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Indie Rock

Dan Brodie

Dan Brodie is an Australian singer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, best known for his prolific solo career, during which he has released seven studio.

In addition to releasing his own albums, Brodie's songs have been recorded by other artists including two songs on Love Is Mighty Close, a Vika and Linda Bull Album. Also in 2010 Brodie appeared on the Paul Kelly produced Maurice Frawley tribute album, Long Gone Whistle – The Songs of Maurice Frawley, performing the Frawley track, "Roll me" to a sold out audience at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Brodie was raised in a musical family, his father, a professional guitarist and singer taught Brodie the basic chords of guitar. With his brother Chris Brodie (Dallas Crane), they began playing in bands together, honing their skills of playing live to audiences around the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne before landing their first pub show whilst still in their early teens at the Richmond Club Hotel in 1990.

Over the next five years, Brodie performed around Melbourne, recording his first proper Album in a student run studio at Monash University in Clayton in 1993, released on tape and sold at live shows. After a move to the inner-city in 1996, Brodie joined dirty swamp rockers, Luxedo, on bass, the line-up also including Tom Carlyon on lead guitar and vocals, Emilie Martin on violin and guitar and Jamie Coghill on drums, contributing to the debut LP, Beauty Queen and the follow up, City Lights and Roadkill departing in 2001 to concentrate on his solo career.[citation needed]

1998-2000: I'm Floatin' Mamma and Big Black Guitar
A five track EP, I'm Floatin' Mamma was independently released in 1998; followed by debut album, Big Black Guitar in 1999. Backed by The Broken Arrows which featured his brother Chris Brodie on slide guitar, Craig Williamson (These Immortal Souls) on drums and Dan Kelly on bass, Brodie signed to EMI who re-released his debut album. Both the EP and debut album were produced by Maurice Frawley and engineered by Dave McCluney at Atlantis Studios in Melbourne.[citation needed]

2001-2004: Make Me Wanna Kill and Empty Arms, Broken Hearts
In 2001, Brodie released a four track EP featuring songs recorded for his forthcoming unreleased album, as well as some from earlier demos.[citation needed]

Brodie's second album, Empty Arms, Broken Hearts was released in 2002. Containing the singles "Jesus, Try and Save Me", "Take a Bullet" and "Hope That We Get Home Tonight", the album was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards.

2005-2009: Beautiful Crimes
Brodie's solo album entitled Beautiful Crimes was released in 2005 that veered away from country into a more indie rock sound and was produced by Barry Palmer of Hunters and Collectors, releasing the two radio friendly power-pop rock anthems, "Wanna Shine" and "Sweetheart".[citation needed]

Brodie took an extended break from touring with a band and spent several months playing solo shows across the Americans.[citation needed]

2010-2011: My Friend The Murderer
Brodie returned to Australia to record My Friend The Murderer which was released in 2011. The album was recorded at Headgap Studios in Melbourne, Australia by Brent "Sloth" Punshon and for the first time showed off Brodie's newly formed backing band, the Grieving Widows, featuring Chris Brodie on bass and Dave Nicholls on drums.[citation needed]

2012-2014: Deep Deep Love and Run Yourself Ragged EP
Brodie completed work on his fifth album Deep Deep Love in 2012 before a diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma and subsequent treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy sidelined him for most of 2013, delaying the record release. Deep Deep Love features minimalist backing of double bass by Dean Schulz Layla and Rhianna Fibbins on backing vocals and Grieving Widow's alumni Chris Brodie and David Nicholls on guitar and drums respectively.[citation needed]

In June 2014, Brodie entered St Charles Recording Studio in Northcote with the Grieving Widows to record a song from their live set; a cover of Ian Rilen’s (Rose Tattoo/Love Addicts) "Booze to Blame". Three more songs of original material quickly followed, and Run Yourself Ragged EP was released.

2015-2016: Big Hearted Lovin Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014
In March 2015, Brodie released the live album, Big Hearted Lovin' Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014. The album was recorded in one night in January, 2015 at Salt Studios in Melbourne. In April 2015, Brodie embarked on a three-month solo acoustic tour of Europe playing back to back shows at France.[citation needed]

2017: Lost Not Found and Funerária do Vale
In early 2017, Brodie returned to Melbourne to record Lost Not Found a collection of reinterpreted cover songs.[citation needed]

Brodie's seventh studio album, Funerária do Vale was released on 30 August 2019. The album cover and title are taken from a photo that Brodie took of a funeral home in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil during a six month stay in 2007. He said "I found the imagery so evocative (with its English translation of 'Valley of the Funeral Home'), and always hoped to use it as an album cover. In a way I wrote the songs to fit the existing photograph, exploring themes of loss."

