Rock City Gets Harpooned
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The Harpoons – Melbourne R&B and bopper band with Falling For You debut album (Two Bright Lakes)
Source: Supplied
Cupid draws back his bow. The Harpoons pierce your skin and bring you closer.
But do they draw you in or do you go to them? It’s a theme explored on the Melbourne true school R&B’s debut album Falling For You, out today through Two Bright Lakes and Remote Control.
“It’s less pulling you in, more throwing something out there,” answers Henry Madin, chewing on a bagel smeared in Vegemite, sounding very Ron Burgundy. He’s the chief songwriter in The Harpoons with his brother Jack. Will the real Madin Brothers please stand up (please stand up, please stand up.) And can the other Maddens please get take a long walk off a short pier? Kthxbai.
“Bec (Rigby) came up with the name, a harpoon to your heart,” Madin continues. Rigby’s voice is really something else, her timbre can match it with Janelle Monae any day of the week, it’s as brittle as a Flake bar but cased in chocolate goodness like a Twirl.
The Harpoons are completed by Martin King (Oscar + Martin, Steve Buscemi Eyes), “He’s our drummer and we produced the album together,” Madin says, doing a little housekeeping. The record shoots straight and low. “It’s immediate. It hits you in the face.”
Falling For You recalls days of yore when the “wireless” was something people would tune and press their ears up close to….not a word that leads into a whinge about the putt-putt broadband network. As a cohesive body of work it comes together with a romantic neediness, unafraid to sound desperate for companionship because – as John Lennon sang to Yoko – they want you, they want you so baaa-add.
“I’ve always been into bands like The Zombies and Beatles. I love how sparse their records are,” Madin says. As for sequencing the album, “We started with the songs we‘re most excited about. Unforgettable being the show stopper. Then we take the album more experimental through the middle and finish off with ones we feel are really strong. We’re so proud of those last songs. We didn’t want to hold back at all. When you’re making pop music you can be crazy, the music itself can fall into these building blocks, you know they work.”
Never Stop Loving You could fall apart at any time but it somehow stays in the pocket. “We’d do the sing-along moment live for AGES after the song finished, it was so catchy. It was so hard to record, we were singing as loudly as we can. We’d do bass and drums together then start all over again,” he recalls.
At last year’s Melbourne Music Week show at Boney the group organised a choir to sing with them and brought a bunch of marimbas on stage too.
“My dad actually makes marimbas and takes them all over the world. He does these experiences where he gets kids to build marimbas and then he gets them to play it. We’ve been playing marimbas since we were two years old,” he says as your eyes glance to the EXCLUSIVE FIRST SHOT of The Harpoons brains trust playing with (their) Daddy Cool. Take that, Hello Magazine. Eat a bag of the proverbials, TMZ.
The Harpoons. Melbourne true school R&B band – Henry and Jack Madin as young kids playing the marimba (not in Merimbula).
Source: Supplied
Now they’re all hooked up with Two Bright Lakes, Madin ain’t mad bro. “I regard people like Oscar Key Sung as a peer. Being on Two Bright Lakes, it’s incredible, plus Banoffee, Collarbones, Pikelet, Geoff O’Connor, they’re all peers…when we started playing music Jack and I moved to Melbourne from Geelong. I made so many friends in the music scene. It’s the most comforting scene,” he says.
In their fledgling years, The Harpoons “played in 2009 at Golden Plains. That was a really big moment for us. We were so excited to be asked. They’re all so welcoming there, it told us we should keep doing music.”
And now they’ll don their capes and head to the ‘Sup again as they play Meredith in December.
