Bloods
Garage pop
Sydney trio Bloods have a knack for catchy garage pop numbers, and their latest ‘Bring My Walls Down’ is another example. Groundbreaking experimentalism isn’t their game, but their four-to-the-floor power pop numbers are imbued with sly romanticism.
Thursday October 6 – Newtown Social Club – Sydney, NSW
Tobacco Rat
Electronic
A bevy of international electronic musicians are coming to The Bird this Thursday, with Perth’s Tobacco Rat the hometown representative. The ‘Rat’s an experimental creature, mixing together sharp industrial sounds with blips and bloops of techno and hip hop inside a canyon of sub bass.
Thursday October 6 – The Bird – Perth, WA
Little Lovers
Indie/power pop
Earlier this year Little Lovers released their debut LP, Golden Decade. Their agreeable indie pop numbers often convey a slacker point of view, so it makes sense that it’s taken them four months to organise an album launch. The record’s lost none of its freshness, mind you, and you can now pick it up on 12” vinyl.
Thursday October 6 – Union Hotel – Sydney, NSW
Dreamtime
Psych rock
Dreamtime’s self-described aim to “create personal journeys to help draw listeners out of their frontal lobe consciousness and into sonic fantasies” seems a bit contrived. But despite this, the Brisbane psych-rockers furnish a disorienting experience via repetitive distorted riffage and primal howling.
Friday October 7 – Woolly Mammoth – Brisbane, QLD
Tash Sultana
Electronic Indie
Tash Sultana is everything John Mayer wants to be. While Mayer’s a total beanbag with a cringe-worthy personality, Sultana’s a one woman band who builds genre-traversing compositions that confidently exude soul.
Friday October 7 – Settler’s Tavern – Margaret River, WA
The Persian Drugs
Rock
The Persian Drugs. Is that a good name for a band? I’m undecided, but names don’t matter for too much once you like the band (though, I still struggle with things like Cerebral Ballzy and Eagulls). Anyway, Persian Drugs make stomping, bluesy garage rock led by an arresting female voice.
Friday October 7 – Newtown Social Club – Sydney, NSW
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Soft Corporate
Indie rock
I recently heard someone refuting the idea of “guilty pleasures”, insisting that you either like stuff or you don’t. To regard something as a guilty pleasure relates to one’s self-image – enjoying something at odds with one’s perceived identity. But with age you become less concerned about this sort of thing and the guilt fades (or, conversely, completely takes over). This is all a bit tangential, but Soft Corporate isn’t exactly my bag – it’s earnest, ornate indie rock, giving a nod to the likes of Death Cab – but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it.
Saturday October 8 – Gasometer Hotel – Melbourne, VIC
Kim Salmon
Punk
Kim Salmon, the hardest working man in Australian rock’n’roll, is back out on the road. Although he’s flogging his latest LP, My Script, you can expect classically scrappy tunes from The Scientists, Surrealists, Beasts of Bourbon and his various other projects.
Saturday October 8 – Crown And Anchor – Adelaide, SA
Gabriella Cohen
Pop rock
You’ve probably already been devouring Gabriella Cohen’s debut LP, Full Closure and No Details, for several months. Her songwriting invokes elements of ‘60s doo-wop and ‘90s lo-fi while illuminating her capacity for an incisive pop hook. If you’re not on board yet, then bloody heck get a wriggle on.
Saturday October 8 – Howler – Melbourne, VIC
Saint Saunas
Electronic
There are two people in Saint Saunas, Triana and Patrick, and at least one of them has a taste for the strange and obscure. This is music you can dance to, but it’s not the first thing you’d chuck on your party playlist. That’s because it exists on a psychic level that might confuse less inquisitive listeners. No complaints from us, though. Sunday October 9 – The Old Bar – Melbourne, VIC
