This One Time, On Bandcamp: RVG

First things first: this column has made lofty promises in the past to the tune of trying to cast a wider geographic net beyond simply the east-coast state capitals with its selections each week, but I can't help it that Brisbane, Sydney and the inadvertently most-often-featured Melbourne keep turning out incredible independent bands.

Yes, other cities around Australia can also make this claim with respect to their own scenes, but what you're forgetting is that I am also ~~kind of lazy~~ a super-busy guy, and the location-tag function on Bandcamp makes it really easy to accidentally end up staying in one place much longer than originally intended.

Besides, what do you have against Melbourne? Fight me.

(Please don't; I have very weak bones, which is sad in itself because I used to chug milk as if I was going to wake up to a sudden cow shortage the next day. Ripped off.)

Anyway, cool your jets. I promise we'll head to Adelaide or something next week. Maybe. We'll see what they've got.

For now, though, feast your ears on another bit of south-eastern excellence from metropolitan Victoria...

RVG — Melbourne, Victoria

Hailing from the northern Melbourne suburb of Preston, RVG — more formally, but less frequently, the Romy Vager Group — have just released their sensational debut full-length, A Quality Of Mercy, an eight-track collection of tight, incisive post-punk/retro-pop infused with a liberal dose of downcast catharsis, confessional lyrics and downright infectious hooks.

The four-piece band is centred on singer-songwriter and namesake Romy Vager, who self-describes her influences as including the likes of the Psychedelic Furs, UK post-punk/neo-psych quartet Soft Boys and Queensland indie icons the Go-Betweens, and… well, yeah, that's actually a case of a musician being astonishingly on the money and unpretentious about such matters.

Featuring members from The Galaxy Folk, Drug Sweat, Gregor and Rayon Moon, the individual musicians are no strangers to the scene, and they utilise their experience and talents to sublime effect here, bolstering Vager's fundamentally attractive tunes — hey, she's been at this game since she was 16 and honed her skills in a slew of previous bands, so it's unsurprising that she's pretty damn great at it all — with their individual contributions, including the guitar work of Reuben Bloxham, the bass action of Angus Bell and mad drumming skills of Marc Nolte.

The multi-talented Bell also engineered the album — which shares its name with an episode of The Twilight Zone and landed earlier this month, on 17 February — in the band room at beloved venue The Tote before mixing it down at The Bank. If you appreciate how dang sharp it all sounds through speakers and headphones alike, you might like to also thank Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Total Control), who handled the mastering.

Give the tunes a spin below and, if you're around for it, head to The Tote on Friday 3 March to catch the launch show, with support from Scott & Charlene's Wedding and Girl Crazy.

If you can't make that outing, RVG also play Boogie Fest at Tallarook, being held from 14-16 April. See theGuide for more details.