“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.

 

 

“As The Sun Goes Down” by EWAH and the Vision of Paradise

“As The Sun Goes Down” is the opening track from the debut album “Everything Fades to Blue” by Tasmania based EWAH and the Vision of Paradise. It’s a belter of an album – epic, cinematic and just a bit dark. Well worth a moment of your time to get lost in the desert at night “As The Sun Goes Down”.

But don’t stop there. Linger a while and take the whole trip here. The album is classic Australian alternative post-punk rock in the tradition of The Triffids, Roland S. Howard, or Spencer P. Jones. From the lush production, menacing tremolo guitar, shimmering New Wave synths and keyboards and thundering drums, to the storytelling in the lyrics, it’s all here.

Presenting this stylish ‘cinema-noir’ album is guitarist, vocalist and songwriter EWAH and her band The Vision of Paradise, a recent discovery from the fine Hobart underground music compilation album “Community 4” where their “Walk the Night” was a standout track.

For another perfect example,  listen to the song the band takes its name from – “Vision of Paradise”. Over a majestic 7 and a half minutes the song builds from atmospheric mantra to a swelling tidal wave of keyboard, drums and guitar feedback before easing back again to fade to silence.

“All Summer Long” is another song which immediately conveys a sense of landscape, distance, and shimmering heat through its atmospheric wide-screen arrangement and lethargic pace.

These are just a couple of highlights. The album really deserves to be listened to as a whole piece, working together as a collection of thematically-linked stories mixing light and dark, affection and menace, beauty and beasts, triumph and disaster.

“Everything Fades to Blue” was released a few weeks ago on LP. I reckon it’s worth adding to your collection.

“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.

 

“Walk The Night” by EWAH & The Vision of Paradise

“Walk the Night” by EWAH & The Vision of Paradise effectively combines dark psychedelia with ominous post-punk rumbling. It’s another stellar song from “Community 4 – a Compilation of Hobart Music”

Viewed from a New Zealand perspective the song seems to possess a very Australian style of cinematic rock-noir. I can even imagine echoes back through time to the sounds of early Hunters and Collectors, The Triffids, and even Roland S. Howard.

There’s plenty more music to be found at EWAH’s Bandcamp page and much more information to discover at the EWAH & The Vision of Paradise website.

“Under The Sea” by Foxy Morons

Looks like PopLib will be taken over by Tasmanian underground music for a bit longer. There’s another excellent compilation of Hobart bands just released and here’s the first track, “Under the Sea” from from Foxy Morons –

“Under the Sea” dives in with a bold Velvets strum. It’s part metaphorical fantasy – “living life under the sea” – and part put-down – “my boyfriend is a tortoise/ he lives for 100 years and he doesn’t do nothing.” Not entirely sure if it makes sense, but I do like the underwater pop vibrations and the lush choral backing vocals and pretty much everything about the song.

The compilation this song opens is called “7000 – The Pick of Hobart Independent bands” and it’s available in LP, CD and digital download formats.

There’s a bit of overlap between the bands on each of these two new compilations. This seems like a good time to point you to Foxy Morons’ equally splendid contribution to “Community 4 – a Compilation of Hobart Music”, called “Ex” for reasons that the song will explain:

Each of these Hobart compilations covers a wide range from snotty lo-fi punk to post-punk electronica, through to woozy psychedelia.

I’ll be posting more songs from both compilations and adding a few more ‘favourite bands’ to the list for further follow-up. Click on the highlighted link here to read an article about Hobart’s underground music scene.