Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Sorta after the jump, as (literally) the whole blog world has been talking bout this one for the past 18 days. But this track is just so far up my alley that it would be a massive diservice to this blog not to give it a mention. I feel like this sound could accompany the opening credits of a cheezy 70's movie about good times and good friends. And so it doesn't really surprise me that Ariel Pink has been deemed part of the new wave of Yacht Rock. How can anyone resist that disco beat, uplifting vocal and the constantly changing tempo? Questo è impossibile!

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti-Round and Round (mp3)

Sensual Harassment

Sensual Harassment are three dudes coming out of Brooklyn making fuzzy disco pop/rock. Think Metronomy meets Soulwax meets David Bowie. So far, only a three track EP has materialized from these guys but it was produced by Jesse Cannon (The Cure, Animal Collective) so I'm thinking we might be on to a good thing. But if your not convinced, check out the video of them doing it live. It's pretty awesome.

Sensual Harassment-Fever (mp3)

The Delta Riggs

It starts out like your average indie track with the tap of the hi hat and the organ keys. But where it ends up is no where near indie, and rather in a world of bluesy rock 'n roll. This is kinda refreshing when you find yourself listening to some very similar stuff most of the time.

The Delta Riggs hail from the Blue Mountains. So do Belles Will Ring, Cloud Control, The Maple Trail. Quite clearly the eucalyptus haze of this 'hood helps make some pretty nice music. In three days time these guys are releasing their debut EP The Delta Riggs Ep as well as a 7" of lead single Soul Train. In the meantime you can stream the EP from their myspace or pick up the single below. But if you do anything at all, I recommend you watch the video for Soul Train. It's beautiful and it feels straight from the summer of love.

The Delta Riggs-The Soul Train (mp3)

Danimals

On first listen I was like: "yeah its ok". Then it popped up randomly in my itunes ten minutes later and I thought: "woah, what is this? It's amaaaazing". And now after 37 or so listens I am totally hooked on the Danimals sound, after not giving them much thought for the past year or so. Danimals was once the side project of Sherlocks Daughter member Jonti Danielwitz and is now a quartet and probably the next big thing to come out of Sydney.

In keeping with their heavily music based marketing (think UncharTED and 6 beers of separation), Tooheys Extra Dry picked one Australian band to fly to New York and work with John Taylor (Duran Duran), Nick Hodgson (Kaiser Chiefs), Sean Lennon (son of John) and Santigold. Oh yeah, and the track was to be produced by this dude called Mark Ronson, who was responsible for selecting Danimals because he reckons they are "one of the most interesting things" he's heard in a while with awesome beats and "harmonies like the Beach Boys". He's not wrong. It's dreamy. It's complex. It's poppy. It's happy. It's brilliant.

Danimals-Fox (mp3)

Yeasayer Gig

I saw Yeasayer play yesterday at Tunnel in Milan. Now, some people who actually live in this city don't know this venue and so chances are if you are not part of the 1.4 million Milanese population you've never heard of it. But let me tell you its a bloody good venue for seeing live music, and I feel very lucky knowing that if I had been in my hometown of Sydney I would have been squashed in somewhere with three of four times the capacity. Intimate, well layed out, friendly promoters etc etc.

"I'm gonna lick it up, I'm gonna spit it out...I'm going down, down, down, doooown."

Anyway, the music. Firstly, the support MUST be mentioned. Hush Hush is his name and fucking weird as rap/songs is his game. Think Abraham Lincoln singing about: getting his period, wet panties, making pretty babies and wanting to "69". This is all backed by tinny 1980s cassette quality backing tapes and accompanied by totally killer dance moves. I couldn't shake the feeling that this guy was Berlin's answer to Spod.

Hush Hush-Yin-Yang (mp3)

"Stick up for yourself son, never mind what anyone else done!"

