Mitzi

Mitzi might sound like the name of your next-door neighbour’s cat or your first born daughter if your were Scandinavian, but that’s wrong. Mitzi actually sound like groovy, upbeat disco-pop of an impressive standard for a young band from Brisbane. Their sound comprises dreamy synths and twangy guitars over melodic basslines coupled with some tight drumming. The occasional faux horn is thrown in for good measure too.

I caught them on Thursday supporting Strangetalk at Good God. To my surprise they had quite a good crowd for the start of their set and quickly had the dancefloor moving (including myself and my severely inebriated friend). I mean genuinely dancing up a storm, their potent grooves even afflicted the cynical hipsters and piss-guys in the place. Really impressive to see, especially for a “smaller” support band. Strangetalk unfortunately were quite disappointing. Just too keen it seemed, they played climbing walls twice which I think is just a tad self-indulgent. Mitzi definitely outshone them.

Here are some good tracks for your consumption including a top remix from Cassian and another good Strangetalk track.

India – Mitzi

Morning Light – Mitzi

All I Heard – Mitzi

All I Heard (Cassian remix) – Mitzi

Eskimo Boy- Strangetalk

Parklife 2010!

The good people at Fuzzy recently announced the Parklife 2010 line up! Quality abounds throughout the field and we are surely set for some quality synths and beats yet again at this year’s festival.

Numerous quality artists appear on the bill including: Holy Ghost, New Young Pony Club, Groove Armada, Darwin Deez, Cut Copy and Soulwax, along with plenty of premier acts recently featured on Happymusic such as Bag Raiders, Midnight Juggernaughts, Clasixx, D-Cup and finally GRUM! Needless to say this is a must-attend event for any dance-minded music enthusiast.

The P-life tour hits most major cities across Aus culminating in the Sydney edition on Sunday the 3rd of October. Tickets go on sale at Midday on July the first. Better start saving as they have the hefty price tag of $145 attached.

Parklife must-sees below.

Personal Touch – DCUP

Far Away (Bag Raiders Remix) – Cut Copy

Paper Romance (Clasixx Remix) – Groove Armada

Seja – Live at the Sando

Just a quick post about Seja‘s enchanting performance co-headlining with Otouto at The Sando on Friday. With a little over 100 attendees the upstairs stage provided the ideal intimate venue. Seja’s own custom felt-craft banners adorned her keyboards discreetly covering the intricate network of cables protruding out of the instruments. The room was crammed full of Indie kids with several opting to take a seat on the floor to contain their enthusiasm and anticipation of the gig. Shortly after our arrival Seja and her band took the stage and started pumping out her trademark rich synth sounds.

The performance itself was very entertaining. The all girl 3-piece overcame the initial technical hitches of recurring feedback and barely audible microphones to put on a fun and up-beat set that is congruent with Seja’s electro-pop style. What was refreshing to see was that the band was really enjoying themselves and any sense of pretension was non-existent as all members moved about stage switching instruments and contributing vocals. Perhaps the best example of this lightheartedness was during “I’ll Get to You” towards the end of the set when Seja and her guitarist punctuated the end of every line in the verse with percussive finger clicks and finally in the last song where the girls abandoned their instruments for a karaoke style sing off with complimentary choreographed dance. The girls from Otouto joined them on stage to bust out the dance moves as well.

All in all a very pleasant evening and entertaining performance. I also picked up a hard copy of her debut which was $20 well spent. Some nice tracks from it are sampled below.

Mad props to Jon for the excellent iphone photography contribution.

Framed You In Fiction – Seja

Silver In My Eye – Seja

Talib Kweli – Live

I recently caught Talib Kweli and Jean Grae live at  The Forum. This was my first live Hip Hop gig in some time so I was waiting in eager anticipation. I was anxious to get there in time and felt relieved when I found a local support act warming up the audience. It was close to 10pm by this stage so I assumed Kweli would be starting shortly. I was wrong. Jean Grae came out soon after the Australian Act and provided a contrasted set starting out with soulful, laid back hip hop jams before proceeding to a high intensity delivery of her harsh Street style. Make no mistake, Jean Grae is a strong feminine force in modern Hip Hop and well worth the double billing with Kweli.

Shortly after Grae’s set Kweli busted out onto the stage with Grae accompanying his opening tracks. He moved with energy and confidence as his rapid-fire mic assault began. The occasional ping of feedback seemed to irritate the energetic wordsmith but once rectified the flow of the performance was unstoppable. His mouth moves so fast the words are almost indecipherable but that was to be expected with his high-speed live delivery. The set list was diverse with old and new tracks and included verses from some of his collaborative recordings such as “Definition” with Mos Def and Kanye’s “Get ‘Em High”. The highlight of the performance was always going to be “Get By” as the soulful tune had the entire room bouncing to the beat, truly infectious.

