The Zutons - You Can Do Anything

THE ZUTONS
You Can Do Anything

The Zutons are perhaps best known for the fact that Amy Winehouse once sang one of their tunes. But while Mark Ronson and Winehouse’s cover of Valerie may have caused it to spend 100 weeks in the Top 100 Radio Airplay Charts, the five-piece is in no way a one-hit-wonder by association. Indeed, with two quality albums already under their belts, the Brits now prove their longevity with a third effort.

While there is no wheel reinvention here, You Can Do Anything sees The Zutons doing what they do best, which is belt out catchy pop befitting a band that hails from the same city as The Beatles. Other English influences shine through too, like the T Rex-style glam rock of Always Right Behind You. Frontman Dave McCabe’s vocal is deliciously strained as always and his wordplay is witty and observant. What’s Your Problem is oddly joyful considering that impending violence is at the heart of its subject-matter, but then The Zutons have always enjoyed pairing dark, sinister lyrics with unabashed pop. For instance, Family Of Leeches and Bumbag both deal with social disharmony and Freak is the depressing tale of a male prostitute, yet all these stories are enveloped in massive choruses, big hooks and Abi Cornish’s perky (if basic) saxophone accompaniment. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.

With its sheer vivacity, You Can Do Anything is comfortably an equal to The Zutons’ previous two albums. The misery of modern Britain never sounded so fun and, happily, it seems there is life after Valerie for these chirpy Liverpudlians.

Travis - Ode To J Smith

TRAVIS
Ode To J. Smith

It’s all come full circle. Twelve years ago, Travis borrowed £600 from singer Fran Healy’s Mum to put out a debut single on their own label, Red Telephone Box. Now, after selling a whopping ten million records, their major label contract has come to an end, signalling the revival of Red Telephone Box for the release of their sixth album.

Going back to their roots clearly agrees with the quartet and, if their previous record, The Boy With No Name, showed a return to form following the pessimistic 12 Memories, then Ode To J. Smith is as effervescent as the band has ever sounded. Anthemic opening track Chinese Blues is followed by the wailing guitars and operatic choir of J. Smith and the foot-stomping Something Anything. This rousing start is gleefully maintained throughout, with Long Way Down sounding energetic enough to have been lifted from their debut and Last Words being this year’s Sing.

Travis threw together the album from scratch in just three months to allow bassist Dougie Payne to go on paternity leave. Sure, it’s not very rock ‘n’ roll, but it has left a nice rough edge to things, which suits the rockier nature of most of the songs.

While their contemporaries sound increasingly tired and uninspired with every outing (I’m talking to you, Oasis), the Scotsmen continue to blossom, and it’s just possible this is their best album yet. It’s surely time that Travis received the recognition they deserve as one of the best bands Britain has produced in the last twenty years.

Jack Ladder - Love Is Gone

JACK LADDER
Love Is Gone

It’s been quite a while since I last saw Sydney-based troubadour Jack Ladder play live. Then, he hunched his beanpole frame over an acoustic guitar and performed intelligent yet undeniably sober folk. So I was slightly surprised to discover this, his sophomore album, is a rather jaunty affair.

Filling out his sound with Triosk’s Ben Waples on bass and the wonderful Laurence Pike from Pivot bashing the skins, Ladder recorded Love Is Gone to tape pretty much live over just five days with minimal overdubs. Perhaps best illustrating the record’s upbeat nature is the raw pop of second track, Case Closed. With an infectious vocal melody sung over perky piano, rock ‘n’ roll guitar and harmonies, it’s certainly the jewel in this album’s crown. At the end of its three minutes, you’ll be heading straight for the repeat button. There are nice slower moments too, like when strings weave their way through the contemplative I Love Your Mind.

Ladder’s lyrics are clever and his vocal is a warm baritone with round edges which, while tugging between Cohen and Cave, also sounds ever so slightly like Antony Hegarty. While Ladder’s voice is not quite in the same class as any of these artists (but then how many people’s are?), it is certainly distinctive and intriguing.

Taking influence from early R & B, country-soul and krautrock, Love Is Gone is the sound of Jack Ladder discovering a swagger to his long-legged stride. And it’s a swagger that suits him well.

Cassette Kids interview

My interview with up-and-coming Sydney band Cassette Kids appeared in this week's Drum Media. Here it is:AS CASSETTE KIDS PREPARE TO TOUR THEIR DEBUT MINI-ALBUM, VOCALIST KATRINA NOORBERGEN HITS THE SUPERMARKET WITH ROB TOWNSEND

It’s unlikely that Woolworths has been the venue for many music interviews, yet Drum finds itself dashing around the supermarket at 10.30pm with Cassette Kids’ frontwoman Katrina Noorbergen (above). So hectic is her schedule that it’s been forever since she has found the time to buy her groceries. Earlier in the day, she took phone interviews while doing her washing.

