“Everything Changes” by Loose Tooth

More bloody Australian guitar-pop brilliance I’m afraid. As if my record collection isn’t already bursting with enough recent albums from across the ditch, here’s another trio – Loose Tooth – with an upcoming 8 track mini-album working it’s way onto my can’t-live-without-this list.

This is probably the least Australian-sounding Australian thing I’ve heard recently. That ‘slacker’ style people assume is the 2010s “Australian Sound” is a terrible cliche anyway, but Loose Tooth just don’t fit it or anything else you’d think of as quintessentially Australian right now.

The shouty-in-a-good-way vocals displayed in the two pre-release songs streaming here and stratospheric backing vocals just ooze too much in-your-face garage-rock punk attitude and ensure these songs don’t form a background noise but take on more of a rallying call.

If I’d heard this without knowing it’s origins I’d assume it originated somewhere in the UK, probably Scotland. But Loose Tooth are from Melbourne and this is being released on the fab independent Milk! Records. Loose Tooth are childhood friends Etta Curry on drums/vocals and Nellie Jackson on guitar/vocals along with Luc Dawson on bass/ vocals.

Sure there’s a familiar kind of Velvet Underground via The Clean fuzzy chug going on here with an echo of The Shop Assistants and also the reverb-slicked ramalama of Thee Oh Sees. But the bass and vocals also give it a strong post-punk flavour. Or even the kind of art-school pre-post-punk Eno pioneered circa “Here Come the Warm Jets” maybe.

“Everything Changes” is brilliant, quite perfect, and although the component parts contain familiar elements, they are assembled in fresh, exciting and sometimes spectacular ways – like the over-the-top chorus backing vocals which are just crazy wonderful.

Give “Everything Changes” and the equally glorious “Will You” a listen and pre-order a download. Or, if you can bear the cost of the international postage, pre-order yourself one of the 200 copies of the 8-track mini-album “Saturn Returns.” Very tempting indeed.

‘History Eraser’ by Courtrney Barnett

Tajette O’Halloran Photography
http://www.tajetteohalloran.com/

No month of Australian Music would be complete without mention of Courtney Barnett, a young Melbourne musician taking the world by storm (well, sell out shows on a never-ending world tour right now). She’s doing that by elevating ‘slacker’ pop (which I’m guessing is a step up from ‘Deadbeat Rock’) into a literary & music art-form.

So, for Day 12, here’s ‘History Eraser’ from one of Courtney’s first two EPs (now combined into a double LP called ‘The Double EP – A Sea of Split Peas’ ).

Everyday life transformed into something disarmingly honest, funny & sometimes sad, with brilliantly told stories. I’ve said here before that Courtney is the Alan Bennett of indie-pop in terms of her ability to tell vivid stories about everyday things with honesty and wit…. plus still making these work as great slouchy pop tunes with killer chorus hooks.

You should have this. It is available from her own label Milk! Records which is based in Melbourne and run along with friends (in case you were worried how she will post her LP to you when she is on tour).

“Avant Gardener” by Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett (Photo by Lisa Sorgini)

I was minding my own business on the internet this afternoon and I came across this song by Australian Courtney Barnett & I was floored. Momentarily breathless. Kind of. Figuratively speaking. I didn’t actually stop breathing or suffer actual ‘shortness of breath’ or anything. Anyway, here it is:

There’s a Bandcamp link here to the Melbourne label Milk! Records. But I prefer the soundcloud page because of the comments about the lyrics. Which are indeed perfect in a kind of Alan Bennett way. If UK playwright/ writer Alan Bennett wrote songs. Which, to the best of my knowledge he did not.

A song about having a panic attack while gardening has no right to sound this good. The repeated bridge (?) change bit is sublime and adds a bit of icing to the song, as do those lovely weird noises. It’s described as slacker pop or something. I can see that, but this slacker is no slacker when it comes to words. And music.

As with recent albums from fellow Australians Boomgates and Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, there is clearly something in the water in parts of Australia. Just as there appear to be in parts of NZ right now.

I’ve since discovered Pitchfork is onto this. That’s not going to put me off though.