Best of '09

Not really any need for an introduction, here is what has been providing the soundtrack for Deformative in 2009.

Mi Ami - Watersports
In hindsight, last year's African Rhythms ep provided only the briefest hint at where Mi Ami would take their unique brand of West Coast tropacalia with their debut full-length. As thrilling as that release was, Watersports upped the intensity and the ambition, its sonic explorations both perfectly suited and a deviant cousin to the year's obsession with all things 'Hypnagogic.'


These Are Powers - All Aboard Future
Industrial hip-hop? Not quite, but it's as close as you're likely to come to putting a label on these Brooklyn experimentalists. Much less dissonant than their previous efforts but still with plenty of noise present, All Aboard Future blended parts of Black Dice with fractured post-punk rhythms to make an album of quintessentially New York grime.


Girls Names - C10 Cassettes
Two handsome chaps making honest-to-goodness surf pop, predominately about girls and eh, blood. Proof the zeitgeist cares not for borders, these stupidly addictive, reverb-soaked lo-fi recordings straight outta Belfast could easily have come from the sandy shores of San Francisco, a place where many of the bands they have shared the stage with this year originate. The cassettes have sold out now but you can still buy the downloads from the irreproachable Cass/Flick for a measly $4.50 (exchange).


Woods - Songs of Shame
More addictive pop music, this time of a more acid-folk variety. Songs of Shame is a collection of songs at once strange and accessible; innocent and mature, with a creeping resonance that suggest they will be a staple for hungover mornings and lazy Sunday afternoons for a long time to come.


Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
Neon Indian vs. Washed Out - it's been the argument that has dominated the blogosphere (ha!) all year (not really). Facetiousness aside, it really has been the year where the proliferation of blogs obsessed with all things 'chill' have allowed these two bedroom composers to garner worldwide followings. In the hypothetical argument, this blog would be giving the win to Neon Indian (by a long shot) for producing a gloriously sunny album which includes two of the best tracks this year - '6669 (I don't know if you know)' and 'Ephemeral Artery'.


Fievel - Go West
Good on any band that gives away music for free. And especially if it is music of such charmingly unassuming brilliance as this ep. Emanating a quiet confidence that allows their influences to be worn comfortably but also having a slew ideas brimming over and crucially, an element of tenderness that is missing from most electronic music, Fievel discreetly bettered everything else in Melbourne this year. Download for free here.

Fievel don't have any videos so go have a listen on Myspazz instead.

Wet Hair - Glass Fountain
Along with Captured Tracks, Not Not Fun dominated 2009. Wet Hair may be less celebrated than their more well-known peers, Sun Araw, Ducktails and Pocahaunted but their hypnotic drones, anchored by other-worldly revered-drenched vocals, proved to be much more compulsive, even if there is an overall feeling of unease throughout. A good album to fall asleep drunk.


Not Squares - Aye Yo Pa/IYouUsIt
Do you like to dance? Not Squares certainly do, and they like to make other people dance too. And they do this very well with their frenetic, shouty, literate disco-punk. They are an ever-evolving bunch too, currently aiming for a more space-kraut approach to induce contortions in their listeners, but these two tracks represent the pinnacle of the first configuration of Not Squares - like the mutant offspring of Black Eyes and Liquid Liquid.


Edan - Echo Party
A 30 minute bricolage of the most obscure hip-hop records from Traffic Ent, stitched together with obsessive attention to detail and fucked with using everything from a moog to a kazoo, Echo Party is another history lesson from one of the greatest producers around and the best damn party mixtape you'll find.


Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
You love this album. You've listened to it countless times this year. You think it is a stone-cold classic and you're right. It was Animal Collective's year. Enough said.


Other good listening in Hecuba, Desire, Vivian Girls, Hype Williams, Graffiti Island, Yo La Tengo, Health.

Totem Tapes Label Launch - Tonight!

Totem Tapes is a new cassette-based label who have releases by a handful of some of the most interesting bands in Melbourne ready to go. They are having their label launch in the Pony tonight featuring several of aforementioned cool bands, including the very lovely Milk Teddy and the incredible Caught Ship (more, lots more, on these guys soon), as well as Das Butcher, Space Cactus and Whyte Lightning (Bris). It's going to be a really great night but if you needed any extra incentive, I *might* be djing, still waiting on word on that one...

