Love You Brisbands

Melissa Western - Stepping Stone (EP)

2010-10-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

Released: September 2010
Format: 6 track EP
Label: Independent

My sister Melissa recently made her commercial debut with a six-track EP called "Stepping Stone". Although a jazz singer for the most part, this veers a little from her path and into more contemporary pop, acid jazz and AOR but all the while retaining her musical sensibilities.

Tracklisting:

1) OLD MAN - Great opener to the EP, it's a good dose of 70's funky which fits in somewhere between Chicago's early material and the theme tune for The Love Boat. The happy and bouyant music is offset with sad and reflective lyrics about a man who lived a happy-go-lucky and reckless life as a youngster and going through self-recrimination in his later years. Has a good rocky guitar solo and some icy organ and a catchy chorus line. 5/5

2) GIVE IT TO ME - Slightly slower track with a more jiggly modern funk rhythm. Nice backing vocals, good funky bass and some Fender Rhodes piano playing topped off with some muted trumpet bits. 4/5

3) STILL NIGHT - Nice doowop number with a similar clinky piano sound similar to Percy Faith's "A Summer Place". Nice one to end an evening on the dancefloor, and has nice lyrics that describe a woman's longing for a guy. 4/5

4) HOLD ON - This track owes a lot to Bruce Hornsby & The Range "The Way It Is" and the Wilson Phillips song "Hold On". This is good radio friendly rock with great keyboard player and layered vocals in the chorus. 5/5

5) WASTED - Written during the days of her former band in the early 00's, it's a good mix of country rock with grunge pop in a similar vein to Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morrissette and Natalie Imbruglia. My personal favourite track, it has some mean biting guitars, moody organ playing and a caustic vocal delivery. 5/5

6) LESTER FINCHBERRY - The lyrics written by me, it is a fictitious tale of a man who never took a risk in his life and died in a sad and frustrated condition. Accompanied only by her husband Tnee on keyboards, it's a cocktail jazz ballad that sounds like they had been listening to Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and "Just The Way You Are" mixed in with some surrealistic noises of children at play interspersed here and there. 5/5

Overall score: 9/10

Shiraz Tilley - Demos

2010-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Artist: Shiraz Tilley
Label: Independent
Format: iTunes download
Release Date: November 2008

The bandwagon of sensitive female singer/songwriters from Brisbane that was started by Kate Miller-Heidke a few years ago keeps on rolling and producing more and more upcoming goods. One of the most promising of the crop is music and theatre student Shiraz Tilley (yes, Shiraz *is* her given birth name!). Born to music loving parents who have nurtured her creative growth, Shiraz is not your typical Brisbane chanteuse. She is multi-talented and plays guitar, keyboards, harmonica, djembe, flageolet, and sax on top of her singing and not afraid of demonstrating her instrumental versatility at her gigs which she and her parents organise rather than leaving it to the local industry moguls.
Her voice is just as captivating and classy as her looks, it is full of soul and passion for someone her age whilst most of her peers are doing plastic disposable dance pop or reality tv cover ballads.
If you like Sheryl Crow, Tori Amos, Carole King, Carly Simon, Xavier Rudd, Bob Dylan and Crowded House then you'll get a very good idea of where she is headed with her music direction.
For an album that is modestly titled "Demos", this has a tight and polished production which is chock full of radio friendly tunes that sound just as much at home on 612 ABC Brisbane and Radio National as well as the likes of Triple M, Triple J and B-105.
Each song is a well crafted gem from the Eagle Eye Cherry-ish "Mellow Harmony", to the retrospective "Apple Tree", the feel good "All Together Now", the upbeat acoustic dance vibes of "Only A Step Away", and the dirgey "Among Us" which is right up there with Robbie Williams' "Angels" or "The Day You Went Away" to commemorate the passing of a friend or loved one - it starts off quiet before exploding into a power rock song reminiscent of a Meatloaf ballad with some nice horn riffs towards the end. Definitely one to release as a single in its own right. "Things Are Getting Better" has touches of Yael Naim's "New Soul" to it before going into a tune of its own. Shiraz is clearly a worldly young woman who has learned a number of hard life lessons and now telling the stories through her music.
This is highly edible, intelligent and first class contemporary rock that has the potential to do very well over here and overseas. Just like a bottle of wine that her namesake is, she's gonna get even better with age.

