Featured tracks: Homie Gnomie, Can’t Keep Up

Homie Gnomie is actually my favourite song at the moment – I can’t stop listening to it – and I have a discman because my iPod broke and I keep having to shamedly take it out of my bag to flick it back to this track because it’s just so damn good. In fact, I think Homie Gnomie is almost the piece de resistance of Batrider to date and encapsulates everything they’re about without being overtly guitar-core or angry. Although it’s pretty angry. And then the rest of the album is pretty guitar-core. So Why We Can’t Be Together as an album takes everything that Batrider does musically and compiles it in different ways into different tracks. Homie Gnomie takes everything Batrider is about thematically and hammers it home in 3 and-and-a-half minutes. Yes please.
COURTNEY FLURO

Jay Reatard myspace/jayreatard
Watch Me Fall (Matador)

Featured tracks: Hang Them All, Rotten Mind

This is a relentless album that starts off with abrupt, nasally vocals to shock you into the mood. The album is punchy and professional, taking you on a handclap-inducing trip through the paranoid life of Mr Reatard. Upon first listen Watch Me Fall is really intense – almost to the point where it is almost offputting. BUT, delve a little deeper and you will get to know the real album – more affectionate, melodic and sophisticated than it would first make you believe. I think what Jay Reatard wants is a little love and dedication – give it to him!
MINTY FRESH

Wavves myspace/waaves
Waaves (Shock)

Featured tracks: Waaves, The Boys Will Love Us
The other day Scott was like “I played Wavves by the band Wavves from the album Wavves on my radio show” and it sounded fucking crazy because they’re were no mid levels at all. In other words: Xtreme. And this is totally the point of Wavves. Everything he’s about he is about to the extreme. He’s extremely lo-fi, extremely screamy, extremely short and extremely intense. Which makes for an intensely short hard-out listen. But that intensity means for that short amount of time you my friend are listening to nothing else: which is for the best, because this guy has got the musical goods. Beware: you may need some easy listening after this.
COURTNEY FLURO

The XX myspace/thexx
The XX (Young Turks/The Label)

Featured tracks: Heart Skipped A Beat, Shelter

The XX have blown up (in an underground way) from their home in London. Best friends, singer/songwriters Romy & Oliver are out front, and production is taken care of by Jamie and 4th member Baria is a fly keyboardist. Haunted Pop is the best way i can describe it. It has been labelled a few things but the album speaks for itself & The XX defy description really. Vocally & lyrically beautiful with a hint of genius going on in the music. Diverse but consistent. Hyped? Yes, but deservedly so on this occassion.

DJ LOTION

Slow Club myspace/slowclub
Yeah, So (Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful, Our Most Brilliant Friends

So I interviewed Rebecca from this band a couple of nights ago and she was the NICEST person ever. All like “yeah, like I’m actually at me ma’s house because we played V Festival at the weekend and I’m knackered” in her super thick Sheffield accent. And it’s appropriate that she was super nice because Slow Club’s music is super nice in that folk-country prettily melodic sense. But like all good country music there’s this underlying sadness in the lyrics and (sometimes) the music that sort of makes you feel bad about dancing to it or listening to it in the sun when you’re all happy and stuff. But not bad enough to make you stop doing it.
COURTNEY FLURO

Amanda Blank myspace/amandablank
I Love You (Downtown/Inertia)

Featured tracks: What You Got (feat. Spank Rock), Might Like You Better

Oh shit this gurl is fiiiiieeeerce. As a quick reference, think Peaches with a broader lyrics book and more banging beats – I Love You is as clubby and sexy as all hell. Getting hot and heavy with the likes of Spank Rock, Lykki Li and Chuck Inglish, put this shit on if you feel like shakin yo assssss. I mean, it’s not rocket science but if you wanna feel like you own this city – you will totally get pumped to this. How many ways can you say ‘Fuck me’? Heaps.
MINTY FRESH

Papercuts myspace/thepapercuts
You Can Have What You Want (Spunk / Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: Jet Pane, The Wolf (feat. Alex Scally)

