Bleed Like Me
Garbage
Mainstream girl rock is in a sad state at the moment, with the stacked actor away at the moment, running to the sound of a judge’s gavel and the rest of the field being made up of either women’s day wannabes or purveyors of touchy feely fuzziness, it’s a barren time on channel rock chick. Thank goodness the alternative side of the coin still spends well.

Now things in the Garbage camp have been tenuous for a number of years but the band has put differences aside and entered the studio to work on a new album. With only four albums in ten years, you can never accuse the band of being overly accommodating and that is fine, creative tension can be a good thing. Add Shirley Manson’s recent divorce and you should have a band with something to say.

Things start well with the bump and grind of Bad Boyfriend and if the message of the song is anything to go by, Shirley hasn’t let her libido come off the boil. The regret in Run Baby Run and the resolve of Right Between The Eyes reveal the emotional roller coaster that relationships, good and bad put you through, while the defiance of the first single off the rank, Why Do You Love Me shows a woman still in control of her surrounds.

Bleed Like Me with its contrasting views and Metal Heart, with a tinfoil take on confidence keeps the fires of redemption burning. Sex Is Not The Enemy asks for guilt free friction and It’s All Over But The Crying finds Shirley slowing things down and giving a schoolyard rhyme about moving on. One last battle to wage, The Boys Wanna Fight, before the calmer waters of Why Don’t You Come Over and Happy Home.

Sonically the band has never sounded better and this time out they have something to say. Albums like this show their true value on the fiftieth spin not the first and with so little girl rock that matters at the moment, let's hope it gets its chance to sink in the teeth.
Rob Hudson
www.garbage.com



Your Girlfriend Is Shit
Gazoonga Attack
Brisbane's punk rock goddesses have finally committed themselves to a commercial release. It's been too long coming, but that time hasn't been wasted. They've toured prodigiously, dominated the top of Brisbane Radio station 4ZZZ's yearly Hot 100 with their much lusted after demo CD and endeared themselves to fans of the genre everywhere. But what is the genre? In 2003, is it okay to call them punk? They represent the attitude and style of what punk should be, but baggy panted boys and teenage grrls with perfect skin, backed by multinational record companies, have distorted the punk ethos. Are Gazoonga Attack the next step after Riot Grrls? Whatever we may call them, they're what the world needs. We need purveyors of extraordinary all grrl rock goodness.

The CD starts with a bang with Cinderella, one of their classics, and the momentum barely subsides through the other 5 tracks. I'm impressed that established songs, like Dirty Sheets, have been reworked for this release, providing me unexpected surprises. The Gazoongas play hard (and party hard), their riffs and hooks are beguiling, they share vocal duties, and the last couple of tracks show a metal influence. All these factors combine to make this CD highly enjoyable. Some of the fan favourite songs (eg Jesus Candy) are missing, so I think the band is playing it smart and saving them for future releases.

Gazoonga Attack are not an overproduced, manufactured group, one forced on us as the next big thing. They play what they want to play and wear what they want to wear. I think they deserve to be bigger than they ever will be, and any mix tape (or mix CD) I make now, will have tracks from this release on it. Buy this record, see them live, and experience what music should be about.
fabulous sebastian
www.gazoongaattack.com



Sex Nerd
Gazoonga Attack
Today is the best day of the year, not because it’s my birthday, or because I got lucky last night, but because I have the new Gazoonga Attack album in my hands. It has been a long time coming and it is good. Tasty. Spanking. Marvelous. I have been disappointed recently by some new releases, International Noise Conspiracy, Sahara Hotnights and Elliot Smith. Hold on, Elliot Smith always disappoints me.

Gazoonga Attack are four goodtime girls from Brisbane playing 14 songs of 21st century punk rock with old-school lust. If you think music lately is a little dull, where too many artists play lame pop like it’s the early 1970’s, and it’s promoted like it’s new and daring, then try this album. Music for me has always been about rock bands blaring at me in a dingy club. It is not a band on a world tour playing stadiums. It is not some bland git with a guitar whining about their misfortunes. It is not some dreary girl sitting behind a piano being thoughtful. The music I like hits me hard and fast. That is this album.

