San Cisco

San Cisco is an indie band from Perth that obviously has their pulse on what the audience is digging right now. And that is that dreamy-surf-pop, with the male/female vocals and a very retro-beach feel. Because that's exactly what they are.

But unlike 75% of the music that paragraph just described, I really like San Cisco. There's something less pretentious about their music (at least to me). And you know, any band that makes it out of Perth has got to be good. It's hard competition over there, in the most isolated city in the world. 

They'll be coming through Brisbane on February 17th to Alhambra. 18+. If you want to check out some of their music, for free, before hand, head to their Triple J Unearthed site.

Florence and the Machine

If you haven't heard of Florence and the Machine by now, you must have been living under some sort of sound-blocking rock. Seriously, everyone and their dog now knows this song:

This female fronted indie-pop band are on track to take over the world with their upbeat art-rock tunes. So it's not a surprise that their next tour of Australia will be an upgraded large venue tour. Entertainment centres and sports arenas Australasia-wide will be full of their music soon, or in our case, the Riverstage. May 26.

Manchester Orchestra

Manchester Orchestra are one of those bands that have slowly built a solid fanbase through almost word of mouth alone. Up until their latest album, Simple Math, I never really heard them get a mention in anything even close to mainstream.

Which is a pity, as they create some great indie music. Their albums just consist of absolutely beautiful songwriting. You just can't get enough of it.

I've yet to have the privelage of seeing them, but that will change come March 6th, when they play the HiFi. It's only ~$40, as far as international bands go, that's almost a steal!

British super-indie tour 2012

It's good getting one of these bands coming over for a tour, but two? Together? On the same bill?

Headliners will be the long-serving British band Elbow, who have put together over 20+ years of excellent music.

And opening for them will be Bombay Bicycle Club, who if you ignore their abysmal cover album this year, actually do make good indie music.

March 24, the Tivoli.

Harvest Festival, it gets better

I am so stoked for this indie festival already. I bought tickets on early presale. Who would've thought that the brains behind most hardcore and punk tours could do a great indie and arts festival? Check out the original lineup here and then brace yourself, because this second announcement is just as good.

Yep. Mogwai. The band that most people think of when they think of post-rock. Joining them will also be TV on the Radio, Kevin Devine (off the back of his cancelled Soundwave Revolution appearance) and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

I am so incredibly excited for this day. I've wanted to see so many of these bands for so long.

Arctic Monkeys

When I first saw this music video one night quite late on tv, I thought there was a great 1970s garage rock band I had missed out on.

But no, it was just the Arctic Monkeys. And over their few albums, I still haven't lost interest in them. Despite becoming more polished over time, they still release great indie albums with just that little bit of retro-garage rock edge.

Unfortunately, I've never seen them. Which is quite odd. I imagine this is because every tour they've been on has been a festival tour I've boycotted. This could all change in 2012 however, as they're playing the Riverstage on January 14.

Times New Viking

I'm on the Woodland newsletter list, and once every week or so I get a newsletter where I see the name of DJs and electronic artists that I don't know and click 'next'. About once a month I get something which makes me sit back, stop, and say "OH GOD YES I WANT TO SEE THAT!"

Well today I got one of those emails. Although, it had a typo. It said 'New Times Viking.' I had to stop for a minute and think about it, is this a band I saw in NYC years ago, Times New Viking? When I got home and could follow the links and see the pictures, it was confirmed. Yes, it's this band. And here's the proof with a picture I took of them in Coney Island in 2008.

Granted, not a good picture, but that was back in the day before I had a good camera. In fact, it was like 4 cameras ago. But they were still good, and their name stuck with me for a few weeks until I flew back to Brisbane and checked out more of their music.

So what are they? Think lo-fi noisy indie with a female singer. That's them. And I enjoyed the shit out of them live, as well as their album this year called Dancer Equired.
Chuck them a listen on their MySpace and if you like it, join me on August 26th at Woodland. 18+ of course, it's a nightclub silly.

Harvest Festival

I don't normally post rumours on my blog, but this one has caught my interest so much that I had to share with you.

AJ and the team at Soundwave touring, best known for their punk/metal tours and festivals (I've been to every festival they've put on), are taking a slightly different path in November this year with the Harvest Festival. Unfortunately, it's not a festival featuring Neil Young playing his iconic album (how sweet would that be though?), but rather an arts and indie-slanted music festival.

So what do I mean? Well let's start with the music. Bands rumoured to be on this tour are the Flaming Lips, the National, Aphex Twin, Portishead, Bright Eyes and Mogwai. The indie hipster in me is already frothing at the mouth with just that line up.

