Somnambulus

Music has a fine wife in lyrics.  They can partner evenly, but often we focus on the carrier of the name.  Good music is enhanced by great lyrical content and form, that leads by sensitivity and purpose. Then there are songwriters who redefine the boundary.  That enable us to see the ordinary with a new perspective that encourages the recalibration of expectations. Rabbits Wedding are understated - and also in that strange way that you won't find too much written about them anywhere these days.  That ambiguous and beautiful legacy of pre-internet identity: when what you can uncover about the obscure and worthy is a truly rare and remarkable find. Even rarer, I would guess, is coming across the albums these days.  You will find a little of their work on YouTube.  But their output was more limited than may have been expected.  Or maybe it could be.  The unusual is often unsustainable.  Even in the fecund musical environment of Sydney in t...

There is a good range of contemporary music playing in this town, but there aren't many gigs you can go to and would have the privilege to say -- in twenty or even thirty years time -- I was there.  These days, bands aren't as shambolic or erratic as they were: lead singers remember the words, band members turn up, dangerous items are not thrown to or from the stage, and punters generally do not walk out of a gig bloodied or harmed.  Not that it used to happen often, but it happened surely enough. Seeing music and live performances is pretty safe these days.  You can't even passively smoke, which is also a benefit.  I didn't grow up in Melbourne.  I grew up almost everywhere but here.  The best part of my time was spent in Sydney.  All of Australia's most influential music passed through that town, but not all of it got off the ground.  It was there I saw drunken lead singers slouch off the stage mid-song and mid-set after floundering in their...

Seminal records are not written every day, and some are found in retrospect.  They are determined by the ground they break, the level of subtlety that most others cannot achieve, and their authenticity.  Authenticity that is derived from the connection and interpretation of a source that has crossed the track, often against volition.  The drive to resurface is fuelled by volatility.  That is what distinguishes vibrant, challenging, visceral work that redefines our understanding. It's easy to follow behind those who have already cut through ahead.  It is easy to write sweet, fluffy melodies that catch like cotton wool.  Anything that makes a difference to how we understand goes further and deeper.  And its impression lasts that long. Great music often has a great pedigree.  The collaborators on Sour Mash are epic in every respect.  Tex Perkins is joined by the imitable Kim Salmon, the spanking Spencer Jones, cardinal drummer James Baker, a...