Emma Volard

Deity, the debut album by Melbourne-based vocalist and songwriter Emma Volard, is a record of tensions: caught in the push-pull between light and shade, joy and sorrow, chaos and order, it’s an album that draws power from the divine messiness of the human experience. Synthesising acid jazz with modern R&B, dub with pop, and future soul with old-fashioned grooves, it’s a statement of profound artistic intent for Emma: a 12-part journey of self-expression and hard-won self-determination that combines the classic and the cutting edge to build something sleek and scintillatingly new. “This album is a revolt against oppressors, particularly those in the music industry — an f-you to anyone who tries to tear us down,” she says. Cathartic, vulnerable, and deeply, defiantly empowered, it’s a definitive document of feminist soul: a call for listeners to “discard the judgement of others, and embrace their bodies, their minds, and their souls.”

Raised between the hustle-and-bustle of inner-city Melbourne and the organic serenity of the coastal town of Philip Island, Emma’s upbringing provided the kind of musical education money can’t buy. Singing and dancing along to pop classics like “Spinning Around” and “I’m Blue” as a toddler snowballed into drum lessons from the age of eight, which turned into vocal training in high school and a voracious appetite for all the classics she could get her hands on, plumbing the depths of her grandma’s record collection to unearth gems by Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Joe Cocker, and Ella Fitzgerald. Emma’s training continued while studying music at university, where she discovered luminaries like Etta James and Erykah Badu, the latter of whom would become a clear guiding light in her journey towards a place of gleaming fusion jazz music.

This omnivorous upbringing is written between the lines on Deity, which embraces the fullness of Emma’s multihyphenate musical upbringing, touching on breathless polyrhythms and indelible hooks, a clear-eyed political bend and, at the centre of it all, Emma’s sublime, silken vocal. It’s a potent combination that Emma has showcased with her band during live sets at Meadow, Leaps & Bounds, and Brunswick Music Festival, as well as in support slots for celebrated artists like REMI, Emma Donovan, and Horatio Luna.

Deity was led by “Femininity”, a powerful statement of intent that encapsulates Emma’s devoutly feminist politic with the cutting-edge bricolage of her music, which was praised by tastemakers including Double J’s Zan Rowe, Triple J’s Nkechi Anele, and Gilles Peterson. Combining cinematic strings and a motorik guitar groove with Emma’s plush, soulful vocal, it’s a jaw-dropping introduction to a record that touches on loose, acidic techno (“My Desire”), ambient spoken-word (“Searching”) and, in its spectacular, dynamic coda, the kind of darkly-toned avant-garde jazz practised by UK luminaries like Moses Boyd. Above all, though, Deity is a statement record, one that positions creativity as a brazen political act, a mode of self-expression that can’t be silenced or diminished. “Deity is a love letter to myself,” she says, “That reminds me to embrace who I am, to break boundaries, to express myself without fear, to allow myself to grow and to love unconditionally.”

Backyard Business

Backyard Business are a 4-piece Indie-Rock/Aussie-Emo band from Launceston, lutruwita (Tassie). The boys strive to put on the best show that they can with catchy melodies, high energy riffs, pumping rhythms and energetic stage presence.

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Yard Act

Yard Act are a British rock band from Leeds, West Yorkshire, composed of James Smith (vocals, lyrics), Ryan Needham (bass), Sam Shipstone (guitar) and Jay Russell (drums). Their debut album, The Overload, was released on 21 January 2022 and debuted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. They released their second album, Where's My Utopia?, on 1 March 2024.

History
Prior to forming the band, vocalist James Smith and bassist Ryan Needham had both been members of other Leeds-based bands. Smith was a member of Post War Glamour Girls and Needham played in Menace Beach, two bands that released a split EP together in 2016. After the release of the EP, the pair began discussing forming a band together, a plan that eventually came to fruition in September 2019, when the pair moved into a house together in Meanwood. They soon recruited guitarist Sammy Robinson and drummer George Townend who played together in Treeboy & Arc. During this period, Robinson departed from the group, leading to the recruitment of Sam Shipstone.[4] Prior to the announcement of their debut album, the band had only released a total of four singles independently. These singles were then compiled onto an EP, titled Dark Days, released in 2021.

Their debut album The Overload was released on 21 January 2022. The group was "one to watch" in the BBC's Sound of 2022 shortlist. The group was also named one of Paste's "Best New Artists of 2021". On 1 July 2022, a re-recorded version of "100% Endurance" was released featuring a collaboration with Elton John.

Their second album, Where's My Utopia?, was released on 1 March 2024.

