Liz Green - O Devotion

It seems fitting that singer/songwriter Liz Green recorded her debut album O Devotion within the urban confines of East London's Hackney, a gritty borough notorious for housing some of London's moodier bands. Hailing from Northern UK, Green should be no stranger to this, for Manchester is a city championed for creating pop music's finest broodier moments.

However musically similar these environments though, I suspect moodiness is not entirely what Green should be seeking. O Devotion carries quite a heavy burden. To listen to it in its entirety requires a sturdy spirit, or perhaps an aged whiskey will get you through, as it is laden with saddened characters and tales of woe. None so evident as in closing track Gallows, "They'll take you to the gallows at nine o'clock sharp... I always knew you'd bring me down".

As well as lyrically, a lot of the tension is surely provided by the instrumentation, french horns and tubulars drag their heavy feet underneath an already grim soundtrack without always needing to be there. For this reason, part of me can't help but feel slightly misled. See, I don't at all doubt the authenticity of Liz Green as an artist. Her live performances are rumoured to be full of fairytales and puppetry, her personality, apparently, intriguing enough to rival that of folk magician Joanna Newsom, but the issue really is that I just don't think the songs themselves are as strong as her identity. Her voice, which has been likened to that of legend Billie Holliday, does bare some resemblance, but really, only in that it permanently floats in a lower register. There isn't nearly enough versatility to carry you through an entire album.

Unlike folk/blues contemporaries Allela Diane or Cat Power, who manage to craft albums which effortlessly weave inspired lyrics and melodies, Liz Green's O Devotion is an album strong on ideas, yet weak on melodies and song structures. Save for a sullen day with that aged bottle of Macallan.

Review by Golden Lady

Band of Horses - Mirage Rock first listen

We were lucky enough to be invited along to the Sony offices yesterday to have a listen to the upcoming album by Band of Horses.

Mirage Rock is their first to be produced by Glyn Johns, who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who has worked with the likes of The Beatles, The Who, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones. The record was recorded at Sunset Sound studio in LA and follows their third album, 2010's Infinite Arms

On first listen, this fourth offering seems, in places, a little more urgent, insistent and less ethereal than what you're used to. Brilliantly rocky lead single, Knock Knock - which you might have heard on your radio of late - is a decent yardstick for this. Mirage Rock isn't a massive departure though, How To Live sounds very much like, well, Band of Horses, with its heartfelt lyrics, "I really don't have to suffer, I still do it anyway/I'm a diamond in the rough or I'm a dirt clod in the clay/Guess what? I lost my job, it's just my luck." There are lots of nice country elements too, while the whole thing wraps up with some beautiful strings on Everything's Gonna Be Undone

We're looking forward to getting to know the record better. It's due for release in September. You can pre-order it now via iTunes.

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Neil Martin chances upon one of the albums of the year so far. Maybe:

Teenage angst is overrated. Sometimes the best way to deal with the uncertainties of youth is to accept that your only option is to blaze through those wilderness years with the reckless abandon of someone who is either immortal or doomed to an early grave.  This is what Japandroids second album sounds like.

It opens with these lines: “Long lit up tonight and still drinking/Don't we have anything to live for/Well, of course we do, but until it comes true/We're drinking.” This pretty much sums up the eight tracks and 35 minutes that follow. Short, concise anthems to directionless youth. Songs about staying up all night, sordid sexual encounters, burning the candle at both ends and living without regret. So often these kinds of songs can sound contrived and up being too literary, a trap The Hold Steady often fall into. Japandroids have the urgency that suggests they are writing about their own lives rather than sounding like 30-somethings writing about some romanticised, mythological idea of urban disaffection and young adulthood.

