I’ve been meaning to write about Sydney band Bland for ages and time keeps slipping by. Their new release ‘Steel Park’ is so good that I’m not going to let this one pass by without a mention.
Think of the archetypal Australian indie band of yore – The Go-Betweens, Died Pretty and The Triffids and you can see why Bland is so exciting. And that’s in spite of the name – I guess I could make an ironic comment about the label not matching the contents.
Jangling guitars, yearning vocals and memory-searing melodies: that about sums up this band. ‘Steel Park’ is an unadorned delight: fragile, delicate and melancholic with a haunting cello. There’s an eighties indie pop vibe but with a millenial update and the thrilling passion of youth. It is well worth checking out their back catalogue: this is a band deserving more attention (guilty as charged).
The accompanying video sums them up perfectly – slightly low-fi but utterly charming, filmed around their native habitat of the inner west of Sydney’s hippest epic epicentre, Marrickville:
Absolutely wonderful stuff. You can catch them live in Sydney at the Marrickville Bowlo on 14 November 2019.
