Damn, dude, remember these guys? Very much of a time and place for MySpace kids from Australia. “Where the City Meets the Sea” was an end-of-school anthem. We all kinda grew up with this band. Then, we kinda moved on. Having them back in 2011 on a reunion tour was like “Oh, hey! Cool!” Then it kind got old. They’ve since made two albums no-one listened to and half the band has left – which is especially funny when contrasted with one of the quotes in this interview.
This one’s a Q&A. I initially didn’t quite like doing these, but I think I’m a bit more used to it by now – I do a lot more these days in terms of formatting. This one’s a bit too casual for my liking – I’d occasionally fall into the “hey bro, what’s goin’ on?” line of question formatting. Still, it’s funny to read now.
– DJY, May 2016
***
AHM: Hi Matt! The Getaway Plan had only split up for something like 18 months when the reunion was announced. It’s probably the shortest break-up time we’ve ever seen! What triggered the idea in the four of you that perhaps you’d made a mistake? MATT WRIGHT: It was more that our relationship as friends got better. Eventually, we got into the flow of just hanging out and talking – after awhile, the idea came up to make another record. It seemed silly not to.
With that said, you had already settled into your own band [Young Heretics] when the announcement of The Getaway Plan getting back together. Surely there were worries that the same problems would arise again, and that maybe the whole thing could turn bitter quickly? Not at all. It was all really, really clear and obvious from the get-go. It just worked. All the problems that we had before were irrelevant – it just felt great. We are really dedicated to this band now.
In April, the band headed out on the Reclamation tour, which was the first official tour that you guys had done since the split. How did you find it? It was absolutely amazing. The shows ruled, dude – especially the two shows we did at the Metro in Sydney. The tour was everything we hoped it would be and more, man. Back when announced the single reunion show that we did, the response was fucking insane. The show in Melbourne sold out in, like, seven minutes or something. It totally threw us. We were laughing at the fact that it happened, we just couldn’t believe it.
You guys premiered a lot of new material on the tour, including a song with Jenna McDougall [of Tonight Alive] on vocals. Is that song going to be on the album? Yeah, it’s called “Child of Light.” Jenna wasn’t available to sing on the studio version, unfortunately. We did, however, get a children’s choir in for the song.
A children’s choir? No shit! Yeah, dude! It was fucking crazy.
That’s so stadium rock – it seems like that would be something that you wouldn’t have even considered trying in your early years. That must have been a really interesting experience for you guys. We’ve always been a little overly ambitious when it comes to recording and stuff, but to pull that off…man, it was just incredible. On this record, we’ve got orchestras, choirs, double basses, horns, everything. We kind of went all out for this one [laughs].
You might as well! This is, after all, your triumphant return. Exactly!
Let’s talk about the writing of Requiem. One can only imagine it was a very different experience to creating Other Voices, Other Rooms.
It was quite different; because Clint [Ellis, guitarist] was away for most of it, off touring with [the] Amity [Affliction]. He’s left them now, but it was pretty difficult for him and us trying to balance those commitments.
So, with Clint gone, did that mean you were writing most of the guitar parts?
It was more like we were writing songs without lead parts and then letting Clint come in later to record his parts. For the most part of the writing, it was just me, Dave [Anderson, bassist] and Aaron [Barnett, drummer] in a rehearsal studio together. Clint came in around February for a week and got to recording instantly. He was loving the songs – he’d been listening to what we’d been doing thanks to that thing called the world wide web. Maybe it’ll take off [laughs]. It was alright in the end – we were closer at the end because of it. He’d actually written a lot, too. He’d been writing on the road. It was still pretty stressful for all of us, though.
With Amity growing so popular, was there ever a fear that he might choose them over you? I dunno. I think that now that we’re back, the idea of anything changing, any members moving or anything like that…[trails off] …it’s not gonna happen. [laughs] But if it did, you’d be sure that it would definitely mean the end of this band. We wouldn’t be The Getaway Plan anymore. But everything has turned out so well, and we’re all so happy with the record – I can’t see this changing anytime soon.
Did you make a point to change your sound from the one established on Other Voices, Other Rooms? We didn’t really intentionally try to do anything. You should expect something different, though – quite different. It has been four-and-a-half years since our last record. We’ve grown a lot in that time, and have a much greater understanding about working with one another. I’m not gonna say that it’s a Young Heretics and Amity hybrid…but it’s pretty different. There’s a song on the record which is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever written, which is really caustic. You’ll know it when you hear it. The whole thing is really diverse, though.
One last thing: With all of this new material, is there any chance of hearing some Hold Conversation tunes on the Requiem tour later this year? We’ve kind of decided as a band that we’re not really going to be playing those songs anymore. They were great for awhile, but it’s been so long and we broke up for two years – those songs just don’t mean as much to us anymore. Imagine you’re a kid, right, and you do a painting when you’re four years old – imagine being asked to paint that picture for the rest of your life. Those songs don’t really represent the people that we are anymore. It’s not that we’re embarrassed by them, but they just don’t fit stylistically with us as a band. The setlist is pretty full as it is, anyway.
So we’ll never hear The New Year again live? Aww, never say never – but, for now, it doesn’t look like it. [laughs]
I have no issue in claiming Northlane as one of my favourite Australian bands these days. I might not be in that mosh/metalcore scene – and I don’t feel like I’d be particularly welcome if I was – but I admire the growth and the evolution of Northlane’s sound. There are few heavy bands in this country that can step to them; and them’s the facts. I knew something big was on the way when they put out their debut, and that’s where this interview takes place.
Adrian was a talented vocalist, albeit a bit of a brat – he once blocked me on Twitter because I corrected his your/you’re usage. Still, he was a kid. He was growing up as Northlane were exploding, and he couldn’t handle it. No-one’s holding that against him. In fact, it ended up being a blessing in disguise – with Marcus on board, they’ve been able to reach their full potential. Anyway, this interview’s fine. It’s fun, even. Adrian was a good kid to interview because he was just so stoked on his own band – and you can’t really blame him.
– DJY, May 2016
***
Names are a formality worth skipping, according to Adrian Fitipaldes. To the twenty-year-old, everyone is either “mate,” “man” or “dude” – variations of which we are constantly given throughout our interview. There is one name, however, that Fitipaldes wants to engrave on every mind he encounters – the name of Northlane, the band he has fronted for the past couple of years and the band that have finally delivered a huge debut album in the form of Discoveries. “We’ve been working really hard on it,” he enthuses on the line from Melbourne. “What we really want it is to make an impression; to impress everyone. This album’s been in the mix for awhile, man.”
“We went over-time a bit at Electric Sun studios,” he continues, discussing the developmental stages of Discoveries. “John, our guitarist, is a bit pedantic and can be a bit crucial with his lead tones. He ended up re-recording a lot of his parts just to perfect them. We had to do the vocals for ten tracks in two days – which was brutal on me! Then we kept going back and forth with our mixes and mastering, just to continually refine it and make it the best we could.”
Electric Sun Studios, a popular recording studio in Blacktown in Sydney’s west, wasn’t actually the band’s first choice. Adrian reveals that the band initially wanted to head overseas to lay down Discoveries. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t in their budget to do so, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. “If you want to save money, you’re gonna have to do it in Australia,” explains Fitipaldes. “The thing is, though, we really love everything that’s come out of Electric Sun – and, in my personal opinion, it’s the best studio in the country. They have so much experience in the industry, they’re so easy to work with and they have such great ideas. Y’know when you have an idea of what you want something to sound like? They showed me exactly what I wanted to hear.”
Needless to say, a lot of effort has gone in on the band’s behalf to make Discoveries as bold and ambitious as a debut record can be. It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t be expecting more of the same in relation to the band’s first release, the six-track EP Hollow Existence from 2010. According to Fitipaldes, the respective contexts surrounding each of them could not be more different. “On the EP, we were working off a budget,” he says, “and we just wanted to get our name out there as soon as possible. We didn’t really give the production aspect much attention, so that was something we really wanted to step up when it came to this record.” He then adds, with an out-of-character ocker drawl and tongue placed firmly within cheek: “Jus’ wanted to show ‘Straya that we’re not f**kin’ around, ‘ey?” He cracks up, before shouting “don’t put that swear word in there!” in mock-horror.
The differences between Hollow Existence and Discoveries increase when discussion turns to the musical direction taken on the LP. “The EP has got different elements to it,” says Fitipaldes, “but I think the record is really honing in on our musicianships, and setting us apart from other Australian bands. We really want to stand out, and show that we’re not just copying other bands – we’re actually formulating our own ideas, and we’re doing stuff that’s different. I mean, you still want to please your fans and be a part of the hardcore scene – you still want to have the energy and the passion that the hardcore scene is all about. But, at the end of the day, you’re not going to please everyone. Not everyone’s going to like it, and you have to accept that.”
For what it’s worth, Discoveries is an impressive record. Not content to stay within a mould or a limited set of ideas, the album is a strong collection of material that has its foundations laid in hardcore but has no issue with expanding into territory that’s more melodic, heavier, darker and even more electronic – sometimes within the same song. Northlane make no apologies for it, either – they refuse to compromise integrity for popularity, or to get rid of a more out of place section to make way for another boring breakdown.
“I think you’re going to see a lot more of it really soon,” comments Fitipaldes on the topic of hardcore bands in Australia breaking free of generic structure. “Especially in Sydney. I feel it’s been really over-saturated with generic genres. It’s getting tougher and tougher for bands to stand out from the rest. Hopefully, in the next few years, we’re going to see some really cool bands coming up. I mean, there already are some cool ones coming up – I just want to see some more!”
