Features
Ten in 50: Julia Stone, Die! Die! Die!, Regurgitator
By Everett True
As part of a new ongoing series, EVERETT TRUE reviews eight 10 Australian albums in 50 words or less.
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Julia Stone
The Memory Machine
Picture Show
Like Lee, without the Peters. Like mushy peas, without the mush. Like Saturday night without the fever. Like rock'n'roll without the rock. Or roll. Dark, moody, spooky ... there's heartache in her cadence, gold in them thar chills. Music for folk who'd rather be mowing the lawn. America. Does. This. Better.
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Wons Phreely
Tonight EP
Ivy League
He imagines himself the new Elvis Costello, or M. Ward. He is so not. He sings like that prick from Kings Of Leon - imagine if you went around talking “breathy” like this: you'd be punched out in a second. Hannah Montana-style indie: music for folk who hate being challenged.
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Radiant City
No Errors
Wireless
It's fine, if you're into that whole Drive Like Jehu Dismemberment Plan Don Caballero Circus Lupus thing. Music broken down via its component parts: particular focus on the buttons marked “driving”, “atonal”, “moody” and “fuzzy”. The notes linger but ... why? Nearly everyone misses the fact Sonic Youth can write songs.
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The Toot Toot Toots
Curse The Crow
G-g-g-g-ghost
Bet they're a blast live.
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Apache Beat
Last Chants
Inertia
A band belonging so much to 2010 you fear for their lives when 2011 rolls along. Will they spontaneously explode, bereft of the comfort blanket of The Kills, MGMT, Crystal Castles, Vampire Weekend and a thousand other limp-footed mates? What will happen to Sydney-raised vocalist IIrjana when the clocks change?
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Die! Die! Die!
Form
Flying Nun
Great drumming. It's no Songs, but what is? Drums and guitar and vocals played with passion and precision and pulsating aggression and a burning desire to unsettle. Guitars cauterise, and melt. Vocals leave deep incisions, and hurt. From Dunedin, sound like it (think The Gordons). An unassailable Wall of Sound.
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The Nearly Brothers
You Can't Hide From Your Yesterdays
Cake
Richard Hawley does this music well: crooning, articulate, acidic, cabaret, deep voiced like that dude from Tindersticks, orchestrated. This is what The Nearly Brothers aspire to be like, whether they know it or not. Or perhaps Dave Graney's dissolute swagger? Blackeyed Susans? Mick Harvey? They're not there. Not even Nearly.
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Regurgitator
Distractions
Independent
This “ground-breaking” release is accompanied by a bunch of pretentious waffle: "Technological transitions are notorious for bewildering a whole cultural set who have grown up with a certain industry methodology ..." It's still 30x more vital and alert and damnably catchy than most anything else around: sprightly tech beats, too.
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The Coralinas
Free Energy
Z-Man
It meanders. It wanders. It voyages deep within a series of sun-tinted soundscapes. Drums, and guitar. One fellow performed with Silver Ray, the other with Ed Kuepper. I'm sure it was a blast to compose but it's as boring as a washing machine aurally. And it doesn't even wash clean.
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Andy Bull
Phantom Pains EP
Universal
The first track features Lisa Mitchell imitating Kate Nash. Oh boy. The second track features Hungary Kids Of Hungry, who are The Boat People only really bland. The third track makes Washington sound like a pop visionary. And what is this unhealthy obsession Australia 2010 has with 10CC 1975? Weird.