For its tenth birthday the organisers of Splendour in the Grass threw caution to the wind and altered the structure that had been serving them so well for the previous nine years. The big change was the previously unthinkable move from New South Wale’s Byron Bay to Woodford (a site called Woodfordia that also plays host to the Annual Woodford Folk Festival) in Queensland which allowed an increase in capacity from 17,000 to 32,000 people. Additionally the number of days of the festival was extended from two to three which in turn allowed a greater amount of acts – both international and national to appear. After last year’s successful coverage we looked forward to a veritable Birthday feast, and boy did we get it.

Day One – Friday 30th July

School of Seven Bells started the weekend with a dose of twin harmonised atmospheric pop music. The set leaned heavily on cuts from their new album Disconnect From Desire and, as is par for the course with bands cut from the Shoegaze cloth, the band weren’t big on crowd interaction or on stage theatrics. Instead they concentrated their energies on delivering a quality performance helped by the addition of a drummer to their live line up which enhanced their on stage energy. They closed the set with a run through of “Sempiternal/Amaranth” which was as long and epic as its name suggests.

As we wandered over to the Amphitheatre to watch Yeasayer we got our first glance at the new main stage and it was a spectacular sight. The natural slope and size of the area allowed for much a larger crowd to comfortably enjoy a show while still maintaining a good view of the proceedings all with a breathtaking natural backdrop to boot — something that was sorely missing at Belongil Fields once the headliners came on. As an added bonus it allowed for the less energetic among us to sit comfortably and leisurely watch the entertainment. But this casual take on viewing sometimes worked to an act’s disadvantage with the distance between the stage and the seated section of the audience making them have to work twice as hard to bridge the gap. This sense of disengagement was evident while watching Yeasayer. It’s probably a fair statement to say  that offbeat experimental ‘80s synth/prog hybrids doesn’t work best in a glaring afternoon sun playing to a half confused crowd on a massive stage.

Once the sun had set and the crowd’s ongoing consumption of mid strength beer had made them somewhat tiddly the evening really started to take shape. The chance to see Jesus and Mary Chain enthusiasts Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for the first time was exciting for this writer. Clad as expected in black, the band launched into a dirty set of rock anthems drawn heavily from both their newest album Beat the Devil’s Tattoo and their much loved debut, now ten years old. The crowd really took to the Rebels and they played with all the swagger and rock ‘n’ roll attitude that their reputation has afforded them.

We headed over for our first foray into the Mix Up Tent for Hot Chip it became blindingly obvious that any thoughts of getting even remotely near the stage were going to be foregone. As they opened with “Boy from School” they whipped the mix up tent into a frenzy and Hot Chip showed us how it’s done electro style. We struggled for a vantage point, as we, like many others, were in the thronging masses outside the tent, but they still sounded brilliant even from that vantage point. For a band that can be patchy on album, they sure had a rake of great tunes live. Their synth laden beats killed, the crowd eating them up like candy with “Over and Over” and “One Life Stand” making everyone grin like proverbial Cheshire kittens.

After a quick beverage refreshment we headed back to the Mix Up tent to see LCD Soundsystem. What we thought was a feast of Hot Chip, seemed more like appetizers once James Murphy’s gang hit full stride. With “Drunk Girls” out of the way early on it was “Pow Pow”’s scatterbrain drum machine that really kick-started their set. “Daft Punk…” benefited from added funk and with every thirtysomething’s anthem “All My Friends” sounding even better live, it turned their set into a real “we were there” moment. Never one to underplay the Bowie undertones “Never Change” ramped up the Berlin Eno factor before a rapturous “Losing My Edge” threw the last remaining energy out of this reviewer.  The two guys in front of us, who danced their asses off while giggling like school girls at James Murphy’s lyrics perfectly summed up the whole experience.

While LCD still rung in our ears we were in need of some well deserved chill action and Grizzly Bear provided the perfect antidote for our sweat clad selves. Since last year’s Veckatimest was released Grizzly Bear have almost became the joy du jour for festivals worldwide. There were no complaints here though as we rounded off the day lying on the grass listening to a blissful “Two Weeks” and a stunning “While You Wait for Others”. Already our Splendour belly’s were full.

Not all of us were done though as I opted for over the top disco cabaret (in preference to the middle of the road musings of Ben Harper) of Scissor Sisters to close off the night with that other definition of camp. Being the quintessential party band it is hard to not enjoy them regardless if you were a fan or not. The night closed with their early hit “Filthy/Gorgeous” and some unexpected, actually maybe not that unexpected, male nudity from front man Jake Shears

Day Two – Saturday 31st July

Kicking off the day after the night before we attempt to ease ourselves back into it over at the Amphitheatre with Band of Skulls. Any cobwebs (read hangovers) were blown off with this English bunch’s brand of spiky pop punk. Single “Death by Diamonds and Pearls” got the slowly filling crowd going wild.

And the winner of the 2010 award for “Frontman with the Most Punchable Face” goes to…. Jonathan Pearce of The Drums! Well done Jonathan for proving that mincing posturing really can overshadow fairly competent music. A band that musically are so completely inoffensive they should be booked to play Sunday school picnics, but have a singer that makes watchers willing to kill kittens if it would make him stop. Let’s go surfing? Actually Jonathan let’s not.

We took some time after that car crash to survey the rest of the site properly. Where else could you go chill out at a wine bar, have a beer on a floating pontoon or simply watch some Gyuto Monks chanting in the sunset. Decision, decisions. We actually opted for all three and it was options like these that sets Splendour apart from the plethora of other festivals that simply offer a burger van, or if you’re lucky, some hot dog action.

Feeling invigorated we headed on over to check out Tame Impala. They have come a long way in a short time, their debut album Innerspeaker has been on high rotation since its release. Looking somewhat intimidated by the size of the assembled masses, the boys manage to comfortably hold everyone’s attention with their sweet spaced out psychedelic jams. Both the better known Triple J favourites and album cuts go over well but their biggest response came from their cover of Blue Boys “Remember Me” which scored them a few easy runs on the board with those who were unfamiliar with them.

Paul Kelly is something of a constant that everyone of a certain age in Australia has grown up with, much like the certainty that Rage will be on ABC this Friday and Saturday night. You can sleep comfortably knowing that he is still out there doing what he does best. With a minor Australian super group in tow including Ash Naylor of Even and Vika and Linda from The Black Sorrows, Paul launched into a crowd pleasing set littered with hits from his long and distinguished career. “Dumb Things”, “Before Too Long” and many other tracks become crowd sing-along’s with girlfriends hoisted onto shoulders and arms waved in the air. It was a testament to his skills as a composer and performer that he could so easily win over a crowd with an average age well below that of his regular demographic.