Here’s one that slipped through the cracks from my time writing for Hysteria. I have been a La Dispute fan ever since their debut Australian tour back in 2009. I gotta say, it’s a remarkable transition to go from playing abandoned houses and rehearsal studios to the Corner and the Metro. I’m glad I got to see it all go down. This feature is okay – I think Jordan was still getting used to the idea of people talking to him about his band, and I think I was still getting used to the idea of talking to people about their bands. Call it a work in progress!
– DJY, May 2016
***
As an album, Wildlife is the type of release that feels wholly satisfying – and that has almost as much to do with the context as it does the album itself. The album in the wake left after 2008’s Somewhere at the Bottom Between Vega and Altair, its particularly fiery take on emotive post-hardcore resonating with audiences worldwide. As excellent as Somewhere was, however, it simply couldn’t tide over the band’s more eager fans – a new album was needed to quench their thirst.
“Yeah, it’s been nearly three years since the last record,” says Dreyer, calling from California in the midst of the band’s seemingly endless touring life. “We’ve been keeping occupied with some smaller releases in that time – we did another Here, Hear. EP and we did a split with our good friends in Touche Amore. This last year or so, though, has just been spent piecing the record together. We planned ahead and put a lot of thought into how it would sound – and we honestly couldn’t be prouder of how it’s turned out.”
Although Dreyer feels that Somewhere and Wildlife are quite different records to one another, he is also aware that the comparisons between the two are inevitable. When it’s suggest that there is more of a linear concept to Wildlife than there was on their debut, Jordan notes that particular train of thought is on the right track. “We definitely had an idea of what we wanted it to sound like and what we wanted it to be about,” he said. “It’s important to us to create something that is very much an album experience, something that you can listen to from start to finish. We didn’t want that to be the only way that you listened to it, though – we really wanted to make sure that each track had its own individual merits, too. Essentially, we wanted Wildlife to be something perceived both as a whole and by the sum of its parts.”
In this regard, it’s safe to say that La Dispute have succeeded. As well as containing some of the best songs the group have ever written – the devastating “King Park,” the unbridled aggression of “Harder Harmonies” and the bare-bones honesty found in “a Letter” – it flows with a very smart sense of cohesion and connectivity. It’s quite safe to say that Wildlife is the band’s crowning achievement, with a sound that not only expands from the foundations laid on Somewhere at the Bottom, but also expands into new musical territory previously untouched.
“We weren’t exactly looking for a specific sound,” says Dreyer on the songwriting process of Wildlife. “It certainly required us to cover a lot of different areas, because of the lyrical nature of the songs. We never sat down and specifically said that we were going to write a heavier record or a softer record or whatever. More than anything, we just found what we were writing and recording was a natural progression from what we had done in the years previous. A lot’s happened in that time, y’know, and we’ve all experienced a lot of things – it just felt like we were bringing everything that we had learned to the table this time around.”
As with any La Dispute release, the album has a strong lyrical focus. With a myriad of literary influences (see the Here, Hear. experimental EPs for proof of this), the songs bring its listeners into a deeply personal and often quite dark area of the characters’ lives; and this is arguably more prominent on Wildlife than there has been on any other of the band’s releases. “A lot of the songs on Somewhere were about other people,” says Dreyer, who is the band’s sole lyricist.
“It was kind of my first proper attempt at conveying my ideas of storytelling. I feel that’s definitely progressed on this record – I felt as though I really needed to step up and convey a more personal perspective on what has happened to other people. There were a couple of interactions that I’ve had with people these last few years that ended up being turned into songs. I felt it was important that their story was told, but also that my viewpoint on their story was conveyed as well.”
Although nothing from Wildlife was previewed when the band toured in January of this year, the quintet were still able to effortlessly hang the Sold Out sign on several of their tour dates; once again engaging a cult craze with many fans travelling to a series of shows or even the entire tour. “That was pretty incredible,” says Dreyer with an incredulous laugh. “I mean, the shows were a bit bigger than last time, and we made a lot of new friends – and we got to see a lot of people from the first time around, too. That was really special – Australia is always so good to us, and we just can’t believe our luck sometimes.”
Here we are for part two. Response was unreal last week, thanks for checking it out and sharing it around. Here we go again! Part one here.
80. The Sidekicks – Everything in Twos
“Everything in Twos” turned up less than a month into 2015; dropped its bags and set up shop. It wasn’t going anywhere – nor should it have. Ducking and weaving through shimmering guitars and bouncing drums, it’s the type of power-pop that packs lyrical density to complement the bright, bursting tone; straight from the John K. Samson and John Roderick school of songwriting. Once you’ve surrendered to its wide-eyed charm and heartfelt, harmony-laden chorus, there’s no going back. It clocks in at 2:47, but you’ll be under its spell within the first 30 seconds – or your money back, guarantee.
79. FIDLAR – 40oz. On Repeat
The cheap beer has run dry, there’s no cocaine left and FIDLAR are not as stoked on the whole ‘stoked and broke’ thing that they were a couple of summers back. They’re still making belligerent, snotty garage pop-punk at its core, but the opening number on August’s Too saw them get a little more up-close and personal with their feelings – anger, depression, confusion et al. A dash of wurtilizer and toy piano is just enough to note growth and maturation on their part. Not a complete reinvention – because, duh, FIDLAR – but it keeps you guessing. Listening, too.
78. Bad//Dreems – Bogan Pride
Sure, these Adelaide natives enjoy a torn flanny and a smashed tinnie as much as the next bloke. Even with this in mind, Bad//Dreems are acutely aware of their native land’s major issue with hyper-masculinity. As the guitar scratches urgently against a pounding punk beat, “Bogan Pride” tears down beer-swilling muscle junkies with bitter, unrepentant fury. The irony of more of these types attending Bad//Dreems shows as their profile continues to (deservedly) rise probably won’t be lost on the band. At least they’ll always have this. Bonus points: The only song in the list to feature an exasperated “FUCK’S SAKE!”
77. Brendan Maclean – Tectonic
With synth arpeggios that orbit the planet and gated snare that could knock out Phil Collins in a single hit, “Tectonic” is the furthest that Mr. Maclean has ever ventured from the piano. Much like when Tim Freedman whipped out a keytar in the second verse of “Thank You,” the crowd was confused. But then, they cheered! And oh, how they danced! “Tectonic” is a pulsing, twirling piece of interplanetary pop – a shot in the dark that resonates in high definition. You could say the song was how Brendan got his groove back if only he’d never lost it.
76. Philadelphia Grand Jury – Crashing and Burning, Pt. II
Five years ago, the Philly Jays premiered a new song on tour entitled “A New Package for You,” another archetypal rush of knockabout indie-pop with a wild side and a spring in its step. For the band’s comeback album, the song was resurrected – a new hook, a slightly-slower tempo, a new hair-metal guitar break into the bridge and a bit of sprucing up here and there; hence the “Pt. II” suffix. Its origin story alone is indicative of how the track encapsulates their past, present and the future – it’s “A New Package” in a new package. Get excited.
75. EL VY – Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, with Crescendo)
The National’s Matt Berninger hasn’t always written zingers (lest we forget “Sometimes, you get up/And bake a cake or something” or “Standing at the punch table/Swallowing punch”), but initial listens to his side project’s first single will have you scratching your noggin over whatever mumbo-jumbo he’s spouting off. ‘Triple Jesus’? ‘A saltwater fish from a colourblind witch’? Who knows? Moreover, who cares? The thing about “Return to the Moon” is that it makes perfect sense in clear spite of itself. It’s a pop oddity; a guitar swagger, an off-beat handclap.If Berninger’s enigmatic charisma can’t win you over, perhaps nothing can.
74. Best Coast – Feeing OK
Five years ago was the summer that Best Coast’s debut, Crazy for You, was the ultimate girl guide – an album full of lyrics to quote endlessly on Tumblr while others would reblog and add the phrase “figuratively me!” Not to discredit that album whatsoever, but the best parts of the band’s third, California Nights, are when they’re tackling some of the bigger issues than boy problems and weed. On the album’s opener, Bethany Cosentino laments being there for everyone except herself; learning slowly but surely how to start putting her well-being first once again. It’s figuratively a great start.
73. Sweater Season – Charley
For a band quite figuratively less than a year old to be delivering a song as confident in nature as “Charley” is the equivalent of your infant child skipping the ‘goo-goo’s and ‘ga-ga’s entirely and skipping ahead to reciting a Shakespearian sonnet. In one swiftly-paced and smartly-written piece of proto-grunge indie, the band establishes a dual guitar tone to kill for – all sunshine and radiation – while simultaneously tossing killer one-liners like “I forget what I regret” – later transmogrifying into “what I have left,” for full effect – on top, almost as an afterthought. Damn baby geniuses.
72. The Sidekicks –The Kid Who Broke His Wrist
Steve Ciolak has never shied away from deeply-personal writing – it’s where he embraces it the most that his songs shine. That being said, there’s something about the way he reminisces on childhood spent and a youth now lost to a man on the verge of his thirties that, for whatever reason, feels somehow – importantly – different. It resonates in a way one might not initially expect – perhaps to do with how he still sees so much of himself in the boy that he once was; still finding himself unable to make a proverbial fist. Heartbreaking – and bone-breaking.
71. Citizen – Heaviside
For a band that used to recall acts like Sunny Day Real Estate and Jimmy Eat World, it’s strange that Mogwai and post-Deja Brand New are immediate comparison points when discussing the quietest moment from Citizen’s fascinating second LP. Yes, it’s a departure – and a major one at that – but the faded, distant shimmer of the guitar and the immediate, raw-nerve vocals that feel as though we have cut to the core of what this band is – and, more importantly, what it can be. For a song about purgatory, Citizen sure know where they’re headed on “Heaviside.”
