Green/MGM – March 23 2009

Melbourne’s A Friend of Mine sure are a pack of jokers – in the liner notes of their debut God Mode, the four-piece thank not only their family and friends, but also the global economic crisis. Perhaps the band’s optimism is owed to the fact that they’re far from slowing down, playing with so many musical ideas that it’s impossible to brand them as belonging to any one genre. But this is both a blessing and a curse – though it emphasises AFOM’s flexibility, it also renders God Mode a confusingly inconsistent album.

The song titles suggest that AFOM might be taking the piss on this album, as does the weird album artwork featuring Jesus, garden gnomes with cleavage, and hanging clowns. But as for the music, it’s hard to tell whether or not they’re serious.

God Mode is seemingly divided into two styles, over-the-top theatricality and subdued emotional maturity. Representing the first style is lead single ‘Heroin Sheik’, a grunge-inspired piece building on one constant screeching guitar riff, with vocals ranging from a Smashing Pumpkins-esque drawl to a low, almost sarcastic-sounding metal grunt. It’s explosive, but so dramatic that it’s hard to take it seriously. This pretension is also present, though in a different way, on opening track ‘Dust Storm’, which never develops from its drone-like incarnation.

On the other hand, ‘File Under Fail’ brims with subtle energy, whilst ‘Co-Host’ and ‘I Want A Natural Death’ ditch the gimmicks for atmospheric simplicity wrapped in dreamy shoegaze-style guitar. These beautiful moments really bring home what this record could have been if AFOM stopped trying to be comedians and instead focused more on these cohesive musical ideas.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Dust Storm
02. Back From The Lab
03. Heroin Sheik
04. File Under Fail
05. Your Dog Is Waiting For Me To Die
06. One Trick Phony
07. One Sided Paper
08. It’s Okay, I’m A Cop
09. Plastic Dinosaurs
10. Co-Host
11. I Want A Natural Death
12. We Package Their Blood

DOWNLOAD: Heroin Sheik (m4a)

It’s that time of year again when Aussies either get super excited or super annoyed about the Splendour in the Grass lineup. The first announcement for the Byron Bay festival (to take place on the weekend of July 25-26) was released earlier today, and here’s what they’ve got in store:

THE FLAMING LIPS
BLOC PARTY
JANE’S ADDICTION
MGMT
THE SPECIALS
MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS
FRIENDLY FIRES
WHITE LIES
JOSH PYKE
GRINSPOON
YUKSEK
HILLTOP HOODS
AUGIE MARCH
SARAH BLASKO
LITTLE BIRDY
BIRDS OF TOKYO
THE GUTTER TWINS
DECODER RING
LOST VALENTINOS
THE MIDDLE EAST
BOB EVANS
KRAM
YVES KLEIN BLUE
LEADER CHEETAH
JACK LADDER
POLAROID FAME
GLASS TOWERS

My thoughts – a decent enough lineup, but zero excitement. Flaming Lips and Jane’s are both pretty incredible additions, but MGMT and Bloc Party were both here less than 6 months ago – people literally JUST saw them. Australian acts are the ones that are at basically every festival ever. So Giselle’s verdict? Probably not attending, but awaiting second announcement with bated breath…

Tickets are $240 for just the event and an additional $132 for camping, and will be available through QJump (god help us) at 9am on May 14.

17 Again is not the first film to do the whole forward/back in time thing. Jennifer Garner did it in Suddenly 30; there have been a billion Disney movies about it; if it’s not going to a different time in the same body, it’s something like switching bodies with someone else. Basically, there have been a lot of movies about being in an unfamiliar body or time with hilarious consequences, right?

But despite this, 17 Again manages to stay fresh and funny. It’s obviously aimed at teens who dig a bit of the rom-com action (and a lot of the Zac Efron action), but there’s enough substance and wit in the dialogue to allow adults to enjoy it just as much.

The film starts in 1989 where Mike O’Donnell (Zac Efron), a talented 17-year-old basketball player, learns that his girlfriend Scarlet (Allison Miller) is pregnant and leaves his major basketball game to follow her. We then cut to twenty years on, where Mike (now played by Matthew Perry) and Scarlet (Leslie Mann) have just separated, and Mike is living with his geeky Star Wars-loving best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon). After unsuccessful bonding attempts with his two children Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight), Mike realises that his life has not panned out how he thought it would and wishes for a chance to do it over – and, you got it, he gets that chance from one of those wacky ‘Spirit Guide’ guys and ends up back at his old high school under the name of ‘Mark Gold’, Efronned up, under the guise of being Ned’s son, mingling with (and trying to help) his kids as well as trying to win the affections of his wife back.

