“Gentle People” by Julian Teakle

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Hobart, Tasmania DIY music stalwart Julian Teakle (Native Cats, The Bad Luck Charms) has released a solo album called “New Hobart” packed full of jangling, irascible guitar pop. The second track “Gentle People” stands out with it’s bold psychedelic garage rock guitar tones and pointed take-down of the the “bourgie beige” suburbanites who live “in the bush, but in the city, too straight to go full hippy”.

That lament at soulless development and the toll it takes on those not invited to be part of the “Golden Age” is a re-occurring theme throughout “New Hobart”.

The sparse title track is an arch biting commentary on the gentrification of Hobart. It’s a familiar tale of a once DIY artist-friendly city undergoing change that makes it unaffordable to those who’s contribution is cultural capital rather than the kind of property-based financial capital that drives up the cost of housing: “Can’t afford the rent, don’t worry, we’ve got a famers’ market”.

Throughout the album these tales of the everyday life and the forces at work in society are set in freewheeling jangling guitar pop songs, which carry some trans-Tasman echoes of the spindly charm of early Chills or Bats or Clean songs and recordings, mingling with trans-Bass Strait echoes of the equally spindly charm of early Go-Betweens music (“Bellevue Parade”).

The set of songs on “New Hobart” will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed the surge in new DIY guitar pop in Australia in the last decade. Or to anyone who just loves a wry and well-crafted lyric, a strummed jangling guitar, propulsive bass lines, and clean lead guitar lines lacing their simple melodies through the pattern of a song.

Teakle has also been the driving force behind Rough Skies Records, established to encourage an idea of a scene or music culture in Hobart – “positive parochialism” – for the past decade. The 4 Rough Skies Records “Community” compilations are a great entry point to explore the Hobart scene.

“Gravity Wins Again” by Violet Swells

Here’s PopLib’s 10th send as a gift tip for the month, featuring “Gravity Wins Again” from the album “7000 The pick of Hobart Independent bands” by ultra-psychedelic astral adventurers Violet Swells.

“Gravity Wins” again is from the second of the two great compilation albums of bands from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.  It may orbit in a similar far distant planetary system to the music of early Tame Impala perhaps, but classic psychedelic pop sound of the Violet Swells recording here suits the music far better than the saturated crunch of a typical Kevin Parker production.

Recommended to send as a gift to your most psychedelic friends, as is their glorious 2017 mini-album “There’s No Time Like Eternity”.

 

“Ain’t no Shame in my Game” by The Know Nothings

OK, buckle in – our 2nd ‘send as a gift’ tip for December is this cracking, snot-caked garage-punk nugget from Community 4 – a compilation of Hobart music – one of the two excellent Hobart music underground compilations featured on PopLib earlier this year.

“Ain’t no Shame in my Game” may be formulaic snotty garage punk but The Know Nothings have clearly discovered the secret ingredient to that formula and this song is perfect enough to grace any Nuggets type compilation from any era. Ever.

The song gets extra attitude points for the twin lead vocals and the honking saxo-cacophony. The Know Nothings are Keith Hinde on vocals and guitar, Bek Binnie on vocals and bass, Sam Harrington on drums and Dave Holmes on even more guitar.  You’ll find it and even more splendid feral garage-punk nuggets on their album “Days of Foolishness, Nights of Idiocy”.

The entire compilation album is recommended as a gift for anyone you know who likes Australian alternative music but thought the plug was pulled on that sound in the 1990s. This particular track is highly recommended as an upgrade gift for annoying little brothers or sisters who listen to cartoon radio-punk like Green Day too loud while curling their lip. Get real.

“Life’s Hard” by Peak Body

Back in January we introduced Peak Body via their song “Feelings” on the “Community 4” compilation of Hobart, Tasmania underground music. “Feelings” is on their debut EP, out today as digital download and cassette. Here’s another song – Life’s Hard” – from the EP:

Peak Body describe their sound as minimalist electronic post-punk – which it mostly is, particularly on the perfect “Feelings”. The addition of tremolo and surf twang guitar to “Life’s Hard” transforms the early 80s attitude and Young Marble Giants styled tension into something even more intriguing and menacing.

Later on the EP there’s more tremolo and twang and a reduction in volume and pace with the last two songs, “Girl Gang” and “Diamonds”, sounding like they wouldn’t be out of place as roadhouse slow-dance songs from the first series of Twin Peaks.

Top sounds once again from the Hobart underground.

 

“Home” by Foxy Morons

We first met Foxy Morons back in January through tracks from two fine Hobart, Tasmania underground music compilations. Here’s another song from them – “Home” – which comes from a self-titled 6-song cassette EP, released last month by Wrong Place (right Time) Records.

