backseat downunder
Track: Perth’s delightful smol fish release the low-fi charmer ‘Like A Lemon’ and announce debut EP for August
Imbued with so much melancholy and angst you could cry, smol fish‘s ‘Like A Lemon’ is impossibly endearing and utterly disarming. Laced with an unashamed Australian accented laid back and droll delivery, the track seethes with a sort of disinterested teenage grumpiness, but in a self-deprecatory and ultimately romantic way. Singer/songwriter Clancy Davidson says of …
Meet: We put the spotlight on Nocturnal Animals and hear their explosive new single ‘Outside’
Adelaide’s Nocturnal Animals are by no means your average indie rock band. They have garnered a lot of attention not only for their unique full throttle angular attack but also their theatricality and propensity for dramatic skeletal make up that makes you think of the Mexican festivities Día de Muertos. We premiered their single ‘Articuna …
Album Review: Quivers unveil the epic, jangling, melancholy indie pop masterpiece of ‘Golden Doubt’ and announce Australia-wide tour.
Starting in the tiny southern capital of Hobart at the edge of the world before moving, as bands often do, to Melbourne, Quivers have caught global attention with their unique brand of melancholy indie pop: a classic antipodean style of jangling guitars and yearning vocals, burnished a little more brightly than many peers with a …
Album Review: Restless Leg lay out an enticing ‘Dream Buffet’ and announce tour
I’m going to call it right now, and you heard it first here (maybe). I’ve been alluding to it in a number of reviews I’ve written over the past 18 months but there is an emerging movement – let’s call it the Marrickville Sound – that has dominated the indie scene in Australia. Emanating from …
Premiere: The legendary Even As We Speak provide us with an exclusive look at the stunning and exquisite video for their moving new single ‘Child’
Even As We Speak‘s glorious and incandescent album ‘Adelphi’ (released through Shelflife Records) made it to my list of the best albums of 2020 from Australia and New Zealand. It has, to quote myself, a fragile and elegant beauty that is hypnotic and immersive. It therefore comes as an immense honour to premiere a spectacular …
Track: Lorde makes a welcome return fuelled by ‘Solar Power’
After quite a lengthy absence since her last release, New Zealand’s Lorde has made a forceful and powerful return with the track ‘Solar Power’. A languid and liquid track, ‘Solar Power’ is a slow burning fuse that builds up to an anthemic finish with the kind of rhythmic drive of ‘Screamadelica’-era Primal Scream. The accompanying …
Track: Sydney’s Reality Instructors face their demons with the explosive ‘Finished In My Head’ and announce new EP
Reality Instructors‘ new song ‘Finished in My Head’ is a blistering, punky blast of frustration and anger: cathartic, explosive and born from some very real demons. Singer/songwriter/Guitarist Dan Pash has a degenerative hearing condition and the band’s recording sessions for their forthcoming EP ‘The Timeless Threat of…’ (out June 30 via the band’s own label, …
Track: The Goon Sax unveil vibrant and enigmatic track ‘Psychic’ in run up to their new album ‘Mirror II’ and UK tour dates
After the stunning return earlier this year with the single ‘In The Stone’ (reviewed by me here) , The Goon Sax are back with another brilliant single ‘Psychic’ in the run up to the release of their third album ‘Mirror II’ in July. ‘Psychic’ is further evidence of the creative brilliance of this Brisbane trio …
Premiere: Brisbane’s Dopamine unveils super video for the anthemic gem ‘Strange Situation’, exclusively for Backseat Mafia
‘Strange Situation’, the recent track by Dopamine, is a warm and fuzzy, driving track that has a low-fi charm and a riff as mountainous and compelling as the Dandenong Ranges. There is a Mancunian swagger to the track with its melodic choruses, chugging guitars and wry lyrics. It really is a sparkling gem which has …
Premiere: David M Western provides us with a sneak listen to evocative new single ‘Blue Eyes Red’
Coming from country Victoria, singer songwriter David M Western has crafted a folk-infused delight in his new single ‘Blue Eyes Red’. It is undeniably lightly touched with a hint of Americana or alt. country – even a bit of dirty, swampy blues – and yet is more aligned with an uniquely Australian troubadour outback genre …