Album Review: The ‘Heathen Sound’ of Big League is a deliciously fuzzy onslaught filled with melody and chainsaws.
Much loved here at Backseat Mafia, Naarm/Melbourne band Big League began as a series of lounge-room recordings by husband and wife team Travis (guitar, vocals) & Marie Velthoven (bass) before expanding into a full band and an even fuller sound. And the sound is bigger than Ben Hur. Big League have released a new album, ‘Hethen Sound’, and according to …
Live Review and Gallery: Pandemonium Rocks Festival, Caribbean Gardens, Melbourne 20.04.2024
It’s been a tough year for Festivals over last few years and after some rather turbulent times leading up to today’s date, the Pandemonium Rocks Festival reached the finishing line, somewhat starved and slimmed down but just as determined to entertain. Original headliners Deep Purple, Placebo and Gang of Four fell by the wayside and …
EP Review: ‘Accelerator’ – life speeds up for the brilliant HighSchool in this haunting epic release ahead of European tour.
Today, the imperial HighSchool release their EP ‘Accelerator’ via [PIAS] Australia, and it fulfils all promises made by the series of singles that anticipated its release. Based in London but coming from Naarm/Melbourne the band normally consists of brother and sister Rory and Lilli Trobbiani (related to Frank Trobbiani from The Wreckery) and Luke Scott, but Lilli …
Live Review and Gallery: The Ronson Hangup, George Lane, Melbourne 19.04.2024
Melbourne psych-pop supergroup The Ronson Hangup – featuring members of The Anyones, Dallas Crane, The Church, Even, Paul Kelly’s band and Courtney Barnett’s band, launched their most recent single ‘SSDD (Same Shit Different Day)’ at the very Bohemian George Lane venue in the equally Bohemian St Kilda suburb of Melbourne. The venue was intimate enough but the …
Track: ‘Kiss Me (Kill Me)’ – RINSE and Hatchie team up for a shimmering union in a widescreen epic.
Partners in crime, Naarm/Melbourne-based artists RINSE (Joe Agius) and Hatchie (Harriette Pilbeam) have just delivered another brilliant dream pop/shoegaze delight in ‘Kiss Me (Kill Me)’ – a track that harks back to their previous brilliant collaboration ‘Back Into Your Arms’ from RINSE’s magnificent EP ‘Wherever I Am’. As can be expected from these outrageously talented …
News: Titans of rock, Fontaines D.C., announce new album ‘ROMANCE’ and unveil single and video for the brooding, ominous track ‘Starburster’.
Those incomparable saviors of rock, Fontaines D.C., are back after a little radio silence with news of a new album ‘ROMANCE’ set for release through new label XL Recordings and Remote Control Records and out on 23 August. The announcement is accompanied by the release of the lead single ‘Starburster’, inspired by a panic attack …
News: After nearly a four year hiatus, dream pop exponents Loma announce new album and unveil the blissful single ‘How It Starts’.
Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, Jonathan Meiburg) have announced the release of their third album ‘How Will I Live Without A Body?’ on 28 June 2024 through Sub Pop Records – their first release since 2020’s magnificent ‘Don’t Shy Away’ (reviewed by me here). Along with the announcement they have shared the first single and …
Premiere: Iain T McKelvey exclusively reveals the anthemic rush of new single ‘There Goes Hollywood’.
We are very pleased to premiere the new track ‘There Goes Hollywood’ from indie rocker Iain T. McKelvey, who, in the interests of change and brevity, has shorn the Midnight Tangoes as an appendage to his name but keeps the same jangling rock’n’roll sound and swagger (with the old band members still contributing). McKelvey says …
Album Review: Rowan Smith unveils songs ‘in the key of kintsugi’ – an assemblage of exquisite sonic treasures framed in gold.
Rowan Smith is songwriter and founding member of Melbourne bands Macguffins and Barefoot as well as writing a series of solo albums. The MacGuffins played between 1988 and 1992 before recently reforming and have links to the Underground Lovers with Philippa Nihill a member. Smith has just released a solo album entitled ‘in the key …
Premiere: Italy’s Varanasi unveil video for the track ‘L’odore della notte’ off their evocative album ‘Cattedrali per principianti’
It’s an irritating side to this reviewing malarkey that you sometimes miss little treasures along the way, and certainly the album release by one of my beloved Italian bands, the dark and gothic Varanasi, fell victim to this overload during the Christmas hiatus. At the end of the year they released their album ‘Cattedrali per …