Hilltop Hoods have matured something shocking. It began in 2006 with The Hard Road, an album that underscored the standard Hilltop hedonism with genuine ideological passions, and this was stylistically emphasised the following year, when the group rereleased the album with remixed symphonic orchestral backing. Their ambition, however, is only crystallized with 2009’s State of the Art, which is a record altogether more comfortable with its own seriousness than The Hard Road is, and yet a good deal more serious than A Matter of Time or The Calling. State of the Art feels like the real deal, where the prior four releases were varyingly insufficient drafts (no pun intended, although it’s worth noting that the album, particularly “Last Confession”, is very Drapht-esque).

Greetings, Dear Wonderbread Readers,

I’m happy to introduce you to a new contributor of ours, Tristan Watson. Poet, writer and academic, Tristan is a marvelous cultural authority from whom we can all stand to benefit. His first article for us is just a quickie, a review of post-metal prog-band Isis‘ new album, Wavering Radiant. I hope you enjoy both the music and the article, I certainly do.

-Morgan

Since hearing their second LP Panopticon I have followed Isis intently; eager for their next release and rapt at the prospect of their tour Down Under. Now, I don’t know when they’ll hit our admittedly distant shores again; their fourth major release, however (Wavering Radiant) has enough within to sate most admirers of Isis, be they antipodean or otherwise. It is heavy, angry, emotionally stirring on so many levels; it takes me away, much like the weather when you let it, much like life when you are living it. Seven songs, clocking in at over 50 minutes, it is again epic in their unwavering dedication to the exploration of the question of what a song is as much as the question of what is to be human in this lifetime.

Some time ago I promised you good people and The Herd that I would review their stunning album Summerland. That was about ten months ago. I’m sorry. I got distracted with uni and other writing projects and, after a while, I felt the moment had passed and it was too late. This morning, however, I was like ‘No, Dammit! That album is still awesome and the people must be told!’ So here it is. The Herd’s Summerland. Better late than never. Read the rest of this entry »

Obsessed as it so openly is with the “grey” space between worlds, sub-cultures and people, it seems overly fitting that The Grey Space, the debut release from Elefant Traks-backed Sydney-side duo Horrorshow, should happen to be both the very definition of a out-of-left-field, “indie gem” release that fuels its exploits with a combination of sheer hi-octane musical moxy, a vision verging concurrently on the deeply personal and the joyously irreverent, and that raw, devil-may-care spirit peculiar to those with nothing to lose, while being simultaneously an LP possessing of such deft polish and a meticulous eye for detail as one might otherwise have only come to expect from a well-established and tour-honed act. Read the rest of this entry »

I had read only a few reviews of the latest Dylan release, “Bootleg series 8: Tell Tale Signs”, before becoming fatigued and mildly irritated. Oh, they all say the same things, these music journalists, and they recite them over and over. Dylan is described as a ‘curmudgeon’, he is said be to ‘obsessed with his own mortality’ and exploring ‘darker and darker themes in his music’ and so on. What has Bob Dylan done to deserve such critics? I might agree that 1997’s “Time out of mind” and 1989’s “Oh Mercy” contained lyrics which could be said to contain a certain bitterness and cynicism – but I might have said the same about ‘Highway 61 Revisisted’ or a dozen other Dylan albums. If anything, his two most recent albums – “Modern Times” and “Love and Theft” - contain some of the most freewheeling and – yes – even fun music of his entire career. This is, after all, the man who on “Modern Times” sings,

I got the porkchops, she got the pie
She ain’t no angel and neither am I

More eros than thanatos there, to merely continue the theme so many journalists love. Read the rest of this entry »

Jandek – Ready for the house

In 1978 the first chapter of one of the most unusual – perhaps the most unusual – stories in popular music began. It was the year Jandek released ‘Ready for the house’.

Jandek’s music is, in a strange way, incredibly difficult to characterise, sounding, as it does, quite unlike anything else. The musical techniques on Ready for the House, however, can certainly be easily described; Jandek is playing an acoustic guitar, turned – not randomly, as some have suggested – but to produce an open, atonal chord. This same chord, the only chord played on eight of the albums nine tracks, is sometimes strummed, sometimes picked; played over and over again in a simple rhythm or, othertimes, played almost at random intervals. Over this is sung, whispered and wailed some of the most astonishingly weird and depressing blues lyrics ever put on record. Read the rest of this entry »

My sincerest apologies to The Herd for my comments about them below. I have just listened to their latest album Summerland and retract what I said about them never quite reaching their potential. Rest assured, a review of Summerland is be up here, expounding its awesomeness!

I have noticed, since my review of Bliss n Eso’s Flying Colours album, that alot of people seem to be reaching our page by searching for Aussie Hip Hop and that there seems to be some demand for writing about it. So, I’ve decided to follow up with another of my favorite Skip-hop albums of the last couple of years. Settle in and get ready for some smooth, sunny, reggae and dub influenced hip-hop. Welcome to Astronomy Class: Read the rest of this entry »

“And wherever you’ve gone

and wherever we might go,

it don’t seem fair… today just disappeared.

Your light’s reflected now, reflected from afar.

We were but stones: your light made us stars.”

- Pearl Jam, Light Years

No, that quote is not from Ten. It came a number of years later, after Pearl Jam had miraculously survived the pathetic and traumatic death of Grunge, which floundered and crashed to the dirt in the wake of Cobain’s suicide like a monster severed from its head. It’s a nice stanza, though; nice because it shows a thoughtfulness and appreciation outside of self effacement; because it suggests that the group never intented to drive Grunge into the ground and then give up and go home; because it stands testament to the virtuosity and integrity Pearl Jam brought to the game in the early nineties, exploding with Ten as a launch pad for whatever organic path was waiting for them beyond it. Unlike almost any other seminal album of the Grunge era (even Soundgarden’s phenomenal portrait of pain, Superunknown) Ten wasn’t a dead end. It was a beginning. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems to me that the Swedes have a particular musical sensibility that shines through no matter the what they do. Lately I’ve noticed alot of bands originating in Sweden, of a variety of genres, who are world class examples of their particular brand of music. Many still conjure the image of ABBA when the words “Sweden” and “music” appear together and this is unfortuneate (sorry ABBA fans) because there is alot more to the Swedish music scene that world should be paying attention to. Shining examples of every genre insidiously await your attention, from the catchy hooks of Snook to the alternatingly brutal and melodic stylings of Opeth and Meshuggah, the Swedes have it covered. Now, I can hear the naysayers saying:

“Nay! The Swedes do not have it covered, actually, Mr. Bread! What about those of us who don’t want to learn Swedish or want something more melodic than the towering behemoth of rage that is Swedish metal?”

I say unto you, meet Peter, Bjorn and John: Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Hip Hop has had a troubled existence. In its earliest inceptions it seemed little more than a bunch of white Australian tools pretending to be black gangsta rappers and there’s a good reason why it seemed that way; they were. In the last few years, however, there have been a number of evolutions in the genre that have resulted in a more interesting experience. Australian rappers had dispensed with the American accent and began rapping about what they knew about, as opposed to blunts, 40s and bitches we began hearing about commodores, springas and chicks (so basically still cars, weed and women but from a bogan perspective). There was another school of Australian Hip Hop that began to emerge, however, which focused on political issues. And so by the early 2000s Australia basically had its answers to NWA and Public Enemy. In the hedonistic West Coast corner we had the Hilltop Hoods spouting rhymes about getting drunk and laid and in the civil rights East Coast corner we had The Herd with lyrical epics about ingrained racism and the Australian political scene. Read the rest of this entry »