Jump Aboard The FOE Train

In the beginning, Canberra group Friend Or Enemy were just another local heavy band, belting out a few power-chords and riffs, with the odd melody thrown in. And like all bands of their type, they were worth a look live, but overall, nothing spectacular. Front man Rory’s attempt at screaming, while valiant, wasn’t great – something that was greatly supplemented when guitarist Jay Farleigh joined the group, the man possesses a scream that’d scare off Lucifer himself.

The band released a batch of demos over 2006/7 which were decent, but once again, nothing spectacular. If anything the group showed a lot of potential, but it seemed they were yet to utilise it. With a group of rather plain heavy and melodic songs (the exception being Look At Me Now), the band were one to wait and see what happened. And little did anybody know, it was going to be well worth the wait.

Jump to the end of 2007, and the band announced through their MySpace blog that they had been reworking their sound, and with that, their old songs as well. At the time, it didn’t seem like much to think about; they were, after all, just another generic sounding metal band. But, when they unfurled a few new tracks, and their new sound, it was fucking gobsmacking. Seemingly out of nowhere, Rory learnt to scream, the riffs got meatier, the band got tighter — essentially they got a packed lunch of awesome into them and started cranking out the heavy.

With the exit of some high-profile bands from the Canberra scene over the last couple of years, some of you may have been fearful for the well-being of music here in the capital. But, with the development of bands like Friend Or Enemy into far more mature and musically adept groups, this fair city’s musical future is looking brighter than the smiles in a toothpaste commercial.

Now with the band in the studio, the prospect of what the band calls “songs to blow your earpussys” is getting more and more exciting. The band made giant leaps of progress between their first and second lot of demos, and with any luck they’ll keep up the pattern with the tracks on this impending album. With demos like “You’ll See The Best Of Me” and “To Our Hell Or Held For Dead” just thinking about the kinds of noise Friend Or Enemy are going to making in the future is one of the most exciting things in Canberran music in quite a while.

So go and check out Friend Or Enemy, add them, and get behind one of the bands that’s going to be keeping Canberra’s music alive over the next few years – support your homegrown talent.

www.myspace.com/friendorenemy and www.friendorenemy.com.au

The band are playing at Liquid Fest ‘09 at the Queanbeyan Aquatic Centre on 14th February and in Goulburn on 1st March.

Chasing Storms This Friday

I don’t talk about it much to others; don’t like to let them know what I’m thinking. Touring throughout 2007 taught me a lot, when to open my mouth and when to keep it shut. Gave me an opportunity to reflect on “Vices” and envisage the future.I plan to tour again this year, come back to all of your cities and towns, consider being in attendance because it’ll be riveting…

Adelle

Adelle released their debut album “When Your Vices Aren’t Vices” independently in the later half of 2006 after recording and mixing it themselves. The disc was a rampant success running rife though alternative/indie circles.

Adelle spent 2007 in hot pursuit of their audible accomplishments touring east coast Australia tri-monthly. Upon returning home from the “She’s The Inventor” tour, their final and most exhaustive tour of the year (spanning a whole month) they were ready for their next studio effort.

In the months to come they combined their unusual yet innovative flair for song writing with audio engineer/producer Guy Cooper’s (Serotonin Productions – Transport, A Secret Death, The Combovers) aptitude for distinctive tone. What ensued was a 10 track epic conspiring in the culmination of the ‘Hello Sane Age Sins’album.

“Hello Sane Age Sins” LP is a rendering of raw sound with cunningly astute production, the songs have groove with thrashings of rock and moments of calm, the lyrics are clever yet sharp with shades of malevolence. To me this disc is an anti-movement, awe-inspiring insubordination, like dancing in the underworld, defiance personified.

Adelle hit Woden Youth Centre this Friday, November 28th with Pleased To Jive You, Slovac and Tell Me Bluntly. Check out the bands myspace at http://www.myspace.com/adellegroup and click on the following link to download a free sample song from the soon to be released album “Hello Sane Age Sins” http://www.thoughtcoercion.org/carddownload_mp3s/Vella_Lavella.mp3

Farewell Afraid You’ll Fall *fixed*

Here is their final (and only I believe) video interview, exlcusive for Mission #1

Chasing Storms

PostOp Productions is proud to be bringing back Brisbane’s Adelle for another all age show at Woden Youth Centre. They hit town on November 28th, with Pleased To Jive You, Slovac, and Tell Me Bluntly. Keep your eye on Mission1.co.nr for another interview with Adelle, as well as an exclusive song download. 

Also just a reminder, voting is still open to choose the support bands for our show with A December Truth on December 12th. Hit up the forums at mission1forums.proboards.com/index.cgi

Pleased to bring you video

Here at Mission #1 we’ve decided to become a bit more interactive. We’re going to start bringing more audio visual content, starting with this feature on Pleased To Jive You.

Monster Elephante Unleash One Beautiful Beast. Rawr ;)

It’s not very often that you hear a local release that literally sends a chill down your spine, in all honesty it’s probably never; but, when Monster Elephante unveiled their debut album “People Of The 5^th Dimension,” something truly special was born. Never have I heard such a prolific offering from a Canberran group, and it’d be a lie to say that it’s not right up there with the best this country has ever produced.

Kicking off with the funky-as-fuck, hip-hop infused Da Da Da Da, you know immediately your ears are in for the greatest 43.6 minutes they’ve ever endured. Josh Molony’s dead set jaw dropping vocal abilities are on full display from the first track, and you’ll be thanking whatever deity you believe in that you got a chance to hear them. It has been far too long since Australia coughed up another über talented vocalist; in all honesty the standard has been steadily dropping, like a brick from an airplane, over the last decade since Daniel Johns popped up.

We’ve all heard the jokes regarding bass players, and the “fact” all they do is sit up the back and bludge, and many of you probably had a good chuckle at the time. But, let me tell you, the second you hear the near-revolutionary work of Will Haskovec on this album, all you’ll be able to do is sit there, mouth gaping, at what this man can do with a bass guitar. Imagine if you will, Tim Commerford (Rage Against The Machine), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the smallest hint of Victor Wooten, all combined together, and you will have Monster Elephante’s own bassist extraordinaire.

While this album is, without a single doubt, the best thing to be released this year, “People Of The 5^th Dimension” is not without it’s problems. The band loses the heaviness of a few songs on the recording, which is a dying shame knowing their full potential, but this is by no means a fault on the band’s part. While the bass playing is amazing, the album obviously lacks the low-end tones you generally come to expect from a low-register instrument; but this and the lack of heaviness, is solely a mixing and production problem.

The highlights of this album are virtually endless, but because you’re all so deserving, I’ll narrow it down for everybody. First and foremost, you cannot look past the two closing tracks “Sherlock Holmes” and “Vikings From Hell,” while the latter lacks the edge it packs at a live show, it still undeniably the band at their best; “Sherlock Holmes” is just awe inspiring, and makes you wonder just how long it’ll be until these guys break it big. Now, while Monster Elephante are well known for their fast and furious funk chops, one of the best songs of this album is the down-tempo “Sunday Song,” the emotion that drips from this song is so powerful you literally feel every word that Molony sings. On the topic of lyrics, without a doubt, the lyrical strongpoint of the album is “Into The Night,” and while at times Molony’s lyrical prowess is somewhat questionable, he shows that he’s more than capable of penning a good tune. And just as a side note, the drum fill at the end of Space Funk…. orgasmical.

“People Of The 5^th Dimension” is out now independently; and you can pick it up after witnessing Monster Elephante’s amazing live act at any one of their upcoming tour dates; check their MySpace at www.myspace.com/fistfulofnothing for details, and for a few songs to check out. And if you’re even considering to dodge this album, you are robbing yourself of the most audible fun you’ll have all year, and we both know you don’t want to do that to yourself, don’t we?

You said it’ll be summer…

Lately I’ve been getting into twee pop music. I’ve had fun exploring bands on labels such as K Records and basically listening to anything with a cute name; Beat Happening, Talulah Gosh, The Pastels, Strawberry Switchblade, early Magnetic Fields, Tiger Trap… I’ve even had frequent dreams about shopping for Beat Happening albums and being devastated when I wake up. It’s getting to that pretty-sad stage.

Though all the bands mentioned above are excellent (and I thoroughly recommending you to hop to it and check them out), none of them are Australian. Nor are they modern. Hence why they don’t exactly fit this column. So, I decided to go for a bit of a search (internet search that is), for a current Australian twee band. And I found this little gem via twee.net (yes, there really is such a place). Actually, I’m kind of surprised I didn’t start this search sooner.

Summer Cats

Hailing from Melbourne, they do indeed sound incredibly summery. Swapping between girl and guy vocals, they make that gorgeous kind of pop music that perfectly matches the warmer months (thank you Canberra for finally starting to warm up a bit). Oh and it’s instantly catchy too. If you’re not too sure of what this twee is I’m referring to, think Belle & Sebastian or Camera Obscura; sparkling indiepop. Summer Cats remind me a bit of those bands, in the sense that their music is so pretty yet fun and you just want to leave the house and do something.
So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this column (well, after this sentence, obviously) and go turn up your speakers and bounce about the house (or outside if the weather is lovely). Go!

http://www.myspace.com/summercats
I’m particularly taken with Let’s Go.

~

No old band for this post, think there was an overload of it last time. Though your homework for column can be going to listen to classic Australian pop (note, alternative pop) bands The Go Betweens (Summer Cats have been compared to them quite a bit, see if you can spot why) and The Triffids.
Until next time.

Canberra’s Pop Punk Scene: Where art thou?

Over the past few years, the popularity of the true thinking man’s genre, pop punk, has been exploding all over the world. And as you should expect from a global popularity explosion (GPE), there have been hundreds upon hundreds of pop punk bands popping up all over the place. As you should also expect, being the music connoisseurs that I know you all are, the majority of these bands are absolute rubbish and should be avoided at all costs. But, don’t fret, as always, there are, in fact, some real diamonds, in this seemingly endless rough.

Canberra, our fair nation’s capital, home to such spectacular events as Floriade and.. Question Time; as well as the architectural marvels that are Parliament House, The National Museum and, the unforgettable Questacon. Now with a city as lovely and culutred as this, you would naturally expect this fine and respectable town to have a thriving pop punk scene, wouldn’t you? It’d make sense! But, unfortunately for all of us, your expectations would be cut dreadfully short. Not too long ago, I wasted hours of my life, trawling through band after band on our favourite social networking site Mysapce, in search of some, even half decent, pop punk bands, with very minimal success, plus a good serving of death metal.

After sifting through about ten, actual pop punk bands, I came up with a mind-boggling TWO bands that are actually worth your time and effort: Transmission Nowhere and Bedford Decision. Now, I may be trailing off a little here, but I just have to point out, that, as much as most instrumentalists would hate to admit it, it’s the vocals that make the band. And that’s the only thing that stood out among most of the bands that I came across. The horrible ones, had some bloke who sounded like an old man, imitating a crying baby; and the two groups that actually got a mention, had someone who could sing in key and in time, and it made a world of difference. So please, if you are considering starting, or have already started a band, FIND SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THEIR WAY AROUND THEIR OWN VOCAL CHORDS!!! And, just in case you think you’re far too “indie” for that thing we call musical talent, you can just give up now, and save us our sanity.

The first little gem I stumbled across go by the name Transmission Nowhere and are a 4-piece made up of workmates Stuart, Scotty, Paulie and Canon who got together sometime late in 2007. Fly-kicking their way on to the scene in January of this year, Transmission Nowhere have played only a handful of gigs, and at their best, their music displays talent that’d fool you into thinking they’d been playing together for years. And at their worst, well, let’s not go there. If you head on over to their Myspace page, you can hear the absolute belters “Dial” and “Man In Black,” both at the top of their player, and just as your getting your hopes up, their final three songs “Say Something,” “All You Need,” and “I Am,” sound like an entirely different band (I liken it to shockingly horrible early 90s emo). But, if you’d care to look past those small imperfections, there is some damn fine music just waiting to flow into your thirsty little ears, from one of the few promising Canberra bands. And just as a side note, these guys get major kudos for avoiding the temptation of donning fake American accents, applause please. Check them out at: www.myspace.com/transmissionnowhere.

The second group I’ll steer your attention towards, call themselves Bedford Decision and are a true pop-punk band, if ever there was one: catchy riffs, sing-a-long choruses and, unfortunately, (imitation) American accents. But, as crazy as it may sound, this band’s PP chops are so good, that you’ll find yourself completely over looking the faux accents, and instead find yourself grooving along in your seat. Started in 2007, this now drummer-less three-piece haven’t been tearing up the gigging scene all that regularly, and personally, nothing could be a worse shame. With their instantly catchy riffs, sing-a-long choruses, and dead simple structures, this is the band you’ll have stuck in your head for weeks on end, and I promise you won’t mind a bit. Definite highlights are: “Never” and “Neighbourhood Watch,” hit these guys up at their Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bedforddecision.

So there you have it folks, a wrap up of Canberra’s pop-punk scene, in all it’s miniature glory. Keep a look out for any pop punk gigs swinging into town in the future, and make sure you and your mates flock to them in droves, because if there’s an audience, the bands definitely won’t be far behind. And if you know how to throw a few power-chords together, why not give it a go yourself?

Stay classy San Diego,

Clancy – SOTI.