My first introduction to Papercuts was via a Ruby Suns remix of the ‘Future Primitive’ track. Upon getting the album proper, it has succeeded in keeping me going back to it. Soundwise it is comparable to The Ruby Suns but also Beach House & Panda Bear. Papercuts are San Francisco-based and is the brainchild of songwriter Jason Robert Quiver. Jason has help from his buddies including Alex Scally from Beach House who pops up numerous times on the album. Indie Folk with a twist of Psychedelia – this is a solid album which will delight and suprise.
DJ LOTION

Oh Mercy myspace/ohmercyband
Privileged Woes (Shock)

Featured tracks: Met A Wizard, Couldn’t Let You Down

This album makes me wanna beg. In a similar vein to Camera Obscura and the Go-Betweens, these charmers from across the Tasman swoon so softly you’ll cuddle up tight with your warm fuzzies and be swept up in their emo-enducing lyrics. Musically it’s totally pop-tastic and makes you smile like you’ve just seen the cutest thing ever, but lyrically it comes with a whole lot of heart break. It’s like a kitten that has just spewed up milk and looks all confused but is forever forgivable due to its endearing nature.
MINTY FRESH

Arctic Monkeys myspace/arcticmonkeys
Humbug (EMI)

Featured tracks: Crying Lightening, Dangerous Animal

I have been a total proponent of Arctic Monkeys from day one and I stay by that through all the hate, the overexposure, and that single. Finally rewarded by Alex Turner’s Scott Walker-esque side project The Last Shadow Puppets the Monkeys’ newest venture is in the same vein: witty, sleek vocals and lyrics coupled with heavy R.O.C.K production by Josh Homme.
COURTNEY FLURO

Ze 30 myspace/zerecords
Ze Records 1979 – 2009 (Strut Records)

Featured tracks: Material (feat. Nona Hendryx) Bustin’ Out, Suicide – Dream Baby Dream

Ze records solidified New York as the epicenter of Amazing, and this collection of tracks are an absolute cluster-fuck of awesome. It’s the dirty underbelly of Donna Summer heaving and humping over a steady drum beat. It is that cynical, angular 80’s style that absorbed capitalist culture and shat it out into that wasted, clubby post-punk. Coupled with disco sensibilities that reminds us who the Juan Maclean, DFA, The Rapture, Chicks on Speed and Gossip et al. sold their soul to.
MINTY FRESH

James Duncan myspace/jamesduncanmusic
Hello-fi (Round Trip Mars / Universal)
Featured tracks: My New Flumes (feat. Bachelorette), …Of Everyone Around You

James Duncan has just (& finally!) released his debut album called ‘Hello-Fi’. A play on words clearly cause this bad boy is anything but under-produced. From the get-go it’s a keeper. ‘My New Flumes’ featuring Annabel Bachelorette on the guest vocal kicks things off in fine style. Other radio singles follow The Cupboards Bare & Don’t Close Your Eyes. Nearly every track however, shows a music creator on top of his game. James Duncan is also a guitarist in Dimmer, SJD & Punches so he is a busy man… Too busy in fact – when does he eat?
DJ LOTION

Dodos myspace/thedodos
Time To Die (Shock)

Featured tracks: Two Medicines, The Strums

Time to Die has the same Dodos you know and love (ooO I love that guitar sound), but also progresses beyond the rawness of Visiter into a more complex assortment of journeying songs – does that make sense? I guess I’m meaning if I could personify it, each of the tracks would be like its own individual traveling folk gypsy. I think Two Medicines is one of my favourite songs of the year too. The album still has those beautiful harmonies without drowning itself in overproduction, and holy crap that dude can play guitar. These guys have really pushed their sound to give more character to each of the songs too – well done Dodos. Well done.
MINTY FRESH

Tiddabades myspace/tiddabades
EP (self-released)

Featured tracks: Colours, Romance Dance

Wellington 4-piece that have been getting all the cool support slots. Original sounding band, although they do owe a nod to Joy Division & Gang Of Four for some ol’ skool Post-Punk inspiration. Tiddabades have been working on this EP for a while so it’s good to see it out there in a tangiable form and available for your purchase via the bands myspace page www.myspace.com/tiddabades. Punchy production, clever arrangements, lyrically sharp and a local release worthy of praise. Kicking the corpse back to life!
DJ LOTION

Milky Disco 2
Let’s Go Freak Out (Lo Recordings / Border)

