Features
New Noise: Smoke Bellow, Love Parade, Hot Palms, Pink Fur & The Black Coats
By Doug Wallen
Easy transcendence, summer hijinks, wispy instrumentals and two-piece garage – it's all in this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
– At a noodling six-and-a-half-minutes, ‘Conscious Heads’ is the shortest track on Smoke Bellow’s debut EP Old Haunts, not to mention an easy pathway to transcendence. This sort of droning, trippy lethargy might not be what you’d expect from Christian Best – formerly of Talons – but with his relocation to Baltimore and the formation of a new trio with The Rational Academy’s Meredith McHugh and percussionist Alex Haworth, it’s exactly what’s on offer: “In anonymity from expectation, they started experimenting with loops, drone and foot percussion, as a more defined sound began to take shape.” The EP is out now digitally and on cassette, with vinyl to follow, and Smoke Bellow are doing a three-date Australian tour behind it.
Sat, Nov 3 – The Waiting Room, Brisbane, QLD
w/Turnpike, Silver Screens + Ultramaterial
Sun, Nov 4 @ Gasometer, Melbourne, VIC
w/Carry Nation + Microflora
Fri, Nov 9 – Midian, Sydney, NSW
w/The Holy Soul + Further
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Conscious Heads by Smoke Bellow
– Enlisting producer Robert F. Cranny (Sarah Blasko) and surf-guitar whiz Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil, The Break) are pretty reliable ways to improve a song. But Love Parade’s ‘Surfin’ NSW’ has plenty going for it even without those marquee names. It’s a total summer guitar-pop gem that comes close at times to Teenage Fanclub, a band these Sydney guys have cited. The song is taken from the forthcoming album King Me and follows this year’s single ‘Like Lovers Do’ as well as a 2010 EP on Half A Cow. Its goofy film clip includes stops at the Opera House and Luna Park, among other Sydney landmarks. Hijinks ensue.
Sat, Nov 10 – FBi Social, Sydney, NSW
Thurs, Dec 20 – The Union, Sydney, NSW
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Love Parade - Surfin' NSW by loveparadesuicidecult
– Following a self-titled EP on Why Don’t You Believe Me?, the next release from Melbourne’s ruminative and mostly instrumental ensemble Hot Palms will be a cassette due Nov. 10. The wispy ‘At the Blows’ will be on it, along with several live recordings. In the meantime the band are showing off their talent for landing on great bills with a quartet of hometown gigs this month, including two stops at the Gasometer in under a week.
Sun, Oct 14 – Gasometer, Melbourne, VIC
w/The Ocean Party + Pageants + Orbits
Fri, Oct 19 – Gasometer, Melbourne, VIC
w/Bad Jeep + Jonny Telafone + Yuko Kono
Sun, Oct 28 – Curtin Bandroom, Melbourne, VIC
w/Sparkspitter + Swimming + Sans Gras
Tues, Oct 30 – Workers Club, Melbourne, VIC
w/Mining Boom
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] At the Blows by Hot Palms
– Brisbane garage duo Pink Fur and the Black Coats proclaim The Velvet Underground and The Stooges as touchstones, and their free EP Galleries certainly relishes the throwback rawness of both their guitar-drum setup and one-take basement recordings. True to the EP’s title, the band are in the midst of a 12-date tour that puts each stop at either a gallery or some other art-related locale.
Fri, Oct 12 – Retrospect Galleries, Byron Bay, NSW
Fri, Oct 19 – Café Envy, Sunshine Coast, QLD
Thurs, Oct 25 – Verge Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Fri, Nov 2 – Bleeding Heart Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
Sat, Nov 3 – The Grid Gallery, Toowoomba, QLD
Sat, Nov 10 – House of Bricks, Melbourne, VIC
Fri, Nov 23 – Off the Kerb, Melbourne, VIC
Sun, Nov 25 – Kerbside, Brisbane, QLD
Fri, Nov 30 – The End, Brisbane, QLD
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Stay Strong - Pink Fur and the Black Coats by Pinkfurandtheblackcoats
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