LIVE: DIRTY BEACHES/SINGAPORE SLING

This will be the most perfectly complementary show ever.

LAUNCH: PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS - SICK/CUNT

How great are Primitive Calculators? Relatively speaking, I'm still quite young (pre-Saturn return) and I'm not from Melbourne, and I had terrible taste in music up until I was about 21 (and it was still questionable up until about a year or two before I started this blog) so I only got into these guys about three years ago when Dogs in Space and We're All Living on Dog Food screened at MIFF. Primitive Calculators played a show as part of the festival and I won tickets to it, and it was ace. And I guess I've been a convert ever since.

In March the band played with Psychic TV at the Toff in Town and it was one of those perfect shows: I was with a few people who'd never heard the PCs before and the looks on their faces during and after the show were priceless. And, you know, seeing Genesis perform in the flesh was an effing treat as well.

At that gig, the PCs performed both of the songs from the 7" they're releasing in September and October, Sick/Cunt - the old track 'Cunt Life' and the new track 'Sick of Myself' (which is a wonderfully pulsating piece of frustration and aggression). I think what I love most about Primitive Calculators is their blatant honesty. They've always been upfront about not fitting in, not trying to fit in, not giving a shit about what anyone else is doing. And their lyrics are so confrontational - ridiculous, immature but totally true. There's a timelessness to their apathy that's reflective of growing up, being a grown-up left-of-centre in Australian society.

So, YAY. Primitive Calculators are doing some shows to celebrate the the launch of their new record. I'll be at the Northcote Social Club show on the 5th of October and it's going to be memorable. Lost Animal and Standish/Carlyon are supporting. We've all eagerly seen the former perform and own Ex-Tropical, right? And the latter I checked out a little while back during their residency at the Toff - majorly impressive.

Primitive Calculators Sick/Cunt launch:

Polyester instore, Flinders Lane - 6pm, Friday 7th September
Croatian Club (as part of Sound Summit, Newcastle - Saturday 29th September
Northcote Social Club - Friday October 5th

LAUNCH: FIRE BEHAVING AS AIR

Fire Behaving as Air began life as a little Melbourne-based act called High Falutin. I've known Owen and Beck for a few years now, seeing them sporadically at various shoegaze and psych gigs around town.

With the new name comes a new gust of life - they've just recorded their debut album and are set to launch it this Friday night at Pony. Beck's voice is gorgeous, and in Fire Behaving as Air it's surrounded by drawn out, atmospheric soundscapes. I'm looking forward to hearing the entire album.

Joining them on Friday are my perennial champions, Slight of Build - who I am so excited about seeing on stage again, and local shoegaze flag bearers Flyying Colours and Luniare.

When: Friday 17th August, 9pm
Where: Pony, Little Collins Street, Melbourne

Fire Behaving as Air
Slight of Build
Flyying Colours
Luniare

WATCH: JOHNNY GHOST

Who is Johnny Ghost?

A psychological drama that stretches back into Melbourne's post-punk scene in the 1980s.

Score by Dave Graney and Clare Moore. Featuring original footage from the Crystal Ballroom.

Screening as part of MUFF on 31st August.

Looks like essential viewing to me.

Find out more here.

LIVE AND LISTEN: THE LAURELS

I should be working right now - I was so excited about the ATP announcement on Friday, I wasted most of the day listening to Swans and Beasts of Bourbon really loudly, despite a massive deadline looming in the near distance. Today my concentration is just as shot - I'm hungover and I'm tired and I'm amped up after seeing the Laurels play at the Tote over the weekend.

Such a brilliant gig - but who'd expect otherwise? I've been obsessed with this band for years now and can't say I've ever been disappointed with anything they've ever done. The Laurels are easily at the top of my list of Australian bands and I can't see that changing.

I've listened to their debut album, Plains, about a hundred times trying to carve out something meaningful to say about it, but it's proven quite difficult to sync my thoughts together. After following the Laurels for such a long time, I feel personally invested in their music. Last year's E.P, Mesozoic, blew me away. Hearing how the band had started to rebuild familiar songs like 'Black Cathedral' was invigorating. 'Black Cathedral' had evolved into an absolute sonic assault - its intent all clear cut and precise. It articulated the journey the Laurels had been on up to that point - how their shoegaze sound had evolved into something more aggressive, more gutsy.

Plains demonstrates something similar - a mixture of newer material and older tracks that have been refined, re-imagined and reinterpreted. Holistically, the album moves through at an inconsistent pace, which seems intentional. Tracks like 'Tidal Wave', 'Changing the Timeline'  and 'Manic Saturday' embody the wonderfully frenetic energy imbued throughout Mesozoic, the aggression and focus tight and immediate. Interspersed are tracks like 'Traversing the Universe' and 'Glacier' which linger a little longer, stripping back the noise a little to reveal more intricate details. Mixing these two distinct approaches creates a juxtaposition of sorts - and what results is an album that's as mutable as time itself. Plains sits in an undefinable place - in the midst of the journey where experience is non-linear, abstract.