The storyline is amazingly predictable as all teenage comedy films are, but the performances and dialogue are sharp and provide something that everyone is able to relate to. Watching young Mike speak to Maggie about who she can and can’t date (when she doesn’t even know who he is) is hysterical for viewers, particularly teenage girls who have probably had the same experiences with their fathers – watching him interact with Scarlet who is unaware of his true identity is heartbreaking and intriguing.

Efron, who came to fame with the Disney Channel tween hit High School Musical, proves himself here as actually quite a decent actor – he’s excellent when he’s goofing off in the film’s awkward slapstick scenes, but is just as quick to switch into a serious role at the climax of the film. It will be hard for him to be taken seriously after the all-singing, all-dancing antics of Troy Bolton in not one, but three feature films – and it may take some work for him to ease into films that aren’t geared specifically towards a screaming 12-year-old audience, but this performance shows that he’s not lacking in the potential.

For the geeks out there, 17 Again provides some quality nerd humour in the subplot romance between Ned and school principal Ms Masterson (Melora Hardin), who at first appears to be an uptight cold fish disgusted by Ned’s ‘peacocking’ attempts but reveals herself later to be fluent in Elvish and an avid fan of Halo. This subplot is actually one of the strongest parts of the film in general, providing genuinely funny jokes that adults will appreciate (and that will probably go right over tweens’ heads).

17 Again is not a masterpiece nor is it original, but honestly, who expected it to be? It’s a feel-good movie that ends in the way you’d expect it to end (although the children never find out that their friend was actually their father, which is annoying because then how can they appreciate his help?) – but it provides laughs along the way and is a heartwarming and entertaining way to spend 102 minutes of your life.

Plus, Zac Efron is a babe. *disappears to watch Jonas Brothers 3D concert like every other 12-year-old on the planet*

The Little Hands of Asphalt – Leap Years – Spoon Train Audio/How Is Annie – March 9 2009

What is a leap year? If you were born on February 29 during one, you only get a birthday every four years (and end up aging strangely). If you love the Olympics, then a leap year is a joyous occasion, marking the celebration of the world uniting to play hard. If you’re Sjur Lyseid, it’s an opportunity to explore anything that has come to mean anything in your life within the scope of gorgeously crafted folk music.

Lyseid, one quarter of Norway’s indie rock quartet Monzano, is the brains behind solo venture The Little Hands of Asphalt. One month after the release of debut EP Spit Back at the Rain comes Little Hands’ first full-length Leap Years, a warm and honest collection of songs that flows like a storybook, giving us insight into every corner of Lyseid’s vulnerably emotional mind. It is not forceful but emanates a real sense of urgency, and slowly weaves its way into your head until you find, without even realising it, that it’s all you can think about.

The album opens with the synth-keys/acoustic guitar marriage of ‘Oslo’, in which Lyseid transports us to the greenness of Norway’s capital city as he laments a lost romance – but since “Oslo is a small, small town”, he knows he will see her again. Like the five songs on Spit Back at the Rain, ‘Oslo’ leans heavily on the sweet mixture of Lyseid’s accented voice and the gentle guitar accompaniment – but it introduces a new element not seen on Spit. The added use of the harmonica, on ‘Oslo’ as well as many other songs on the album, offers a new dimension to what Lyseid has already created and, primarily played along with the keys and guitar during moments of vocal rest, provides an almost wistful accompaniment to the listener’s moments of reflection.

Lyseid’s work with Monzano was marked by the use of electric and synthesised instruments under a more sombre lyrical and musical approach, but Little Hands opt for a much more melodically charged venture. The subject matter is not always cheerful – ‘Bait’, featuring only an acoustic guitar and Lyseid’s gently shaking voice, is an introspective moment of sensitivity describing “the awkwardness of passing friends” – but sad moments like those are countered by feel-good cuts like ‘Eating Fish in Hamburger Heaven’, a tongue-in-cheek upbeat number swirling around Springsteen-esque country rollicks. Though the style of music itself is not particularly inventive (honestly, how many folk-pop projects are around these days?), Lyseid manages to take the style and make it his own with his imaginative storytelling scope and ambition.