Secondly, the Brisbane date is November 19 and the venue size will be 15-20 thousand. I'm thinking Riverstage, which would be an awesome venue for this type of festival, as long as it doesn't turn into the wanky-fake-hipster-dance-music crowd that is Sunset Sounds et al.

But the most interesting thing is something I saw tweeted early this morning. It's a call for submissions from the art sector. That's right, the festival is taking submissions from artists for installations and shows for their music festival, to go hand in hand with the music. This includes:

• Massive installations for the main arena
• Installations for a garden and campire stage, for more laid back music and discussions
• A 1920's style alt-performance tent, incorporating a bar (I've already got some messed up visions of what this could be floating around my head)
• Art for in between the stages and just around the facility in general

It's an interesting idea coming from the Soundwave team. It's good to see them branch off with something new and challenge themselves.

If you're an artist, you have until July 14 to submit your proposal to the team. And if they like it, they'll fund your art at a major music festival! Not too bad. All of the details can be found here at their call for submissions.

Of course, given the internet and the rumour mill, all of this could be a fake. But I hope not, I'm sick of music festivals in their current format and I hope this turns it into something bigger and better.

Track and Field

While you read this story, you should play this song in the background.

Presenting: Track and Field.

The idea is the brainchild of a bunch of local band managers. The idea being that instead of having regular music club nights, or an annual festival, they create some sort of fun medium ground. And thus, Track and Field was born. Every few months now they'll put together bands and DJs in a warehouse like space for good party times.

The first installment of Track and Field will happen on June 4 at the Old Museum. The bands include Last Dinosaurs, Ball Park Music, The Belligerents and Mitzi. The DJs will be members of bands such as Hungry Kids of Hungary, the John Steel Singers and the Honey Month.

Tickets will be $17 on pre-sale and $22 later on. I'm pretty sure this is 18+ too, as I imagine this won't be a party without some sort of drinks flowing.

Free Music Friday 15!

If you ever want to form an indie band and you want me to be a fan, here's a simple checklist:

1. Have a female bass player
2. Use a lot of distortion and have a fuzzy sound
3. Have a female singer

Check, check & check. Museum Mouth have it all.

They take that surf rock sound I hated from last year, speed it up and then grab the gain on their amps and crank it into overdrive, to create a very melodic and fuzzy garage rock. If only most of 2010's surf rock sounded like this, I would've actually liked it.

And of course, since it's a Friday, you know that means the music is free. Their album, Tears in my Beer can be fetched from the Bandcamp, and they don't even ask for a donation.

Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture In Helsinki were one of those pre-hipster hipster bands that emerged from Australia many a year ago. They wrote dancy little indie numbers and everyone loved them.



They dropped off the face of the earth for a few years, but now they're back with a new song, Contact High:

Contact High by Architecture In Helsinki

To go hand in hand with the new song and up coming new album, they'll be touring the country and making us dance like idiot hipster kids.

May 27, HiFi

The Jebs

Remember the 90s? A great time for music. A great time for indie music. A great time for Australian indie music. And this was the pinnacle of it:

Ah, good times indeed. Flannel was still cool. And Triple J played good music still. Sometimes I wish I could go back.

Luckily, Jebediah are letting us, as Bob Evans has finished his solo stuff for a while, and the Perth group has gotten back together, recorded some new music and is now going out on a tour.

June 3, HiFi
June 4, Irish Club, Toowoomba

A long time ago, we used to be friends

For anyone keeping track of new and upcoming Australian bands, this announcement would not be a surprise. Dandy's drummer Brent De Boer has almost officially become an Australian now, what with living in Melbourne and forming a band with the locals (Immigrant Union).

But the rest of his "other, more well known" band will be coming to join him on a small Australian tour. Singing such songs as this former My Restaurant Rules theme song:

They'll apparently be putting out a new album in the next few months, so we'll probably catch a few of their new songs on this tour.

May 31, The Tivoli

The Collision Continues

Since releasing their album Theory of Everything mid last-year, Children Collide have been working their little asses off. And I don't blame them. In our ADD generation's one-hit-wonder style of music, they've got to try hard to keep our attention.

But with songs like this, I'll always hold a special place in my CD collection for Children Collide:

I've been rocking out to them constantly since my roomate introduced me to them 3 or 4 years ago (too long to remember now). I've seen them opening for bands, I've seen them selling out venues, I've seen them drunk, I've seen them sober and I've even seen them play once this year at Sunset Sounds.

