With a cool sound reminiscent of ‘90s acts like Massive Attack and Portishead, Mia Lovelock makes a big impression with her latest single “Winter Comes.” The haunting sound initially captured my attention, but it’s the lyrics that reference Mia’s Indigenous heritage that stay with you.
“This song is about the fragile nature of sovereignty, the scars of stolen generations, and the beauty of healing,” Mia explained.
Mia will play for hometown audiences tomorrow night at Torch Fest Sydney. The show at The Factory Theatre in Marrickville is more than a typical gig. A true celebration of the arts, Mia’s performance will combine her music, visual art, and fashion talents. The art she creates live on stage will be auctioned off at the festival, with all money raised benefiting mental health music charity, Listen Up Music. Torch Fest Sydney also features performances from Bec Sandridge, Joe Mungovan, Amy Vee, Elysaé, and heaps more. You can read more about Torch Fest Sydney and get your tickets here.
I’ve been maintaining this blog for so long that when things began I regularly received CDs in the mail to review. I understand digital review copies make more sense for artists and record labels, but I miss having my mailbox full of great music instead of bills. This week I received my first physical album for review in years: a copy of Baltimore Train, the latest album from Adelaide rock act William Street Strikers.
Interacting with this album made me remember just how good physical music can be. The ritual of removing the CD from its cardboard sleeve and placing it in the CD player heightens the anticipation. Incidentally, I borrowed the player from my husband when I discovered my relatively new laptop doesn’t have one. Putting the CD in the activated Windows Media Player, a program I didn’t even realise modern computers have. What a nostalgia trip. Listening to this album though, that process feels so right.
Baltimore Train has such an old-school feel. There are no bells or whistles, no electronic beats or production wizardry, just a bunch of blokes making music. From the first guitar strums of the opening track “Poor Boy,” the album transports listeners back to a simpler time. The songs drip with nostalgia. I love the psychedelic feel of “How Does It Feel,” the classic surf rock vibe of “I’m Going Home,” those big Who-esque guitar chords in “Everything’s Wrong.” Up-tempo rock tracks dominate the release, but William Street Strikers has a softer side. Intimate ballads like the current single “Bad Man” and “Shelter” reveal different layers of the band’s sound. William Street Strikers are natural rockers, but with these tracks they remind us that they’re more than capable of switching gears. They might have swagger, but there’s real heart hiding underneath.
As the final chord of the closing track “Let You Down” faded out, I thought to myself “They just don’t make albums like that anymore.” Baltimore Train is a throwback in many ways, but there’s a reason why so many of us are nostalgic about music from the past. Catchy melodies, charismatic vocals, tight harmonies, and a band with members that sound like they’re genuinely having fun playing together never go out of vogue. In today’s era of accessible yet disposable music, there’s also something special about an album that people have to seek out and invest in to hear. Check out the music video for “Bad Man” below. If you like what you hear, email William Street Strikers at thewilliamstreetstrikers@yahoo.com and they’ll hook you up with a copy.
Images used with permission from William Street Strikers
Sydney band 90ivy are taking me back to my angsty teenage years with their latest single “Tiffany.” If like me you loved nothing more than grungy, angry female-fronted acts like Alanis Morissette, Garbage, and PJ Harvey, you’re going to eat this up. And if you’re a fan of more modern acts like Middle Kids, The Beths, and Press Club, this one’s bound to resonate with you too.
Agnes O’Dwyer’s powerful vocals are heartbreaking, but you don’t have to feel too sorry for her. Rather than drawing on her own pain, she had some unlikely inspiration for the song during lockdown.
“Usually the story of the scorned woman is told one of two ways – either she is voiceless and passive or she is furious and directing her anger at “the other woman”. Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ is so genius to me because it doesn’t subscribe to these cliches. She sings praise to the other woman and simply begs her not to take her man. It inspired me to write a song that tells the story of infidelity that looks at the relationship breakdown and the faults of the two in the relationship, rather than placing blame on the other woman,” she explained. “The idea was also brought on by watching one too many trashy, melodramatic TV shows over lockdown – TV and movies inspire my songwriting a lot.”
90ivy are at the top of their game after honing their live show on stages with Teenage Dads, CLEWS, Obscura Hail, Jess Day, and more. See what they can do when they launch “Tiffany” with a hometown show at Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar on April 9.
Image used with permission from Habit Music Co; photo credit: Cath Connell
Alt-rock group Platonic Sex have just released a bold new single “Disappoint Another.” It’s raw and rebellious, with a garage rock quality that really brings out the angst in its lyrics. The track is bound to strike a chord with the queer community and anyone who’s ever felt their happiness wasn’t a partner’s priority.
