this world is that their shtick does not outweigh their abilities as artists. Read more
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March 27, 2008 | New Music | by Zolton |
Melbourne’s Cut Copy is the hottest electro act out of Australia right now. We spoke to Mitchell Scott from the group to get the lowdown on their musical highground. Long live the 80s huh! Where would we be without fluro colours, synths and poppy chorus hooks. Any oft-neglected trend from that decade you think should be brought back in? ‘Polystyrene packaging, smoking on planes, slap bracelets, wearing just one glove, Ghostbusters’. Read more
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It’s Theme Friday on the Feature Shoot photo blog. The subject matter? Snapped! Photos of people taking photos. Clever. Read more
The work of Australia’s Ben Frost is always interesting. He’s known for his controversial art juxtapositions that confront contemporary Western paradigms in our advertising obsessed society. Crapitalism is on display until November 3 at Opus Gallery in Newcastle, UK. I do hope any disgruntled viewers refrain themselves from slashing his work with a knife, unlike the infamous 2000 Australian episode.
Ben Lee upped the label a while back, but Band of Outsiders is still probably the best label you’ve never heard of. Read more
So I have this recurring dream. Well, not really a dream as such. More a footnote on the thesis on life; a ‘mental meandering’ where my mind flows to a secret place which only I and Paul McCartney can access. Read more
San Francisco-based illustrator Luke Feldman has just had his first children’s book published, Chaff n’ Skaffs: Mai and the Lost Moskivvy, a collaboration with writer Amanda Chin. The book artfully tells the story of Mai, ‘a young girl who never ventured too far from her home. When a lost mosquito interrupts Mai’s sleep, her friend Chaff suggests they escort Moskivvy back home to a faraway land. So begins a courageous girl’s voyage into a fantastic world’, all communicated beautifully through Feldman’s colorful, dynamic and considered illustrations. Read more
I ran a series of 80s nights in New York last year — showing cult 80s movies and playing classic cuts from that era of kitsch and spice — purely so I could spin After The Fire’s Der Kommissar over and over. Yessir, this was the future of music in 1983. Pity no one was listening.
Music isn’t necessarily a serious venture. It’s almost funny when you find some you know will grate to dust the stiff upper lipped critics of the world. Every now and then I like the type of sound that hops around the edge of your ears without working its way into your brain and messing up the seratonin levels. And Californian 16-piece tropical-ska-pop group, Still Flyin’, do just that for me. It’s a good laugh, quite catchy, and an awesome live experience so I’m told: especially with the sun out, a can of cider in your hand and a bunch of grinning faces skanking around you.
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Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
From this artist selection of t-shirts comes this Christina Koustospirou illustration, silkscreened on a limited edition t-shirt, and distributed in a vinyl sleeve, with a biography of the artist on the back of the sleeve. Every t-shirt is numbered and signed by the artist, and comes in organic cotton. Read more
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