“Instant Coffee” by Dumb Things

Aussie battlers Dumb Things are back with a sweet and dark song about coffee. None of that fancy single origin bean hand ground in a ceramic burr grinder for a pour-over coffee stuff. It’s Dumb Things, so this is “Instant Coffee” with a dollop of existential crisis.

Dunno what it is about this Brisbane, Queensland band but they just have a knack of crafting seemingly simple songs about ordinary everyday things and turning them into heart-stopping pop classics.

The Go-Betweens were also from Brisbane 4 decades ago. Like Dumb Things they crafted clever pop songs from comparatively simple ingredients of a voice and two guitars, bass and drums. But their lyrics often had the gravitas of aspiring novelists.

Dumb Things lyrics, for all their quotidian subject matter, are sometimes just as profound. Except here it is instant coffee which is considered with the same existential intensity as a Go-Betweens relationship break-up, and the process and rituals around drinking instant coffee alone doing some heavy metaphorical lifting in the process. Coffee & Cane (sugar) anyone?

Musically “Instant Coffee” develops and blooms as it goes, displaying an increasing musical confidence and ambition in its structure, arrangement of instruments (check those glorious counterpoint guitar melodies) and the under-stated vocal delivery.

Dumb Things are probably sick of being compared to other bands here. But, if it helps sell you on them, there’s also a little bit of the beguiling simplicity of NZ stalwarts The Bats about Dumb Things approach, and even at times Robert Scott’s magical Bats-offshoot Magick Heads.

Anyway, it’s just another bloody lovely song from them. Looking forward to the new album down the line.

“Datsun” by The S-Bends

OK, more Australian guitar pop. The S-Bends are from a different end of the Australian guitar pop spectrum as Dumb Things (see previous post) and a different city (Sydney). While Brisbane’s Dumb Things thrilled with gloriously melodic, slightly wonky, low-key-charming, guitar pop, The S-Bends glorious music has a kind of equally low-key-charming appeal, but also ambitious grandeur. Here’s the opening track “Datsun”:

Unlike many New Zealand bands, The S-Bends are another young Australian band happy to acknowledge “the ever pervasive sound of 80s/90s Australian and New Zealand indie guitar music” as an influence.

Which may be why the featured track here, “Datsun” shares a similar storytelling approach to post-punk guitar-pop as Don McGlashan in Blam Blam Blam and The Mutton Birds (eg: the similarly car-themed “White Valiant”).

It may also be why the album “Nothing Feels Natural to Me” reminds me in tone and sound of The Go-Between’s dark masterpiece “Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express”, arguably that band’s most literary and considered collection, made when they were at their peak, but before they realised that.

And there’s shades here of the kind of atmosphere (without the vocal melodrama) The Triffids regularly conjured – like the song is transporting the listener into scenes from a movie, or into the pages of a short story. Just as The Triffids’ Jill Birt provided a shift in tone and delivery, The S-Bends’ Madeleine Er takes the lead vocals on “Vitamin D Deficiency” and “Indoor Plants” and shares lead vocals on the sublime centre-piece “Two States” – all stand-out tracks on an album that I can sense is going to grow even stronger with further listening.

The descriptive storytelling on the album often conjures a mood of personal and social unease but also a strong sense of place and wonder. The care with words matches the classic songcraft, the arrangements, and the unfussy recording, which was engineered and produced by The S-Bends’ Jacob Dawson-Daley.

I didn’t need another favourite Australian album this year, and wasn’t looking for one, but here we go again… The S-Bends “Nothing Feels Natural to Me” was released last week on the Stable Label.

 

“Rain on Tin” by The Ocean Party

There are many ways to discover new music by bands you haven’t heard of before. The absolute worst way is reading about the death of a band member. Melbourne band The Ocean Party announced that their drummer, Zac Denton, who was also one of their song-writers and recording engineer, had passed away in hospital last weekend, just ahead of the release of their new album “The Oddfellows’ Hall” next week. One of his songs opens the album – here’s “Rain on Tin”:

The Ocean Party are from that fine Australian music-making tradition that brought us the likes of The Go-Betweens, Triffids, Lucksmiths, Steinbecks; emotionally resonant songwriting, channeling a sense of place, of memory, and reflecting on the roller-coaster of life and experience. You could add “Rain on Tin” to a playlist that also included “Cattle and Cane” and “Wide Open Road” and it would fit perfectly and beautifully.

