“Distracted” by Scott & Charlene’s Wedding

“I need a distraction” sings Craig Dermody on this infectious single from hard-working Aussie ‘slackers’ Scott & Charlene’s Wedding. I’d love to post a Bandcamp embed but it’s not streamable there or on Soundcloud, so you’ll just have to make do with this YouTube video and chase it down at the label links included below.

It’s the third single from their latest album “Mid-Thirties Single Scene”. Craig has that rare knack of picking the bones out of everyday observations from the viewpoint a somewhat dissatisfied participant in the game of life, assembling it into a rattling-good song somewhere between being hopeful (or maybe just desperate) for change and being resigned to be stuck forever in this space.

It’s delivered through his distinctive dead-pan talk-singing voice and the musical accompaniment of the ever-morphing Scott & Charlene’s Wedding line-up on this song is an A-grade Velvet Underground via Jonathon Richman & the Modern Lovers shuffle. If this sounds like your bag, get it while it’s hot from Fire Records (northern Hemisphere) or Bedroom Suck Records (Southern Hemisphere).

 

‘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.