Featured tracks: You Are Amen, Big City Lights

I never heard Milky Disco 1 but if number 2 is anything to go on, it is essential listening. Since receiving this double album of various artists, it has been a mainstay in DJ Lotion radio shows & has also found it’s way into DJ Lotion club sets. It’s foundation lies in Cosmic Disco (as the title suggests), but it’s a real mixed bag of tempo’s and flavours. It features ‘So-Hot-Right-Now’ names such as Expanding Head Band, Canyons, Black Devil Disco Club, Soft Circle, CFCF, Windsurf & Ghost Note. Lo Recordings is also a very accomplished electronic label on the indie tip… so seek child, seek!
DJ LOTION

Fiery Furnaces myspace/thefieryfurnaces
I’m Going Away (Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: Champagne Charmaine, Cut The Cake

Elanor Freidenberger is a Brooklyn babe who together with her brother (who in an interesting twist is Elanor’s boyfriend’s – Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand – guitar tech) write the most weirdly eclectic pop-folk-rock-with vocally bluesy tinged music this side of well, something super weird. I’m Going Away is no different. Employing all manner of instruments, time signatures and actually – smoothness – this album sounds like everything else The Fiery Furnaces have done, which in turn, sounds nothing like anything else.
COURTNEY FLURO

Featured tracks: Destroy the Universe with Jazz Hands, Whiplash

Australia’s been responsible for some pretty embarrassing musical exploits, but then a band arrives from across the tasman that blows your mind in such a cutely experimental way that you have to give those kangaroos some credit. Aleks and the Ramps is one such group, and having been told by everyone that they rocked the party at CALH 2009 which I sadly didn’t attend, I was none surprised to discover tracks like ‘Destroy the Universe with Jazz Hands’ (amazing title) rode waves of delicately constructed time signatures and acoustically based instrumentation, only to have beautifully melancholic lyrics sit atop. And you get a poster with the album (the artwork for this album rules)! And maybe you can sing such things like “there’s nothing cute about a girl that sits cross legged at the local book store” right back at them when they tour here again, ’cause they’re just from Australia right?
COURTNEY FLURO

The Family Cactus myspace/familycactus
Come Howling (Sony)

Featured tracks: In Transit, A Giant Flash in the Pan

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect from this album. Not to say that this was a pleasant surprise, but it really did impress me when I heard it the first time. One day recently whilst browsing through Real Groovy, like there always is there was a band on the stereo playing. “Aw choice this is pretty polished and good,” I thought to myself (one doesn’t have to edit ones thoughts as they come to them – yes, it was as uncomplicated as that). Low and behold – it was the Cactus! It was a fortunate experience with their music because they seem to sound better in a space like that which gives the music breathing space. There are some definite Neil Finn moments scattered throughout the album, but it’s obvious that this music isn’t trying to push the musical boundaries and is very competent in its genre.

Would go best: In an epic space – maybe a field where you can run around with 6 of your friends, or as a present for your Dad to keep him up with what’s new but not scare him too much.
MINTY FRESH

Cass McCombs myspace/cassmccombs
Catacombs (Domino/EMI)

Featured tracks: Prima Donna, Lionkiller Got Married

Cass McCombs is a singer-songwriter who spends his time between Chicago & New York. What I
first liked about the new album Catacombs was the drums, percussion loops & tempo shifts that creep up on you. Cass is obviously a man with something to say as the subject matter delves into the personal but is also likely to speak something relevant to everyone. Lush production, an amazing band and great songs make this a stand-out Indie release for 09.
DJ LOTION

Mos Def myspace/mosdef
The Ecstatic (Downtown Records / Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: Quiet Dog Bite Hard, Auditorium feat. Slick Rick

Mos Def is on the top of my Hip-Hop MC list and since the first taste of this – Quiet Dog 2 months ago I have been eagerly awaiting the new release – ‘The Ecstatic’. This album is another chapter in the impressive career of Mr Def. Not a concept album as such but it definitely follows a theme of anti-Bush America. References to terrorism on planes, the war in Iraq and the breakdown of the US financial system. Featuring guests such as Slick Rick & long-time partner in rhyme Talib Kweli.
DJ LOTION

Bibio myspace/mrbibio
Ambivalence Avenue (Warp)

Featured tracks: Lover’s Carving, Fire Ant

I think this album should be called Schitzo Street. It goes from singer/songwriter type stuff to this hip hop type business – and that change freaked me out at first. Even the production quality varies between the styles. The songs range from traditional folky songs to tracks that use sampling and Mr Hayday-esque sounds. The more you listen to the folk songs, the more you can feel the warmth in them – a physicality in the recordings. In regards to electronic tracks – I feel rather unsophisticated in the area due to the fact that I have to listen to them in the context of this album.