5/5

THE DANGER BUNNIES - "Grumpy" EP

2010-04-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

Artist: The Danger Bunnies
Format: CD EP
Released: April 18, 2010
Label: Self Released
Producer: Jeff Lovejoy
Recorded: Blackbox Studios, Brisbane

With the recent press attention this highschool girl dominated pop/rock band has been getting, everybody ought to love the Danger Bunnies. If the world becomes perfect within the next four years they will be even bigger and more memorable than Lady Gaga.
Formed whilst still in primary school in 2005 and led by guitarist/vocalist Indigo Keane, these teenage girls and guy drummer have delivered an EP that's full of cute, quirky but gutsy rock in a similar vein to previous bands I was a fan of like The Dream Poppies and Hot Liquid Sex. Open up with the sulky strutting bubblegum New Wave orientated rock of "Red Black & White" with it's yelled chorus and a gigantic thundering guitar and bass playing complete with some nice 60's garage-r0ck organ, the EP goes quickly into great melodic gems with "Grumpy" about the morning angst after a sleepover party, "Danger" has an urgent rushing sound about knowing where to stand your ground with the girls, whilst "Red Eyes" is about a sympathised allergy to cutesy furry animals. The EP softens up a bit towards the end with "Secret Admirer". In all, it shows a lot of promise for this band. With a good tight professional production courtesy of Brisrock maestro Jeff Lovejoy, and a good doting press it's a good indication that this band has much more to offer in the future. File somewhere next to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hole, and The White Stripes if you have any of their albums in your collection - the Danger Bunnies deserve such a slot.

5/5

Chicks - "Security" (RCA) 1980

2009-10-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I logged into this site, but I've been having a bit of difficulty trying to transfer my vinyl to MP3 to share with others in cyberspace. Once this is done I promise I'll be sharing a bit more! :)

Anyway, this is an album that is by one of the most sadly underlooked and forgotten Brisbane bands of the late 70's - early 80's. They originally went by the name of "Chicks Incorporated" but later shortened it to just "Chicks". The band was unusual because they were originally an 8 piece all-girl instrumental/vocal band with a female drummer (Miriam Curtis) who also produced the album, and they originally featured only one male member called Chris Mitchell who played guitar. They were apparently a very sexy and photogenic band with two dancers, and got snapped up by RCA Records.

Unfortunately during their time with the label they underwent more lineup changes than hot dinners because they couldn't find competant musicians and evenutally ended up with 40% of the band being male musicians. Virtually nothing is known about the other musicians, except their first lead singer was Safanya who had previously done the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1973, and their sax player was Pam Withnall (later with Sydney band The Party Girls and now a jazz saxophonist, but had left the band before they actually recorded). Some of the drumming was provided by Don Liebler who taught Miriam, and is now a lecturer at the Conservatorium in Brisbane.

It's a shame it wasn't a hit, because this is actually quite a decent and listenable album. Many of the songs on it were written either by legendary Brisbane songwriters David Bentley (who also wrote Python Lee Jackson's international smash "In A Broken Dream" with Rod Stewart on vocals), and the team of Laurie Stone and the late Peter Moscos.

