Pavement Radio Special - Tonight

UPDATE: the audio, now in the RRR archive, can be streamed here. Tracklist below:

Silent Kit (live version)
Box Elder
Summer Babe
Two States
Here (alternate mix)
Shoot The Singer
Range Life (demo version, with Gary Young)
Cut Your Hair
Dancing with The Elders / We Dance (alternate version)
Grounded (alternate version)
Serpentine Pad
Stereo
Date w/ Ikea (BBC Peel Session version)
Starlings in Slipstream
Major Leagues
Spit on a Stranger (live from their final gig in 1999)

Tune into Triple R tonight, Thursday 4th March, from 7pm AEDT for a special one hour program celebrating the music of American indie pioneers PAVEMENT. The best band ever invented. Hugely influential, mythically slack, sadly defunct until right this very second.

This special Max Headroom will feature key tunes from their early EPs like Slay Tracks and Perfect Sound Forever... the breakthrough albums Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain Crooked Rain... dipping into the fan favourite Wowee Zowee... and finally their critically acclaimed Brighten the Corners and the swan-song Terror Twilight. Plus a smattering of rarities, live cuts and essential non-album tracks from their 10 years together, 1989-1999. Somehow we'll fit it all into an hour radio show!

Rediscover the brilliance of Pavement on the night of their first Australian show in Sydney, and the beginning of their world tour. Pavement also play Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and best of all Golden Plains this coming weekend.

Max Headroom - PAVEMENT SPECIAL - hosted by Ryan Egan (that's me!)

Thursday 4th March 2010. 7pm Melbourne time (8am UT) on Triple R 102.7

STREAM IT LIVE - http://www.rrr.org.au/programs/streaming/

The new, and first ever Pavement "best of" - Quarantine the Past - is released this week as well, full details and tracklisting here: http://www.matadorrecords.com/store/index.php?catalog_id=468

Tour details: http://billions.com/pavement and check out Spiral Stair's blog about the current reunion tour: http://spiralstairsmusic.blogspot.com/

Summer Breakfasters this week

image from flickr by Luis exs

I'm presenting Summer Breakfasters on Triple R this week with Jacinta Parsons. You can stream it from 6am-9am Melbourne time (7pm to 10pm London/GMT time) or tune in locally on 102.7FM

Below are the songs we played on the first two days:

Monday 14 December 2009

The Flaming Lips - worm mountain
The Avalanches - flight tonight
M. Craft - young and in love
Telepathe - so fine
John Spencer Blues Explosion - afro
The Ancients - the rambler
Kelly Stoltz - baby i've got news for you
Sparklehorse (feat Julian Casablancas) - little girl
Grand Salvo - father
Blak Roc - on the vista
Julien Pyne - layer
Papa M - sorrow reigns
Calexico - not even stevie nicks
Kid Sam - we're mostly made of water
St Vincent - save me from what i want
Pixies - here comes your man
Memory Tapes - green knight
No Through Road - party to survive
Royalchord - all your caribbean
Animal Collective - my girls
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - 40 day dream
Wilco - one wing
Jonathon Boulet - one who fires one who dies
Devendra Banhart - going back
Super Wild Horses - what started the noise
Songs - out with a curse (ALBUM OF THE WEEK)
Faux Pas - silver line


Tuesday 15 December 2009

The Drones - sitting on the edge of the bed crying
Dick Diver - tender years
Fanfarlo - the walls are coming down
Music Vs Physics - all the pretty little horses
Spoon - i summon you
Bat For Lashes - sleep alone
Neon Indian - mind, drips
Volcano Choir - island, IS
Jarvis Cocker - angela
Darren Silvester - never stand still
Aleks and the ramps - antique limb
The Slew - it's all over
Yo La Tengo - avalon or something similar
Best Coast - this is real
Wolfgramm Sisters - cry me a river
Crayon Fields - all the pleasure in the world
Eddie Current Suppression Ring - wrapped up in you
Karl Blau - waiting for the wind
Smog - Eid Maw Clak Shaw
JJ - from africs to malaga
Brightback Morning Light - everybody daylight
The Gossip - bones
Harlem - friendly ghost
Tame Impala - half full glass of wine
Sally Seltmann - harmony to my heartbeat
Pavement - spit on a stranger

Mum Smokes

I'm spending my Sunday with the incredible new double album from Melbourne indie quartet Mum Smokes. Easy/House Music is as close to perfect as anything else released this year, overflowing with brainy-pop and smooth jazzy-indie. Artist Mark Rodda also created the cover art and the band is Jonathan Michell from The Ancients, Karl Scullin of KES, Julian Patterson of Minimum Chips and Justin Fuller of ZOND are Mum Smokes and they launch their double CD in Melbourne on June 26 at The John Curtin Bandroom in Carlton with supports Fabulous Diamonds & White Woods. More dates and tunes on their myspace page and they release through Sensory Projects. Check out their video below which was also created by Mark Rodda.

