Wednesday 14 January 2015

Mope City: Halfway House


It's not all about Melbourne. Here come Mope City from Sydney who pick their poison from damaged party rock, roughneck jangle and Australia's branch of the paisley underground.

So Halfway House is breathy and menacing like The Church - or for younger viewers, Blank Realm's Grassed Inn - and Small Eye is 2015's first classic. Two thirds of Mope City moonlight in Day Ravies, so you get the picture. Right, I'm going to dust off those early Crystal Set records.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Today album by Rebel Kind

Yes, all you cool kids - I know this blog's demographic - are thinking 'this is so 2014', but Today only just hit the UK's import racks. Today is bigger and richer than the campfire folk stylings of 2012's Laurel Canyon. It's fuzzed-up in places like the Vivian Girls but, of course, retains some of that Laurel Canyon 70s singer-songwriter stoner vibe.

You can imagine Rebel Kind hanging out with Woods making back porch psychedelia over a few beers. Because, at heart, Today is a pop-psych record. My hunch is that Rebel Kind will get better still. Every song here has an assured pop touch and easily suggests that we're at the beginning of a very eventful discography.



Monday 12 January 2015

About Time lp by Chook Race

Melbourne is the gift that keeps on giving and Chook Race nail their city's sound bang on. About Time has the same low-level alienation of Scott & Charlene's Wedding's Para Vista Social Club, it's got Dick Diver's suburban pop hooks and it rattles along with Bitch Prefect's Big Time ruggedness.

There's no getting away from the idea - and why would you want to - that About Time looks to The Modern Lovers' small but perfectly formed back catalogue for its main starting points. Pre-punk garage rock riffs, Velvet Underground adrenaline and pinpoint emotional turmoil. I really couldn't ask for more.