Wild Beasts | photo by Chris Familton
Wild Beasts | photo by Chris Familton
Black Lips | photo by Chris Familton
Black Lips | photo by Chris Familton
Black Lips | photo by Chris Familton
Building in Red | photo by Chris Familton
Clock Tower | photo by Chris Familton
Sydney’s Mark Moldre has followed up the Troubled Genius EP with another track from his forthcoming album The Waiting Room (out March 10).
In This Life is a gorgeous slice of sunny Americana pop in the vein of The Flaming Lips and with a subtle dash of Sparklehorse added to the mix. Moldre clearly relishes the challenge of where he can take his voice. On the single he heads for the clouds, straining with soaring melodies while on the single’s 2nd track – The Waiting Room – he opts for a settled and restrained lower register amble alongside some nice Neil Young styled harmonica.
All this adds to the expectation for the full length album which, if as consistent as these precursor releases, will be an assured collection of indie folk/pop songs.
Check out the single and video below:
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reviewed for FasterLouder
Mr Tom Waits is a curious and pretty unique character. Over the years he has had many accusations leveled at him with regard to his appropriation of the blues and his hobo/gin joint piano man image. Some see it as a completely constructed act that attempts to convince the listener of an authenticity that isn’t genuine. Others are more than happy to disregard the theatrics and take the music at face value. The truth really lies somewhere in the middle. Yes he has carved out his own myth but so have countless others like White Stripes and Bob Dylan.
Every Waits release sees him shifting his focus either with his subject matter or the musical construction of his songs. He has dabbled in pretty much any genre you can name and yet it still remains quintessentially Waits. Glitter And Doom Live is his third live album and is comprised of performances from his 2008 tour of the same name.
The one overarching reaction to the album is how essential live performance is to his music. His albums all deliver something specific and rewarding but when songs from across 25 years are heard together you really get a sense of the continuity of his work. The gruff bounce of Singapore from Rain Dogs sits comfortably alongside Get Behind The Mule from 1999’s Mule Variations. The voice is still percussive and rhythmic, the instrumentation is still rusty and broken like a crippled horse and cart.
By the look of the photos in the booklet the shows carried that theme of the decaying junkyard through to the stage set which looks crammed and disheveled, exactly as you imagine Waits at home, surrounded by all manner of found objects.
When Waits drops the mad racket and gruff bark on Fannin Street he really shows his songwriting hand. The poetry rises to the surface and Waits’ voice takes on a much more mournful and soulful tone. He achieves the same mood on Falling Down and Lucky Day.
The two songs that really standout and demand your attention are Goin’ Out West from Bone Machine and Make It Rain. The former is a tough, dark groove like a haunted house version of T-Rex’s Get It On and Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus. It lurches and swaggers along with a murderous intent. When Waits sings ‘I’ve got hair on my chest, I look good without a shirt’ you can see why Terry Gilliam chose him to play the devil recently. The crowd responds and you can imagine Waits with a suitably grotesque smile.
Make It Rain is taken from his last album of originals (Real Gone) and highlights how cruelly he has made his fans wait at least 6 years for a new record. The song channels a dark funk, almost Bowie-esque in parts and possesses a pretty straight arrangement and structure. The guitar licks that adorn it are bluesy and sexy, showing what a stellar band Waits assembled for the tour.
With 2006’s Orphans compilation and now this live album out of his system we can only hope that has cleared the way for the new musical urchins to emerge from his songbook. Waits is a true original – part sideshow, part macabre clown but always musically unique and a master at investing his music with emotion and mystery. The lasting impression of Glitter And Doom is of the showman and his songs, proving that lights and props can enhance a performance but it is the quality of the musicians and the songs that are the key ingredients in a live show.
King Khan & The Shrines are exactly what soul and funk music should be – loud, fun, sexy, loose and entertaining. They are a band that knows when to seduce and when to incite reckless dancing and thats exactly what they did at the Oxford Art Factory.
Sydney’s Royal Headache warmed the crowd with a curious and captivating mix of garage-pop and rock & roll laced with a punk attitude and some gloriously melodic and soulful vocals. They seemed to be having a blast eyeing each other as they ploughed through their songs. The vocals are the drawcard, made even more interesting by the bent over lurching and wide-eyed stare of the singer who has a genius grasp of raw soul and pop in the tradition of Paul Weller, Kevin Rowlands and bands like Exploding Hearts.