Celebration Rock sounds great all messy, revving guitars that burst into life like the beginning of the greatest night on the town you ever had. Hooligan choruses of “woos” and “oh oh ohs” that bring to mind drunken bar singalongs at 1am. The band sound just that right kind of sloppy, the best kind of sloppy, on the edge of collapse but always just holding it together, like The Replacements at their best.  In fact this is probably the closest thing I have heard recently to that Mats sound. Most bands compared to them sound studied and academic but Japandroids and Celebration Rock capture some of that raw honesty that made The Mats so wonderful. This is absolutely a contender for album of the year but it may be that I burn out on it in a couple of months. Given the subject matter that would perhaps be only fitting.

Review by Neil Martin

A Place to Bury Strangers - Worship

Golden Lady gives a listen to the sonic madness of A Place to Bury Strangers: 

There's undoubtedly a formula in creating a shoe gazer's soundtrack. It requires a healthy disregard for your audience, a distant love of Spector-ish pop and an orchestra of distortion and fuzz flattening anything in its path. It's chaotic and insensitive and when made honestly, can be earth-shatteringly beautiful.

A Place to Bury Strangers are indeed no strangers to this. Having toured alongside modern day pioneers, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, BRMC and their own musical heroes The Jesus and Mary Chain, APTBS have had time to focus and hone in on their sound. And in a day and age when bands feel the obligatory urge to switch and change sounds with the fashion, it's always a delight when artists stick to their guns, without so much as a contemplative doubt.

Lucky for this particular band, they capture the enormity of the genre brilliantly. There are moments of real sonic madness. Album opener, Alone, is the closest you'll get to a single, or a pop song, if you will. Dissolved starts off like a lost Interpol track and then moves back into familiar Jesus and Mary Chain territory. The album slides in and out of chaos and beauty. Rage and sadness. Closing track Slide, however, provides the most interesting sonic shift on the album. Edging into electronic territory and ever so fragile, it had me suddenly wishing more tracks had followed in its path. Hopefully an indicator of where they'll head next.

In the meantime, Worship is a claustrophobic, focused and deviant album. It will no doubt inspire those already worshipping at the alter of Shoegazing. However, unsurprisingly, most will find this a little difficult to swallow.

But I can guarantee that isn't in any way a focal point for A Place to Bury Strangers, instead they allow for the power and madness of their music to be appreciated by whomever is brave and open minded enough.

Review by Golden Lady

Usher - Looking 4 Myself

The latest offering from Usher gets Liana Gow-Killingbeck a bit hot under the collar: 

For his seventh studio album, Looking 4 Myself, Usher embarks on quite an adventure! Dabbling into a wider range of styles than with his previous records (undoubtedly due to working with quite a number of different and versatile artists), Usher has certainly fashioned an album which by all means showcases his eager experimentation, his self exploration, and of course, his downright im-freakin-pressive vocal abilities.

Though this album is quite lengthy (18 tracks, yikes), it is still pretty good fun. I myself have no shame in getting my party booty on to the delights of the RnB genre, and Usher has sorta been a guilty pleasure of mine since he won me over with Confessions in 2004 (I mean COME ON, you’ve got to admit Yeah is a top track to busta move to on the D-floor after a few shots).

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Oh Mercy tell Bobbysix about their new album artwork!

Considering the acoustic loveliness they purvey, you might not have been expecting Oh Mercy's new album cover to look like the above picture. In a Bobbysix.com exclusive, the Melbourne band's frontman and songwriter Alexander Gow writes a few words about the choice of artwork:

"There's a great tradition in modern music that shines a proud spotlight on feminine beauty by the way of album art selection. It is a playful tradition. It is erotic. But beyond all it is one of worship. Bowing in delight and pleasure to the overwhelming power of woman. Placing that majesty on pedestal to awe and inspire man and woman alike."

"Martin Denny subscribed in the late 50's and 60's.
Roxy Music made an institution of it.
Prince gave nude man power a nod by appearing naked on Pegasus on the back cover of Prince 1979."

"Selecting art for an album cover is a unique opportunity and one that I am thankful to have.
It's a lot of fun."