Now for the main dish. Yeasayer looks like a very different band then the one who toured their first album All Hour Symbols: the bassist cut his hair (thank god!), they have a new drummer and have recruited one of the suavest looking dudes around to work their laptop. This guy was obviously a necessary addition with the more dancey electronic vibe of their second album Odd Blood. Going into the gig I wondered whether this new stuff and the more African-Indian organic sounding tunes off the first album would work together in a live setting, or would it feel like two totally different/opposing sounds. However, the band managed to seamlessly mesh their stuff together: from the hyperactive Rome (which was clearly the Italian crowds fav) and motivational Ambling Alp to the golden classics of Sunrise and 2080. The variety in pace allowed the crowd to both do some dancing and stand watching in awe this mega talented group of boys. The flawless falsettos from Ira Wolf Tuton and Anad Wilder outshone the lead vocals of Chris Keating every time. What fun!

Yeasayer-Ambling Alp (REMOVED)

Album: Angus and Julia Stone

It's no secret that I love everything about Angus and Julia Stone. I love their gentle lullaby-like tunes, totally cute album art, always quirky videos, Sydney northern beaches vibe and of course Angus' side stuff as Lady of the Sunshine.
And to that pretty substantial list I can now add the duo's sophmore album Down The Way, which sees an Australian release in just 3 days. Each track is very different from the next. Maybe because it was recorded all around the world: Brooklyn, Coolangatta, Cornwall, London and Queens. Or maybe it's because they don’t write their music together. It's really just an Angus song with support from Julia and vice versa. I reckon this only works because they're siblings and thus are intuned with each other enough to bounce off the others creativity and prevent the album from splitting in half.
Off the back of Angus' solo stuff, the amp has definitely remained plugged in. This is most noticeable on the epic seven-and-a-half-minuter Yellow Brick Road which features a nice little guitar solo as Angus reminisces about getting high in California. This transition from acoustic to rockier occurs more subtly on the second single to come off the album Black Crowe. This is probably my favourite track as it has the heavier guitar sound, but this still plays second fiddle to the soft Stone vocals. But for fans of the bands more melancholic without being depressing sorta sound, there is still plenty of simple acoustic folk. It is here, in tracks such as Walk It Off and I'm Not Yours, which highlight the magic that comes from the simple combination of Angus' rustic surfer voice and the kookier vibe from Julia's vocals.

Angus and Julia Stone-Black Crowe (mp3)

Mayer Hawthorne

Every time I hear a track from Mayer Hawthorne I think "Damn, who is this? Killer voice. Great vibe." But for some reason I haven't ever sat down and given him an intentional listen, it's always just brief moments of radio bliss. So I was very happy to find Hawthorne and his Stones Throw label-mate James Plant have done a little swapsies and each put out a cover of the other's track as promo for their SXSW show. The typically jazzy efforts of Hawthorne in reworking Thin Moon are nothing short of blissful, and speak to me of drinking beers on summer afternoons .

Mayer Hawthorne-Thin Moon (James Plant Cover) (mp3)

Foals

Sorry to be highly unoriginal, but this track is just far too sensational to not give it a mention. I liked Foals' debut 2008 release Antidotes, but I always felt as though they were just a less melodic and more frantic Klaxons. But the total adoration for these Oxford fellas that so many people I know expressed, told me that I was clearly missing something pretty crucial when listening to their stuff. And now I see the light. Spanish Sahara is a seven minute taster from their upcoming album Total Life Forever that is set to drop on May 10. It's a slow burner that finally crashes with the beautiful vocals of Yanis Philippakis and the bands trademark tinny guitar after an epic four minutes. Slow, eerie and brilliant.

Foals-Spanish Sahara (mp3)

Active Child

The music world generally becomes obsessed with four letters when we reach this part of the year:

S. X. S. W.

And for me it's always fun to try and pick out the quality newbies from the try hard hanger-onners. I reckon one-man-band Active Child slots himself pretty firmly into the former category with his woozy synth rich pop that immediately made me think of Bon Iver on an acid trip.

Active Child-When Your Love Is Safe (mp3)