The Go-Betweens
Album Review: Amanda Brown (ex-The Go-Betweens) unveils her debut solo album ‘Eight Guitars’ – an elegant and ethereal collection of treasures.
While many would be excused for thinking multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter Amanda Brown is defined by her stint with the legendary The Go-Betweens during their absolute peak period (most noticeably the majestic ’16 Lovers Lane’), she has forged a brilliant career in music for film as well as dabbling in a few bands (including Cleopatra …
Album Review: Robert Forster’s ‘The Candle And The Flame’ is an achingly beautiful paean to life and the passage of time.
The highly esteemed songwriter from the legendary The Go-Betweens, Robert Forster, probably needs no introduction – he is a national treasure. Forster has just released his eighth solo album ‘The Candle And The Flame’ and it is unsurprisingly a beautiful and stately release befitting his stature. The album is deeply imbued with a romantic blush …
Album Review: RVG – Feral
Melbourne band RVG (Romy Vager Group), in their second album ‘Feral’, have somehow managed to coalesce all that is great in the Australian indie scene – past and present – to produce what is in my opinion one of the best global releases in recent years. Hyperbole? Have a listen. You can detect all that …
Track: Jack Bratt – Spades
Jack Bratt is a Brisbane performer who has recently received the prestigious Grant McLennan Fellowship jointly funded by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Australian Performing Rights Association. Founded in 2007 in honour of the late Queensland singer-songwriter and co-frontman of The Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan, the Fellowship offers the recipient an opportunity to …
Track: Requin – ‘Rules That Won’t Be Broken’
Brisbane has always had a reputation for producing quirky ground-breaking indie music – think of The Go-Betweens and The Saints for starters or contemporaries like The Goon Sax and Elder. Requin, newly signed to 4000 Records (a mark of quality right there) is such a band. Their new single ‘Rules That Won’t Be Broken’ is …
Track: Bland – Steel Park (The Path)
I’ve been meaning to write about Sydney band Bland for ages and time keeps slipping by. Their new release ‘Steel Park’ is so good that I’m not going to let this one pass by without a mention. Think of the archetypal Australian indie band of yore – The Go-Betweens, Died Pretty and The Triffids and …
Track: Mallrat – Charlie plus EP and tour news
Mallrat‘s development as an important and iconic Australian artist is never more apparent than in her exquisite new song, ‘Charlie’. With a formidable live show and a history of what may unfairly be called melodic bubble gum pop, ‘Charlie’ signals a maturity with its deep-felt sense of yearning and nostalgia way beyond Mallrat’s years. Charlie …
New Track: The Double Happiness – There’s No Place Like Nundah
Cloaked with the faded robes of nostalgia, a peon to the glories of an old forgotten Brisbane, the new single from the quite frankly glorious The Double Happiness is a crystalline reverb-soaked wash of melancholia. It captures the remembrance of the past over a clickety-clack spine that echoes the trams so missed in the lyrics. …
New Track: Thomas Keating – Today, I’m Staying Home
‘Today, I’m Staying Home’ is a glorious, anthemic paean to cocooning from a prodigious new talent, Thomas Keating. A rippling acoustic bedrock underpins Keatings open heartfelt singing and chorus as wide and open as the Simpson Desert. This is a catchy, jaunty pop song whose lyrics are contrastingly tinged with a hint of regret and …
Track: The Double Happiness – City (EP)
The sun keeps on streaming out of Queensland with the release of The Double Happiness EP ‘City’ today. We gave an enthusiastic review of the debut single (also called ‘City’) last month and there’s always that twinge of concern as to whether whether the single is a diamond in a sea of coal. It makes …