The Brag

Nathan Williams’ lyrical outlook hasn’t brightened in the three years since Wavves’ last LP King Of The Beach. Song titles on Afraid Of Heights include ‘Paranoid’, ‘Beat Me Up’, ‘Everything Is My Fault’ and ‘Gimme A Knife’, and two tracks in we’ve already heard him sing “we’re probably just dumb … the truth is that it hurts / and what’s it really worth?” But if the loping angst and isolation that was dotted through the earlier album has here crystallised into something truly depressed, it’s countered by an equally developed sense of melody, and music that sounds hugely alive. The result is a set of instantly-energising rock’n'roll powered by some truly epic nihilism.

Posted: April 1st, 2013 under Album Reviews, Brag 506, Music.
Tags: Afraid of Heights, Laurence Rosier Staines, Pod/Inertia, Wavves

It’s rare that an emerging band will truly step up to the challenge of a second LP. Too often they’ll produce overthought, overwrought exercises in repetitious water-treading. But sometimes, we get a fictitious spaghetti western soundtrack.

Posted: March 4th, 2013 under Album Reviews, Brag 502, Music.
Tags: Eyes Like The Sky, Flightless/Fuse, Indie Album of the Week, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard feat. Broderick Smith, Laurence Rosier Staines

Perth rockers Mining Boom opened with a set full of pleasant Velvet Underground-meets-’80s-Australiana garage rock: simple keyboard lines, pedalled basslines and emotive, deep vocals. It was low-key stuff, but they persisted through technical hiccups and a small audience with laconic good humour, and also featured the first of what would prove to be a trifecta of rock-solid drummers.

Posted: February 18th, 2013 under Brag 500, Live Reviews, Music.
Tags: Laurence Rosier Staines, Mining Boom, Nobunny, The Factory Theatre, Thee Oh Sees

When I speak to Joe Ryan of Pond, he’s pacing outside a coffee shop in Perth: the ever-active psychedelic pop rockers are about to head into Poontang Studio (yes) for the mixing and mastering of two upcoming album tracks. “The new recordings are a bit more like Earth and Tallahassee,” he tells me. “In the ‘States we picked up some pretty cool fuzz pedals, and a few weird ones that make strange noises. They’ll make appearances, little gems here and there, but it’s essentially the same sorta live approach as the last album…although it’s very heavy, and kind of a throwback to Corridors Of Blissterday [2009], which was really strange and probably an album we shouldn’t have made back then.

Posted: September 18th, 2012 under Brag 480, Music, Music - Interview.
Tags: Day Ravies, Laurence Rosier Staines, Melodie Nelson, Pond, The Metro Theatre

The debut album from Melbourne garage-psych maniacs King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard sounds like a punk band hurtling through space. Their palette includes flangers, skittering spring reverb, delay pedals, screamed backing vocals and overheated mixing desks. It’s almost absurd how stunningly noisy this album is – getting into Raw Power territory – but it is faultlessly exciting and sounds like a band operating on all cylinders, including some they MacGyvered on their own.

Posted: September 11th, 2012 under Album Reviews, Brag 478, Music.
Tags: 12 Bar Bruise, Flightless, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizzard, Laurence Rosier Staines