70. Rihanna feat. Kanye West and Paul McCartney – FourFiveSeconds
A Barbadian, a black skinhead and a Beatle walk into a bar… yes, the year’s most unlikely combo were also behind the year’s most unlikely pop smash. Not that these three haven’t seen a hit or two in their lifetime – least of all Macca – but it was the manner in which “FourFiveSeconds” presented itself that made for such an intriguing prospect: Quiet. Unassuming. Raw. Soulful. No braggadocios raps, no “na-na-na”s, no nostalgia. Just an unplugged, intimate moment with true music royalty. A true career highlight for each – and given their combined history, that says a remarkable deal.
69. The Smith Street Band – Wipe That Shit-Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face
The night Tony Abbott was elected, The Smith Street Band played a sold-out Corner Hotel, telling their captive audience that this was not a man to be trusted or one that spoke for them. In the year of Abbott’s demise in the public eye, it began with this furious, damning five-minute suite detailing his evil, hateful ways in explicit detail. It’s the angriest song the band has ever recorded – and, as it stands now, their most important. “A change is gonna come,” Wil Wagner warned, echoing sentiments of the late Sam Cooke. Less than a year later, it did.
68. Seth Sentry – Violin
No-one likes to see the clown crying. When Seth Marton isn’t goofing off, flirting with waitresses or talking about hoverboards, he’s capable of eloquent and passionate introspect. An open letter to an absent, arrogant father, “Violin” is Seth’s most private and painfully-personal song. As Marton’s cathartic furor rains down, so too does his discontent and malaise over how things have panned out. The song’s lynchpin comes in the form of its first and last line – which are one and the same. It brings the song full circle, leading one to hope against hope the bastard hears every last word.
67. White Dog –No Good
From the warehouses, garages and four-track recorders of Sydney, White Dog emerge with fists swinging and teeth sharpened. “No Good” seethes. It radiates from the back of cracked, split-open radio speakers. It prowls the streets of the inner-west wielding a switchblade. It’s the loudest, rawest and most primal sound to erupt from the DIY punk scene this year – and most other years, too, if complete honesty is allowed. If you’re not getting the message already – or maybe you just weren’t paying attention – remember this: “No Good” is the antithesis of its own name. That’s punk as fuck.
66. Major Lazer feat. DJ Snake and MØ –Lean On
Diplo is King Midas – everything he touches becomes gold. DJ Snake is King Henry VIII – he’s a wild motherfucker that’ll chop people’s heads off for the thrill of it. MØ is the lady of the lake – she holds the sword with all the power. By some bizarre head-on collision, the three have been pitted against one another in a three-way dance – and everybody wins. “Lean On” was, for many, the highly sought-after ‘song of the summer.’ More importantly, it was an assertion of pure dominance for both the charts and the dancefloor. Just go with it.
65. The Story So Far – Nerve
The best pop-punk right now is made by kids raised on Through Being Cool that are through being cool. Beyond empty slogans and Tumblr drama lies music that can be artistic, cathartic and genuinely engaging. The Story So Far have evolved into such an act, having grown up before their audience’s eyes and winding up on the wrong side of their 20s with a bad attitude and some killer riffs. Subsequently, “Nerve” stands as one of the most righteously-angry songs of both TSSF’s canon and the calendar year. Any self-respecting rock fan needs to hear them out on this one.
64. Endless Heights – Haunt Me
When Joel Martorana gave up screaming and turned his attention to singing two years ago, it was a confusing and suspicious move to some genre stiffs. As his voice rings out on “Haunt Me,” however, one struggles to recall Endless Heights without it being there. It suits the hypnotic drone of the guitars and the brisk drumming to absolute perfection, and presents itself as further evidence that the change in direction for the band was undoubtedly the right decision to make. Succinctly, “Haunt Me” gets a lot of work done in a considerably-short time. The power of Heights compels you.
63. Justin Bieber – Sorry
It takes a lot for a man to own up to his mistakes – especially if that man was, up until quite recently, a boy despised on a global scale. With an A-team of producers spreading the good word on his behalf – in this particular instance, Sonny “Skrillex” Moore – Bieber’s path to redemption is a gruelling, arduous one for us to undertake. As long as songs like “Sorry” keep turning up, however, the path shall be paved with gold. Anyone not left dancing in the spirit of the song’s phenomenal video just isn’t Beliebing hard enough in themselves.
62. Josh Pyke – Be Your Boy
Sure, he’s a bit more Smooth FM than Triple J these days, but there’s a lot to be said for the fact Josh Pyke has never changed his stripes for anyone. He’s always been a hopeless romantic, a dreamer and an old soul – and all of this entwines beautifully on what is unquestionably his best song in years. Layered percussion and cooed backing vocals prove to be a warm bed for Pyke’s rekindled-youth flame to rest upon; and its sweetly-sincere chorus will do the rest of the job in worming its way into your heart. Ahh, Pykey. You’re alright.
When photos of Silversun Pickups first surfaced, many thought that the voice they were hearing belonged to bassist Nikki Moninger. Naturally, they were in for a world of shock when they inevitably saw Brian Aubert step up to the mic, but “Circadian Rhythm” is a Sliding Doors moment of sorts that shows what life would be like if it was actually Moninger that took the lead. As luck would have it, it’s a total delight – a more subdued and intimate moment from a band that normally go to 11. This, indeed, is a dance well worth immersing yourself in.
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Part three up next Monday!
Don’t forget you can download the podcast version of Part Two here.
It’s about that time, folks. You know how this one goes. Good, clean fight to the finish. All genres, countries and ages accepted. Only one rule: No touching of the hair or face. Alright, let’s get it on!
To pre-game, why not take a listen to this supplementary list of 50 great songs that just missed out on the top 100?
As always, DISCLAIMER: This is not a list of the most popular songs, nor is it a list curated by anyone except myself. These are, in my view, the best songs of the year. Disagreement and discussion is welcomed, but ultimately if you have any real issues with any songs that are ranked too low, too high or not at all… make your own list!
– DJY, December 2015
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100. Cosmic Psychos – Fuckwit City
The greatest moments in the 30-plus year canon of Cosmic Psychos have been helmed by the infamous snarl of Ross Knight, so it’s a rare treat to hear a lead vocal from the band’s pot-bellied riff-bearer, John “Mad Macca” McKeering. Macca’s no crooner – but, then again, neither’s Knighty. It’s not exactly a top priority when there’s a big, stomping riff and a middle-finger-waving chorus to smash through. The accompanying video, which sees the band smashing tinnies and chowing down on snags, gets the point across better than words ever could: them’s the Psychos. They’re not to be fucked with.
99. Kissing Booth –Battlefield
“Battlefield” has been a staple of Kissing Booth’s live shows more or less since their formation, and it’s easy to see why – if it’s not Tom Jenkins’ thunderous tom rolls that lead it in, it’s the earnest, raised-fist chorus and undying mantra of “you’ve got the strength in you to succeed” that will firmly seal the deal. Recorded at long last for their debut, Never Settle, “Battlefield” became a highlight once again – it’s a slow-waltz through love-and-war metaphors and swinging twin-guitar warmth, reeling in listeners before bowling them over. If love is a battlefield, consider Kissing Booth victorious.
98. You Beauty – Illywhacka
They’re not pioneers of writing about love from a hardened, cynical perspective – and Lord knows they won’t be the last. What spices up the title track to You Beauty’s second album is knowing it’s from the perspective of a scam artist – someone who makes a living saying things but never meaning them. “If I misuse the words/I’m not the first,” he justifies at one point; “I do believe it’s unconscious like the rest,” he affirms at another. Throw in some thwacking snare rolls and a Johnny Marr-worthy guitar tone and you’re ready to fall for anything he says.
97. Frank Turner – The Next Storm
Positive Songs for Negative People, Turner’s comeback LP from the middle of 2015, was thematically centred on Turner refusing to let pessimism and a slew of personal ordeals serve as the obstacles they once were. As bar-room piano leads him into a fist-wielding rock shuffle, Turner takes a matter as pedestrian as the weather and lets it blossom into the perfect metaphor for his sunnier outlook. It might seem naff – especially if Turner has ever felt too endearing – but it’s hard to deny a shout-along to a refrain as wonderfully succinct as “Rejoice! Rebuild! The storm has passed!”
96. Young Fathers – Rain or Shine
Young Fathers are in it to win it, because having the Mercury just wasn’t enough. The trio – alongside Sleaford Mods – were two major acts to properly turn British music on its head and expose a darker, more unpleasant side of their respective homelands last year. It’s telling that both immediately followed up their world-class 2014 breakthroughs in 2015; equaling – and occasionally bettering – their predecessors. This slab of sweet-and-sour alt-hop stays true to its name; throwing a Motown worthy ‘hey-hey-hey’ into the blender with some deadpan abstract poetry. Theirs is a revolution that is still… well, revolving.
95. Alabama Shakes – Don’t Wanna Fight
Perhaps the most piercing, indescribable squeal this side of Kings of Leon’s “Charmer” is what lead us into the first single from Alabama Shakes’ long-awaited second album. The groove was very much still in the heart for Brittany Howard and co., shuffling through a head-nodding lick and a driving four-on-the-floor beat before letting loose a truly righteous falsetto-disco chorus that takes on double duty as a harken-back to vintage soul. Much like their finest moments from Boys & Girls, “Don’t Wanna Fight” is some kind of genre Voltron. In the right context, it’s a fully-formed and unstoppable machine. Right on.