Denton’s two songs on the album “Rain on Tin” and the equally wonderful “Home” show a range of songwriting and lyrical talents, and his simple, real recording beautifully captures the feel and space of a band playing together.

“Rain on Tin” ends with the line “my biggest fear is that I’m forgettable”. Denton’s contribution to The Ocean Party and other music ventures over the past 6 years, and our collective actions listening and sharing the music he has made should ensure that isn’t the case.

“Little Clouds” by Amaya Laucirica

“Little Clouds” is the opening track from a new album called “Rituals” by Melbourne’s Amaya Laucirica.

Before pressing play on this opening track I read the information on the album Bandcamp page: “Amaya’s work blends the swirling contours of the Cocteau Twins with the wistful melodies of The Go-Betweens and the sonic depth of Yo La Tengo.”  Fair to say that raised an eyebrow and thought “yeah, right.”

Turns out that’s actually a fairly modest statement. Not only is that close to the mark, it’s only the half of it. OK the Cocteau’s reference relates only to the second half of their career when their starkly unique post-punk had mellowed out to lushly produced dream-pop. But there’s no denying that these songs have the kind of classic construction you would associate with The Go-Betweens circa “16 Lovers Lane”.

The widescreen cinema-scope surround-sound of those extravagant synth washes also evokes memories of another Australian classic – capturing the sense of space of The Triffids “Wide Open Road”. The songs, arrangement and production on the album also remind me a lot of the classic pop of 80s, particularly UK popsters The Lightning Seeds. Slickly produced, glistening pop, and such perfect songs washed in big lush reverb synth pads and with crystalline guitar parts and Amaya’s distinctive vocals providing a unique heart.

Thanks to When You Motor Away for the tip off on this future classic album.

 

 

 

“Roll It” by Nap Eyes

Nap Eyes (Photo by Carolyn Hirtle)

Not sure if PopLib has featured a band from Halifax, Nova Scotia before but here’s Nap Eyes with “Roll It” from their recent album “Though Rock Fish Scale”.

There are only two tracks on the Paradise of Bachelors label Bandcamp for Nap Eyes‘ album. But these two songs – together with the eclectic tags on the page  – are enough to mark out the kind of territory this band occupy and give you a clear idea of what the album will deliver.

Vocalist and songwriter Nigel Chapman has a distinctive, characterful voice. It’s a voice whose owner has lived a life and the lyrics also carry the weight of a thinker. Together with the loose rustic jangling strum and honest band-in-a-big-wooden-room recording it all adds up to something intriguing.

Anything with tags including Lou Reed, Modern Lovers, Nikki Sudden, The Clean, Go-Betweens, The Only Ones, and The Verlaines is inevitably going to make me curious.  Join the dots between all those sounds and you’d find Nap Eyes within the lines. It’s a good place to be.

 

“Liminal Zones” by Ray Davies

PopLib usually features songs rather than album reviews. It’s hard enough to write about one song let alone a dozen or so. But an exception will be made for the exceptional “Liminal Zones” – the 2nd album just released by Sydney band Day Ravies.

Day Ravies have been a fixture on the PopLib stereo for the past few months since discovering their early 2015 releases – the “Hickford Whizz/ Taking Your Time” 7” single and the perfect 4 song cassette EP “Under The Lamp”. Both these exploratory releases indicated Day Ravies were moving a little further from their debut album “Tussle” and its generally ‘shoegaze’ daze.

In hindsight though, “Tussle” is a much broader, satisfying album revisiting it now than it was on first impressions. Amongst the gazey guitar effect shimmer there are plenty of hints of the raw guitar/ keyboard pop side developed further on “Liminal Zones”.

If there’s a new sonic template on “Liminal Zones” it’s the ‘co-lead’ role of keyboards – often outrageous squirty synth – duelling with the swooping, restless guitar lines. There’s not much shoegaze influence to be heard now but what’s here instead is a wondrous mix of a distinctly Australian gritty post-punk/ New Wave with something more timeless and European. Amongst an album of standout tracks an early favourite is the precocious New Wave art-pop of “Nettle”.

