THE BELL DIVERS
Fallen Down
(Independent)
The Bell Divers are from Brisbane, and their single ‘Fallen Down’ is influenced heavily by The Go-Betweens, which is only surprising and worthy of note because it doesn’t happen that much really. ‘Fallen Down’ is less than two minutes of pure pop bounciness with vocalist Clinton Toghill’s wavering and delicate delivery displaying an impressive honesty and genuineness that is not only refreshing, but gives The Bell Divers an instant uniqueness . While his vocals are a little jarring at first, the odd timbre of his singing quickly becomes something to relish and appreciate about the group. ‘Life In A Caravan’ still doesn’t crack the three-minute mark, but still manages to paint some vivid pictures of real life sadness that somehow avoids wallowing in dreariness. Matt Lobb’s barely-there backing vocals teasingly remind me of the awesomeness of his old band Arbuckle, whom I dearly miss. Sigh. Both tracks are from The Bell Divers’ excellent album June July.

SLEEPING STATES
Old vs New
(Etch n Sketch/Inertia)
This EP is a mix of stuff from Sleeping States’ previous releases over the last few years, as a bit of a sampler for their Australian distribution. ‘Planning My Escape’ is the first song, a very simple plucked guitar line and an understated drumbeat with big washy cymbals for accompaniment make a nice folk-indie sort of number which bares itself nicely. ‘Old vs New’ is more rock and none the worse for it. Things get a bit weird on ‘A Tip To NYC’ in the nicest way possible – lots of weird instruments and shit (I’m not even sure what they are doing), but they give another edge to the pop songs which class things up even further. Even though this stuff’s been out for a while it’s definitely worthy of a mention here as it’s very, very good. Check ‘em out, please. Thanks.

TRAGIC/ATHLETIC
Brakes
(Independent)
Brisbane indies Tragic/Athletic have released an EP on the delicious and underused 10 inch vinyl format with a sweet cover making it a satisfying experience from the very first time you hold onto it. Their loose, cacophonic guitar jams have heaps going on and take a few listens to get your head around, especially given the frequent, frantic timing changes and stylistic divergences. Like, there’s some very unexpected slap bass going on during ‘Four Decades’ which is punctuated with a noisy guitar stab and a little spoken hook before eventually mellowing out into a dramatic, atmospheric landscape. ‘Three Months At Sea’ is the closest Tragic/Athletic come to traditional songwriting after the opening Modest Mouse-sounding track ‘We Set Sail When The Wind Came’ and it’s still got a lot of room, and some lazy, breathy vocals give it a lot of personality. A very accomplished release.

JOHN MEYER
Silver Bullets Don’t Work On Vampires
(Independent)
No shit Sherlock, they’re for werewolves. Does anyone really not know that? It’s hard to work out just where the hell John Meyer is coming from. It’s an embarrassingly pop track with an ever-so-slightly distorted guitar attempting to toughen things up, and not really hitting the mark. He also sings with a pronunciation that sounds like those TV shows on the ABC where they try to teach immigrants English. I can’t work out what it’s actually about, but it really wasn’t possible to keep listening to it long enough to. More disturbing is the b-side ‘Bathtub’, and the suggestion that some people should leave their inhibitions at the door because he has a “bathtub big enough for three”. The lyrics then devolve into describing what he wants the other people to do to him in enough detail to make me throw up a little bit into my mouth. Disgusting, and not in a cool Lindsay Lohan flashing her fire-crotch kind of way. Fuck, I just remembered I haven’t downloaded the Lost Boys 2 yet. Must run, see you soon.