94. Horrorshow feat. Thelma Plum, Jimblah and Urthboy – Any Other Name
This protest song, dropped in the wake of horrendous abuse toward now-retired AFL player Adam Goodes, is an endlessly-quotable all-star tirade against the systemic, institutionalised racism that has become more and more prevalent in modern Australian society. Each artist brings their A-game across the track’s runtime, laying their heart out on their sleeves and making it exceptionally clear who is in the wrong. The track’s mic-drop moment comes with Solo’s damning, defiant final point: “Racist is as racist does/So if you’re doing something racist/Hate to break it, you’re a racist, cuz.” This is our wake-up call. Australia, this is you.
93. Hockey Dad – Can’t Have Them
2014 was the year of Zach Stephenson and Billy Fleming, the Windang wunderkinds that wrote the best Australian song of the year and sent audiences young and old into a hair-flipping frenzy. It would have been entirely understandable if they wanted to go for their afternoon nap this year, but it appears the red cordial is still running through their veins. This stand-alone single is a bright, bouncy hip-shaker that strengthens Stephenson’s knack for cooed, wordless refrains and Fleming’s primitive boom-thwack Ringo fills. It bodes considerably well for the band’s imminent debut LP next year. Game on, you little scamps.
92. Drake – Know Yourself
The mixtape lifestyle suited Drake this year. Dropping new material when he felt like it with no label pressure and no pushing for a greater ambition meant that the man born Aubrey Graham was allowed to have a lot more fun. Amid the dozen-plus new songs that arrived on the If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late mixtape, it was this centrepiece that sent fans into a tailspin. Its clanking trap beat, its obnoxious sub-bass and that hook – Drizzy can make this shit happen without even trying these days. You know how that shit go. Airhorns at the ready.
91. Beach Slang – Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas
In the same year that Weston, the pop-punk band James Alex was a part of in the 90s, reunited for a handful of shows; Alex also got a second wind with the momentum of his new band, Beach Slang, who became one of 2015’s most hyped rock bands. It’s easy to both see and hear why this was the case: the paint-splatter ride cymbal, its two-chord fury; not to mention the wordless refrains one has to unlock their jaw in order to properly sing out. We are all in the garage, but some of us are looking at the stars.
90. Endless Heights – Teach You How to Leave
Every year, Endless Heights inch further and further away from the forthright melodic hardcore with which they made their name. Every year, Endless Heights write sharper, smarter songs with a greater level of introspect, heart and poignancy. Simply put: Every year, Endless Heights get flat-out better. This, the title-track to their third EP, feels like an endgame of sorts – the kind of low-key, artfully-quiet song that they have worked towards on previous efforts. It’s able to do more in less than three minutes than what may of the band’s contemporaries can achieve with five-plus. A bright, beautiful slow-burn.
89. The Bennies – Party Machine
From one end to the other, The Bennies can become a million different things – post-punk hip-shakers, knees-up ska bouncers, heavy disco (pardon the pun) ravers. When it all rolls together, it becomes something full of wild-eyed energy; a measured defiance of restrictive guidelines and genre semantics. With a third album looming, “Party Machine” feels like the Bennies single that has the most to prove – that they are ready to take this shit higher than ever before. It passes accordingly with all the flying colours of a hallucinogenic rainbow. The machine rages on. The party is just getting started.
88. Pity Sex – What Might Soothe You?
There are those that haven’t quite known what to make of Pity Sex in the past – too much of an indie band for shoegaze nerds, too much of a shoegaze band for indie kids. On their first new material in two years, the band play up their limbo with a song accentuating both sides of the coin. Twee, unisex vocals are placed under the same spotlight as hazed-out, Daydream Nation-worthy guitar fuzz – at once joyously bright and uniformly morose. Putting genre semantics aside and appreciating a great song for what it is – it, indeed, might soothe you.
87. Miguel – leaves
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was given a songwriting credit to this end-of-summer lament after Miguel claimed he was accidentally inspired by the Pumpkins’ hit “1979.” The similarities certainly present themselves – particularly in the off-kilter guitar patterns – but “leaves” substitutes the mid-west teenage dreaming for west-coast heartbreak and Corgan’s adenoidal nostalgia for a smooth, love-lorn crooning. Along with being a standout moment of Miguel’s excellent Wildheart LP, it certainly stands as the best thing Corgan has been attached to in well over a decade – and it says a lot that he wasn’t directly involved at all.
86. Darren Hanlon – The Chattanooga Shoot-Shoot
He’s spent over a decade as one of the country’s smartest, most celebrated songwriters – even his peers can’t help but be amazed by the way he wondrously weaves his wayward words. The standout track from his fifth album takes the Gympie couchsurfer about as far from home as he’s ever been – travelling to Tennessee on a budget bus. To borrow a phrase from Upworthy, you won’t believe what happens next. The “Folsom Prison Blues” chord progression and timely snare hits are a nice touch, too. Of all of Hanlon’s tales, this one hits number one with a bullet.
85. Micachu and the Shapes – Oh Baby
“It’s not us to give up in a rush,” crows Mica Levi over a hypnotic boom-bap rhythm and underwater synths blubbering from afar. She’s got a point, y’know – it might have been three years since we heard from Levi, Raisa Khan and Marc Pell; but they re-enter the fray as if they were never really gone. Reverb-laden crooning and an experimental hip-hop flavour to the song’s lo-fi production add spice and texture, but theirs is a dynamic so constantly-shifting and fascinating that these two aspects could just as well be just scratching the surface. Just like that, it vanishes.
84. Best Coast – Heaven Sent
Not to get all Rick Astley on the situation, but Best Coast are no strangers to love. Their knack lies in their ability to make it sound as fresh and dewy-eyed as that of young romance. No-one else in the current indie-rock climate could drop something as sappy as “You are the one that I adore” atop a major chord and not only get away with it, but be commended for it. There’s a method and an art-form to all of this – and the only ones that know the secret recipe are Bethany and Bobb. Love rules, yeah yeah.
83. Bad//Dreems –Cuffed and Collared
What other band in Australia right now could simultaneously recall God’s “My Pal” and The Remembrandt’s sole hit “I’ll Be There for You” in a single bound? It could well have something to do with how “Cuffed and Collared” vividly mashes together the fury and bounding energy of the former with the unmistakable pop ear-worms of the latter. It might be a song that details a violent altercation, sure; but you’ll be damned if you aren’t grinning every time that the hook in question rolls around – and it’s on a near-frequent loop. With Dreems like these, who needs Friends?
82. Foals – What Went Down
What the ever-loving fuck is going on here? From its seasick organ drone to its detour into a thick three-note riff – not to mention its subsequent tear-down and empirical rebuild – “What Went Down” is one of the most head-spinning, ferocious compositions that Foals have ever committed to wax. What else does it have in store? Abstract imagery! A piercing, screamed refrain! Constant, unpredictable swerves that threaten to throw the entire goddamn thing off a cliff! To paraphrase a quote from Blades of Glory‘s Chazz Michael-Michaels: No-one knows what went down, but it’s provocative. It gets the people going.
81. The Hard Aches –Knots
One of the true signs of great, honest songwriting is when the writer in question turns the knife – or, in this case, the much-mightier pen – on themselves. The Hard Aches’ Ben David exposes his flaws on this key track from the band’s debut, Pheromones; bitterly portraying himself as a pathological, unrepentant liar in a constant state of exhaustion. Towards the song’s thrilling conclusion, however, he indicates that he’s on the road to bettering himself – and his is such a blunt, forthright delivery that you just know that he’ll get there. The untying process slowly but surely begins.
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Part Two will be posted next Monday!
To download the podcast version of Part One, click here.
Vibes aplenty, not a dud set among the batch and a true celebration of mostly-Australian awesomeness. What more can you say? This one we’ll hand to the legendary Dion Ford of Palms: “It was such a great day, not even Shania ‘I’m not easily impressed’ Twain could deny its excellence.”
24. The Bronx @ Metro Theatre, 20/6
If it’s a calendar year in Australia and The Bronx haven’t visited, did it actually happen? One of their final shows in support of 2013’s fourth album arrived with little more than their greatest hits and a spurt of energy that can only come with racing toward the finish line.
23. Ms. Lauryn Hill @ Sydney Opera House, 27/5
It’s turned into both a scarce rarity and a monumental risk – what to make of the illusive Fugee fifteen years and change removed from her seminal sole LP? As luck would have it, she remains a joyous, invigorated performer; backed by a sensational band and a rekindled spirit. To Zion!
22. Pixies @ Sydney Opera House, 23 and 26/5
Seeing The Breeders and a Deal-less Pixies within months of one another felt more or less like visiting your mum’s and then your dad’s after a divorce. They’re happier without one another and doing really well on their own. Life’s good. All we are saying is give Pixies a chance.
21. Cloud Nothings @ Oxford Art Factory, 10/12
Nearly two years on from their breathtaking Sydney debut, Dylan Baldi and co. proved that a three-legged dog is just as menacing. Cuts from Here and Nowhere Else thrived, but a propulsive “Wasted Days” finale – clocking in at just over sixteen minutes – sealed the deal. Rock & roll is fun.
20. The Dillinger Escape Plan @ Metro Theatre, 24/2
With a rare appearance from Glassjaw and Japanese sensations Dir En Grey, the Escape Plan tore Sydney a new one at their first headlining show in four years. Shit got as wild as you would hope, including a grand finale involving Greg Puciato figuratively hanging upside down from the rafters.
