Scissor Sisters talk sex and splendour (for The Music Network)

26 July 2010

by Poppy Reid

With a band name derived from a lesbian sexual manoeuvre and an album entitled Night Work, we shouldn’t be surprised that sex is the subject matter of the new album.

The release of album number three has ignited all sorts of chatter about its vivid innuendo, which according to Babbydaddy makes Night Work their most honest collection to date. “We are a sexual band, we love looking good, we love feeling sexual and feeling sexy onstage. It’s all about sex; I don’t know if anyone’s getting laid more than usual…” It’s 11am in London and Babydaddy - born Scott Hoffman - is lying in a hotel room bed talking frankly about music and sex and Elton John and escapism and letting go; I’m playing connect-the-dots.

“It’s always something you have to consider when trying to sell records, that people aren’t going to necessarily be prepared for your honesty. But you know what, we’ve made a career off of being honest,” the 33-year-old points out as he elaborates further on this new album, an album largely based on the Sisters’ work before the band got together. “I think it’s an extension of what we do now and all the jobs we’ve had in the night-time. Jake used to be a go-go dancer and those were the days he used to have to go out and earn his money dollar by dollar.”

Hardworking ethics aside, it wasn’t an easy road to realise the vision for this album. During the recording process Babydaddy showed friend and past collaborator Sir Elton John some of what they had been working on. “When I played him a bunch of demos he told me we needed to get back to work. He said he didn’t feel enough energy in it.” Not an easy thing to hear after 18 months work on about 80 songs,

“I don’t know if it felt great then but it’s what I expect out of my friends,” the multi-instrumentalist reminds himself. The rejection must have hit hard because not long after, frontman Jake Shears did a Bowie(David that is) and took flight to Berlin. “When Jake was feeling a little bit frustrated and fed up with the process he escaped to Berlin and went and got inspired by the nightlife and the music. It ended up being a great thing for him,” Hoffman says. “We went right over to London to work with him and Stuart Price after that, it all came together from that moment on.”

Stuart Price, a renowned UK dance music artist and producer, is storied for helping reinvent artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Price took over the production reins from Babydaddy and Shears. “Maybe we were a little resistant towards him because we were so used to doing things ourselves. I think in the end we were sold on him because he was such a special person, he would bring fun back into this project.

The result is twelve tracks colouring twelve different nuances of unadulterated sex. With lyrics like “My sneak up from behind, it’s gonna blow your mind,” and “Sting me like a bee, oh I want you to fuck me,” it’s fairly blatant what the electro-glitter group have been getting up to.

However, behind all the connotations lies a theme that stays constant throughout. “Sex and Violence is a song that’s inspired by murder actually. It was inspired by American Psycho. We were making a night time record and this is one of those things about night work; kind of luring people to the dark side.” Apparently Scissor Sisters’ aren’t all glitter and disco balls, “One murder in there isn’t such a bad thing,” laughs Babydaddy.

Amy Meredith: Young and Restless (for The Music Network)

21 July 2010

by Poppy Reid

What started innocently enough as an embryonic crush on a baby-sitter; has since spawned into a fivepiece Sydney band. With lyrics like “I can be your porn star,” Amy Meredith have school girls falling at their Facebook footnotes.

The now 24-year-old frontman Christian Lo Russo fell for his sitter (Amy Meredith) at the age of five, so much so, the little tyke even wrote about it. “I found this little diary with all these things I wrote and she happened to appear in some of them. It was just scribble, incoherent stuff like ‘went to bed and tucked me in’.”

With the success of hit singles Porn Star and Lying, the tables have now turned on the indie/pop singer with tween fans bombarding the band’s chatroom and their phone hotline where they can leave a message for the band.

“It basically stemmed from boredom and being in a van for such long hours…But because I’m poor at the moment I don’t have credit to top it up [the Hotline phone] so I’ve just left it off for a bit.”