“When I wrote the song, I needed to release insecurities that stemmed from my relationship with somebody who wasn’t entirely ‘out’,” explained Platonic Sex’s lead singer, Bridget Brandolini. “My ex-girlfriend wanted to show her love for me in a different way than I wanted, and writing the song helped me separate my feelings for her from the way it felt to be kept a secret.”
“Choosing to come out can feel like dealing out a lot of disappointment – whether it’s to your parents, the parents of the kid you babysit, or other loved ones – and it’s hard to cope with, as a young person trying to present themself authentically,” they added. “As somebody who is openly queer, the song feels really liberating. It’s up-tempo, joyous, fun,” they say. “I’m so grateful that I have the privilege to exist as my true self in the world safely and without shame. At the end of the day, the joy that comes with discovering an accepting community gives you strength to reach the end of the tunnel and dust yourself off after you’ve disappointed the people whose boxes you can’t fit into.”
Platonic Sex are about to tour the country with Hope D and Noah Dillon. Catch them at the following venues:
8 April 2022 – The Factory Theatre, Sydney
9 April 2022 – Lion Art Centre, Adelaide
29 April 2022 – Altar, Hobart
6 May 2022 – The Northern, Byron Bay
7 May 2022 – The Princess Theatre, Brisbane
13 May 2022 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
27 May 2022 – Miami Marketta, Gold Coast
Image used with permission from Aleisha McLaren; credit: James Caswell
Emerging Melbourne artist Mathilde Anne is hitting back against toxic relationships in her new single “I’ve Had Enough.” It sounds sweet, but there’s a tough centre under that sugary exterior.
“When you’re young and grow up in environments where you’re not shown healthy ways to behave in a relationship, it tends to warp your perception of what it means to be loved or be in love,” Mathilde admitted. “‘I’ve Had Enough’ stemmed from the realisation that I wasn’t doing what was best for me, because I wanted to feel ‘loved’ or ‘worthy’.”
Mathilde is inspired by an eclectic collection of artists including Lorde, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, and Otis Redding, so I can’t wait to hear what she releases next. She’s planning to launch “I’ve Had Enough” with a few full-band shows around the country, so keep an eye on her Facebook page for the dates when they’re announced. She’ll also play the Gig Around the Green Mount Eliza Music Festival at the Canadian Bay Hotel on April 1.
Image used with permission from Sandhill Bookings
I am a sucker for a great country duet. I don’t consider myself much of a country music fan, but put on a little Kenny and Dolly or Johnny and June and I’m all about it. The cheesier the better. So I’m totally smitten with “Someone Like You,” the brand new single from Bradley McCaw and Paulini. Sure it’s a little formulaic, but there’s no point reinventing the wheel. With stellar vocals and romantic sentiments, there’s a lot to like here.
“Paulini’s vocal is effortless. There’s a power and a playfulness that takes the song to a new place. It’s a positive love song, with is kind of rare for modern radio,” Bradley said. “Inspired by all the old school duets I have sung along to in my car!”
He originally wrote the song for one male singer but left the song unfinished for nearly a year until he realised what was missing. This needed to be a duet.
“We recorded the vocals in one session using two microphones, side by side in the one studio. It was very old school and because of this, we captured an innocence and joy in the performances,” he added. “Duets just have a different energy, combining two artists from different genres at the top of their game, and that sends the song into unexpected places.”
This is a total throwback, but I’m just optimistic enough to think it might inspire a revival. We can only hope!
Blue Mountains sibling band Storm & Stone have released their fabulous new single “Run.” This track defies genre. I thought I had it pegged as a sassy, Destiny’s Child-inspired soul track, but once that chorus kicks in it takes a dark country left turn. It’s unexpected, but a real delight. And can we just take a moment to appreciate those incredible harmonies? The way sisters August and Auriel and their brother Hallelujah come together is just so special.
“Auriel had started showing me murder ballads, and some of Dolly Parton’s darker stories,” August explained of the song’s inspiration. “When we were writing and working on it, I really wanted us to have the energy of a train leaving a station. A build-up of excitement and movement forward as the song came to its climax to bring the story even more to life.”
“Run” is also the first song that Auriel and August penned together.
“I think for me, when we were writing this song with August, I really wanted to express how it felt to be on the other side of a love song, in the desperate dark place the song talks to,” Auriel said. “I also wanted something with a beat that had a lot of movement, to sort of follow the emotional movement the song talks about.”
The song’s dark feel is perfectly matched by the video set in Heartly Vale Cemetery in the Blue Mountains.
