Monday, November 22, 2010

Making Hay

COLIN HAY. Going Somewhere

This album took a while to grow on me but its quickly become a favourite. For those of you who dont know him he was the front man of Men At Work and after a long absence has landed back with this really brilliant acoustic album. This is an album about love, loss and life, its sentimental but so well done that the real beauty of the songwriting can easily pass you by unless you give it a  really good listen. He does a cover of Overcare, which was one of Men At Work's best songs and its absolutely brilliant as an acoustic track. I am generally bored with acoustic albums but this one is an exception. And by the way, for those of you who have not heard Men At Work's Business As Usual album in a long long while (or perhaps ever) get a copy. Now that some years have passed since its heyday it stands tall as one of the best from the era. I might talk about it next actually.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Protect your Head

HELMET. Discography

I recently acquired the Helmet Discography including their new album released this year called Seeing Eye Dog. From a quick listen the new album seems to be fairly decent but is not breaking any new ground which is exactly what Helmet did for a long time in their heyday in the 90's. Helmet are a grinding, punchy and totally groove-orientated band that seemed to be able to create endless rhythms, endless hooks and endless songs over a career that saw them release over 112 tracks. They really coined a very compressed production style, thin hollow-sounding snare drum, vocals that sound like they were recording in a train tunnel and they always made beautiful use of what came to be one of their signatures of their distinctive style - stop/start rhythms with tiny gaps in almost every song.
Helmet are totally under-appreciated for their influence on all kinds of music ranging from Hardcore to whatever genre you might want to fit Tool into. If you know an aussie band called Cog then take a listen to their Size Matters Album - a direct precursor. Aligned with skateboard culture for a long while Helmet found an appreciating audience but for some reason never became that popular. Big respect to these guys who fast found a sound and continued to explore their style through a series of really quite excellent albums. Check the Helmet Discography out.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Holy Fuck -LP

Hows this band? Do you reckon they had a hard time convincing their label of their name choice....I dont know much about these guys other than this album is very good and they look like they play it live with real instruments not just a full set of electronics but real guitars and drums etc. A lot of it reminds me of that band from the late 90;s and beyond called Red Snapper. It's also in a similar vein to LCD Soundsystem but whithout vocals and without the critical/ironic edge that made LCD so appealing to many.

Holy Fuck are electronic, hard edged, snappy and punchy, its a bit abrasive in parts but most of the songs drag you in and make you feel like your driving a ferrari down a long tunnel at night by yourself - you just go into a trance like state and realise your bouncing your head and really enjoying yourself before you even realise it. I would love to see these guys live it would be a great show. If you like it edgy yet really catchy check this album out.

I just found out they are playing at the Laneway Festival in Brisbane in February...HOLY FUCK indeed!