The album opens up with a good bass driven reggae rock number called "Security" which name drops famous historical characters like Jesus, Napoleon and Nero. Nice guitar licks and a funky singalong chorus that quickly sticks in your head. It goes into their second single "Movie Star" which is a polemic about the illusory high-life in Hollywood, sounding slightly like Manfred Mann's Earth Band's hit "Blinded By The Light" but with more of a disco feel to it.
The third track "Two Of A Kind" is one of the best songs on the album with a very early 70's feel to it featuring a good electric piano hook and some free form guitar playing. Although written by David Bentley, at times it sounds a bit like R. D. Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me", and it has a freaky ending which sounds like they had chucked the synthesiser down a flight of stairs.
"Loaded Dice" has a more moody feel to it with some bloopy keyboards and a mechanical drumbeat.
Side 2 opens up with "I'm On Fire" which was their third single with a very fast frantic beat, climbing bass and some funky sax playing. This side tends to lose the pace with the next two tracks, but picks up with the final two called "Guys" and "Life's A Carnival" which has a more campy cabaret feel to it.

Outside of this album, their debut single "Jive To Stay Alive" (not included here for some odd reason) was used on the "Dat's Disco" compilation album on RCA featuring mostly international acts with more recognisable hits and also on the "Sandival" compilation available on most torrent sites. The only other track I have by them was "Stormy Nights" recorded specially for the "That's Queensland" compilation album specially released by radio station 4IP. This track veers away from the disco/funk approach and more into New Wave pop in a similar style to Devo's "Whip It" and Kim Wilde's "Kids In America".

In a twist of history repeating, I am also working on an updated version of this band called Laissez-Fayre whereby I am the only guitarist in the band and the rest of them are girls, though the songs have a slightly different approach to what Chicks produced.

4.5/5

Padua College Students - "Too Munch" EP

2009-07-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Title: "Too Munch"
Label: Sundown Records
Cat: SUN 331
Distributor: Independent
Release Date: October 1987
Producers: Giovanni Porta & Chris Dodemont

Tracks:

1) The Crustaceans - "Shake, Rattle & Roll" (Calhoun)
2) That's All - "Bitter Duel" (Joe Ragusa/David Atkinson)
3) Blue Brick - "She's The One" (Tony Field)
4) Staff & Students - "Little Fishermen" (Giovanni Porta & Chris Dodemont)

The Crustaceans:

Michael "Mojo" Webb: Guitar and Vocals
Damien Searle: Sax
Stephen Giacomantonio: Bass and Keyboards
Daniel Purdie: Drums

That's All:

Marco Ferro: Lead Vocals
David Atkinson: Guitar and vocals
Tom Cooper: Bass and vocals
Joseph Ragusa: Guitar and vocals
Simon DiMichele: Drums

Blue Brick:

Stephen Slade: Guitar and Vocals
Andrew Rootes: Bass
Bernard Maude: Keyboards
Giovanni Porta: Drums

Staff & Students:

Giovanni Porta: Drums and Vocals
Anne-Maree Moon: Vocals
Tom Cooper: Bass and Vocals
Joe Ragusa: Guitar and Vocals
Simon DiMichele: Drums and Vocals
Daniel Purdie: Percussion and Vocals

A bit of a trip down memory lane for me, because this EP was recorded by my school friends and teachers when I was in Year 11 at Padua College. I had originally reviewed this EP for my school yearbook "The Paduan" in 1987, and thought it'd be worth mentioning on here.
Padua College is generally famous in Australia for being the breeding ground for renowned footballer-turned-commentator Paul "Fatty" Vautin in 1974. By the 1980's the multi-talented and charismatic music maestro Chris Dodemont (formerly of Sydney jazz-rock band The Jumpers) had been enlisted to run the music department at the school. In 1986 the school invested a substantial amount of money into building a new state of the art recording studio. The following year one of the teachers Giovanni Porta decided to put it to good use to record an EP featuring the cream of the musical crop at the school together with a song he had written for one of the recently departed teachers Frank Gracias (in "Little Fishermen").
Out of the musicians on here, only Mojo Webb has sustained a serious career in music as a top blues guitarist.

SHAKE RATTLE & ROLL: Opens up with some fine sax playing from Damien Searle, but the track sounds rather lightweight with cheesy synth playing, plus the guitars could have been brought up a lot more in the mix. The mulit-tracked vocals in the instrumental break sound very effective though.