The Wooden Birds

Fans of classic mellow Texan band American Analog Set can rejoice with a new project from lead chap Andrew Kenny. The Wooden Birds picks up where the sadly departed 'amanset' left off - familiar understated, slow-moving indie-pop for the lost in love - but with fresh new-folk muscle under AK's gentle boyish croon. I'm loving their album Magnolia and its really worth owning. Like really worth it. Listen on myspace or buy it straight from their label Barsuk.

Oh, and thanks to Leigh Tran for the tipoff. She knows I'm an American Analog Set tragic. And her radio program Tape Relay on 2SER in Sydney is amazing.

Grizzly Bear

It is no secret Grizzly Bear have a new album. But following up a slow burning treasure like Yellow House was always going to be a difficult task. Have the Brooklyn outfit succeeded? So far I'm not sure, but my guts say... maybe not. After 2-3 listens I am in love with its warm romantic swooning and chiming energy. It is just as mystical and evocative. I can't get beneath the lyrics yet, but then they usually sink in late for me anyway. And 'Tha Grizzlz' are about texture and tone, aren't they?

But the new album "Veckatimest" doesn't soar, on initial listens, quite as high... or beat with the same vigor as Yellow House. I'm hoping (and I'm sure) it will dig in under my skin soon and I can then stop being so passive aggressive. Its certainly one of the better releases of 2009 so far. Inertia are carrying "Veckatimest" (on Warp Records) in Australia. It is named after an island and comes out on the 23rd of May. Tunes and dates on Grizzly Bear's myspace page, and below is a performance of new track Two Weeks from the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland.

Dick Diver

I saw this band, Dick Diver, play a few weeks ago at the Curtin Bandroom in Carlton. The bassplayer danced around and wore a wifebeater and a cowboy hat. Steph, who shares Home and Hosed presenting duties on Triple J is their drummer. She used to drum for Screamfeeder and Children Collide. The two young dudes out front share vocals and trade slippery guitar lines. They are pretty much fantastic.

They describe their sound as Tropical German-Pop Soul. Are they being funny for their myspace page? No. Its true. I can imagine them playing behind the wall, with nice trousers and boatshoes, near a wading pool, with an ice-cream van nearby, and sunscreen on, in 1965, supporting The Beatles but kicking their ass. To be fair they actually owe a debt to The Go-Betweens from Brisbane and their peers more than anything. There's also little bits of Pavement and Crow in the mix too.

They are finishing a recording so the best I can offer you to hear is the ace music on Dick Diver's myspace and try to see them when they play with The Middle East and Grand Salvo at the Northcote Social Club on June 13th.

No Through Road

Can any indie band in the land lay a hand on No Through Road? Their skinny white asses may not win in a headbutt fight, but in the shouty guitar slingery grudgematch they'd kick yours and your mothers. And they're from Adelaide too, my hometown, so i'm rooting for them. In the American sense yo.

The group, led by self proclaimed 'Slacker King' Matt Banham, have mutated into quite the shock-and-awe rock force, some miles away from the Oberst-esque folk wrangling of his early recordings. Now there's more of a Bob Pollard swagger and punch, with the spit and bile of early Constantines or fellow convicts The Drones. Its party music. For thoughtful tough guys and hard drinkin' geeks.

Winner, the new album from No Through Road, is released through Melbourne label Low Transit Industries on April 25th, with a corker hometown show in Adelaide is planned for May 9th at The Metro featuring Wagons, Sea Thieves and Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! Check their websites for more details, free music and links to their myspace and stuff. Below is the video for the latest single from the new album "Party to Survive" but there's even better songs on the album. Truly.