But when they play their best, it's definitely in the club setting. So get around to the Zoo on April 20 and have a damn good time watching one of Australia's better young rock and roll acts sing songs written mostly about outerspace.

Here's Johnny!

A line from a classic Simpson's episode and from a classic Stephen King-inspired movie.

And now it's being used as a pun-title for a new tour featuring two of Australia's indie darlings: The John Steel Singers and Jonathon Boulet (of the band Parades). The tour is shaping to be a bit of a collaborative effort, with them both promising surprises and a little magic in all of the shows.

Here's a video I took (and re-mastered using my audio ninja-ness) of the John Steel Singers (and others) covering the Saints:

Maybe they'll do something like that again? But without Robert Forster I imagine.

March 9, Great Northern, Byron
March 10, Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
March 11, Kings Beach Tavern, Caloundra
March 12, HiFi

Free new tracks (Flooging Molly and Peter Bjorn and John)

Today brings you not one, but two new free tracks from great artists. The first one is from Flogging Molly, one of my favourite folk-punk bands. Featuring a huge Irish influence and 7 excellent musicians playing all sorts of folky instruments, they are always one to get me up and dancing a jig.

You can get their free new track, Don't Shut 'Em Down, by signing up to their newsletter here. It's less folky than a lot of their other songs and I think they are going for a little more of a mainstream rock sound, but it's still good. Especially the accordian. There needs to be more accordian in rock.

The other track is from Swedes Peter Bjorn and John, probably best known for that damn song with the whistling that always gets stuck in my goddamn head. Their new song, Breaker Breaker, can be streamed and downloaded from this website. If all you know is the song Young Folks (with the whistling) this will be different for you. It's short, it's distorted, it's faster and it's a lot noiser indie. There's no folk here. With my leanings towards noisy music, I like it of course.

I Heart Hiroshima

As I've mentioned on this blog in the past, one of my favourite local bands is I Heart Hiroshima. They have an interesting take on lo-fi indie with 2 intertwining twangy guitars, a stripped back simple drum sound and 3 vocalists: 2 male and 1 female.

After releasing their second album the Rip in 2009, they went on tour and then buggered off to Germany to pull a Bowie and find themselves/write new music/have fun/whatever. Little has been heard from them in the last 6 or so months, until Susie, the drummer, randomly turned up as the new Philadelphia Grand Jury drummer on their recent tour, which is still ongoing.

Susie, on her Twitter, let it be known that the rest of I Heart Hiroshima will be in town while she's touring and that there will be a show! January 29 at Woodland. 18+. Hopefully they'll be showcasing some of their new stuff in this homecoming show.

MySpace

Quiet Steps

I have no idea how I stumbled across this band. I've yet to see them live, but somehow they rocked up in my playlist one day. This is Brisbane's own Quiet Steps:

These guys tick all the boxes for me right now, as I am currently in a weird mood of listening to a lot of screamo and mathrock/noodly indie bands. And hey, guess what, they combine math rock/noodly indie and screamo!

They've put out a new album this year and you can get it for free as well. Right here.

If you like what you hear, go check them out playing Ric's on December 29. 18+

Numbers Radio

Numbers Radio are a great rock and roll band from Brisbane, who blew me away when they opened for the Bronx last year. It was an unexpected combination, as they play more of an alternative/indie rock style than the Bronx's hardcore punk, but they were still great.

These boys are still young, but they've already played in other great Brisbane bands. Numbers Radio started as a side project, but it's starting to go off. They've released a debut album and you can get some of their tracks on their Unearthed website for free.

They've got a few shows coming up in January, touring with some other great Australian bands:
Jan 6, Boys & Girls (X&Y), 18+
Jan 25, Lifeboat (Southbank Ferris Wheel) with Cola Wars
Jan 27, Noosa RSL (with Cola Wars)
Jan 28, Beenleigh Tavern (with Cola Wars)
Jan 29, Runaway Bay Tavern (with Cola Wars)
Mar 18, Step Inn (with Trial Kennedy)

MySpace

The Honey Month

I've always said that the best place to find new music is by getting to gigs early and watching the opening bands. Sure, sometimes you have to sit through some absolute garbage, but sometimes you just get an amazing band like the Honey Month.

A few weeks back I saw them open for Girls at the Zoo. I wasn't expecting much, but when I saw the band set up instruments such as an upright bass, an acordian, a two string ukulele, a tiny elmo kids piano, two drums and others I can't remember, I instantly paid attention. What followed was some great folk-tinged indie pop. There was a lot of them on the stage with a lot of instruments, but they all complemented each other beautifully, creating some very lush music.

You can get some of their songs for free of their Unearthed website.