Single Review: Gabriella Cohen 'Bitter Blues'

Gabriella Cohen is a name that has been popping up a lot lately in the Brisbane music scene, due to the success of her blues garage group The Furrs. What we didn’t know is that Gabriella is also developing solo material on the side, with the recently released Bitter Blues being our first preview. 

Sometimes when an artist releases solo material on the side the gesture can feel a little redundant, but luckily, this hardly the case at all for Gabriella Cohen, with Bitter Blues demonstrating a much more subdued take on the sixties blues revival sound of The Furrs that justifies its solo production. You could say the same song could be performed with the entirety of The Furrs to achieve a greater impact, but then many of the finer details ofBitter Blues would be completely lost. Whilst the style is still blues, the focus has been redirected from the scratchy guitar sounds that define The Furrs to Gabriella’s eloquent voice and the song’s lyrics.

Indeed, with any minimalist style of music the artist’s voice often has to perform at a higher level without the support of a full band; you could even say that when it comes to folk music, the artist’s voice is the main instrument. Thus is the reason why Gabriella’s Bitter Blues is highly effective; her strong Karen-O reminiscent vocals carry the tune all the way to the end, wonderfully layered with dreamy backing vocals.

As for the lyrics, like all good folk tunes, Bitter Blues tells a story. Whilst the idea of the song is nothing new as a brokenhearted love ballad exploring themes of alienation, Gabriella has a knack for wording emotions and ideas with creativity and flair, opening with the killer hook, ‘I sold my soul to a cigarette/my mind’s okay, but my body’s spent’. Her writing style is down to earth and honest, as is the song itself, with a raw and visceral delivery from Gabriella nicely contrasted against a subdued, delicate guitar sound that allows Gabriella’s voice to express the emotions of the song.

Often music can become over-complicated by a convoluted line-up of instruments, effect pedals and a host of other means that can breathe live into an otherwise simple tune. But with Bitter Blues, the simplicity of the song feels fresh; sometimes all you need is a good melody, a nice voice and some meaningful lyrics to create a dynamic song, which is precisely what Bitter Blues is.

Festival Review: Splendour In the Grass 2014

Whilst Splendour In the Grass has become renowned for its impressive headliners over the past decade, a large part of the festival’s appeal, and some of its best moments, belong to many of the smaller up and coming bands on the line-up, which was certainly the case for the 2014 edition of Splendour of the Grass. 

Much of the hype surrounding this year’s festival was connected to Outkast’s first Australian show as the complete Outkast outfit, and whilst their show was stellar and as much a spectacle as was expected by festivalgoers, the truly sublime moments at Splendour were far smaller and more intimate in nature, well, at least in comparison to the elaborateness of Outkast’s show.

The true knockout performers at this year’s Splendour proved to be English electropop group Metronomy, who really stood out from the rest of the pack with their highly inventive experimental indie sound. The band’s Saturday evening set provided a good overview of their discography, but at times it also felt very disjointed, which is of course related to Metronomy’s noteworthy evolution from instrumental electropop to more vocal-led tracks in recent years.

The band started with two songs from 2008’s Nights Out – Radio Ladio and Holiday, both of which are primarily instrumental 80s inspired synth tunes.  Whilst these two songs functioned as a great opener by establishing an upbeat mood, the band’s transition into the more minimalist electronic material from 2014’s Love Letters did feel a little jarring and somewhat disrupted the mood. Audiences responded most enthusiastically to Metronomy’s older dancier material, but it was the more intimate songs from their latest albums that provided some of the most poignant moments of the set, such as Everything Goes My Way, I’m Aquarius and The Month of Sundays, perfectly placed at the tail end of the set. At times the group’s quirky set up, with the band dressed in matching attire and performing some staged synchronised dance moves, felt a little too self-aware and somewhat detracted from their otherwise fantastic performance.

