Features
New Noise: Bart & Friends, Disco Pansy, theHEAD, Texas Tea
By Doug Wallen
Eccentricities great and small shine through in this week's roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
– Bart Cummings of The Cat’s Miaow has collaborated for years through the apt vehicle Bart & Friends. On the It's Not the Words That You Say EP, released on long-running US indie pop label Shelflife, said friends include Pam Berry (Black Tambourine, The Shapiros), Scott Stevens (Summer Cats, The Earthmen), Mark Monnone (The Lucksmiths), Louis Richter (Mid State Orange), and Jeremy Cole (The Zebras). Stevens sings lead on ‘I Was’, toning down his typically plucky vocals for softer and more romantic tones. There’s also a film clip for another EP track, ‘Everything Goes Quiet in the End’. Bart & Friends will do a rare gig Nov. 2 at the Empress, celebrating that Sugargliders retrospective we keep banging on about.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] I Was by shelflife
– Hand-drawn CDs (as pictured) are a perfect fit for nascent quartet Disco Pansy, whose stumble-happy garage tunes exude a real shrugging charm. The band members apparently live too far away from each other to play many gigs, but they manage to home-record songs like ‘Adrenaline’. One of their quieter numbers, it’s taken from a name-your-price EP, of which it’s the longest selection at an even three minutes.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Adrenalin by discopansy
– Quirkiness seeps through every pore of ‘March of the Otters’, the lead track from theHEAD’s three-song Otters <3 Absinthe EP. The decade-old quartet, which includes former Mr. Bungle member Danny Heifetz, pile on vocoder, nylon-string guitar and lots of other eccentric touches for a song that keeps us at a cautious distance even as it threatens to envelop us. By comparison, the other two tracks are instrumentals, in the form of the twitchy ‘Hearts’ and the soothingly synth-y ‘Absynthetix’.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] TheHEAD - March of the Otters by Mess+Noise
– The darkly country Brisbane duo of Benjamin P. Dougherty and Kate Jacobson will release their third album as Texas Tea next Friday (Oct. 12) on Mere Noise. Sad Summer Hits was cut with Magoo in an converted church outside of Brisbane and features a rhythm section for the first time: Myka Wallace on drums and Jo Muller on upright/double bass. With past releases on flexidisc and cassingle, the album is coming out on vinyl as well as CD. Listen and/or download ‘Lily’ for free below, and behold the launch tour.
Thurs, Oct 18 – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS
Fri, Oct 19 – Old Bar, Melbourne, VIC
Sun, Oct 21 – Grace Emily, Adelaide, SA
Fri, Oct 26 – Zoo, Brisbane, QLD
Sat, Oct 27 – The Loft, Gold Coast, QLD
Sun, Oct 28 – Spotted Cow, Toowoomba, QLD (arvo show)
Sat, Nov 3 – The Newsagency, Sydney, NSW (BYO show)
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Texas Tea - 'Lily' by Heapsaflash
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