Like fellow Norwegian Sondre Lerche, a major part of Lyseid’s appeal is his lyrical honesty and its ability to make you feel like you’re engaging in a conversation with him. Though his native tongue is not English, his command of emotion and wit is admirable, often verging on a charismatic brand of shy awkwardness (the Seth Cohen kind where you just want to hug them). ‘Highway’s Pull’, with its rolling night-time harmonies, demonstrates this lyrical perfection best as Lyseid takes an escapist drive away from the problems in his life and finds that it doesn’t actually help at all:

“But I’m talking about cards / while the past comes in on broken wings / to crash in your backyard / And I’m picking every syllable apart / in those breathless conversations / that I’ve memorized by heart.”

Leap years only come around every few years and, even though this album wasn’t released during an actual leap year, after a few listens its name makes perfect sense. Norway’s answer to Conor Oberst seems aware of the fact that he has crafted something truly special that is not a common experience – 2009 is not a leap year but this record, in all its beauty and openness, is.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Oslo
02. Highway’s Pull
03. The Future
04. Eating Fish in Hamburger Heaven
05. Bait
06. Some Things We Need To Foget
07. The Next Time We Meet
08. Sex and Loneliness
09. A Few Words From Our Ten Nominees
10. Letter to Carrie
11. Words That Kill

DOWNLOAD: Oslo (mp3)

The Portraits – Timescape – Sensory Pulse Records – September 29 2008

On the cover of Timescape, a tiny redheaded toddler stands on a giant sundial as a vast landscape stretches behind her. This marriage of time and nature is the defining theme of Anglo-Irish folk group The Portraits’ second and latest record, a blissfully varied collection of songs brimming with subtle emotions and an array of eclectic instruments.

The best thing about Timescape is that it doesn’t evoke an immediate reaction. My first listen was a nonchalantly unimpressed wade through the 40 minutes that make up the record, and it made very little impact – but on each listen since I’ve been able to uncover something subtle that I love in each pithy little song. Perhaps saying so isn’t really professional in the sense that album reviews are supposed to be – after all, aren’t we supposed to remain somewhat objective?

But this is exactly the point of Timescape. It allows us to throw away our inhibitions and freefall into an unexplored world, forging a very real personal connection with Jeremy and Lorraine Millington, the brains behind The Portraits who also have a deeply personal connection themselves, as creative collaborators for more than a decade and, more recently, husband and wife.

The intro and verse of the opening track ‘Poppy Song’ are not particularly striking, but the delicate warmth of The Portraits comes flooding in as soon as the bright chorus hits. Lorraine’s breezy vocals, reminiscent of early Andrea Corr, are beautifully underscored with the simple accompaniment as she paints an evergreen picture: “tell me eternal green / under your endless sky / how you are so serene / knowing all the truth you hide?”

This melding point of nature and time is explored further in the nine tracks following, awash in both cynicism and hope. From the facelessness of celebrity in the darker flavour of ‘Fame’ to the finiteness of life explored through earthen metaphor in ‘Precious Red’, Jeremy and Lorraine offer a fresh outlook on both the bright and dark sides of life using mental scenery created both through words and music.

The employment of instruments such as cellos, ethnic flutes and trumpets, as well as the usual piano and guitar, makes Timescape an experience that really fits its name. It seems to borrow from world music, with African-inspired bongos providing the beat for many of the songs. In both a musical and lyrical sense, Timescape shows intelligence and diversity – focusing on all aspects of life to which anyone can relate, it also focuses on different facets of musical composition and innovation.

‘Real World’ illustrates this perfectly – beginning with a harmonised refrain, it proceeds to lurch into an upbeat ditty about the transition from childhood into adulthood whilst a jangling percussion ensemble rattles cheerily over an effervescent harmony. Though the subject matter is far from cheery, The Portraits make it gorgeously listenable – and make me think that maybe “progressing into the real world” won’t be so bad.

There are some questionable decisions sometimes, such as the very mechanical-sounding drum fade at the start of ‘Poppy Song’ which detracts from the lithe feeling of the rest of the song, and the production of the songs could do with more polishing as it feels a little rough around the edges at times. But sometimes it’s this rawness that makes it feel the most personal, like an honest poem scribbled hastily on a piece of paper.