“Liminal Zones” has a solid foundation provided by Caroline de Dear’s weighty overdriven bass lines and Matt Neville’s inventive drumming (and occasional drum machine programming). Over top Sam Wilkinson’s guitar playing oscillates between scouring fuzz, swooping feedback dive-bombs and chiming chorus pedal effects. Lani Crooks’ keyboards dial in an exuberant mix of 80’s New Wave, European motorik, garage rock and Day Ravies’ own variation on Stereolab via Broadcast. Often all this is swirling around in the same song.

The other essential part of “Liminal Zones” is the more confident mixing of vocals which highlights another of Day Ravies’ strengths. Lani Crooks’ measured and sophisticated cool plays well against Sam Wilkinson’s melodic rasp. The variety and personality from each the two voices is a big part of the album’s appeal for me.

Sometimes (like pre-album single “Hickford Whizz”) those angular lead guitar lines, and Sam Wilkinson’s vocals, may suggest a reminder of the early sounds of Australian post-punk pioneers The Go Betweens . Other times (like the sombre “Skewed”) dark psychedelia of The Church in their early form may come to mind.

But there’s also frequent use of sounds and sensations which bring to mind My Bloody Valentine, Broadcast and Stereolab. However, the way these tracks are crafted, arranged and recorded, together with the character the members of Ray Davies all collectively imprint on their songwriting, adds up to a distinctive and recognisable sound of their own.

“Liminal Zones” is a perfect combination of characterful songs and an eclectic variety of styles and sounds. It’s consistently fresh and engaging and frequently delights and surprises. It’s also a bit rough-hewn and home-made which keeps it real and vital for me. A new Australian classic album.

“Liminal Zones” is released on Day Ravies’ own label Strange Pursuit (CD and DL) and also on Sonic Masala (LP – neon pink & standard black options). Beko Records in France (which released the excellent 7″ single earlier this year) is stocking the album in Europe if you are in that part of the world and want to save on postage.

‘Rideout’ by Rabbits Wedding

In my collection of 7″ singles is a solitary white label single from an Australian band called Rabbit’s Wedding. It is a single I regularly pull out and play, yet for years I have known nothing at all about the band, other than that they were Australian and the single was recorded in 1986 in Sydney. I think I was given the single by Richard Langston, who probably received it to review during his fanzine writing period for Garage and Alley Oop in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The cover is as enigmatic as the songs, which are the kind of perfect and melancholic minimal & obscure guitar pop I used to love at the time and still do today.

Earlier this year I tried to track down more information on Rabbit’s Wedding. Their MySpace page revealed several songs and a blog entry from 5 years ago which mentioned Glasgow label Egg Records was planning a compilation. Further research showed Egg Records had vanished. To compound its fate a Wiki page had even been removed by over-zealous editors who decided Egg Records was a minor regional label of such insignificance it didn’t meet Wiki’s entry requirements. Incredible really given Egg Records released not only several notable Scottish releases by the likes of The Bachelor Pad but also The Bats from NZ.

Sadly in the makeover of MySpace mid-year the blog archives are no longer available, removing any residual historic value of that platform to music archivists. With the help of an international collaborative effort of music bloggers I managed to track down Rabbits Wedding vocalist Paul Watling. He confirmed the compilation never happened, and summarised the history of Rabbit’s Wedding:

“We started in Perth in 84 i think it was. Our heroes were local band The Triffids and we moved to the big smoke of Sydney where things were happening a lot more. We released a few records and toured a fair bit. Apart from our own gigs, we spent most of our time playing with bands like The Triffids, The Go Betweens, The Church, The Lighthouse Keepers. I’m sure you are familiar with those bands. We were also influenced by some of the New Zealand bands of the time. I remember seeing The Chills, The Verlaines and Straightjacket Fits. I remember Phil playing “I Love My Leather Jacket” and “Pink Frost” to death on the stereo in one share house that we lived in.”

Here’s a video of a rare TV performance of “Hit The Road Pussy” from around 1987, after they moved to Sydney. It’s a song that never was on any recording they released.

If you see any Rabbit’s Wedding releases in your record shop trawling grab them. They are lost treasures of Australia’s golden period of guitar pop.

Paul’s current band is Dusken Lights.

The Hangover Lounge – 5th Birthday