Sydney’s music scene is still feeling a little down and out these days, what with all of the venue closures gripping this vibrant city. That’s why this news is just so damn beautiful. A piece of the city’s musical heritage is back from the dead with The Lansdowne Hotel reopening its doors over the weekend. After a near 90 year run, the historic venue closed shop back in 2015 following the introduction of the lockout laws, as well as a number of other setbacks.
Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham of Mary’s/Unicorn Hotel fame have teamed up with The Annandale’s Matt Rule to breathe new life into one of Sydney’s lasting mid-sized venues, following the demise of the Newtown Social Club. They have moved the live music portion upstairs and kept downstairs free for daily trade i.e. punters who just want to play a game of pool and throw back a Mary’s Burger pizza (as you do).
To announce their resurrection, the guys decided to throw a four-day-long party featuring a bunch of absolutely stellar names, including The Preatures, Palms, The Pinheads, Skegss, and Sydney’s own supergroup A Band.
Comprised of Elliott Hammond and Michael Tramonte (The Delta Riggs), Thomas Champion (The Preatures), Paddy Cornwall, Seamus Coyle and Freddy Crabs (Sticky Fingers), they belted out a slew of covers along with some special guests, including Royal Headache’s Tim “Shogun” Hall, Gideon Bensen, Hayley Mary of The Jezabels and Johnny Took (DMA’s) on slide guitar duties.
We snapped up all of this and Skegss at the tail-end of a massive Sunday lineup, flawlessly closing out the four-day bender.
Needless to say, we’re stoked to have The Lansdowne back and are looking forward to a sweaty mess of new memories.
A Band
Skegss
Photos: Dani Hansen
It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet, of this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Midas.Gold – 000000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzODkysbl3c
Part of a new wave of fantastically fresh Aussie hip-hop coming straight from Brisbane’s underground is Midas.Gold, who earlier this week came out swinging with a video for his new single 000000.
If you dig trap rappers like Future or Travi$ Scott and reckon they’d go alright with just a hint of Australian flavour then Midas.Gold is straight up your alley. This one is definitely fiery, backed by stellar production from the Bedlam Records crew with the MC declaring ‘I swear to God it’s dollar time’. It just might be for the Brisbane MC, not a lot of Australian hip-hop is taking a direction like this and he’s done so with aplomb.
The music video is a ripper too, Midas.Gold and crew having a great old time atop one of Brisbane’s many inner city carparks (shouts out to the security guard who politely rolls past the whole show in his golf cart) and the heart of Queen Street Mall. There’s lightning flashing in the background but the real lightning is the stuff Midas.Gold has captured in a bottle here on 000000. Stick that in your pipe and huff it, Allday.
Dan Kelly – Everything’s Amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3qHtacVMY
Things you didn’t know about the nephew of Australia’s greatest Kelly (sorry Ned) Paul, one Dan Kelly: there is no terrain he can’t rock a Korg on, be it on a beach or in a stream, also he can create musical instruments using lightning beams shot from his hands. That’s if you take his latest music video for single Everything’s Amazing! as gospel (I am).
Taken from his 2015 LP Leisure Panic, The track itself is a serene, happy-go-lucky love song and will have you nodding your head in utter contentment. The video for Everything’s Amazing! features some absolutely jaw-dropping natural landscapes in both Cambodia and in Dan’s local Victoria. He gets right in touch with Mother Nature for this one. Featuring flying CGI dolphins and galloping horses while Dan and friends sip coconuts on bamboo rafts, have singalongs on tree branches and do a spot of holistic (probably) dancing here and there, it’s got just everything you want there to be in a music video by far.
The Blaze – Virile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UivZrL2znh0
Popping across the Atlantic for a stop in France for this next one, with French production duo The Blaze and their new single Virile.
It’s a dark and stormy cut just made for the midnight hour, a mellowed out backbeat buoying along some bass-heavy vocals, the synths kicking the door in around the halfway mark make the whole thing just soar. The video depicts what looks like a real good boys night in, an apartment full of dancing and durries and great times between the pair, the bromance spending the entirety of the music video teasing a ‘will they or won’t they’ proper romance.
The song can be caught on the aptly in this case titled Bromance Records and their latest compilation album, Homieland Vol. II. Look out for this French duo in the future too.
Oh Wonder – Lose It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgwcPiCjQ-0
Just a hop, skip and a jump across the English Channel into London with duo Oh Wonder for this next video, one that will absolutely tug at your heartstrings.
Lose It is the title, a track from their gobsmacking 2015 self-titled LP: a year-long project that saw a new track released each month. It’s electro-pop that will soothe the soul, gorgeous vocal harmonies dancing with some brassy synths and a lilting piano to create a four minute slice of paradise on the ears.
The video is so refreshingly cool too, Oh Wonder setting up a fake audition for dancers to star in their music video. Each dancer thinks they’re competing for the one spot, it’s only when the confetti explodes from the roof and a horde of backup dancers join them that they realise they’re already starring in the video. Reactions are priceless.
Having just slayed Australia on a tour including stops at Falls Festival, Oh Wonder are poised for a very, very bright future with tracks and visuals as stunning as this.
Eskimoe – The Ceiling (ft. ThisisDA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6avMypJH_E
Sticking in the UK for this next one, although going a little dark and somber. It’s the latest track from Oxford RnB singer Eskimoe, The Ceiling. Gritty and gloomy, an atmospheric backbeat that mimics an English drizzle with Eskimoe’s haunting vocals spread over the top, a featured verse from Bristol MC ThisisDA upping the tempo, the combination creating a lights-off deep thinker of a track.