Would go best: when you want to spice up your day with a bit of musical variety that is still pretty cool stuff to listen to… cool.
MINTY FRESH

Wildbirds and Peacedrums myspace/wildbirdsandpeacedrums
The Snake (The Leaf Label)

Featured tracks: There is No Light, Great Lines

This is the money for me this LP, you must buy this album. Swedish duo Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin play minimalist drum-vocal indie-folk to eachother while discussing various world events, performing at jazz festivals and creating beautiful cover art and video clips. ‘There is no light’ in particular – you have to check out this clip – directed by Andreas Nilsson is this rapturously haunting jaunt through the extremes of female vocals and the ability for drumming to carry an entirely pop worthy track, all the while clad in burka’s with an equally minimalist camera style going down. They’re signed to a minor called The Leaf Label which is responsible for a couple of other great exploits (you can check them out and I think download a sampler if you sign up here). Do it!
COURTNEY FLURO

1995 myspace/1995band
Guilt EP (Isaac / Independent)

Featured tracks: Red Forest, Getting’ Brainz
There seems to be an overload of bands using numerals as monikers or track titles at the moment. 1995 hail from Auckland and despite the numeral thing, they have a unique sound & manage to pull off an original 5 track EP release. Imagine The Horrors mixed with Bailter Space and you might be close. 1995 have gathered quite a following in the City of Sails, which looks set to grow to other regions and then who knows? A long-player is promised before too long also.
DJ LOTION

Bachelorette myspace/bachelorettepop
My Electric Family (Drag City)

Featured tracks: Mind Warp, The National Grid

Vocally, Bachelorette sounds like an android angel who has smoked too much. The music drifts in and out of dream sequences, and sometimes THE MUSIC SWIRLS AROUND INSIDE YOUR HEAD (try listening to Mind Warp in headphones). The album ranges from simpler acoustic-y songs like ‘Mercurial Man’ which forefront the traditional guitar, drums and bass (although towards the end it sounds like a swarm of keyboard bees) through to the more epic songs like ‘The National Grid’ that use almost completely sampled sounds.

PS Bachelorette are probably one of the best live acts I’ve seen – she is currently touring with Pikelet in her backing band too – CUTE.

Would go best: in headphones to get the amazing swirly effect in Mind Warp, or whilst watching the iTunes visualiser.
MINTY FRESH

Discovery myspace/discoverdiscovery
LP (XL Recordings / Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: Osaka Loop Line, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

So apparently this band was named so after Daft Punk and there are some obvious references and similarities, but really these guys are so fucking weirdly eclectic and all-over-the-place referentially that I don’t know if it’s a fair statement. The side project of one of the dudes from Vampire Weekend, it’s an ADD romp through the check points of both of his major outing, plus some overt use of auto-tune plus some at times cringe-worthy funk and regaee referencing, but at the end of the day you pull some tracks out of it going, wow, that was really fun, and yep, I could party to that. And I think that’s the point – pull what you like out of it and discard the rest, ‘cause there’s definitely some well produced, eclectic dance shit in there for everyone.
COURTNEY FLURO

MSTRKRFT myspace/mstrkrft
Fist of God (Dim Mak / Universal)

Featured tracks: Vuvuvu, Click Click feat. E-40

MSTRKRFT (said Master Craft) are monsters in the Electro realm. Formed in Toronto, Canada in 2005, the duo are known mainly for their HUGE remixes of every big name under the sun including Justice, Daft Punk, Chromeo, CSS, The Kills, Bloc Party & more. Their new album ‘Fist of God’ has not only a fantastic cover, but features an array of interesting guest vocals from the likes of Nore, E-40, Ghostface Killah, & Lil Mo. The MSTRKRFT production is in full effect and as you’d expect it’s subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. FAT!
DJ LOTION

Pie Warmer myspace/pyewarmer
The Fearsome Feeling (Lil Chief)

Featured tracks: The Motorway, I Broke All the Rules

I used to feel all weird about calling things ‘kooky’, but this album has it in bucket loads – in the best possible way! I mean just look at the cover – it’s not out to tell you anything in a straightforward way. It’s an endearing little album released on New Zealand’s charming Lil’ Chief records, and will satisfy your need for pop songs without the cringy ‘oh no she doesn’t love me anymore waaah’ type lyrics. A totally refreshing listen that has been lovingly constructed, with lyrics that might throw you but will still charm you silly.