If this record doesn’t strike you straight away, don’t give up hope – I’m not saying that it’s perfect, but it is overflowing with so much promise and passion. Put it on your iPod and take a walk down to a lake or river on a warm day, and sit there soaking in the world around you and the radiance of this music. I promise you it will be worth the effort.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Poppy Song
02. Fame
03. Autumn
04. Bitter
05. Precious Red
06. Real World
07. See Through You
08. Shield
09. Virtual
10. Windfall

DOWNLOAD: Poppy Song (m4a)

Darling readers,

See that face? That is the 10:30am face of Giselle A. Nguyen who, in a flurry of reckless passion, purchased tickets to see Simon & Garfunkel. For $285. For one ticket.

However I will be seeing them TWICE in just a bit over two months! (Add a few extra billion of those for effect).

That little bank card that I’m holding is not going to be impressed though. We’re in a recession! I’m a struggling arts student! I don’t have a steady income!

Fuck, I really can’t properly justify this, can I?

Do not try this at home. No really, don’t.

I don’t know about you, but a large chunk of my teenage years was marked by one word: ANARRCHHYYYYYY! And whilst I wore my wrist cuffs and black eyeliner and Chuck Taylors and Sex Pistols shirt, there were two bands that I listened to religiously: NOFX and Bad Religion. No really, RELIGIOUSLY. Linoleum supports my head…

Well it looks like it’s my 15 year old self’s lucky day, because these two seminal 90s punk rock bands are heading to Australia, TOGETHER, this September. Don’t miss out on tickets to what promises to be a fierce punk show featuring two bands who aren’t afraid to voice their opinions.

Tickets available from April 24 through your usual outlets.

DATES
Thu September 24: Metro City, Perth
Sun September 26: Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Mon September 27: The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Tue September 28: The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Thu September 30: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Sat October 2: Brisbane Riverstage, Brisbane

McKisko – Glorio – El Nino El Nino/Inertia – March 21 2009

Brisbane singer-songwriter Helen Franzmann has one of those delicate girly voices that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a dark room by yourself with a ghostly presence lingering nearby. That voice is the focal point of her debut album Glorio where, under the name McKisko, she shares her haunting visions.

An unexamined listen to the album’s nine songs would suggest that McKisko is simply another singer-songwriter project that sails along calmly in the general folk vein, but a closer inspection reveals that the simplicity of these tracks is actually quite deceptive.

Whilst most of the tracks fall into a familiar guitar/piano/voice structural ground, it still manages to avoid triteness – ‘Thankful Tangle’ is a gorgeously straightforward song with a simple acoustic accompaniment, and the beautiful ‘Marcel’ is a stripped-back moment of introspection, with a distant trumpet and acoustic guitar providing companionship to Franzmann’s utterances to a clandestine lover. Often it’s this modesty in composition that allows the sombre lyrics to really take effect, whether they be dark moments of morbidity or innermost secrets spilled into song.

The more unconventional tracks employ a wide range of instruments – opener ‘How We Are’ begins with an uncomplicated electric ostinato accompanying Franzmann’s musings on escapism, but culminates in an atmospheric mixture of glockenspiel, cello, bowed guitar and spooky background vocals and buzzes that swirl steadily on as Franzmann’s dreamy voice fades. Similarly, an eclectic mix of tin drum, hand claps, brass, strings and melodica can be found on ‘A Difficult Crossing’, the album’s most upbeat and experimental moment.

At just over half an hour, Glorio is not an exaggerated album but rather one that presents its ideas with vulnerable precision. As a debut it is a markedly fine effort with some confident forays into previously unexplored territory, and serves as a fitting introduction to an up-and-coming talent.

TRACK LISTING:
01. How We Are
02. The Hollow Boat
03. Jackson Curse
04. A Difficult Crossing
05. Undertow
06. Marcel
07. Silence Slowly
08. Thankful Tangle
09. Into the Night

DOWNLOAD: Thankful Tangle (mp3)

Interview for Mink Magazine

He went from being an assassin gangster one day to a mute rapist the next. He’s plotted conspiracies against great political leaders and, most recently, has become a smooth criminal – guns, drugs, women, the whole shebang.

