Last month The Breakdown began a new tradition for the year in which, every four weeks, I’ll take a look at some of the more interesting or appealing releases or band ‘discoveries’ of the previous weeks. Not inappropriate this month considering the ongoing fight to preserve venues across our Footloose-hating land (and thanks to Brian Nankervis for doing his best Kevin Bacon last week at the Melbourne SLAM Rally).
To an act whose appearances here are always slightly shrouded in mystery thanks to his spontaneous approach to touring (and therefore won’t get the attention it deserves elsewhere in music press), this week Oakland, California’s one-man posi glitch-rap party Hawnay Troof will play headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Vice Cooler – HT’s protagonist – has just put out a new album through American label Retard Disco, titled Daggers At The Moon, which he’ll hopefully be bringing a few copies of to sell at the shows, but there’s also a free EP, Shed Skin, to download as of the weekend on his website. The EP features one unreleased track plus remixes by Leg Lifters, underrated-in-Aus duo from the Gold Coast The Death Set vs Zap! Pow! Die!, No Age and Kid606.
New York’s indie True Panther Sounds label (owned as of late last year by Matador) has put its name to three 12” releases, which will be launched simultaneously this week in the basement of Brooklyn’s Monster Island Recordings studio. Tanlines, a duo who make the kind of parading, tropical dance music that might occur if the percussionists taking part in Carnivale were given electronic snares, will be launching Settings. Sierra Leone via Philadelphia’s Janka Nabay will be launching Bubu King, his latest take on his homeland’s “bubu music” in which multiple bamboo pipes are used to whip up a rhythmic whirlwind. And Brooklyn’s Lemonade, who have been championed in these parts before, will be launching Pure Moods, an EP of their sample-heavy, tinkering, looping, building, atmospheric and generally awesome sunset pop. All three 12”s can be purchased as a bundle from the Matador Records store online.
The other week I picked up a little two-track CD from Sydney’s Southern Comfort, the core duo of which is made up of Angela Bermuda and Harriet Hudson, members of reason-number-836-why-Sydney’s-hype-machine-seems-to-be-a-bit-broken Circle Pit (the reason being they aren’t better known in other cities). Anyway, Southern Comfort are something of a lo-fi revelation (an oxymoron?): kind of old rock’n’roll structuring played with heavy distortion and enacted vocally with angelic but flippant harmonies. Good stuff. The duo will have a release out through the always excellent RIP Society Records this year, which also just put out the nicely power-punk new 7” from Sydney’s Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, who Southern Comfort just toured with.
Heading out to launch the CD version of their Landlord album this month are Brisbane’s Scul Hazzards, who’ve changed a lot since they started years ago as the project of one of Brisbane’s favourite bass-playing sons, Lachlan Anderson, who then left to join and tour with Die! Die! Die!. These days, the Hazzards are more for those who like their dirty noise-rock on the mathy side, or those who like their math-rock as wide and brown as the shirts Steve Albini gets around in. Which is really just to say that they bring on the pug-face – always a good time.
On the more depressing side of things – and summer and summer-loving are over, so sure – two artists from opposite sides of the North American expanse have releases out in coming weeks that I’ve had the chance to hear early. Truly, if you’re in the mood to cry into your nangs, don’t miss Texan heart-wrench Micah P Hinson’s new covers album, All Dressed Up And Smelling Of Strangers (POD/Inertia, 12 March), which sees him taking on Roy Orbison, Emmy The Great, Bob Dylan and others. Then there’s Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes, who build on their affectingly haunted fuzzy pop with The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night on 13 March (Jagjaguwar/Inertia).
Finally, if you like your indie doodles sprawling and big on hi-hat, check out Melbourne’s promising Hollow Everdaze, who’ve started picking up a good support or two and could probably use a few suggestions for a decent band name.
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