life is noise

We spend a minute with Race To Your Face ahead of their gig supporting Laura on the 10th of June (get tickets here).

Describe your music in five words or less.
Coy or a cute fear!

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
For me the best gig was our first gig. We hadn’t played live for a long time. Towards the end of Hoopers Store it was almost automatic. But then after a couple of years, we had to start again. We didn’t even know if anyone would even like what we were playing. We were really nervous and a bit scared, but as we were playing the first part I started feeling it all again and thought ”fuck yeah, we’re doing this!’ It probably wasn’t our best gig, but it was a great feeling to be playing live again. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a minute with Mental Powers and find out what’s happening…

Describe your music in five words or less
Four people learning instruments

What’s going on right now in the world of Mental Powers?
We’re trying to knuckle down and get ready for recording a new album. Everything always takes longer than expected so we’re trying to ignore everything and put all our efforts in making new songs and remembering how to play them. We’ll be recording in a proper studio this time which will be strange. The album will be a vinyl only release in a run of 300 put out by Badminton Bandit again, hopefully ready by August 2012.

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
Worst was maybe the one time we played at Shape in about 2007. It was Lewis’ first time playing with us, nobody there wanted to watch bands, and it ended with the sound guy pulling the plug on us. First one that comes to mind for best gig was a Halloween dress up party at 208 in 2010 I think. It’s always more fun playing at parties and houses, and dressing up meant we were all a bit less inhibited and more playful. Seeing Astral Travel dressed up as the Young Ones was pretty impressive too. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a minute with French Rockets and find out what’s going down…

Describe your music in five words or less

Mood music for the mood-inclined. (mood-inclined is one word!)

What’s going on right now in the world of French Rockets?

Final tweakings to our new album and getting our new live visuals and video clip sorted.

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
Worst gigs: Shows where technology/electricity problems/sound person have savaged the set. Read the rest of this entry ”

Eat a Bag of Mix is the name of a feature here on life is noise where we get a DJ, musician, producer, industry figure or just someone with good taste in fucked-up and weird music to give us a mix of music that has influenced them, or tunes that are currently rocking their world.

This time round, we’re bag o’ mix eatin’ with Music Editor of X-Press Magazine, Matt Hogan. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a minute with Timothy Nelson and The Infidels and find out what’s up…

Describe your music in five words or less.
Folk & Roll. Though I’d love to be able to say ‘Pop’ without feeling dirty for once.

What’s going on right now in the world of Timothy Nelson?
Well right now I’m eating the shittest, flavourless pile of rubbish from the lunch bar around the corner. Outside of working hours though, the Infidels and myself have been working hard at writing the next album whilst there’s also a national tour coming up we’re preparing for. Some of the new tunes we’ll be playing at the shows we do this year, what I can say is the country-tendencies aren’t really there anymore… but I don’t think that really suited us 100% in the first place. Of course there are loads of country songs lying around, which I’ll be recording with a different line up some time this year. Haven’t thought of a name yet. Oh and I dare say come the end of this year, High Horse (my other band) will have a record in the works as well. So yeah, keeping busy. Read the rest of this entry ”

Eat a Bag of Mix is the name of a feature here on life is noise where we get a DJ, musician, producer, industry figure or just someone with good taste in fucked-up and weird music to give us a mix of music that has influenced them, or tunes that are currently rocking their world.

This time round, we’re bag o’ mix eating with producer, DJ and Paper Chain founder Kit Pop. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a minute with Ermine Coat and find out what’s up…

Describe your music in five words or less
Always different, always a pain.

What’s going on right now in the world of Ermine Coat?
We’re taking the foot off the pedal as a live band for a little while since Dan’s started teaching. I am using this time to keep the ball rolling on starting and finishing the second Ermine Coat LP of (digestible) home recordings, after about four hundred false starts in the last nine months. It seems really important to me to have an album out every year, Felt-style, so I’m looking forward to sending the albatross packing. It feels good that it’s finally coming along after a really frustrating eight or nine months of writing really putrid songs that all sounded like Yanni playing “Senses Working Overtime”. One song sounds like Roy Wood! We’ve got a video in the works which is being directed by the brill team of Maria Masniak and Peter Cheng, and also a record of band-written songs, which our friend Rhys is helping us out with. Read the rest of this entry ”

Eat a Bag of Mix is the name of a feature here on life is noise where we get a DJ, musician, producer, industry figure or just someone with good taste in fucked-up and weird music to give us a mix of music that has influenced them, or tunes that are currently rocking their world.

This time round, we’re bag o’ mix eating with RTRFM Music Director Adam Trainer. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a couple of minutes with Charge Group and find out what’s going on…

What’s going on in the world of Charge Group?
Number two album comes out March 16 in Oz and Europe, which we’re pretty massively excited about. Feels like we’ve been sitting on this lil’ egg for a while now. Australian tour in June, then hopefully Europe again in September/October.

What motivates you to make music?
Making music is something I do better than every other thing I’ve tried in my life, plus I guess it just makes me feel better. Perhaps that’s as good a reason as any for making something. I also like the challenge of trying to create something from nothing without borrowing from someone else’s ideas. So much music people make these days sounds like 100 things that came straight out of a songwriting kit. Why fuck they bother is beyond me. Read the rest of this entry ”

In The Pines is probably the greatest day on Perth’s musical calendar. Featuring a huge lineup of amazing local talent, the event takes place in UWA’s magical Somerville Auditorium, with this year’s Pines (the 19th instalment) falling on Sunday, April 22.

Life Is Noise caught up with RTRFM’s Music Director Adam Trainer to discuss all things Piney.

How long has In The Pines been going and what makes it such a special day?
This year will be the nineteenth year for the event, which was originally called the Neon Picnic. In the Pines is so special because it’s probably the biggest annual celebration of local original music that this city sees, and it’s a real melting pot. You’ve got your Pines die-hards who are there for the whole day every year, younger crew who are just finding their way onto the scene, families, old friends catching up, and lots of music fans – it always makes for a great day.

What special surprises do you have in store for this year?
A pretty eclectic line-up this year – there’ll definitely be something for everyone, from indie pop to the deepest, darkest sludge-rock. There are plenty of party bands, some bands who bring the rock, others with a slightly offbeat approach, but it’s all local, which means it’s all good. Plus, as we brought it back last year and it was a sell-out hit we’ll have mulled wine on the menu again, but we’ll make sure there’s more than there was last year! Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a minute with Frozen Ocean (ahead of their gig supporting Thee Oh Sees on January 20 — tickets here) and ask them a thing or two.

Describe your music in five words or less.
Improvised instrumentals/random rowdy rants.

What’s going on right now in the world of Frozen Ocean?
After a busy year playing heaps of shows around perth and some in Melbourne, weve found time to release 2 cassettes,2 full length CD’s aswell as tracks included on both the Dada Best Of and Christmas compilations and we are now very tired. Right now we are planning to disappear for a while (not until after Thee Oh Sees show of course) and have been busy writing new material and throwing around ideas for our next release. Read the rest of this entry ”

On Monday we went through our top dozen records of 2011 (check it out here, if you missed it). For the rest of the week, individual life is noisers will be going over their top records for the year.

Today is Dave Cutbush’s turn:

11. Snowman – Absence

Absence, the third and final album from Perth expats Snowman would have secured their position as a potent underground music force had the band not decided on breaking up at the album’s completion, the news of which was broken on lifeisnoise.com.

The album wowed the world with its strong use of percussive elements, Morricone-esque widescreen textures and beautifully eerie vocal nuances. Absence received rave reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Quietus and beyond. It was a bittersweet affair signalling the demise of an act clearly at the peak of their powers.

Hopefully the future projects from the various members will somewhat soothe what is really quite a painful absence. Read the rest of this entry ”

In the latest edition in our series of interviews with Perth artists, we spend a minute with Cow Parade Cow and find out what’s happening…

Describe your music in five words or less.
Psychedelic liquid afro-pop

What’s going on right now in the world of Cow Parade Cow?
The search for that elusive low-slung adult-contemporary sleaze sound continues, while the live line-up is slowly reaching some level of equilibrium. Our arch-nemesis the resource boom keeps stealing away drummers and saxophonists with promises of fly-in fly-out riches, and the frustration involved with trying to get six or seven busy young socialites in a single room for any period of times keeps rearing its head. Read the rest of this entry ”

In the latest edition in our series of interviews with Perth artists, we spend a minute with The Painkillers and find out what’s happening…

Describe your music in five words or less.
James Baker showing off.

What’s going on right now in the world of The Painkillers?
We put out our third album a few months ago and are trying to get a single out for Christmas.

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
Worst is hard to say. Some gigs don’t do much for your ego but being invited to play to people is always a privilege so long as you get home in one piece. One time we were very excited to be playing when Wendy James was in the room and we got cut off at the desk almost before we begun.   That was a bit deflating.

The best gig was supporting The New York Dolls. It was really bizarre to find ourselves doing that and it will have a big effect on how we express ourselves in future. We always used to say things like, “It’s not as if we’re playing with the Dolls” to cancel a rehearsal or “We’d do it if they were The New York Dolls” if people were asking too much from us. We’ll be stuck for words. Read the rest of this entry ”

In the latest edition in our series of interviews with Perth artists, we spend a minute with The Community Chest and ask them what’s what.

Describe your music in five words or less.
Guitar synth twin drum attack.

What’s going on right now in the world of The Community Chest?
We are currently recording a Community Chest album and have just finished a run of shows. We’ll hopefully get a track to radio over the next month and lay low and get more recording done. We are just constantly jamming new songs. There’s no real direction at the moment but I kind of like the mixed-bag approach to records.

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
The worst gig was a University show where the awful generic rock band before us put the gig back about 45 minutes and then stole our bass guitar. Fortunately, we got it back thanks to some diligent fuzz. I recall playing pretty good but that was a sour evening. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a couple of minutes with Spartak and ask them a question or two…

What’s going on in the world of Spartak?
We have just released a new record called Nippon on the wonderful New Editions imprint run by the people at New Weird Australia. It’s our own Live In Japan record but hacked apart and taped back together like broken vinyl.

What motivates you to make music?
The hope that people will like what we do. So far, it’s open to debate.

What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
People saying they like what we do, travelling overseas to play live and releasing records on labels we like is a simple pleasure but the truth.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
My wife spent a lot of her time at work listening to Warpaint before she gave birth to our boy so I’ve just discovered them, plus I’m enjoying the stylings of Pajama Club, Iceage, the Kinshasa One Two record on Warp and a lot of The Fall. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a couple of minutes with Udays Tiger and ask them a question or two…

What’s going on in the world of Udays Tiger?
Well we have our Sinners EP kicking around online or at shows, which was recorded by Neil Coombe (The Grates, DZ Deathrays, John Steel Singers) and we are playing a bunch of shows, some in Brisbane and some in Sydney plus as many as we can in Melbourne. Plus we are working on a new video for our track “Refuge” that will be done in a week or two and on top of all of that trying to maintain day jobs.

What motivates you to make music?
Mainly knowing how fun it is to play it live and the challenges of playing and coming up with new stuff that hopefully will be punchier and more energetic than the last batch. We love recording new things on our phones or laptops and trying to create something solid out of a few loose jams. Also we really like being a small part of the music that’s being made locally and seeing/meeting other sweet bands. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend an extra minute with High Tea and chew the fat…

What’s going on in the world of High Tea?
We’ve just recorded four songs with Ben Ely (Regurgitator) to be released as an EP late November. We’ll finish mixing it next week. Apart from that, just the usual stuff… a few gigs, plans to perhaps do a 7″, we also hope to name a new constellation in the southern night sky soon. We just need to complete the accreditation process.

What motivates you to make music?
Music is pretty much an inescapable aspect of any human’s life. Even when you make a whining groan it can be quite tuneful. We’re drawn to making music like an animal’s natural urge to quench its thirst from the local waterhole. Our music is inspired by things we’re fascinated about; the unexplored mysteries of the universe, frontiers in science, the simple beauty of the world around us, Susannah Carr, etc. Read the rest of this entry ”

In the latest edition in our series of interviews with Perth artists, we spend a minute with Runner and ask them what’s what.

Describe your music in five words or less.
Neo-post trip funk crunch.

What’s going on right now in the world of Runner?
Chris was supposed to make us all tea but instead he’s giggling over his med notes on penile tone. I guess we’re all pretty excited at the prospect of tea, because we’re all a bit tired. But even if Chris doesn’t make the tea we will remain positive and do our best to survive in a tea-less future.

What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
Grenada ’84. We don’t like to talk about it, it’s behind us now and we’d like to move on.
Best gig — the Four Flowers single launch in Dada’s garage. That was loverly. Read the rest of this entry ”

We spend a couple of minutes with Melbourne outfit, Laura…

What’s going on in the world of Laura?
Our new album ‘Twelve Hundred Times’ is out on Oct 14 thru MGM Distribution.
To launch it, we’re playing shows on the East Coast in November, with more dates & cities to follow next year.

What motivates you to make music?
Good music and bad music are both good motivations. And tequilla.

What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
No low points really stand out, but the high points have definitely been seeing the new album take shape over the past few months, and the live shows we’ve played in Japan.

What music are you listening to at the moment
Always an eclectic mix — currently M83, Opeth, The Soft Moon, Belong, Other Lives…

If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
We wouldn’t get stranded — we’re very well organised when we tour, you should see our itinerary folder. Read the rest of this entry ”