A quiet weekend - Hear
HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
Phenomenal Handclap Band interview
Heralded as the ‘perfect mix of of everything from the past 40 years of popular music' the Phenomenal Handclap Band collective started when Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, two New York underground club DJs, with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of esoteric music ranging from Brazilian soul to vintage psych-rock got restless with playing other people's music and decided to produce their own.
Witch Hats, Solarium Down the Causeway
Witch Hats are undeniably one of Australia's most intense rock bands, a newer and slightly more urgent version of that band that Nick Cave was in, in the early 90s (what's their name again?). They've just released a new EP, Solarium Down the Causeway, which just made me think of the 6km walk I used to take to the shops, where a Solarium and porn store were the only bastions of visible civilization on the road to glory (German baked goods being the glory).
Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls, Coven
I make a lot of noise about fishing, and why shouldn't I? It's the incontestable king of blood sports! Nothing beats blasting out into the salty blue yonder aboard my boat The Baboso Grande, and having it out with that most vicious specimen in Neptune's hideous menagerie - The Blue Marlin. And while I'm out there killing those big weird bastards I like listening to the most flagrantly satanic record ever made: Coven's Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls.
Pop Crimes, Rowland S. Howard
On Pop Crimes, Rowland S. Howard's second solo album, there is a level of considered restraint present. There is a tension that runs throughout. It appears as a wire pulled so taut that it would be dangerous if it were to be released.
And that is the beauty of this album. The interplay between the classic pop stylings of the songs and their darker underbelly.
Wavves interview
Nathan Williams must have known that this was going to happen. You can't produce off-key, less-than-demo quality punk songs about weed and teenage despondence and not expect a bit of flack when the blog world starts creaming their jeans and crying genius. Still, it's made for an eventful 18 months for the Californian musician.
500 Days of Summer Soundtrack
Like many-a-good indie flick these days, 500 Days of Summer is one of those films that is largely made by its music. The happiness, the heartbreak, the whimsical moments - all are defined and deepened and etched in our minds through the tunes that accompany them: a near-perfect selection of both indie favourites and rising talents, from generations past and today.
Maker, Pontiak
Regardless of the era, older brothers who smoke pot and play Dungeons and Dragons are perennially cool. Virginia's Pontiak capture that wizards and jean jacket vibe perfectly on Maker, their third full-length album.
Trudging through stacks of sludge and fuzz, this is slow-groove downer rock, like if Dead Meadow, Black Mountain, and Tame Impala made a really stoned baby with Black Sabbath.
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