Thanks to everyone that ready the first round of Counter Culture, back for another week!
This Sunday is the first in store show of the year at Music Farmers, Sesame Girl launch their double vinyl release that is limited to 150 copies and is a Music Farmers exclusive, get your copy here! If you haven’t heard the band yet, check them if you are into current artists such as Alvvays, Fazerdaze and Beach House, and the late 80’s/early 90’s shoegaze/dreamy pop sounds of The Sundays, Falling Joys, Mazzy Star, Belly, Lush, Slowdive, ect. Their latest single ‘Hey X’ is a great tune that was added to Triple J rotation, you can check the video below. It kicks off at 3pm on Sunday January 28th, it's free and all ages.
Richie Weed kicked off his tour in support of the new single last week and although I couldn’t make the show, I’ve heard nothing but good reports since and the single has had some great feedback. Both Richie Weed and Tropical Strength are hitting Melbourne for shows this weekend. Tropical Strength are in fine form at the moment with Damien from Dropping Honey joining on guitar duties, they also have new music around the corner very soon. You can catch the shows at George Lane in St Kilda on Friday January 26th and the Old Bar in Melbourne on Saturday January 27th. This magical photo of Tumbleweed on stage at the Big Day Out in Melbourne thirty years ago this week just popped up on the Weedfreaks Unite page so I thought I’d share it here.
Speaking of new music just around the corner, there is some new music from Hockey Dad coming very soon and they are also heading across to tour the USA and Canada next month. They’ve had some great support for their latest single ‘Still Have Room’ and I can’t wait for everyone to hear what they have coming out this year! If you’re in North America, the tour dates are below.
Back in Australia and Zambia’s Witch (We Intend To Cause Havoc in full) are touring here in March. If you’ve asked me for suggestions behind the counter before there is a good chance I’ve banged on about the Zamrock scene. It was an incredibly fertile music community that popped up in Zambia during the 70’s and although it can be vaguely described as African infused rock music there are plenty of diverse and interesting sounds that make up the movement. Much of the music was largely unknown beyond its home country until the last decade when labels such as Now Again started reissuing the releases internationally. Witch are one of the pioneering groups of the scene who reformed on the back of the interest created by the reissues and last year released brand new music for the first time in almost forty years. The album is great and made my top five releases of last year, they are playing at the Opera House on March 4th and are playing a bunch of others shows around the country as well, you really should go and see them. If you want to find out more about the Zamrock scene, check out this mini documentary below and head into the store for records from artists including Witch, Ngozi Family, Peace and more.
Finally this week, I’ve started making some playlists called Before Somewhere, looking at a certain time period of music for various genres. To kick it off, I’ve gone with antipodean riff rock, proto metal & heavy psych between 1965 and 1975. A pioneering era down under of heavy riffs, fuzzy guitars, psychedelic sounds and raw energy led by artists such as Kahvas Jute, Buffalo, Space Farm, Taman Shud and more. Listen below and let me know your thoughts!