19. You Am I and Heavy Friends @ Vic on The Park, 1/1
That’s how you kick off a year, boys and girls. There’s Courtney Barnett jamming on Divinyls. There’s Phil Jamieson, climbing a speaker stack like it was 1998 and busting out “Cathy’s Clown.” There’s the Red fucking Wiggle, Murray Cook, playing Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen songs. So fucking rock.
18. The Bennies @ Beatdisc Records, 16/3
It was the Brady Bunch of tour weekenders – Luca Brasi and Postblue met The Bennies and Apart From This in a fatal-four-way overseen by local legends Oslow. Improv dub jams, pies to the face and enough juicy tunes to turn Parramatta’s little shop of rock into the ultimate hot-box.
17. Manchester Orchestra @ Metro Theatre, 15/11
There was a mixed reaction to Cope, Manchester Orchestra’s fourth studio album. When it comes to their live shows, however, it’s unanimous – they are unmissable. Especially if Kevin Devine is along for the ride. A borderline-religious “Where Have You Been” capped off a stellar performance. Forever and ever.
16. Kishi Bashi @ Newtown Social Club, 1/7
One man, one violin, a couple hundred admirers watching on from the front and figuratively surrounding him for over half the set. Warm, joyous intimacy. Tender, beautiful songs – some old favourites among the devotees, some fresh from Ishibashi’s excellent Lighght LP. This entire show felt like falling in love.
15. Kanye West @ Qantas Credit Union Arena, 12/9
The storm-in-a-teacup wheelchair debacle aside, this show was proof that Kanye stands as one of the single most charismatic performers in the world right now. He can command an entire audience for two hours entirely on his own, with little more than a backdrop and a catwalk. Make a circle.
14. Ben Folds and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra @ Sydney Opera House, 14/11
It’s about the closest thing that pensioners get to a rock concert, but Folds is still managing to keep his orchestral collaborations enticing for all ages and all levels of BF fandom. A stunning “Rock This Bitch” was the centrepiece, improvising an entire arrangement with jaw-dropping and hilarious results.
13. DZ Deathrays @ Rad, 30/5
If this completely sold-out Wollongong show showed us anything, it was that the risk of coming down to the leisure coast had paid off tenfold. Bodies flew, riffs fired up and the Brisbane boys effortlessly showcased why they’re such a dominant force in Australian music right now. Carn the Gong.
12. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu @ UNSW Roundhouse, 23/3
In a venue best known for hosting angsty, black-clad bro-bands, the amazing technicolour world of J-pop came to life with the debut visit of one if its most unique characters. From its bizarre interludes to KPP’s adorable attempts at speaking English, this was an entryway into a whole new universe.
11. Reggie Watts @ Sydney Opera House, 19/10
No two Reggie Watts shows are ever the same. You never know what will happen next. One minute, it’s an a-cappella croon about fish; the next it’s a 10-minute LCD Soundsystem homage. Wherever you end up, both the journey and the destination are unforgettable. Beyond comedy, beyond music, beyond improv.
10. Bruce Springsteen @ Allphones Arena, 19/2
Every last excess and indulgence was allowed at the arena rock show of both this year and the year before it. How does the Boss do it? Five guitarists – that’s how. Playing Darkness on the Edge of Town in full – that is fucking how. A three-hour show book-ended by show-stopping covers – The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” at the top, Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” at the end – and filled to the brim with just about every E Street classic you could hope for. Y’all come back now, y’hear?
9. Deafheaven @ Oxford Art Factory, 9/1
After dropping the most intense, mystical metal album of 2013, it was only fitting that Deafheaven’s maiden voyage to Australia delivered the most intense, mystical metal show of 2014. Every movement was striking, every sound piercing, every song all-encompassing and breathtaking in their spectrum. Certainly not something that anyone present would be forgetting anytime soon.
8. Lemuria @ Hermann’s Bar, 1/2
Some nights, the stars align. This was one such night – the perfect line-up, the perfect group of friends, the perfect venue. Bringing Lemuria to Australia for the first time was such an exciting prospect for many people who had been charmed by their sweetly-harmonic yet hard-hitting mix of pop-punk and indie-rock over the years. Having the delightful Erica Freas, Pinch Hitter and Kissing Booth all on board made matters even greater, to the point where there was not a face to be seen within a 100-metre radius that wasn’t plastered with a smile. Let’s hope that those stars align again some day soon.
7. Dolly Parton @ Qantas Credit Union Arena, 18/2
There is one guarantee from a Dolly Parton show, and that’s fun. Few entertainers in the world today put on a show as fun as the immortal country star. It’s all glitter and rhinestones and gloriously camp sing-alongs, from “Jolene” to “Islands in the Stream” and a couple of bat-shit covers (“Yakety Sax,” “Shine” by Collective Soul) for good measure. It’s as ridiculous – and as fabulous – as you’d expect. This is Dolly’s world, you’re just living in it.
6. Future Islands @ Oxford Art Factory, 27/7
Ever since that Letterman performance, the weight of expectation has been heavy on the back of Future Islands. It’s not as if it’s anything they couldn’t handle, of course. By the time they arrived in Australia as a part of Splendour in the Grass, they were headed to completely sold-out headlining shows that cemented their reputation asthe hottest band in the indie realm. The entire show was a dazzling showcase of what it means to truly believe in your music – it’s hard to find anyone who’ll deliver a performance the way that Samuel T. Herring does. Once that song from that Letterman performance came to life once again, all bets were off.
5. Violent Soho @ Manning Bar, 8, 10 and 11/7
What kind of year was it for Violent Soho? For starters, it was their tenth year together as a band; and also a year following the release of their exceptional Hungry Ghost LP. It was a year they went from hopeful underdogs to the most unstoppable force in the Australian rock climate. It was a year that saw them complete a national tour that completely sold out, even after adding multiple dates. A shift was signalled; and their ascension to the next level was justified. What more can you say about these wild, brawny shows than the band’s own joyful double-expletive – hell fuck yeah.
4. Billy Bragg @ Manning Bar, 18/3
It might have been a classier affair a few days before at the Opera House, but the Bard of Barking was back to basics with his airtight new backing band in tow at this rare club show. The two-hour-plus show found the time to be both tender (“Tank Park Salute,” “California Stars”) and triumphant (“Sexuality,” “To Have and Have Not”); as well as politically charged in the wake of the March in March (“All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” the glorious finale of “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”). No matter where Bragg and co. took the mood of the evening, the adoring crowd was there every step of the way. Viva la revolution.
3. Arcade Fire @ Qantas Credit Union Arena, 28/1
Six years separated visits from Arcade Fire, both tied in with appearances atop the bill of the Big Day Out. While last time around had the band in the relatively-intimate surrounds of the Enmore, the years between proverbial drinks were substantially kind to the Canadian collective – to the point where they were comfortably filling out an arena. With support from Diplo, of all fucking people. Yes, Arcade Fire have graduated to being one of the biggest bands in the world – both from a profile-based and numerical perspective. With this grandiose performance came a justification for their elevation – a career-spanning, glittery journey through chamber pop, indie rock, roller disco and INXS (because why not?). One hopes against hope that it’s not another six years before they return, but even if it is they’ll make it worth the wait. They always do.
2. St. Vincent @ Sydney Opera House, 25/5
2014’s Vivid Live line-up brought us a myriad of joyful performances from veterans, newcomers and locals alike. It really was the most magical time of year – each trek from the wharf at Circular Quay guaranteed a wonderful night was in store. The most stunning of them all came in the form of Annie Clark, pop music’s reigning, defending champion of the weird and the wonderful. Last in town for a similarly-unforgettable performance alongside David Byrne, Clark returned focus solely to her name on the back of an exceptional eponymous LP. The set, which saw Clark team with a sharply-choreographed backing band, spiralled and twirled around jagged indie-rock, lush balladry and slow-motion heartbreak. A truly beautiful cacophony that ran the emotional gauntlet and left all in attendance completely gobsmacked. Long live the queen.
1. The National @ Opera House Forecourt, 7/1
You could have taken any single moment of this show and held it up to justify why it was the greatest live experience of the year. Matt Berninger toppling over the crowd, crowdsurfing to “Mr. November.” The band churning out an intense, soul-swallowing “Afraid of Everyone.” A completely-unplugged, all-in “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.” The list could go on and on. It was a matter of taking in the surrounds – the Opera House behind us, the Harbour Bridge to the east, the sun setting and night-time seeping in – and allowing it to blend into the truly beautiful music on offer from a band truly at their peak from both an artistic and a cultural standpoint. Nothing else could have come close to this show, purely on the basis that there was nothing else like it for the rest of the year.
Hey y’all! Well, how about this, huh? Here be the ten best rekkids of the year done gone past. Huge thanks for seeing through list season with me. Catch y’all next time around!
10. The Gaslight Anthem – Get Hurt Spotify || Rdio
Life isn’t all blue jeans and white t-shirts. The Gaslight Anthem have finally escaped the small town that almost killed them and have wound up strangers in a strange land on their fifth album. Get Hurt is an exploration through unchartered waters and foreign territory, a much-needed break from the comfort zone that, regardless of the quality of outcome, could well have killed this band had they remained within its confines.
Certainly, it wasn’t as if there was some drastic detour into acid jazz or anything of the sort – after all, as Brian Fallon himself sings at one juncture, “I still love rock & roll/I still call somebody ‘baby.’” There is a stretching of boundaries here, however, that is indicative of a prosperous future beyond nights with the radio and Maryanne. Get Hurt is the sound of Gaslight beginning again.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Stay Vicious, Get Hurt, Break Your Heart.