BITTER DUEL: An anti-drug song written about a fictitious teenage girl who beats addiction and lives to tell. Nice piece of radio friendly power pop which also had the band interviewed on 4ZZZ a few weeks later. I was friends with the guys in the band, but none of them continued it after leaving school although I did try to work with Joe on another musical project four years later with a particularly nasty control freak of a producer (whose name I will not reveal on here), but that's something for another story sometime later.

SHE'S THE ONE: This was a cover of a good rollicking number by good-time rock'n'roll revivalists The Cockroaches, and their biggest hit which reached the Top 5 in the charts. I remember Stephen having a bad cold at the time this was recorded and you can hear his voice going a little bit raspy here and there. In all, a good arrangement of the song though not quite as loud and aggressive as the original.

LITTLE FISHERMEN: Written about Frank Gracias who taught maths, religion and technical drawing at Padua up until his untimely death in 1985 when he was struck with a fatal cause of influenza. Frank's main passion outside of teaching was fishing which he used to teach as a sport for a few interested students. This is a pleasant reggae influenced track with great percussion, duet vocals with Giovanni and Anne-Maree Moon (who was then teaching music) and a student chorus. He was one of my favourite TD teachers, firm but soft spoken and always did his best to encourage students. It was the only time that I really enjoyed doing the subject at school as the one I had the following year was a misanthropic bully who was an ex-cop and got his rocks off from intimidating students.......just goes to show that school days aren't always all happy days, but at least I've survived it!

This EP has not been re-released in any format, but I will get round to transferring it to MP3 and put it up, so keep an eye out for it! :)

REGURGITATOR - UNIT

2009-07-04T04:13:00.000-07:00

REGURGITATOR - UNIT

Label: East West Records

Distributor: Warner Music

Catalogue Number: 3984-25260-2

Release Year: 1997

Producers: Lachlan "Magoo" Gould at The Dirty Room

Personnel: Quan Yeomans (Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals)

Ben Ely (Bass, Keyboards, Vocals)

Martin Lee (Drums)

Tracklisting:

1) I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff

2) Everyday Formula

3) ! (The Song Formerly Known As)

4) Black Bugs

5) World Of Sleaze

6) I Piss Alone

7) Unit

8) I Will Lick Your Asshole

9) Modern Life

10) Polyester Girl

11) 1234

12) Mr. T

13) Just Another Beautiful Story

Regurgitator were always a band to surprise and shock people and never content to rest on their laurels or categorising themselves into one genre. Anybody who was expecting another "Tu-Plang" was in for a shock, for Regurgitator had followed similar footsteps to Savage Garden and gone for 80's inspired electronic pop but unlike them tackling more controversial and off-beat topics than love and romance.

1) I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff - good opening song with Ben Ely's vocals put through a vocoder similar to the old Georgio Moroder sound and bloopy bass keyboards. It is a slap in the face to listeners who refused to adapt to the changing cultures that Regurgitator were exploring and wanted them to stay a band similar to Primus and the Chili Peppers. The moral of this song: broaden your horizons cos we ain't gonna the sound the same forever! This track also appeared on the compilation Endangered Species featuring Brisbane bands protesting against the then Howard Government seeking to allow parallel imports of CDs because the local record companies were overpricing albums (still are today - I drink to the day we can buy singles for $2 and albums for $13 again).

2) Everyday Formula - The first single taken from the album, this is a cross between 80's power pop with dashings of synth pop in the chorus. The song is all about taking a dump in the toilet and where it ends up.

3) ! (The Song Formerly Known As) - The third single from the album, this is a great piece of sassy funk about the joys of living the life of a bedroom loner whose had enough of the party circuit and nightclubs. Great funky guitar riff, and a sample from Silver Convention's 1976 hit "Get Up And Boogie" thrown in for good measure.

4) Black Bugs - Owing a bit to Kim Wilde's "View From A Bridge" but a lot slower. This was the second single from the album featuring a very cute cartoon video with exotic animals playing the instruments like the Banana Splits.