Also playing on Saturday was American solo-artist Sky Ferreira, who played a handful of songs from her debut record Night Time, My Time, as well as the song that catapulted her into the spotlight, Everything Is Embarrassing. At first glance Ferreira may seem just like any other manufactured pop starlet, but her vibrant set at Splendour proved she is anything but. Ferreira’s unique sound is the combination of a range of eclectic influences, from 80s synthpop to new wave and, more recently, indie rock. The result is a superbly fresh sound that boasts a distinctive 80s retro aesthetic, but hardly sounds derivative. Although it is interesting to note the variety of influences Ferreira incorporates into her own sound, the key to Ferreira’s magic formula is really her ability to write memorable pop songs, as well as her killer voice, which was immaculate throughout the entire set. The first half of Ferreira’s set showcased the best she had to offer, with songs such as 24 Hours, Ain’t Your Right, Boys, Omanko and I Blame Yourself played back to back, all of which hold up as equally superb pop songs. Omanko in particular stood out as featuring a more mature shoe-gaze influenced sound that it would be great to see Ferreira explore in more depth on future records. The second half of the set, which featured some songs from Ferreira’s EP Ghost, was stellar, but did not hold up as well as her opening songs.

As dusk fell Chvrches played to a packed out Amphitheatre crowd on Sunday evening, offering up their take on the synthpop genre. The group opened with hit after hit, playing We Sink, Lies, Lungs and Gun. Although Chvrches were on top of their game, delivering a pitch-perfect set, there was a sense of predictability to their performance and it would be great to hear some new stuff from the band or even some covers. Tunes like Recover and The Mother We Share inspired the most rambunctious crowd response, but it was the bass heavy track Science and Visions that stood out as the most layered and dynamic tune and best utilised the vast Amphitheatre space. As usual, Lauren Mayberry was a delight to watch, offering several memorable moments of banter, such as when she compared a glow-stick thrown on stage to a tampon, and then suddenly realised, “I’m probably the only person to talk about tampons on stage at Splendour.”

Also worth mentioning for their spin on the synthpop genre on Sunday evening was England’s Wild Beasts. The band had a lot of hype surrounding them prior to their set, which unfortunately, they did not really live up to – lacking the vibrancy that makes groups like Chvrches and Metronomy endlessly listenable. Whilst Wild Beasts do have their own sound, a darker and more sprawling take on the synthpop genre, it sounded a little bland in comparison to other bands on the line-up.

Closing Sunday’s festivities was Darkside, who proved to have the most mature and nuanced take on the electronica genre, providing an artful slowed-down jazz-inspired rendition of electronic dance music. It is difficult to compare a group like Darkside to the more indie-pop styles of the other bands discussed in this review, but nevertheless, Darkside stole the show Sunday evening, relying on zero stage gimmicks to entice the audience, with the duo bathed in darkness for the majority of the set.The duo played a handful of songs from their conceptual debut album Psychic, beginning with an exotic drum solo that segues into the lo-fi noise pop tune Freak Go Home. Because many of their songs run about seven minutes long audiences were only privy to a preview of the band's album. It would have been great to hear the whole thing played from start to finish, as all conceptual albums should be heard, but what was heard was evidence enough of the band’s robust talent.

In contrast to all of the different takes on the electronica genre provided by Metronomy, Sky Ferriera, Chvrches, Wild Beasts and Darkside, were the more down to earth garage tones of Parquet Courts and Skaters, as well as the bluesy rock n roll style of The Strypes. All three bands inspired reasonable crowds and most importantly, provided a much-needed rock n roll presence on a heavily electronic lineup.

Parquet Courts’ crowd were particularly enthusiastic, with a sizeable group of male fans congregating at the bottom of the Amphitheatre stage and forming a circle pit during the band’s more popular tunes. The excitement of Parquet Courts' fans was understandable, as the band delivered a high energy set, but most importantly, played a lot of new material for the first time for Australian audiences. Max Savage, the group’s drummer, was unable to tour with the band last year for Laneway Festival and as a result, Parquet Courts decided to hold off on playing a lot of their new material until their return, which was wonderfully debuted at Splendour.

