Have a sticky beak at Amber Calling

SPOTLIGHT ON

Amber Calling

This week I’ve decided to showcase one of Australia’s premiere bands, Amber Calling. In an Australian music scene, that, as of late, has been throwing up a great deal of samey rubbish; this outstanding South Australian 5-piece shatter the mould, and give us all one more reason to be proud Australians.

Getting together in 2005 under the name 919, the band quickly built up a strong following around their hometown Adelaide and the rest of Australia. After roughly a year of touring and writing, the band released the EP ‘Road Rage’ in late 2006, followed by an extensive tour.

As far as debuts go, ‘Road Rage’ is possibly the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. There isn’t a single track on this disc, that you won’t want to listen to over and over and over again, and the cherry on top of this magnificent musical sundae is the jaw dropping “This Cell.” The strength of the song led to it’s inclusion on the Starving Kid Records, Scratch Records and Perisher Blue compilations, which provided the band with some well-deserved publicity.

The band went on to share the stage with big-name Australian groups Grinspoon and Something With Numbers, as well as appearing on the local stage at 2007’s Taste Of Chaos tour. 2007 also saw the band appear on the action sports channel Fuel TV, as well as scoring the feature spot on the MySpace Australia homepage. With a few high-profile gigs under their belt, and with the huge publicity of featuring on MySpace and national TV, the anticipation grew for the new release the band had been working on for quite some time, but the world would have to wait.

When Amber Calling began work on their second recorded effort, no one would have expected the trouble that lie ahead for the band. Shortly after work was finished on the record, vocalist Mike Porcaro ran into some hefty throat problems, which his doctor attributed to his smoking and drinking habits. After putting a stop to both, and still not seeing a notable improvement, Mike had no choice but to leave the band.

Left gasping for air, and looking where they should go next, the band attempted to patch up the gaping hole that Mike had left behind. Amber Calling recruited a stand-in vocalist, and headed out on the road. But, fortunately for the band, and all of us, it was only five months later when Mike was given the all clear, and rejoined the group. Back at full-strength, the future once again looked bright for Amber Calling.

The band originally had 11 tracks written for their second release, but decided after pre-production to whittle that number down to six. Mike defended the decision by saying “If we were to have done an album out of those 11 songs, we wouldn’t have been happy with it anyway. The songs that made it to the EP were the ones we were happy with.” The EP was released on 14^th April, 2008, on the newly formed independent label, Tenspeed Music.

The EP entitled “The Truth About Lies” features six tracks of audio heaven, and is available for purchase world-wide on iTunes right now. But, if that’s all too high-tech for you, then head on out to a show and pick up a copy in person. For a measly few dollars, you can get what is definite candidate for Aussie release of the year, and music that’ll stick with you for so long, you’ll still be singing it on your deathbed.

In recent news, Amber Calling were announced as the winners of a competition which, will see them perform alongside US giants Panic At The Disco at their Adelaide show, later this month.

With so many achievements in such a short period of time, Amber Calling look set to take over the Australian music scene, and it’s about bloody time. With a brand new, mind-blowing EP, and a live show that’ll kick you right in the face, Amber Calling will give you the most electric eargasm of your life, and you’ll always be coming back for more.

Clancy.

The Truth About Lies is out now on Tenspeed Music, and available for download on iTunes.

Check Amber Calling out at: www.ambercalling.com.au for everything to do with the band.

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.