If the album's sound is as daring and bold as its cover art, then we're in for a treat. It's set to drop in August. Keep up to date with Oh Mercy on Facebook. In the meantime, have a sneak listen to their upcoming single and check out their Australian tour dates below.

Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle

Nicole Dora has a listen to the very long-awaited return of Missy Higgins: 

It was 2004 when Missy Higgins came along and became a permanent etching on the Australian culture scene. With her debut album The Sound Of White going platinum nine times over, everyone knew about the Melbourne based singer and her mix of light-hearted cynicism and beautifully tragic melodies/sonnets. Eight years after that first album and with a second long-player also under her belt, it seems that Missy is only just starting to get her groove back. With that second record kind of fading into the background, this third album - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle - is a reminder that the national icon is still alive and kicking (you can't blame me for saying that - The Sound of White is practically the soundtrack to the mid-noughties for the lives of many ladies and gentlemen all over Australia). Some call The Ol' Razzle Dazzle a foray into darkness and, while there are undertones of this through the album, at the same time it just sounds like someone who has lived life a little bit.

The first single, Unashamed Desire, shows us a hint of sinister intentions with the handy use of a cowbell, while songs If I'm Honest and Everyone's Waiting don't have the same conviction as previous tear jerkers like The Special Two, but you get the feeling that this album is trying not to get too concerned with the whimsy of unrequited love.

With ample time to let this album grow on me, I am still waiting for the funny feeling that I got from Higgins' first record - something that swayed from the heart-swelling to the stomach-dropping. This time round you can tell the direction is intending to move into new territory and it will be interesting to see what this cultivates and what path Missy goes down from here.

Review by Nicole Dora

Bat For Lashes announces new album and UK tour

We love Natasha Khan. Mostly cos she's a Brightonian, like all the best people. Oh yeah, and because, she's, like, totally awesome at songs and stuff. Anyhoo, the exciting news is that her hotly anticipated third album, The Haunted Man, is coming out on 12 October 2012 via Parlophone/EMI Music.

A full UK tour has just been announced, including The Forum in London on 29 October, summer festivals like Latitude and Bestival and a final date back in good ol' Sussex by the sea,

Since releasing the universally acclaimed album Two Suns in 2009, which has now sold over 250,000 copies, Natasha toured South America with Coldplay in 2010, collaborated with Beck to write a song for the Twilight film, Eclipse, headlined two sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House in June 2011 and covered Depeche Mode’s Strangelove for Gucci’s Guilty campaign, released on limited release on 7” vinyl for this year’s Record Store Day in the UK.

Full details of all her tour dates can be found at www.batforlashes.com

Jack Colwell & The Owls at Goodgod Small Club, Sydney

There are two surefire ways of getting a good review. The first is to hand your reviewer, upon arrival at the venue, a personalised, signed hand-drawn picture of a unicorn. The second is for your gig to be really bloody excellent. Jack Colwell had both of these bases covered at Goodgod on Thursday night.

Having been classically-trained at Sydney's prestigious Conservatorium of Music, composer turned alternative pop-star Colwell launched his debut album on a horrible, cold, rainy night that signposted the start of the Australian winter. Despite the bitter conditions though, a healthy turnout witnessed Colwell and his band of talented Owls (not actual owls, unfortunately) deliver songs from this new record, Picture Window.

A fascinating frontman, Colwell dissects being flamboyant and gothic and is often a confrontational figure. If you can imagine Patrick Wolf having a fight with Nick Cave (go on, it's awesome), then you're in the right territory. Plus, this cat realllly knows his way around a keyboard. In a local live scene where, often, sloppy musicianship is all too readily accepted, it is refreshing to witness somebody who can play so well. His piano is like an extension of himself.

The show was equally intimate, powerful and intense and was tied together with the singer's distinctive vocal and his dark, "chamber folk" melodies. Whether dazzling on the piano or crawling through the audience bashing the shit out of a tambourine, Colwell was a mesmerising presence throughout and is unquestionably somebody worth keeping a very close eye on.