An attempt to head over to the Amphitheatre to see Florence & the Machine is aborted as word reaches back that the paths leading to the stage have been closed and that the locked out crowd has turned a little ugly. Thankfully this was the only time we encountered this problem, which turned out to be a result of the crowd remaining seated as people continued to enter. Not everyone wanted to go check out the sub Kate Bush warbling of Florence and we were content that considering the lock out situation we made the right decision to see Band of Horses. Frontman Ben Bridwell was in high spirits, especially after letting us know that he was almost raped by a kangaroo before the gig, but marsupial comments aside they hit their stride early with “Factory”. With a huge crowd that hopefully was not simply due to The Strokes lock out we were treated to a blistering set of their country infused rock. Early single “Funeral” has its obligatory outing and for any other band would be a highlight, instead they were saved for “Is There a Ghost?” and a rousing “Great Salt Lake”.

An easier than expected run up the hill took us to a throbbing full capacity main stage for what turned out to be a cracker of a set by The Strokes. Missing in action for a the later part the of noughties, The Strokes returned looking rejuvenated, ready to remind us why we all went nuts over them in the first place. The set was tightly packed with hits and fan favourites all delivered with a sense of urgency and purpose. The audience lap up every moment and the band came back onto the stage to lead a five song encore ending with a blistering “Take It or Leave it”. While no new material was played we certainly didn’t hear anybody complaining and we hope that they are working on some quality new material between festival appearances for a new album in 2011.

Day Three – Sunday 1st August

With the festival on its last day surprisingly on this morning we rose early raring to go like kids waiting for Santa at Christmas. What could’ve had us up this early? — criminally low on the bill Frightened Rabbit. It was an admittedly sparse crowd that greeted the Scottish boys but there was no diminishing some of the hardcore fans dedication down the front. With a set spanning their last two albums the boys opened with “Modern Leper” which saw them hit their stride early. As they showed off the full band’s harmonies with “Twist” their set sounded equally impressive in its quieter moments as with the expansive closer of “Keep Yourself Warm”. Hopefully the band won over some new fans and will make it back out here again soon.

Occasionally we were baffled by the popularity of some bands that just seemed outright terrible, so we were heartened to see such a large crowd assembled to watch Cloud Control so early into the day. The band were clearly thrilled with the turn out and gave a rousing run through of songs from their recent debut album with “Gold Canary” being a highlight. I hope Cloud Control might be the next band to make serious inroads overseas, at the very least critically. Equal parts classic twee/jangle pop and folk with an added dose of Talking Heads, the songs were propelled along by the soulful lead vocals of Alister Wright which in turn were backed by strong harmonising by the rest of the band. Tight playing, punchy bass lines and some outstanding percussion also abounded during the set.

From the old guard to the new guard, Ash have been around since I was a nipper. Well almost, but the band were determined not to become some nostalgia act like some of their peers. Not content with flogging their old hits round the circuit one more time, they took on the mammoth task of releasing 26 singles (from A to Z) last year. While “Kung Fu” and “Girl from Mars” sound as fresh as ever and were lapped up by an enthusiastic pogoing crowd, the new ones sounded like a bunch of b-sides, maybe some quality control would have been in order. It was great to see the guys again but maybe they could lay off Moby’s drum machine next time.

Wow, are The Vines really still together? And did people still care enough about them for them to be playing a major slot at a festival? The answer to this question should be a resounding no, at least for the second part. The Vines weren’t the absolute train wreck of embarrassment and hopelessness that they were at the Big Day Out in 2003 when I saw them last but I am sure that I wasn’t projecting my boredom and disinterest onto the crowd around me. Sure there were some people dancing around up the front of stage, but by this time of night it is akin to monkeys getting excited over a bunch of bananas behind a sheet of perspex.

It had been the worst of the timetable clashes but decisions made meant we had to leave Broken Social Scene after a few songs (who are one of those bands that sound incredible on record but never seem to cut it live. Maybe it was the band’s 36 hours of sleep deprivation but once again the indie Wu Tang Clan fail to elicit the response that we were hoping for) and headed to the Mix Up to check out Jonsi. We weren’t disappointed with our choice as with a set drawn from his recent Go album we were treated to one of the true individualistic performances of the weekend. Not to take anything away from an impressive backing band but Jonsi’s ethereal vocals sound as equally beguiling in this, a more pop context, as his day job. Nothing detracted from an artist who appeared to put his entire soul into his performance. From the lighting to the ragged costumes it all appeared perfect. His vocals soared and when he appeared back on stage resplendent in a headdress for an extended “Grow Till Tall” the energy on stage almost lifted the roof off the tent.

As we Headed towards the highest point of the Amphitheatre to secure what we were expecting to be very limited spots for the Pixies we caught the tail end of Mumford & Sons as their set apexed with “Little Lion Man”. The politest way for me to describe Mumford would be to say that they aren’t my cup of tea but far be it for me to piss on a moment that would have to be a highlight of each band member’s lives.  The Mumford boys must have felt like they had been handed the keys to the whole country for ninety minutes as they were clearly the headline act in the minds of most of the attendees. While it was great for them, it still doesn’t remove the fact that I’m going to have to listen to “Little Lion King” played by every half arsed suburban pub covers duo I come across for the rest of my life.

With the Pixies about to hit the stage it makes us aware of the fact that some of the headline acts — Mumford, Florence, Grizzly Bear and Pixies — have all toured this country within the last six months. Personally, having the opportunity to see Grizzly Bear and the Pixies twice within six months seems like an awesome problem to have, but it could go some way to explaining why the crowd thinned out quite quickly after Mumford. Maybe if Richard Asscroft had hung in there for another two songs while people made their way down the hill he might have saved himself some embarrassment.