Sia Furler, for a time, was the ghost of pop charts past. Her writing credits and, if listening closely, her unmistakable voice, infiltrated dozen of singles from some of the biggest names in the industry. It’s a life that could well have made a sustainable living for the rest of her days. The call of work under her own name, however – on hold for several years at this point – eventually grew too strong.
There were stipulations: No touring, no media campaign, no public appearances. It was a fair compromise, however, when in return we received her greatest LP since 2004’s spotless Colour the Small One. Marrying her intrinsic, introspective songwriting with the sensibilities gained from her double-life in mainstream pop, Fear allowed us to see behind the blonde bob wig. We may not have seen her face all year, but this allowed for something greater – we saw her heart.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Elastic Heart, Big Girls Cry, Chandelier.
An exercise in irony: The definitive album from a veteran band has its title based on an online acronym for “someone who isn’t me.” Truth be told, this is an album could not have come from any other band – after over a decade sharpening and refining their throttled, scorched-earth take on noise-heavy post-punk, all roads that Die! Die! Die! have travelled have ultimately lead to S W I M’s creation.
It snarls, scratches and seethes through envy, paranoia and disconnect – in other words, it’s a decidedly ugly, ruthlessly aggressive listen. It’s not user-friendly or accessible, of course. Die! Die! Die! have never been as such before. The difference is that they have never sounded so vital and purposeful in the execution of their ideas as they do here and now.
A house is not a home. That doesn’t mean that it never has been, of course. Finding the house that was once a home – your home – can trigger so many memories, stories, truths and once-faded thoughts. This is conceptually explored – with considerable depth, it must be added – on La Dispute’s third studio album.
The hyper-literacy and Jordan Dreyer’s foreboding poetry that weaved its way through previous releases not only recurs on the album, but arguably latches onto its strongest subject matter to date. Each room sparks something different, allowing the protagonist to reflect on how much has changed since the transition from home to house. It’s often not for the better, but it’s perhaps this that keeps one hanging on every single word. Rooms of the House is a creative work in every sense.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Woman (In Mirror), For Mayor in Splitsville, Stay Happy There.
A chance encounter. A dead-end job. A fear of flying. An untimely demise. A sudden realisation. A friend in need. These things, while separate entities from a contextual standpoint, are tangled together in the half-hour-and-change that comprises the debut album from this unexpected team-up.
While many came to know the project from Nick van Breda and Dave Drayton from their live shows – simply two men, two voices and, yes, two banjos – Accidents allows the two to flourish in a wider spectrum. Their musings and noodlings are guided by xylophone (“Nine-to-Fine”), flutes (“All of a Sudden”) and even typewriters (“They Said This Would Stop” – no shit). It’s all tied up with the four-part title track that weaves in and out of the tracklisting – and its final blow is still as devastating long after the first time you hear it.
A folk album without guitar? It’s possible. Anything’s possible. Everything’s matter. Everything matters.
THREE TOP TRACKS: All of a Sudden, Part IV, Nine-to-Fine.
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5. Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World Spotify || Rdio
Back in a time when the American president was public enemy number one, Kanye West was a debut-album rookie and dance-punk was as legitimate as any rock subgenre, one guitar-less duo ruled over their six-stringed contemporaries with a half-hour of power known as You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine. It was cemented by ear-splitting live shows, instant cult status and an unforgettable performance on Conan with none other than Max Weinberg sitting in.
It would take two short years for everything to fall apart for Death From Above 1979, and that – so we thought – was that. Several contributing factors lead to the band’s eventual reunion, but the most prevalent ended up being unfinished business. Despite becoming quote-unquote “adults” in the time they were apart, there was still an agenda to make loud, visceral and ripsnorting rock & roll.
That’s where The Physcial World comes in – a rarity insofar as being a sequel that not only matches up to its predecessor, but threatens to rival it so often it may well swallow the thing whole. Long live Death.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Right On, Frankenstein!, White is Red, Cheap Talk.
Were you told about Benji on paper, one would rightly distance themselves from it as soon as humanly possible. Just think – a late-forties dude mumbling about his parents, his dead uncle, various sexual encounters, James Gandolfini and his home state of Ohio. What could possibly be appealing about that?
It could well be argued that Benji, as an album, succeeds on account of these traits and not in spite of them. Mark Kozelek has been known in the past to allow his simple, sombre style of songwriting and storytelling to uplift ordinary things, places and people into the extraordinary. Jim Wise sounds like an odd, weird dude. On “Jim Wise,” however, he somehow turns into an endlessly-fascinating character. The same can be said of Kozelek’s second cousin, his drummer and even his dear mother (“My mother is 75/She’s the closest friend I have ever had.”) They are – or were, in some cases – just regular people until Sun Kil Moon reels them into his world.
Whether you find him driving to a Postal Service show or tripping out on Led Zeppelin in his younger days, Mark Kozelek somehow makes the cold all the more inviting. Benji is a journey – a long, exhausting and depressing one; but one any self-respecting music fan should take at some point in their lives.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes, I Love My Dad, Carissa.
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3. Ben Howard – I Forget Where We Were Spotify || Rdio
“Has the world gone mad?” opines Ben Howard mere minutes into the first track on his second album, before adding a further line of questioning: “Or is it me?” By the end of I Forget Where We Were, you won’t have an answer. Hell, you won’t even have one after a dozen spins. As it progresses, the album poses far more questions than it provides answers or traces of resolve.
Perhaps it’s this that makes it such an intriguing prospect – from a songwriting perspective, it allows Howard to less scratch below the surface and more dig down as far as humanly possible. Besides bearing his name, precious little else lies on the common ground between Forget and its predecessor – here, we work through varying degrees of light and shade; love and loss; truth and lies. It takes you to points where you fear you may never return – points you feel, as a listener, you may well not be entirely prepared to go.
Herein lies the rich reward of I Forget where We Were. Ben Howard has evolved from being a mere singer-songwriter – here, he has become a journeyman.
THREE TOP TRACKS: End of the Affair, I Forget Where We Were, Conrad.
Ray Charles, an r&b star, once made a country album. Kanye West, a rap phenomenon, once made an album where he sang for its entirety. Radiohead, at one point the most promising prospect in guitar music, once made an album where they barely touched the things. More than once, now you mention it. What is this all leading to? It’s simple, really: The notion that risks should not only be taken, but actively encouraged. Who knows what awaits on the other side? Perhaps true greatness.That’s what happened on Keep You.
Pianos Become the Teeth – an emo band in the true sense, bypassing the mall to arrive at Orchid’s discography – made an album where their harsh screams and dissonant guitars were traded in for what are known in hardcore circles as “clean” vocals and a collective dip into the waters of the indie and post-rock spectrums. It was an all-or-nothing movie – make or break, sink or swim. The Baltimore natives risked everything and won it back tenfold.
Not only is it the finest of their three long-players, it also serves as a shining beacon from their immediate scene – a message to the outer reaches detailing the adventurous versatility at work within it. For an album whose final line is a cry of “Let’s say nothing some more,” Keep You says more in its actions than words ever could.
Around ten years ago, in an interview with NME, Carl Barât was asked his favourite album of the year as part of a generic series of questions asked of several musicians. Barât chose A Grand Don’t Come for Free by The Streets, reasoning that the album was a reflection of England that many may not necessarily want to see or hear about.
This is being brought up a decade on for two core reasons. The first of which is to sound the trumpets to signal the arrival of a new outfit less holding up a mirror to contemporary British society and more smashing said mirror and holding up a jagged shard, just to feel the pain that the pricks of blood bring. The second is admittedly a little more petulant – it’s because the reference and the people and publication which it contains would be immediately be despised by James Williamson, the spoken-word half of Sleaford Mods who barks, grunts, prophesises and spits through every last thing that displeases him.
It’s a cruel, frustrating world in which he lives; one that constantly brands him a fool and a ne’er-do-well when it should be acknowledging him as the smartest guy in the room. “I can’t believe the rich still exist,” he laments within the album’s opening minutes. “Let alone run the fucking country.” It’s said through fuzz and distortion, and yet it lands with all the clarity of being yelled directly into your ear. He may soapbox his way through several tracks (“Liveable Shit,” “Tweet Tweet Tweet”), but certain things slash through a raw nerve. He may seethe at an upper-class acquaintance he’s attempting to manipulate (“I’m a connoisseur!/I’ve conned you, sir!/I just wanked in your toilet!”) but his envy is quick to undo him entirely (“I want a house like this, how do I get it?/It’s beautiful! It’s fucking ridiculous!”).
There are layers of complications, deep-running waters of disarray and the throbbing pain of a hangover following another bottomless night in the sewerage of another disgusting city. Divide and Exit was the sound of the everyman’s demise, the death of the common people and the experiment starting over. Sleaford Mods might not want to change the world, nor is it looking specifically for a new England – and, yet, both are achieved and found, respectively, on Divide and Exit. A voice raised to its heights for years on end has finally shifted to the forefront and being paid the attention it deserves.
THREE TOP TRACKS: You’re Brave, Tied Up in Nottz, Liveable Shit.
And so this is list season – and what have you done? At the start of 2014, I vowed to see more shows than I did in 2013. How’d I go? Well, 2013’s final count was 193. This year? 206! Suck shit, 2013!
A huge thanks to everyone who I rocked a show with, everyone who provided a couch or a floor when needed, all the great bands and artists, all the awesome venues, staff, crew… everyone that makes my escapades possible. I really fucking appreciate it. Let’s see how we go in 2015! Here are the best things I saw in 2014. Were you there?