Would go best: in a car ride to Auckland, or with a whole bunch of your friends at your flat who like to geek out about transgressive pop music.
MINTY FRESH

Jarvis Cocker myspace/jarvspace
Further Complications (Rough Trade / Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: I Never Said I Was Deep, Homewrecker

Isn’t Jarvis Cocker just so god-damn cool and amazing. It kind of doesn’t matter what he does it’s always going to be awesome because he was in Pulp and he wrote ‘Common People’ and he now lives in France writing poetry and gangling around with his model wife and hangin’ at café’s and just generally being ‘arty’ but it’s not clichéd at all because, you know, he’s ‘Jarvis’. Luckily to top things off this album is full of musical gems too, in appropriately eclectic fashion, like ‘I never said I was deep’ which belongs in some divey-yet-classy (“I met her in a museum of paleontology / but I make no bones about it” – geddit?”) Las Vegas strip club, while ‘Pilchard’ and ‘Angela’ are off kilter equally as witty anthem-esque rock tracks. Swoon *Jarvis* Swoon.
COURTNEY FLURO

Who Made Who myspace/whomadewhomusic
The Plot (Gomma / Rhymemethod)

Featured tracks: Small Town City, Office Clerk
Who Made Who hail from Copenhagen, Denmark. They have toured with Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, Late Of the Pier & The Juan MacLean. With that in mind, the sound is not that dissimiliar to those bands. Electro-Punk, Post-Disco what ever you wanna term it. In any case WMW wear great one-piece suits on stage, maybe on their downtime too? The Plot is a collection of well-crafted Electro-Pop tunes with a slant to the wierd side. Wierd being great.
DJ LOTION

Speech Debelle myspace/speechdebellemusic
Speech Therapy

Featured tracks: The Key, Spinnin’

Speech Debelle talks to you like a spoken-word soul sister, although she ain’t no diva. Her music puts you in a really introspective mood, making you want to be able to approach new situations with an ability to be retrospective… So yeah, it seems like it helps put things in her life in perspective as well… SPECTIVE. This is an album about personal development – about dealing with people and hopefully growing from it with an ultimately positive and mature outlook. Musically, it drives along on the vocals, with rather traditional instruments (everything from violin to guitar to trumpet etc etc) in the sparse arrangement. Production wise the instruments are treated to a Hip-Hopification.

Would go best: on headphones on a long walk wearing a big puffer jacket, or sitting in your room where you can read the lyrics in the booklet along with it.
MINTY FRESH

The Dead Weather
Horehound (Third Man Records / Sony)

Featured tracks: Cut Like a Buffalo, Treat Me Like Your Mother

Did Jack White need another blues rock side project with already side-projected out members of bands including QOTSA, The Raconteurs and The Kills? Probably not. Is this an intriguingly sinister example of a band knowing exactly what they are and what atmosphere they want to create, and arriving to the fold as a fully- fashioned explosively good package? For sure. While individual tracks by White (Cut Like a Buffalo in particular) are standouts, the co-operative tracks (Treat me like your mother, Bone house and 3 birds) provide cornerstones of sinister blues for the aforementioned, and Mosshart’s crooning sexiness to slot within. Glass of red + starkly cold winters eve = haunting Horehound experience.
COURTNEY FLURO

Bonus picks!

Team Doyobi myspace/teamdoyobi
Orch.V (Skam)

Picks: Plastic Vampires, Re-dimensioning Shape Battles

Skam built itself through not giving too much away. Couple that with an audience that thrived on ’secret knowledge’ and *kaboom*: just add instant rabid fan-base. Besides Boards of Canada and the influence key members had on Radiohead circa Kid A, Skam continues to eke out a solid but low-key style of extremely square beat-making (to be played AT VOLUME). They’re never really in fashion, instead choosing to exist in a slightly alternate dimension where dance music is more about texture than pumping beats.

