The Brag

Fishing seem to have cemented their place as the go-to act to support the buzz-worthy international electronic acts who come to Sydney – and they’re great at it. Their submerged electronica/hip hop is something like the soundtrack to a $waggy $pongebob episode, although that also might have been the G&Ts talking. Next up was Headaches – AKA Brooklyn native Landon Speers, whose ginger beard is almost quadruple the length of Justin Vernon’s. He produces bass-heavy electronic beats with a real funky bite.

Posted: March 11th, 2013 under Brag 503, Live Reviews, Music.
Tags: Fishing, Headaches, Oxford Art Factory, Purity Ring, Rachitha Seneviratne

It’s rare to be left entirely flabbergasted by an interview. Over countless phone calls, Skype conversations and face-to-face encounters, I have never finished an interview by asking out loud, “What the fuck just happened?!” But after hanging up on a 15-minute call with George Clinton, I was at a total loss. The only way to return to some semblance of normality was by throwing my Mothership Connection LP on the turntable, and hoping like crazy that the smooth sounds of interplanetary funk might eventually bring me back to earth.

Posted: February 25th, 2013 under Brag 501, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: Benjamin Cooper, Cat Power, Dinosaur Jr, George Clinton, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Golden Plains Lucky Seven, Purity Ring, The Hi-Fi Sydney, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

With the line between indie and everything else as blurred as ever, Montreal duo Purity Ring (vocalist Megan James and producer Corin Roddick) are circumspect about being pigeonholed into that genre – if in fact it even exists. “I honestly don’t see much separation between [indie and non-indie music],” says Roddick. “Personally, I don’t see myself as an indie artist, I don’t listen to any indie music; I only listen to popular music… I want us to be a popular band that makes pop music. I don’t have any interest in making us seem like we have some cool indie cred going on, I don’t think that’s worthwhile.”

Posted: February 18th, 2013 under Brag 500, Music, Music - Interview.
Tags: Cat Power, Dinosaur Jr, Fishing, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Golden Plains Lucky Seven, Headaches, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, Oxford Art Factory, Purity Ring

Purity Ring is a curious name for a band. It conjures ideas of chastity, immaculacy – an untainted, white, gleaming sound, utterly clean and uncluttered. Purity rings apparently originated in the ‘90s among sexual abstinence groups in the United States. The idea was that the virginal teenage members of these groups would wear the rings to remind them that resisting sexual urges until marriage was the right thing to do.

Posted: August 8th, 2012 under Brag 474, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: 4AD, Corin Roddick, Luke Telford, Megan James, Purity Ring, Remote Control, Shrines

Canadian duo Purity Ring sprung from relative obscurity about a year and a half ago, turning critics’ heads with a string of well-produced singles and enigmatic videos released online. After much anticipation – and an inclusion on lineups with indie legends like Dirty Projectors and Japandroids – they’ve delivered Shrines, an amalgam of dream pop, electronica and hip hop that, despite its internet beginnings, has seemed to restore some faith in the continuation of ‘the album’ as a form.