The Hype Machine

Would you say Vampire Weekend are in the trough of disillusionment right now?

Today, I am going to do my duty as a blogger, fulfill the expectations of the world, embody a well worn cliche and become a caricature of the archetypal indie fan-boy.

I'm gunna be a perpetuatin' a little hype.




Object of Hype #1 - Yeasayer's forthcoming album Odd Blood

For those who have been utterly seduced, entranced and haunted by their previous effort All Hour Cymbals, you may be forgiven for exhibiting slight apprehension towards the next offering from this intriguing band upon hearing the first release from Odd Blood, "Ambling Alp". It's not what you would expect; its a distinct departure from prior work by being far more immediate, melodic and bizarre. It is though Depeche Mode came to visit, leaving behind their leather pants for Yeasayer to butcher and wear to their next "trip" to Riyadh. Needless to say, I am a tad excited about this one.




Object of Hype #2 - Contra, Vampire Weekend's soon to be released record

I will do you a favour; once this sentence is finished, I promise to make no further reference to these guys attending Ivy League colleges, wearing Polo Ralph Lauren cashmere sweaters and being a product of privilege and wealth. Now that the cliches are out of the way, I can add more fuel to their eternal flame of hype. Stating the obvious, their debut LP was just superb. Stylistically cohesive, deliciously witty and insufferably infectious, that album was a spinning superlative factory that did not leave my stereo for months. Now they have a new record on the way, and judging by the video for "Cousins", it is looking likely to be rollicking good fun once again. I cannot wait.

I Sold My Soul, So I Could Be With You

So it is fast approaching the time of year where it is all about end year lists, best ofs and retrospectives. For Aussie bloggers, I don't think it comes anymore well known on a local front than A-Reminder's Annual Top Australia/NZ Bands & Artists list. The top 25 or so bands that I contribute rarely rate high on the list, but I think that is both a sign of good taste on the part of my fellow Aussie bloggers at the expense of my own and a brilliant chance to have a concise list formulated of how good our local music can be!

With the deadline looming, I am trying to get my list together to send in and I realise there is one of my new favourite acts which I am still yet to blog about.

Until now!

The Honey Pies have risen from the ashes of Poly & The Statics. I remember like with most of the good Aussie music I heard, I had the Sandwich Club to thank... they'll be back... they just have to come back!

Upon revisiting the Poly & The Statics Triple J Unearthed page and reading the comments left by some highly respected music-types, they were a band on the up. Without doubt the key ingredient to the previous incarnation was songwriter Jon Marco and I think in The Honey Pies we witness a very talented man hitting his straps, albeit in a new band.

I am totally gushing over tracks "Fool in Love" & "Sold My Soul" with both depicting totally different yet complimentary styles this band can produce. For me, "Fool in Love" is one of my favourite tracks of the year, complete with soaring fuzzed guitar and a vocal that really tugs at you and lifts you up at the same time. Don't take this as me insulting The Honey Pies but guitar riffs remind me of earlier Kings of Leon in that with a track like "Fool in Love" the guitar sets a tone and a mood for the vocal to both follow and compliment.

Anyways, I am wild about this. You should be too.

Mp3: The Honey Pies - Fools in Love

Click here to download all 3 demo tracks that are available, each shows a different side to a very promising outfit.

Do You Know Who I Am?

No. I Don't.

As of two hours ago, I am now aware that Echo & The Bunnymen are a long running, prolific outfit fronted by a liverpool loving scouser. Despite my heart bleeding Chelsea...ok that's a bit much, I just like Chelsea and dislike Liverpool excluding torres / stevie-g... I won't hold geography against them.

Now while I've seen other reviews of Echo & The Bunnymen with these smart ass bloggers crapping on and comparing it to their previous work, my knowledge of this band extends to their last two releases and really it is only "The Fountain" that I've really given repeated play.

So I'm studying to teach primary school and when I was a kid, we always did creative writing exercises that would start with "pretend you have to explain it to an alien who knows nothing of the topic". That's the tone I'd like to conjure up with this review.

I love to hate / hate to love / need a bit of British rock. I think in the past, I'd always looked to the ever fading star of Oasis to fill that void, god knows Stereophonics would only take a dump on my yearning for quality. I think in "The Fountain" I find what it is I need to passify me at the moment.

"The Fountain" kicks off with the commendable "I think I need it too" and "Forgotten fields" which stur a faint rumble but in "Do You Know Who I Am?" that the album rips in like I need it to. I wouldn't say "Do You Know Who I Am?" is a lyrical masterpeice as it follows the Technologic route of putting "it" words together yet whether it be through lack of lyrical creativity or the right amount of musical smarts, it in the bupbabaaa's that I'm really grabbed and inspired to toe tap.

