13 followers

65 daily readers

rank of 586

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Sound Junk - by Richard Walker 1

Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold Releases 3 New Tracks

March 9th 2011 10:44

For those people itching for the release of Fleet Foxes second album "Helplessness Blues" (due for release 5th May) frontman Robin Pecknold has released three solo tracks via Twitter.

The three acoustic tracks were recorded a couple of weeks ago in LA, one of which, "I'm Losing Myself" is a duet with Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear.

Robin said via Twitter "These aren’t Fleet Foxes songs, but I didn’t know where else to disseminate it."

Download the three tracks, "I'm Losing Myself", "Derwentwater Stones", and "Where is My Wild Rose" here

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Dead Shades Interview

October 27th 2010 10:42

Brisbane rockers, Dead Shades, may be a side project and simply taking things as they come, but that doesn’t mean they should be be taken lightly. I caught up with band members Brian L’Huillier, Crystle Fleper & Dane Beesley for a couple of shandies.

How did the band come together?

BLH: I’d been in a band called The Daybridges for years which ended up self-destructing. When they split up I took a year off where I didn’t listen to any music or go to any gigs. I’d been mates with Crystle for years and when I started getting back into music we just got together and started jamming.

CF: I met Brian at uni when he was studying jazz guitar and I was studying jazz saxophone. I dropped out because the band I was in at that time, Hot Rubber Glove, were touring most months of the uni calendar and I was not attending classes so I bailed after the second year. Brian and I stayed friends and I decided I wanted to play drums and convinced Brian to jam with me. We talked about a band for about a year and a half before we actually did anything.

BLH: At that stage there was the onslaught of duos coming out and we were torn about playing as a two-piece. That’s kind of where Dane came in.

DB: I’m a photographer and one of the first bands I photographed for a regular client was The Daybridges, so I knew Brian from that.

CF: We were chatting at Laneway Festival last year and for some reason we had decided that Dane was in the band. There were all these drunken nights where we would bump into Dane and we had this running joke that we’d see him at rehearsal. After a year of this, Dane came up to me one night and said “So I’ll see you at rehearsal, two o’clock tomorrow” and so he turned up. Although, he did text us and asked if we had a bass amp and a bass.

DB: Yeh…and a beer…and cigarettes

CF: And then we played our first show four weeks later.

Dane, is photography still your main passion?

DB: Yeh I do have a big passion for it but at times I hate photography and that’s when picking up the bass feels good and gets me into the headspace I need.

I also played in a band called The Fricken Hecks, who are a more psychedelic outfit, fifteen minute songs, that sort of thing. Most of my friends have always been in bands and so I’ve always been hanging around with them in recording studios. I was having a bit of fun, traveling and playing guitar. One gig every six months.

But I love photography, I’ve just recently been in the States, I had a meeting with Rolling Stone America and I’m publishing a book as well so there’s a lot happening on that front.

Brian, your also in another band as well aren’t you?

BLH: Yeh, I’m also in a band called Lovers of Modern Art. I wanted to write more songs than I was able to with The Daybridges and I got that opportunity with Lovers of Modern Art. The first Dead Shade gigs came about because some members of Lovers of Modern Art were unable to play two or three shows in a row.

So there was no animosity or fight with Lovers of Modern Art?

BLH: No, if there are any fights they’re between the Dead Shades. Well, Dane is the laidback one while Crystle and I are really opinionated and neither of us will back down.

So is this a side project?

BLH: Dead Shades is technically the side project but everything seems to be happening at the moment for this band. This is where all the energy is. We’re riding the wave at the moment

CF: Lovers of Modern Art were going through a line up change out of necessity because two of their members are professional musicians and when faced with a low paying indie garage gig or touring with Diana Krall, they’re obviously going to choose the latter.

So do you guys get much time to rehearse?

BLH: Yeh, we haven’t played for a while, we tend to rehearse at Crystle’s place but usually on Saturday so we don’t get noise complaints. We haven’t had too much trouble as yet. We’ve managed to rehearse 2 or 3 times a month.

So your first show was at The Great Northern in Byron Bay?

BLH: Well our official first gig was at a house party in the house where we jam. We had all our mates crammed into the little lounge room. Since then, we’ve done three or four house parties. I think they’re cool gigs

CF: House parties are where it’s at. Cheap booze, loose women

So how did the jump come about from playing house parties to playing Byron Bay?

CF: Well, the reason we got that gig was because one of the bands I manage, Polaroid Fame, needed a last minute support act and they asked Lovers of Modern Art if they could do it. They couldn’t do it so we put our hand up.

