ALBUM OF THE WEEK THE BLACK ANGELS
COLLECTORS MISSING LINK
Through the course of their decade-long history, The Black Angels have established themselves as a distinctive and formidable presence in neopsychedelia. While 2010’s Phosphene Dream found them moving away from the heavy-drone workouts of their first two albums and into a more condensed, garage-inflected side of their sound, their fourth album, Indigo Meadow, is a full-blown garage-channelling long player. Central to the album’s sound is the prominence of organ in the mix on a lot of the tracks. The stabs at the keys during Don’t Play With Guns accentuate the sinister vibe of the song. I Hear Colors is pushed along by a swirling keyboard riff that gives it the feeling of a great lost piece of late-’60s pop-psych. Sounds of the late ’60s are prevalent elsewhere on Indigo Meadow. The Day and Broken Soldier are both very good approximations of The Doors, right down to Alex Maas’ phrasing and deep baritone drawl. The verses of War On Holiday channel Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd before the chorus gets far heavier than they ever did on record. Several songs, including the title track, Evil Things and Twisted Light pump the band’s signature sound up with a heavy punch of psychotic beats and howls. While some acts in this genre tend to falter after a couple of albums due to a limited number of ideas, The Black Angels have continued to undergo
1. Abandon All Life CD NAILS
Indigo Meadow (POD/Inertia)
WEDNESDAY 17 APRIL RESIDENCY
NEBRASKATAK LAMARAMA FARROW
THURSDAY 18 APRIL
TOM MILEK
SAGAMORE PHOEBE & SCHINA SPRINKLED CASHEWS DJS $2.50 POTS, $5 VODKAS! FRIDAY 19 APRIL EP LAUNCH
SHORTFALL LUNG HAWKAI (SA) PRETTY DULCIE
SATURDAY 20 APRIL
DYING FETUS (USA) PUTRID PILE (USA) WHORETOPSY
SUNDAY 21 APRIL MATINEE EP LAUNCH
TURTLE & FOX
ALEX LASHLIE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE EVENING EP LAUNCH
KAURNA CRONIN (SA) ILDIKO AL PARKINSON DEMI LOUISE
MONDAY 22 APRIL RESIDENCY
THE BEEGLES SMOKE SIGNAL STRAYLIGHT DIVIDE & DISOLVE TUESDAY 23 APRIL RESIDENCY
THE SEVEN UPS UP UP AWAY THAT GOLD STREET SOUND
COMING UP
TIX AVAILABLE THRU MOSHTIX:
THE BEEGLES (MONDAYS IN APRIL) THE SEVEN UPS (TUESDAYS IN APRIL) NEBRASKATAK (WEDNESDAYS IN APRIL) SLEEP DECADE – MATINEE (APR 25) HOWARD (APR 25) TRUE LIVE – SINGLE LAUNCH (APR 26) SUNDAY CHAIRS – EP LAUNCH (APR 27) ORPHEUS + NABERUS – DOUBLE ALBUM LAUNCH (MAY 4) SEATTLE – SINGLE LAUNCH (MAY 10) LORD – ALBUM LAUNCH (MAY 11) SKYWAYS ARE HIGHWAYS – EP LAUNCH (MAY 17)
CORNER
2. I’m Now DVD MUDHONEY 3. Bite Your Head Off CD/LP KING PARROT 4. Heavy Flow LP ABSOLUTE BOYS 5. Split picture LP POSSESSED / DESECRATION 6. Horrible Night CD MOSS 7. Living Eyes LP LIVING EYES 8. Raw Prawn 7” RAW PRAWN 9. Waste ‘Em All LP MUNICIPAL WASTE a steady musical evolution. Already a mesmerising live act, the idea of The Black Angels adding a big dose of these tracks to the mix is tantalising. MICHAEL HARTT
10. New Season 12” NEW SEASON
AIRIT NOW CHARTS 1. How To See Through Fog THE DRONES 2. Come and Go BRIGHTER LATER
Best Track: Holland If You Like These, You’ll Like This: BLACK LIPS, DEAD MEADOW, Nuggets In A Word: Sinister
3. Plans Only Drawn I’LLS 4. Dark Beach THE PEEP TEMPEL 5. Spend It With You CARRIE PHILLIS AND THE DOWNTOWN 3 6. What You Find SUPER MAGIC HATS
SINGLES BY SIMONE “Great art is horseshit, buy tacos.” Charles Bukowski
CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
Wave (Pias/Mushroom) Lifted from the album Cave Rave, out May 24, Wave is a full tilt indie-electro epic, evoking the same feeling as three-minutes of shit hot fireworks, bursting with colour and light. The lyrics are straight from the heart of Brian Cox; a mediation on love seen through the colliding stars, the deep ocean, the endless morphing universe. Beautiful.
KIRIN J CALLINAN
THE RED PAINTINGS
You’re Not One Of Them (Bird’s Robe Records/ MGM) Geelong-born, LA-based quintet The Red Paintings have produced a scorching emo monster with You’re Not One Of Them, a string-heavy but racing post-rock extravaganza that will wreck the head of many a hormonal teenager. It is big and beastly and I think kind of brilliant – undoubtedly brilliant if blood-boiling angst is your preferred emotional key.