Meredith Music Festival, Dec 12-14, mmf.com.au
HOT TIP # 1 MAPLE SIZZURP
George Maple. Get familiar with that name because she just set a record for amount of plays in one day on Future Classic’s Soundcloud, 200,000 for Talk Talk. Real name Jess Higgs, she is in the Banks vein of wet lyrical sentiments in the verse then cut-through choruses meshed with enticing electronic basslines and coquettish kickdrums. After Annie Mac spun Talk Talk on BBC Radio One it’s now tipped over the 1 million plays mark and the Sydney artist’s debut EP Vacant Space is out Nov 14. Hey there Georgie Girl, back away from the thin, syrupy stuff and opt for higher viscosity.
HOT TIP # 2 SPOOKY DOOKIE
Wiry Sydney artist Marcus Gordon records under Spookyland, a warbly, worldy artist who has just put out a clip for Rock and Roll Weakling, the title track from an EP recorded with and produced by Tony Buchen (Andy Bull, Megan Washington). Just as George Maple did at BIG SOUND, Spookyland’s showcases were much talked/texted/blogged about.
In the video, Gordon puts the gloves on against World Super Cruiserweight boxing champion Steve McKinnon.
HOT TIP # 3 LIGHTS NOT DUCKS
Local act Peking Duck have their hearts in the right place but are leading kids up the garden path into a bramble bush of too many brainless EDM “drops” when they have the chance to actually make it count.
High feat. Nicole Millar shows what they’re capable of but LA duo Peaking Lights use similar tropes with more panache. Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis are preparing to release their far-left-of-centre album Cosmic Logic next week and have put out the Clip of The Year for Breakdown, where an aPhone (note spelling) follows around the protagonist all day, prodding her to upload every moment while not allowing her to be present in it.
Sound familiar?
4 MINUTES WITH TY SEGALL
1 SUBBING INTO THE GAME
LA-based garage rock heavyweight Ty Segall is a regular dude. “I like to surf and jam with people. Nothing serious or with any intent. I like hanging out with friends and family,” he says. He’s not being altogether truthful, Segall has shown his serious intent with side project Hair and his solo albums, having released seven dystopian LPs in six years. “You can’t paint a pretty picture nowadays. People are very distracted, you have to throw something into the distraction, subversively or obviously.”
2 PRESSING PEOPLE’S BUTTONS
Segall’s latest record is Manipulator. “I’ve been a manipulator, I’ve been manipulated. Actors are manipulative and people love them, they’re adored around the whole world. It’s a very interesting idea. It’s good to work with that scene,” he says. “My mum is very manipulative. It’s frightening to know how good a liar you can become. Then you get right into the word which is manipulating a string or a synth to bring out people’s emotion,” he muses.
3 IT’S JUST GOT TO BE FUNKY
The blonde man-child has some pretty harebrained ideas. Is that funk we hear on Manipulator’s standout cut Mister Main? “I don’t know man, it was just a drumbeat I like, I’m a huge Funkadelic fan. I was like ‘Is this weird? What’s going on?’” he asks quizzically/cosmically. “It’s totally not like any song I’ve ever done …and that’s precisely why it should be on the record,” he extends. “It was only intended to exist in the recorded universe…but we’re gonna play it live. The only difference it’ll be a little louder and crazier.”
4 WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION
“The Facebook legacy…that’s wild,” he says, returning to the theme of distraction and his album title as you scan your News Feed for notifications and slacktivism opportunities. “I’m sceptical, it’s worth being sceptical. I don’t even know where I’m going with this. THE YOUTH OF AMERICA. BWAHWAHWAHWAH!” he bellows. “I’m interested in social issues, the effects of hyper-connectedness technology. Everything is curated by people viewing the content.”
Meredith, Dec 12-13; Corner Hotel, Dec 14-15; ticketscout.com.au
aaaaaaaaaand now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for/phwoooooar:
Going At a Clip – Nine New Videos Under The Mikeyscope
1. Real Life – Sunbeam Sound Machine
Who dat who dat: Remote Control record’s lanky, psych warrior back with another oscillating headphones swirler.
Best bit: Director Tobias Willis’ use of rosellas not on a sauce bottle, the trick drop at 2.06 and real drop a 2.08. The kookaburra calls post-climax.
