The Broken Needles - Cheap Gin

A while ago, we introduced you to The Broken Needles. Remember? Well, we thought we'd follow it up by giving you a gander at their new video. The song is called Cheap Gin, two words that resonate with most of us. The clip and was shot in infamous North Queensland DIY venue The Cot, on a budget of $400: all of which was spent on potent libations for the loyal extras.

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The Broken Needles - Terra Nullis

Born out of the tropical wasteland of North Queensland The Broken Needles are like pinning down the location of a needle in a haystack. Lost between worlds of classic Van Morrison-songwriting and then thrown into the filthy, and bumpy desolation of Australian Music History, Terra Nullis is a road trip through the strange and fills in all the empty spaces of the sparse landscape with roaring melodies and cryptic lyricism. The throat-tearing vocals, and literally frightening displays of duo-guitar ferocity is a shocking statistic considering the full sound is produced merely by a three-piece. This record sounds like the taste of a cold refreshing beer after working all day in the hot Queensland sun – a week after your wife left you for your co-worker. As the night drifts on, things get chaotic and then they conclude with sentiment after every other emotion has been drained and drunk.

The history of the Broken Needles is a fairly bizarre one. Childhood friends guitarist Matt McLean and bassist Cahill Kelly have been playing in various bands together around Townsville for a few years now (The Cupboards, Sandcastle Bandits, Alligator Creek, etc) where as vocalist, guitarist and key songwriter Michael Galloway has virtually nothing on his resume. In saying that, his prolific and vast collection of self-recorded songs puts most professional songwriters to shame. When returning from Brisbane after a few lost years and alternate band incarnations Galloway met up with the two vagabonds and formed the current line up of the Broken Needles. 

As for the tracks themselves, you probably couldn’t ask for a more fulfilling and complete debut record. The horror and heartbreak of openers Detritus and bloody Salt flat Baby might be a false pretense of what’s to come. Cheap Gin sounds like a boozy blues-rip-roar or a pre-Moondance out-take.

Cocaine Blues shows an unashamed view on substance abuse – but then again who’s to say what its really about. The levels of poetic integrity minus the bullshit will encourage a few analytical essays in the years to come no doubt.

(I am Not The) Resurrection has enough melody and pop-hooks to force a second coming just for the sake of hearing it live in a shitty Queensland bar. The mystery of Tracy and its cyclonic references have the ability to spin the listener upside down and wash them out to sea (just like most of city during last year’s cyclone season) – the cleverness to the lyricism is evident of the songs comparisons to a particularly chaotic relationship. And it leaves its trail of destruction along the coastline and into the inland.

Toy Horses in an unexpected mid-record number that sticks the whole of Terra Nullius together. It’s a realisation of the previous abrasiveness and proves even the simplest melodies make their mark on a record that’s full of them.

For a band with no idea of what is going on in any of the capital cities let alone giving a shit about current sounds anywhere else in the world Terra Nullius is just what the doctor ordered. With the smoked-out Neil Young-esque swansong Take It Easy you might be convinced that some one gave Mike Noga a line of speed and watched him get aggressive.

This little ripper will be out January 23rd 2012, with an East Coast tour with Melbourne band Tender Bones in early Febuary. Check out their two downloadable singles from the record here and follow The Broken Needles on Facebook.

Words by Uncle Remus

Children Collide announce new Melbourne show

Children Collide recently announced a heap of tour dates across Australia in support of their haunting new single, Loveless. With exciting and erstwhile supports being provided in the form of DZ Deathrays and Damn Terran, this is sure to be the shit. Tickets are on sale now and shifting like particularly hot cakes. So much so that their show in Melbourne has already sold out. But, fear not, because they have added a new date. However, don't delay in booking your tickets right away, because they won't be available for long. Here's where you can see them.