This was my third time around seeing the Pixies and it easily ranked as my favourite. Partly this was due to the rapidly depleting crowd which allowed me to run down the hill to the front of stage — the Pixies essentially only exist in 2010 as festival drawcards and arena fillers, the likes of the warm up show at the Zoo the night before are rare indeed — so managing to get within five metres of the stage was a feat in itself. Secondly the set list was incredible. Both previous performances (including, obviously, the Doolittle tour) their sets leant heavily on the first two albums, eschewing Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde. This time all four albums got a look in and I got to hear my two favourite songs “Rock Music” and “Alec Eiffel”. The band themselves were huddled up on one side of the stage quite close to each other and as is par for the course for a Pixies gig didn’t really interact with one another or acknowledge the audience. While their on-stage presence was dry the performance was spot on in every other sense. After three mammoth days of burning the candle at both ends having “Where Is My Mind?” play out as the final song of the festival was more than apt.

All things considered this year’s Splendour was a major success. Woodfordia proved to be a massive improvement as a venue and despite there being an extra 14,000 people, it didn’t really feel any more crowded than last year. Traffic was an occasional issue and the journey to and from the Amphitheatre was unpleasant at times. The extra day didn’t diminish the quality of the performances or stretch our patience at all as there was enough variety to keep punters of all tastes entertained and there was a plethora of other attractions to stay amused between downtimes. We look forward to Splendour at the same splendid venue for the same splendid time next year.

Text Credits:

Scott Daniels — BRMC, Cloud Control, Jonsi, Mumford & Sons, Paul Kelly, Pixies, S7B, Scissor Sisters, Strokes, Tame Impala, Vines, Yeasayer
Garry Thomson — Ash, Band of Horses, Band of Skulls, Broken Social Scene, The Drums, Frightened Rabbit, Grizzly Bear, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem

Photo Credits:

Marc Grimwade (Splendour in the Grass)

Black Cab + Grand Atlantic
The Hi-Fi Bar, Brisbane
July 17, 2010

Apparently I live under a rock as I have only ever heard of, but not actually heard, Brisbane’s Grand Atlantic until walking into the Hi-Fi tonight. I then had my own personal Hot Tub Time Machine moment where I had been zapped back to the mid-‘90s. Grand Atlantic write big alternative rock songs, and if they were around during those heady days no doubt they’d have been signed to Murmur Records and performed opening sets for the likes of Oasis and Blur. Drawing on a host of that era’s international influences, they actually reminded me more of the Australian bands from that period such as Ammonia and Drop City. Grand Atlantic don’t hide their ambitions and their songs are ultimately written to sound good on large stages and arenas and tonight they get a chance to ply their wares on such a stage but unfortunately the Hi-Fi can be a lonely place when it’s well under capacity… like tonight. Despite this the band give their all with all members putting in fine performances in particular Sean Bower who attacked his bass with so much gusto he broke a string. Only a small handful of the crowd made their way to the stage to appreciate their efforts including a possibly OCD stricken punter who seemed solely focused on filling the empty space with bubbles. Tonight probably isn’t the best night to pass judgment on Grand Atlantic and I would be interested in seeing them in a situation where they are allowed to make a connection with their audience either on a large stage in a full venue or in the safer, more intimate, surrounds of a venue like the Troubadour. (Scott Daniels)

The break between sets is filled with a suitable selection of prime shoegaze and indie rock circa 1990-95 that sets the scene for Melbourne’s Black Cab to finally grace a Queensland stage. While Brisbane residents are used to being excluded from overseas artist’s tour schedules it’s not often we’re ignored for a decade by a band in our own country — usually an act has to form in South East Queensland and then move to Melbourne before they ignore us (cough Gaslight Radio cough). Tall, imposing and with a measured countenance throughout Andrew Coates is not a traditional rock front man but despite being bathed in the Hi-Fi’s constant red light, he’s perfectly suited to the grey, intense wall of sound produced by the band. Black Cab officially only includes one other, James Lee, who maintains an unobtrusive presence during the set but whose searing guitar work proves to one of the stand out of the evening. They are flanked by four veterans of the Australian underground music scene most of who have played on Black Cab’s albums which helps to explain the cohesiveness of the set.

The singles from last year’s brilliant Call Signs — “Church in Berlin”, “Rescue”, “Black Angel” — are reeled out early on and fans of the recorded versions are thrown at first. Live these songs take on a whole different feel, the electronic or acoustic elements are downplayed with drone rock pushed to the fore and even the vocals are different in intonation. The Kraftwork electro-pop of new single “Sexy Polizei” is the closest the band gets to the studio, despite lacking a Brumby on backing vocals, but the longer the band plays, the more into the opiate groove they and the audience get. When a transcendent version of “Hearts on Fire” ends the set, it’s uncertain how long the band has been playing for — has it been minutes or hours? — so easily it was to become lost in the delicious trance. A one-two punch encore pays respect to the forebears of drone-rock and post-punk, a brooding take on The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” then a stunning version of Joy Division’s “Transmission” that shakes off the haze of the previous hour and leaves Coates’ sing-scream of “Dance, dance, dance to the radio” ringing in my ears as punters turn out into the cold street to catch a rather less appealing cab home. (Caleb Rudd)

Is there anything more cliched than the rock and roll break-up? Secret meetings in dark alleys. The guitarist that suddenly pops up on other people’s records. The singer who doesn’t return their calls. You either see it coming a mile away, or it creeps up on you like old age. It happens to the best and it happens to the worst, and eventually it will happen to them all. Piss and moan about it all you like, but what’s done is done. The latest induction to the rock and roll hall of “fuck this shit for a laugh” are Webcuts’ favourite punk sons, The Scare.

Having triumphed against expectation (honest opinion of The Scare circa 2005 – “exciting live, less so on record”) with their second album Oozevoodoo (which received a 9.5/10 on this site), The Scare finally evolved into the band that at least this writer had hoped for them to become — a sharp, hip-shaking incendiary rock and roll outfit.  Oozevoodoo was a true lock up your daughters, lock up your liquor cabinet, tie down the television record. It was The Scare ascending to the rock realm of The Stooges and The Birthday Party on their own terms.

Denied access to shove Oozevoodoo down the throats of the ROW where a greater return lie in wait, The Scare inevitably succumbed to the caged circuit of traveling back and forth around Australia, calling both “bullshit” and “time”. Regular readers of Webcuts will know we’ve carried a torch for these rock and roll orphans. We’ve featured them twice over the past 4 years and witnessed the transformation firsthand from shouty emo-punks to their own bad Bad Seed selves.

On the eve of their final ever Sydney show, Webcuts’ man of the airwaves, Chris Berkley, invited a couple soon-to-be Ex-The Scare band members to come down to FBI Studios in Newtown to speak about their impending farewell and to reminisce over the good times/bad times.