– DJY, January 2015
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: The Living End, Anberlin, Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt, Jimmy Eat World, High Tension, Full of Hell, Cakes Da Killa, Bob Log III, Inner Fest, John Mayer, The Julie Ruin, Frightened Rabbit, Basement, Soundwave, Ty Segall, Savages, Fishing.
50. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard @ Oxford Art Factory, 11/12
Two albums, endless touring, more jams kicked out than an army of MC5s… 2014 was yet another wonderful time in the wild, weird world of Australia’s most psyched-out septet. It ended not with a whimper, but with a bong – sorry, bang – and we were better people for it.
49. Miley Cyrus @ Allphones Arena, 17/10
You know that scene in Shrek where they’re at the information booth and they see the weird puppet show and Donkey says, after a confused beat, “Wow… let’s do that again!”? That was this show. The year’s most bizarre pop gig, as well as its guiltiest pleasure.
48. Donny Benet @ Brighton Up Bar, 10/10
Suits, synthesizers and the sharpest pop this side of Sydney – that’s Donny Benet. He and his all-star band lead a packed, sweaty room through a guided tour of his latest, Weekend at Donny’s. Besides all that, it was worth the ticket price just to watch Jack Ladder play cowbell.
47. Hard-Ons @ Manning Bar, 7/6
30 years ago, some brats from Western Sydney made their punk-rock dreams come true. 30 years later, they’re keeping the dream alive – and we, the crusty, screaming masses, are still along for the ride. Bonus points for a scorching set from Cosmic Psychos as a Sydney treat. Fuck yeah.
46. Wil Wagner @ Newtown Social Club, 29/8
Months before Throw Me in the River was out in the world, the Smithies’ fearless leader lead a sold-out room through some of its highlights; as well as enough old favourites to sing the night away to. A relatively-quiet moment from an artist who made lots of noise in 2014.
45. Violent Femmes @ Sydney Opera House, 29/12
Do you like American music? We like American music – especially when it’s from a legendary cult folk-rock band making their debut at one of the most iconic venues in the world. A self-titled LP run-through, a two-hour setlist, a bitchin’ drum solo… we like American music best, baby.
44. Bruno Mars @ Qantas Credit Union Arena, 8/3
Make what you will of his various recorded endeavours. Live, this motherfucker is untouchable. A spotless live band and blistering choreography guaranteed a venue full of arses out of their seats; wiggling until they could wiggle no more. Remember: This is Bruno’s world – y’all are just living in it.
43. Neko Case @ Sydney Opera House, 3/3
Before she returned to the world of The New Pornographers, Case wrapped touring on the back of her excellent The Worse Things Get LP with a run of dates down under. We laughed (Case and Kelly Hogan’s banter), we cried (a pin-drop “Nearly Midnight”) and we sang (“Man”). Joyous.
42. La Dispute @ Metro Theatre, 18/6
As long as La Dispute keep coming back to Australia, they’ll continue to serve as a highlight of the year in touring. Not only do they continue to bring exceptional supports – in this instance, Balance and Composure – but they’ve completely justified their progression from basement shows to theatres.
41. James Vincent McMorrow @ Sydney Opera House, 29/5
He began the year with the release of an out-of-nowhere LP and sold-out Australian shows to back it. His return some months later felt like a victory lap; and despite some clear nerves, the charming Irishman was quick to make the lush surrounds of the concert hall his very own.
40. Future of the Left @ Factory Theatre, 3/1
The demise of the Annandale could have ruined their return plans, but Falco and his Futuristic friends pressed on in new surrounds and carried on business as usual. For those that don’t know, hilarious banter and wild breakneck post-punk is business – and business is good. Fuck the Annandale, man.
39. Laneway Festival @ RNA Showgrounds, 31/1
Turns out Brisbane does more than just bitch about the tours they don’t get – they do a pretty decent festival when they put their mind to it. Highlights included the intense Savages and a hip-hop triple-threat to see the night out: Danny Brown, Run the Jewels and Earl Sweatshirt.
38. Courtney Barnett @ Goodgod Small Club, 18/1
Before Fallon, Glastonbury and whatever other fortunes came her way in 2014, everyone’s mate Courtney Barnett turned the club surrounds of Goodgod into a boot-scooting indie-kid haven. Expect her to play rooms ten times the size in the year to come. Don’t say you weren’t warned, now. She’s earned it.
37. The Smith Street Band @ Factory Theatre, 24/11
As great, extremely loud and incredibly close those early Smith Street shows were, we’re on a bigger – and, arguably, better – scale. As they edge ever closer to being our best live act, the voices singing back are getting louder. Shows like this prove why that’s a good thing.
36. Kimbra @ Metro Theatre, 20/11
The Golden Echo wasn’t for everyone, and that’s totally fine. It was never going to be. Her live show, however, remains as flashy and exciting as it did when you first saw it. Not all that glitters is gold – but some of it is. That’s why Kimbra still rules.
35. Yes I’m Leaving @ Beatdisc Records, 8/11
Broken strings, dodgy amps, awkward pauses – potentially a recipe for disaster. Instead, we got the little rock show that could – shit got loud and shit got wild. It ended with the band piling both their instruments and themselves on top of the drum-kit. Because of course it did.
34. Outright @ Jura Books, 11/10
The most important band in Australian hardcore right now assembled an A-team of supports – Palmar Grasp, Canine, Family Values – and raised nearly $1500 for victims of rape and domestic violence. To every other band on the scene: THAT’S how you make a difference. Outright, again, lead by example.
33. Kevin Devine @ Newtown Social Club, 16/11
In the haze of the early Sunday evening, a waif-thin and unassuming figure was singing and playing guitar in Sydney’s inner-west. The only difference was the figure in question was a folk hero of sorts, surrounded by adoring admirers that knew every word to every song. Please be back soon.
32. Bluejuice @ Metro Theatre, 26/10
It’s so hard to say goodbye sometimes – especially when you’re dancing, screaming, shouting and getting a cheeky crowdsurf in edgeways. Less a funeral and more a celebratory memorial service, Bluejuice ended in style. Special mention to Jake Stone for the ballsiest dive the Metro may have ever seen. God-damn.
31. Bob Dylan @ State Theatre, 4/9
It ain’t the 60s anymore, kids. As soon as you comprehend that, then and only then will you be able to properly enjoy a modern-day Dylan show. It’s still grand in scale and as entertaining as before, just in a different context. So, how does it feel? Pretty good, actually.
30. tUnE-yArDs @ Oxford Art Factory, 28/7
The dust had barely settled from Splendour in the Grass when Merrill Garbus and her amazing technicolour band rolled into town for some sideshow action. Nikki Nack was pristinely brought to life, while old favourites still had all the stomp from their original runs. You are doing God’s work, Merrill.
29. RVIVR @ Monster Mouse Studios, 7/4
There used to be graffiti in the toilets at Black Wire that read “Queer punx rule this town.” Shows like this prove why – in an awesome space, Erica Freas and co. had fists and voices raised as high as the collective spirit in the room. DIY or GTFO.
28. QOTSA/NIN @ Qantas Credit Union Arena, 6/3
A tour that was quite literally the envy of the rest of the world – two of the biggest names in the last twenty years of rock head-to-head in a co-headlining battle for arena-rock glory. There was blood, sweat, tears and hits for days. Who won? We all fucking did.
27. The Weekender @ Various Venues, 21-24/8
It’s never not going to be a highlight of the calendar. You come for impeccable company, you stay for the dozens of exceptional bands and then life goes on as normal; while everyone not-so-secretly counts down until we get to do it all over again. Poison City for life, baby!
26. Something for Kate @ Enmore Theatre, 12/7
Whether you were down from day one or day one thousand, Something for Kate have made an impact on countless music fans in 20 years. This blockbuster set – the biggest show the band have ever headlined in Sydney – was presented as a thank-you. The pleasure was all ours.
20. Perfect Pussy – Say Yes to Love Spotify || Rdio
Cut the crap. That’s all Perfect Pussy want. Say Yes to Love cuts deep, fast and often. As far as the grand scheme of guitar-oriented music was concerned, it felt as if it was one of the more dangerous releases to make itself known within the calendar year – it fumed, it radiated and it sent the levels into a constant bubble of blood red. Beneath its thorny exterior, a further layer was revealed – Meredith Graves shrieks and screams out mantras, rhetoric and personal essays that added to her already-stellar reputation as one of contemporary music’s more important voices. It’s love.
“This time, I’ve got seeds on ground.” TV on the Radio sewed new life roughly three years removed from throwing dirt on the late, great Gerard Smith. Seeds allowed them to explore a more straightforward, streamlined approach to songwriting; allowing for their open-book honesty to shine through new love, old friends and healing wounds. It also allowed the band to let itself exist as an entity far greater than the sum of its parts – a chance to completely realise what they have created, what they have so wisely kept alive. Seeds is life after death – it’s not easy, but achievable.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Lazzeray, Careful You, Happy Idiot.
WATCH:
18. Willis Earl Beal – Experiments in Time
Sometimes, it’s suggested that an artist has “done a 180” as a hyperbolic expression to indicate a change in style. It’s rarely the case that the saying is justified in its use, however. This, along with several other contributing factors, is what makes Experiments in Time such a unique experience. Beal, formerly of the lo-fi blues and proto-folk category, turned his attention to music that is ambient, delicate and cautiously quiet. So radical is the departure, one may even be found double-checking that it is indeed the same man. A completely-unexpected sensation and a welcomed reinvention.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Slow Bus, Waste It Away, Same Auld Tears.
