Thursday 14 February 2008

Port O'Brien and The Tigers


photo by Daniel Arnold

I've spent the afternoon listening to Californian group Port O'Brien which I found through the excellent alt-country lovin' blog Hear Ya. They're one of many bands heading for SXSW this March, and their album of 2007 The Wind And The Swell might have to move up to the top of my 'must buy' list. They mix up sweet acoustic ditties like Five and Dime with campfire sea-shanties like I Woke Up Today. In fact the latter had me thinking they sound like a cross between Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the DIY-choir aesthetic found on the late-career records from Disaster Plan. The well respected Melbourne group plied their trade in the late 90s/early 2000s, but are sadly no more, with Richard and Mick having hung up their guitars not long after the group's 7th album 'Reality Correctors One Through Twelve' came out through the fab indie label Sensory Projects.


THE TIGERS... photo by Piano Trackiofakis

Speaking of Sensory Projects, they've recently released the new record for The Tigers, a perth outfit who've been fairly quiet since their sublime 2002 release Christmas Album. The latest is called Beautiful Forest and is available in shops or via iTunes through Intertia Distribution. I might try to include something from it in my upcoming podcast.

2 comments:

N-Lo said...

I've just been (somewhat drunkenly) discussing Swiss pop or rock music... with a Swiss... and there has been rather some difficulty in identifying any of note.

I hereby CHALLENGE EAO to find and expose some cool Swiss music of recent times!

Ryan Egan said...

Ooh, a challenge! I'll get onto it.