We’re joined in the studio by Wade and Sam from The Scare. Gentlemen, welcome in. This is a big, momentous, night for you guys. The last ever Sydney show for The Scare.

Sam: This is a momentous occasion of being the last ever Scare interview (laughs).

There’s also some Brisbane shows to come so if people for some reason…

Wade: Yeah, but we’re not doing interviews up there though…

Sam: It’s a new band. That’s the launch of the new band up there. This is the last Scare show and we’re changing the name. NME doesn’t like us anymore, so we’re trying to keep it fresh.

You need to reinvent yourselves, do you?

Sam: Exactly.

Wade, is there a 25 words or less story about why The Scare are breaking up?

Wade: Shiiiiiit. That’s it. (laughs)

One word?

Sam: Yeah, it’s quite an ambiguous thing. But you know, it’s been a long run, eight years. We’re kind of, I guess, restarting our lives, probably how they should’ve been started, when we were 18. Kiss is applying for Uni.

Oh really? You’re getting on track with your lives? The Scare has just been a diversion all this time?

Sam: Yeah, exactly. It’s like an alcohol and drug binge that’s coming to an end, I guess.

Not a lot of bands break up after two albums though. Was it better to burn out than fade away, Wade?

Wade: I don’t know. We were ready for another one and it’s just not going to happen now and the world will never know.

Do you feel like you’re going out on a high or have you been winding down for a while?

Wade: I feel like we’ll be going out at probably the highest point of our career, which is like us shooting Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes into the desert. Like we’ve died and this is the last hurrah tonight.

Sam: And it probably hasn’t really kicked in, in a sense, yet. But it will. It has been a long time. It’s weird thinking about something that we all, collectively, cared about so much, coming to an end. It’s kinda like, even though there’s a possibility of some Queensland stuff, this night tonight was always going to be the end for the band. I’m actually nervous. Excited, but nervous.

Wade: Potentially everything could go wrong tonight and we’re just hoping to get through it.

This could be the way that people remember The Scare, Wade, the final show.

Wade: Yeah, that’s right.

(Sam and Wade are invited to program three songs).

First song – Suicide – “Ghost Rider“

Is this because of the MIA song that’s just ripped it off?

Sam: It’s because Brock’s a redhead and the MIA video kind of…

Gave you some ideas?

Sam: Gave us some ideas, yeah.

Wade: When we met Alan Vega and Marty Rev, I remember Liam saying to Marty Rev, “Hey man, we’re big fans”, and he just looked at us and went “I get that all the time” and just walked away.

Don’t meet your idols, that’s the story, Wade.

Second song – Hot Chip – “Boy From School”

Sam: We got given a bunch of CDs from three labels when we were in England when we first arrived there. I remember my iPod broke, so I was living off these records in a sense. Our van didn’t have an iPod connector, so we had to listen to records on our van trips because we were touring so much. Brock sat in the front seat. That was his assigned position and he played “Boy From School” from Hot Chip so many times and it was at a point where we were all really young, around 19 to 20, and that song, I remember lying in the back seat, feeling hungry, missing whoever and wondering why were we in the middle of Leicester playing to three people.

Wade: Hearing it just then, really took me back to that cold van.

It’s funny how it’s the weirdest songs of all that soundtrack those moments, even years later. Have you told Hot Chip this, then? They’re here this week. So Suicide will remind you, because you said at the start Wade, you had that brief encounter.

Wade: We supported them and that was one of the highlights of my downward spiral. That was a very funny incident. Alan Vega and Marty Rev — just the baddest old guys in the world.

And couldn’t even care less who you guys were…

Wade: Just didn’t even look at us.

Sam: The best thing about the whole experience was we kinda did the off-shoot show for their tour with Grinderman in England and with Grinderman we saw the night after and they played for an hour and 20 minutes, but for their own show, it was a tiny venue called the Buffalo Bar is Islington and it was just Suicide and The Scare and there were 300 people lined up to get into a 100 capacity venue (Webcuts was there, fact fans) and they played for 10 minutes (slight exaggeration there, Sammy…) and walked off, saying “I wanna go home. Where’s our van? Where’s our van?”.

Punk as all hell.

Sam: Yeah, more punk than The Scare.

It’s a good thing to have on your resume to say that you supported Suicide.

Wade: Absolutely.

Sam: We should’ve ended then!

Third Song – Mick Harvey – “Harley Davidson”

So speaking of Grinderman and all those guys, the Mick Harvey connection, Wade.

Wade: It’s funny just because we saw Mick on the weekend while we were doing our last Melbourne shows and he sort of had a few drunken kind words to say to us about moving on, and if anyone knows anything about moving on from an ego-fronted man, from the ego of the century, then it’s Mick Harvey.

Sam: Was he in The Stooges? (laughs)

So is it a purely musical decision then, the end of The Scare? Had you done everything musically with this band that you could do, Sam?

Sam: I’d like to look back on it as a really positive growing up experience. I think every band could potentially move on to greener pastures, or just continue progressing. What I do like about The Scare is we never had to write a record that really compromised what we wanted to do. We were around great people, in a label sense, producers and whatnot that kind of let us be creative, and I’d hate the fact that if we went in again, hypothetically, and had to do a record to try and cater to sell more records and be a tad more successful than we were. So that’s my final note on The Scare.

You’re all, already, moving on pretty quickly. Wade, you’re about to go do some shows with Wolf & Cub overseas…

Wade: Yep. You just realise that I am a musician first and foremost, and when your band breaks up, it doesn’t end there. You’ve gotta move on and find something else.

Liam’s already got another band called Myth & Tropics, Kiss has just done vocals on the Itch-E & Scratch-E record, and Sam, you’re joining The Amity Affliction?

Sam: (laughs) Yeah, Trad and I are doing a solo record, or duo, together. Sort of in the vein of Savage Garden.

Wade: No keyboards though because neither of them know how to play them.

Sam: It’s a little bit less gay than Savage Garden, but we’re trying to get there.

The Scare play their final ever shows ever on August 13/14 in Brisbane. Hopefully the Webcuts Brisbane chapter will be in attendance to document the sorry occasion. Filmed June of last year on the day Michael Jackson died, this is how we prefer to remember The Scare — getting loose on stage in Melbourne while psychically instructing the ladies in the front row to get loose too. As you can see, it worked.