5) The World Of Sleaze - Opens up with a half-hearted played riff of "Sweet Home Alabama" which is what the song is based around. Quan's tired and jaded vocals glorify a pornographic underworld with a great rousing singalong chorus with the charming line of "We've got dicks and cunts and slutz and butts and pimps and hos yeah plenty of those. There's no end to the things you can win, and i'll be your friend if you just spread your legs". Obviously not a song that would have gone down well with mainstream radio programme directors.

6) I Piss Alone - Decrying public urinals in men's toilet blocks due to inadequacy over penis size. Starts off with a big stringy organ chord section then suddenly explodes into a thrash punk number with fuzzed vocals mixed so far back it's impossible to decipher them unless you are reading the lyric sheet.

7) Unit - a filler track with a hypnotic beat and metronomic keyboards and ethereal New-Agey vocals.

8) I Will Lick Your Asshole - Taking the mickey out of 'name songs' that were popular in the early 90's like the Beloved's "Hello" and Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire". It name-drops the band's heroes like Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who, Cliff Richard, Peter, Paul & Mary, and David Attenborough put over a jiggly funk backing track and the chorus rapped out sounding like they had been ingesting helium.

9) Modern Life - Ben Ely is on vocals on this track whereby he decries the disposable society we live in today. A more pleasant pop number with an incessant guitar riff and big accentuated chords in the chorus.

10) Polyester Girl - The third single from the album ended up being the band's biggest hit, reaching No. 13 in the charts and it's not hard to see why. The bass riff is taken from the Jackson's "Blame It On The Boogie" and deals with unrequited love over a blow up doll. This is geeky karaoke pop at its best. Sadly commercial success for the band started to slowly diminish after this song was released. It also featured a very eye catching video, but is sadly not available on the Net.

11) 1234 - 51 seconds of pure silly thrashing mayhem and nonsensical lyrics. Sounds like the proto track for "I Want To Be A Nudist" from their subsequent album "...Art".

12) Mr. T - Sounding like a bad detective track, it's not so much a homage to everybody's favourite destructive punk Negro from "The 'A' Team" but about a guy who's learned from his mistakes from his past relationships and ready to take another chance at love.

13) Just Another Beautiful Story - Sounds like a scuffy remake of the Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever" before going into an Oasis-ish chorus. Good closing track as it deals with the uncertainty of romance in the face of death and in the afterlife.

"UNEXPECT THE EXPECTED (EP)"

2009-07-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Artist: Hot Liquid Sex

Label: Mucho Bravado

Cat No: 63447-979690

Year Of Release: 2008

Produced by: Ben Stewart at Ultrasonique Studios and Massive Studios

Personnel: Ocean Wilson (Guitar, Glockenspeil and Vocals)

Ruth Nitkiewicz (Bass and Vocals)

Angela Kohler (Drums)

Ben Preece (cowbell and handclaps on "Trousersnake")

Ben Stewart (egg shaker on "Emergency")

Lucas Arundell (guitars on "Fortune Cookie", "Emergency!", and "Trousersnake",

Fender Rhodes piano on "Fortune Cookie" and "Trousersnake")

Hot Liquid Sex were a female power pop trio who were active from 2005 - 2008. The act was led by Ocean Wilson who wrote all the songs on this EP with the exception of "Trousersnake" which was co-written by James O'Brien (bassist from The Boat People), and originally had Natalie Rapoto on bass who left in 2007 to live in Japan and was eventually replaced by Ruth Nitkiewicz. Drummer Angela Kohler enjoyed some modest recognition by being the drummer in the video "Like Only A Woman Can" by Brian MacFadden.

Track listing:

1) Wherearewewherearewearewethereyeah?

2) Fortune Cookie

3) Emergency!