I remember when I was putting together my review of Mesozoic the statement 'shoegaze for the new age' stuck in my head. I thought it was a terribly apt description for what the Laurels are doing. But the Laurels are so far beyond shoegaze these days - they're so much more than just tremolo, distortion and bended noise. And that transformation is so satisfying to watch, to listen to and experience - I love this band. That's all that needs to be said, really.

LIVE: ATP I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR - MELBOURNE

Most everyone who's interested by now has their hands on a ticket to the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror event being held in Melbourne next February. The line-up's amazing. I was thinking this afternoon about how I never imagined seeing Swans, My Bloody Valentine and the Dead C play on the same day, on the same stage. It's crazy. And Beasts of Bourbon - reformed. I remember the first time I saw them live - I was about 17, and it was like losing a virginity of sorts. There was something very nasty about those men - but I liked it, and unfortunately I've been hopelessly attracted to that iconic guttural Australian swamp rock ever since.  

Of course, there are more acts to be added to the bill and I've been trying to compile my own list of prospective icons who might make the cut. The one prospect that would make me pass into another dimension is if Suicide made it out here - their name on the list might actually be a little bit too much for me to comprehend, but I've heard from a few sources that I might not be too far off the mark. The Scientists are highly likely in my mind, and I've got high hopes that I'm right. Likewise, Low. 

For more info on the festival you should follow this link.

Awake

I miss writing.

I miss writing about music.

Over the last few months I've been going to more shows, discovering more bands, talking with more people about who I love and what I love listening to. I get kind of annoyed at myself about letting this space sit still for so long, but in honesty I did have good reasons for stepping back. I think those reasons have sorted themselves out - finally. A decent Pluto transit will do that. Disintegrate and rebuild. Transform.

I know that I know a lot more than when I started this blog in late 2008, so why aren't I sharing my thoughts with the world?

x
Beth

Indefinite hiatus

Although it's been obvious for a while, I thought I'd put the official word up here that I won't be maintaining Drone for the foreseeable future. Call it an indefinite hiatus. I'm immensely busy with other projects and other parts of my life; truth be told, my attention has been pulled elsewhere for some time now, and I just don't feel the passion I used to for whatever it was I used to do around here.

For anyone who has stumbled upon this blog and is thinking of sending through anything - submissions, music, whatever... please don't. You're resources and energy will be better served somewhere more active.

Good night, good luck... for now, anyway.

Review: The Laurels - Mesozoic

By Beth Keating.

The Laurels are one of those bands you wait for, patiently, devotedly, passionately. It feels excellent to hold their recently released e.p., Mesozoic, in my hands. For the last three and a half years, I’ve lived on long-ago recorded demos downloaded from the band’s myspace page; early tracks featured on the eponymous Sydney hey-day neo-psych compilation, Burn Your Fingers on the Sun; and sporadic mastered mp3s picked up here and there.

Mesozoic showcases the Laurels in their most current incarnation, and in so doing, demonstrates with full force how much they’ve has grown over the last four years. If you already know the band, you’ll likely be familiar with most of the material on the e.p. – of the six tracks featured on Mesozoic, the majority have existed in various forms of development for some time.

‘Black Cathedral’ is a brilliant introduction to the e.p. The track itself has changed substantially from it’s previous incarnation as part of the Shoegaze Demo a few years ago: it’s more confident, gutsier, harder – more self-assured. ‘Black Cathedral’ has always been hypnotic, but here it goes beyond bended, translucent shoegaze and blasts forward like a manifesto – an aural articulation of strength and focus.

Shoegaze seeps through all six tracks of Mesozoic, but the release offers glimpses of how the Laurels are not falling victim to a remarkably limited genre. Instead, they’re redefining it – participating in a kind of musical revisionism, blurring the lines between different facets of psychedelia and inserting their own idiosyncratic perspective. ‘Merry Go Round’ mixes Ride’s propelling, pent-up and exuberant energy with Storm in Heaven like vocals. Kate Wilson’s drumming stands out most on this track, guiding it, powering it, overriding it with a wonderfully primal energy. It represents one of my favourite things about the Laurels: total cohesion. The music isn’t just about the guitars, or the effects, the vocals or the band’s influences – the Laurels are the sum of their parts, completely democratic in creating a rich, dissonant product.

Mesozoic is a strong offering – anyone who has been following the band would expect nothing less. As a long-term fan of the Laurels, it’s fascinating and rewarding to actively watch and hear the band develop – something that this e.p. captures really well. What I’d ultimately like to see is an album – a recording with a distinct purpose and direction. It would be hard to fault any of the tracks featured on Mesozoic, but their strength exists independently rather than as a whole. The Laurels continue to get better and better; I’d like to see them produce the great Australian album I know they are capable of. It’d be worth the wait.

Release: The Warlocks - Enter at Your Own Skull Vol. 1

By Beth Keating.

Totally slipped my mind to post the link up to an expanding collection of demos, b-sides, unreleased material and alternate versions that Bobby of the Warlocks has put up for download on the band's Bandcamp page.

Get Enter at Your Own Skull here for five US bucks.