The music on “Home” – all languid strummed guitars and cascading fairground organ – sounds like it could have come from an early single by The Chills played at the wrong speed.

The guitars here are strummed in the classic Velvet Underground chug. Attitude is elevated above slavish attention to technical mastery, as it always should be. It’s all about the song and the performance and the experience it represents.

“Home” is a simple song about trying to avoid returning to a cold house, and looking for a dog. In the fog of course. As with Dunedin bands, it appears weather, cold houses and pets offer plenty of inspiration for songwriting in Hobart, Tasmania.

There’s plenty of other fine songs on the EP and the cassette looks like it’s getting another production run so head on over  to the Wrong Place (Right Time) Bandcamp page.  While you are there, check the back catalogue items from Foxy Morons and other Tasmanian lo-fi & DIY music gems on display.

 

 

“Monday” by The Sunday League

This may well be my favourite song from the other* Hobart music compilation called “7000 – The Pick of Hobart Independent bands”. And “Monday” is a perfect song for a Monday naturally. Even though Monday in NZ is still a Sunday in some parts of the world, it’s still a perfect song because it’s by The Sunday League.

The Sunday League take me back to the likes of The Cannanes, The Lucksmiths and The Steinbecks; all chiming perfect hollow-body electric guitars, earnest melodic vocals and lyrics reflecting on the everyday things of existence in suburban Australia. Like rubbish collection day and overgrown Pittosporum trees.

It’s music so familiar you’d think you should have heard enough of it already. And yet, something like this can breeze along, with those ringing guitar notes, quivering Australian voice and honest band-in-a-room recording, and it’s just perfect for dreaming and escaping to imagine watching the bin collectors work their way down a tree-lined street you’ve never been to, in Hobart, Tasmania, postcode 7000.

* check out the “Community 4” Hobart music compilation on bandcamp for more Tasmanian underground pop goodness.

“Teeth” by Heart Beach

Time for another stellar track from “Community 4 – a compilation of Hobart music” – “Teeth” is fine inter-woven minimal post-punk from Heart Beach.

One of the rip-it-up-and-start-again aspects of the original ‘post-punk’ movement was freeing ‘pop’ music from songwriting and playing conventions, like guitar chords, verse-chorus, etc. The apparent minimalism of some post-punk can also be complex patterns played on multiple instruments, often with echoes of traditional non-Western music.

Two conventions not abandoned here are rhythm and melody. Combined with the exploratory and circuitous snaking lead guitar lines and the mesmeric bass part “Teeth” establishes a dark kind of melancholy; a world within a world that invites us to join it for a moment.

There’s plenty more from Heart Beach to explore on their own Bandcamp page.

 

“Feelings” by Peak Body

Peak Body – photo by Claire Jansen (w/ drawing by Alyssa Bermudez)

Peak Body are a duo from Hobart, Tasmania describing themselves as minimalist electronic post-punk and “Feeling” is one of many fine songs on the “Community 4” compilation of Hobart underground music recently released on Rough Skies Records.

Tasmania doesn’t feature much (or maybe even ever?) on PopLib despite regular posting of Australian underground pop. This compilation ought to rectify that omission – there’s a heap of treasure to be discovered here.

Peak Body is Emma Marson (vocals/guitar) and Jordan Marson (bass/keys/beats) and “Feelings” has all the fuzzy reverb-drenched pop charm you could ask for, equal parts melancholy & mystery and simple understated perfection.

Being conveniently ignorant about any aspect of the Hobart underground music scene I’ll just steal this brief explanation from the compilation Bandcamp page:

“…every song was written and recorded at the Hobart Underground Community Centre. The facility, true to its name, is located underground at a point in Glenorchy precisely between MONA and Mount Wellington (Hobart’s two great looming shadows) and was built for the sole purpose of allowing Hobart’s most vital musicians to hone their craft and reach their full potential, away from the distractions of their jobs, their families, and the daily violent fallout from Hobart City Council infighting. There is one set of doors leading into or out of the Community Centre tunnel, located behind a decoy trash pile at the Jackson Street Waste Management Centre, and they only open twice a year (at the June Solstice, and on the 29th of December, David Boon’s birthday).”

I get a feeling from the music and the further comments in the compilation info that Hobart may be a bit like Dunedin – out of the way, ignored by the rest of the country and the Australian music industry, a place musicians usually leave, whether to pursue their dreams/ ambitions or simply escape the small-city scene (the population is twice as big as Dunedin and about the same size as Christchurch).

Also the weather is similar because the Tasmania is on the whip-end of the Great Australian Bight’s intensification of the Roaring 40s. But on the plus side, they have strange mammals –  not just Echidna and Platypus, but creatures I’d never heard of such as Quolls and Bettongs.