Warming up the Amphitheatre stage prior to Parquet Courts’ lively set was New York City’s Skaters. The group offered a similarly raw take on the garage genre, with a rowdy lunchtime set filled with catchy guitar riffs, although at times some of their songs did feel a little predictable. However, for a band who only have one record under their belt, Skaters demonstrated an impressive new sound and a memorable stage presence.

The Strypes had a lot of hype surrounding their name due to their very young age and their many superstar fans, such as Elton John, Jeff Beck and Rodger Daltry, who have all attested to the band’s immense talent. As the boys took the stage they did not quite live up to this image, appearing a little uneasy and meek-faced when they plunged into their set with fast-paced rock n roll anthem Mystery Man. However, the band soon relaxed into their set and began to dominate the stage like true pros, proving all of the claims of their raw talent absolutely true. In particular, Pete O’Hanlon, the group’s bassist and occasional harmonica soloist, maintained a dynamic stage presence; prancing all over the stage and absolutely killing it on the bass guitar. Whilst the group offered little in the way of stage banter, they maintained a strong connection with their audience by using up the entirety of their stage and getting as close as possible to the crowd. Many of the band’s tunes do sound a little too studio-perfect on their record, detracting from the raw rock n roll vibe they’re going for, but this is something that was easily remedied in the live arena.

Whilst the highlights of Splendour In The Grass belonged to many of the up and coming bands as opposed to the headliners, there was no denying New York City indie rock legends Interpol more than lived up to the hype surrounding their return to Australian shores. The band opened with many of their big hits, playing Say Hello to the Angels, Evil, C’mere and Hands Away back to back, all of which sounded as great as when they were first released, but the biggest surprise during Interpol’s set was how well the band’s new material held up against their old hits. The band followed with new tune My Desire, which featured a darker and more sombre sound, as well as playing their latest single All the Rage Back Home. It would have been great to hear some more new songs from Interpol, but I guess the band had plenty of classic tracks their Australian fans were eager to hear. Interpol finished off their set with one of their most popular and beloved tracks Slow Hands, which left me ravenous for their forthcoming fifth studio album.

Although this year’s Splendour lineup had me worried about the lack of diversity, this perception was proved wrong as the festival demonstrated a nice display of innovative electronica, pop music, folk, indie rock and garage, despite the fact that this was not exactly an even balance. But, if you get to the festival early enough and have a nice walkabout, it is easy to find plenty of diverse talents at Splendour representing a variety of genres of music.

Interview: Richard Jupp from Elbow

Melancholic Manchester legends Elbow have just announced tour dates in Australia for this October and with that good news we also bring you an interview from yesterday with Elbow's drummer, Richard Jupp.

Read on to see what Jupp had to say about Elbow's new recording process, the wide variety of Elbow fans in Moscow and Latvia, the band's new stage dynamic and what the term 'album band' means. 

Just to start off with tonight, can you tell us some more about Elbow’s upcoming touring schedule? Nothing has been officially published about Australian dates, but we have heard some rumours over here.

Some rumours…well, we are coming over in October to play some shows. It’s not a really long tour, but we can’t wait to come back.

Yeah, we’re looking forward to it as well.

It will be great. I can do some surfing while we’re over there as well. Yeah, it will be nice.

It will definitely be the right time for that, it’s really cold at the moment, but by October it should start to heat up nicely.

Oh that’s good. Though actually, we’re a UK band so we like the cold.

So what can Australian audiences expect from these upcoming live shows? Any surprises in store, or the same sort of set up as last time?

It will be different...smaller, more intimate gigs are what we look to do…and what we hope to do really well.  Our LD Cate Carter is an absolute genius at making us look good. We’ve got new tracks to play and we’ll be getting back to The Tivoli in Brisbane and doing the opera house, I mean, how amazing is that. We’re just looking forward to getting over there.