Easter tunes - Tilman and Cymbals

I've been neglecting this blog somewhat, and for that, apologies dear brethren, but my music radar has been in mothballs for some weeks now. I've had little time or inclination for discovering new tunage, besides just a couple of albums added to the collection last week and the odd aural dip into All Songs Considered podcasts while on the treadly at the gym. In terms of the latter you could do worse than check out their recent post-SXSW analysis and the sterling interview/special with Mr Bonnie Prince Billy. His new album - Beware - sounds like it could be a corker, so I reckon I'll get the greedy mits on it quick smart once it hits stores...

In the meantime I'm trying to emerse myself in a couple of great new albums from the US of A which i procured from eMusic...



Cymbals Eat Guitars (above) make classic indie rock. Not the bland stadium-indie peddled by so many lego-haired british silver spooners. But the down-home yankee-college indie rock that drips forth from albums like Crooked Rain Crooked Rain or Lonesome Crowded West or more aptly Perfect From Now On. Slack guitars ring out like cymbals and cymbals crash like guitars. I guess the name works on that level. Sometimes its shouty too, and sometimes shuffly, broody or urgent while still being loose. They love Pavement and I love them. It's an easy, no frills equation.

In all honesty I don't know much else about the band though so thats all i have to share. The album is called "Why There are Mountains" and they are from Staten Island, NYC. Like the Wu Tang Clan. You can hear Cymbals Eat Guitars on their myspace page, as if you didn't know you could, hey?


photo by kjten22 from flickr

J. Tillman (above) has also been in my stereo (aka the iPod) with his new album "Vacilando Territory Blues". You should listen online. I have blogged about him before. He drums for Fleet Foxes but is a capable, inventive songwriter and performer in his own right. His ragged, intimate vocals sit across strummy acoustic folk-ballads and occasional lush rushes of strings, steel and brushy drums. The songs weave a kind of magic that isn't completely full of surprises but still offers solace from the other nonsense offered up by modern noisemakers or the half-rate songsmiths that radio cling to and champion.

I wish he'd played shows in Australia when the Foxes toured recently. I think people would have reacted well. Nevermind. Its Easter Saturday and I have him and the cymbals to keep me company as the sun casts treacle across the trees and through my dusty window.

Here We Go Magic

New from Brooklyn we have Here We Go Magic. A wonderful folky three-piece peddling reverb-drenched psych-pop with electro leanings. "Tunnelvision" from their debut ticks all the right boxes - falsetto indie-dude whispers, steady looping percussion, offbeat/otherworldly BVs and strummy acoustic rhythms. Stream it on Myspace. The band is a vehicle for Luke Temple's songwriting, but he's also a mural painter, and his previous recordings (Snowbeast from 2007 as an example) only hint at what was to spring forth from this new project. The self titled album is out through Western Vinyl, home to J Tillman and The Dirty Projectors. I've been using eMusic to download albums for a couple of months now, its the perfect place to buy Here We Go Magic. You can also read and listen more on Obscure Sound.

Crayon Fields at Laneway

Piss-smelling inner-city streets, the stinking-hot weather and a ridiculous inability to get into the smaller stages detracted from what was one of the better festival lineups of the summer - Melbourne's now annual St Jerome's Laneway Festival.

Those who didn't cough up the $99 for a ticket had the opportunity to partake in the spirit of the fest at two FREE stages - one in the QV complex (see photo below) showcasing acoustic music. Tobias Cummings, Emily Ulman and Grand Salvo being highlights here...



...and around the corner Holly Throsby, Luluc, Oh Mercy (below) and more were on the Library steps, providing a more upbeat electrified experience.



As the sun slipped behind nearby buildings the pink-skinned crowd at this stage lounged around on the grass drinking smuggled cans of Carlton, smoked ciggies that were banned in the main event and allowed themselves to be wooed by the dreamy pop of Geoff O'Connor's group The Crayon Fields.


Crayon Fields - not at Laneway. Pic by Snipergirl.

The local four piece are back in action after a small hiatus, with a new 7" in tow...



"Mirror Ball" from their forthcoming, but delayed longplayer All the Pleasures in the World, is getting plenty of radio play on Triple R and Triple J, and they sound more exciting live than ever before. Adding cello and violin to their show at Laneway, they bopped their way through some older classics and a swag of fresh material. Geoff was at his bashful best and the rest of the dudes were rock solid in the clammy heat. "We should have gone into the library" he quiped shyly at one point "they'd have air conditioning. And books and computers". Nerdly banter rules.

Pitchfork approve of the new tunes too, and you can read all about them and download Mirror Ball for free. Guy Blackman, who often sits in with Geoff in his other project Sly Hats, is releasing the album through Chapter Music, hopefully sometime soon this year. But you can get the 7" now or grab their excellent first LP "Animal Bells".

The band play again tomorrow night, February 3rd, at Billboards supporting Stereolab from the UK before skipping over the Tasman to play in Auckland and Wainuiomata. Then they're off to Europe in April and May. Dates, as they stand, are on the Crayon Fields myspace page.

Leader Cheetah

A couple of years ago, when I presented a radio program called Local and/or General on Triple R, I got sent some great tunes by an Adelaide indie group called Pharoahs. I also saw them play in Melbourne and was suitably impressed by their swagger and repertoire. They've since called it a day (although they still exist on myspace), but from the ashes now grows Leader Cheetah, a band quickly gathering the kind of hype and hubbub that the Pharoahs could never quite attain.

The sound is, not too surprisingly given current trends, more 70s folk-rock inspired, shifting away from Pharoah's indie-disco abrasiveness. Less angles, more widescreen perhaps. Leader Cheetah have supported Dinosaur Jr and Blonde Redhead in their very short time together and are featuring on the upcoming Laneway Festival too. Their debut was recorded by legendary US producer Kramer, who worked on all of Galaxie 500's classic albums. Its called 'The Sunspot Letters' and is released in February through Spunk Records.

I'm actually quite excited by this band, and while we wait for the album, here's Leader Cheetah's clip for "Blood Lines":

The Drones - Havilah

Melbourne 4-piece critic-magnets The Drones are just about to release their new album Havilah. The new set was written and recorded in a mud brick cottage near Mt Buffalo, in regional Victoria. Its every bit as dark, ragged and glorious as their previous efforts, and Gareth's lyrics are as potent and uncompromising as ever. Standouts include Oh My ..."People are a waste of food, the end is nearly nigh"... and I Am The Supercargo "And I am a ruin borne by sea, the stone age smoked by dysentry". Check them in action on the slightly bizarre video for lead single The Minotaur:



Havila, the fourth studio album by The Drones is out on September 20th through ATP recordings.

Small labels are winning

Great article on The Guardian this weekend on successful small labels like Rough Trade, XL and Domino in the UK and how they are staying true to their independent nature and finding success when many major labels are struggling in the face of the changing music business.

Once upon a time, the major labels were king. They swept up sales in their velvety cloaks, showered money from the heavens, and defined the way you and I bought music. Now they're shedding staff, dropping bands and losing their star names. Now the drivers of the record industry are small, maverick labels that define trends and launch careers. Some of them even sell records by the lorryload.

Read all about it here.

Tame Impala

Also floating my boat at the moment, and gathering the attention of many switched on radio announcers, is a new band from Perth called Tame Impala. I put them on my recent podcast and they have been added to the bill of the now sold-out Meredith Music Festival in December. They are also spreading their scuzzy 60s psychadelic witchery around the land with Oz rock-royalty You Am I for their album tour, as well as international supports in October for Yeasayer and The Futureheads. Groovy!

Catch You Am I and Tame Impala for the "Lets Be Dreadful" tour here:

Thursday October 16th – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Friday October 17th – Fly By Night, Fremantle
Saturday October 18th – Fly By Night, Fremantle
Wednesday October 22nd – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Thursday October 23rd – Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Friday October 24th – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday October 25th – Sands Tavern, Maroochydore
Saturday November 1st – The Govenor HIndmarsh, Adelaide
Sunday November 2nd – Prince Of Wales, Melbourne
Monday November 3rd – Prince Of Wales, Melbourne
Thursday November 6th – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
Friday November 7th – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Saturday November 8th -San Remo, Philip Island
Sunday November 9th – Barwon Heads Hotel, Barwon Heads
Thursday November 13th – ANU Bar, Canberra
Friday November 14th – Wollongong Uni
Saturday November 15th – Cambridge Tavern, Newcastle

Blow your little mind at Tame Impala's myspace! Freak Out! Or check this great remix by Canyons of their tune "Skeleton Tiger"...