TIMOTHY INFIDELS
NELSON
7. Brighter Than Gold THE CAT EMPIRE 8. Summer Rain SIMONE AND GIRLFUNKLE 9. Silver & Gold THE CHEMIST 10. My Knife Never Lies BLACK SPRINGS
Thing is equal parts Weezer and Teenage Fanclub, a little bit Wavves, a little bit Jay Reatard, a little bit Jeff the Brotherhood. On trend but still really tickles.
SYN SWEET 16
CLAUDE HAY
CHANEL
Good Times (Independent) Blue Mountain man Claude Hay wrote this ballsy, stomping track in honour of a pub called The Junkyard, where the locals are drunk and down to earth. I’m not a roots fan but there’s a clear audience for this tightly produced, funk-flavoured beast. Mid-career Barnesy would be plenty jealous.
1. Outback Jack Tracks EP ZANZIBAR
2. Floating Coffin THEE OH SEES 3. Send Them Away BEACHES 4. Human Spring BUCHANAN 5. Toothless Tiger JEN CLOHER 6. In Stranger Times JEREMY NEALE 7. It’s Alright, It’s Ok PRIMAL SCREAM
Embracism (Siberia Records/Terrible Records) The calling card for Callinan’s second album is an unapologetic spoken word performance reflecting on the making of manhood. Boys roll around in the dirt, beating each other into maturity, men front up to each other in bars, on sports fields, on the internet, in constant waves of physical love and physical violence. The instrumental bed for this track is thick and intense, full of warped electronic sounds and squealing samples, but the lyrics are overwrought and artless, as far as I’m concerned. I know this is kind of controversial because Callinan is supposed to be the second coming of Nick Cave and everything, but that is exactly the problem – he is just as ridiculous a poseur as his art rock predecessor.
&
JIMMY EAT WORLD
I Will Steal You Back (Sony) It’s not quite The Middle, but it’ll do. Jimmy Eat World’s new single heralds the release of the album Damage, out in June. The chorus is concise and easy to follow, but the emotional tenor is grim. Per the title, it’s about a guy hell bent on reclaiming his lady property, although the details of his campaign are a little murky. Not bad for a big chart single.
HAMISH ANDERSON
Howl (Independent) A blues-rock track with a full, rattling sound that on any other week would get a better rap, but today suffers by comparison. The guitars are mighty and Hamish has a wry edge to his voice, but the song feels derivative.
Bad Thing (Sub Pop) Blissed out garage rocker King Tuff is playing Bermuda Float next week and some wise promoter has sent me his latest single. A coy but blasting, clattering but sweetly melodic tune, Bad
8. Meltdown GHOSTPOET 9. Higher Than the Sun PEACE 10. The Way BOBBY TANK
3RRR SOUNDSCAPE 1. Weekend UNDERGROUND LOVERS 2. Shaking The Habitual THE KNIFE 3. The Still And The Steep HEATH CULLEN 4. The Music Is You - A Tribute To John Denver VARIOUS ARTISTS 5. Wolf TYLER, THE CREATOR 6. Let’s Face The Music And Dance WILLIE NELSON
MAJOR CHORD
Transition (Independent) Major Chord is set to release his fourth album. Lead single and title track Transition starts beautifully then blooms and blooms and blooms, drums thundering at its peak, violin in stridently pitched lament, horns in solemn chorus. “All that you believe is falling apart,” he sings, “Let it fall, let it fall, let it fall.” Magic.
THE
Mary Lou (Independent) Four-time WAM Song Of The Year winner Timothy Nelson has written a slow-swinging disco pop tune with these slick Bee Gees accents, sharp bursts of falsetto in the chorus that are sticky as all get out – instantly memorable. With squelchy synth and popping strings, this song has been carefully and craftily assembled for maximum danceability. A real low-key ass-shaker.
KING TUFF
Beat Magazine Page 62
TOP TENS
SINGLE OF THE WEEK JEREMY NEALE AND THE GO VIOLETS
In Stranger Times (Independent) Jeremy Neale’s In Stranger Times could not be more unbelievably fucking delightful. Charging garage pop of a jangly ‘60s persuasion, this golden, blistering, perfectly crafted tune is sending radiant beams of light down my spine. I don’t understand why Neale isn’t massive already. If he lived in the UK, he’d be starring in his own branded line of teenybopper films like a pre-bloat Elvis. He’d have his own brand of sunglasses! He’d be dating Alexa Chung! Download the song, it will blow your tiny mind.
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7. Strange Pleasures STILL CORNERS 8. Dreaming of a Night Mango LP TIM GUY 9. Night Swim (Illusive/Liberator) OWL EYES 10. Beautiful Africa (Nonesuch/Warner) ROKIA TRAORE
BEAT’S TOP TEN SONGS ABOUT WATER/SEA/OCEAN 1. Under The Water MERRIL BAINBRIDGE 2. Seas To Far To Reach OKKERVIL RIVER 3. Sea Legs THE SHINS 4. Mother Sea BAT FOR LASHES 5. Under The Sea SEBASTIAN THE CRAB 6. Any Song By FRANK OCEAN 7. Drowning In A Sea Of Love NATHAN FAKE 8. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 9. American Water SILVER JEWS 10. Any Song By AQUA