“We definitely work hard and play a lot of shows,” a tired Noorbergan says as she rushes through the aisles. “We all have jobs and we’re giving a lot of our lives to the band, so it’s nice that we’re getting some recognition. It’s a bit of a worry though, on the brink of releasing your mini-album, thinking ‘what if we’re just over-hyped?’”A year of relentless gigging, including being main support on the recent Australia-wide Presets tour, has ensured that the Sydneysiders are one of this year’s buzz bands. However, in spite of their growing popularity within the scene, they don’t consider themselves as being part of The In Crowd. Indeed, Noorbergen displays an endearingly shy and slightly awkward nature as we sit in a Surry Hills pub for a quick pre-Woolworths drink. “In terms of ‘the scene,’” she says raising her fingers to use as inverted commas, and knocking a full beer all over the table in the process. “We’re not socially a part of it. All the guys (drummer Jacob Read-Harber, bassist Daniel Deitz and guitarist Daniel Schober - above) live two hours away, so they’re never out, and I just don’t have enough time. We’re not friends with many bands. So when people call us ‘scenesters’, it’s really just that we are playing lots of shows.”

But while they are keen to avoid wrongly being tagged as scenesters, it’s undeniable that Cassette Kids look pretty fucking cool, and their sartorial elegance is something that Noorbergen is very proud of. “We didn’t consciously decide we were going to be a fashion band, but everything so far has been dependant on our live performance, and part of that is what we wear. Essentially, it’s another form of expression. It is a creative process and we are in control of what we want to look like.” With fashion being notoriously fickle, I wonder whether the band regrets any of its style incarnations. “We went through this massive silver phase. It was hilarious. I was chucking glitter on people, and I got a silver leather jacket which I’d make little Dan [Deitz] wear, even when we had to walk through the streets of Perth or wherever. People would be like [sarcastically]: ‘Nice jacket.’ Luckily, we got over that phase.”As talk turns to from the past to the long-term future, it becomes clear that the quartet are not the kind of band that will chase fame for fame’s sake (in fact, Noorbergen talks of her desire to one day get back to university to complete her Masters and become an art curator), yet it seems the foundations are in place for Cassette Kids to be as big as they want to be. “Obviously I want some level of success, to keep writing music and to gain some recognition. I’d like to know what it feels like to have a year of which eight months are spent overseas on tour. That sounds like an adventure, and I really want to have an adventure with this.”

In the shorter term, the latest episode of the Cassette Kids’ adventure is a debut headline tour to promote their appropriately-titled mini-album, We Are Cassette Kids, which is a record that has been causing critics a headache in terms of pigeon-holing the band. “People call us: ‘Electro/indie/pop/rock/dance outfit Cassette Kids.’ But we’re not electro because we don’t use laptops or keys or synths or anything like that. Everything comes out of the key components of a band; guitars and drums.”

However you want to define it, the deliciously vibrant mini-album goes some way to capturing the fervent live energy the Sydneysiders bring. Their sweat-drenched shows see the captivating Noorbergen stomp around stage with an energy that makes Karen O seem lethargic. It’s visceral stuff, and you won’t find the singer pausing to pull poses to please the photo pit. “I get in trouble for that, but it’s a real physical thing and I don’t really have a lot of time to think: ‘Oh I need to stand up more and let people see my face.’ It’s a high-energy set and sometimes I get halfway through it and think: ‘I’m going to die. I’m exhausted.’ I think people respond to that though.”

Eugene McGuinness - Eugene McGuinness

EUGENE MCGUINNESS
Eugene McGuinness

If it doesn’t seem very long ago you were reading a review on bobbysix of Eugene McGuinness’ rough ‘n’ ready mini-album, The Early Learnings Of Eugene McGuinness, that’s because it wasn’t. It was only late June in fact. So it’s slightly surprising to already find his first full-length effort dropping onto my desk.

Clearly adhering to the notion of striking while the iron is hot, the Brit’s debut long-player follows on directly from the teaser he gave us earlier, with his songs once again gleefully blurring musical boundaries. Backed this time by a full band, his vocal is fascinating, at times it is has a Damon Albarn quality about it, elsewhere it’s a post-punk bark or a soaring falsetto.

Arrangements on Eugene McGuinness are busy and the songs are wordy, but rather than feeling cluttered, their exuberant nature is stirring. From the rockabilly of opener Rings Around Rosa, styles jump from skiffle through barbershop to psychedelic folk-pop. The standout track though is unquestionably the beautiful, crooning, Those Old Black And White Movies Were True. Sounding like it belongs in the 1930s, it is a song which proves that, for a 22-year-old, McGuinness is an incredibly mature songwriter.

As I said in my review of The Early Learnings…, McGuinness’ music may not be as instantly accessible as some of the beige fluff the radio forces upon us, but there is depth and wit to his romantic stories of modern life. Most impressive of all though, considering how he references so many musical styles, is that he still manages to create his own distinct sound.