Hello Sane Age Sins

Forming in Brisbane in 2005, Adelle are quickly making a name for themselves. After independently releasing their debut EP “When Your Voices Aren’t Vices” in 2006 and touring extensively on the back of it throughout 2007, Adelle are back with “Hello Sane Age Sins.” Mission #1 caught up with Michael Parker, Vocialist and guitarist for this unique quartet.

How did the band form?

Adelle was formed in late 2005 during the moments of darkness that define the most interesting part of a solar eclipse. It was exhilarating but over much too soon, observers on the day used adjectives to the likes of captivating and mesmerizing when describing the unison. By late 2006 we had gathered enough intelligence and appropriate auditory material to reproduce discs in sizeable quantities. This first “hearing” was aptly named “When Your Vices Aren’t Vices” due to our large number of personal defects and an even more personal choice to disregard and ignore them. We toured compellingly on this release throughout 2007 assimilating fans in an assortment of environments and realities.

Is there much sadism in the Adelle camp?

Not really, we’re more about creeping you out. Inflicting pain or humiliation on someone is likely to trigger specific predictable reactions in return (namely fight or flight) and predictable equals boring. When threatened or engaged in conflict our actions are designed to induce that uncomfortable sinking feeling in the pits of our rivals stomachs. In fact the trick to this is sexual masochism.

How are you guys looking forward to the upcoming tour? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to or dreading?

The only thing we dread about touring is the fact that we can not log into Second Life every few hours to cause havoc on the B&D rooms with our clown hats and water pistols. Apart from that it is like a party 24/7. My average day on tour consists of waking up, drinks with lunch, chill, play a show, free drinks at venue, chill, party in the room, round of Ouija board then a cooked breakfast about 2-3am before bed. Please note, on travel days all of these event still occur to an absurd degree while in transit.

Tell me about recording Hello Sane Age Sins…

We recorded the tracks with Guy Cooper of Serotonin Productions [A Secret Death, The Combovers, Driven Fear]. After exhaustively doing all the production and recording on “Vices” ourselves this was a welcoming change. Working with talent like Guy and the new crew at Darther Music has not only made the whole project more professional but has given the rest of us a lot more time to lurk the Internet for things like the leaked Veronicas pictures. Words still out on whether they are real or not though. On the more professional note I mentioned above…

“Hello Sane Age Sins” LP is a rendering of raw sound with cunningly astute production, the songs have groove with thrashings of rock and moments of calm, the lyrics are clever yet sharp with shades of malevolence. To me this disc is an anti-movement, awe-inspiring insubordination, like dancing in the underworld, defiance personified.

What were some of the main ideas/themes/inspirations behind the album?

This CD is about doing whatever we feel like providing the vibe is right. However this is simply a reflection of how we write music. You get the feeling a lot of bands write songs and if they don’t turn out enough like their favourite songs at the time they scrap them. This results in a battering of standard sound upon my ear drums neither impressing nor upsetting me, just leaving me speculating about what it feels like to be a drone. In stark contrast to this we let everything fly in all areas of songwriting from pre to post production. Try everything, say anything; if you think it might work it probably will, if it doesn’t use a crazy effect and see where that leaves you. I guess if I had to cap it off it in a statement I’d say open your mind, awaken the senses, be well read and versed even better, don’t follow, thinking for yourself is a choice and you’d be sensible to make it sometime.

Tell me about the voice-overs you use in your songs…

I assume this question pertains to the “new” song on the myspace. Scott recorded this song titled “The Big Picture” using Reason and his laptop; essentially it is a bridging track for between now and when the album is released. It goes well with long winding roads at night or banned substances. The voice over your referring too is that of Edgar Mitchell who is an astronaut that walked on the moon. In this particular snippet he is discussing the occasions when he was briefed by NASA about the existence of extraterrestrials.

Plans for the rest of the year?

When we get home from tour we will be finishing up three new motion picture projections for the album with possibilities for a fourth somewhere in the stratosphere. There are tour follow up shows in NSW planned for October, a weekend up north in the works and a big 2 week tour in Nov/Dec right round to Adelaide. As far as SE QLD is concerned there is a whole stack of shows planned across the city and the coast when we are once again blips on the radar. On the song writing front we have started pre-production on the 3^rd album and are due to start recording later this year. Meanwhile we are shopping “Hello Sane Age Sins” LP to labels and promoters domestic and abroad before its release.

Anything else you’d like to talk about that I haven’t asked?

Sure, at our shows you can get free download cards. You receive a username and password off the card (emblazoned with the CD artwork) and are directed to www.thoughtcoercion.org where you can download 2 unreleased songs off the new album… You can also get them by becoming a field representative; contact us via myspace www.myspace.com/adellegroup for more information.