Shortly after Kweli left the stage before coming out again for an inevitable encore. The performance had been so engaging and physical, I had been dancing for the whole 2 hours and was amazed the Kweli was still going. In typical unique style instead of concluding the performance and declaring that he “loved” Sydney and departing, Kweli casually invited audience members from the front row up to the stage for a dance. So with 50 adoring fans on stage Kweli hosted a mini dance party with his DJ spinning hip hop classics including Biggie and Snoop whilst casually dropping a verse in between posing for photos with fans. The distinction between Performer and Fans was effortlessly blurred as all people and lovers of hip hop danced the night away. Simply the best end to a concert I have ever seen.

Get the aforementioned collaborative tracks with Mos and Kanye as a bonus.

Definition – Talib Kweli & Mos Def

Get Em High – Kanye West (Feat Talib Kweli & Common)

The Big Pink – Live

I recently went along to the Metro to see The Big Pink with girlfriend as my fellow attendee. We arrived early enough to catch the tail end of An Horse, a cute guitar ‘n’ drums duo who pumped out simple yet catchy indie-grunge tunes. The room was sparsely populated and I noticed that large black curtains had been draped halfway down the stairs to limit the venue’s space. Obviously not a sell-out show, which was a surprise as I thought I had a hot little ticket in my hand, apparently only lukewarm.

The room did however fill out a little more in time for the main act. Despite already knowing “A Brief History of Love“ was their debut record I somehow expected the band to be a little older, and perhaps a little more mature. From the moment they walked out on stage they seemed very much enamored with the notion of Rock ‘n’ Roll stardom and although the enthusiasm was genuine it just felt a tad underwhelming considering the size of the venue and the lack of bodies filling it. That being said they did manage to put together a tight set and extracted some interesting sounds from their guitars despite the formulaic approach of their songwriting. At times the sound touched on something very similar to the Smashing Pumpkins, which for me was personally quite nostalgic and enjoyable although it did feel somewhat derivative.

By the end of the set I felt weary from hearing ALL of the tracks from the album. As with most new artists with only one record behind them it can often feel like you’re listening to their sole album on shuffle, except the live version has taken the polish off the tight studio tracks.

All in all the gig was decent. I did leave feeling slightly underwhelmed but I attribute this to my high anticipation of the performance beforehand. Still very enjoyable and it will be interesting to see how they progress their sound on the second release.

Velvet is available below for you to sample.

Velvet – The Big Pink

Dirty Projectors, Clean Sound

The  Dirty Projectors recently played the Metro in Sydney and I was eagerly attending. The band has broad significance in the indie crowd being one of the “IT” bands of 2009 but also great personal significance as an example of the power of music blogs. I first discovered the band mid last year whilst browsing my favorite blog aggregator, and the name caught my eye. My 9-to-5 is audio visual at a large institution in Sydney and one of the various duties is data projector cleaning and maintenance. Naturally, I couldn’t scroll past such an amusing name. Thus my love affair with the band began.

It was a breezy night in early autumn. My friend had a cold and was hiding his puffy face behind an oversized hoodie. His brother had embellished his outfit with a set of recently purchased Lady Gaga headphones. We seamlessly slipped in to the uber trendy Indie crowd. The atmosphere was full of anticipation and the general feeling of hype contrasted sharply to the diluted feel of The Big Pink gig a few days earlier. Rightfully so too as the performance did not disappoint.

Quite simply, Dirty Projectors are a quirky band that has somehow managed to unify the diverse talents and styles of the individual members into a coherent and downright impressive sound. This is some great feat considering the uniqueness of their sound, and of course the quality. Their quirkiness translates effortlessly onto the stage. Frontman Dave Longstreth sashays around the stage with pigeon-like neck movements as he thrusts and jives along to the groove of his frantic and deadly accurate top string melodies. Jive and groove are appropriate terms to use as the Projectors’ songs, particularly the slower, percussion driven tracks, definitely have a distinct soulful feel to them that infects the hips. Their upbeat tracks are often relentless and energising and remind us that, although a tres cool Indie band, this is still rock ‘n’ roll. Longstreth is not alone in accomplished musical dexterity. The 6-piece band is well balanced but front-lady pair Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian standout technically and melodically as their intertwining vocal harmonies are a key feature of the band’s sound . Of particular note is Amber’s guitar skill which compliments Longstreth’s style perfectly. The Frontman matches Coffman’s soprano bursts with his own accomplished vocal delivery and confident falsetto, all whilst his fingertips simultaneously dance along the fretboard.

The highlights of the performance were the duet between Longstreth and Deradoorian on Two Doves and the encore performance of Cannibal resource. This was one of the stand-out gigs that I have been to recently. These guys are in their super cool prime so make sure you check them out live if you get the chance. Two samples off Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors cut from last year, are available below: The aforementioned “Two Doves” and of course “Stillness is the Move”, two standout out tracks from the album.

Two Doves – Dirty Projectors

Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors