Wednesday

You Will Die Alone with Popolice + Van Diemen's Band
@The Tote, 8pm, $5

I saw these guys last week, and despite a crap Wednesday night crowd, musically, they gave a reasonable performance. Their epic grungey noise-rock creates an imposing wall of sound and Predators and Villains from their debut EP sounded particularly impressive.

The mix was a little muddy though, which I guess wasn’t entirely surprising. It must be difficult to mix their songs when there are three droning unhinged guitar riffs all competing for love at the same time. Also difficult I guess given that the focus needs to be altered so frequently over the course of one YWDA song. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about mixing, so bear in mind I could be talking absolute rubbish here)

This week the support comes from Popolice (Marc Regueiro-Mackelvie, who is also of New Estate). Popolice delivers smart catchy indie pop tunes amidst a sea of fuzzy feedback and homespun instrumentation. If you haven’t heard him before check out either of his EPs, last year’s Forceback or this year’s Middle Ground. If you have to listen to only one track of his, I'd go with Be Like Me.





Thursday

The Ned Collette Band (two sets)
@ The Edinburgh Castle, 8:30pm, free

Another week, another look at The Ned Collette Experience as they continue to get their band chops together over a couple of sets up at the Edinburgh Castle. We've talked about this residency a bit, so there's not much more to say. Neddy and the boys are consummate musos and take you pretty comfortably through a good couple of hours of music, with extended full-prog-jam edits of just about everything. My one criticism is that this sometimes leads to them getting a touch carried away and losing a little focus, but it's not hard to enjoy Ned's slashing axe work over Ben and Joe's gorgeous rhythm section-cum-gig highlight underpinnings.

And I have to add: try the pork belly - it's divine.



Thousand Cuts
The Paper Scissors Album Launch with Plastic Palace Alice + Y
@Ding Dong, 8pm, $8


Sydney bloggers, A-Reminder, Polaroids of Androids and The Sandwich Club have all talked up this band at one point or another, and from what they say, it appears they are one of the best live bands in Sydney at the moment. I don’t know much about them, but recommendations from these other bloggers is enough to get me along tonight. I expect fun ‘n funky.

A couple of JJJ Unearthed acts are filling the support slots tonight. Grandiose glam noir rockers Plastic Palace Alice have been hyped up quite a bit this year, and, while I agree that they promise exciting things, it’s good to see them working hard, and playing plenty of local gigs to increasingly build their capability in a live setting.




Friday

Whitley Album Launch with Seagull + Tom Cooney
@The Toff, 9pm, $10+bf



I had the chance to see Whitley back in March when he supported Calexico, but unfortunately a Saturday afternoon session at the pub left me feeling quite snoozy, so snoozy that a wake up alarm failed to wake me from my drunken stupor. I spent fifty bucks on that ticket too. Goddammit!

After giving Whitley’s excellent debut disc The Submarine quite a few spins this week (A review will be posted later this week), I’m looking forward to see if he can be as intimate in a live setting as he is on record.

There’s also quite a range of instrumentation on the new record so I wonder by what means he will choose to deliver these effects. Will there be a band? A string section? Or just Whitley, a twelve string, a banjo and a backing tape? Has anyone seen him live before?

Support comes from local folktronicists, Seagull, and a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Tom Cooney. A reader of this blog recently tipped us off about Tom live so it might be a good idea to get to the Toff early if you’re heading along to this gig.




Saturday

Barrage 7" Launch with You Will Die Alone + Das Butcher
@Gertrudes, 8pm, $8

Right now everyone loves Muscles, and along with recent visits to Melbourne from Yacht and Panther, drawing a fair crowd, it appears budget indie electro is taking off.

While I didn’t previously think that one guy with a microphone and some pre-programmed laptop beats would always be the most interesting live experience, Yacht certainly challenged my prior assumption with his fun and hyperactive performances here a few months ago.

Another act who fits into this categorisation is Barrage. Supporting You Will Die Alone last Wednesday, Barrage’s performance wasn’t as confident as Yacht, but he does have some similarly catchy, energetic scratchy beats. Only Only, available on his myspace is a particularly good track.

You Will Die Alone return the favour to Barrage by supporting him tonight so if your’re interested, it’s also a good chance to see them if you can’t make it to The Tote on Wednesday this week or next.




Anonymeye (with band) CD launch with Francis Plagne + Y35.3 + ii
@ The Afterdark, 8:30pm

Your fill of experimenta this week is here, at this nice little venue north on High St. Semi-unpronounceable names to start us off: first ii, filling the venue with their pedal-riding soundscapes; then Y35.3 doing a similar yet different line in loopy noise. Francis Plagne follows, the latest from Melbourne's never-ending production line of broken-pop wunderkinds, playing some tunes from his recent album - it's sweet-as in places, yet a little too unfocused to really stick with me for long. Catch his riffs and croons and make up your own mind.

And at the top, the circling country-tinged guitar of Anonymeye. This Brisbane-boy-cum-Melburnian-guitar-god is releasing a three-inch, single track recording made at the exceedingly rock-'n'-roll time of Saturday morning - hear an excerpt on his myspace. Getting all broken on both country and western, his first Melbourne show with band (the boys from ii) promises to be a mind-expanding experience, even for those who aren't stoned.




Sunday

The 7th Magnificent Annual High Vibes Festival
@High St, Northcote, from 10am, Donation Entry Fee,

High Vibes probably draws the best combination of local acts out of any festival or gig in Melbourne. And it’s all for free, with about a dozen venues throwing open their doors for the occasion.

For readers of this blog many of the musical highlights this year are likely to be found at the Regal Ballroom and of course the Northcote Social Club.

This year the Regal Ballroom will be hosting one of my favourite live bands, country rockers Wagons, who will presumably be previewing new tracks from their forthcoming third album. The lineup also includes atmospheric rockers SubAudible Hum, J-rockers British India and the pulsating dreaminess of drums and electronica from Mountains in the Sky.

Over at Northcote Social Club, Love of Diagrams will play a set late in the evening. While, earlier we get to hear from Kim Salmon’s Darling Downs, Baseball, and a dose of garagey rawness from both The Exploders and The Specimens.

There’s plenty on at other venues also, including Touch Typist at North Bazaar at 12pm. (Incidentally this is the band of Nick Huggins, the producer of the new Whitley album), Ned Collette and Tobias Cummings are back to back at Punch in the mid afternoon, while Aleks and the Ramps hit the stage at Wesley Anne at 8pm.

You can find a complete timetable of High Vibes here.