And you know in keeping it short, by the church bells and doodadaa's of "Life Of A Thousand Crimes" and "Everlasting Neverendless" I'm sold. I think the songs are skillfully crafted enough and the guitar interjects at just the right moments for me to enjoy the simple yet effective delivery of Echo & The Bunnymen.

While I do enjoy the release, I think the full circle back tracking that musical tastes do periodically has meant that the times have been very fortunate to Echo & The Bunnymen. I think that "The Fountain" teeters on the edge of being more relevant five years ago, but if you looks around, half the bands (especially in Britian) are trying to do this exact same shit (not as efficiently) and passing it off as some new craze.

So I take my hate off to a long and prolific band that have made a release pallettable enough to be enjoyed by a novice like myself. 3.5 Whiteboys out of 5

I call bullshit on women complaining for no reason.

Since the sort of recent Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of All Time, there has been much talk about the lack of female artists in the list. In fact out of 100 songs there were no all female bands, solo female artists or female fronted bands. Only a couple of female guest vocalists. Was gender politics at play or have people become unnecessarily melodramatic about the result? To check out the list click here – Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of All Time.

Hummingbird Blonde Lager are using this fact to push their ‘Hummingbird 100 Hottest Female Singers’. Looking at their web page it doesn’t really evoke any feminist fire in me. For example on their front page they feature Roxette & Vanessa Amorosi. Wow, there’s some horrible music. On the plus side it does feature a top 10 list by the amazing Yumi whose sometimes facetious opinion I’ve always enjoyed listening to.

Women have always been a staple in popular music and covering every genre from Folk to Punk. Although there are many female musicians, there is one way of measuring their popularity with listeners and that’s by taking a look at their numbers on the charts.Where a male has broken records for most number one hits etc… a female has equaled his record or even surpassed it. Although in saying that record sales don’t really speak to the quality of an artist, I mean how many hits has Mariah Carey had? Over 20? I suppose that’s pretty good for a blow up doll with the voice of a warbling parrot.



But in saying that the music industry is a male dominated one. Women may feel that they aren’t going to accepted in the industry if they don’t fit the pop ideal or maybe just less women have the desire to become an artist. Ah crap, I’m going to get berated for that last one.

Is there any sexual bias when it comes to the music we choose to listen to? In my opinion, I highly doubt that people make the decision based on gender. Music is supposed to evoke some sort of emotional reaction or connection with the listener. Many people who were surprised about the “exclusion” of female artist in the Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of All Time were then asked to look at their top 10 submissions and in many instances realized they themselves had a female barren list.



There was no need for an entire ‘Hack’ talk back show dedicated to the topic, or the feminist outcry about how our society is taking a step back into the dark ages. This is simply about what someone prefers to listen to…and overall, it happened to be men. Although in saying that, maybe I’m just adding to the hysteria but I am curious if anyone was actually outraged, or is it just the crazies that call up talk back radio?

Personally, I prefer the male voice and I think that’s all it comes down to, personal preferences.

Take My Picture

Hey all,

Just a quickie to see out your weekend. I've always been a big fan of Heads We Dance and here is a great track from them as they continue to take 2009 by storm. I've really enjoyed watching them go from strength to strength. "Take My Picture" is a very "now" type pop with a britney-esque vibe to it that sees Heads We Dance bringing a bit of sass. I'm enjoying the continue growth in the song writing and simple yet effective hooks.



The 'Take My Picture' / 'After Dark' single will be out on 14th December on Gash Digital with exclusive remixes by B-Xentric, Justin Faust, theAmplid and more.

The Beautiful Game

I don't need to begin this post with an introduction about the profound impact getting your band's tracks on a popular video game soundtrack can be. For the whiteboydancefloor bloggers, it is all about the Fifa10 football game at the moment and many nights have been spent in fierce battles for drunken supremacy.

Now I'm not a fan of just throwing out endorsements for anything outside of music but I make clear exceptions for the Fifa video game, I am hopelessly inlove with it. Personally, my addiction has meant that I was forced to intentionally leave my controller at a friends place just to ensure that some of my university studies were completed. The Fifa franchise has been a big winner for EA Sports and when Fifa09 was released on PS3, Fifa witnessed a graphics and game play improvement that really put the final deadly blow to the ProEv football games (in my opinion).

Now you part time Fifa players may not have been infected with the Fifa10 soundtrack completely just yet but if you are an everyday Manager Mode fiend like myself, you know the tracklist order and you sing along. Even the non-English songs I can resist pretending I know the words to.
"Cos in the Daylight I don't pick up my phone" with the awesome De La Soul cameo anyone?