There’s no doubt Amy Meredith (the band, not the babysitter) are in touch with their fan-base, with MySpace playing an integral part in their success. But with every social networking website covered, there was bound to be some stalking…

“The weirdest stories are the ones where they change their twitter name to your last name and so you think they’re a cousin. Then there’s the young kids who are like “I want your body,” all weird creepy kind of stuff, and they’re like 15 or 16 and then you delete them and they’re like ‘why did you delete me from your Facebook?!’ and you’re like ‘oh my God’.”

As bubblegum-pop as some of Amy Meredith’s fans might be, Lo Russo doesn’t see pop as a dirty word.

“The only way it gets worse is if you try and fight it, then you end up confusing your audience…I would have to say it’s a tip of the hat to new-wave [their music] but also modern like pop as well.”

Lo Russo is eclectic in his own genre style and that of his influences, he says The Cure, The Smiths, The Killers and Phoenix all inspire him to write music that is “as accessible as possible.” It’s this concern with audience opinion that reminds us of just how fresh they are on the music scene.

“Sometimes I try to make it light-hearted and sometimes I can be almost a bit too honest and wear my heart on my sleeve.

“I’ve had people in my life that come up to me and say ‘Um I can tell that that’s about me’. But you know what, sometimes it’s right and that’s where I get in trouble, like Lying for example and Black Eyes.”

With the release of their debut album Restless, almost 100,000 hits on their Lying video (which features the cast of last seasons Australia’s Next Top Model) and a national tour underway, Amy Meredith are understandably excited. Backing them all the way is internationally acclaimed mix engineer, Mark Needham. Lo Russo personally sought Needham because of his diverse style of mixing.

“He just gets every kind of style… I decided he’d be perfect for our band which in my opinion he was, he just brought it to another level.”

The Soft Pack at The Oxford Art Factory (for FasterLouder.com)

Famous for their former name The Muslims, you’d expect San Diego indie quartet The Soft Pack to deliver a fully fledged rock n roll performance; or at least some hard-hitting social commentary in-between tracks. But at the Oxford Art Factory on Wednesday night, The Soft Pack proved to be a very serious rock-by-numbers bunch, executing their ten-song set with the utmost rehearsed professionalism.

Opening with tracks Pull Out and Down on Loving, frontman and guitarist Matt Lamkin stood still centre stage, at times letting his guitar hang silent around his neck. Drummer Brian Hill stood beating his drums with a maraca and would spend the remainder of the set on his feet. Lamkin and Hill along with bassistDave Lantzman wore long sleeve button up shirts, their smart-casual attire proving suited to their performance. Guitarist Matty McLoughlin, the more jovial band member had a mouth that incessantly tried to eat his face, his knees would buckle as his teeth bit down hard at each chord progression. McLoughlin’s congenial antics teamed with his surfer-swank strumming made for an entertaining distraction.

Soft Pack played a mixture of tempos with Extinction and Brightside inciting slow dancers heads to loll and the obvious slow-jam Mexico even inspired a few lighters to ignite and sway. Acoustic backing instrumentals built layers on an already knotted set with crowd pleasers C’mon and Parasites a highlight.

Final tracks Answer to Yourself and Faithman showcased the boys musical capability, conjuring Ramones type nostalgia even if they were quite formulaic at times. Lamkin left the stage after his vocal duties were finished leaving his band mates to carry out an energised shred fest on their instruments (to the thorough enjoyment of the front row).

With no encore, you’d think the consensus would amount to disappointment; but The Soft Pack’s fans are an intelligent few. They realise the monotonous set was purposeful and didn’t come expecting to see rock stars – just a sweet indie band from San Diego who’s hard work truly does show.

Tame Impala announce spring tour (for The Music Network)

15 July 2010

Perth four-piece Tame Impala have announced a national headline tour for this spring kicking off in October.

The psychedelic rockers have just returned from a US jaunt supporting MGMT and promoting their debut album Innerspeakerwhich peaked at #4 on the ARIA chart in May.

