Guys ive got a real good one for us here. You already know bored nothing you say? Well sorry for trying guy, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but ive been busy with themesongs and bigsounds and playlists so if you’ll forgive me my diminished blog game you’d be doing me a real solid. This is a goodie though, even if the horse bolted back in April. Listen to the record several times over the next week, that’s your mandate as my recently elected listenership and isn’t a tall order for even the worst of records. I’ve listened to it sporadically via streaming services these past few months but I don’t want to overplay my previous affections for this outfit since they’re only now growing to any sort of substance. Fergus Miller and his band of cool guys played a sadly under attended showcase at BIGSOUND this week and I was completely and utterly drawn in. Then I relistened to the record with great pleasure and suddenly I knew that this would be a contender for ‘record that I really like the most from the year 2013′ and that POA hadn’t been wrongo this whole time. Hell, even pitchfork gave it a 7.0 which seems to bump up against their glass ceiling reserved for Australian artists with few exceptions.

I love the sonics on this record. I love the guitar tone, I like the shuttered, shallow drum parts and I like the reverb heavy vocals. Those features in tandem are enough to draw me in to an artist but it’s the songs themselves that actually keep me involved. Highlights of this record include ‘Shit For Brains’, ‘I Wish You Were Dead’, ‘Echo Room’, ‘Let Down’, ‘Popcorn’ & ‘Get Out Of Here’ and those are just the ones that are immediately worthy of singeldom. There’s plenty more on the record that similarly but less memorably slays. So with no further wordwang, here is what I refer to as the Bored Nothing smorgasbord: Two originals, a video, a live video session and a cover of that FKA Twigs song that has the tripped out pendulum video.

Friends, I bring you news bigger than Clive Palmers next nautical project / general girth; Sound Doctrine now has an official anthem of power / theme song. This will very likely move Sound Doctrine into the top 20 music blogs in Australia and will hopefully answer burning questions such as ‘what is the meaning of life?’ or ‘what is the best consecutive series of sounds that can occur within a fifty second period?’

The track was recorded by super secret Australian musicians that can’t be named for legal and emotional reasons in a super secret Australian place that similarly can’t be revealed. This is what happens when you never stop believe in yourself all the time to the absolute max. Kingsmill sent me an early email asking for an exclusive on his 2013 program in exchange for a guaranteed top 10 spot in this year’s Hottest 100 but I had to politely decline in the name of internet ethics.

We’ve already seen the track used for medicinal purposes, making short work of most fungal infections and getting water out of one’s ear without having to jump up and down with your head on its side for a little while after you go swimming. Please see the attached image to better understand where this moment sits within greater music history. Tell your kids you were there when it all went down.

IN my mind, which is largely where this blog resides, Golden Blonde are what would happen if Parades dropped a few tabs of acid and really made a week out of a day. Everything across their debut record is elongated like a fruit roll up unrolled and drawn tight between the sweaty paws of youth. It’s like that, save that this is a work of maturity, not sustenance for the listening toddler.I really need to make a decision on whether I’m committing to this metaphor or not. I’m in and out like a shuttle right now. Ther ewas a point in April when I wrote half a piece on their then single ‘Joan’ but somewhere along that journey I lost my way and it never came to be. Today I right the wrongs you never knew existed and, as you should have been able via Sound Doc in April, you can now hear Joan below. Surely it was worth the wait.

Joan has this unnerving, whispy wind sound which sits behind a prolonged, sung note which is in turn behind the frotline vocals. Then, likely because the band thought you were too at ease with what was going on they harmonise that middle prolonged note and punctuate it with what is one of the more discordant guitar tones I’ve heard this year and I own a record called ‘The Best of Discordant Guitar’ so don’t tell me this isn’t a serious situation. It’s deadly serious.

We Begin is probably my favourite from the record. Why? Because I damn well say it is, ok? Don’t be fooled by that first paragraph, this isn’t journalism and I’m not in the business of writing up PR spiels. What I do get to do round here is lob choice musical cuts at you without justification. It’s a Friday afternoon and I’m listening to a record that doesn’t push you to make logical decisions so I might just leave this here.

This isn’t the first time I’ve written words about Cold Hiker. The last time was a momentary discussion of their track ‘Phosphenes’ which was very good indeed, though at the time I mentioned an excess of Radiohead influence. Well I’ve good news for you loyal readers, the band have grown. Not just physically and emotionally but technically too. The vocals on their newest single Arms have lost the frustrated edge and now have a gentle confidence that’s slightly at odds with the subject matter before that synth backing comes in so slowly that you don’t actually realise it’s ascending through the mix; Somehow then, the track is thick with it. Then as slowly as it came, it’s gone again in an instant. Whoever had that idea, GOOD ONE M8. I DAMN WELL ENJOYED THAT.

We’ve exchanged a few emails in the lead-up to this post and it came out that we’ve a mutual admiration for the work of fellow Melbourne act I’lls (another staple of the Sound Doctrine experience). The direct quote was “talented musicians who know how to complement each others’ parts really well” which I read in a really teenage way, but ignoring that minor underlying innuendo, he/they went on to make a compelling case for I’lls and in particular: “I remember hearing the bass line in ‘Speak Low’ and nearly defecating”. So there’s that. It makes excellent sense then that these gents went on to ask Simon Lam (involved in this, this this and this) to produce this.

It’s subtle enough so that Lam’s fingerprints aren’t all over the thing and I can imagine the demo might not have sounded a world apart from this recording right here. Across the breadth of the track, subtlety is probably the resounding adjective. Nothing overbears, nothing intrudes and everything resides within its appointed measure. Worthy of your time and more than worthy of mine.

It’s all rather impressive given that the band met on Chatroullete*, you’d have to think. This’ll be the first single from a forthcoming EP they’ll have out early to mid next year. Meanwhile you can catch them every Wednesday of October at the Grace Darling for a mere five dollar bill.

*probably untrue.

A quiet, introspective one from Jack R Reilly that sounds like the closer to a Jimmy Eat World record and I mean that in the most flattering possible way. Also bonus points for reminding me that Bright Eyes still exists and that I should be listening to I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning right now. Well not right now, after this song, but almost immediately. As far as I can tell it’s the first track from the Sydneysider but then the dude has listed this as his official website so there’s every possibility that he’s hidden his tracks across the internet as some sort of interactive digital treasure hunt. Update, it seems like this isn’t the first track but it’s still the only one I can find currently available so it may as well be. “Finding it hard to tell you we’ve lost our way”. Fan. Meanwhile you can see this ditty done live on September 19 at Oxford Art Factory.

Meanwhile there is no photo attached to this post because my one month trial of photoshop has now expired.