Tunesday | The Lewi McKirdy of Aussie music blogs

It’s probably best to make no mention of the fact that I haven’t made a post on Tunesday for 3 years. I’ve called this post a ‘revival’ but it’s more like some sort of rise of the living dead. Not to overstate the power of my prose, but I thought it might have been looking like the end for old Zombie Shakespeare over here.

Some excellent gigs and a few great recent finds are all it’s taken for me to come back to this here blog and start sharing a tune every now and then. Dunno if it’s gonna be a weekly thing, but check back every month or so and I’d say you’ll have some new garbage to read and some excellent music to add to your playlists.

This time it’s Haley Heynderickx, who I’ve been lucky enough to see live a couple of times the past couple of weeks, the first supporting Tunesday old mate Angie McMahon at the Melbourne Recital Centre (which was an amazing gig btw) and the second this past Sunday, at The Gaso.

Sunday was a pretty lovely experience. Haley’s typically up there with her band when performing in the States, but us Melburnians were treated to a solo performance and – I gotta say – she left a pretty packed house feeling all warm and fuzzy by the end of a set.

Highlight of the set was the song I’ve posted below, ‘Oom Sha La La’. The punters got behind the sing-a-long vibes that imbue the song, and pretty well lost their shit at Haley’s insistence that she’s overdue to start at garden in her backyard.

Another highlight was just before this song, where, in lieu of silence while tuning her guitar, Haley invited us to introduce ourselves to a stranger standing nearby. Was deathly silent for the first few seconds of this, but she could hardly get us to shut the fuck up for a good few minutes once everyone got going.

I interrupt this period of Masters of Engineering (Civil) induced absence to let you know that old mate St. South released a new track a week and a bit back and it’s gooooode.

There are a few interesting things happening in my life at the moment:

I’m being forced to watch Gilmore Girls from start to finish

I just found out (in the worst way possible) I’m allergic to cephalexin

Breakfast

All of these things are topped by the fact that Lastlings – who I interviewed back in November and thus are my property – are Unearthed High finalists.

So it’s Unearthed High season, the six or so weeks where you only can submit tracks to triple j unearthed contingent on a drug test that shows you’ve not not had weed in your system in the past 24 hours. You probably didn’t notice.

We can assume that the teenagers from Gold Coast teen indie pop act Ivey passed that test with flying colours cos they’ve dropped a dank track called ‘All Things Good’ as part of the competition. Though I’m constantly mistaken for a weedy 17-year-old, I’m actually an old 23-year-old man(ish thing) so the fact that there’s children as young as 15 contributing to this tune makes me feel both old and like my parents didn’t give me enough opportunities as a child. No Auskick, now this. C’mon mum.

Luckily for you, they’ve also released more songs that are good.

I haven’t done a Tunesday post for the last 4 weeks cos I was busy doing the only thing more natural to an amateur music blogger than music blogging itself: I moved to Brunswick. I also threw out all my old clothes and now only wear vintage sweaters knitted from 1920s era tea cosies found in the Savers bargain bin on Sydney Rd.

Now that you've forgiven me, music. A couple of weeks ago I went to see old mates Tiny Little Houses play at the Gasometer as part of their July residency there. They had a couple of supports acts worth a mention on this here increasing infrequent musical weblog: Wedding Ring Bells, who got written up by Tommy of Sound Doc and therefore you’re wasting your time by reading this and not that; and also Gabriella Cohen, who I saw again today as part of Melbourne Uni’s semi-formal bands, bevs and BBQ event. Here’re a couple of tracks for your lo-fi listening pleasure...

Wedding ring bells by Wedding ring bells

updated regurgitated sever by gabriella cohen

Well, in the heat of exams last week I skipped Tunesday again. Would you forgive me if I gave you 10 new Aussie songs to listen to? No? You’d prefer 5? Okay, less work for me.

