Foam On The Daydream: Chloe's Lung

Because you want to hear The Cure in 1981 swap the goth undertone for krautrock propulsion.

Because it's Bentley and Dee from Help Stamp Out Loneliness, the 2 essential members from one of the best, and regrettably short-lived, bands of the last 5 years.

You'd remember HSOL if you saw them. You wouldn't forget them. Dee was the singer who sang with Nico's cool detachment and a snarl that called to mind Danny Baker's bon mot about Johnny Rotten looking like he's seen more sex than a policeman's torch. Bentley was the main songwriter and guitarist who despite preparing for a gig by drinking relentlessly for at least 10 hours, hit every note and sweet spot. God, I miss them.

If this were a new HSOL song and you didn't like it, I'd have you removed from the building and taken care of by security. Even so, this side dish from 2 of HSOL is better than the main courses served by many bands. You'll love it.

Bruising: Can't You Feel

This has got it all:

A rhythm like a hundred feet stamping joyously on the dancefloor.

Noise. Lots of it.

A tipsy guitar solo that threatens to keel over.

A false ending at 2 minutes because they need a breather.

Can't You Feel has the energy and drama of Ride's Like A Daydream. If you think it leans a little too close to The Pixies' Debaser, then remember that genius steals. If this is the future then everything's going to be ok.

American Wrestlers

EDIT: pay no attention to the 'facts' in this post. They're probably not facts. Rest assured, I've sacked my entire research team. They're now adding 'citation needed' to every wiki post mentioning World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as penance.

They had me at 'ex-Outdoor Miners', because that Canadian band made 2 perfect EPs 5/6 years ago that nodded at Bug and Crooked Rain before leaving a note in rock's back pages marked 'youthful slacker folly' and moving on.

The Miners' (as no one called them) Mac DeMarco has since released a couple of albums on Captured Tracks (as well as a shit-ton of 7"s) but American Wrestlers will appeal more to Pavement and Dinosaur Jr fans. There's an album out on Fat Possum in April.



Since we've got this far, you're going to ask about the other Outdoor Miners alumnus, Peter Sagar. You'll no doubt remember Sans AIDS fondly - if anyone wants to reissue Little Brown Girl (50 copies sold out at the release show 6 years ago) then you've got a buyer right here. For some reason - can't think why - Sagar was persuaded the band name should be changed.

So now it's Homeshake, and Sagar has gone from garage rock to slo-mo jams and slacker rock to west coast hip hop.

One Man Bannister: Birds & Bees

Matthew Bannister was the Sneaky Feeling who wrote the Byrds-influenced songs. This tape of 20(!) home recordings from the early 1990s to 2014 evokes, naturally, Byrdsian jangle, experimental psych and no-nonsense pop.

Anyone who's enjoyed Robert Scott's recent archival tapes would love this, you'd think. But then Bannister or Sneaky Feelings could never be categorised as easily as other Flying Nun bands. They had Martin Durrant's Al Green influence, David Pine's countrified leanings and Matthew Bannister's 60s pop. Did someone say Orange Juice? Or 80s British indie?

According to the press release to Sneaky Feelings' final album, 1988’s Hard Love Stories, they:

Found themselves somewhat outside of what one of the band called “a cosy little scene” in Dunedin, which had built up around the success of New Zealand’s leading post-punk godfather-types The Clean. Why Sneaky Feelings fell outside the prevailing scene might have something to do with their immediate record collection; as Bucketful of Brains said, Sneaky Feelings ‘drew on The Beatles, The Byrds, Neil Young and Fairport Convention among others, by-passing punk completely’.

There are many songs on Birds & Bees with that essence.



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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.

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.

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.