Getting an all important track on a game soundtrack has yielded great results for Aussie bands trying to infiltrate the overseas market. Even before they get there, people know their music without even realising it.

While I've always been a modest fan of Children Collide, having their song "Skeleton Dance" shoved down by throat everyday while I try and take Chelsea to victory has engraved the track in my head forever (or atleast until Fifa11). The clip is a great advertisement for both a tremendous track (albeit a remix) and for the exploits of probably the best video game in the world ever.

Oww and let's just clear one thing up, while gaming is definitely geeky, you cannot tell me gaming is the soul realm of the geek. While there will always be your geeks who pimp-out their computers like hotrods, you're hard pressed to find any 20 something male who doesn't own some kind of console.

For any band, it's marketing at its finest.



Myspace: Children Collide

Ladyhawke @ The Enmore

On Saturday night, with a group of friends I made my way down to the Enmore Theater (again) to catch New Zealands own Ladyhawke live. You may remember I gave the album a pretty nice review last year and since then the sky has been the limit - she recently won 6 gongs at the NZ Music Awards including Best Album and Single, and she's also nominated for 6 more at the ARIAs including the presitigous 'Best Cover Art' category.

Getting there early indicated that this wasnt going to be a big show. No queues, no real density of people on the floor - it looked like it might not have even sold out. Then out onto the stage came the supports for the evening - The Swiss. What can be said? Received warmly they kicked it off with a nice kind of chill-out synth, mixed with disco bass and solid drums. 10 minutes later the song was still going, looping, and I wanted to kill myself. The music is good, I can say that, but dance music, and instrumental dance at that, needs something more to convey it live. By halfway through the set the crowd had gotten bigger but the audible din of people just TALKING while this band tried to play indicated that they hadnt lost just me, but most of the people around me as well. I went outside for a cigarette thinking that the end of their set was near. Walked back in to find them still playing and the disappointment was palpable. All of a sudden they threw in a 'cover' of Daft Punks 'Robot Rock' - my advice to bands choosing covers to play live has ALWAYS been this - do NOT choose a song that is bigger than you are. The crowd will love the song. The crowd will go off and cheer mentally but stop and think for a second about why they are cheering. They're not cheering solely because you rocked their world, they're cheering the fact that somewhere in the 45 minutes of virtual boredom you were on stage there was a moment where they could ALMOST entirely forget that you were playing. Then to further take the crowd away from the product the band should be pushing - they introduced Ms. Connie Mitchell from Sneaky Sound System to come out and sing for them, and when she was out there you completely forgot about the 'band' standing behind her. Controlling the crowd with presence and a beautiful voice it made you wonder why the hell the guys behind her ended up with the support. The bottom line - The Swiss were ok, but its unfortunate that the best parts of their set were the bits that took the focus away from them.
Eventually Pip and the rest of the band came out and the Ladyhawke show was ready to start. After my parklife experience earlier this year I wasnt entirely sure if this night was going to be my kettle of fish. The lights dimmed and the intro started for the first track and current single 'Magic' to get the place moving. From there it was a well navigated set of album tracks and B-sides. 'Dusk Till Dawn' was a highlight as the crowd was receptive to a talkative frontwoman, talking about the massive size of the crowd (which in fact HAD turned out to be quite large). Triple J were all over the place recording the gig on cameras and mics, so no doubt it'll show up sometime on the airwaves or television.


For a group with only one album they seemed to have a set that was convincing time wise. Then again maybe the Swiss had made me feel that 40 minutes feels like 2 hours. The set closed with a fantastic rendition of 'Paris is Burning' but given that there were still omissions the encore was obvious. What wasnt, however, was the cover selection - Split Enz 1984 hit 'Message to my Girl' took the collective breath away (while at the same time giving a bit of an indication as to the influence of the Ladyhawke sound - another danger with covers) before a foot-stomping version of Patti Smiths 'Free Money' showed off a diversity and influence that is much more subtle, but says so much more than playing 'Robot Rock'. Last cab off the rank was 'My Delerium' (which I filmed most of), the place went expectedly nuts and like that it was over.
Verdict: I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting to have a good time but I wasnt expecting to be overly impressed or anything. I guess in many ways I was wrong. Apart from the initial sound adjustments in the first two tracks (as there nealy always is) the sound was good. There was, if anything, a bit too much air and not enough.. depth to it but it was certainly sufficient. The setlist was well played and Pip knows how to connect with a crowd, but without being a tool. Lights were good, the crowd was decent - it was simply a great night. If you have even the slightest appreciation for Ladyhawke then I am more than happy to enthusiastically recommend a show for a night of fun. Check out a nearly full-length 'My Delerium' below