Somehow The Shrines – all ten of them – managed to fit on the OAF stage and still had enough room to shimmy and strut with abandon. Decked out in fetching black outfits with exotic necklaces they still had nothing on King Khan himself – resplendent in a leopard skin jacket, gold cape and feathered head-dress.
It took a few songs for the crowd to loosen up and really feel the groove but as soon as The Shrines launched into Land Of The Freak they were hooked. It is the kind of music that it is impossible to stand still for. The horns were a combo of James Brown in New Orleans, the bass was constant and the guitarist was versatile enough that elements of punk, rock & roll and psych blues were all fed into the glorious noise.
With the exception of a new song and a surging cover of The Saints’ Know Your Product, Khan focused on last year’s compilation The Supreme Genius Of… with particular highlights being Torture, Took My Lady To Dinner, Welfare Bread, I Wanna Be A Girl, No Regrets and the chiming guitar and drum stomp of Burnin’ Inside.
The stage schtick of The Shrines is what sets them aside from your standard funk band. Go-go dancer Bamboorella was a non-stop ball of energy; winking, twirling, gyrating and cheerleading throughout the night while the rest of the band took turns venturing into the audience, laughing and mixing it up with genuine glee. Khan though was the undeniable ringleader, able to get hot and heavy and then the next minute tell a hilarious tale of climbing completely inside his woman. Appearing for the encore with only a cape and his matching hot pants he was a picture of unashamed glory.
Of all the gigs I’ve seen at the OAF, this one was the hottest (literally) and showed the power of a killer band, great songs and a party-mode live show. Lets hope they return to Australia sooner rather than later, long live King Khan!
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Want a history lesson of British music of the last forty years? Well take a journey with Anton Newcombe and his band of merry men on their new album Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? It could just be their most realised album to date and also one of their most adventurous.
There are clues to the bigger themes of celebrity, religion and the power of music in the title and artwork – featuring the head of Jesus with a crown of thorns. Newcombe is asking a question that I suspect is a rhetorical one for his musical answer is no-one, the spirit of the music that Lennon and co created didn’t die it merely bled into the minds of nearly every musician since and manifested itself in their own creative output.
A couple of random shots from the scorcher of a day at the Sydney BDO. Highlights were Devendra Banhart, The Horrors, Tame Impala and Mastodon… Full review on its way…
Main Stages | photo by Chris Familton
Danimals | photo by Chris Familton
Wagons | photo by Chris Familton
Lily Pad | photo by Chris Familton
The Horrors | photo by Chris Familton
Devendra Banhart | photo by Chris Familton
Amusement Rides | photo by Chris Familton
Gorillaz are back with the new album Plastic Beach, due out March 9th. The first single Stylo featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack has been leaked already so the boyz have added a stream of it to their YouTube channel. Also have a look at the short trailers to get an idea of the theme of this record – as described by their press release:
The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.
1 Orchestral Intro (ft. Sinfonia ViVA)
2 Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (ft. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3 White Flag (ft. Kano, Bashy, and the National Orchestra for Arabic Music)
4 Rhinestone Eyes
5 Stylo (ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
6 Superfast Jellyfish (ft. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7 Empire Ants (ft. Little Dragon)
8 Glitter Freeze (ft. Mark E Smith)
9 Some Kind Of Nature (ft. Lou Reed)
10 On Melancholy Hill
11 Broken
12 Sweepstakes (ft. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13 Plastic Beach (ft. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
14 To Binge (ft. Little Dragon)
15 Cloud of Unknowing (ft. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA)
16 Pirate Jet
Australia will once again be graced with the presence of Mr Justin Townes Earle when he returns for the Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay and some sideshows down the East Coast. This man is not to be missed and as an added bonus he will also have ex Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell along for the ride…
- 7th April 09 – Zoo, Brisbane
- 9th April 09 – Factory Theatre, Sydney
- 16th April 09 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets are available now from LOVE POLICE
The Soft Pack are gearing up for the release of their self-titled debut album in March and to celebrate and whet your appetite they are offering up a free download of the brilliant Answer To Yourself which sounds like a glorious cross between The Saints and The Strokes. It rolls like a lazy summer afternoon with plenty of snarl and bite to get your head nodding and your foot tapping.
Doubtful Sounds has had a sneak preview of the album and can report that the rest of it is as good as Answer To Yourself. These guys are going to be everywhere come March.
DOWNLOAD | The Soft Pack – Answer To Yourself