That’s definitely a huge milestone here, for any band - playing the opera house. It’s a lovely venue.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So what kind of set list are you planning? It sounds like you’ll be playing lots of new stuff, but will you include plenty of the old hits too?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. We will definitely be playing the hit. It’s like a different journey throughout sets from when we started in…was it March? We’ve done some big arena sets, then we had the festival sets. So we’re kind of getting a sense of what works. I think we’ve got about five new ones and then obviously we’ve got the sort of mellow earlier tunes. But we’ll sort of see when we’re over there. It’s always nice to be able vary the set and try not to depend on the hit.

So you’ve played all over the world. Can you tell me about some of your different fan-bases and where you enjoy playing the most?

Um…fan-bases…it’s kind of weird, we were at Glastonbury this year and it was quite funny, I was backstage at the hospitality tent, we were hiding from the rain because it was sort of lashing down. And you’ve got all these celebrities and bands knocking about and the only person who said ‘oh my god, it’s the drummer from Elbow’ was this security guard who was about 55, lovely, lovely guy, but he was the only person who said ‘oh look there’s that guy from Elbow’. My wife was sort of, you know, sniggering a little bit, but I thought it was quite cool. So we stopped to have a chat or whatever. But then when we played in Moscow there was a load of 20 to 25 year old kids who were going mental at our stuff, which we found really strange. And the same in Latvia, people going absolutely mental, but they were sort of 20…22. It’s really weird because we’re sort of a middle aged band, literally a middle-aged band, and we’re still, you know, we’re still going.

Well to be fair you have produced a lot of new material as well, do you think that’s brought in a lot of the younger fans?

Yeah, I think so. I think it’s just…well, I don’t know what it is. When it hits, it hits. You just never know. When we brought Build a Rocket Boys! out, you know, the biggest tune, really, on that, was with the kids. So I don’t know.

So you guys have some new material that you’re going to play for us when you come over here…can you tell me about the ways in which you guys changed your writing or recording practises for this new stuff?

We’ve worked kind of….not separately, but we kind of worked differently. The track Real Life was pretty much written by Craig at home and then he brought that in. Honey Sun was written by Mark at home, he brought it in and we tried to put drums on it, some strings and some chords, but nothing would work. So what you hear on the record is his home recording, which is amazing. And also Colour Fields, which was completely written by Pete at home. So it was a bit of a departure for us as a band, but it kind of worked really, really well. One of us would take a day off during the week so there would be a different kind of dynamic. You know, so if I wasn’t in, I’d be writing at home, then on the next day someone else would take a day off. So it wasn’t all of us all the time, which was kind of good for us.

Do you think this new approach has created a more fractured or divided sound?

I don’t know. I think it was just a quicker way of working. Another major factor was that we had Danny Evans, our front of house engineer, which gave Craig a little bit of a break from us seeing the back of his head when he would be editing. That was…that sort of made it a little more old school, back to the gang mentality. It was just us five in the room. So I don’t know whether it was fractured, I think it’s just given us a bit more confidence individually and it also sort of brought us together even more. Because when you’ve got a day off you want to sort of get back into it. You feel like you’re missing out. And it keeps that hunger, d’you know what I mean? It kind of seems weird in hindsight, but at the time it worked really well. 

So Elbow has been referred to as an ‘album band’ by a bunch of journalists who sort of latched onto the term after Guy Garvey coined the term himself. What does this term mean to you and how accurate do you think it is?

I think it’s really accurate. I think for me, it’s that body of work. That old vinyl mindset. I mean, I was never a vinyl head, but I can completely see what the attraction was. It was almost like a ceremony, you know you’d put it on, plug your head headphones in and play it from start to finish and then you’d turn it over, and you’ve got another journey. You’ve got 10 or 11 tracks and you’d listen to them in sequence in one sitting. And I think that for us is really important - that you have a journey and do have a sense of an A and a B side. You want to listen to a track with a segue that goes into another track because every segue takes you on a different journey and sets you up for the next track.