Words and photo by Bobby Townsend. Keep up to date with Jack Colwell on Facebook.

Jamie xx announces solo Australian shows

Following the announcement of The xx’s new album Coexist and their upcoming Australian tour, which sold out in, like, half-a-second or something, Handsome Tours and Fuzzy have today announced solo shows for Jamie xx in Melbourne and Sydney.

Catch Jamie xx performing at New Guernica in Melbourne on Tuesday 17 July and at Goodgod Small Club in Sydney on Thursday 19 July. Tickets for both shows are on sale at 9am AEST on Friday 15 June.

The past two years have been meteoric for Jamie xx, who has earned a name for himself as one of the world's hottest producers. In 2011 he crafted the underground hit Far Nearer and collaborated with Gil Scott-Heron on the album We’re New Here, a re-envisioned version of Scott-Heron's 2010 masterpiece I’m New Here. Jamie xx has also garnered universal praise for his remixes of Adele and Radiohead, and The xx remix of Florence & The Machine’s You’ve Got The Love was mmmmmmassive.

See Jamie here:
Tuesday 17 July 2012
New Guernica, Melbourne
UPDATE - TICKETS SOLD OUT

Thursday 19 July 2012
Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
UPDATE - TICKETS SOLD OUT

The xx will be at The Forum in Melbourne on Wednesday 18 July and The Metro in Sydney on Friday 20 July 2012. Tickets sold out in a heartbeat though. Sorry.

The Walkmen - Heaven

Andy James has a listen to the latest outing from The Walkmen:

Formed over a decade ago from the ashes of indie outfit Jonathan Fire*Eater, New York five-piece The Walkmen's flame burns brighter than ever - and in Heaven, the follow up to 2010's Lisbon, they've released their finest record in years.

One part Dylan and one part Casablancas, frontman Hamilton Leithauser's trademark rasp is still at the fore, but much of the album is a world away from the blistering rawness that marked early material like 2004 breakthrough single The Rat.

From the beautifully stripped-back acoustic opener, We Can't Be Beat, to the rallying call of album closer The Love You Love, it's a near-masterpiece - the sound of a band hitting musical maturity while sounding more relevant than ever.

Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold lends his vocals to four of the songs, and the indie rock credentials are boosted further by Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Band Of Horses) behind the recording desk.

If there's any divine justice, Heaven will secure The Walkmen a place at indie's very top table.

Review by Andy James.

Chet Faker - Thinking In Textures

Victoria Gottschalk casts her ears upon Chet Faker's EP and feels a bit sexy:

Upon listening to Chet Faker’s Thinking In Textures, I felt a mixture of love, loss and sexual frustation. I realise that’s a strange combination but as a YouTube user put it, Chet Faker’s music is “baby making music”. Pure and simple, the fusion of electronica soul combined with personal tales of romance and tragedy just make you want to combat that bottle of tequila and do some seriously naughty things. But instead of regretting your actions in the morning, just press play on Thinking In Textures and you’ve instantly got a reasonable explanation for the person in your bed and the scratch-marks on their back.

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Grimes - Visions

Liana Gow-Killingbeck gets movin' to the sweet sounds of Grimes:

The first time I heard the new Grimes album was a tad embarrassing. I decided I was going to listen to Canadian Claire Boucher’s third record, Visions, in the car whilst driving to the beach, you know, because there’s something rather awesome about cruising around town, windows down, to yummy new tunes. What I didn’t realise was the effect this bewitching record would have upon me and my poor, unsuspecting limbs.

As a dancer, I can’t help but react physically to music that captivates me, and Visions succeeded to do just that. Consequently, I found myself whipping out some crazy D-moves all the way into town; shoulder popping, head rolling, finger clicking fun, and boy did my imagination run wild (I envisioned myself dancing on the moon attired in alfoil with loads of aliens and robots surrounding me – quite a normal reaction, I’m sure).

This was fine until I realised that the car full of teenagers driving adjacent to me found my wacky physical interpretations to be just as amusing as the energetic songs themselves. Whooops-a-daisy.