For a band who were always going to burn out before they faded away, punk infidels The Scare are sadly/happily/stupidly (delete as appropriate) calling it a day. Ending on a high with the undeniable brilliance and raw power of 2009′s OOZEVOODOO, drummer Samuel Pearton posted this message earlier today (15th June) on his Facebook…

“the scare announced it’s break-up after 7 long years of touring, craziness and all the rest of it. we are doing a last run of shows in July.. thankyou to everyone who ever helped the band, UK peeps totally included. hope to see as many of you as possible at the last shows.”

EMI, the band’s record company followed up with the press release below.

“It was a fun ride, it was a wild ride, at times it was a shit ride, at times you wanted it to never end type of ride.  But alas all good things must come to an end, and now it’s our turn.”  Kiss Reid 2010

I don’t think anyone that worked with The Scare or the guys themselves thought it would last this long… It was always destined to explode in some format.

The Scare who moved to Birmingham , UK when they were 18 quickly became the darlings of drink coasters such as NME and Kerrang magazines along with festivals such as Reading and Download both putting the band on their bill.

Below Par Records signed the band and released their debut album Chivalry in 2007 which was reviewed with mixed emotions, to which the band nearly issued this very same media release deciding that it wasn’t their time just yet.

The Scare then headed back into the studio with Daniel Johns to record and release their most defining work to date OOZEVOODOO, their sophomore album released in 2009.  It culminated all that had happened to them over the past 5 years and delivered them to this final moment now.

From playing on the Big Day Out tour in Australia, lead singer Kiss burning kids in the city of Brighton at 5am one morning to rave 9/10 album reviews in the UK and then not having enough money to get back over there, The Scare was always a juxtaposition that could never be resolved.

Kiss Reid, Wade Keighran, William O’Brien, Brock Fitzgerald and Samuel Pearton would like to thank everyone that helped them in their story to now and will be forever appreciative.

In a final last effort to take something once more, The Scare will be playing the following farewell shows:

Friday 9th of July – Sussex Inlet Tavern, Sussex Inlet NSW
Saturday 10th July – Rats at Colonial Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 16th July – Night Eats Day at Grand Hotel, Wollongong NSW
Saturday 17th July – Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW*
* Supports at Annandale – Zeahorse and Psychonanny

With all band members currently dividing their time in side projects, moonlighting in other bands, doing session work or hustling for tricks on Crown st, this probably isn’t the last you’ll hear from the boys.

A popular post-2000 practice is to add the word “art” to the front of any genre name: art rock, art punk, art pop. It denotes strangeness, and usually a sense of clinical restraint. Otouto is a self-proclaimed art pop band, and you can’t really fault them for the label, because all other ways of describing their fantastically unique aesthetic — minimalist soul, cupboard pop — sound much stupider. This Melbourne-based band consists of Kishore Ryan and sisters Hazel and Martha Brown. Both sisters sing, Hazel plays guitar, Martha sings, and Kishore plays not only the drums, but also the pots. And, though Pip does sound as if it could have been cooked up by some art school grads just goofing around, that doesn’t mean it’s not an extraordinary debut and one of the year’s best records.

Opener “Astronauts” is restrained but not passionless, self-assured in its own power. The effect is astonishingly refreshing; this is exactly the right choice for track one. The melody twists and turns as the drums tumble erratically, like falling hail, building to a strangely sparse, odd, and beautiful chorus: “Falling in love is like watching a really long video.” Follow-up “Cartoon Shoes” is gorgeous. In sound it echoes its predecessor, but in tone forges new, exciting territory. The next few songs, however, are less impressive. They’re much more art than pop, and the sound suffers for it. “Low Dan” evolves from a plodding, art house bore in the verse to a decent but forgettable pop song in the chorus. Its best moment is the bridge, a rhythmically and melodically interesting flicker in an otherwise uninteresting song. “Twelve Ten” is mathematical and dull, notable only for glimmers of strings and feedback that hint at a much better song.

But after a pretty annoying 50-second instrumental segue, “Autumn” marks the album’s return to something great. Folksy and brooding, the intriguing contrast of the atonal guitar work and rich melody carry it far. Here the band stays true to their genre’s characteristic restraint: with any other band, this song might explode at the climax. The subtlety is oddly satisfying. “W. Hillier” is an eccentric, staccato romp, an odd little dream-poem about Walter Hillier (a British diplomat and sinologist). It’s absurd but fun, and if it’s excessively arty, it’s too well executed to matter.  By contrast, “Tennis Players” is a stunningly emotive breakup song. It’s abnormally lucid and narrative. This is the album’s most profoundly beautiful song, and lyrically its best: “The only reason I want to see you/Is to give you back/All of the shit you weighed me down with.” The band returns to absurdity with “Sushi,” which has the closest thing to a danceable groove on the album, and a rather successful one. “Plum” is a strange closer. The lyrics consist primarily of a single looped phrase, while the music ebbs and flows of its own will, building into an electronic bombast that is easily the album’s emotional high point before dissolving into a flutter of snare drum.

Already a seasoned opening band, with this album Otouto prove they’re ready to be opened for instead. Pip’s highs easily exceed its lows, but even if they didn’t, their perspective is unique, which, in a media-saturated world, is a triumph in itself. Marrying earnest pop emotionality with a DIY art house aesthetic, Otouto give art pop a good name; their followers should be proud to earn the same label.

The Triffids, one of the most revered and highly regarded bands to come out of Australia, and one of the greatest bands ever to capture the musical landscape of my esteemed home country, are due to release a mammoth 10 CD career encompassing box set, as well as a brand new compilation album entitled Wide Open Road – The Best of the Triffids on April 5 through Domino Records.

Having had the priviledge of being amongst fellow Triffids fans and band members at the unveiling of the blue plaque where their band recorded the timeless Born Sandy Devotional album which also heralded the re-release and remastering of the entire Triffids back catalogue, the band have acquiesced to their fans long-standing call to release many of their early recordings, and cassettes that the band recorded before they had a record contract.

Come Ride With Me…. Wide Open Road – The Best of The Triffids feattures 10 discs spanning the bands entire career, comprising the best of, plus 4 discs of selections from their early singles and cassettes releases, 3 discs of live recordings and 2 discs of rarities and other unreleased ephemera. It looks to be a truly astonishing collection.

