SINGLE OF THE WEEK

THE SEABELLIES – Prairie

(ABC Music / Universal)

For this review I need you to go into the corner of your room that you’ve set up as your Mine’s On The 45 Activity Centre / Shrine. Sit yourself down between the tally board that keeps count of Neighbours references and the framed autographed Behind Crimson Eyes review you bought off eBay, and look up to the noticeboard on your left. If you followed my blue prints correctly, you should be looking at the map of Australia with pins in it marking the locations from where the best singles have come from. If you’ve been keeping score correctly, there should be about four major collections of pins, perhaps unsurprisingly centred around the country’s four biggest cities. However, this week, you’re going to add a big shiny pin to the small but growing collection in the square marked J8, on the northern New South Wales coast at Newcastle. The Seabellies have already been responsible for a couple of markers at that point, and the one in recognition of Heart Heart Heart Out earlier this year just kept getting shined up the more you heard it. Prairie is in much the same top shelf field, with some distinctive drumming and Trent Grenell’s desperate voice playing against the smooth group backing vocals to create a driving momentum, like they’re chasing (or more likely being chased by) something, though they’re not sure what. It’s such an intriguing and repetition-demanding song, in fact, that damn tradition! You can leave the normal pin out of the map this week and stick in an ostentatious cocktail umbrella instead, one that when opened reads Indie Band With Most Exciting Prospects For Debut Album. Hooray! Now get back to alphabetising the back issues.

THE DRONES – The Minotaur

(ATP Recordings / MGM)

It’s an awful thing to admit to, so let’s not. But let’s say that hypothetically speaking, which instantly makes absolutely everything ok (except maybe googling “2 Girls 1 Cup”), some other person could relate to having a friend who seemed perhaps a little unbalanced. A little tense. A little bit a candidate for a chat that involved the suggestion of seeking some mental health advice. And let’s pretend that the friend who thought this decided not to have this chat, because to be honest, they sometimes selfishly enjoyed the end-of-their-rope slightly crazy mate’s antics. If you could, hypothetically, relate to that, you might feel the same way about The Drones, and specifically frontman Gareth Liddiard. Over the past few years and albums, Gareth’s cemented his reputation as one of swamp-indie’s finest, most articulate and tortured-sounding songwriters. With the first sample of the group’s fourth album proper Havilah, that reputation is in no danger of subsiding, as his oddly pronounced and unpredictable Bobcat Goldthwaite-like vocals scream over the top of an alternatingly sloppy-loose then staccato-tight mesh of guitars. The press release claims The Minotaur “manages to draw the historical line between ancient Greek mythology and current-day time-wasting… a half-salute to modern-day sloth, and the painful decision our future leaders face…” After a dozen listens I wouldn’t have a fucking clue if this is even close to true, but I do know I’m not going to be the one to suggest Gareth take a chill pill. There’s enough music playing it safe. The Drones continue riding hazardously close to the edge, and it’s a thrill to tag along in their sidebuggy.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD – Sticks & Stones

(Creative Vibes)

Originally from Paris, now London, comes new post-rock trio Underground Railroad with their debut single Sticks & Stones, a single of whose title you will be in no doubt, as the chorus intones Sticks and stones / Will break your bones over and over, and once more for emphasis. While perhaps erring on the side of simplistic, the song’s not without its genre’s standard dark appeal, but the production by a dude called John Goodmanson (who to his credit has also worked with Sleater Kinney, Death Cab and Blonde Redhead) is what really throws a wet blanket on these smoking embers. It’s true Australia is spoiled for choice when it comes to murky, gritty, smudgy, endearingly lo-fi sounding rock, from The Scientists through Beasts of Bourbon to the aforepraised Drones and a deep pit full of niche bands in between, so maybe this is just how they do it Eurostyle. However when every word, every note and every beat is so plainly upfront that there’s an aural spotlight thrown into every shadowy, mysterious corner, there’s nowhere for darkness to lurk, and what you get is a band that sounds like a noisy Hard-Fi. Non merci.

DANNY TENAGLIA – The Space Dance

(Stomp / Tommy Boy)

I’ve obviously been busting out shimmies on the wrong dancefloors for the past 30 years, because this is the first I’ve become acquainted with the work of Danny Tenaglia, a New York DJ who’s apparently been standing behind record players all that time. Still, the dude’s making up for lost time, with a neverending nine-minute track called The Space Dance, named after the presumably gross Ibiza club where he has an upcoming residency. Nice piece of gratuitous suck up there. I’d like to see what he’d called it if he’d been offered, say, a weekly slot in the upstairs bar at the Vic. Nonetheless, while the very thought of Ibiza causes me to shudder (I’ve never been, but I picture a village full of Birdee Num Nums), Tenaglia’s epic track is completely devoid of spraytanned sleaze, and is in fact an utterly minimalistic ride. Jumping aboard the ‘less is more’ bandwagon, at some points there’s enough space between notes for wide-eyed punters to go to the toilet, grab a drink, chat up a slapper, take them back into the toilets, swap fake numbers, grab another drink and get back onto the dancefloor, while still being able to claim that they didn’t miss dancing to a beat all night.

DASH & WILL – Pick You Up

(Gigantically Small / Universal)

There’s two competing stereotypes bashing headlong into each other with this cheeky guitar pop song by young Australian duo Dash & Will. The most immediately apparent aspect is the ‘cute pop duo singing a pretty pop song’, in a S2S-meets-Kate Nash kind of way, and in this way it holds up as a distinctly non-annoying version of the genre. On closer listening though there’s another side, as the duo cheekily sing about feeling like they’re being pimped out over the top of some muffled but nonetheless rockin guitars, like The Donnas-meets… well, Kate Nash again. Is it cute pop fluff with a harder lyrical edge? Is it subversive indie rock with a shiny commercial front? Best answer is it’s neither. Just a decently catchy tune waiting for you to decide if you like it or not. My vote goes to yes.

SIMON TOPPER

CORRECTION:

I’m happy to admit when this column gets something wrong. Sometimes I do it on purpose, just to see if anyone’s reading. Last week the review of the Dukes Of Windsor single It’s A War was based on the assumption that after a ridiculously long time of being played on radio, the single had only just been released. The single was in fact released in May, but Rave only received it in the mail last week. I would like to apologise to Universal for my poorly informed assumption, and revise the review’s stats as follows: Please change “played on the radio for at least six months” to “at least four months”, and revise “It’s been 16 months between singles” to “14 months”. Thankyou.

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