Features
New Noise: Shark Alarm, Bachelor Pad, The Novocaines, Telegraph Tower
By Mess+Noise
Swing from relaxed and folky to screamed and garage-y in this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
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– Yet another Ocean Party offshoot? Yup. What’s more, Shark Alarm will provide the debut release for Osborne Again, a new micro-label founded by Ocean Party guitarist Lachlan Denton to focus on the various bands huddled around their spiritual home of Osborne Street in Brunswick. The free single ‘Tanlines’ isn’t a far cry from The Ocean Party, complete with ultra-relaxed guitar-pop licks and mention of a Hills Hoist. It’s got a bit more Pavement maybe, if you concentrate on the songs where Pavement was most chilled-out. The Alcopop EP surfaces June 28 on tape and digital, with a launch gig in the works.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]Tanlines by Shark Alarm by Osborne Again Music
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– Last year’s single ‘Oh No’ was enough to mint a fair few new Bachelor Pad fans, but the two-minute ‘Fried’ is even better. A garage marauder warmed right up by a newfound $50 Farfisa organ, it’s got as much early Snapper in it as it does Nuggets revival. It’s the first (and for now unmastered) taste of the Sydney trio-turned-quartet’s debut LP Dooming Out, recorded with Owen Penglis and due out next month on the band’s own imprint Everything Sucks.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]Fried (unmastered yo phil spector CALL ME) by Bachelor Pad
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– As we speak, Perth post-hardcore band The Novocaines are recording new songs to follow up their recent one-two punch of screaming and squalling singles ‘Freedom Please’ and ‘Til Death’. The band have likened the songs to such contemporaries as Fucked Up and Pulled Apart by Horses, while one cheeky journalist threw The Vines in there too. Having shared stages with You Am I, Jebediah and DZ Deathrays in the past, The Novocaines are working towards more touring soon, here and overseas.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]The Novocaines - Freedom Please by Mess+Noise
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– Telegraph Tower is the Sydney folk duo of guitarist/singer (and M+N contributor) Barnaby Smith and cellist Oliver Downes. They take cues from such genre greats as Fairport Convention, Roy Harper and The Incredible String Band on the five-song debut EP Concubine, launched last month at 107 Projects. These songs aren’t as well-mannered as they may first seem: Downes’ cello turns markedly discordant to finish off ‘Town Hall Revisited’, while Smith sings with an eerie trill about unglamorous adultery (‘Mistress’) and other assorted bleakness (‘Born in the 1920s’). The EP was recorded and mixed by unsung Sydney multi-hyphenate Brian Campeau, with artwork by Smith and Amy Godfrey.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]Mistress (EP version) by Telegraph Tower
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