“When I was asked  to put together this collection of rarities I knew that the most difficult part would be constraining the number of CDs to single figures. That went out the window a few weeks ago – and I’m happy about that. Domino insists they are too. At least I didn’t ask for a silver box”  – Graham Lee

In addition, on Friday 9 April, the remaining members of The Triffids will gather together with a cast of characters, friends, guest musicians and vocalists at London’s Barbican for a special concert to showcase and celebrate the songwriting genius of their late leader David McComb, who died in 1999. The band will also take the show to Hasselt, Belgium on April 16 and 17 at Kunstencentrum Belgie, and Athens, Greece on 23 April, when they appear at Gagarin 205.

A labour of love, the 10 CDs which comprise the box set are:

CD1 – Wide Open Road – The Best of The Triffids

The standard 18 track single CD compilation album also forms part of the Deluxe Edition. The full track listing for this is:

1. Wide Open Road
2. Red Pony
3. Reverie
4. Beautiful Waste
5. Hell Of A Summer
6. Property Is Condemned
7. Raining Pleasure
8. The Seabirds
9. Lonely Stretch
10. Stolen Property
11. Kathy Knows
12. Bury Me Deep
13. A Trick Of The Light
14. Jerdacuttup Man
15. Too Hot To Move
16. Goodbye Little Boy
17. New Years Greetings
18. Save What You Can

CD2 – The Early Singles and EP’s
CD3 – The Early Cassettes.  A selection from the Triffids’ first, second, third and fourth cassettes
CD4 – The Early Cassettes.  The Triffids’ fifth and sixth cassettes
CD5 – Grandson of Dungeon Tape.  Dungeon Tape and Son of Dungeon Tape – A Selection
CD6 – Live To Air on 3PBS from the Regal Room at The Prince Of Wales Hotel, St Kilda – 16/4/84
CD7 – Live At the London School Of Economics – 13/10/84
CD8 – Live At Melbourne University – 27/03/88
CD9 – Jack Brabham 2010 Vol. 1 Live recordings, Unreleased Tracks and Historical Snippets 1977 to 1989
CD10 – Jack Brabham 2010 Vol. 2 Demos, Unheard Songs and Historical Snippets 1977 to 1988

2009 will be looked upon by many as a strange and wonderful, confusing and bewildering, but ultimately a sad and tearful year. Yon writer feeling the weight of many a loss, but none as saddening and as that of the passing of Rowland S. Howard to liver cancer on December 30. Forever known as Nick Cave’s red right hand in the Birthday Party, Rowland was the purveyor of that skeletal, metallic guitar sound that along with the bass growl of Tracey Pew, defined the band. Not to forget as also the songwriter of one of Australia’s greatest recordings, “Shiver” that thirty years after being recorded still transfixes.

Throughout the 80′s and 90′s Rowland kept recording, be it with Crime & The City Solution, as These Immortal Souls, or partnering with the eccentric Nikki Sudden and the provocative Lydia Lunch to name but a few. Speaking to Static’s Chris Berkley, only a few weeks before his passing, Rowland S. Howard recounts his extensive career and his brief return the music, with his second solo album Pop Crimes. As the interview begins, I shall pre-echo the words here. It was a great pleasure and a privilege. Farewell Rowland.

A great pleasure and a privilege to welcome in Mister Rowland S. Howard. You doing alright?

Absolutely.

It’s been a period of busy activity. Does it feel like you’re awaking after a dormant sleep, running around and selling yourself again?

(laughs) A period of hibernation. Well, it’s nice to be doing something again. Nice to have a new record to promote.

You started this year playing the ATP festival, you’re seeing the year out by doing Homebake, so it’s been a year book-ended by big festivals. Did you have to be coaxed into doing those kinds of shows?

Absolutely.

How did you find ATP? You would’ve been among good folk, it couldn’t have been too hard an experience.

No, it was remarkably enjoyable. The audience’s were very kind and as you said, there were a lot of really good bands. I just hate playing outside, I hate playing in the daytime. I hate festivals.

None of that is conducive to your shtick is it?

No. It’s sort of the antithesis of what I do.

You didn’t suddenly have to write songs to play at ATP because the stuff from Pop Crimes had been kicking around for a while, right?

Only a couple of songs, but most of it was written specifically for the album. I think we did a couple of songs from the record at ATP.

Are you usually more keen to go into the studio then, or does it take someone like your producer, Lindsey (Gravina) to take your songs in and put them down?

It was just a case of nobody was offering me enough money to make a proper record. People would contact me and want me to go in and make a record in a day and a half. At this stage in my career I’m really not interested in the limitations that imposes upon you. I’m always interested in going into the studio but it has to be under the right circumstance. I’m not going to go in and just do anything.

I guess you’ve been there, done that as well. Is it good to have that support group like Lindsey, people that are helping you then once you’re in the studio to get the best out of yourself.

Oh yeah, Lindsey’s great and he’s one of the few people in the music industry who will go that extra mile for you and work for nothing to make sure the record’s finished, and I’m not saying he does that for everyone, but he does it for me and he makes great sounding records.

It seems throughout your career you’ve had a lot of collaborations and they’ve been your lifeblood, be it Lydia Lunch, Nikki Sudden or anyone. Is it good to have people to bounce off when you’re making a record?

Yeah, but a lot of that was also born of the fact that I just didn’t have the confidence to do my own songs myself, so it was easier for me to hide behind somebody else. Working with other people they often bring the most extraordinary things to songs you have written and make them so much greater than what you had thought they were.

It’s sort of a tradition that’s continued for Pop Crimes, you’ve done this song with Jonnine from HTRK and you had produced their album a few years ago. It’s this relationship that’s given you a Nancy and Lee type duet on the album. Was it great to have someone of her age and eagerness to do a song with?

Yeah, and I think HTRK are a fantastic band and I think Jonnine is a really great lyricist and singer and I knew we had that same sensibilities in what we found appealing and that we could conjure up a certain playfulness that would be fun.

Are those kindred spirits few and far between for you? You must get a lot of people coming slavishly to you but may not have the best interests at heart.

I don’t hang out with a lot of musicians. Just because somebody else plays music it doesn’t mean I’ve got anything in common with them. Most of the inspiration for what I do comes from other sources, other than music. Whereas most people just reference rock music, so it can only progress so far.

That said, you do hang out with a lot of musicians’ songs. Cover versions have always been your penchance and I’ve very pleased to see that you’ve done Talk Talk’s “Life’s What You Make It” on Pop Crimes and I’ve never realised what a bleak song that was until you did it, Rowland (laughs). Is that something you find exciting, inhabiting someone else’s song?