Deformative@White Rabbit Record Bar

Just a quick shout to let you know I'll be playing noise pop//post-punk//garage classics//surf//kraut//lofi gems and shitgaze anthems at the White Rabbit Record Bar, Kensington tomorrow night from 8-11. The White Rabbit is situated on Bellair Street directly across from Kensington station and is an awesome little place for drinks, chat and record browsing.

Grass Widow | NYC @ Brooklyn Museum | 07 Nov 2009 from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

Kindness

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, haven't had much to say but have some fun stuff coming up soon. In the meantime, check out Kindness, a strange but funky bunch who like to cover old songs like Anita Dobson's 'Anyone Can Fall in Love', the theme from Eastenders! Go check it on their Myspace, it's beautiful. These guys are going to be huge in '10 so make sure you drop their name at all the upcoming Christmas parties, you coolsie fucks.

Ladyfest Melbourne

I'm a little late posting this as it kicked off last night, but the first Ladyfest Melbourne takes place over the next few days. There's some really cool stuff happening; I won't be able to make half of it but am going to try to get to the panel discussion on the Riot Grrl revolution and Australia's own female rock history on Saturday and then to the gig in the Workers Club that night featuring Partyline (Alison Wolfe from Bratmobile's new band). Partyline are also playing an all-ages gig (need more of those) on Sunday at Irene's Warehouse, along with HERRS, a girl rock band made up of ten year olds - brilliant! There really is a lot going on and the lesbos definitely deserve your support - check the full listings here.

Home Truths - 'Sup Magazine Belfast Takeover

This blog was and is supposed to be primarily centered around the Melbourne music scene, with diversions further afield as I see fit/to fill in the blanks. However, I want to take the liberty of bringing attention to a week-long feature in 'Sup Magazine focusing on the small but vibrant underground music scene in my former home of Belfast. Belfast, for such a small and parochial city has for the last 5-10 years produced some of the most striking, visceral and original bands I have come across. And in the last few years, elements that have been bubbling on the surface seem to have erupted and an actual exuberant scene of diverse but like-minded acts have come together to create, what seems to me thousands of miles away, the most interesting period for Belfast esoterics in a long, long time. I guess they were all just waiting for me to leave.

It may be that the attention lavished on my small but lovable former home and the people interviewed are dear friends of mine, is what makes these articles interesting to me. But hopefully if you are a Melbournian reader, you will get a kick out of this rare insight into the underground workings of a formerly-troubled city.

Part 1 focuses on the uber-cool lo-fi surf two-piece Girls Names and Part 2 on DIY gig collective Ordinary Days, whose head Dude, Mark Reid, gets top marks for surmising Belfast's scene - 'Luckily, not too many people in Belfast have the pretence of being hip so we can just get on with partying.'
Melbourne hipsters take note.

Yo La Tengo - Melbourne - Feb '10

May '06 - Primaverasound Music Festival - Barcelona
Night numero uno of my first visit to the imperious music festival in the greatest city in the world was mighty fun for the first few hours but somewhat of a slow-starter on the music front. Glimpses were caught of the Drones, No-Neck Blues Band and Why?, before new buddy Aggie and I decided to have some pseudo-ironic fun at Motorhead (I'm still not sure what they were doing on the bill). Fun turned into ridiculous, ultra-raucous boogeying amongst the hoards of leather-jacket wearers present at the fest for one night and one reason only, meaning that by time the 'Head had finished, we were well and truly pooped.

The huge steps a ways back from the main stage provided the perfect place to sit, have a few beers, recoup and easily watch the next band, whom neither me nor Aggie were entirely into - YLT. The next 45 minutes or so go down are some of the most overwhelming of my life. In my ignorance I was expecting some lofi indie-pop to pass the time until 2manydjs took the stage, what I got was a full-on aural assault, the pinnacle of which was the unleashing of then new track, 'Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind.' By the end of this 10-minute beast, during which time Ira Kaplan ripped his fender apart, slammed it into against and on top of a wall of Marshall stacks, while Georgie Hubley and James McNew continuously played the same beat (for ten minutes!), Aggie and I were giving each other genuine, sincere man-hugs at what we had just witnessed. This may sound corny as all fuck, but it really was that special.

And the point of all that is Yo La Tengo have just been announced they are playing Melbourne in February next year. Naturally I do not believe it will be as good as Barcelona in 2006, but when the band who is responsible for one of your all-time highpoints in life are coming to town, it's hard not to smile.

Happy weekend doods.