Melbourne-based five piece Pourparlour have pulled together a riotous self-titled debut EP. Between blistering guitar solos and a bold, defined sound (recorded and mixed by Matt D’Arcy at Sing Sing and Basin Studios, and mastered by Crystal Mastering) the four-track is well worth your attention. This is smart pop. It is rhythmic, playful, melodic and damn catchy.

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Need some haunting soul in your rock? Some sexy swagger in your blues? And some excellent lyrics to go along with your psychadelic tunes? Look no further than the riffs and licks of Melbourne’s Gruntbucket. Songs From An Empty Room will pick you up by your scruff and lay you back down ever so gently.

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This Melbourne based band is blowing up right now. Willow Beats’ track, From Under the Ground, has been featured on Triple J Unearthed and is reminiscent of Gershon Kingsley’s early electronic pop song, The Popcorn Song, which was released in 1969. By contrast, the Willow Beats’ track is fresh, new, and so 2012.

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This clever clip for Australian singer-songwriter Whitley’s single, Killer, was directed by Steve Baker and stars Whitley in a 2D murder mystery.

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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.
[audio:http://www.marsneedsguitars.com/mp3_april_2009/New_Listening/07%20Cold%20And%20Sober.mp3]

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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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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.

You seemed to have focused a whole lot of genres, into one clean tight sound. Is that something you guys have honed over the last few years?
‘Well, I’d say it’s more a result of us being people who appreciate a lot of different types of music. We get bored if songs sound too similar and prefer the sound of our instruments to be more what connects the songs rather than their style. Clean and tight? Sometimes I guess’.

Were you waiting to get to a certain point with your sound before you took the plunge to record the album?
‘Not really. Our sound goes out in all kinds of directions and there are songs on this record that we have played from our first gig along with songs that were written more than three years later. I would have been happy to record an album with the first twelve songs we ever wrote but that didn’t happen. Now we’ve written probably about 80 and have demo’d more than 60 of those. There’s no clear evolution in our sound, only an increasingly varied dynamism. Well, that’s my hope anyway’.

Lyrically, the album navigates quite a bleak social landscape. Where does this ‘end of the world’ inspiration come from?
‘It’s probably my way of accepting the mortality of all things. Or taking mortality to a macro level. Lyrically I often theorise and question rather than make statements, so a lot of it just me dreaming up an abstract “what if” rather than a cynical diss on the state of the planet’.

The silver-moon-scratch-panel on my copy of the album revealed the Earth, what are the other possible versions?
‘One is a clock, which mysteriously points to just after eleven minutes past ten. A crazy, unintentional coincidence with the date we released 11/10. The other is the Voyager gold record. When they sent out the Voyager spacecraft in the 70s they included a record that contained images and sounds from earth in case any aliens found it I guess. It also has a diagram depicting the location of earth’.

How does it relate to the album?
‘Well, I tend to write a lot of lyrics that allude to concepts of space and time in different ways. The images probably relate to the title more actually, which, in turn, relates to the songs’.

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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’.

Saturday November 8/strong>
‘A stinker of a day, humidity was the highest in the few days we’d been there, and it was killing me. I spent the whole day either in the hotel room or by the pool. I think the worst thing about humidity is the way it just makes you not want to eat, and when you don’t eat you get sick, and then getting sick you feel even worse, and don’t feel like eating and so on… Anyway, we did our gig at the Happy Yess, which is a little not-for-profit music club which hosts mostly acoustic gigs and is licensed for about 55 people. Another great show it was, squashing 120 into the room, oh and the air-con was broken. The audience took it like champs anyway, and the Sunshine Reggae band were again really well received in the first acoustic show. We were met with some sweet relief later, and a change came through with rain just as we were singing “Hey Rain”, funnily enough. Must be something in that. Anyway, another ripper of a night and it was a great send-off for the Sunshine Reggae boys who were heading back home early the next morning’.

Sunday November 9
‘An interview at ABC Darwin had been organised late last night after the Happy Yess gig, and I’d sent the details through to Tim’s phone because he was staying with Marieke while she was up visiting. Of course, Tim’s phone mysteriously ran out of juice at some point and he didn’t get said message, and Marieke wasn’t answering her phone, so no Tim at the ABC. Nonetheless, Wally and I put on a stirling performance of a new song we finished writing in the Western Desert called “Fear of Failure”. First public airing, and it went off pretty well I think. The rest of the day was filled with bumming around the pool again, and later going to see my cousin Casey and his wife Ketsia and their two little cute kids, and that was just great. They’ve got 20 acres outside of Darwin, and they’re living it up on their tropical villa – very jealous. Wally was on a boat I think, Tim was with me. Great thunderstorm later that night, too.’

Monday November 10
‘Blog, blog, blog. Hmmm, what to say about today? Well I suppose I could go on about the gig we did at Katherine High School, but you know, that was just the usual – a bit of “what will they think of us” apprehension, setting up in the gym while there’s basketballs flying all over the place, playing and impressing the kids cos we are pretty damn good at what we do, then some awkward time spent talking to the kids about who we are and what we do and what it’s like being in a band. But I don’t feel like talking about that, so I’ll just say that we spent the rest of the day driving and crashing out in Daly Waters, a pub famous for all the junk people leave behind – bras, knickers, tshirts, ID cards, thongs. Too many Jamesons for me, and a drunken phonecall to an Irish girl I love, and then it was time for bed.’

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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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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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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. Melbourne’s Rudely Interrupted, a band whose members suffer from a range of intellectual disabilities, play a brand of Killers-esque pop is so catchy that you quickly leave your preconceptions at the door. You may also start to question your own potential in life.

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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’. Does Melbourne still have a dynamic creative scene? ‘I think it really does — there’s no shortage of people in Melbourne doing amazingly cool things creatively, whether it’s music, art, fashion, or design. There’s a lot going on. Also, for music, there are a million venues, so bands have places to play’. How was the album artwork conceptualised? ‘When we came to thinking about the album cover art, we wanted something photographic, rather than creating graphics. However, we also wanted something that was a bit colourful, a bit strange and that would be striking and interesting to look at. So we came up with the idea of photographing ourselves and then projecting the photos onto ourselves with colours and lights also projected. We ended up really pleased with the end result. And we’ve got some pretty cool plans for how the CD cover gets manufactured, which should be cool if it turns out how we hope’.

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