I like taking somebody else’s song and showing that there’s another side to it, despite that it’s written, in the case of “White Wedding”, Billy Idol has no credibility whatsoever. It doesn’t mean the song isn’t a good song.

Well you’ve twisted the knife completely with it, Rowland, channelled through you. But it’s a beautiful song nonetheless, right?

I just always thought that you could approach it like something from Fun House.

It’s great to have Pop Crimes under your belt and you have been making this new music, when you’re still doing that, going into the studio, and releasing new stuff, do you find it frustrating when people only want to pick over your past? Does that happen to you a lot?

Yeah. It happens. In these interviews that I’ve been doing, there’s a general lack of awareness that things that I’ve done.

It’s a very selective kind of awareness, people might only want to ask you about Boys Next Door yet they might not have heard any Crime and the City Solution albums.

Well, exactly. After the Birthday Party, there’s a big gap in most people’s minds to what I was doing and I understand why people want to talk to me about the Birthday Party, and if I met Ron Asheton while he was still alive, I’d want to talk to him about The Stooges, than Destroy All Monsters or whatever.

It is that albatross, but it’s something that seems to weigh heavier on other people or some people, doesn‘t it?

Yeah, I think because I’m not really a careerist. I’m not somebody who does this for fame. I occupy a grey area in a lot of people’s minds, and also you have to be fairly definitive in what you do for most people to, and I don’t mean this in a condescending way, for people to get what you’re doing. If there’s too much ambiguity or subtlety, a lot of people don’t really understand. Most people don’t really want to spend any time thinking about music, they just want to listen to it and that’s fine.

It’s not like you turned your back on it completely, you performed “Shivers” at ATP. So is that a given as well? Do you feel like you have to perform that song when you play live?

No, I very rarely do it, and in fact it’s interesting because people don’t yell out for it anymore because my audience is completely different than it used to be and people, because they’re young, they don’t have the same historical associations with that song that a lot of older people do. Which is fine by me, because it’s a very, very old song for me.

First broadcast on Static on 10/12/09. Static can be heard on Sydney’s 2SER (107.3 FM) and via the Internet (www.2ser.com) every Thursday evening (AEST).

There’s the “Secret History of Australian Music”, and then there’s the “Secret History of Australian Music I Know Next To Nothing About”, which has little merit in attempting to write about, but what the hell, here goes nothing…

Was it Kim’s on St.Marks Place in New York around late 1999? I can’t remember exactly where I picked this album up, but I’ve got an odd feeling that this was the place and the time though. The disc was beaten to shit in the one dollar bin and I was in the midst of first time New York fever, raiding the record stores looking for bargains and raising hell. I saw the Ripe CD, gave out a small laugh in surprise, and then suddenly the voice of Triple J radio’s Richard Kingsmill entered my head, venturing forth an opinion that this album contained one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

It was a weighty platitude at the time from ol’ Kingsmill (and I‘m sure he‘s since forgotten about the band), but it served its purpose and that comment remained steadfast in my mind. Why I waited six years to do something about it is not open for debate right now, but as the saying goes, there is a time and place for everything, and I guess that time was now. The “greatest song” he spoke about was called “Moondriven”, and it was there, track four, staring me in the face, so I paid my dollar plus tax, and when I got the CD home, or wherever home was at that time, I put it on the stereo and he was absolutely right.

I can tell you two things about Ripe that I knew before I started this and two things only. 1. They’re from Melbourne, and 2. Along with Glide and the Fauves, (already covered here and here) they appeared on the much coveted Youngblood 3 compilation. That’s it. That’s all I have. I never saw the band, well least not as far as I can remember, but that had a lot to do with the influx of monosyllable band names that did my head in during the early ‘90s,  making them almost indistinguishable from one another. Ride, Glide, Ripe, Wipe, Loop, Luna, Lush etc. Oh my god. Enough already. I’m really not doing a good job at selling this band, am I? All I can suggest at this point is that you listen to the track and then decide if you want to go further.

The sheer abundance of question marks in regards to this band instantly deem Ripe as ‘Secret History of Australian Music” material. So secret that I can’t find a band photo worth a damn, a decent discography, or even prove that “Moondriven” was released as a single, nor can I even find the fucking CD for The Plastic Hassle to get decent scans of the artwork! This just seems like it was not meant to be and I would be seriously amiss at this stage not to give credit where it’s due and explain Ripe (at the time of The Plastic Hassle) were Mark Murphy (guitar/vocals), Peter Moran (guitar/vocals), Katie Dixon (bass) and Darren Seltmann (drums).

The thing that instantly stands out about “Moondriven” is that while the title hints at that psychedelic rock sub-genre “space-rock”, it creates its own sub-genre that in this instance I’ll call “underwater-rock”, with Murphy’s vocal (fed through a Leslie speaker) sounding like he’s submerged in the deep blue sea. It suits perfectly with the ebb and flow of the music, rising from the quiet, melodic verses to the tumultuous, chaos-driven chorus. Seltman’s drumming is really something else here, as he’s continuously shifting gears all the way through the song, while Murphy and Moran’s twin guitar assault ranges in effect from the loose drifting in space feel that characterises the start of the track, to sounding like a pair of airplane engines about to take flight.

Shock, 1993

Signed to Shock and the UK label Beggars Banquet (and some US derivative it seems), Ripe were obviously earmarked for bigger things, and The Plastic Hassle is a seriously overdriven, well-crafted guitar rock album in the vein of Sonic Youth, but also too Dinosaur Jr and Swervedriver. It sounds very much of it’s time, that juxtaposition of melody and noise that those bands in particular excelled in. While Ripe never sailed such heights, their biggest claim to fame was that drummer Darren Seltmann went on to far greater things as a member of  The Avalanches. It’s a shame that along with Daydream Nation, Bug and Mezcal Head that The Plastic Hassle isn’t as equally revered. If you’re a fan of any of those albums, you’re well advised to seek a copy out now.

Some digging around the internet for this piece unearthed mentions of Ripe reforming for live shows and also recording new material (an EP was released in 2006), so hopefully Matt Murphy or one of the band members will google themselves and drop me a line so I can flesh this piece out and they can elaborate more specifically on the history of the band and the recording of The Plastic Hassle, because in my opinion it’s one of those mythical great lost Australian albums that you often hear about. The ‘lost’ part I can easily validate. I know my copy is around here…. somewhere.

Now, with the power of the internet being as it is, Peter Moran, guitarist and vocalist in Ripe got in contact and offered to step up to fill in the blanks on the history of the band and the making of The Plastic Hassle.