The Maple Trail

I love it when I get really into a band, convinced they are from somewhere 'cool' like Brooklyn or San Fransisco or Copenhagen, only to discover they basically are in my backyard. Its what has just happened to me with The Maple Trail, a solo project for Aidan Roberts from Belles Will Ring. Aidan is based in the Blue Mountains, NSW and has just released his debut full length album Dirty Echo Park. On it he weaves classic sunset-glow pop tunes with romantic/nostalgic narratives, perfect for the newly sprung Spring. You can here more on The Maple Trail myspace page.

Thanks to Who The Hell blog for the geographic tip-off! I have been listening to this album for weeks on my mp3 player when i found it at my friend Chris' place while housesitting.

Dirty Echo Park is out through Broken Stone Records.

Clue to Kalo

Fans of psychadelic pop-electronica can rejoice with the release of the new album by Adelaide's Clue To Kalo. Mark Mitchell anc co. have crafted a joyful, technicolour concept album centred around a fictional character, Lily Perdida, with each song being sung by a different figure in Lily's life.

Although we never hear from Lily Perdida herself, Mark told online music site Mess and Noise:

"It was kind of like the idea of a portrait which acknowledged that no portrait of someone is ever going to be accurate. So I thought that a good way to do that is to actually never even hear from the character, never really have any idea about this character, except through all these different perspectives of what this one character is, which essentially is as close as you can really ever get anyway.”

The full article is worth reading, and you can hear the new music from Clue to Kalo's Lily Perdida on myspace. The album is out through Mush Records.

The Woods Themselves

Sydney-siders The Woods Themselves have a new album brewing which you can hear on their myspace or download samples from at their official site. Their self titled debut from 2004 was amazing but I can't seem to find anymore details about the new record. I'll keep my ears pealed. In the meantime here's a new video from them:

Little Red

I'm now back at work in Australia, and spent lunch talking about the rise of Little Red, the hot new buzz band from Melbourne. These guys are literally everywhere at the moment, and with not much time to write about them I thought I'd link to some tunes from their debut album which was recored and mixed by my lunch companion Steve Schram.

Check them out on myspace, or listen below.

Tunes for Lazy Mornings

One of the benefits of housesitting for a music writer is you can fossick through their CDs and albums, discovering new gems that may have passed you in the slipstream. Two albums that rose to the surface this morning, in perfect lazy Saturday fashion are from Loney, Dear and Nobody & The Mystic Chords of Memory. Both charming, breezy, free wheeling pop records for today's rainy weather or, fingers crossed, next weekend's sunshine.

Since it is a lazy Saturday (and i'm still in my PJs at midday) i'm going to leave the descriptive passages to Last FM...



Multi-instrumentalist and home-recording phenom Emil Svanängen lives in Sweden and he makes records and plays shows under the somewhat inscrutable name of Loney, dear. In either his tiny Stockholm studio apartment or the basement of his parents' house, and with a dedication bordering upon manic, Emil discreetly builds Loney, dear songs using a modest home studio set-up. In this way he has recorded and then released himself on CD-R four albums in the last two or three years. He has managed to sell several thousand of these, pretty much on his own. (Last-Fm)

I'm loving his record Loney Noir which you can hear tracks from on myspace or official site.



Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory is a collaborative effort between Nobody (Elvin Estella) and Mystic Chords of Memory (Chris Gunst and Jen Cohen). Building off of successful guest appearances on each other's past releases, the trio began collaborating on the project in the spring of 2004. After a year-plus of road trips and mail-order production efforts, the result is a perfectly crafted blend of psychedelic hip-hop and sunshine folk-rock. Nobody proves himself a producer/arranger in the classical sense, using his sample-based tool set to create the foundations for the album. (Last FM)

Listen to more from the album Tree Coloured See on Hype Machine.

Life Without Labels

Very interesting article from technology blog Ars Technica today about how indie bands are living without label help and the way they are surviving in the new online music world. It also talks about Tunecore, which i had never heard of, but allows artists to place their music on the key online music stores like iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, and Rhapsody. I wonder how many Australian bands make use of the service? The truth is bands have been surviving quite happily without major or even minor label support for many years before the online music revolution. But the difficulties they face with trying to promote, market and PR your music are the same as ever when you're also juggling self-managing and playing in a band as well.

The full article can be found here, and Ars Technica have also written about Tunecore and its service here.