backseat downunder
News: LA’s Winter announces support on Hatchie’s Australian tour, a new album and unveils dreamy new single ‘atonement’ featuring Harriette Pilbeam (Hatchie) and Joe Agius (Rinse)
LA based artist Winter (Samira Winter) has just announced she will be supporting Brisbane’s magnificent Hatchie on her Australian tour and set a date for the release of her new album ‘What Kind of Blue Are You?’ on October 14. But the goodness does not end there: as a taste of what’s to come, Winter …
Live Review + Gallery: Johnny Hunter at The Republic Bar, Hobart 29/07/2022.
Post-punk Sydneysiders finish off their ‘Wait’ national album tour on a high. Johnny Hunter rolled into Hobart town last night and turned on a performance for the ages. Following on from the eclectic supports, World Class Cinema (Launceston) and Flower Extract (Hobart) the boys from New South Wales took to the stage and blasted their …
Track: Huck Hastings collaborates with Charlie Gradon for some harmonic and shimmering ‘Turbulence’, with a launch date cleared for take off.
We here at Backseat Mafia (downunder branch) have been massive fans of Huck Hastings – his 2021 album ‘Cheers To Progress’ (reviewed here) was described as being a cinematic sweep full of love, loss and longing. Having crossed paths on many occasions with fellow Sydney singer/songwriter Charlie Gradon, Hastings has just released a new collaboration …
Live Review: Spin Off Festival, Adelaide Showground, 23.07.2022
The return of Spin Off Festival in Adelaide was huge after having to cancel and reschedule several times since 2019. The huge line-up included acts coming over from the Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, which meant that tickets sold out instantly. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on this …
Track: Charlie Needs Braces unveils the exuberant and hyperkinetic track ‘Daryung’ and announces launch gig.
With a looping, breathing backtrack and an hyperkinetic restless lilt burnished by a wild and abandoned trumpet, the new single from artist Charlie Woods, under the name Charlie Needs Braces, is an exuberant ray of golden sunshine. Woods comes from a proud First Nations background (a GuriNgai woman, descendant of Bungaree and Matora) and the …
Track: New Zealand’s MACEY unveils the smooth and bucolic sounds of ‘Summer Grunge’ and announces EP ‘Lovers: Side A’.
‘Summer Grunge’ from Auckland-based artist MACEY is a smooth and shimmering track which has an easy sibilant and aquatic flow evoking images of balmy sun-soaked afternoons in a green and pleasant land. The instrumentation provides a string-laden billowing dream pop pillow supporting the velvet soft vocals that hypnotise. MACEY is the nom de plume for …
Track: Brisbane based Claude (Mess Esque, Requin) releases the raw, fragile and delicate beauty of ‘Tamarind’.
A touring member of the fabulous Mess Esque and a member of the much lamented Requin, Brisbane based Keeley Young has just released a very special solo project under the name Claude, and our first blissful encounter is the shimmering, fragile single ‘Tamarind’: a delectable morsel of sonic goodness. Gently plucking crystalline acoustic guitars support …
Track: Alannah Russack’s Entropy Band unveil the anthemic and urgent indie pop brilliance of ‘Movement’.
With a steeped and honoured history in Australia’s indie music scene stemming from her role in the legendary The Hummingbirds and Aerial Maps, Alannah Russack has been gracing us with some special music over the past year with a series of solo singles that glitter and shine. Today, Russack made a surprise release of the …
Premiere: The Double Happiness create their own unique antipodean spaghetti western surf genre in their evocative new single ‘Smoking Gun’, and announce launch date.
Brisbane’s The Double Happiness have provided an endless source of brilliant shimmering sounds like no other band over the past few years, carving out a distinct sun-kissed brand of jangle that resonates and captures the sea salt encrusted radiant shores of coastal Queensland. We are ever so honoured to premiere their new single, ‘Smoking Gun’: …
Premiere: Perth-based troubadour extraordinaire, Damien Binder, starts 2022 with another shimmering, golden single, ‘Back To Me’, and announces launch gig.
We are honoured to premiere the new single ‘Back To Me’ from Perth-based New Zealand troubadour Damien Binder. Binder has perfected a brand of antipodean indie pop that shimmers and sparkles like a mirage on the desert horizon. His luscious fulsome sound fills his new single with a blinding glitter, laced with Binder’s trademark velvet …