Band of the month – 2012 archive

APRIL 2012

New York City’s Hannah Cohen has no releases to her name, not even a single. Instead we have a pair of extraordinary videos (for The Crying Game and Don’t Say) which just arrest you in your tracks through her voice, her presence, and their emotional rawness around the themes of loss and heartbreak. These are two of the ten songs that form part of her debut album, Child Bride, to be released in the UK on 15th April.

So who is Hannah Cohen ? At age 17 she left her home in San Francisco and went to New York where she worked as a model. “I lived in Milan, London, Australia, all over the place. It wasn’t for me, and I never got to the point where I was a huge high-fashion model. Then I started working with artists once I came back to New York to make my life here, because a lot of my friends were in the art world.” She did some work on the other side of the camera, and has had a book of photography published. Meanwhile she’d started teaching herself guitar and writing songs. Being well placed in New York’s music community she was able to get some great musicians to work with. By the time she signed up to the Bella Union label last year the album was already recorded.

If these videos aren’t enough to persuade you to buy the album, here’s the verdict of Flying with Anna (UK music blogger whose judgements are usually impeccable) : “The album weaves between tear drenched tracks, soaked in emotion and guaranteed to spark something in you, tracks like The Crying Game, Sorry and opening track Don’t Say. There are more upbeat numbers like the summery sounding California, and Boy + Angel a cover of a Doveman track, who produced the whole record. There isn’t a track which shies away from the limelight, each deserves its place and its the connections between the tracks on the record, and the atmosphere it creates as a whole album that is so beautiful … Go and buy this record, soak your heart in it and I hope you find as much love in it as I have.”

Hannah Cohen – The Crying Game

Hannah Cohen – Don’t Say

Hannah Cohen – When You Know Why You’re Happy

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MARCH 2012

It’s fast, exuberant, and exciting. Nothing To Do, the debut album by the trio from Australia’s Gold Coast serves up the revved-up garage punk sound of the Black Lips with a 60s girl group flavour. Some reviewers say the album with all its two minute tracks is too short. Hell, no ! All those self important albums that take up over an hour are too long !

Alex Wall (no relation) and Jordan Malane started the Bleeding Knees Club in 2010 and within a few months had released an EP (Virginity). Their sound was still very raw. Since then the sound’s become much tighter while still keeping that lo-fi punk ethos. They’ve brought in a drummer, the production’s improved, and the album as a whole has a satisfyingly rounded feel to it. The main highlight is the revamped version of Teenage Girls. But track after track brings different delights : Alex Wall’s sneering vocals; the spoken intro on Lipstick; the female harmonies on Girls Can Do Anything; and the punchy lyrics with their stories of teen anguish.

On one occasion they were asked to describe their live performances : “Yeah we light everything on fire and vomit on peoples faces then do knee slides across the bar tops while making out with women.” Let’s hope this band don’t grow up too fast or too soon.

The video for Teenage Girls :

Nothing To Do is currently being streamed by an Australian music magazine : tracklisting is 1. Teenage Girls 2. Hate Me 3. Beach Slut 4. Problem Child 5. Girls Can Do Anything 6. Lipstick 7. Boy In Lust 8. Brainwaves 9. Let It Go 10. Nothing To Do 11. Who Are You 12. Same Game

A track from the Virginity EP :

And one by Wax Witches, an Alex Wall side project :

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FEBRUARY 2012

As soon as Rotten on the Vine blared out my speakers I knew I’d found a winner. It’s deliciously dark, dirty and bluesy, defiantly lo-fi, with a great looping beat that keeps you hooked. It’s by a little known band from Florida who go by the name of The Owsley Brothers, and were formed by one Jerad Reynolds.

Reynolds manages a quirky art shop which sells both serious art and whimsical playthings. He’d played in a couple of local bands, playing bluegrass and stuff. He started The Owsley Brothers as a solo project, and a chance to play the garage rock music he loves. As he puts it, the band “showcase his darker punk & blues underbelly: pounding drums, soulful vocals, reverb drenched guitars and undeniably catchy hooks”. It was “a bit of fun”, not intended to lead to anything, and maybe it never will; but before long he was picking up a series of good reviews. He released an EP, Pure Lust, in late 2011 and then the Rotten on the Vine single in January 2012 (both available as free downloads on his bandcamp). An album, Cobalt, is due out March 6th. On the basis of what’s come out so far the album should be well worth waiting for.

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JANUARY 2012

Porcelain Raft are so good that it’s hard to compare them with any other band without doing them a disservice.

Labels like ‘dream pop’ and ‘shoegaze’ have been applied. But again, labels don’t tell half of the story. The songs all convey different moods and emotions. Some are haunting, some are evocative.They also apparently relate to different visual images. According to the record company Secretly Canadian, “the project’s genesis lies in this visual imagery. Over the past year, Remiddi has compiled a catalogue of images — gathered from the various nooks and crannies of the internet — that have served as notes, inspiration, context and a map for Porcelain Raft’s music.”

At this point it should be mentioned that although it has the sound of a band Porcelain Raft is in fact one man, Mauro Remiddi. Remiddi was born in Rome and now lives in London, and has worked on a variety of intriguing projects since the late 90s. As Porcelain Raft he’s released a series of EPs and singles over the past couple of years (all available on Bandcamp), and is now set to release his debut full length album Strange Weekend on January 23rd, with a UK tour starting from January 17th.

Here’s a mixture of older and newer songs. They’re so consistently good that I’ve tried to include as many as possible, though if I had to recommend one it would be Dragonfly.

Talk To Me (free download here)