With the majority of releases this week coming from new (or close enough) acts, Mine’s On The 45 decided to don the detective hat and do a little bit of digging around to see how these bands got to release their singles. Many weeks of unparrelleled access to record label correspondence archives, tapped phone lines and used typewriter ribbons later, we’ve been able to piece together exactly how each of this week’s artists managed to get their single released.

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

BAND OF HORSES – No One’s Gonna Love You

(Sub Pop)

Hi Sub Pop, it’s Band Of Horses here. Well done on 20 years as a label by the way, that’s mighty resilient of you. Hey, we were just wondering if you’d be interested in putting out a second single from our Cease To Begin record. We know it’s been a while since the album was released, but the first single Is There A Ghost? was out last year, and we’re about to go play a few dates in Australia… Yeah we’re playing that Splendour festival. No, my friends couldn’t get tickets either. Yeah, they got booted off just before it went through, had to start all over again. Oh well, we’re doing some sideshows if they’re interested. No, just Sydney and Melbourne. Anyway, would you mind if we put out No One’s Gonna Love You before we head down there. Oh thanks. You don’t have to say that. But thanks. Wow, that’s great to hear. We wondered whether people would embrace the lightly cascading beauty and ambiguity of some gentle-sounding but potentially-mentally-abusive Americana balladry. Looks like we had nothing to worry about. Yeah, that Singles dude at Rave Magazine absolutely loves it too, so that was a huge weight off our mind, let me tell you. Ok Sub Pop, you get back to giving some of America’s finest alt-troubadours and misunderstood rock greats their big break, and we’ll just keep breaking hearts and making knees go weak. Cheers.

SILVER SIRCUS – Sovereignty EP

(Independent)

Ok, band meeting. Vocalist and writer Lucinda Shaw? Present. Drummer and composer James Lees? Present. Flight Of The Conchords reference? Present. Other non-key members of the band who contribute instruments like piano, strings and double bass? They’re out the back having a durry. Great, onto general business. We’ve got our debut Sovereignty EP recorded and ready to go. Is it everything we wanted? Grand, epic and theatrical, with touches of both george and Mazzy Star. That was our mission statement, and I think we’ve come pretty close to that. I think the wafting sound of this outfit blows gentler and more confidently than ISIS, our ‘90s Brisbane band, and the fact we’re playing less folk festivals and more arts functions like the Qld Poetry Festival and “In The Pink” Cabaret shows the stage performance side that we’re coming from. With four songs lasting over twenty minutes, I have seen people who aren’t entirely fans of this style drift off towards the end, but I think getting in Magoo to do production counteracts that a bit, ‘cos people take a little while to decipher whether it’s folk-influenced trip hop or classical-influenced pop/rock. All in favour to launch the EP at the Press Club on July 21? All against? Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.

DUKES OF WINDSOR – It’s A War

(Universal)

Dear Major Record Label Singles Release Scheduler,

It’s the Dukes Of Windsor here. We hope you are well, and that you receive this letter. We’re sure you will. It’s just that we seem to have had some trouble getting in contact with you. We realise you’re probably frantically busy organising the dates of the half dozen or so singles your label is going to release to shops this year, but we haven’t had any replies to our emails to this point. Or phone calls. Or texts, messages left with your secretary, post it notes left on your desk or, come to think of it, questions asked directly to your face. In a final attempt to get your attention, we thought we’d do things like a major record company and pretend it’s still 1985, so we’ve put biro to Agro stationery and sent you a letter. Basically, we’ve been wondering when you intend to release our single It’s A War. We don’t mean to be pushy. We know we’re just a lowly Melbourne indie-electro-dance-rock band with one other single under our belt. But that single – you remember it, The Others, a TV Rock remix, a massive hit on the charts and in the clubs – was released all the way back in April. Of last year. It’s been sixteen months. It’s A War has been getting played on the radio for at least six of those. It’s already got a chronic case of old hat on Triple J. They started playing it before some of Rosie’s fickle Super Requesting listeners were born. It’s solid dancey rock, the same sort that could throw a blanket over Franz Ferdinand’s impatient followers and shepherd them into our own sizable fanbase, but we need to get it out there. This week. Cool? Better ridiculously handicapped late than never.

MAMMAL – Smash The Pinata

(Shiny/Shock)

Hey bro, how they hangin? We’re Mammal. Yeah that’s right, you know the best fuckin’ thought-provoking party funk-metal band your mates haven’t stopped talking about since halftime entertainment at the speedway? That’s us hey. Man, have we got some hot shit for you? And when I say hot, I mean hot! And when I say shit … Nah, nevermind that bro, just stay loose. We are going to blow your fuckin mind with this new Smash The Pinata song. It is so intense. It starts out pretty cruisy hey, just our singer Ezekial Ox doing this spoken word thing over some bass and drums, like some Suicidal Tendencies over Primus, but sounding as Aussie and tough guy cocky as Rory from Big Brother. It’s deep too. My point … he says at the end of his haiku about material greed and laziness and shit, then pauses … is that I have one. Fuckin’ bang. That’s our cue to jump around and wail, and really use all the tips we picked up from watching 30 hours straight of live DVDs of Chili Peppers and Cog. No shirts. Leather pants. And if it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying like every word is philosophically vital. Want some cock in your rock? Some imposing in your posing? Some self-analysis in your top shelf bad assiness? Mammal is here bro.

THE PROCESS – The City

(Timberyard)

Dear fine folks at Timberyard Records,

First of all, congratulations on a fine history, both ancient and modern, of early releases for a dazzling list of bands, including (chronologically) The Scientists, You Am I and Nick Littlemore’s Teenager project. I don’t know why we’re telling you about your own history, it seems a little unnecessary, but I suppose it makes us look a bit respectful and well researched. Second of all – and it’s probably not worth ignoring the slow-burning post-punk elephant in the room – this is a pitch to make The Process the band on your roster that history will for the most part conveniently forget your contribution towards. We have our first single, The City, ready to go. It’s steady yet unpredictable, it’s punchy yet lo-fi, and even when the chugging bass slows down to a Dave Graney lounge vibe, our shoe-in for the Best Named Newcomer Vocalist ARIA, August Skipper, uses his recklessly ragged voice to give everything a shade of it’s-darker-than-we’re-letting-on. Don’t miss this opportunity to sign a new moody, arty Melbourne band – you never know when the next one will come along. Let us know. Cheers. The Process.

SIMON TOPPER

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