Track: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – The Punishment of Luxury, plus album news
One of the best synth bands of the eighties, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), are back with a new single and video “The Punishment of Luxury” in anticipation of their album of the same name due out on 1 September 2017. As I have often written before, creativity does not have a use-by date, …
News: Fazerdaze announce more dates in Europe and Australia
In March, Backseat Mafia waxed lyrical about the astonishingly brilliant album ‘Morningside” from New Zealand’s Fazerdaze (still on high rotation on this writer’s turntable), and the band had a very sucessful tour across Europe in May. So successful in fact that Amelia Murray and her band are back on the road again: Thursday 21 September …
New Video: Saint Etienne – Magpie Eyes
There is a particular Danish word “hygge’ – pronounced as ‘hooga’ – that best translates into English as “cosiness” or creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. I always get this feeling with Saint Etienne. There is something quintessentially and comfortingly British about them – more specific London …
New Track and Tour News: The Church – Another Century
One of Australia’s living legends and Backseat Mafia’s favourite antipodean exports, The Church, have just released their new single “Another Century”. This follows very closely (in relative terms) their much lauded 2014 release “Further Deeper” and is off their yet to be titled 26th studio album. “Another Century” is a slightly trippy, luscious drip feed …
Live: Einstürzende Neubauten – Dark Mofo Festival , Hobart, Tasmania, 17 June 2017
The last time I saw Blixa Bargeld, the lead singer of Einstürzende Neubauten (literal translation “Falling New Buildings), he was moonlighting with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He was a gaunt, terrifying presence on stage with a piercing, eviscerating stare and dressed in a rubber butcher’s apron and battering, not playing, guitar. Here in …
Track: Hatchie -Try
A gorgeous portion of shimmering, melancholic summer has just come out of Brisbane, Australia in the form of “Try, the debut single from local Hatchie, the project of Harriette Pilbeam. “Try” really is a delight and a joy to listen to: anthemic, pounding indie pop with just a little hint of yearning. This was only …
EP and Interview: Stingy Brim
One of Backseat Mafia’s favourite bands from New Zealand is Modern Chair– a collaboration between two veterans of the NZ music scene, Andrew Thorne and Wayne Bell. Modern Chair can best be described (and indeed have been) – as dirty, stomping squalls of pure joy laced with a healthy attitude redolent of sweaty leather jackets …
Live: Mogwai – Dark Mofo Festival, Hobart Tasmania, 10 June 2017
There was a full moon, it was bitingly cold, there was siren-singing over loudspeakers at dusk with weird lights on the horizon across Hobart, the town at the edge of the southern world. The streets were filled with roaming packs moving from one art installation to another, amassing at the indulgent medieval Winter Feast and …
Live Review: The Underground Lovers, Northcote Social Club 12.05.17 Plus Gallery
Deep in the heartland of the (apparently) hipsterville suburb of Northcote in Melbourne and the hometown of the Underground Lovers: there couldn’t be a better place to witness the launch of the band’s second phase second album, “Staring at You Staring at Me” (reviewed by Backseat Mafia here). From the very start, it felt like …
Track: The National – The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, plus Album /Tour news
Following some mysterious posts on their social networks, The National have just announced a new album – their seventh studio album – entitled “Sleep Well Beast”, due out on 8 September 2017 through 4AD. The song list is: 1. Nobody Else Will Be There 2. Day I Die 3. Walk It Back 4. The System …