LISTEN:
17. The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers Spotify || Rdio
They may wander off for years at a time, but the Pornos are never really gone. You couldn’t kill those mothercanuckers with all of the weapons in Liam Neeson’s arsenal. Theirs is an undying spirit, which resurfaces on arguably be their best LP since Twin Cinema. The bombast of the title track, the defiant stride of “Marching Orders” and the Superchunk wig-out of “War on the East Coast” are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Perhaps the best thing about Brill Bruisers is that everyone will walk away with their own highlight – and there’s absolutely no wrong answers here.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Champions of Red Wine, Brill Bruisers, Marching Orders.
Australian children’s entertainer Don Spencer once sang that “The greater part of every state is off the beaten track.” It’s certainly not what he meant, but this much is true of Carpetbombing – while most local releases concerned themselves with the inner workings of city streets or behind the closed doors of suburbia, Harmony’s second LP was covered in the grit, blood and petrol of outhouses, country yards and battered shacks. It’s a grim, confronting and occasionally terrifying record. It’s more Australian than most albums have a right to be. Carpetbombing is the sounds of then and the sounds of now.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Big Ivan, Do Me a Favour, Carpetbomb.
LISTEN:
15. Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues Spotify || Rdio
Against Me! began in the bedroom of a teenager named Tom Gabel. It began again on the global stage, lead with aplomb by a thirty-something named Laura Jane Grace. The never-say-die punk spirit that was aflame with its origins continued to flicker defiantly, albeit guiding the path of significantly different subject matter – street-walking, identity crises and parenthood, to name a few. Transgender is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s what they – and we – needed more than anything. This, friends, is the first day of the rest of Against Me!’s life. God bless its transsexual heart.
THREE TOP TRACKS: True Trans Soul Rebel, Two Coffins, Transender Dysphoria Blues.
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose – it’s how you play the game. This has been drilled into the heads of countless children, and it sticks for a reason – it reflects on more than just its immediate point of reference. Case in point: Few played a better game in the year passed than You Beauty, the supergroup-of-sorts that brought to life a nameless NRL star of a bygone era. It didn’t even matter if you didn’t know your Joey Johns from your Freddie Fitler – the storytelling was just that enticing. Jersey Flegg was a shoe-in for best and fairest.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Now Her Skirt, Rabbits, Ann-Maree.
LISTEN:
13. Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else Spotify || Rdio
There were a lot of notable lines scattered throughout the eight tracks that made up Cloud Nothings’ third studio album, but perhaps the most telling comes in its closing number: “I’m not telling you all that I’m going through.” It’s rung true throughout the collected works of the Dylan Baldi vehicle; perhaps never moreso here – revealing a sliver of introspect and innermost struggle, but always pulling back before a complete reveal unfurls. Nowhere Else also takes the band further into the sprawling, incessant drive of noisy alt-rock, making it a true crowning achievement with the promise of continued future greatness.
THREE TOP TRACKS: I’m Not Part of Me, Now Here In, Pattern Walks.
Regardless of what you perceived to be its benefits or its drawbacks, the referendum to decide on its independence is generally perceived to be the biggest thing to emerge from Scotland within 2014… at least, it would have been for those that didn’t hear or discover Young Fathers. The collective’s debut LP was one conceived under cover of darkness, revelling in pitch blackness while also taking the initiative to lead the procession toward distant lights. This is hip-hop that wants to be a part of the revolution – and when it comes, those not with them will be first to go.
The title of Moon Hooch’s second LP stems from what they refer to their music as from a categorical standpoint. You’ll certainly be thankful they did the groundwork for you, as what they do cannot exactly fit directly into any given spectrum. It’s a niche carved on the outside of alternative music – if such a thing is even possible – that digs deep. The trio implement thunderous horns and pitting them in a duel atop ricocheting drum patterns; locking the gates until a victor emerges. This is love. This is war. This is jazz. This is rock. This is cave music.
The sooner that Australia wakes up and smells the vibrancy of its extensive post-rock community at hand, the bloody better. Sydney’s sleepmakeswaves have become the vanguard act of it in short time, less pushing the envelope and more reading the letter it contained from atop a mountain. With the airtight production guidance of rock expert Nick DiDia, Cartography became a full realisation of everything that the band could be; exploring new depths as well as searing highs – often within the same song. This is the sound of actions speaking far, far louder than words ever could. Consider the game changed.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Great Northern, Something Like Avalanches, Perfect Detonator.
They may be the least hardcore and the least punk band in hardcore punk, but by some bizarre law of double negatives it’s made Toronto sextet Fucked Up far more hardcore and far more punk than a significant amount of their peers. Each of their albums feels momentous, grand in both scope and execution. Glass Boys proves to be no exception, in spite of a leaner runtime – in fact, it allows you to focus further in on the remarkable crafting that goes into each track. An alternate version of the LP with half-speed drums proves to be strangely-alluring additional listening.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Led by Hand, Glass Boys, Sun Glass.
Manchester Orchestra have the heart of a lion and their collective eyes on a grander universal bigger picture. It’s now taken them through four albums of life, death, acceptance, honesty, sin and confession; and though one’s take on which is the superior of them may vary from listener to listener, it’s nigh-on impossible to leave a Manchester Orchestra record empty-handed. Although often shrouded in deep-cut metaphor and surrealist lyrical imagery, Cope has its own means of cutting directly to an emotional core at its most crucial points. It’s yet another excellent release from a band that works in mysterious ways.
We’re not in side-project territory anymore, Toto. The once-unlikely pairing of Killer Mike and El-P, now onto their third release together, has begun to make more sense in the greater spectrum of hip-hop perhaps more than practically anything else this decade. Such a bold statement can be backed by noting the remarkable impact of their second album. Swarming, visceral beats, simultaneous lyrical assaults and a completely-unexpected cameo from a fiery Zach de la Rocha all assisted in allowing Run the Jewels to forcefully smash through the underground and lead riots through the city streets. All hell can’t stop them now.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Early, Oh My Darling Don’t Cry, Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck).
Some longer-term fans of dramatically-flaired electro-pop explorers Future Islands may feel somewhat disgruntled that it’s taken until their fourth studio album for a wider audience to be paying them the attention that they so rightly deserve. Think of it, instead, as a blessing in disguise: With the world now watching, we see the trio at the very best of their collective abilities; presenting a refined and distinctive take on their genre that revels in its kitsch and unfashionability so much that it comes full circle, leading to the arguably being the coolest damn record of the year. Who’d have thought?
THREE TOP TRACKS: Doves, Seasons (Waiting on You), Sun in the Morning.
For a timid Irish lad, James Vincent McMorrow certainly proved to have balls of steel when he made his launch forth into the great unknown at the start of the year. His second album was described by many as a 180 of sorts, doing away entirely with the folksy instrumentation of its predecessor. Perhaps a more fitting angle, however, would have been a 270. Post Tropical incorporated hindsight in regards to McMorrow’s raw-nerve emotional songwriting and his delicately-placed falsetto, but it also gave view to a brave new world. Who knows who he may yet become? It’s all blissfully uncertain.
THREE TOP TRACKS: All Points, Outside, Digging, Cavalier.
Two-fifths of Luca Brasi left the fold not a year before the release of their second studio album, a blow which may well have spelled the end for a lesser band. The Tasmanian natives were quick to mend, however – it wasn’t long before their triple-guitar interplay was woven into a tighter twin assault; while replacing the towering Saxon Hall on drums with the impeccably-bicepped Danny Flood was like switching out an unstoppable force for an immovable object. The craftsmanship of the songs, too, proved to be their greatest collective achievement to date. They – and we – live to fight another day.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Western Junction, Borders and Statelines, Here’s Looking at You, Kid Rock.
Kaoru Ishibashi finds himself in the realm of indie-pop with the violin as his weapon of choice over keyboards or guitar. This left-of-centre take on the genre allows for KB’s amazing technicolour dream-music to roam as freely as it pleases. On Ishibashi’s second LP under the moniker, he layers both his instrument and his voice to the point of assembling a chamber orchestra and a choir respectively. By means of beautifully striking contrast, there are also moments of quiet that reel in focus to the man behind it all. Much like its cover, Lighght is a stunning work of art.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Q & A, Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It!, Carry On Phenomenon.
From their culture-jamming band name to their sax-wielding take on DIY math rock, there’s nary a band runnin’ ‘round these parts that’s quite like Sydney’s Ted Danson with Wolves. It may well not have been their intentions when they initially formed out in humble old Tamworth several moons ago, but it’s where they’ve ended up on their outstanding debut effort. Its hyper-literate lyrics delve into the seriously strange and the strangely serious on a tandem basis, shrieked above a mesmerising cacophony of bass rumble, drum splatter and guitar squiggle. The outsiders found a way in, at long last. WWTDWWD? This.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Tim Has a Really Good Idea (Again!), Bohemian (I Don’t) Like You, In the Throes of Golf Woes: “It Was a Coarse Course, of Course.”
LISTEN:
21. The Smith Street Band – Throw Me in the River Spotify || Rdio || Bandcamp
Wil Wagner has said several times that there have been moments where he’s considered quitting music entirely. Throw Me in the River makes one ever so grateful he made the right call and kept his band alive. Were it to be summed up in three words? Let’s try “location, location, location.” Its songs take place all over the globe, from late nights in Calgary to a boiling day at Meredith Music Festival; not to mention its recording taking place in the small town of Forrest. No matter where you’re from, River shows that it’s where you’re at that’s most important.
THREE TOP TRACKS: Calgary Girls, Surrender, Throw Me in the River.
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David James Young 