Earworm: The cascading guitars stay with you long after the song is fin.
2. Put Your Number In My Phone – Ariel Pink
Who dat who dat: Shady LA character, brilliant musician, Fraggle Version 2.0. New jam for AM radio revivalist/futurist.
Best bit: The song is a bit drab. The clip has more going for it. The air hockey scene at 1.30. The pis$ ed off lady with puffy lips at 2.24. Cue: Austin Powers “She’s a man baby” gif.
Earworm: “What would tame this gypsy heart but fruits from fresh on vine.”
3. Coming Up For Air – Phil Selway
Who dat who dat: Radiohead dude that’s not Thom or Jonny. Thus this’ll be big simply because of the band he’s in. The song is “What’s he building in there?” meets Massive Attack Heligoland era and James Lavelle artist album. Chorus is weak where it needs to shift gears and drag you sharp left by the earlobe.
Best bit: 2.18 when the Hitchcock-esque Willy Wonka swirl zooms into THAT FACE. Very Infinite Jest but for the wrong reasons.
Earworm: “I’m coming up for [exhale] (h)aaaaiiiirrrrr”
4. Cellophane (3D) – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Who dat who dat: Director Jason Galea maintains King Gizzard’s blistering run of form with singles and clips. This jam is very Unknown Mortal Orchestra until it gets all harmonica-heavy and Murlocs-y.
Best bit: Emperor’s Royal Guards drumming at 2.22!
Earworm: “Doo doo doooo, doo dooo doooo doooo”
5. Turning – Collarbones
Who dat who dat: Based R&B, jackin’ house warriors come back strawwwwwng.
Best bit: Travis Cook’s Care Factor at 1.48. The fashion, all the fashion.
Earworm: The second half gets TURNingT. That’ll stay with you long after the fashion fades from your mind like stone washed denim.
6. Cold – Alison Wonderland
Who dat who dat: Sydney DJ/Producer with style and substance. More of the former than the latter at the moment.
Best bit: The ticking stopwatch, the Major Lazer drum builds, proper tongue action at 2.06.
Earworm: “I’m too cool for this, I’m too cool for this, I’m cold cold cold”
7. Tear It Down – Twinsy
Who dat who dat: “Ballifornian” three-piece drop the first taste of their next EP, Espiritus. Chintzy at first but the chorus rescues it. Still a bit Bondi Hipster but – again – they’re in on the joke.
Best bit: Smoke machine up-shirting at 44 seconds.
Earworm: “That’s the place we used to know, tear it down, tear it down”
8. Another Man – Itch
Who dat who dat: Former King Blues singer and likely lad from London who’s waited for Mark Ronson worship to die down for a bit and popped up as a husky-voiced Jamie T with lapels, Motown pedigree and an eyebrow tattoo XXVI.
Best bit: The smudging of colours on and off all the way through the clip. Like all the best ideas, it works because it doesn’t try too hard. Also, Itch’s “Yerrr mun” at 1.02 is well wicked [flicks fingers, makes wet-flesh-slap sound].
Earworm: “I’ve got another maaaaaaaaaaan and he’s ain’t nothing like you” and “He’s the now, you’re the never”
9. NEW DORP. NEW YORK Feat. Ezra Koenig – SBTRKT
Who dat who dat: Ezra Koenig, he who cameos in Girls, makes Robin Thicke sound good and master of the preppy-guy-sans-popped-collar makes a killer appearance on this SBTRKT 4/4 banger. Wonder Where We Land needs more Koenig, less Sampha.
Best bit: 1.59 white/bright eyes and the reveal. Exquisite timing. Smells like mask.
Earworm: “Gargoyles gargling oil, peak of the empire, top of the rock” and “I got a baseball bat never hit homerun”
Follow your fave DORP FACE here twitter.com/joeylightbulb