If you don’t like it, go and buy another posthumous Jeff Buckley album or an album of muzak from Delta Goodrem, or listen to something from your parent’s record collection.
fabulous sebastian
official site



Bossas And Ballads: The Lost Sessions
Stan Getz
Getting his big band start with Jack Teagarden's group in 1943 at the tender age of fifteen, Stan Getz had a long and fruitful career ahead of him. Starting out as a Lester Young disciple, Getz had a cool approach, saying more with less and early on had a tone that some felt was lightweight. Others felt this approach was a refreshing alternative to the insistent buzzing of the bebop brigade of the time. His career included stints with Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Woody Herman's bands as well as a long list of projects under his own name.

Throughout most of his professional career he suffered from problems with alcohol and drugs, eventually contracting cancer of the liver. This was a wake-up call and he detoxed and adopted a healthy lifestyle and enjoyed a few years of remission before eventually succumbing to the disease in 1991. These lost sessions were from a later period in his life and the beautiful tones he plays are infused with all the joy and sorrow of a lifetime of experiences. He is also paired with a band that includes Kenny Barron on piano. Barron was one of his most effective musical partners and the pianist's phrasing always brought out the best in Stan's playing.

These sessions were originally recorded over four days in March of 1989 for Herb Alpert's label, A&M Records. The label, a more mainstream effort at that time, didn't feel they had the marketing expertise to do justice to these tracks, so on the shelf they sat, until now.

The 9 songs here feature Getz blowing over the style of song he was most closely associated with and always seemed most comfortable with. This is not to say there isn't real fire in these grooves, there is, especially Barron's contributions, it's just the passion is in the nuances. The overall vibe is wonderfully mellow and makes for a great soundtrack to flights of fancy but there is also enough melodic invention to satisfy even the most demanding jazz aficionado. For those non-jazz fans just dig the mood while you clink the martini glasses.
Rob Hudson



Unity
George
Using music as a weapon for social change seems in this day and age, an antiquated idea, more in line with the hippy ethics of our elders but if you get your information from anywhere other than the cathode ray tube, you realise we need change now more than ever. The world leaders we are unfortunately handicapped with at the moment are more big business driven than ever, fuck the planet as long as the rich get richer. Now starting a review for a band with such an angelic sound as George with a political rave may seem misplaced but it's not if the meaning behind the songs matter to you.

So many bands that tasted success like George did with their first album; Polyserena would return with an album featuring a bigger budget and fewer ideas or worse still with tales of life on the road as rock stars. George has definitely not followed that path. Unity does reflect the increased budget that success brings with an expanded sonic palette. It's even more of a headphone treat than the first album but the message behind the songs is anything but rock star musings. These are heartfelt takes on real life situations and the need for the world to live up to the album's title.

There is the joy of experiencing such great voices raised to the heavens and of a band being completely subservient to the song as well as the enlightenment of having these ideas and ideals seep into the heart and mind. Music is a strong vehicle for change, look how much it has changed your life.
Rob Hudson
www.george.net.au



Here Is The Punishment
Giants Of Science
In Australia, bands that play original music generally have to cut through all the pretentious bullshit and deliver the goods, raw and ready. Hailing from one of the world’s biggest country towns, Brisbane, Giants Of Science have all the required skills to play live and survive to tell the tale and now with the release of their latest long player it looks like they can also do the same on disc.

Here Is The Punishment has so many cool moments, it’s hard to single out any one but from the roaring start of the title track to the anything but delicate closer Dead Sea, this is a group drunk with the power of the guitar, electricity and well-developed song writing skills. Insistent riffs, layered vocals and wide dynamics are just a few points of reference.

Although there is consistency here, it’s not all cast from the same mould. You have outright power but then there are sensuous moments like Anchors Up There and even a delicate moment or two with tracks like the instrumental Vote One and Mouth Shut Tight.

