Category: Music Writing
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Disclaimer | Iterations: John Nixon
Not far from where St Kilda beach forms a firm line against the land, inside the Palais Theatre, which is suspended in the throes of young energy and blatant desire, housing the new strutting contempt of rock’n’roll, John Nixon is watching the Rolling Stones. It’s 1965 and he’s fifteen years old, sitting in the second…
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Felt Journal |The Sounds of Love
A young singer and musician has recently released her first solo album full of love songs. It is, she says, about “all kinds of love.” The album synopsis signs off: “And really, in times like these, who doesn’t need more love songs?” I kept re-reading this slinky albeit common maneuvering; the way love songs metamorphose…
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Swampland (Online) | Pure Performance: The Glittering Intensity Of V
Like Madonna, Beyoncé, Cher or Rihanna, V is simply V. The pop references might seem incidental for an artist who conjures a carefully crafted, dark-wave aesthetic, and stands on stage engulfed amongst industrial-sounding drum machines, a layer of ’80s synth-wave and their own reverberating vocals. But if you ask V about their musical influences, their…
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Swampland Magazine | Under the Underground: Audiopollen Social Club
Do you remember T.A.D.? Hanging from the ceiling, swinging from beam to beam, conducting a bizarre aerobic exercise. Some people thought he was going to die: it was thrilling. There was a band playing below—was it Blank Realm? Joel Stern? Or was it simply T.A.D., dangling on his own? Or how about this one: when…
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The Australian | Review: Martin Frawley
Melbourne songwriter Martin Frawley mines an inclination for autobiography with his debut album, giving us synth-folk songs driven by loose narrative and delicate voyeurism. The buzz surrounding Undone at 31 centres on how it’s Frawley’s first solo release since the end of his internationally adored jangle-pop band Twerps (of which Frawley was a primary songwriter), as well…
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The Australian | Review: Bruce Springsteen
American rock icon Bruce Springsteen begins his latest live album with a list: “DNA, your natural ability, the study of your craft, development of and devotion to an aesthetic philosophy, balls, naked desire for fame, love, admiration, attention, women, sex, a buck.” For Springsteen it’s these things, alongside a fire in your belly, which are…
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Difficult Fun | Kylie Minogue: Fragments of a watery icon
A French house-inspired verse shimmers along, gloating with the smoothness of its own repetitive, euphoric possibility; a woman pouts, sending out her songs amongst a strawberry-coloured wash, entirely aglow as she sings only about the sweetness of desire, never the humiliation; another version of this woman, who is an expert in expressions, is clad in…
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The Australian | Review: The Goon Sax
One curious thing about Brisbane’s the Goon Sax is how, intentionally or not, the trio embodies a bottom-up idea of songwriting: kids in neighbourhoods writing music about how they feel. Its nascent fame is often accompanied by two details: the members are young — they’re in their late teens and released their first album in…
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Difficult Fun | Kusum Normoyle Interview: “What else the voice might do”
I first knew of Kusum Normoyle because she was the woman who dressed completely in black—black shirt, black pants, black shoes—and screamed, really loudly, in public spaces. She was untouchably cool. But more specifically, these series of performances were called S.I.T.E. (Screaming in the Everyday), where Normoyle would scream into a microphone, her body curved to the…
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The Australian | Review: Deaf Wish
The title of Deaf Wish’s fifth album is at once sardonic, evocative and forthright. It makes a point but doesn’t suffocate with its sentiments. Qualities such as these are threaded throughout the Melbourne band’s latest record, and its second for influential American label Sub Pop. At its core, Lithium Zion is unapologetic in its guitar-driven style, which…
Tiarney Miekus 