But you know, with the sort of frenetic life everybody leads there’s never time for anything, so we want to produce something that could possibly stop you for 50 minutes, when you can just sit down and press play and be taken you to another place. I think it’s all about trying to block a certain amount of time out of this insane world with kids, jobs, work, mates, and everything. It’s like when you get a good book and all you want to do is sit down and read that book.

Yeah, from start to finish.

That’s what we want with our albums, for people to listen to them from start to finish.

I think people are doing that a lot more at the moment with the vinyl revival going on at the moment, but do you think all the downloading and all that sort of stuff has somewhat compromised this?

I think it’s made it a little more exclusive. What you were saying about the vinyl revival…it’s like a thing. But then you’ve got all the people who like to download one track, so there’s a market for that, but there’s also enough room for albums. There’s plenty of people out there. You know, I speak to a lot of people who download music and don’t really sit down and listen to music, but when I play them stuff, it’s kind of a benchmark. If they go ‘oh yeah, yeah that’s really good’, that for me is great because I don’t want them to get all serious about music…it’s like, okay, would you listen to that if it was played on the radio and if they say, ‘yeah’, well…these are the kind of people who use social media. And that way of marketing, it’s brilliant, you know, it’s out there and there are millions of people looking at it. Sorry, I’m rambling on here. Getting back to the point that I’m actually trying to make here; do your downloads, download your one track, stream it, whatever, but there’s also a lot of people who want to listen to a whole album.

There’s definitely options for everybody, maybe that’s why you’ve managed to break the 20-something market with all the downloading and social media press, so I guess there’s a silver lining, even if being an album band does become something exclusive to a particular demographic of fans.

Absolutely, absolutely. And also for playing live. People can travel, people can get to a lot of European festivals further afield and vice versa, so you get to see more people live and for less money.

The Best Up and Coming Acts Playing Splendour In The Grass

Splendour In The Grass is one of Queensland’s largest festivals, and for many Queenslanders, one of our only chances to catch international bands during their busy touring schedules.

Whilst Splendour always boasts a wide variety of popular bands, it is also a great chance to catch more underground acts destined to break it big time. If you look back at any of the past Splendour line-ups you will see a host of massively successful bands playing an early daytime slot from back when they had just started out.

Skaters: Sunday, 12:45 pm

This year’s Splendour features a whole lot of electronica and not a lot of down to earth rock music, something this is becoming more and more apparent every year. Skaters are of the latter variety and will hopefully inspire enough dirty rock n roll antics to make up for this year’s serious lack of garage. Like many great rock groups, Skaters came into form at a house party in the summer of 2011 when songwriter Michael Ian Cummings met English guitarist Josh Hubbard. Fast forward a few months and Cummings got a call from Hubbard inquiring about the possibility of getting a group together. From there on the pieces all fell together as Cummings enlisted the help of drummer Noah Rubin and bassist Dan Burke, and Skaters was officially formed. Later that year the group’s fate was sealed as they signed with Warner Bros. and then eventually released their debut album Manhattan to near universal acclaim. This is the kind of band that embody all the myths about rock n roll in New York City.

Broods: Sunday, 1:45 pm

Broods are one of many minimalist electronic groups popping up as of late, somewhat riding the coattails of Lorde’s massive success, with more than a few similarities evident between the two, including the facts that both hail from New Zealand and share the producer Joel Little. Broods consists of one part Georgia Notts and one part Caleb Nott, brother and sister. The duo veer the line between indie cool and generic pop a little too closely at times, but there is definitely enough incentive to check out their Sunday afternoon set. Whilst their single Bridges put them under the spotlight, it is some of the more downbeat, melancholic tunes on their EP, such as Sleep Baby Sleep that really stand out as having a lot of potential.

