Sleepyhead/Better Things Double A Side, Passion Pit
If you've spent any time on music blogs in the past few months, you'd have heard the growing murmur about Passion Pit. The hype has built to levels rivaling fellow New England psych-poppers MGMT before they hit the mains.
Unsurprisingly, NME has gotten all fuzzy about them. This time though, it's entirely justified.
Songs EP
Describing music is, almost inevitably, a frustrating series of inadequate analogies. In the case of SONGS, my grey matter latched onto the following: Punk lilt and guitar-driven melodies that recall IS THIS IT-era Strokes. Vocals that channel a stripped-back Velvet Underground; driving rhythms that might have been picked up off the floor after The Wrens finished THE MEADOWLANDS; Constrained, Stooges-like brevity in a four-track EP.
The Beagle and The Dove, John Steel Singers
I've never been to Brisbane, but I wanna go. Everyone I've ever dealt with there has been super friendly, and judging from their perky, upbeat bands (The Grates, Operator Please), it must be all sunshine and fun times up north.
Bouncing into town with a van full of instruments is another blast of sunny Brissie disposition - The John Steel Singers.
The Canyons
Electronic music might not be suitable for breakfast, but you can really shake the salt and crack the pepper to this s##t. A duo making seriously interesting tunes to stimulate the mind...real spaced-out throughout a lot of the tracks. I am really feeling ‘Apples and Pears'. The guys are signed to Hole in the Sky who are making a good name for themselves for finding ‘the' talent.
Bobby Black Bird and the Blue Jays
Bobby Black Bird and The Blue Jays are a three piece form Perth. While they're now scattered about Australia, I knew of the band for a while and was fortunate enough to hear them play at the Forum in Melbourne supporting the Black Keys with Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings. The EP sold out through out Japan, USA, Europe and Australia so you would be hard-pressed to find one, but a full-length album is soon to come.
Fleet Foxes
It's been worth the wait for the Fleet Foxes' well-crafted debut to rear its head; folk, country, and bluegrass mixed together to rather more dreamy effect than their recent EP. Now, although the dynamics of the songs don't change all that much; drums roll at the bottom, acoustic guitars and keys chime in the middle, the lead guitar has its nose just in front, and the group vocals play on top, the use of clever musical arrangements makes it warmly captivating.
On Two Sides, Blank Dogs
If a transition from mass-ear interest in New Wave guitar groups towards the synth and lo-fi undergrounds of yore has long been in the offing, only now does it seem at tipping point both at home and abroad.
Widespread exposure and acceptance of home recording auteurism has left young Heads hungrier for hard-sound experimentalism in pop than ever - pushing demands on new tunes excitingly high, far beyond textbook understandings of the New York / Manchester post-punk axis towards more cosmic strands in Kosmiche Musik, concrete sound, psychedelic punk and all manner of culturally dispossessed activity.
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