4) Trousersnake

5) My Vanity

6) You Ain't Mine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ELn88ytGBo

This is a bright and upbeat EP which fuses instantly catchy and snappy guitar pop with strident rock chick vocals from Ocean and focusing on off-the-wall subjects such as everybody's favourite Chinese biscuits (echoing Regurgitator's "Kong Foo Sing" - they used to put a box of fortune cookies at the front of their stage as a pre-rider snack which a few mischievous audience members would help themselves to!), metrosexuals in the song "Trousersnake" and unrequited love in "You Ain't Mine". The band split up after a Melbourne tour in late 2008 after artistic and aesthetic differences with Wilson started to make headway. Angela Kohler now works alongside manager and publicist Ben Preece with his company Mucho Bravado, whilst Wilson has taken up university studies. The only downside is that this EP does not contain my favourite song of theirs "Nude Twister", and their excellent cover of "Stray Cat Strut".

5/5

The Veronicas - "Hook Me Up" (album)

2009-07-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Veronicas are twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. Formerly from Albany Creek on Brisbane's northside, they now reside in L.A. The band first hit in 1995 with "4ever" a cross between bubblegum, power pop and punk which reached No.2 on the charts, and since then have been favourites with Top 40 audiences in Australia, America, Europe and more recently the UK. "Hook Me Up" is their second album for Sire Records, and explores a more darker and introspective side to the band as well as veering more to the combination of electro rock in a similar style to Gary Numan and Regurgitator.

Label: Sire Records
Distributor: Warner Music Group
Release Year: 2007
Catalogue Number: 9362-499154-2 (CD)
Producers: Toby Gad, Greg Wells, John Feldmann, Josh Alexander and Billy Steinberg
Purchase album here: http://www.amazon.com/Hook-Me-Up-Veronicas/dp/B001E1DJ7U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1246541300&sr=8-3

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3zdkh_the-veronicas-untouched_music

1) UNTOUCHED - Opening up with some gorgeous strings, it quickly goes into an electro thrash track. It tears along at breakneck speed like a Japanese express train. Jess and Lisa half-talk their way through this song and it has a great rousing chorus. A good choice for their second single, and the video is just as excellent. The song is also their debut hit in the UK, having peaked at No.6 in the charts with a different video.http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6cwsf_the-veronicas-hook-me-up-clip_shortfilms

2) HOOK ME UP - The title track is The Veronicas first official No.1 Australian single, and I hope that it will not be their last. It's a pleasant dance pop track about wanting to just get away from the pressures of mainstream society. Relies a lot on electronic effects, but it has some fine piano playing.

3) THIS IS HOW IT FEELS - The intro for this song reminds me of Kim Wilde's 80's classic "Kids In America". The song is basically their frustration over fair weather friends who only call them when it suits them, but when needed the most they are nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there like that.

4) THIS LOVE - It's an album track, but for some reason the lyrics for this song (and quite a few others) aren't included on the album's cover.

5) I CAN'T STAY AWAY - Written by Josh Alexander and well known pop songwriter Billy Steinberg, it isn't a bad song but it just didn't make any impact on me.http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8gjki_the-veronicas-take-me-on-the-floor_music

6) TAKE ME ON THE FLOOR - The bloopy keyboards on this track remind a lot of ex-pat Brisbane band Regurgitator, and I think that's a good thing because they are one of my fave Australian bands of all time. I like that croaky scream towards the end of the track!

7) I DON'T WANNA WAIT - This is a more softer track with some dramatic strings and nice percussion and acoustic guitar, but it has a tough side to it. The girls attack this song really well, and if you listen closely to the end, Lisa messes the lyrics up a bit and you can hear her giggle at her mistake.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9oehs_popular_videogames

8) POPULAR - Basically a rant over hangers-on and groupies who freeload off celebrities because of their financial situation. I like this song a lot, and they sing it well. This was released as the fourth single in Australia, but it did not chart.

9) REVENGE IS SWEETER (THAN YOU EVER WERE) - Wow! This is quite possibly the most angriest and abrasive track on the album. The backing track is pleasant, and is quite listenable. It should contend with "In Another Life" to be released as the third single from the album. This is the Veronicas dark side at its best in my honest opinion.