The video complements the sound wonderfully, grainy black and white shots of the wintery grey skies and ceaselessly tagged buildings of urban Britain that’ll have you thankful for the summer heat of Australia or tugging your jacket a little tighter if you find yourself in the Northern Hemisphere.
Watch the hype for Eskimoe escalate in the very near future.
Run The Jewels – Meowpurrdy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzkkm_m3mVE
Jesus Christ. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate cats for the horrific little creatures that they are, rap kings Run The Jewels are fixing to have me in a cold sweat every night re-visualising their latest music video.
Yes the cat-noise remix album we all didn’t know we needed (we definitely did though) was definitely so much cooler than I initially thought it ever could be. They’ve already released two videos for tracks from the album (both of them terrifying) to date, but this is on another physical plane of nightmare right here.
Made for Meowpurrdy (the remix of initial album-starter Jeopardy), it features a whole lot of melted face and creepily warped out cats all over your screen. Created by English animator Cyriak, it’s a trip and will probably have you glancing at your nearest feline friend forever just to make sure it doesn’t grow a third eye and start trying to murder you. Despite all that cat-induced terror, the song still goes as unbelievably hard as ever and is a nice little reminder that Run The Jewels 3 is imminent…
The Chemical Brothers – Wide Open (ft. Beck)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC2dRkm8ATU
Manchester electronic royalty The Chemical Brothers have a brand new and mindbending music video out this week for their latest single. Taken from their number one album Born In The Echoes from 2015, Wide Open is a cracker, featuring Kanye West‘s favourite Grammy-winner of all time, Beck.
Those same familiar, pulsating beats and synths that The Chemical Brothers have made a multi-decade career out of, with Beck’s unmistakeable voice guiding it all, Wide Open is a banger in every facet. The video ups the ante as well, dancer Sonoya Mizuno reanimated for a dance around an underground parking lot in ways that will have you double-taking at the sheer effort the visual effects team have gone to here.
Stellar and creative through the absolute roof, you’d expect nothing less from a duo as seasoned as The Chemical Brothers.
The Rubens – Hold Me Back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs58pcvDsXA
Fresh off of taking out 2016’s Triple J Hottest 100 in polarising fashion, The Rubens aren’t resting on their laurels for a second. Immediately after taking out perhaps the biggest bragging rights in Australian music for chart burner Hoops, the boys have hit up with a video for their latest single Hold Me Back.
The video is a warm and fuzzy, sepia-toned snapshot of Australia. It might as well have been any number of Hottest 100 parties this year, verandah drinks and beach trips set to a soundtrack of world-beating modern Australian rock interspersed with shots of the band rehearsing and fooling around, the whole thing culminating in one of their mammoth live shows with frontman Sam Margin crowdsurfing in an inflatable pool.
Say what you will about The Rubens, this latest music video is a cracker and a snapshot into their lives as a band that fans will appreciate.
Saskwatch
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The Rubens
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After a fortnight of bad press for Stereosonic’s turbo culture, it’s comforting to find that smaller festivals are still capable of filtering out the unwanted shirtless types. Last Sunday began the summer’s first gig under the Rotto Live banner, with Aussie rockers The Rubens and The Panics showcasing their talents on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Rotto Live is held at the Rottnest Hotel on the no-cars-allowed holiday island just off of Perth, where you’re as likely to see a quokka nibbling away at breakfast as you are another person.
The Panics were first up and seemed genuinely refreshed by a visit to their home state, having relocated to Melbourne. Frontman Jay Laffer was resigned to a crowd largely unaware of the band’s music aside from 2007 hit Don’t Fight It, which drew the majority of onlookers to their feet for some good old fashioned groovin’. The relaxed Sunday Sesh crowd warmed to the journeymen’s new material, although the times when multi-talented Jules Douglas (backing vocals, guitar, keyboard) strapped on his guitar could have been reduced. The triple-thronged guitar attack caused a swirling confusion of sound that would have felt more layered and intricate with keys instead of the extra guitar. The Panics ultimately gave a good account with some delicate instrumental work to accompany the narrative-to-your-life style of music they have become known for.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_cK_cIydHY]
New South Welshmen The Rubens kicked their set off with live song Stampy, but it was their third song, Elvis, which dragged the last remaining bums off seats and had people vying to get through to the front of the stage. From then on the band had concert-goers licking their lips in anticipation of the next song from their self-titled 2012 debut album. Highlights included Never Be The Same, which allowed frontman Sam Margin to showcase his vocal talent, as well as much-loved singles Lay It Down and My Gun, which brought the set to a close. The short set left revellers still in need of some dirty dancing tunes, having only just started to kick into gear, and compromised to the tune of Nick Cave’s dark thoughts blaring over the speakers. The Rubens left with a promise to return with a fuller list of songs, and can hardly be blamed for a short set with only one album to their name.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRuZ8OnsCl8]
A packed ferry home allowed the atmosphere to continue onto the mainland, and the presence of The Rubens, beers in respective hands, underlined the communal nature of these ‘boutique’ festivals (Interestingly, and totally irrelevantly, Sam Margin must be in a higher pay bracket than the other band members, it was his shout on the journey home). The idyllic Rotto sunset was the perfect backdrop for the end to a day of quality Aussie indy rock.