Adelle are on tour now, hitting Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, the Central Coast and Brisbane. For more information hit up their myspace,   http://www.myspace.com/adellegroup

Blacklist – They kick you in the teeth, and we know you like it.

Some of you may remember the once seminal Canberra act, Eldest Son, who were quite the popular lads back in their day. But when we all thought it was going so well, they, like far too many great bands, were lost to the unfathomable void of the band break-up, and many of you might have thought that all hope was lost.

 

BUT! No longer shall you have to lay awake at night, wondering how Canberra’s music scene will ever recover from this devastating loss, no longer shall you have to stand, teetering at the edge of that building, wondering if it’s worth it to carry on; because, rising from the ashes of Eldest Son, BLACKLIST have come to save the day!!

 

With a stellar 5-piece line-up, including Pat and Zach from Eldest Son, these guys have been tearing up local stages since their public unveiling early in 2008. The dedication that the band have put in to their music, has seen every one of their local shows so far, completely SOLD OUT .

 

And you’ll mighty chuffed to hear, that we at Mission #1 have scored an exclusive interview with drummer of the group, Pat!

 

Thanks so much for letting us pester you with our list of questions, hopefully shouldn’t take you too long to get through.

To kick things off, what first led to you guys playing together?

It happened back in July 07, when I made a phone call to Jake who was an old school friend of a friend. It took a while for us to tee up a jam, but we haven’t looked back since the first time we got together.

What was it like to play with Zach again, after Eldest Son?

When Eldest Son first got cranking with Witty, we were all really young and semi-new to our instruments.. so this time round, we’ve been a lot more focused as to what we want out of a band, and the right way to go about it.. Cutting out all the time wasting and stuff like that. So I guess, it’s been a lot more rewarding in a shorter space of time.

How much practice and writing did you guys do before you unleashed yourselves on the public?

Umm, the first time the 5 of us got together was in August 07.. then our first show was in February 08. So we spent a fair while getting a solid set together and recording a 3-track demo before we actually played a show.

You’ve sold out every local gig you’ve played so far, did you employ any sneaking marketing tactics to draw such massive crowds, or did you let the music do the dirty work?

Haha, not as such. The majority of the band members have played in bands before in Canberra so people seem to be happy with us playing back on stage. To be honest, we can’t get over the support – it’s a heap of fun!

What was it like to receive such a strong reaction right from the get-go?

Unexpected. We’ve been lucky enough to play with some of Canberra’s finest also (Tonk, Zero Degrees, Gasma). I guess it shows that putting in the hard yards before you play shows as a band, really does help you build hype and give good first impressions to crowds and those people who you’re trying to get noticed by.

If you could choose one band, together or not, to share the stage with, who would it be?

One band? I don’t think that’s possible haha. There’s so many different bands who have influenced all of us in different ways.

Has there been any label interest in the band?

A little bit. No names at this stage.

The word’s out that you guys are working on your debut album, how’s it coming along, and what can we expect to hear?

At this stage, we’re just gonna keep writing new material and take as much stuff into the studio as possible and put together the best debut we possibly can. No dates are set. We’re just writing at this stage.

Blacklist’s sound is a throwback to what many believe were the glory days for hard rock, was that an intentional move, or was it something that happened naturally?

It just happened naturally I think. Our main song writer is heavily influenced by “the glory days for hard rock”, and the fact that all of us like that period of music.. it’s just what happened haha!

If we were take a peek inside Blacklist’s rehearsal room, what would we see?

A piece of crap drum kit, empty cases of beer, and 5 sweaty men. Irresistible!

If you could give one tip to aspiring musicians, what would it be?

Be the best you can be at your instrument, and work hard. Get in a band, and play heaps of different types of music with people at a similar age. Find a different sound by playing with muso’s with different influences to you so your band doesn’t sound cliche.

As a band, what would you say your main influences are musically?

“..the glory days for hard rock..”  So I guess, bands like.. Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and UFO.. too hard to name them all!

What is Blacklist’s vehicle of choice for touring?

An non-air conditioned van, with sticky vinyl seats. Mmm, sweaty!

What’s on the menu for you guys in the future?

Write, record and play live.. Oh, and a name change.. Stay tuned for that!!

 

 

 

So there you have it folks, everything you ever wanted to know about Blacklist, straight from the horse’s mouth! Secretive label interest, a kick-arse debut album, more live action, and a spankin’ new name; all on the horizon for one of the most promising bands to come out of Canberra in a long, long while.

 

Stay tuned for news, reviews, interviews and awesomesauce with Mission #1