DB: So we were basically chucked in the deep end and it snowballed from there.

CF: We’ve just been really lucky

So what made you guys do an EP and not an album?

BLH: Money…

CF: …and songs. We didn’t have any others

BLH: We wanted to strike while the iron was hot, they felt good so we thought we’d put it out.

CF: We wanted to put it out on vinyl but its a few minutes over a seven inch and we didn’t want to drop anything. Our next plan is to do something on vinyl

BLH: I personally can’t think of anything better to lose money on than playing in a band

CF: We basically got drunk for 48 hours and recorded it.

Did you get as much of a buzz recording as playing live?

CF: Live is where it’s at for us. Right after we recorded that, we had a run of six gigs in six weeks and, had we recorded it after those gigs, it would have been so much better.

BLH: What I love about our live shows is that we are all so into making sure that we play well and people enjoy the show. If Beesley’s had a shocker, he will say come up at the end of the gig and say “Am I still in the band?”

DB: I love traveling with the band, you don’t just go down to Byron to play the gig, and it’s a chance for us to hang out.

CF: Three of us, we can fit into one car

BLH: We lost Dane for days when we were in Byron. His phone stopped working and we couldn’t find him.

Dead Shades are heading to the U.S. How did that come about?

CF: That’s the big question. I applied for a job which I didn’t get, so these guys were like, fuck it, let’s just go overseas. So we all bought a ticket. My housemate, Robbie, who’s in Bang Bang Boss Kelly is coming with us along with his girlfriend, so there’s about six of us going.

BLH: We’ll give them all jobs; one will be tour manager, bus driver, etc

CF: We have a couple of shows in the works and we’ve got to confirm a couple more. We’re looking to do a rock and roll marathon in Las Vegas which is literally people running a marathon while bands play on the side of the street.

BLH: Booking venues in the US is very similar to booking venues in Sydney or Melbourne. You’ve got to be relentless and keep on at booking agents as no-one calls you back. The only difference is that it’s on the other side of the world.

CF: Although, there is a language barrier, even though it’s English to English. There’s this band named The Night Beats, who are awesome. We were getting in touch with them via MySpace, and they got back to us with a list of possible shows we could play with them. I was striking up a conversation over the internet and asked them what their movements were over the summer. The next email I got from them was a photo of a shit with a message saying “Here are our movements!”

BLH: It’s been good researching all these bands. There are heaps of cool local bands just as there are in Brisbane.

DB: There’s a good psychedelic undercurrent over there as well, which may be why Tame Impala are going so well over there. In saying that, the Fricken Hecks has been doing that for years!

Dead Shade’s debut EP, “Sea Shandies” is out now on Bird Fire Records, you can catch them at The Troubadour on Sunday 29th October or at The Zoo on 26th November at the official EP launch.

145

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Free Pixies EP

October 21st 2010 02:14

The Pixies are offering a free 4-track EP to anyone who registers to their website

Track Listing is:

Gouge Away
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Crackity Jones
Dancing The Manta Ray

To dowload the tracks click here

148

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

A Good Ship Gone Bad

October 10th 2010 10:42

Hailing from Brisbane via the open seas, The Good Ship offer up a blend of sea-shanties and folk, with tales of drinking, debauchery and dicks (6000 of them!) on their debut album “Avast! Wretched Sea.”

I caught up with band members Daz Gray and John Meyer for a pint and a yarn or two

[ Click here to read more ]

158

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Belle & Sebastian Announce New Album Release Date

August 18th 2010 10:44

Scottish twee favourites Belle & Sebastian have announce their next album will be released on 11th November and will be titled "Write Above Love"

After some websites released false images of what they believed the album cover would look like, the band have confirmed on their website that the below image will be the correct cover

[ Click here to read more ]

146

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Listen to the full Scott Pilgrim vs. The World soundtrack online

August 14th 2010 22:55

Music website spinner.com is currently streaming the full soundtrack to upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

The 19 track album features songs from Frank Black, Broken Social Scene & Beck, who features as the film's fictional band Sex Bob-omb

[ Click here to read more ]

147

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Bees announce new album

August 11th 2010 08:27

Isle of Wight's finest, The Bees, have announced their follow up to 2007's "Octopus" will be released on 11th October

The album, entitled "Every Step's a Yes" will feature ten tracks with track one "I Really Need Love" to be released the week before as a single

[ Click here to read more ]

156

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Richard Walker 1 - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend