Some Aussie Day Flavour That Isn't Bloody Goyte

Happy Australia Day! I'm incredibly hungover after another successful Sonic Masala show, bur raring to do it all again! Before I do, though, here are some Aussie bands doing good that you wont find on the Australian yoof channel's top 100 shitfest.


Blank Realm are a band that are incessant in their breakneck rise into the centre of the sun. Unlike Icarus, this Brisbane quartet want to feel the molecule-rending heat, to feel themselves morph with a might much greater than their own. Such a brazen exploratory outlook is evident in their ever-evolving live shows, which can swing from skronky pop to languid psych to rampant rock to slacker malaise, at times within the one instrumental interlude. Negative Guestlist is hoping to extend such an exciting reputation by releasing the band's latest 7", which you can buy in physical form here. Listen to the track below and tell me how these guys aren't huge already. They are bringing out their next album, the follow-up to the great Deja What, later this year through Siltbreeze, so you never know, their time may come before the Mayans bring it all to an end...

Falling Down the Stairs by Blank Realm


Gold Coast duo Bleeding Knees Club are more likely to get a run on Triple J, seeing as their MO consists of thrashy-yet-addictive straight-cap surf rock. The boys (BOYS! Just look at 'em!) have stuck as close to the Wavves musical aesthetic as they possibly can, and it really clicks. Next month sees the arrival of their debut LP Nothing To Do, which should see them explode into some sepia-tinged hipster frenzy, but when the music is as addictive as this, fair dues.

Bleeding Knees Club - Teenage Girls


Chinese Burns may be flung across the state of Queensland, but when this trio get together the results are sweaty, salty and magic. They have just released their Calculator 7", and it is all kinds of awesome. Seeing them play live is a once in a blue moon event, and life-changing (maybe). Buy this record now, support these fuckers so that they give up their day jobs and treat us to more music - seriously good stuff.




Finally there is this album from Woollen Kits. The Melbourne act's debut is the first great Australian album of 2012. GET IT.

Woollen Kits - For You

Enjoy the festivities kids!

Love Me A Royal Headache

OK, so I kinda blew my wad over Witch Hats' Pleasure Syndrome. Well, I better change my pants AGAIN, because we have another absolute killer jumping out of the gates and totally destroying all preconceptions about what it means to create good music.

Royal Headache, in their debut self-titled longplayer, have done something that revels in its unaffectedness. In fact, it’s hard to imagine in this world today how such a band can exist. Devoutly and intrinsically DIY, these rabblerousers don’t pride themselves in living the music they play or the reputation they may garner; they just are. Now that Pitchfork et al (and to an extent, the glaring spotlight also turns on me, for better or worse) are espousing their brilliance, their progression can only go one of two ways - implosion, deliberate obscurity, or an evolution of sound. As it stands, then, 2011 will be a time capsule for the group, for this point forward their lives aren't likely to be the same unless they wilfully make it so. Therefore thank fuck for Royal Headache, an album chock full of influences, garage tendencies, fundamental mistakes and innate love of what they do that a better template of what it means to be rock and roll may not subsist.

OK, so that sounds like an outrageous declaration. However, after one listen to this album it becomes evident that this kind of lightning cannot be emulated. Each track on Royal Headache brims to overflowing with original wants, demands and expectations – this is fun, dammit. No pretensions, or aloofness, or affectations.

Maybe it comes from the juxtaposition between the frenetic musical interplay and the almost friendly, appeasing vocal stylings of vocalist Shogun (the comparisons to Ted Leo notwithstanding - and more than a little OTT) – his crooning on 'Back And Forth' when offset by the manic garage punk wailings becomes a beast unto itself. Shit, there is a song that sounds like fucking Rod Stewart! But 'Honey Joy', one of the strongest songs on offer, shows exactly who Royal Headache are. A song filled with heart-rending despair with a hint of loving redemption, played without a hint of irony, reference wink-nudges or aspirations.

Like I said, whether this kind of alchemy can be maintained under scrutiny is dubious at best. Let's hope that they find a way.

For the love of God, buy Royal Headache now! Its becoming very difficult to buy this on record, just so's you know...

Royal Headache - Girls
Royal Headache - Down The Lane
Royal Headache - Honey Joy