Music news

“Well why don’t you just F**k off back to NZ then?” I tend to get this quite a bit from Australian people - sometimes I’m homesick okay? Other times I have valid reasons for harping on about home; the young bands that are cropping up there at the moment are some of them.
Holiday With Friends are a Wellington band that recently signed to Lil Chief records (home of The Brunettes). Accordingly, they make pure pop music about things like hot water bottles and use boy/girl melodies and hand-claps and everything.
Moron Says What?!?! is this week supporting Australia’s own wonderful Architecture in Helsinki. These guys and girls make spazzed out party music and are known to cover Paris Hilton’s “stars are blind” on occasion.
As people, The Gladeyes are one of the loveliest bands to ever exist. Musically they are too. “Andy” is the kind of song that makes your guts churn because it is too beautiful.
Although three out of four Songs members are from NZ, they are actually based in Sydney so you should definitely check them out soon. Inspired by bands like the Clean and the Go-Betweens, Songs make music that sounds like holding hands or dancing around your kitchen.

Buzz Bands. Yeah, there's always a list about as long as Route 66 of "Next Big Things". But that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention sometimes when we're prodded by the hype machine. Presently, in the US, the touted stratosphere visitors are Black Kids, a Floridian gaggle of infectious, crunking, party bashers. Now, call me an Anglophile, but as fun, and maybe promising, as these kids are, they kind of pale in comparison with one of the UK's current darlings. Across the pond, the cheeky lads of Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have spent the better part of 2007 flirting with every major label and tastemaker with a penchant  for batted eyelashes and jangly, brit hooks. Given they're another band to borrow a little of the gilded legacy left by the dethroned Albion kings The Libertines it seems rather fitting that they've eventually settled on a deal with Vertigo, joining a roster that boasts one Carl Barat. Funnily enough, they've also just finished a nationwide arena tour with ol' Pete and his shambling babes. There you go then.
As you were.

Described by one reviewer as “the drunken Uncle of the garage rock family”, Atlanta’s Black Lips play music that’s fuzzy, out of time and amazingly awesome.
The band formed in 2000 when its members were just teenagers sharing a love of punk, country and blues - as well as a penchant for incorporating various bodily fluids into their live show. Last time I saw them play not much had changed there, but you can see for yourself when they tour here this month; playing the Meredith festival as well as shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Black lips have also just released their new LP “Good Bad, Not Evil” through Etch N sketch and Vice Records. Those in the know reckon the album’s pretty sweet - plus it also includes a bonus DVD: “Black Lips live in Israel”. Rad.

However, it’s her show you absolutely MUST catch. One reviewer described her ‘crazy on-stage antics’ as captivating and another said she was ‘blown away at how much potential this girl has to reinvigorate the Australian music scene.’ Miller-Heidke is currently performing in Queensland, but if you’re not lucky enough to see her in the flesh then you can watch her on Live at the Chapel, Saturday at noon on Channel 7. The video above is one her most enchanting performances.

Man you gotta love The Kills. VV and Hotel (Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, respectively) play such a dirty, evocative, minimal kind of rock, it makes you edgy just thinking about it. Their albums - Keep On Your Mean Side and No Wow - bristle with barely restrained vigour and a raw, well tapped sexual electricity. On stage, as they sweat and shout, they look like they're one step away from a hurricane like embrace that's half way between body crushing and some kind of damaging intimacy. Kind of scary really, but damn enthralling.

So anyway, they've just released a new single called URA Fever. This wee turn is a bit of a bleepy, dancy number, with none of the trademark buzzsawing guitars, but man, that level of red hot heat is still there. Ouch! Bring on the full record, I say.

Beach House make woozy music...the kind that envelopes you in a warm fuzz, gives you spectral rainbow vision and makes you wonder if that sunset is never ending. The name may imply some of this, but when French born Baltimore livin' Victoria Legrand (can that be her real surname?), gets to crooning in her smoky husk, everyone in the room sways. She sounds like Nico after a day at the beach. Same as my other dream pop fav's Bright Black Morning Light. it's the kind of music that makes you wanna say words like "groovy", but not in a cringey crush velvet way.

The time was 1am. The night was technically over, but for the sake of this blurb, I will say it was Friday Night. I was sitting with my girl pal Kelly in our contemporary Flinders Lane apartment in Melbourne. We had just devoured a beautiful Italian feast on Lygon Street and had aimlessly wandered the city streets before retiring to our beds for much needed sleep. While taking off my mascara I decided to turn on the TV. Rage was on. A song by a mysterious woman by the name of Cat Power, a gorgeous brunette was seen on the screen. Kelly remarked with none other than "Oh my gosh she's beautiful'. I couldn't agree more. Not only was her voice angelic, her presence was enough to make you want to reach out and touch the screen. She was singing to a song called "Lived in Bars'. For 3 minutes I was mesmerized by this women. To hear her music check out her myspace or youtube one of her performances. She is a rare form of beauty; something this world needs to see more of.