HOBART’S LENNON WELLS RELEASE THEIR DEBUT FEEL-GOOD INDIE POP EP TO SOUNDTRACK YOUR SUMMER

Tassie’s Lennon Wells have had a killer first year of inception. Coming together during the Tasmanian lockdowns of 2020, the crew used the time for creative expression and so Lennon Wells was born. 2021 has seen them release three singles, “Money on Me,”“Comparisons,” and “Beast on My Back.” Now their seminal body of work, also titled Beast on My Back, is out in the world. 

“We started this project at the end of 2019 before we knew what kind of new world 2020 would bring. So, it feels quite surreal to finally release this EP, two years later. We’ve been lucky enough to play and work on our live show around Tasmania this last year and we’re really looking forward to touring ‘Beast On My Back’ over 2022,” said frontman Ben Wells. 

Good friend to the band, Al Campbell, helped with producing the collection of songs about ‘anxiety and dogs’. It’s an EP that resonates with its humanistic mental health-centric lyrics and dancy indie pop instrumentals. Singles “Money on Me,” “Comparisons” and title track “Beast on My Back” garnered the band well-deserved love, including two rotation adds at Edge FM,Triple J Home & Hosed and Unearthed radio spins, and media coverage from massive publications like Scenestr.

To top it off, Lennon Wells have an exciting end to the year with spots on the bills for Great Escape festival, Party in the Apocalypse, and more to be announced – so keep your eyes on these boys!

https://gyro.to/37594-BeastOnMyBack

Indie-folk duo Charm of Finches have stolen hearts with their graceful ethereality, like previous single “Canyon” which has so far garnered love from Double J, major community radio like RRR and PBS, and online press as Rhythms Magazine. Now the sixth single, and our final taste before the album release, “Heavy” is out today, with album Wonderful Oblivion to follow on October 22.

As with the rest of the album, “Heavy” was recorded at home by sisters Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes. Acclaimed Canadian producer Daniel Ledwell co-produced remotely and the track was mastered by Melbourne’s Isaac Barter. The multi-talented women shared the instrumental load, with Mabel on vocals and cello, and Ivy on vocals and violin, with Ledwell adding nuanced percussion and a glossy indie-pop shimmer to their sound.

Never shying away from substantial lyricism, the pair explained the song was about living with a constant, subtle sense of impending doom about the future of the planet. “This song is an expression of the sadness and frustration we feel about the state of the world. The song reflects on how, in this modern world, we have in many ways lost our connection to nature. Consumerism and a culture of narcissism are coping mechanisms to fill the void where that future shock, emptiness and sadness would be.”

CHARM OF FINCHES TALK FUTURE SHOCK WITH EMOTIVE SINGLE “HEAVY,” AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM OUT LATE-OCTOBER

Charm of Finches’ third studio album Wonderful Oblivion follows the release of “Heavy” closely, due out on October 22 through New York-based label AntiFragile Music. Mabel and Ivy explain of their latest masterpiece, “With this album, we feel we have emerged from the deeply interior realm and grief of ‘Your Company’, which was really a healing album, into a completely new mood. Working remotely with Daniel Ledwell in Canada, we were in a place of new possibilities and adventure, both with sounds, as well as the stories we wanted to tell. We feel there was a spirit of discovery and playfulness.

“There are new landscapes, not just emotional, but outward-looking and far horizons. “Heavy” is the first song where we have expressed our fears about the environmental crisis. Lyrically we were inspired by artists like Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom and Aldous Harding to take a finer paintbrush and create vivid scenes with absolute minute details.”

The 11-track album (“Into The Well” being an instrumental vignette) traverses the melancholy of lost childhood (“As A Child”), a missed, departed friend (“Goodnight”), the environmental crisis-inspired future shock of “Heavy”, to the lofty heights of “Canyon,” with its soaring multi-layered harmonies over dream landscapes.

“We’ve reflected on how lots of the songs can be linked to the title Wonderful Oblivion. ‘Gravity’ is about false hope and reality-denying positivity and how it can be counterproductive – it’s like choosing to live in wonderful oblivion (denial) to mask pain and fear. ‘Canyon’, inspired by dreams, is another sort of wonderful oblivion and ‘As A Child’ mourns the loss of the wonderful oblivion of childhood where there were no worries, only wonder and faith in goodness,” the pair explained to Ramona Magazine.

The album comes after their 2019 sophomore album Your Company, which won the 2020 Independent Music Awards’ Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album and was nominated for the 2020 Music Victoria Best Folk Album Award and 2020 Australian Music Prize. The pair are playing album launch shows at Westernport Yach Club on October 30, Lighthouse Arts Collective on November 5, Brunswick Ballroom on November 26 ​and are about to announce their 2022 April/May UK tour.

BRISBANE ROCKERS SPILLAGE RELEASE LONG AWAITED ALBUM “UNAWARES”

It’s been a long time between drinks for Spillage. The band reached some noteriety late last century and then spectacularly imploded. These songs represent a cross over between the old and the new. A kind of maturity that the band is heading towards. Through the years they’ve been through the usual problems that humans face. Relationships, divorce, cancer, drug addiction, and even baldness! Coming through the other end with a fresh energy, the songs represent their troubled past and the optimistic future all wrapped up in a bit of swashbuckling rock and roll. 

The album was recorded in Moorooka, Brisbane at Blackbox Studios with the help of producer Jeff Lovejoy and mastering from Matthew Gray. Guest apprearences include Benny D Williams on keys and Andrew Garton on sax and trumpet.

Knowing each other for over 30 years, Spillage were playing to (almost) packed houses in Brisbane through the 90s. One night they gave their leader Sam some money to buy kebabs and they never saw him again. Until 20-odd years later he reappears and reforms the band and they write a whole bunch of new, grungy rock and roll songs.

After a full house show at King Lears Throne early last month and appearances on ABC Brisbane Afternoons, the band continues to flourish and this album is prime example of that progression! Be sure to catch the band live at O’Skulligans, Brisbane on November the 5th for their official album launch show!

“UNAWARES” IS OUT NOVEMBER 5