Middle Kids

Montaigne

D.D Dumbo

The Lulu Raes

Alex Lahey

It’s 11:57pm and I’ve got three minutes to write this.

Verified ‘old mate’ Jordan Rakei finally dropped his long awaited debut LP and it’s very good. Particularly the tracks below.

Cloak by Jordan Rakei

Cloak by Jordan Rakei

lol tunesday

For Peaches by Dannika

Yeah, it finally happened. I skipped a Tunesday. Let’s not dwell. Instead, let’s just recreate what it would’ve been.

[COMPLAIN ABOUT BUSYNESS]

[SELF-DEPRECATE THIS HORRIBLE, SHITTY BLOG]

[POST A SONG]

[MAKE AN EMPTY PROMISE THAT THE BLOG WILL BE BETTER ONE DAY]

There, done.

It’s week 10 of uni and I’m writing this in the foetal position on the floor of my bedroom.

If you think I’m down there because I’m overwhelmed by the amount of shit I haven’t done and the idea of impending due dates and would prefer to return to a prenatal state, then you’re right. But it’s also cos a little screw felt out of the bottom of my laptop, presumably lodged itself in some carpetal crevasse and it’s pretty much impossible to find by sight. Now I’m just relying on the tactile senses, hoping I’ll roll over it in my fragile state.

Usually I wouldn’t be so concerned about a missing screw but that’s probably the reason I’m down to 4 out of 10 on the bottom of my laptop. Also, I really don’t want to visit the genius bar to get them replaced. To do so would be to perpetuate the myth that only a genius can replace a set of laptop screws. I don’t want to contribute to that cycle of mediocracy.

Honestly, what has this blog become?

Oh yeah, music.

This week, I’m posting a Gypsy & The Cat song, mainly because it’s really good but also cos I’ve gotten over my mild derision for the name of their act. The song’s called ‘I Just Wanna Be Somebody Else’. So yeah.

I’m still a time-poor shitwit but it’s been a damn good few weeks for aussie music. Instead of writing about stuff here’s 5 tracks released in the last month and a bit from a grouse collection of strayan artists.

The Creases

Ball Park Music

Gordi

The Lulu Raes

Tiny Little Houses

This past week has been horrible and I hate everyone except Slow Dancer.

I’ve spent zero time listening to new music this week, which sucks cos I run a blog called Tunesday and it’s kinda based on the premise of me posting new music each Tuesday. What a shit idea.

Ah well, this is probably my favourite song ever, so hopefully it’ll see you over for a week.

I'm citing:

this tweet-stream as evidence that today was busy

this tweet as evidence that I'm a mess

and this post as evidence that I really don't have time to write anything good

But seriously, listen to Zak Abel. He’s a fuckin' champ (and we have a mutual appreciation for Jackie Brown – see ~4:00).

Tunesday #40. Wow. We’ve been wandering the musical desert together for 40 weeks now. Modern-day Tunesraelites.

To celebrate, I’ve got another Alex L’Estrange track for you. This is the third time I’ve posted one of his tracks, so he’s probably on the verge of joining Tom Misch and Tiny Little Houses in ascending to the hallowed status of an Old Mate here on Tunesday. It’s an honour that’s not quite as prestigious as a VMA but slightly more prestigious than the Fields Medal. Pffft, maths.

His new track’s called ‘Mr Mild’. It’s only 6 days old. According to my baby book I was still looking a bit jaundiced at 6 days old, so it’s doing pretty well by comparison. Plus, it has a pretty unexpectedly banging moment at 1:20. I mean, who uses a... actually, I won’t spoil it, have a listen.

Right? Right?

I’ve been operating on the assumption that it was Monday all day. Hence my surprise when I got my phone reminder to “write Tunesday” at 2:30 today. I’m even less prepared for this than I usually am. So here’s a song you might like.

I’m aware I haven’t really written about music for a good month or so. It’s your choice to read this, okay. Any emotional trauma from doing so is self-inflicted.