DOWNLOAD: Royal Headache - Down the Lane (MP3)

Sydney's Royal Headache are visting the US for a September tour around Gonerfest 2011. They kick things off at Brooklyn's Death By Audio on 9/8 with France's Cheveu, Black Marble & Family Curse, and then continue to Manhattan's Ding Dong Lounge on 9/10 with Home Blitz before continuing on (dates below).

These dudes have been one of the best things about Sydney's resurgent DIY punk scene for a while, on the strength of a self-produced 7" and some pretty amazing live shows, and their album, produced by Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Straight Arrows' Owen Penglis, delivers on their early promise pretty comprehensively. There's a '60s pop hue to punk jams like Down The Lane, but they don't come across as revivalists - you can put that down to a combination of a thick romantic streak and a totally prosaic lyrical style which is so terrifically unpretentious that it makes you wonder why so few other songwriters have been able to write like this. [Rose Quartz]

Continue reading "check out Royal Headache (touring US around Gonerfest) ---- dates & songs"

"This Parisian trio has been making scene noise, and for plenty good reason: their songs go a long way to carve out a real living end, so what you get is a neatly reductive sound universe, all patent recall and sass and open Gallic charm. Byron Coley calls them "devolved in a lopsided way," which is sort of spot-on. Cheveu excel at keeping things simple in the heat of an energetic rave-up. You sort of imagine these guys never breaking an honest sweat. Their songs roll out like a weird iteration of nature--all the rock tropes we thought we'd forgot, or lost interest in--made extant and coy, and attacked from within." [Cokemachineglow]

Continue reading "Cheveu are here from France - playing Silent Barn & PS1"