Underground Lovers

Underground Lovers (sometimes stylised as undergroundLOVERS) are an Australian pop-rock band whose sound encompasses elements of indie rock, electronic music, and shoegaze. Founding members Glenn Bennie (guitar, vocals) and Vincent Giarrusso (vocals, guitar, keyboards) formed the group GBVG in 1988, and by May 1990, they had changed the name of the group to Underground Lovers and were joined by Richard Andrew (drums), Maurice Argiro (bass guitar), and Philippa Nihill (vocals, guitar and keyboard).

The Coronas

In the ever-evolving landscape of the modern music industry, The Coronas have continued to independently thrive without sacrificing their creative vision along the way. A multi-platinum group who can claim supporting Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park, playing for President Biden, and a burgeoning global fanbase, The Coronas’ last three albums also went straight to #1 in the Irish Charts, with recent sold out tours in their wake spanning North America and Australia further showcasing the trio’s successful and ever-growing legacy.

Renowned for their magnetic live shows, having also been previously voted as the #1 Live Act of the Year by Hot Press, The Coronas have been headlining their own shows and festivals in Ireland for almost 15 years, with their regular Christmas performances at The Olympia Theatre in Dublin becoming the stuff of legend. And set to return to Australia this November following their acclaimed down under run late last year, The Coronas will arrive armed with their trademark magic as well as their hotly-anticipated album Thoughts & Observations.

Thoughts & Observations captures The Coronas unbridled authenticity and passion, with the album originating not long after 2022’s Time Stopped had released into the world. “We’re so excited to be sharing new music,” says the band. “To be honest we didn’t really take a break after the last one, as soon as the touring and promotion of Time Stopped slowed down, we were already working on Thoughts & Observations”

“Thematically, the album deals with love, loss and growing older,” shares The Coronas. “It’s possibly us fully embracing our man-band status. After seven albums we’re probably a little more cynical now than we were when we started! In saying that there’s still an optimistic feel to this album that The Coronas albums tend to have.”

Lazy Dreamers

Indie rock / alt pop band based in Melbourne. Band influences include Crowded House, Radiohead, The Beatles and Bob Dylan

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WEDNESDAY (USA)

The members of Wednesday are scattered across town when NME calls them for a Zoom chat. Drummer Alan Miller is at home in Durham, North Carolina, four hours from where the others live in Asheville, his basement still decorated from a recent party. Guitarist and lap steel player Xandy Chelmis is in a bustling café, where he takes breaks from the farm he’s been building, while his playful bandmate Jake Lenderman is hunched in his van in a library car park – “I’ve never been inside,” he quips. And vocalist Karly Hartzman, thoughtful and articulate, is crouched in the “Amish romance” section of a Barnes & Noble bookshop. “I tried to pick a part that isn’t very populated, and I think I found the perfect place,” she says in a hushed tone.

It turns out last-minute home WiFi issues had forced the band into some strange locales, but these background snapshots of North Carolina suburbia are suited to our conversation about Wednesday’s music. On their third album ‘Rat Saw God’, out April 7, Hartzman tells tales of her adolescence and childhood that are full of specific details of small town life, whether amusing or brutally morbid. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the American South, soundtracked by gritty, rip-roaring country-rock.

Jeff Rosenstock

Jeff Rosenstock was an anxious kid who grew into an anxious adult and has also made a bunch of music along the way with a bunch of bands, most notably Bomb the Music Industry! who apparently pioneered giving shit away for free on the internet - or at least got some of the credit for it.

Now he plays with his bi-coastal band of rad musicians, mixing punk heart with diverse instrumentation and occasional accuracy. Rosenstock has built his career on an uncompromising commitment to stay true to his beliefs. He’s toured the globe countless times and played to thousands of dedicated fans. In addition to the vast critical acclaim he’s received from places like Pitchfork, The NY Times, NPR and others, Jeff's work can be heard scoring the Cartoon Network series Craig of the Creek, which was nominated for multiple awards, including 2 Emmys. He’s performed on Late Night with Seth Meyers & The Chris Gethard Show as well as numerous music festivals across the world, including Pitchfork Music Festival, Noise Pop, Riot Fest, and more.

Daniel Serpa

Foremost a bass guitarist, producer, and songwriter, the hard-to-categorise 18-year-old Filipino-Colombian musician is from the western suburbs of Melbourne. He released his self-made debut EP from 2022, “Gem”, made entirely on his iPhone and gave listeners a glimpse into the world of his talent and passion for making music, with songs like his fan favourite “Wonchuuu”.

Since then, Serpa has been creating in the shadows, opting to obsess over every new sound that came out of his psyche. Now, his work has paid off and has blossomed into his currently untitled and soon-to-be-released first album, full of tracks that sparkle and get carried away in their inherent smoothness, tight rhythms, and catchy melodies.

“mmmmmm this is cool" - Frank Sativa (365k monthly Spotify listeners) on Serpa’s music.