When and where did the band form? What were your influences as an artist at that time?

Digging through some old stuff recently, I found the original ad that was placed in the Music Swop Shop window for our first drummer. It gives a good idea of where our musical tastes were at the time – although not sure we’d own up to all of these now. Aztec Camera – WTF? We got together to play the RMIT battle of the bands, which for most of us was our first time on stage (and we won!). Someone else will have to help out with the year – I’m guessing 1988.

My first encounter with the band (with a lot of Australian ‘alternative’ bands oddly enough) was via the Youngblood 3 compilation in 1991. The track was “Gaze” and from what I remember, it was more of a straight-forward melodic guitar track. It wasn’t as heavy or overdriven or strung-out sounding as what you would go on to do on The Plastic Hassle. Was there a desire in the band to break away from making music that sounds a little too ‘pop’? Was there a subtle change in direction or a new influence on/in the band that appeared between 1991 and 1993?

The “Gaze” recording went a bit pear-shaped. Interesting you should point out that it wasn’t as strung-out as later stuff, because it definitely was when we first recorded it with Tony Cohen at Sing Sing (now that was a rather interesting couple of days!). Anyway, the
Youngblood people hated it and demanded we re-record parts of it with their people or we’d be out. So Mark and I went to Sydney, developed a fear of flying and did some re-mixing and overdubs in a bit of a blur. The end result is what you’ve heard, which is a long way from what we wanted it to be.

But you’re right about moving away from the earlier sounds around this time. I think seeing Sonic Youth had a big impact on us at that time. It was at Chasers on the Daydream Nation tour. Experiencing them live (esp in such a close environment) really blew us away. I’d never seen or heard such power and intensity mixed with such melody and experimentation. I believe we were trying to express much of that sort of stuff before then, but there’s no denying the influence. I think we’d always been trying to explore stuff with the guitar – we didn’t use bar chords much and tried to avoid blues-based progressions. We really loved the twin guitar work of bands who didn’t have true rhythm and lead roles – lots of inspiration from Television, and then the Sonic Youth thing thrown into the mix. I can guarantee there were a few effects pedals bought after that.

Can you talk about the recording of the album? Was it a matter of getting your current live set down in the studio? Did you already have a pre-planned idea of how the record was going to sound? Happy memories, prolonged agonies or frustrations etc?

We started the recording for the Plastic Hassle at Fortissimo in South Melbourne and moved to Sing Sing in Richmond. I think we wanted to try to get as much as the live sound initially, but then began experimenting more and more as we went on. We had done some great demos with Ted Lethborg (still trying to get him to find the tapes!).
But really, any pre-planning gradually dissolved as we started experimenting. The bass and drums were very live-like – lots of big, washy drums and fuzzy bass. But the vocals and guitars and other stuff got fairly complicated. We had the cutlery draw emptied onto the piano strings, Hammond organ through weird speakers, ridiculously loud amp
settings, ridiculously low vocals… Chris Thompson was brilliant – I think he enjoyed the license we gave him to try different things.

Happy memories, prolonged agonies or frustrations – you couldn’t have described it better! Stacks of them. But reading other band’s memories bores me, so I can only assume that would be the same with ours.

I guess for me, “Moondriven” was the key track on the album, (“Something Fierce” also)  and also something you would use as a band title later on. Can you give some background on the song? (origin/influence/recording/thoughts etc). Are there any songs on The Plastic Hassle that you’re still particularly fond of?

Mark was the creative force of the band, so he’s far better placed to tackle these.

I love the song “The Plastic Hassle” – I’m a sucker for the more wig out, epic tracks we started to do. It’s got a great intro, ripper riff, nice harmonies and great melody. It was really good live. I also really like “Mother Figure” too. And “Center of the Universe”. (agreed)

The Plastic Hassle was released overseas on Beggars Banquet and Subpop. How did these deals come about, and did you actually get a chance to play outside of Australia and promote the album? If so, what effect did touring O/S have on the band?

I’m going to keep talking as though these are all facts until someone corrects me ;-)

Shock was the local label, and they did a great job getting the album released in the UK and US on Beggars Banquet. Sub Pop released “Something Fierce” as a 7″ single at the same time. Also, a small label in Canada called LSD records loved the album and wanted us to come over. All of this lead to us to a fairly long tour of North America and England in 1994. Highlights were playing in New York and visiting the Sub Pop shop in Seattle. That bit about happy memories, prolonged agonies and frustrations really applised to the tour too.

I’ve noticed that different pressings of the album contain different tracklistings and artwork. Was there any reason for this? I can’t recall whether it was the Shock version or the Beggars version that has the extra songs, so I guess one possible answer is the O/S label thought it was too long?

Beggars Banquet released in “international” version with less tracks and a different cover. I can’t remember the exact reason, but could well have been to keep the time down (no idea why). Shock also produced a “media” version locally, which had an interview with the band and more photos in the sleeve.

What precipitated the break-up of the band?

Even though we spent so much energy trying to avoid cliches, it was the overseas tour that basically triggered the break up, which is a bit of a cliche itself. The tour was incredibly taxing. We travelled across Canada by road from Victoria in the East to Halifax – 6000 kms in an old Dodge van with 7 people is going to test anyone. There were a lot of other factors too. Basically I think we just reached the end of the musical mix of the four people at the time.

In 2006 you revived the Ripe name again for a 6 track EP. Is that where the story ends for the band? Are you still making music?

That would be Mark and Katie. I’m not making music outside of the lounge room (and Garage Band!) myself.

I’m sure the album is well out of print, are there any plans to re-release The Plastic Hassle? Do you consider it to be a record that outside of certain circles really never got its due?

I don’t know of any plans to re-release at the moment, but if I keep hassling my friend Ted at Aztec enough maybe he’ll do something. I can’t say whether it got the recognition it deserved or not. I do know that some people think it’s a really, really good album, not just for its time but holding up well even now. I know I still really like it, which is a pretty good feeling to have.

Thanks to Peter for adding some life to this piece!

Sydney art-pop quintet Dappled Cities have steadily grown in status in the last ten years with home-grown audiences as well as pushing 2006’s Granddance and their most recent psyche-pop opus Zounds down the throats of the Americans. Shortly after the Australian release of Zounds, Chris Berkley of Static spoke to Dave Rennick, guitarist and vocalist of Dappled Cities about birthing and touring the album.