10) SOMEONE WAKE ME UP - Again, the lyrics for this song are not included on the album (maybe they should put out a sheet music compilation of their songs for those who want to learn them). Not a bad song, but it's not my personal fave.

11) ALL I HAVE - It's all about struggling with a partner who will stick by you no matter what. Good track, and I like the piano playing at the end.

12) IN ANOTHER LIFE - Regardless of what some other fans think, I think that this should definitely be released as the next single, especially for people who think that the Veronicas songs are just throwaway pop. It drives home the sad truth that childhood relationships aren't always built to last forever and there comes a time in your life when you have to give up and let go of them. It's a very organic, honest and heartfelt track that you just feel like wanting to give them a big hug.

EMMA DEAN: "Real Life Computer Game"

2009-07-01T01:05:00.001-07:00

EMMA DEAN: REAL LIFE COMPUTER GAME
Label: Doily Records
Distribution: MGM
Year Of Release: 2008
Producers: Emma Dean & Ben Stewart

Personnel: Emma Dean (Keyboards and Vocals), John Turnbull (Bass), Dane Pollock (Guitar), Anthony Dean (Drums and Backing Vocals), Ben Stewart (Backing Vocals),

Tracklisting:

1. Waiting Room
2. Real Life Computer Game
3. Most of the Time
4. Sorry
5. Get What You Paid For
6. Orange Red
7. Addicted To ...
8. Cocaine
9. Henry
10. End Of The Table
11. Dry Land
12. Could this mean if everyone is alone we're together? In the way that we're all together alone?

Intelligent female pop music in Australia is not exactly a crowded field, but for that matter Emma Dean is a very crowded and multi-coloured renaissance woman. Being a theatre performer, music teacher, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist she is every much in a class of her own despite the many hats she proudly wears.
Starting out fresh from the Brisbane Conservatorium as a jazz student having excelled in piano and violin, she formed her own act Bittersuite which she worked in from 2002 - 2005 and collaborated with Kate Miller-Heidke and the physical theatre troupe Zen Zen Zo before she finally decided to proclaim herself as a performer in her own right.
The last few years have been summed up in the intriguingly titled debut album "Real Life Computer Game". Her vocals are sensual and sultry, but at the same time with an authoritative 'don't fuck with me cos I've been there and done it before' rock attitude.
Every song on the album is a wonderfully crafted gem with the soft and lilting opener 'Waiting Room' that starts peacefully then explodes into a theatrical rocker towards the end, the pizzacato-ish waltz and triangle filled 'Sorry', the Lisa Loeb-ish 'Orange Red' (which came No.2 in the Courier Mail's People's Choice songs this year), the tearjerking and despondent 'Henry', the frantic piano led thrash of the harrowing 'Cocaine' about muck-raking internet journalists who spread rumours about her alleged drug use, and the boppy pomp rock stomp of the title track with quirky harmonies and biting guitar licks (which I personally think should have been saved for the last track). Speaking of which, the final track is the unsuccint "Could This Mean If Everyone Is Alone We're Together? in The Way That We're All Together Alone" in which she demonstrates her vocal acrobatics in a homage to her best friend Angie Miles.
If you like the quirky dark sophistication of acts like 10cc, Sparks and Dresden Dolls together with the cool and collected rock princesses like Kate Bush, Bjork, Danielle Dax, Fiona Apple, and Kate Nash then Emma Dean is definitely worth checking out not only as a recording artist but as one of Brisbane's most exciting and captivating performers of this decade.
This is a dangerously catchy and dramatic album that demands your attention with so much more than meets the ear every time you hear it, it's one of those rare albums that repays repeated listening.