“The story is one of a woman experiencing her partner being drawn to another woman, but what ensues after that is left somewhat up in the air. What happened? What is going to happen? That ambiguity was enthralling,” said Thomas Crnkovic of Cranky Dog Production, who directed and produced the clip. “Are we listening to someone’s internal torment from trying to keep a grip on a relationship that’s slipping away? Are we witnesses to the aftermath of a crime of passion? Both? I wanted to make a video that honours those stakes and that ambiguity. Maybe spirits can hear our darkest thoughts, maybe nothing can. Either way: Run.”
These guys are the real deal. I’m really looking forward to hearing more of what they can do.
Image used with permission from Wildheart Publicity
VOH is back to brighten your day. Her new single “Amnesia” is pure shimmery sunshine, the kind of pop track that makes you want to dance the moment you hear it. The follow-up to “Away,” it cements her reputation as a pop act to watch.
“Amnesia” is the second track lifted from VOH’s EP, V Pop, scheduled for release later this year.
Gold Coast Alt Fiction has just dropped their new single “Yesterday,” their first release since 2020. This is a cracking track that effortlessly melds indie-pop influences with coastal rock. What a way to come back.
“It’s about understanding what goes up in a relationship must come down,” explained Alt Fiction’s singer and guitarist Will Tyler. “About remembering the best times to help you through the worst, and coming to grips with the fact that no relationship can stay perfect.”
The song’s coastal vibes are reflected in the lyric video for “Yesterday.” If you want to sing along, this one’s for you.
Alt Fiction say they’re ready to pick up where they left off before the pandemic. Keep an eye on their Facebook page to find out what comes next.
Image used with permission from Island Records Australia
It’s an exciting time for musicians and their fans. After COVID-19 brought the world to a screeching halt, we’re all starting to reconnect with one another and live music. In that spirit of connection, Western Australia’s Last Quokka and Victoria’s Plaster of Paris have joined forces for a “full-tilt punk rock extravaganza” travelling the country this April and May. Before it kicks off, I caught up with the bands to chat about the tour, how the pandemic hit them, and what comes next.
Last Quokka, we’re chatting because you’re about to kick off a national tour, which must be so exciting for you as a Western Australian band. How are you feeling about it?
LQ: Honestly it feels like a bit of dream right now, so until we’re there it’s hard to know how to feel! But we’re incredibly excited. This has been such a long time coming and obviously like every band not having the opportunity to tour these last two years has been a struggle. We’ve also had a bit of a line-up change so it’s going to be rad to get to travel together as a new five-piece. And of course we’re super pumped to be able to hang with Plaster of Paris.
What have you missed most about touring the country?
LQ: Last Quokka is really all about the live energy and the community connection we make through playing so we’ve missed that a lot. It’s also just such a rad thing to be able to travel with your mates and play shows.
Plaster of Paris, you’re joining Last Quokka on this tour. How did that come about?
POP: We just kept talking after our Sonic Masala shows together got cancelled in Brisbane last year and we all just seem connected. Both bands are running DIY gigs and self-releasing and working in these scenes that centralise politics and feminism and community so it just feels symbiotic to come together. And so fun!
After all the lockdowns in Victoria, it must be pretty exciting to simply get back to playing for audiences. How did the pandemic treat you?
POP: We had an album to mix and release during the pandemic so Melbourne’s crazy long lockdown gave us time, if nothing else, to focus on what we wanted to achieve. We drove Paul Maybury a little mad I’m sure with remixes and redos, but by the end we got something we are incredibly proud of and I’m not sure we would have made the same album pre-pandemic. A silver lining perhaps?
Last Quokka, as a Western Australian band you’ve probably had a really different experience of the pandemic than a lot of East Coast acts. I saw photos from gigs that looked almost normal while we were in lockdown, yet you were cut off from the rest of the country for so long. What was that experience like for you?
LQ: It was exactly as you’ve said really. It felt super weird and privileged to be playing shows like RTRFMs In The Pines or Yardstock to thousands of people while our mates over east were in lockdown, but that said the isolation has definitely been pretty intense. While it feels dumb to complain about it, we’re already so very isolated over here and that was just hugely reinforced, especially with East Coast bands not being able to come over. Also, Perth is an odd place. While there is a great DIY and lefty community in general, it’s a very conservative place and can feel very suffocating at times. So it is great to get out.
Plaster of Paris, during the pandemic you released your album, Lost Familiar. What was it like to put that out in the world at a time when you couldn’t tour the country?
