backseat downunder
Track: Fanny Lumsden unveils the rollickingly melodic single ‘Tidy Town’ and announces massive Australian tour.
Fanny Lumsden is a shining star in Australia’s country music scene – a genre admittedly not often covered by me – and her new single ‘Tidy Town’ is a glorious upbeat and positive track that crosses genres with aplomb: a swiftly moving feast of jangling guitars and shimmering melodies. There is a glorious sparkle to …
Track: Perth’s The Faim unveil the blistering anthemic single ‘Ease My Mind’.
With a rousing chorus and a driving, energising pace, the new single from Perth band The Faim is pure pop rock adrenalin that rides on a crest of crystalline guitars and mountainous riffs. Bassist, keyboardist and songwriter Stephen Beerkens talks about the meaning behind ‘Ease My Mind’: ‘Ease My Mind’ was written last year, during …
Track: New Zealand’s Ruby Frost will ‘Never Be Your Baby’ – a charming slice of luminescent indie pop.
Cantering along with a vivacious bounce, and with that essential dash of yearning necessary for a good pop song, the new single from New Zealand’s Ruby Frost ‘Never Be Your Baby’, is a sparkling and luminescent track that exudes rays of sunshine despite a more melancholy subject matter. Frost says the track is about: An …
Premiere: The legendary Alannah Russack (The Hummingbirds, The Aerial Maps) and her Entropy Band is sending out a beacon of light with single ‘Places You Love’, and announces new album.
The Hummingbirds have a permanent place in the annals of indie rock history in Australia, shining brightly but altogether too briefly for a period in the late eighties early nineties (check out their single ‘Blush‘). It is therefore with the greatest pleasure that Backseat Mafia exclusively brings you the new solo single from the band’s …
News: Fusion supergroup Asteroid Ekosystem, with Ed Kuepper, Lloyd Swanton, Alister Spence and Toby Hall, announce their debut gigs in the new year.
The material composition of the Asteroid Ekosystem alone is stunning: Alister Spence is the leader of avant-improv group the Alister Spence Trio and touring keyboardist with Sunnyboys, The Aints! and Laughing Clowns, bassist Lloyd Swanton plays with jazz giants The Necks and the catholics, world class percussionist Toby Hall on drums and the legendary and …
Track: Blackbirds FC unveil the sparkling and evocative track ‘Transport Planes’: a dreamy elision of memory and reality.
With an expansive poetic expression, the new track from Blackbirds FC rings with clarity and yearning as it is carried by luminescent harmonies and jangling guitars. Blackbirds FC have a deeply ingrained antipodean genetic make-up that stretches from over the ditch with The Chills and The Bats to The Go-Betweens and all that glorious jangle …
News: Violent Soho announces their first Sydney headline show in 2 years.
Brisbane goliaths Violent Soho are one of those bands that every Australian just needs to see live. The group’s longevity has been incredible to say the least, having written and released immeasurable records in the last decade, and traversed every inch of the country, making appearances at nearly every festival under the sun. The band …
Track: Heligoland teams up with She Owl to cover John Martyn track ‘Please Fall In Love With Me’ with a delicious dream pop sparkle.
Paris-based Australian dream pop outfit Heligoland have teamed up with Italian dark folk duo She Owl to cover a lesser known John Martyn track ‘Please Fall In Love With Me’, and the result is something quite splendid. Karen Vogt from Heligoland came across the track while undertaking a deep dive of John Martyn’s oeuvre and …
Track: Alisa Xayalith (from New Zealand’s The Naked and Famous) unveils anthemic and powerful debut solo single ‘High Fidelity’.
One of New Zealand’s most fabulous exports, The Naked and Famous, exploded on to the international scene with some stunning indie pop singles and albums and some blistering live shows (see video for ‘Young Blood’ here). While the band is currently in hiatus, singer Alisa Xayalith (now based in Los Angeles) has just released a …
Track: Tina and The Hams return to the fray with the epic and shimmering sounds of ‘Dorset Street’
With a wall of fuzzy, jangling guitars and arcing riffs, the new single from Melbourne’s Tina and the Hams is a powerful piece of indie rock with frayed edge interludes that recalls a nervy Talking Heads or Arcade Fire. The edgy verses are swept aside like a tsunami cutting through the coastline by an epic …