Perms And No Trimming On Mount Carmel

Holy shit. I'm not sure I can pin down exactly why I love Ohio band Mount Carmel's new offering, Real Women, because in some weird way I should probably hate it. It is so deliberately steeped in 70s raucous blues rock nostalgia that will either be seen as brilliant homage or flagrant stealing. I really can't find a reason to budge from the former though. They nail it so well, yet the production is warm and fuzzy, there is enough of the modern (production that sounds like a cross between The Black Keys and Pontiak the most likely arbiter to this feeling) to anchor it in the here and now...yet, seriously, this is who should have played Stillwater in Almost Famous. And probably been The Black Crowes. At least if Mount Carmel frontman Chris Rickerhauser had married Kate Hudson, she would probably be making movies that don't produce an involuntary gag reflex. Or if they were War, they would have beaten the fuck out of Korn before they went anywhere near 'Low Rider'. Just sayin'.

Fuck I have a hard-on for Dazed & Confused right about now...


Grab Real Women here (weirdly put out by Siltbreeze. It doesn't fit. AT ALL. But then again, that's why I love those guys - they put out what they like). Seriously, who has a J? I'm ready to get baked.

Mount Carmel - Swaggs
Mount Carmel - Hear Me Now

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!

Kitchen's Floor

The fact that I'm writing a post about Brisbane band Kitchens Floor says a hell of a lot for their latest LP, Look Forward To Nothing, out on local label Bedroom Suck and US juggernauts Siltbreeze. My first connection with the trio was last year at the Zoo when they supported Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Now, ECSR played probably the best show Ive seen them play, and one of the best shows Ive seen at the Zoo. But Kitchens Floor - Jesus Christ. What a fucking train wreck. Matt Kennedy may be the epitome of self-loathing, but shit is still shit, and boy, it sounded like the biggest nugget laid on mankind. It was amateur hour. It was lapped up by hipsters who actually did look like they would eat human poo because Pitchfork told them to.

Seriously, I hated that show.

However, I did listen to their first LP Loneliness Is A Dirty Mattress a couple weeks later. There was something in there amidst the grime and overt slacker ennui. Actual killer rock with pop aesthetics without the pretensions - it just was what it was. So when the newie Look Forward To Nothing hit, I listened with a little less apprehension.


This is a massive leap forward. Sure, Kennedy still fucking hates himself. He's got enough depression/self-loathing/displeasure to wrap five hundred Bieber tragics up and suffocate them in before dropping them into a shallow creek. But this really ups the ante in songwriting, ably abetted by the boisterous drumming of the ever-busy Joe Alexander (Bedroom Suck founder, playing in Per Purpose and a plethora of other ill-fitting garbs, almost all of which are infinitely better for his inclusion) and Liam Kenny's bass lines. Hell, rather than sounding like an affected art project, they sound like a goddamn band. With proper hooks. Let's hope Kennedy keeps the double chambers coming, the Valium at hand, and the guitar firmly gripped in his fist. We might have a grungey icon in the making here.

Kitchens Floor - 116