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Beach House - Bloom

Following the success of Teen Dream in 2010, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are back with their fourth full-length album. Bloom was born on the road in stolen moments between soundchecks and shows, and takes influence from the experiences during two years on tour. The duo then wove together the resulting melodies, chords, rhythms, words and textures in Baltimore, before recording them over a period of seven weeks at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas.

Despite being created over a period of time and in different locations, the most arresting thing about Bloom is that it sounds like a coherent body of work that needs to be consumed as a whole rather than in chunks, as is the norm in this era of diminished attention. It is also well-monikered in that feels like a natural development from Teen Dream. All of the elements which made that album great are here, yet are further developed. Ambitious opener Myth sweeps and soars even higher than 10 Mile Stereo and is a fine example of how, while the trademark distance and isolation are still evident, this time a greater sense of warmth and optimism thaws Beach House's iciness. Legrand's androgynous melodies are prettier than ever too. While often characteristically pared back, at times they rise beautifully. New Year for instance, is as joyous as it is dreamy.

While there is no wheel-reinvention here, Bloom works perfectly as a follow-up to their last outing. It is an album that actually sounds like... well... an album and is certainly one of the finest releases so far this year.

Review by Bobby Townsend

Sui Zhen - Two Seas

We’ve been besotted by Sui Zhen at Bobbysix for a while now, with her tinkling voice and her twisty, lovely lyrics. Jess O'Callaghan gives her debut LP a listen:

Upon listening to Sui Zhen's debut album, Two Seas, I felt as though I were falling in love and having my heart gently broken, over and over. Some songs are like secrets, whispered between sleepy heads on a pillow, and others are full of joy, suitable for singing loudly on bicycles.

Wandering Me, Cupboards and Sand and Little Frog fall into the latter category, with strange, pretty percussion and sweet harmonies sprinkled through the music. Then there are tunes like opening track My New Friend, Happy to See You and Tuesday Sometimes which are just so honest that it seems necessary to play them on repeat, savouring lines like "When I am with you/We are happy sometimes."

While the music feels spectacularly new - which I’m going to attribute to things like "and an accordion somewhere," snuck into the explanation of who plays what instrument - there is something wonderful about the everyday-ness of the lyrics.

When I heard "I can cook three meals/With not even a fight," and, in Blue Night, "I could watch three seasons with you/I could touch your skin under the blanket," it was like she was singing my own absent-minded thoughts and still surprising me by how important she made them sound. Track eight, Golden Cage is more of a story. The xylophone and harmonising reminding me of Lisa Mitchell’s album Wonder. The lyrics are both online and beautifully folded into a booklet for the hardcopy, which is nice for those of us who fall hard and fast for a song.

A beautiful album for those who like lyrics, awkward situations, a lilting voice and layering of sounds.

Review by Jess O'Callaghan. You can listen to and buy the album here: http://suizhen.bandcamp.com/

The Cribs - In the Belly of the Brazen Bull

Liana Gow-Killingbeck reviews the latest offering from The Cribs:

I’d been waiting for quite a while to get my paws on some fresh material by the English trio (and brothers), The Cribs. I’m pretty sure I played their previous record, Ignore the Ignorant, a little bit too much in the past because even my CD player got sick of it and decided to spit it out, craving something new. So you can’t really blame my ears for being rather overzealous as I began to listen to the band’s 5th studio album, In the Belly of the Brazen Bull.

With the loss of guitar legend Johnny Marr, this album is perhaps a little less impressive than its precursor, but still extremely head-bop worthy nonetheless - with a brilliant ending to boot - and it radiates an expected garage and lo-fi rock vibe that will undoubtedly be well received by the band’s loyal cluster of indie followers. The opening track Glitters Like Gold is catchy and fun, and will suck listeners in like a tasty chocolate milkshake through one of those radical twisted straws.

