Features
Feature: We speak with Memes – One to Watch in 2022
Lets put aside the continuing uncertainty for live music due to the pandemic and instead celebrate fresh new music. Memes are amongst several bands looking to build on progress made in 2021. I took the opportunity to have a chat with the duo to learn more about their music, of their plans for 2022 and …
100 albums of 2021 you shouldn’t miss, plus playlist
In a moment a folly, I (not me and my editorial team, or my writers, or indeed anyone) decided to make a playlist of the year. Not one of those in order ones, just a playlist of good records, written by the esteemed writers here at Backseat Mafia. I don’t know what possessed me to …
Backseat Downunder: A Personal Top Fifty List of Favourite Australian/New Zealand Albums and Singles from 2021
This has been another extraordinary year which has seen musicians reach peak creativity locked away in their bedrooms, recording studios, recording studios in their bedrooms and all manner of locations – a side effect of the lockdowns that have beset both Australia and New Zealand. The sheer volume of releases seems to me to have …
Not Forgotten: The Jasmine Minks – ‘The Jasmine Minks’: on older brothers, cassette pets and discovering the world of Creation
MY ROUTE into The Jasmine Minks and the whole world of early Creation Records – Slaughter Joe, Biff Bang Pow, Revolving Paint Dream and so many others? Mine was the time-honoured one: that is, the combined good agency of a friend’s older brother and the humble cassette. It’s a story repeated everywhere there are older …
Feature: The Scaramanga Six give us a track by track insight into their new album Worthless Music
Out today is the new album, Worhtless Music, from Yorkshire art-rockers The Scaramanga Six, aka brothers Paul and Steven Morricone, alongside Julia Arnez and Gareth Champion. Their tenth album to date, it’s out on their own Wrath Records imprint, and comes in the wake of a handful of singles; Horse With No Face, It Is …
Soundtrack Of Our Lives: Patrick Pearson of LYR
If you heard last years brilliant Call In The Crash Team, no doubt you’ll be a fan of LYR, the band comprised of poet laureate Simon Armitage alongside producers Richard Walters and Patrick Pearson. It’s slightly amazing and at the same time disconcerting that the band didn’t seem to get the recognition they so richly …
Feature: A Buyer’s Guide to DEVO
Devo is a band that seems destined to be eternally misunderstood, probably because of multi-faceted elements in the pot. Many adjectives and nouns spring forth – humorous, novelty, plastic, comedy, but dig beyond the superficial and you’ll find subversive, pioneers, provocateurs, innovators, and let’s not forget entertainers, and if you’ve ever had the pleasure to see …
Feature: SIEMS leader Simeon Bartholemew gives us a track by track lowdown on the new album ‘Four’
Out today via Birds Robe is ‘Four’, the new album from Australian math-rock/post-rock band Seims. The brainchild essentially of Simeon Bartholomew, the band have become evermore experimental and formidable over the course of their career, with recent albums ‘3’ and ‘3.1’ being lauded over internet land and beyond. Upon the release of ‘Four’, we spoke …
Feature: Afternoon Bike Ride give us a track by track lowdown of their beautiful new self titled album.
We’ve got a bit doe eyed about the new album from Montreal based trio Afternoon Bike Ride, what with their gorgeous melodies, lo-fi aesthetic and sensitive backings, so when we got chance to talk to the band about the new self-titled record – out today on the Friends of Friends imprint, we jumped at the …
Meet: We chat to John Russell from Brisbane’s glorious 4000 Records label on music, passion, mixtapes and the 4000 Records Birthday Party.
4000 Records in Brisbane is celebrating its second birthday today – an innovative boutique agency that has on its roster some of the most exciting and diverse talent in Brisbane. And that is quite a feat considering Brisbane is an absolute hotbed of artistic talent at the moment. Backseat Mafia has enthusiastically reviewed output from …