POP: Hitting ‘Public’ on Bandcamp and collectively opening beers in our lounge rooms. Doing a band Zoom when we were nominated for Best Rock Punk Act in the Music Victoria Awards and clinking virtual champagne flutes. Connecting with online fans and making email buddies across the globe in places like Estonia and Portugal. Doing interviews on Instagram Live with Spanish blogs at 3 am (and getting the day wrong and having to do it all over again). Making the “Danceflaw” filmclip in the exercise hour we had each day (literally Nicola and Zec exercise/dancing in empty streets of Thornbury with a camera). These are the weird things you do for album releases in a pandemic!
Why did you release the album during the pandemic? Was there ever a time that you considering holding it back?
POP: We started recording this album in 2015/2016 and had a lot of setbacks. By the time the pandemic hit we just went along and kept pushing and took it as another challenge. A big scary one! But being with our creative family was all we wanted to do. The album is so much about the family you create, particularly as queer-identifying humans. You build this new family that let you be yourself and we wanted to celebrate that because lockdowns often separated us from safe spaces and chosen families. Our lost familia.
The music you make is so ballsy and bold, I’m sure it takes a lot of people by surprise. The post-punk genre is so dominated by men. What’s it like for Plaster of Paris playing in that space?
POP: Ha! Ballsy! Imagine if we described music as Breasty! I’m not having a crack … I just wonder if we’ll ever ungender strength and anger and loudness. Even now it scares people when female-identifying people are loud. All you have to do is cross the river in Melbourne and play a crowd that has never seen a punk band and watch them squirm and get confused in 2022! Their idea of loud women is Miley Cyrus covering Metallica. (Hashtag I love Miley FYI). We’re all fans of hard rock, the riot grrrl movement was instrumental to me understanding I was allowed to be in the band not just hang out with them. I used to sit on the floor of my male friends’ rehearsals watching them. All of a sudden I started seeing women playing instruments and I picked up a guitar. We still need representation, especially as instrumentalists. As older women we need to see ourselves too, ageism is real in the music industry. As Zec sings in “State of Emergency” – we “want Social Currency” and “a community to speak to me”.
I was reminded of a lot of female punk pioneers as I listened to your album. Who are some of your influences?
POP: My heart will always be with the ’90s ladies like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile and other affiliated acts like Helium and Sleater Kinney and the ’70s UK punks: The Slits, Raincoats, XRay Spex. Zec loves Siouxsie Sioux, Nina Hagan, Wayne County and her love of Kate Bush and Bowie is clear in her phrasing. As a guitarist, I also love bands like Gossip and Yeah Yeah Yeahs because Plaster is a two-piece band mostly: guitar and drums. Three people just locking in. Having said that, we are touring as a five-piece!
How about you Last Quokka? What artists have made a big impression on you?
LQ: We did a whip around the band: Kirill – Michael Jackson, Carlota – Tool, Justin – IDLES, Ray – Fugazi, Trent – Phoebe Bridges.
What can music lovers expect from these shows?
LQ: Drunken shenanigans, conversations about Geoff Gallop, some booty shaking, and maybe some good music.
After the tour wraps up, what’s next for you?
LQ: We’re working on our fifth LP so that’s exciting and trying to eventually get over to the EU! A few of us are also thinking about getting more pets, maybe learning to play tennis. That kind of thing.
POP: Extend the tour with more dates!! Let’s do Tassie and Darwin and then Europe. Quokkas watch out!
If you’re ready to rock (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), you can catch Last Quokka and Plaster of Paris at the venues below. Check out the Last Quokka and Plaster of Paris socials for tickets and more details about the shows:
1 April 2022 – The Outpost, Brisbane (with Tape Off)
2 April 2022 – Eleven Dive Bar in Maroochydore (with Tape Off)
3 April 2022 – Sonic Sherpa, Brisbane (instore)
7 April 2022 – The Servo, Port Kembla (with The Elastic Waste Band)
8 April 2022 – Graveyard Shift @ The Lansdowne, Chippendale (with Yes I’m Leaving)
9 April 2022 – The Old Bar, Fitzroy (with Zig Zag)
10 April 2022 – Arvo show at the Barwon Club, Geelong (with Zig Zag)
6 May 2022 – The Bird, Northbridge (with Dead Tooth Hottie)
7 May 2022 – Yardstock! Fremantle
8 May 2022 – The Shed, Albany (with Pack Hoarse)
Images used with permission from Last Quokka and Plaster of Paris; photo credit for Plaster of Paris photo: Kalindy Williams
I’ve been maintaining this blog for so long that when things began I regularly received CDs in the mail to review. I understand digital review copies make more sense for artists and record labels, but I miss having my mailbox full of great music instead of bills. This week I received my first physical album for review in years: a copy of Baltimore Train, the latest album from Adelaide rock act 
