Mix Tape

New Music from Down Under -- May 2007

For decades, the phrase 'Australian music' conjured images of Men at Work, AC/DC, INXS, Midnight Oil and Olivia Newton-John. The Vines aside, not much excitement had made its way north from "Down Under" since the '80s. But, at long last, in the past few years, we've seen a surge of interesting new music from the Aussies and their neighbors to the East in New Zealand. Here are some of the bands making waves in the South Pacific -- the first three hailing from New Zealand, the last six from Australia.
Mix Tape compiled and written by Jeff Palfini
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This post-punk-influenced trio from the coastal hillside town of Dunedin, New Zealand is swimming in cred, having recorded their eponymous debut album with the iconic Steve Albini before embarking on a tour supporting Wolfmother earlier this year. "155", due out soon in the U.S., is a catchy punk march steered by a dynamic, heavy bass groove. It's a call to action, opening with Joshua Tree-era U2 guitar paired with rapid-fire drumming and a liberal helping of high hat, and punctuated by the piercing, half-sung vocals of Andrew Wilson. As the song heads toward its end, the aural parade has detoured into a dead-end alley and turned in on itself -- the tones finally melting beautifully and indistinguishably into one another.

The title track from The Mint Chicks' new album scans like a New Wave take on Robert Herrick's poem "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time". A sugary pop song written in the tradition of the Brill Building, but with the brash strut of punk rockers like the Ramones, the Buzzcocks and Television, it touches on the age-old entreaty for young girls to come out, have fun and get busy while they still can: "C'mon girl just go out/I may be crazy, but I'm not dumb!/I may be crazy, but I'm not too young to love you." The band indulges a mid-song interlude where the rhythm slows for a guitar solo and a pondering of our mortality. "Then again, what's so bad about dying/If I told you I was not afraid, I would be lying." But not to worry, the heavy message goes down easier with some tasty '70s-rock-style guitar riffs in the mode of Cheap Trick or Thin Lizzy.

Australia is home to some of the world's best surf spots, so it's only natural that one of the country's most promising acts, appropriately named Kill Surf City!!, might have a bit of The Surfaris in them. The band's name is taken from a Jesus & Mary Chain song title, but their self-titled EP is testament to the fact that the question "what's in a name" never has a clear-cut answer. "Headin' Inside" starts up with twin surf-guitar riffs, one in the style of surf-guitar legend Dick Dale and the other like sped-up Beach Boys phrasing. They then strap some Animal Collective to the roof, throw in a whistle of some kind, and drive off Â? a clutch of hipsters, packed into a woody, headed for the nearest break.

A boisterous party-game of a song constantly keeping you off balance, "Musical Chairs" starts with what sounds like a backward guitar and a piano part inspired by Abbey Road. Guitar tones veer off and curl away from the rhythm, and crisp drums set the ideal tone for a march around a limited amount of furniture. The song careens and jostles with a creeping guitar, jazz elements like a loose sax solo and a carnival-like trumpet, as well as vibes and a fuzz guitar -- all of which slowly layer over one another and devolve into a cacophony. Lyrics like "we'll hold hands and wrestle our drunken stars" are propped up by spacey backing vocals Â? a type of psychedelic doo-wop. A late burst of energy, a woozy aftershock and then the fun's over. Did you get a seat?

Conor Prendergast, aka Brave Radar, is as lo-fi as they come. He has made 3 CD-R EPs, presumably under a shingle that reads "less is more". "They Mean No Harm" is a sleepy track that resembles surf music, but without those signature up-and-down guitars. The sparse instrumentation is all on the rhythm side, with just a simple drum beat and bass line to keep time for somnolent indie vocals, sung deliberately one word at a time, but somehow still mysterious and enigmatic ("talk as neighbors talk, bingo on the beach blanket.") Prendergast starts with a rhythm like Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," and adds some electronic blips and the previously mentioned inscrutable lyrics. Someone alert Stephen Malkmus and Kansas' Ghosty that a new pair of boots are treading on their turf.

The first single off of the now-six-piece band's upcoming album Places Like This utilizes a sort of calypso wall of sound created by various types of percussion, a steel drum, bongos and shrieking wild-bird-like vocal cries. It's a veritable pop safari through the primordial rainforest. Like The Arcade Fire, Architecture in Helsinki are a versatile and energetic musical throng, switching instruments, dancing, scat singing and pulling in energy toward a screaming vocal crescendo. They've also channeled some of that energy into a crazy tour schedule that saw them in Europe last spring and in the U.S. this winter in support of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and will have them back in the States again this summer.

The trio from Brisbane has been together now for less than two years, but you'd never know it from their polished art-punk sound, created from two guitars and a drum kit. Though they've only released two EPs and are currently working on a debut full-length for Valve Records, I Heart Hiroshima has already shared the stage with the likes of The Grates and Ratatat. "Neutron Popsong" is a hooky, frenetic pop track that holds echoes of The Rapture. A driving low-end rhythm guitar tricks your ear into thinking you're listening to the Ramones' "Rock 'N Roll Radio" but the illusion is shattered with the onset of Matthew Somers' absurdist vocal pitch a la Pere Ubu's Dave Thomas. If the band's name wasn't I Heart Hiroshima, I could unreservedly say that "Neutron Popsong" is a blast.

As the title suggests, this track is an introduction to a new, and some might say unlikely, force in hip-hop -- a self-assured and versatile Australian artist named Romy Hoffman who, as a teen, played guitar in Ben Lee's band Noise Addict. You can call her Miss Macro. Prepare yourself for a witty adventure in lyrical acrobatics like "I'm the heroine who leaves your head nodding." Macromantics is contagiously fun and inventive like the Beastie Boys, but with a rapid-fire delivery and creative arrangements that incorporate staccato horns and tambourine, among other flourishes. The song appeared on Moments in Movement released in the U.S. by Kill Rock Stars in January 2007. Something tells me that's not the last we'll hear of "Miss Macro".

The slowcore duo just broke up in March after four albums and several EPs over the course of a ten-plus-year career. Sodastream plied their trade in the world of dulcet indie folk, somewhere in the realm of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson and Fruit Bats. This song appeared on their final album, Reservations, which was released only last year. It is a dreamy instrumental comprised of not much more than a picked acoustic guitar, a light touch on the keyboard and a softly whistling musical saw. But I'll be damned if I can't feel myself lazing on a mussed-up bed with the breeze drifting through open windows in some pastoral bungalow.

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