Velociraptor – Computer Future Part 1
New Single – Out Now
Technology has played an ever-increasing role in our lives for decades now, but is the world we’ve found ourselves in today everything we were promised awaited us? So ask larger-than-life Brisbane garage rock outfit Velociraptor on new single Computer Future Part 1 as they channel the jubilant euphoria of Devo at their quirkiest, with drummer George Browning taking the spotlight to calmly deliver the urgent missive on where we’re at as a race. Equal parts frightening and enlightening.
Dumb Things – Instant Coffee
New Single – Out Now
Haunting new single ‘Instant Coffee’ is another immersive slice of hazy melancholia from Brisbane indie-pop five-piece Dumb Things, its gently pulsing percussion, shimmering guitars and subtle vocal harmonies perfectly augmenting the band’s heartfelt reflection on routine and solitude. The daily ritual of turning on the kettle becomes a motif of compromised happiness, her beautifully inquisitive vocal delivery bringing the feels even as guitars build towards the quietly epic crescendo.
Velociraptor – Leaving Hollywood & Timebong
New Singles – Out Now
In the many moons since Brisbane garage-rock behemoth Velociraptor pulled up stumps on the party that many pundits had predicted would never end and dispersed like ninjas into the night, it’s fair to say that the world has pretty much gone to hell in the proverbial handbasket.
After years of waiting in vain for a saviour, and knowing full well that desperate times call for desperate measures, after much contemplation the many, many members of Velociraptor resolved in a nearly-unanimous vote to get the band back together.
Only this time they were uniting not just to party (although there will be parties), but to save the day! Maybe not so much in an MCU kinda way – their budget probably necessitating more of a Bill & Ted vibe – but justice would be served. Cold.
But to whom? Once the dust settled and the boffins and science types within the Velociraptor ranks crunched the numbers, analysed the trends and tasted the tea leaves it became abundantly clear that there was only one thing standing in the way of humanity enjoying a blissful, happy future… computers!
Thus was born the second Velociraptor album Computer Future – the first since their self-titled album dropped back in 2014 – a collection of songs so excellent that you’d almost be forgiven for thinking that the band had been squirrelled away in isolation working on them the whole time they’ve been gone.
The first taste of this staggering new opus comes in the form of two brand new singles – Leaving Hollywood and Timebong – which both together and in isolation hint towards everything that Computer Future brings to the modern day table, the spectre of a technology-ridden dystopian wasteland inspiring two distinctly divergent, but entirely complementary, takes on the garage rock form.
Dumb Things – Self Help
New Single – Out Now
The title track from Brisbane band Dumb Things’ third album is a beautifully hazy slice of sub-trop jangle pop rife with gentle earworm hooks and melodies, telling the modern day story about the quest for self-improvement during a low romantic ebb.
Mick Thomas – Where Only Memory Can Find You
CBS014 – Out Now
New album Where Only Memory Can Find You by multiple ARIA-winning Australian singer-songwriter Mick Thomas and his band the Roving Commission harks back to his roots with beloved Oz rock outfit Weddings Parties Anything, the title taken from that band’s classic 1987 single ‘Away Away’. Like that song the new album is a beautifully rumination on the nexus between memory and the passing of time, and how you can never go back – no matter how much some people seem hell-bent on revisiting their past.
Babaganouj – Jumbo Pets
CBS013 – Out Now | Limited Edition [Aquamarine Colour] Vinyl.
*2SER FEATURE ALBUM
*4ZZZ ALBUM OF THE WEEK
*EDGE FM RECOMMENDS
After years of super-catchy singles and EPs Brisbane indie-pop sensations Babaganouj have finally released their debut album Jumbo Pets, the perfect distillation of their enchanting trademark aesthetic! Featuring the triple-threat attack of Charles Sale (guitar/vocals), Ruby McGregor (guitar/vocals) and Harriette Pilbeam (bass/vocals) – aka Hatchie – all nailed down by the propulsive drumming of George Browning, Babaganouj take us on a captivating sonic adventure that veers between atmospheric dreamscapes, crunchy indie rock and bubblegum pop perfection with consummate ease. It’s an absorbing journey of sounds and sensations that’s both thrilling and immersive but beyond this ability to elevate above the mundane these are songs of genuine substance, for while the lyrics betray an emotional vulnerability above all else they portray real heart amidst their modern examinations of love, loss and levity.
Full Power Happy Hour – Bit of Brightness
CBS011 – Out Now | Limited Edition [Fanta Orange] Vinyl – indie record stores only.
*2SER FEATURE ALBUM
*4ZZZ ALBUM OF THE WEEK
*EDGE FM RECOMMENDS
The second album from Brisbane-Meanjin indie-folk five-piece Full Power Happy Hour builds on the immense promise of their 2021 self-titled debut, adding a gorgeous tinge of alt-country elegance to their inherent feel-good jangle-pop foundations. This musical bed – assembled collaboratively allowing the band’s true spirit to shine through – proves the perfect foil for frontperson Alex Campbell’s compellingly personal lyrics documenting a tumultuous period in their life, an at times fraught journey recast into beautiful, eloquent art. The 10 songs veer from bright, upbeat toe-tappers to plaintive, introspective ballads, but flow together superbly due to the group’s underlying camaraderie and fast-blossoming chemistry. At times reminiscent of forebears like The Go-Betweens and The Clean, with flourishes of Lucinda Williams and contemporaries like Big Thief and The Weather Station, Bit Of Brightness is 100% Full Power Happy Hour and one utterly beguiling aural experience.
Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission – Back In The Day
CBS012 – Out Now
The new seven-track EP Back In The Day by Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission has a dual purpose in life. Firstly, the title-track ‘Back In The Day’ is the lead single from the band’s forthcoming album Where Only Memory Can Find You due for released in early-2023 – while the EP itself expands upon that song’s premise of looking in the rearview mirror of life with a perfect batch of beautifully-chosen and executed covers and reinterpretations relating to that theme.
Full Power Happy Hour – Full Power Happy Hour
CBS010 – Out Now | Debut Album – Limited Edition [Emerald Green] Vinyl.
** 2SER FEATURE ALBUM **
** 4ZZZ ALBUM OF THE WEEK **
Meanjin/Brisbane alt-country/indie-folk five-piece Full Power Happy Hour first captured hometown hearts with their heartfelt, high-energy live shows and now they’ve parlayed that momentum into their self-titled debut album, an enchanting collection of great depth and beauty based around the beguiling songs and bewitching vocals of singer-songwriter Alex Campbell. The band’s unique aesthetic mixes the intimacy and fragility of ‘60s folk singers like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez with the ramshackle bonhomie of The Pogues, tempered by a more modern indie-rock sensibility akin to The Clean, with results that are purely and defiantly Full Power Happy Hour.
Adam Gibson – The Songs of Adam Gibson
CBS005
Brand new 2-LP Vinyl “Best of” Adam Gibson, debuting at #1 on the AIR 100% Indie Charts. This new compilation ‘The Songs Of Adam Gibson’ collates on vinyl for the first time the cream of the epic Australiana conjured by Sydney wordsmith and poet Adam Gibson. ‘There’s a Name for this Feeling….’ has accumulated over the past 20 years, during his tenures with acclaimed outfits Modern Giant, The Aerial Maps and The Ark-Ark Birds between 2004 and the present day.
Dumb Things – Time Again
CBS009
A new and assured take on the bedroom pop of their debut, the songs on Time Again caress the sensibilities like a cool summer breeze, their distinctive slacker-jangle owing a sonic debt not just to Queensland forebears like The Go-Betweens and The Apartments but also the next wave of Aussie bands who also mined that same fertile ground for inspiration like Dick Diver, Twerps and The Ocean Party.
SPIRAL STAIRS – We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized
CBS008
The new tune – the first taste of the phenomenal new album We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized – is a brash and joyous number which nods to everything from The Fall to Iggy Pop to Roxy Music, laden with both horns and hooks as well as an infectious call-and-response chorus, Kannberg shouting inscrutable slogans over the enticing cacophony.
TAPE/OFF – Broadcast Park LP
CBS006 (yellow vinyl)
Tape/Off’s 2014 debut Chipper was long-listed for the AMP, and now four years later they return with an album that balances ire and introspection and ups the ante considerably in terms of songcraft, musicianship and production. Touring nationally for the release and have already received great traction with first two singles ‘Day In, Day Out’ and ‘Wake In Fright’. Comes in hand screen-printed cover with download.
THE GAMETES – The Astrological Calamities of Comet Jones
CBS007 (spum green vinyl)
The debut album from prodigiously-talented young space-punks The Gametes captures the manic intensity and rampant absurdity of their renowned live show on wax. Equally brings to mind the best of beloved heritage acts like Devo and The B-52s as well as more recent purveyors of cool like Parquet Courts and Uranium Club, all with their own unique slant.
SPIRAL STAIRS Pig City/Vultures Of Caboolture 7”
CBS004 (black vinyl)
Again harking back to the several post-Pavement years spent by Spiral Stairs living in south-east Queensland with his Australian wife and daughter, this Oz-only seven-inch contains two songs about Brisbane and surrounds, with ‘Pig City’ owing a distinct sonic debt to The Go-Betweens and ‘Vultures Of Caboolture’ being chiselled in the shape of Beasts Of Bourbon (Tex was a Brisbane boy once upon a time so that works too). Full-colour sleeve titled ‘Dutton Dressed As Lamb’ with download.
SPIRAL STAIRS – Doris & The Daggers LP
CBS003 (red/white/black coloured vinyl)
Spiral Stairs helped reinvent the musical landscape in the late-‘80s and early-‘90s as co-founder and mainstay of US indie rock legends Pavement, but his acclaimed 2017 solo album Doris & The Daggers owes a sonic and contextual debt to his many years living in Australia (with this limited edition Aus/NZ version being pressed on St Kilda-coloured splatter vinyl in honour of his beloved adopted AFL team).
SHRAPNEL – Tranceplanetsugarmouth LP
CBS002 (black vinyl)
Sydney dream-weavers Shrapnel’s debut album is built on a template of ‘90s indie rock, reminding of bands such as Guided By Voices, Pavement and Built To Spill but filtered through a distinctly Aussie lens. A batch of sonic journeys which throw the rulebook out the window with wild and unpredictable – but never less than spell-binding – results.
THIGH MASTER – Early Times LP
CBS001 (black vinyl)
Thigh Master’s debut Early Times is rife with an incessantly catchy brand of angsty, sun-dappled guitar pop, constructed in the share-houses of inner-city Brisbane. Thigh Master have shared stages with an array of top-notch acts such as The Clean, Guitar Wolf, Courtney Barnett, Ty Segall, Ariel Pink, Real Estate and The Coathangers and toured the nation relentlessly, these days splitting their time between Brisbane and Melbourne.
COOLIN' BY SOUND 