Their first homecoming show will be at the Splendour in The Grass festival.

Tickets go on sale on Thursday next week (July 22).

Tour dates:

Thu Oct 7 - HQ, Adelaide SA
Fri Oct 8 - Hobart Uni Bar, Hobart TAS
Sat Oct 9 - ANU, Canberra ACT
Thu Oct 14 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Fri Oct 15 - The Palace, Melbourne VIC
Sat Oct 16 - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
Fri Oct 22 - The Astro, Perth WA

Robbie Williams rejoins Take That (for The Music Network)

16 July 2010

Robbie Williams has rejoined the UK pop outfit Take That fifteen years after he split from them to pursue a successful solo career.

Yesterday, the 36-year-old joined original members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen to make the announcement public.

“I get embarrassingly excited when the five of us are in a room. It feels like coming home,” said Williams.

The group reformed in New York last September after Take Thatfinished their ‘The Circus Live’ tour in the UK and have since recorded an album in secret with storied producer Stuart Price; the album will be released in November through Polvdor Records.

The new album comes 20 years after the bands first live performance in 1990 on British television show The Hitman & Her.

Potbelleez say hello to second album (for The Music Network)

14 July 2010

Sydney dance act The Potbelleez are due to release a second album titled Destination Now on October 22 of this year.

Famous for their track Don’t Hold Back which won an APRA for Dance Work of the Year last year, the house/electro four-piece have been holed up in Bondi Beach studio Wonderland for six months, writing and recording with ARIA award winner and local dance icon Paul Mac. Known for his work with The Dissociatives and Itchee & Scratchee, Mac has produced the new album along with Justin Shave, most known for his work with Darren Hayes of Savage Garden.

Ilan Kidron of The Potbelleez spoke to over the weekend about the bands collaboration with Mac.

"Working with Paul Mac is what makes working in the music industry so dynamic and deep…The songs just came together. He's an amazing producer. His angles, ideas and freakish eccentrics have made us all massively excited about Destination Now," Potbelleez’s Ilan Kidron told the The Daily Telegraph last weekend.

The first taste of the new album will be single Hello available to media on July 19.

It’s been two years since the group first burst onto the dance music scene in 2008 with their self-titled album. It peaked at #17 on the ARIA charts and singles Trouble, Trouble, Are You With Me and the aforementioned Don’t Hold Back sold over 150,000 units.

Album Review: Kelis, Flesh Tone (for The Music Network)

02 July 2010

by Poppy Reid

Following a four-year hiatus from the industry, American r'n'b starKelis is back with her fifth studio album Flesh Tone. Kelis has done a huge turnaround since Milkshake, exploring soul, hip hop and electronica - but she is now reinventing herself almost exclusively as a dance music artist.

The first track on the album, the suitably titled Intro, comes across as a futuristic attempt at nu-rave but instead takes us back to the ‘80s with synths galore (it’s as if someone left the ‘demo’ button on). However, this is not to discredit the album. Flesh Tone may boast a meagre nine songs, but with each track as energised as the last the transitions go unnoticed, providing interesting wind ups that keep you guessing.

Dance tracks 4th Of July and Scream (produced by David Guetta) must be praised for their hit single potential; the high-energy melodies are definite floor fillers. The only criticism is the intricacy of 22nd Century and Acapella, these tracks could easily be skipped because the complex melodies make for an intermittent, confusing sound.

Flesh Tone sees Kelis showcase some spoken word but the biggest surprise from this r'n'b / dance diva is the electro layering, a constant throughout the entire record. Kelis channels some of the beauty from the ‘80s that has been missed of late, graciously excluding the formulaic ballad that comes with most records from that era.

Conversely, Flesh Tone has you cringing at some of the lyrics, with some seemingly present for no other reason than because they rhyme with the previous line. The dated synth lines also beg the question: didKelis purposely record a disco album or was it a nu-rave effort gone abysmally wrong?