Cutting their teeth on the Aussie pub circuit taught these lads to get in, get the job done and get out with a minimum of fanfare and façade and with a premium placed on songs that keep the punter’s attention. This ethos on album translates to 12 tracks of essential rock. Antipodean or not, music this good should find its way into collections everywhere.
Rob Hudson
www.giantsofscience.com.au



On An Island
David Gilmour
Sometimes an album comes along that transcends critical analysis. On An Island is such a work. Many critics have been unkind but I think they have missed the point. This isn’t the angst-ridden output of a teenager with raging hormones but of an elder statesman with an attitude that there is beauty in music and middle age.

In recent years, right or wrong, David Gilmour has become the main voice of Pink Floyd. His voice and guitar are what drives that arena beast on and Gilmour’s third solo album sounds the most like that behemoth of the three. Sonically there is a similarity but lyrically there is a core contentment that would never sound anything but out of place in the Floyd camp.

Sir Dave provides one of the best case studies for guitar shredders everywhere of saying more with less. His tone is so rich and regal that a handful of his notes convey more beauty and conviction than most guitar players’ lifetime outputs. This is music to get lost in and not to over intellectualize.

Popular music has so many strains and mutations, these are all welcome and On An Island, with its luxurious packaging and plush sound is a viable (if adult-like) addition to the current music scene.
Rob Hudson
www.davidgilmour.com



The Gin Club
Standing out like a skyscraper in a plowed field, The Gin Club has a sound that mixes the metropolis and the meadow. Thirteen fireside chats that feature luxuriously layered vocals, well thought out song structures and great playing make up this self-titled debut.

The eight members that make up the Brisbane outfit play just about every instrument you can name, if it can be blown, plucked, squeezed or beat on, it’s in the mix and the sound they produce defines eclecticism. It’s pop stitched up with country twine and flavored with folk fundamentals and indicative of a collective album collection huge in variety and depth.

With so much going on, the songs could easily get lost in the maelstrom of ideas but the writing is concise and meaningful and all the multi-instrumentation is only used in service of the songs. There is a musical camaraderie at work here that holds it all together.

Next time the world of pre-fab music gets you down and you feel the need to experience something different and real, give The Gin Club a try. Get drunk with the possibilities and never suffer a British hangover again.
Rob Hudson
www.theginclub.com.au



Junk
The Gin Club
The word that comes to mind first when listening to the new Gin Club album is generosity. From the overabundance of songs (26 tracks over two discs), to the number of songwriters that takes more than one hand to count, to the depth of musical styles included, this album is rich in its treasures.

The thing that often amazes is that even with the diverse writing styles that the different band members possess, the overall sound has a unity and sense of purpose that ties it all in together. It’s like a beautiful tapestry, it looks good from afar and up close, still has individual scenes of grandeur. 

While the band hails from Australia (Brisbane to be exact) their music mines the rich vein of classic American music. The warm and earthy harmonies and influences of groups like The Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers infuse their music but it doesn’t just stop there. They also add enough of their own thing to easily transcend their inspirations.

While the album has its immediate charms, it’s also a grower and with the number of tracks included, it’s a lot to digest at any one time. Every new trip to the stereo reveals new charms. This is a bold statement from a band that has a lot to say. Generosity it is.
Rob Hudson
www.theginclub.com.au



Bright Yellow Bright Orange
The Go-Betweens
Anyone, who has had a favourite band change members or been in a band that had a member change, knows that the chemistry that makes up a successful group is not an exact science. Even the smallest change can have dramatic effects. There are also partnerships that can never be equalled and you don't have to quote the most obvious example of that scenario to prove its validity.

Collectively Grant McLennan and Robert Foster have had some wonderful moments in their projects outside The Go-Betweens, but when they get together under that moniker, a chemistry happens and the music they create is powerful stuff. It's not the kind of power that levels buildings, but more the kind that levels one's heart.

Put Bright Yellow Bright Orange on and the album has an amazing ability to evoke emotions of intimacy and optimism. Sing a sad song to make one feel better. It's like having two wonderful storytellers in your living room at the end of the couch spinning yarns meant only for you. The level of production is minimal but this only enhances the feeling of it being a warm exchange between friends.

