Mt Desolation

I can't be bothered retyping what's already been suitably typed so here it is, in someone else's words.

There’s a new supergroup brewing that includes members of The Killers, Keane, Mumford and Sons and Noah And The Whale. Known as Mt Desolation, the collaborative effort will release an as-yet untitled album later this year. So far, two song names have sprung up from home-brew demos, ‘Departure’ and ‘Annie Ford’.

The album will apparently have a distinct country sound, although the writing duo behind it admit that “two English men trying to sing like Hank Williams [is] definitely a recipe for disaster”. It sounds interesting, at least.

The project is spearhead by Keane keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley and occasional Keane bassist Jesse Quin, but will also feature The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Noah And The Whale fiddle player Tom Hobden, Mumford And Sons banjo player Winston Marshall and the Long Winters’ guitarist John Roderick, among others.

- Musicfeeds

Here's hoping they'll be half as good as their collective cult following would suggest.

Local Natives

Three part harmonies are crazy in right now so take this opportunity to get involved. You may have missed the boat with Mumford and Sons and now they're too popular for you to buy their album but it doesn't have to happen twice.

In truth Local Natives don't really sound anything like Mumford. Pitchfork says they have a bit of Dodos, a little Fleet Foxes and even some Grizzly Bear and I think that's all fair. They don't do anything staggeringly new, but hell, it sounds good.

They also have one of the best Daytrotter sessions I've heard so give that a spin too.

Wide Eyes is the first track from Gorilla Manor which came out in November last year so it's not a new release but it's something worth listening to if you haven't already.

Local Natives - Wide Eyes


Local Natives on Daytrotter
Local Natives on Myspace
Buy this album on iTunes

Sleigh Bells - Crown on the Ground

No preamble, no extended introduction and no off-topic tangeants. Just me (Tommy) telling you (my four man strong readership) that this track is worth a listen.

It's called 'Crown on the Ground' by an artist called Sleigh Bells. I wouldn't know where to start trying to genre this beast so I just won't. There's any number websites where you read the comments of pedantic elitists arguing about it. I will say that it features Derek (formerly of Metalcore giants Poison the Well) and Alexis Krauss who you might know as a school teacher from Brooklyn. It's a departure from the easy listening/folk I've posted so far. A huge, over-amplified, distorted bass line and vocals reminiscent of MIA, Crown on the Ground would make for a gigantic club track.

Anyway, get onto it while you can still score some indie-cred and they're not a household name. They've not got a CD out or even an EP yet the Internet is still frothing at the mouth over them. I guess I can't disassociate myself from that since I'm writing about them this very second.

Enjoy.

Sleigh Bells - Crown on the Ground

(Best listened to loudly)

Sleigh Bells on Myspace

Luke Webb

It struck me this afternoon that I'd not written about a local artist yet. Sure, my first post was about the middle east but they're a band that hardly need a nudge towards success. They are all over it despite a complete disregard for self promotion. They may well have seen success much earlier than they did and probably wouldn't have had to break up to blow up if they'd given even the slightest thought to marketing their music. Anyway, this isn't about the middle east even though they've just done a live set full of new tracks for KCRW while at SXSW (segway be my name).

This is about Luke Webb. Luke is from the [Blue] Mountains and is like the Middle East in that he rules but didn't strike while the iron is hot. His album has been out for about 6 months now though it took him a solid three years to get it written and recorded.

"If he's so great, how come I've never heard of him?"

Good question. You haven't heard of him because you've been sitting way too tight waiting for the next Shins album to come out. Far out, you love those guys a lot. I guess he's had some small level of exposure. He's played blackstump festival years ago and he recently won the Telstra National Songwriter's competition. I bet you feel like an idiot now, getting all up in my face with your questions. Luke writes songs that can safely be called folk. Or country, maybe. I'm not sure. More clearcut country folk than alternative country/folk though. He writes pretty, simple, easy to listen to songs and he's a stand up guy so if you want to get his new record it's available from his myspace

Listen to Luke Webb's Keep This Fire:

New Slang (Cover)

New Slang was a song by The Shins that was made famous in the film Garden State in this scene. Anyway, that's the original version as sung by The Shins. There exists on youtube a cover of this song that may well be better than the original. Spliced in with it is a little bit of Coldplay's Don't Panic so make sure you watch until the end. They get some amazing sound, especially for a one take recording. Here it is:

Tunng - Don't Look down or Back

I liked the first Tunng album. I mean, I bought the Tunng album and I listened to it a little bit. I guess I liked it the way I like lawn bowls; you'll play it for a birthday party or at a bible study social and it's heaps more fun barefoot on grass but once every few months is enough. You'll tell your friends how much you enjoyed it but inside you know it was kind of boring. Maybe I'm being too hard on them. It was a pretty good album. Itunes tells me I gave it about 6 plays through. The single bullets though, well, that got a solid 19 listens.

About a month ago they released a new record called '...And Then We Saw Land' (horrible name? horrible name.) They've two singles from this album released so far Hustle and Don't Look Down or Back. I'll stream Don't Look Down or Back for you because I think it's the better of the two, but go to their myspace and have a listen to Hustle before you inevitably buy the full CD.

Tunng - Don't Look Down or Back:

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thisistunng