solwat?

Regina Spektor can do no wrong. Over the course of a six-album career, she’s released increasingly bubbly and enticing tunes that pull the listener into a whirlpool of ‘quirk’ and ‘charm’ like a talented Zooey Deschanel, dropping pseudo-scat and a massive vocal range into folk-pop while creating uniquely powerful musical moments.

Her latest record, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats is an eleven-track exercise in the unsurprising. Not in the way your three-bottle hangover is unsurprising, but in the way that freshly baked pretzels are a genuinely failsafe day-maker: light, crisp and a little buttery, but incredible nonetheless.

Read the rest of my hella lovely review in Brag 464 (May 28) or right here.

Today, in “things that fucking blew my mind”, “boobytrap” is “partyboob” backwards. It’s a struggle to deal with this, I know - but we’ll cope, we’ll make it through.

Wondering why things have been quiet on this front, oh my brothers? It’s pretty simple, pretty swish - I’ve been on tour with Chance Waters for the past month, which while glorious, fun and super-sweet takes all kinds of energy. 

It’s hard to play banjo, guys.

Anyway, tour finishes up this weekend - playing The Evelyn in Melbourne on Friday, alongside Seth Sentry and Kryptic. Saturday, we’re at FBi Social. Not many tickets left for either shows, but it’d be great to have all y’all down there, celebrating the internet and life in general.

Also, the track above is our new single, Maybe Tomorrow. I think it’s a whole lotta fun. I’m not going to beg, but if you like it, request it on triple j or something.

Spent Sunday afternoon down by the MCA, meditating with Sydney’s super MedMob. It was more than a little bit chill(y). 

Check it out. 

"It’s the difference between buying Tim-Tams and home brand ‘chocolate biscuits’ – essentially the same thing, and initially you don’t notice the difference. But after a couple of bites, your entire being feels tainted and you swear you’ll never buy them again. But you will, and you should – they change the recipe all the time, and there’s a chance they’ll get better. Just like Oceanics."

Oceanics - Bright People EP from The Brag (Issue 459, April 23)

Elizabeth Rose, one of Sydney’s strongest electronic artists has just dropped a new video clip that eradicates any need/desire I’ve ever had to take drugs (by being as much of a trip as anything ever produced by nature/science, not by scaring my soul out of its shell).

The clip, for her latest single Ready, is psychadelia in super crisp, sweet HD. At moments like a Luhrmann green-fairy trip, it’s primarily a superchromatic spin through a live song - and Elizabeth Rose’s hypnotic voice and musical inflection.

Elizabeth Rose has her production - live and on record - nailed down, and it’s good to see that polish translating into a visual format. Rose herself continues to make engaging and gutsy pop-electronica, above and beyond an increasingly flooded market - and Ready is no exception.

You should check her out on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or Rdio (if you’re into that).

"Instead of a fully developed experience, Lowlakes’ EP is a casual users’ guide to the ephemeral – an abridged how-to of subtlety and understatement, wrapped in beautiful orchestration. Lowlakes’ failing is to be too careful and pretty – sacrificing hard release and catharsis to create a musical ideal."

Lowlakes - Lowlakes EP from The Brag (Issue 458, April 16)

Sydney super-slashie extraordinaire Brendan Maclean has a new video clip. Simply shot and completely charming, the video continues Maclean’s run of top act music videos. 

Often music videos miss the entire concept of plot, sacrificing it for beauty and vague visual glory.  There is a moment in the clip for OnlyOnly where it runs along the edge of a plotless razor - but in the last moments, delivers the story in it’s entirety.

Pleasure delay (or timed release) is a rare blessing, but it happens right here. Props to director Andrew Bennett for doing something different (and doing it well). 

So, you should check it out. If you don’t want to, that’s cool too, but you’ll probably have a bad day because of it. Here is great music with a great video - and who doesn’t love great things?

(For reference, I now play bass for Brendan - but as you can tell by Tom Tilley’s appearance in this clip, I didn’t at the point of filming and thus my integrity remains intact. Plus I really do love this clip, and the music Brendan makes. ‘nuff said.)

My SC2 partner, friend and all-round good-guy Ben Abraham did this awesome (and I mean, legitimately awesome - featured on Kotaku!) video essay on Attention and Immersion in gaming. Even if you’re not into gaming, you should watch - there are some damn fine points, and Ben’s voice is sweet n’ sxc. 

All Hail Lord Ben.

My sweet ladyfriend Mary Prince with a baby green tree frog this weekend just gone at my parents house in Wee Waa.

Both are equal levels of cute, IMO. 

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