Team Doyobi are nerd mages with AUDIO-GRAPHICS skillz, more Commodore Amiga than Apple IIe. Chiptune/8-bit music culture has generally been about nostalgic recreation of game-type soundtracks but Team Doyobi go for the more interesting layer, a few thousand lines of code beneath. It’s like gifting a soundpiece to the underlying logic – they’re more about the colour palette than how Mario looks on the game screen. Team Doyobi want you to lan-party like its Space 1999!
RIDICULOID

Black Pus myspace/theblackpus
Ultimate Beat Off (Diareaharama)

Picks: In The Temple Tantrum

Ok, so it’s not on this album but the first track I heard from Black Pus was Down Da Drain, and I thought it sounded like We Will Rock You squeezed through a tiny fuzzy tube into a heavily distorted mic – just you listen and you’ll agree.

There’s just the three tracks on here, all of them quite brutal dinner-sized bites of slow rolling DOOM. It’s hard not to factor in Brian Chippendale’s (Mindflayer, Lightning Bolt) reported hearing loss as a reason for everything being quite so full on – maybe we’re just not hearing what he thinks we’re hearing – but it’s most likely because, as a solo project, he’s now one man where once there was two. Black Pus forms like Voltron and Brian just happens to be the head (with a pair of oversized fists using tree trunks for sticks).
RIDICULOID

Nisennenmondai myspace/nisennenmondai
Fan (Bijin)

Picks: にせんねんもんだい

Don’t know how or why but somehow Japan retains mystique at least a decade after everyone became an internet information whore. The popular idea that there are (supposedly) tens of thousands of unsigned domestic-noise bands in Japan is possibly qualified by the quality of what does escape beyond Japan’s borders. For sheer energy it’s hard to fault Nisennenmondai, an all-women trio exploring basic fundamentals of song structure through simple repetition. RELENTLESS drumming seems to be the key here, keeping slowly changing loops from going too far too fast. If I was going to a desert island and could only take two words with me to describe Nisennenmondai, I’d take ‘dancey Hella’.
RIDICULOID

Debruit myspace/dbruit
Cle de Bras (Musique Large)

Picks: Pouls (Daedelus Remix), Congo Whoomp

Favourite track here is actually the Daedelus remix of Pouls, overwhelmingly (dare I say it) wondrous, like, if wide-eyed Marina from Stingray had a track she liked to swim to in the year 2009, this would be it. It also happens to undercut Debruit’s entire project (this time around) as a superior piece of production to the rest of the album.

Debruit quickly hits a lot of similar notes to Flying Lotus or a less chopped-up Prefuse, and it’s only in the closing track that you get an indication of where his strength lies. Congo Whoomp is the best indication of what Debruit is going for, managing to put a little of the spotlight back onto himself with a great bouncy beat, squelchy keys burping all over the top – it’s super-friendly, smile-inducing stuff. Even then, the fact I hear the same stumbling snare from another Daedelus track Hours Seconds Minutes means I have either listened to too much Daedelus or Debruit just can’t keep himself away from such well-cornered territory. Still, recommended.
RIDICULOID

Featured tracks: Molly’s Lips, Son of a Gun (demo version)

When I listened to this collection for the first time I was completely engaged. I could feel a smile stretch right across my face – I couldn’t help myself! They sound like a bedroom Magnetic Fields from Dunedin in the 80’s. This is a compilation of previously released EPs and an album that have been remastered, plus it has a bonus disk of demos and live stuff!

ps Did you know that Kurt Cobain named his daughter after Frances McKee who is the lovely lady in the band?
MINTY FRESH

The Horrors
Primary Colours

Featured tracks: Three Decades, Scarlett Fields

I am so glad that this is what The Horrors came out with after their first album Strange House. It’s a more sophisticated release that showcases their integrity as musicians, proving they aren’t just some gangly dudes who like to dress up and look spooky. Though you really have to look at the complete package when it comes to The Horrors, this album solidifies them as more than just a hype band. Cinematic, dark and inspiring.
MINTY FRESH

The Hairdos
I like it spooky

Featured tracks: Night Creeper, I Like It Spooky

You can only buy this EP at gigs – The Hairdos played at the Adelaide earlier this year and it was was INCREDIBLE! It’s was one of those gigs where you leave feeling totally revitalised – get along to the next one. Yeah it may be a little rough around the edges, but it is the perfect wee indicator of what these guys are all about. Sounds like a less uptight, looser Cramps. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to die?
MINTY FRESH

Snowfield / Seth Frightening
Untitled (split 7″)

Featured tracks: The Raven, If this is liberty then give me death

This beautifully designed split 7” has been locally released by two of New Zealand’s underground songwriters. And on it they are covering each others songs! What a good idea. Only available from Slowboat or if you get in touch with Snowfield at cupcakerabbit@gmail.com.
MINTY FRESH

St Vincent
Actor

Featured tracks: The Neighbours, Marrow

When I first listened to Annie Clarke AKA St Vincent’s Actor I immediately thought of Bambi and The Sound of Music. There’s something completely theatrical about the vocals, production and thematic countenance combined that remind me of singing maids, bluebirds, and Nazi’s. Well, maybe not the latter, but on her sophomore album this ex member of The Polyphonic Spree definitely has a silver screen, other-worldly thing going on.
COURTNEY SANDERS

Chicks on Speed
Cutting the Edge

Featured tracks: Art Speaks Out / Vibrator, Coolhunters / The Worst Band in the World

Chicks on Speed are going to be that controversial choice at a Listening Post because they’re not really considered a band by many, and I guess in conventional terms they probably aren’t. However, they are integral cultural commentators, unafraid to raise issues in a popular context that others won’t touch, and are completely inclusion-worthy as a result. Leotards and spoken word combined has never been more relevant.
COURTNEY SANDERS

Florence and the Machine
A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood EP

Featured tracks: Kiss With a Fist, The Dog Days are Over

Hailing from London-town, Florence Welch is a flame haired femme with a wailing voice that takes on the talents of Cat Power and the issues of Lily Allen. Keeping things lo-fi by singing in parks, forests, clown-filled playgrounds and the like, this nymphette evokes all the emotion of Grace Slick at her peak, sans man problems (at least within band).
COURTNEY SANDERS

Ponytail
Ice Cream Spiritual

Featured tracks: 7 Souls, Sky Drool

Aside from the fact that Ponytail was signed to a record label (We Are Free) with an incredible history (bankruptcy via gambling debts leading to establishment of said label) they also have a lead singer whose vocals are impossible to categorise. Molly Siegel doesn’t sing words, she’s not in tune, and often not even in time, and in any other band this’d be a massive fail. But, within the instrumental ability of post punkers Ponytail it totally works, and Ice Cream Spiritual is some sort of Eastern dance around happiness as a result.
COURTNEY SANDERS

Motocade
Tightrope Highway

Featured tracks: Octopus, Oldest Trick in the Book

Motocade are an Auckland based Indie-Pop quartet who have been solidly plying their trade to discerning ears for the best part of 4 years. Motocade have released 2 EPs (or short-form albums) making this their debut long-player. Eden Mulholland is a class songwriter with an ear for the
massive Pop hook.
LOTION

The Juan Maclean
The Future Will Come

Featured tracks:Simple Life, A New Bot

The Juan MacLean is New York Electronic producer Juan & his mainstay vocalist / keyboardist Nancy Wang. Signed to the incredibly solid DFA label, The Juan have just released their second album – ‘The Future Will Come’. Indie / Electronic / Disco-House? Or is that Space Disco??
LOTION

Tame Impala
Tame Impala EP

Featured tracks: Half Full Glass of Wine, 40,000 Mosquitoes Flying in Formation

Tame Impala are a 3-piece Psychedelic Rock outfit hailing from Perth, Australia. We don’t use the term ‘psychedelic’ lightly. This sounds like it was recorded in the late 60’s with band members & groupies drenched in barbituates and LSD. New signing to Modular Records… perhaps their most bold signing yet.
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Tourettes
Who Said You Can’t Dance to Misery

Featured tracks:Helper Monkey, Letting Go

MC Tourettes has just unleashed his 2nd album off the Breakin Wreckwordz label. ‘Left of Centre’, dark, ominous, scary! All of these things but the bugger still manages to pull you into his sick world where everything grooves and brutal honesty always triumphs. A stand-out NZ Hip-Hop release for 09…
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