STACK April 2016 Issue 138

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On My Speakers
Good day chums, and welcome to April: the month during which I have
to remember a birthday every few hours and also the season of Hilltop
Hoods, spectacular Restrung tour. My chat with MC Pressure was most
illuminating, and I got to be nerdy and tell you all about orchestral instruments.
My favourite is the oboemaboe. Meanwhile, if you've not already seen or heard
the news somewhere on our social media apparatuses, we are looking for keen
as Colonel music writers to join our live review crew! If you want to be a STACK
GigPig, we might have a spot in the sty for your curly li'l tail. See all the details at
. Zo ë Radas (Music Editor)
Do It, Try It from Junk by M83
This one gives you the same amusing, transcendental feeling
as Daft Punk but with more warped voices and intensely uncool
electric piano. Not for everyone but definitely for me.
Dinosaur City from Teenage Dreams by Big White
It's really difficult to pick just one cut from this phenomenal
album, which has instantly become the soundtrack to all my
courtyard gatherings. Start here, and you probably won't stop.
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Yes, you.
T he latest signatories to
Courtney Barnett's label
are Loose Tooth, and they're an
absolutely charming, sloppily
rattling, fuzzily nonchalant,
female-fronted affair. We dig
very much.
LOOSE
TOOTH
COURTNEY
TAYLOR-TAYLOR
THE DANDY
WARHOLS
Saturn Returns
by Loose Tooth
is out now through
Milk! Records.
03
NEWS MUSIC
MUSIC
L ate last year, The Dandy
Warhols nearly gave up.
A huge storm ripped through
Portland and stomped its Docs
straight through the roof of The
Odditorium, the studio-cum-
hangout which Courtney Taylor-
Taylor and his bandmates have
occupied for years. “It happened
five days after we turned in our
record,” the frontman says in his
sweet, lazy timbre. “To work on
a record for three years and not
have copies or duplicates or back-
ups, outside of that same room?
Dude, and then we left on tour
three days later, so if we hadn’t
found it, it would’ve been raining
into our studio for months.”
Distortland was a hell of a ride
in general (“You know how you
know a record’s done? When
you have destroyed, or damaged
severely, every interpersonal
relationship in your life”), but the
journey began on Taylor-Taylor’s
Yamaha cassette four-track, a
piece of equipment he’s owned
since he was a child. “It’s been
working for 25 years or something;
it’s f-cking insane,” he says. “I’m
very fast with it, I know what to do.
It has a couple bells and whistles
on that particular model that I know
how to abuse. And they really
respond to abuse,” he laughs.
There are multiple treasures on this
record, from the throbbing bass
and Mellow Gold-era jag of Semper
Fidelis to the outlaw guitar melody
of Pope Reverend Jim, but the
top-notch track is single STYGGO.
Taylor-Taylor first laid down its
“shingy, shingy, shangaly, jangly
guitar” two years ago, but it’s the
percussion that’s really something.
Taylor-Taylor has a very deliberate
reason behind the choice: “You
know that Arcade Fire song,
Reflektor? So I had seen that [Win
Butler] had gotten a lot of sh-t
for using bongos. He was going,
‘Well,’” – a theatrical sigh – “’F-ck
you, y’know! Like, whatever!’
And I thought… perfect.” He
spills his low giggle again. “I gotta
have bongos. It’s the first rule
of Dr Dre: whatever is the least
fashionable thing you can possibly
do, do it, and have it be the
loudest thing in your mix. Being
a drummer and a percussionist
my whole life, I play the f-ck out
of the congas, man. So I ripped
them out. And my engineer
Brandon Eggleston came in, and
he turns it up. He turns to me and
goes, ‘Woah, man. Legit conga
solo.’” The perfect storm indeed.
Distortland by The Dandy Warhols
is out now through Dine Alone/Cooking Vinyl.
INTERVIEW
Well, that escalated quickly.
One minute we were
sipping our flat whites and the
next there's a newWeezer
album, and Rivers Cuomo is as
on point with the earnest lyrics
and singalong melodies and
hairy-faced guitar as ever. The
belter self-titled tenth album is
out now on Warner.
WEEZER