LOVELESS TOUR DATES: 
Wed Aug 03 - Pelly Bar, Frankston VIC
Thu Aug 04 - Karova Lounge, Ballarat VIC
Fri Aug 05 - The Bended Elbow, Geelong VIC
Sat Aug 06 - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Sun Aug 07 - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Thu Aug 11 - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Fri Aug 12 - Manning Bar, Sydney NSW
Sat Aug 13 - The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC SOLD OUT
Sun Aug 14 - The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC (NEW SHOW - tickets via Oztix)
Sat Aug 20 - Gove Youth Concert, Gove NT
Thu Aug 25 - Studio 146, Albany WA
Fri Aug 26 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury WA
Sat Aug 27 - Capitol, Perth WA

You can also catch Children Collide at River Sessions, (Mackay, QLD) on Saturday 2nd July and at Splendour in the Grass on July 30th.

New to Children Collide? Check out the video below for Loveless and see what all the fuss is about.

Getting To Know... Bonfire Nights

Keyboardist/vocalist Nicole Hoaran from London-based Queenslanders, Bonfire Nights, tells Bobbysix.com a bit about the band: 

We are the polar opposite of a child's face who has just been told they missed a skateboarding cat wearing a helmet made out of jelly because they were busy talking on the phone with grandpa, or we sound a bit like Blood Red Shoes. Actually this is a quote from a random I met recently from Brighton who refuses to tell me his name. Seriously, we are two Australian girls and a British boy who play alternative psych infused ambient pop. There you have it.

We take inspiration from our surroundings, people, art, design, books, other music, each other, our social escapades... pretty much life in general. We are lucky in that we are all on the same wavelength when it comes to inspiration and what we do with it. We actually just became room-mates, so I suppose that will be inspiration in itself. We try not to second guess what we are making.

Brisbane is 16532 kilometers away! We just relocated from Brisbane to London a month ago. It's surreal to move countries and there are so many ups and downs to settling in... mainly ups for us, luckily. Question: can you fit one drum kit, one Fender twin amp, two guitars, one keyboard, one synth, one pedal board and three Bonfire Nights band members into a London taxi? Answer: YES! Although there have been minor hurdles - like not having a car - everything seems to be falling into place as if we were destined to live here and we don't want to leave! We've played some fun shows in the last month in London and got to support some great Aussie bands such as The Jezabels, Our Mountain, DZ Deathrays and Little Red. We have more shows coming up in the next three months, so come and say hello.

I wish Bonfire Nights had written The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

It might surprise people to learn that there is a love affair in the band. Can you guess who?

In the future we are planning to release an EP in the UK. We have been recording some new material and are planning to record more as soon as we get our shit together. Hopefully we will get around to playing some shows across Europe and America and head home for an Australian tour in about a year. For now we are concentrating on songwriting, recording and playing shows in the UK.

Check Bonfire Nights out at their Myspace page and have a squizz at their below video clip: 

Interview by Rob Townsend. Photo by Jeff  Yiu.
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Support the Queensland Flood Appeal

Brisbane has been the source of some of the great music we have shared with you over the past few years. Most recently, we brought you the rather fine Montpelier clip, Last Boat (above). 

You will, of course, be aware that Brisbane, and indeed a large part of Queensland, is under a whole lotta water at the moment, having been hit by one of the worst natural disasters in Australia's history. When we spoke to our good friends at SGC Media in Brisbane - the people responsible for making us aware of the excellence of Montpelier - they told us the following.

"Last night our office was expected to be about waist-deep in water, but thankfully we were spared, with the water stopping a couple of inches before flowing into our office.

So many of our friends and family have not been so lucky however, with some estimates of over 20,000 families having their houses damaged or totally destroyed by this disaster, not to mention even more devastation in regional areas including 14 deaths and more being reported every hour. Here's a photo from our office this morning after the water subsided about a foot from its overnight peak.

It is quite unbelievable given we're not that close to the river. To give you one more perspective, here's an aerial view of the city.

We are very lucky to have escaped the heartbreak of so many and we'd love to share the story of Brisbane's plight with as many as possible. We're very proud of our town and watching pictures of things like our river walk destroyed, CBD under water and people's livelihoods destroyed, it breaks our hearts."

So, friends, fans and music lovers, it's time to dig your hands into your pockets and give generously to the disaster relief appeal that the Australian Government has set up. Click here and help a brother out.