So how exactly has he managed to pull off all these gritty acts without securing himself a nice little spot in prison or, as a matter of fact, any reprimand from the criminal justice system at all?

The answer is simple – Paul Winchester is an actor with the most dedicated intentions to make his unconventional roles believable.

(more…)

Chris Isaak – Mr. Lucky – Wicked Game/Reprise – February 24 2009

Channel [V] and Max Music recently welcomed me on board as a reviewer for their websites, and have just sent me my first record to critique. Upon opening the package and being met by a copy of Chris Isaak’s Mr. Lucky, I winced – but then realised great lol-potential in it. So secretly, I was hoping this album would be all kinds of terrible, because I wanted to be amazingly hilarious and witty and start this review with the line “Baby did a bad, bad thing by making this record”.

But unfortunately for me – and fortunately for self-proclaimed lucky crooner Mr. Isaak – it’s actually not that bad.

The man behind pre-00’s hits ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing’ (which I haaaaated as an eleven-year-old) is back with his first album of original material in seven years. Mr. Lucky offers 14 songs spanning genres from blues to country to rock to just plain good old pop, all of which are accented with his sweepingly grandiose voice and its dynamic range.

The album opens with a rattling twang before Isaak launches into the controlled rollick of ‘Cheater’s Town’, followed by the more introspective and heart-wrenching sob story that is ‘We Let Her Down’. Isaak’s voice is a great conveyer of emotion, ranging from a quiet croon to a heavily passionate sonority. He also uses his manly charm to woo not one, but two popular chanteuses on this record – Trisha Yearwood joins the party on the mushy I-miss-you ballad ‘Breaking Apart’, whilst Michelle Branch lends her breezy vocals to ‘I Lose My Heart’.

Isaak doesn’t limit himself to the downbeat sappy ballads, though, showcasing a number of genres on the album. ‘We’ve Got Tomorrow’ adopts a simple country feel coupled with jangling guitars and a steady percussion thud, with some feel-good brass kicking in halfway through, whilst ‘Very Pretty Girl’ oozes some serious skeeze with Isaak’s now seductive voice beckoning in any ladies who might be listening. The fantastic ‘Take My Heart’ is a Nat King Cole flavoured retrospective that calls to mind silent movies and top hats, and Vegas comes to you with the album’s swing finale ‘Big Wide Wonderful World’ – jazzy saxes, slow finger-clicking vocals and all.

But the main critical point that really emanates from this record is that, overall, I’m not convinced that it will help Isaak win over a new generation of fans. Though the production is crystal clear, there is something about his lyrical and musical composition that can be incredibly (and seemingly unironically) ‘80s, more often than not verging on cringe-worthy.

Take, for example, ‘You Don’t Cry Like I Do’ – if the song title itself wasn’t enough, consider these lyrics: “You don’t cry, cause you don’t need me now, you don’t want me / You don’t want me, you don’t love me / That’s what kills me”. Team that up with a delicate tinkering piano and soaring guitars, as well as layered male vocals culminating in a syrupy plead of a bridge, and you have yourself some grade-A cheese. Obviously any ballad will have at least a slight element of corniness, but Isaak really outdoes himself in this capacity, resulting in an album containing many moments that really should have been left in the ‘80s.

So I was right and wrong in my initial preconceptions of this record – whilst Chris Isaak didn’t do a great thing, it wasn’t a bad, bad one either. For long-time fans, Mr. Lucky contains the genre-hopping that you’d expect, with some really wonderful moments, but for newcomers or naysayers, it may not be enough to sway you. Perhaps if Isaak dropped the cheese he’d be able to achieve some songwriting worthy of sharply focused attention – the upbeat and creative songs on this record show that the potential’s certainly not lacking.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Cheater’s Town
02. We Let Her Down
03. You Don’t Cry Like I Do
04. We’ve Got Tomorrow
05. Breaking Apart (with Trisha Yearwood)
06. Baby Baby
07. Mr. Lonely Man
08. I Lose My Heart (with Michelle Branch)
09. Summer Holiday
10. Best I Ever Had
11. We Lost Our Way
12. Very Pretty Girl
13. Take My Heart
14. Big Wide Wonderful World

DOWNLOAD: Take My Heart (m4a)