It's great to have Robert and Grant back together and following an agenda of artistic pursuit. This is music made to fill the heart not the purse.
Rob Hudson
www.go-betweens.net



Oceans Apart
The Go-Betweens
Like long-time friends getting together for a conversation and a chance to catch up, Oceans Apart has a feel of relaxed report and detailed communications told with few words. Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, the backbone of The Go-Betweens have returned with a work that shows them operating at the height of their talents both as songwriters and performers.

This is an album bathed in literal meanings, literature references and great singing. Where else would lines like “And why do people who read Dostoevsky always look like Dostoevsky?” and “One more coffee and I must go, back to my room more chapters to go, we’ll meet up in an alley with more places I know” fit so seamlessly under a blanket of beautiful harmonies?

Formed in Brisbane, Australia in late 1977 and surviving through multiple albums, line-up changes, break-ups and a lack of recognition (sales wise) of their true talent, The Go-Betweens have survived to this day and produced one of the most accessible and enjoyable album in their canon. Search it out and add it to your collection of great pop records. Also of note are early versions of this release that come with a bonus disc with six live tracks recorded in London in 2004.
Rob Hudson
official site


Seventh Tree
Goldfrapp
With their new album, Seventh Tree, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, collectively known as Goldfrapp continue with their album-to-album desire to tweak the recipe. From the ambient bliss of their first record to the synthpop of their second and the glam rock and dance grooves of 05’s Supermature, this is a band far from content with regurgitating the same album over and over.

Alison Goldfrapp’s voice has always been one of the most outstanding tools in the band’s arsenal and on Seventh Tree, it's at its most direct and emotionally effective. A lot of the instrumentation has been stripped away and while the sound can’t exactly be called minimalist, this style of arrangement places a lot more focus on those angelic set of pipes.

The song Eat Yourself is a good example of what’s afoot here. The instrumentation consists of a lone acoustic guitar, a smattering of studio induced percussion and string effects and that voice. Even with this approach, the song still builds to a dynamic crescendo, one of more emotional contrast than sonic bombast.

Creating a body of work with both commercial and artistic success is never easy. Mixing those two almost opposite intents with such satisfying results marks Goldfrapp as artists of the highest calibre but the joys of their music live not in the world of words but in the one of melodic delights and Seventh Tree is filled to the brim with those transcendent moments.
Rob Hudson
www.goldfrapp.com



Split The Difference
Gomez
On paper, the music of Gomez shouldn't work, at least not as well as it does. The band's disparate mix of influences and sounds should produce a musical mess with no cohesion but through five album and countless singles, this has decidedly not been the case. The newest long player, Split The Difference, sees this eclecticism given full reign.

Starting with the chugalug grind of Do One and then the acoustic panhandle blues of These 3 Sins, two songs in and the influences are already piling up. Drop the laser anywhere and you find successful forays into different terrain. The marching orders in We Don't Know Where We're Going or the sinuous slink of Sweet Virginia, these lads have read all the songbooks and then thrown them away.

The main underlining component that allows this level of variety is a unique vocal attack. Rain tanned Brit boys singing with seasoned voices that defy their age. No one this young should be able to drink enough whisky or smoke enough cigarettes to age their voices like this. Most singers with voices this lived in are at the tail end of their careers.

With the polyester parity of commercial airwaves running rampant, this level of individualism is a glorious departure from the norm.
Rob Hudson
www.gomez.co.uk



Phase Two – Slowboat To Hades (DVD)
Gorillaz
Leave it to the Gorillaz, a virtual band/art experiment that really knows how to use the video medium to produce a music DVD that doesn’t suck. From its video game like multi-level environment to its remote controlled functionality to its hidden features, this disc is addictive and can withstand repeat viewings like no DVD before it.

In my mind music and the video clip format have never produced much of value. If you disagree with this statement, name me more than a couple examples of a song becoming a stronger entity by virtue of being turned into a music video. It’s the land of the cliché and repetitive. The Gorillaz have neatly sidestepped this trap by creating a band that almost entirely exists in the video medium.

Started in 2000 by the musician Damon Albarn from the Brit-pop band Blur and Jamie Hewlett, the artist who co-created the comic Tank Girl, Gorillaz have a hand drawn visual identity and ultra cheeky sense of humour. Their cartoon alter egos, Noodle, 2D, Russel and front man (front toon?) Murdoc use all the rock star clichés as fodder for their personalities. This approach has created something visually fresh and directs attention away from the somewhat derivative nature of their music.

Slowboat To Hades basically rounds up the video clips from their last album Demon Days and includes clips of Rockit, Feel Good Inc, Dare, Dirty Harry and El Mañana. These animated clips are interesting enough but the disc’s really fun parts are all the extras including animated links, live clips, media events and even an animated visit to the Murdoc’s pad in a cartoon version of MTV Cribs. Throughout, Damon and Jamie’s sense of humour and piss take on the whole rock star ethos keeps things from becoming dull and predictable.

Maybe there’s hope for music videos after all. If all the bands that approached this medium used the graphic sense and humour that the Gorillaz use the video world would indeed be a better place.
Rob Hudson
www.gorillaz.com



Sumday
Grandaddy
The music of Grandaddy resides in a world that some can only dream of. A realm where technology is used to support the wishes of the true at heart and the musical results can be so sad and so achingly beautiful that it can render even the coldest of hearts hot with a flush of emotions.

Mistakenly dubbed lo-fi by some, the subservience of technology to the childlike wonder of songwriter Jason Lytle and his five cohorts give this music the ability to soar. Concoctions of beautiful harmonies and quirky arrangement choices, these tunes strike deep in the heart. Only the most crippled would be unmoved by the splendour of a track like Saddest Vacant Lot In All The World, a song that once heard, will never be forgotten. Not all is melancholy though, elsewhere there is the high school high jinks of The Group Who Couldn't Say with its playful swipe at the record industry or a song that even Mrs. Robinson would approve of called El Caminos In The West.

In a time so filled with bleak sightings of the bad side of human nature, we need music that touches the innocence we all have. Remember a time when only adventures of the heart mattered? Listening to Sumday makes a lot of those thoughts flood back. A tear for times gone by and a sparkle of laughter for the future.
Rob Hudson
www.grandaddylandscape.com



Universal Truths And Cycles
Guided By Voices
Guided By Voices have made some of the most intriguing American guitar rock of the past two decades and even had a quick glimpse at the mainstream with their last two albums Do The Collapse (1999) and Isolation Drills (2001). Those two records placed the band’s arty, off-kilter rock in a radio-friendly atmosphere, courtesy of big-name producers Ric Ocasek and Foo Fighters cohort Rob Schnapf respectively. This followed years of great garage rock recordings such as Alien Lanes, Bee Thousand and Under The Bushes Under The Stars, lo-fi masterpieces that were made all the more electrifying by the pop smarts of prolific singer/songwriter Robert Pollard. Universal Truths And Cycles, like all Pollard-involved projects, mixes the surreal with the accessible and, if anything, it’s a nod to the unpredictable, joyously rambling albums of GBV’s early-to-mid ‘90s career. While the production by the band and Todd Tobias is not as crackly and raw as, say, Bee Thousand, Universal Truths… returns to the 20-songs-per-album tradition, with several songs in grand GBV fashion running for one minute and less. It’s, as ever, true to the band’s love of Wire and The Beatles, mixing angular guitar post-punkisms with sunny, bright melodies. You can even detect Pollard’s love of Gabriel-era Genesis on Christian Animation Torch Carriers, which compresses progressive rock-style musical shifts into four minutes, while the lurching guitars on Car Language evoke Joy Division circa Unknown Pleasures.

Pollard can still write a cracking power pop tune, as Cheyenne, Storm Vibrations and Everywhere With Helicopter prove, while the tantalisingly brief Wire Greyhounds makes you wonder what would have happened if the guys went with it for a bit longer. The one-minute Factory Of Raw Essentials is a classically rustic acoustic strumalong, and there’s even a string arrangement on the lilting, lovely Pretty Bombs.

Universal Truths And Cycles is an eccentric 20-song rollercoaster of abstract lyrics, oddball rock and great guitar pop. It also seems to pour out of these guys effortlessly. Another year, another great GBV album.
Matt Thrower
www.gbv.com