Features
New Noise: Davey Lane, No Guru, Honeymooon, The Royal Baccarats
By Doug Wallen
A lot of ’60s psych seeps through this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings, but also some globe-trotting noise/improv.
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– Davey Lane is teasing his upcoming album The Good Borne of Bad Tymes with the fairly trippy single ‘You’re the Cops, I’m the Crime’. The free-download tune packs “melodic allusions to ’60s pop, slapping Wu-Tang drums, guitar shrouded in swirling phasers and stealthy synth work,” brags the presser. The You Am I/Pictures whiz is fresh off contributing to last year’s Aussie-themed Nuggets compilation and will support Bob Mould at a sold-out Corner gig in Melbourne on Sunday, March 13. He’s also hitting the road with Bob Evans for a 16-date national tour behind Evans’ new LP Familiar Stranger.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] You're The Cops. I'm The Crime by Davey Lane
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– Not exactly new, the free-download album There’s No Guru from Brisbane’s No Guru was recorded back in 2006. But it just hit Bandcamp this month, dedicated to the memory of guitarist (and album cover star) Jeremy Nuske, who died in 2010. A loose collective around Joel Stern (Sky Needle, Greg Boring), No Guru was “inspired by free improvisation and old Folkways records from Java, India and other parts of Asia.” Adds Stern: “No Guru existed as part of a scene of Brisbane noise-improvisation collectives that doesn't really exist anymore but included groups like Lost Domain, Perfect Lovers, Ear Beard [and] Impromptulons.” The album has just been released as a 250 run of vinyl by Hashram Audio Concern. Sample the punch-drunk, thumb-piano-goaded ‘West Born Dadanelles’.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] NO GURU - West Born Dadanelles by Mess+Noise
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– Los Angeles-based expats Aaron Shanahan and Benjamin Plant have just released their debut single as Honeymooon [sic]. The super-squishy and disco-addled ‘Hail the Madmen’ is “inspired by the problems and impact of the homeless in both San Francisco and LA.” A video for it is coming soon from Dimitri Basil, who directed the striking clip for The Grates’ ‘Turn Me On’. After years spent working on electronic music, Shanahan and Plant have turned their attention to ’60s and ’70s psych and pop, with their forthcoming album drawing on Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles and Todd Rundgren.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Honeymooon - HAIL THE MADMEN by Honeymooon
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– “Troubled country/soul/psychedelia laments” are the speciality of Sydney’s The Royal Baccarats, centred on John Flade of Up and Downs and Pat Brownlee of Wollongong legends The Unheard. Their name-your-price three-song EP No Longer Ahead of Our Time opens with the garage-roughened ballad ‘In the Springtime’, sounding like a lost cut from The Animals. Other touchstones for the band include 1960s acid country rock, Stax Records, Phil Spector and Australian gothic country. The two members are prepping a pair of semi-acoustic duo shows in Sydney, without the usual live assistance of bassist Kendall James and drummer Alex Fisma. (Photo by Lauren Horwood)
Wed, Feb 27 – Valve Bar, Tempe, NSW [w/Michael Plater & The Exit Keys + Lo-Fi Cowboys]
Fri, Mar 1 – The Roxbury Hotel (upstairs), Forest Lodge, NSW [w/Michael Plater & The Exit Keys + Golden Fear]
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] In the Springtime by The Royal Baccarats
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