Features
New Noise: Smile, Doctopus, Feet Teeth, School Girl Report
By Mess+Noise
Succumb to slacker ballads, dream-pop, Commodore 64 jazz and gnarly internal repetition in this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
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– As a Google-proof name, Smile is up there with Songs. But they’re worth the pesky hunting out. The Melbourne band channel Galaxie 500 rather nicely on ‘Born Again’, a single that’s backed with ‘Jesus Song’ and arrives alongside the memorably titled sister single ‘Stoned (Get These Fucking Flies Off My Face/Shut Up and Make Money)’ and its B-side ‘Luxury Joint’. They can all be perused and obtained for any price via Bandcamp. Smile play next on Easter Sunday (March 31) at the Grace Darling with The Moderns and Bad Animal, with more local gigs to follow in April.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]B1 Born Again by Smileband
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– Maybe the only band that can out-Mining Boom Mining Boom, Perth’s Doctopus take super-rough, lo-fi indie rock and slap it with both a silly band name and slacker aesthetic. The guys just launched their free debut album Buddies locally and, as with Mining Boom, it proves considerably greater than its scrappy outer shell would have you think. The first song is ‘Backyard’, a study of the trials of friendship, and from there on lie references to Stephen Fry and Kenny Powers. There are also genuinely pretty bits, like the six-minute ‘Money’ and the wobbly ‘The Ballad of Dean’.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]Doctopus - Backyard by Mess+Noise
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– Dubbing themselves “exploratory jazz,” Brisbane trio Feet Teeth are previewing their second album with the belly-warming name-your-price single ‘Hsinchu’. It shows off the band’s arsenal of trumpet, drums, marimba, laptop and, yes, Commodore 64. It also coincides with a tour of NSW and ACT. The single includes the non-LP track ‘Hebei’ and remixes by Brain Dain and Subsea. The aforementioned album is a tape called APHTHAE EPIZOOTICAE, due in April on hellosQuare.
Sun, March 21 – Audiopollen @ 199, Brisbane, QLD [w/xNoBBQx, Lloyd
Barrett, Matt Earle/Lawrence English/Yusuke Akai + Nicola Morton]
Wed, April 3 – The NOW Now @ The Fly Trap, Marrickville, NSW
Thurs, April 4 – TBC, Canberra, ACT
Sat, April 6 – The Wasp, Lismore, NSW [w/Tra La La Blip, Mermaids + Luke Jaaniste]
Sun, April 7 – KulchaJam, Byron, NSW
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]FEET TEETH - Hsinchu by Mess+Noise
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– School Girl Report are fresh off launching their new $5 CDR on Heavy Lows. The “single” ‘Rebecca Bingley’ creates its own shifty little subclimate of gnarly internal repetition and detached shouting. It’s pretty cool. Success is Dating School Girl Report was “recorded over the last 15 years by pre-school friends Samuel Miers and Daniel Oakman, with songs derived from love letters, arguments with brothers, stories written in Year 1, Batemans Bay and their subtly ruthless relationship with each other.” Since those childhood days, the band have toured China and stolen the show at Camp A Low Hum, among other exploits.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]School Girl Report "Rebecca Bingley" by Heavy Lows
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