Hooveriii (pronounced Hoover 3) are gearing up for the release of their new album ‘Water For The Frogs’. Due for release on April 9th, the new album finds the six person band going deep into guitar driven grooves and heavy psych rock. Taking Bowie’s Berlin trilogy and old Krautrock for influences, the band’s current material sounds both retro and current. There’s a fuzziness to the riffs that could draw in fans of the noisiest end of the indie spectrum, while working a core sound that manages to be experimental yet still strikingly accessible.
EVEN – Down The Shops
There are a lot of Australian bands that have never had a huge breakthrough outside of their home country. For example, Powderfinger, You Am I and Killing Heidi all became massive Aussie stars, but only managed cult followings elsewhere. Even with bands like Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel – very much known entities in Europe and beyond – audiences at their UK live shows have often been packed out with expats on a night out. Maybe it’s merely about geography and finance; Australia seems fairly self-contained and self-sufficient. The lack of major overseas success for many Aussie bands certainly has nothing to do with a lack of talent.
Even are another Aussie rock band that probably won’t mean much to audiences in the northern hemisphere, but they’ve worked hard to build a following since the mid 90s. They’ve worked with Yeah Yeah Yeahs producer Nick Launay, had the legendary Ian McLagan guest on one of their albums, and their 1994 debut ‘Less Is More’ was voted one of the all-time great Australian albums by readers of Melbourne newspaper The Age.
SEA OF SNAKES – World On Fire EP
Although ‘World On Fire’ is the debut release from Californian metal band Sea of Snakes, the musicians involved are anything but fresh faced players just starting out. The core of the band have been fixtures on the stoner metal scene for years, but with ex-Saul of Taurus vocalist Tracy Steiger joining forces with Motorsickle guitarist Jim McCloskey and The Shrine’s Jeff Murray on drums, this is a band with the potential for outgrowing its roots. Sea of Snakes’ debut EP has moments that are far more intense than the gathered musos’ previous works allowed.
4CD deluxe edition of The Fall’s ‘Are You Are Missing Winner’ due in July
Following a string of relatively commercial albums throughout the 90s, The Fall’s music took on a massive shift in the early 2000s. Aided by an entirely new band, Mark E. Smith went back to rough and ready garage rock basics for 2001’s relatively lo-fi ‘Are You Are Missing Winner’.
BEEBE GALLINI – East Side Story EP
Despite being a new band at the time of this release, Beebe Gallini features a few familiar faces from the garage rock scene. Miss Georgia Peach (vox/rhythm guitar) and Travis Ramin (lead guitar/drums) of the Minneapolis band The Short Fuses have joined forces with Strumpet bassist Amy Larson Pearson, but in many ways, this side project is far more than an extension of their previous work. In fact, although first impressions may suggest something more ragged, Beebe Gallini are still broad in appeal. Their five track digital affair ‘East Side Story’ is a fun but ragged affair. Despite any potential roughness, it’s a great showcase for the band in that it shows a massive respect for the past with a couple of top notch covers, and also an optimism for its future with a couple of self-penned rockers that cling onto a similar style. By combining new material and old classics, they truly aim to pull in listeners from far and wide.