To be honest though, my interest started to wane after the first few songs, as I felt like I couldn’t really grasp onto something distinguishable. That’s until I heard Back to the Bolthole, which, with its punky heaviness, is definitely the standout track on the album. Then, immediately juxtaposed with the record's softest song, I Should Have Helped, I found myself responding rather emotionally, but in a good, gloomy sort of way.

To finish, The Cribs fused the final four tracks together to create a suite that left me feeling uplifted and, well, pretty darn satisfied. Though some may consider this closing to be a smidge longwinded, I appreciated the way the songs had been interwoven as I could clearly differentiate the feelings of each of them individually, as well as holistically. I could follow the flow of the music easily; the sharp marching drum beats of Stalagmites, through the harmonic dreaminess of Like a Gift Giver and Butterflies, to the ringing finality of Arena Rock Encore with Full Cast. Oh, delight!

The brothers even apologise for the lengthy time it took them to release this beastly album, as they chant “Sorry that it’s taken years” repeatedly in the last song. Well, apology accepted boys, because I believe In the Belly of the Brazen Bull was totally worth the wait.

Review by Liana Gow-Killingbeck. Have a look at her excellent fashion blog here.

Dirty Three - Toward The Low Sun

Neil Martin gives his opinion on the long-awaited record from Dirty Three: 

Toward The Low Sun is Dirty Three’s first album since 2005 and the band have reconvened after a busy few years working on other projects. The album sees them attempt to return to the improvisatory nature of their earlier albums and there are certainly moments where there is a real sense of that freedom, locking into each other’s playing and just seeing where it takes them. Opening track Furnace Skies is a great example of this and fires different ideas off every few bars all centred around Jim White’s skittering drum work, which is astounding throughout the album. The instinctual feel that all three band members have for each other’s playing is quite something, while at other times the songs have a slow, measured, stately feel and a meticulous level of craftsmanship.

Whereas the majority of post-rock has an almost post-apocalyptic feel to it, the music of Dirty Three is much more bucolic and pre-industrial. It is in this way that many moments on Toward The Low Sun bring to mind Ellis' work (with Nick Cave) on the soundtrack to The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford; gently maudlin piano and violin that bring to mind cornfields and open plains and an indefinable sense of longing.

Where post-rock often seems to soundtrack global catastrophes, the music of The Dirty Three soundtracks personal, intimate tragedies. At other points, particularly the exceptional That Was Was, the band explode into life and unleash an intense focused rockist bent. Ellis manages to make his violin sound like Neil Young’s White Falcon as he releases a squall of feedback and distortion across a country blues backing.

Toward The Low Sun rewards repeated listens and the focus and artistry of the trio’s playing begins to really reveal itself on the third or fourth listen. So often instrumental music is seen as background music but this demands your attention in order to really appreciate the intricacies and emotional punch that Toward The Low Sun carries.

Review by Neil Martin.

Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral

Bobbysix photographer Sophie Metcalfe makes her reviewing debut, and does it really rather brilliantly:

It’s strange to feel nostalgia from an album that you’re only greeting for the first time, but it struck head-on from the moment I introduced myself to Blues Funeral. Crawling out of bed (rusty from the night before), I played track one and found myself thrown right back there. I taste the dark spirits, smell the poorly rolled cigarettes and can hear the garbled banter. Despite my hazy brain, I am quite content sitting with Lanegan at the kitchen table, as his familiar blues riffs take me through fractured memories from last night.

Not only does Lanegan earn himself a place in my Tom Waits book of ‘well-whiskeyed voices’ but he also has the power to thread this somewhat eclectic album together. You're greeted with a rolling bass-line and lusty layered guitar in Gravediggers Song – which is reminiscent of his dabbling with QOTSA – only to be then soothed back into familiar and faultless blues songs such as Bleeding Muddy Water and St Louis Elegy. They transpose me to my teenage years when my uncle would chew my ear off about New Orleans and hand me a pile of dusty albums for homework.