5/5

2009-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

POLAROID

Artist: Lavish
Label: Festival Records
Cat No: D 32107
Year Of Release: 1999
Produced by: Jeff Lovejoy & Clint Mansell
Personnel: Nathan Thomas (Vocals), Luke Thomas (Bass), Gary Beavis (Guitar and Vocals), Nigel Lacey (Guitar), Jeff Lovejoy (Guitar), Justin Nelson (Drums), Glen Gibson (Drums)

Running Order:

1) Careless
2) She Said
3) Trashed
4) A Big Surprise
5) Parasite
6) Automatic
7) Wear Me Down
8) Get It Together
9) Tokyo
10) The Beats
11) Homosapien
12) Gone
13) Good For Me
14) Jimi (I Wish I Could Be You)

Genre: Electronic, Rock, Alternative, Dance

Lavish were a Brisbane band active from 1994 - 2000. Formed on the Gold Coast by guitarists Gary Beavis & Nigel Lacey, vocalist Richard, drummer Michelle Wilson and bassist Matt Boulton. Eventually moved to Brisbane in 1996 where brothers Nathan and Luke Thomas took over on vocals and bass. The album was preceded by three singles "Trashed", "Good For Me" and "Homosapien", none of which made the top 40 despite the positive media reviews they got including the striking videos for "Trashed" and "Homosapien" and eventually "She Said" which was the last single taken from the album. They were dropped by Festival in 2000 due to poor marketing and mainstream interest in the band flagging. This is a great album which draws from a range of heavy rock, British rock and pop, electronica, and even some Adult orientated rock numbers like "Wear Me Down" and "Automatic". "Trashed" and "Homosapien" are both frantic rockers, the latter a more aggressive guitar orientated cover of the Pete Shelley 1981 song which made the Australian top 10, even though the Buzzcocks never had any Australian commercial success. Album was produced by Jeff Lovejoy and Pop Will Eat Itself frontman Clint Mansell.

Welcome to the Love You Brisbands Blog

2009-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Blog author Dario Western with The Veronicas (December 2007)

My name is Dario Western, and I am a Brisbane musician, artist, and songwriter. I set this blog up dedicated to one significant and growing part of my record and music collection: Brisbane bands and artists.

When you ask your average person on the street which bands from Brisbane come to mind, they will usually say Savage Garden, or the Bee Gees, or The Veronicas. If they're in Australia they will also mention Powderfinger, Custard, The Saints and The Go-Betweens. If they are a local Brisbane band they will probably tell you band names that will make you go glary eyed and reckon "Who the heck are/were they??" In 2007, Brisbane writer Andrew Stafford released the authoritative book "Pig City: From The Saints To Savage Garden" in which he had done exhaustive coverage of the bands that made the music in this city so great.

Well, this is kinda what this blog is about. Though it is also dedicated to grass roots Brisbane acts, some of whom made it commercially, and others who put out only a few records then vanished without trace and consequently had them ending up in pawnshops or car boot sales amongst bric-a-brac. I affectionately refer to them as "Cinderella" music - it's rare but nobody took much notice of it.

So if you want to know more about acts like Silver Studs, Railroad Gin, Wickety Wak, The Leftovers, Burke & Wills, Moscos & Stone, The Mystery Of Sixes, Lavish, Dream Poppies, Animal Boy, GinGer, The Onyas, Pretty Violet Stain, d-Wizz, Squelch, Hot Liquid Sex, Crush 76, Tulipan, Ducks In Formation, That's All and more, then this site is definitely for you.

What you will find on here: Reviews and downloads of hard-to-find and obscure artists whose work is no longer commercially available, artists who have broken the international market, and would-bes.

What you WON'T find on here: YouTube videos of acts signed with Warner Music as they are notorious for not allowing their acts to be represented on there. Anything by Operator Please as they are not from Brisbane but the Gold Coast, even though they are hot property. Anything by Teal (a band that featured Lisa and Jessica Origliasso from The Veronicas), and any bootleg albums of live gigs and downloads of albums that you can easily purchase from iTunes or even better getting off your butt and strolling down to the music shop to order them.