Ásgeir: Saturday, 5:30 pm

Fans of singer-songwriter John Grant may have already heard Asgeir’s debut album, In The Silence, as Grant was enlisted to translate the album into English and then eventually helped to create an English reproduction. For most people, however, Asgeir’s melodic folk will be an entirely new sound.  Asgeir Trausti Einarsson, the man behind ‘Asgeir’, harks all the way from Iceland, which certainly shows on his album with his trademark accented vocals. The sensitive and vulnerable lyrics evoke a Bon Iver aesthetic, whilst the ethereal backdrop brings to mind Sigur Ros, just the kind of hybrid that would likely appeal to a Splendour regular.

Darkside: Sunday, 10:30 pm

Okay, there’s a reason Darkside is closing out the festival on Sunday evening and that’s because they are one of the most exciting and innovative acts to play this year’s festival. Fans of Nicholas Jarr will have probably heard Darkside’s debut album, as the singer-songwriter forms one half of the duo, along with Dave Harrington. Whilst Darkside continues to buster the electronic trend of this year’s festival, the duo bring their own unique stamp to the genre, creating a fusion of old school 70s rock n roll vibes with an otherworldly electronic aesthetic. Fans of Darkside and Jarr would also do well to check out Jarr’s DJ set later that night.

Darlia: Friday, 12:45 pm

Amongst the onslaught of diverse, if not somewhat generic electronic acts featured on this festival’s lineup, is Darlia, a Blackpool grunge revivalist group you can file next to Drenge and Royal Blood. The band have generated a fair amount of hype following the release of their EP Candyman, which spurred a few Nirvana and Placebo comparasions and landed them a spot on the Splendor In The Grass lineup. The band’s Australian tour, including their sideshows in Melbourne and Sydney, marks frontman Nathan Day’s first plane trip – not a bad way to celebrate the occasion.

First Aid Kit: Sunday, 7:00 pm

Whilst we have talked a fair bit about the inundation of electronica at this year’s Splendour, there also seems to be a bit of a folk trend going on. One such artist is the Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit, consisting of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. Rather then being overly sentimental or minimalist acoustic like many of the indie folk groups that have headed Splendor, First Aid Kit are refreshingly rich and down to earth. They're one of those one in a million Youtube success stories, rising to prominence in 2008 when their video cover of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song spread their name across the internet, even though they were already fairly well-known in Sweden.They released their debut album in 2010 and have since then being going strong both in their homeland and in their international circuit; this year's Splendour will surely see them break through the Australian market.

DMA’s: Friday, 1:15 pm

We’ve talked about DMA's enough on AAA so I won't detail the band’s short history, but suffice to say, if you arrive early enough on Friday afternoon, DMA’s are one act not to miss. Their first tour of Australia earlier this year proved the band could live up to the hype generated after they were signed to I OH YOU with only one song recorded, with their exclusive spot on the Splendor line-up only cementing the success that is surely lurking right around the corner for DMA’s. With their sunny Britpop inspired sound DMA’s are sure to stand out against this year’s electronic drenched line-up.

The Preatures: Friday, 2:40 pm

Even though they haven’t even released a debut album yet it is somewhat controversial to classify The Preatures as an ‘underground’ act considering how much press has surrounded their name in the past year. Their hit song Is This How You Feel? circulated Australian radio stations for months last year and landed a spot in the top ten of Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown. This year they’ve released a second single, Two Tone, boasting a dreamy 70s rock n roll vibe that nicely demonstrates the group’s wide range. Their upcoming debut album is surely one of the most hyped up Australian releases for this year and Splendor will be Australian audiences’ first chance to preview some new material.

The Strypes: Friday, 4:00 pm

When you look at The Strypes images of The Strokes, Jake Bugg and The Arctic Monkeys all spring to mind, and a hybrid of all these artists and their old school blues influences is not a bad way of describing how The Strypes sound. Whilst The Strypes have been kicking around since 2011, they’ve only released one album so far, but they’re not exactly an under the radar sort of band, having garnered the praise of Elton John (who signed them to his label), the ever voluble Noel Gallagher, Jeff Beck and Roger Daltry, amongst many others. The Strypes make music that truly recalls yesteryear, a neo-early-sixties sound that strikes a great balance between nostalgia and a more modern day rock n roll attitude.