The Brag

Three years ago, Perth band Birds Of Tokyo experienced massive success with their self-titled album, especially the stirring single ‘Plans’. When it comes to following up a defining record like this, many bands get spooked – but not these guys. “We weren’t at all nervous about it,” says lead singer Ian Kenny. “We’ve been doing this for some time now, and we’re comfortable making what we feel are the right decisions about our music. I’m not saying that we’re complacent or that we play it safe or anything like that,” he adds, “it just means we have a bit of faith in ourselves these days. That’s purely based on the fact that we want to be the best songwriters we can be. Every time we put out a record, we want to say as much as we can, we want it to be the absolute best it can be.”

Posted: March 6th, 2013 under Brag 502, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: Alasdair Duncan, Birds of Tokyo, EMI, Enmore Theatre, March Fires, Regular John, The Guppies

Music seems like a fairy tale career – travel, fans, fame, money (allegedly) – but as songwriter, singer and guitarist Sam Cromack and his ever-rising Ball Park Music have discovered, the reality is different. The Brisbane band’s debut album Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs hit the indie/pop world with a bang last year, but rather than stretching out the album life cycle to three or so years, BPM decided it would be a better move to smash out album number two with haste.

Posted: October 24th, 2012 under Brag 485, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: Ball Park Music, EMI, Krissi Weiss, Loon Lake, Museum, Sam Cromack, The Metro Theatre

Since their initial popularity in the late ’90s, Something For Kate are yet to find success beyond the usual expectations of an Australian indie band. Their records are consistently good, but they don’t seem to have earned the kind of commercial and critical respect that the quality of their work demands. On Leave Your Soul To Science, their first studio release since 2006’s Desert Lights, Something For Kate make an attempt to break a little piece of new ground for themselves. Although it’s not always successful here, their decision to branch out bodes well for their sound on future releases.

Posted: October 22nd, 2012 under Album Reviews, Brag 485, Music.
Tags: EMI, Leave Your Soul To Science, Rob Wilson, Something For Kate

It’s been a pretty momentous year for Canberra electro duo The Aston Shuffle, what with the release of their debut album, Seventeen Past Midnight, and the launch of their regular Friday Night Shuffle show on triple j. For the guys themselves, though, the most significant achievement in recent times has been getting their live show out on the road. “At a certain point, we decided we had to make the transition from being fun-loving, carefree party dudes to putting on a really big, complicated live show with a bunch of equipment,” producer Mikah Freeman tells me. “It’s a pretty big statement to make, and we certainly put our careers and reputations on the chopping block, but people have really stayed with us. I guess the key thing is the sincerity, which is still there in everything we do – it’s there in the productions, and it’s there in the live show as well.”

Posted: October 19th, 2012 under Brag 484, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: Alasdair Duncan, Can’t Stop Now, EMI, Luciana, Luna Park, Marvin Priest, Mikah Freeman, New Year’s Eve, Playing Harbour Party NYE, Ricki-Lee, The Ashton Shuffle, The Standard, Triple J

1. The First Record I Bought:
It was Geno by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. I watched them on the British pop program Top Of The Pops. I loved their look (I think Luciano Vagabundo took their inspiration from them!)

Posted: October 15th, 2012 under Music, Music Q & A.
Tags: Balance 022, Balance Music, Chinese Laundry, EMI, Funk D’Void