I settled all too comfortably with this sound only to be then hit with instances of a 90’s drum machine in Ode to Sad Disco, pop-rock choruses in Quiver Syndrome and did I hear a flute in those last few tracks? I’m left wondering what game is Lanegan playing (reaching for my plate of greased-up hangover breakfast).

An interesting exercise would be to gut the vocals from these tracks and see if they still held together as brothers from the one gene pool. But that’s ok. If you can view this album as a montage of his musical career, it is a fascinating insight into the breadth of influences and musical capabilities of Lanegan. He dips into the pot of many genres in Blues Funeral, but does it humbly and does it well. With no need to include any 20-minute power licks to prove this past, the songs aren’t huge feats but rather unassuming and skilfully executed. It is in some ways an old rocker’s ‘screw you’ to a society drowned with fad indie riffs and bird-like-synth-girls breathing down a microphone. After all, Lanegan has been there and back again and has the voice to prove it.

Review by Sophie Metcalfe

The Moth & The Flame - Lullaby II

Made up of Brandon Robbins and Mark Garbett, The Moth & The Flame are a pretty frickin' awesome new band from Provo, Utah, in the United States. They released their debut album locally a few months ago and, so well has it been received, that they'll get the record out internationally in the next few months. Because these art rockers strongly focus on the visual which accompanies their sound, they are currently only selling their LP in its physical form. "We feel the art is very important to this album. We want people to have the full experience," they told us.

However, while you might have to wait a while to get your hands on their album, we thought we'd give you a heads-up about them now. So check out their above clip, and this one too, then, when you inevitably fall a little bit in love with them, you can befriend them on Facebook.

Getting To Know... Last Dinosaurs

Sam from Last Dinosaurs talks to Bobbysix.com about their album, Brisbane and D'Angelo:

Last Dinosaurs are four fellas from Brisbane trying to make a name for ourselves out there in the world. We write indie pop rock music and rehearse in a storage warehouse. We came together over a mutual love of rudiments, riffs, climbing shit, jumping off aforementioned shit, Phoenix, bikes and The Strokes.

Our debut album, In a Million Years, is being released on March 2nd. We spent three weeks in July 2011 in Sydney's (now extinct) Big Jesus Burger studios recording songs we'd written over the previous two years. We brought in our buddy Jean-Paul Fung in to co-produce and engineer the record then sent it off the Elliot James in the UK for mixing. We're all stoked with how it's turned out and can't wait to unleash it on people.

Brisbane is doing really well right now in terms of bands. We’re best mates with a heap of the bands coming up (Gung Ho, Dune Rats, The Cairos, Millions, Mitzi, The Jungle Giants, the Medics, DZ Deathrays and I’m sure some I’ve forgotten). We've developed a really supportive culture with all bands looking out for one another. Triple J has been flogging heaps of Brisbane bands recently. It's a great feeling to see all of our mates doing as well as they are!

You should come to our launch shows because it's basically a chance for us to party and celebrate the release of our first record. We've spent two hard years writing this bad boy, so all the excitement has been building up to these three gigs.

It might surprise people to learn that Dan, Lach and myself have formed a D'Angelo cover band. We call ourselves The Soulquarians 2.0

In the future, we've got aspirations to get out there and see the rest of the world. We're headed to the UK for three months from May which will be an incredible experience that we are all frothing over. We're also planning to head to the US later this year and Japan is another country we can't wait to spend some time touring in (the other three boys are all half-Japanese).

The launch dates are: 
Tuesday 28th February - The Toff, Melbourne 
With special guests Them Swoops 

Wednesday 29th February - 2012 Spectrum, Sydney 
With special guests Toucan 
SOLD OUT 

Thursday 1st March - Cobra Kai @ Oh Hello, Brisbane 
With special guests The Jungle Giants 
SOLD OUT


Last Dinosaurs are also embarking on a massive Australian tour in April. Deets can be found at the Facebook event page.

Interview by Bobby Townsend. Follow Last Dinosaurs at their Facebook page.