The Single Life: Death Cab For Cutie, Foals & More

Once you’ve been at this rock and/or roll thing for a time, some turn their minds to experiments in form or style. Apparently having passed the audition and trial period for his day-job in that You Am I combo, Davey Lane decides to play with the idea of the sound itself. It’s somewhat less ambitious/folly the The Flaming Lips’ 40 car stereos playing in unison – yes they did that, drugs may have been involved – but Davey’s DuoMonophonic Explorations Vol.1 (Field Recordings) is a rather nifty concept. Ladies and gentlemen, adjust your headphones accordingly and you can hear duets between Mr Lane and Stu McKenzie (he of King Gizzard) on I’ll Set You Free, while on The First Flung One To Crash the other voice and sound involved is the Rogers chappie from that aforementioned You Am I. Now, the trick is to turn one ear down and you’ll find a solo take on the song by each of the participants. Technology, eh? The real trick is both songs are very different in their own right, rather than the blur of novelty noise with which you may have ended up.

Others turn at least part of their imagination to making the visuals to go with the songs interesting, in these days where video budgets have had a couple of zeroes knocked off them. The splendid, sometimes alt.countryish, breathy tones of Natalie Prass heads more toward Feist or Neko Case territory with Bird Of Prey (Caroline) There’s colour and movement, knit jumpers which may have been purchased at Lowes, and an overall brightness which might belie some of the lyrical content of the song. 

Death Cab For Cutie take the GoPro cameras outside, and tell a story with a borrowed tour bus of The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive (Atlantic). Hollywood in all its tawdry monochrome glory trundles by, with Ben Gibbard looking suitably world-weary still getting all emo – umm, is ‘emo’ still a thing as Benny heads toward 40? – as he ponders the typical detachment and disillusion with modern world. Fans will ‘happily’ jump aboard the streetcar probably not named Desire, and know that he’s singing just for them. 

Somewhere past that level angst and heading toward a more simply oppressive pissoffed-ness, Foals can sustain their grumpy for nigh six minutes through What Went Down (Transgressive). Struggling against the tide and Baskervillian hounds in slow motion being suitable mood-setters for a muse on existence starting off with the happy romantic notion of ‘Buried my heart in a hole in the ground’. Such cheerful souls, these Foals.  

Perhaps oddly seeming to have some money to splash on a video, one of the last of the punks with a heart, Frank Turner. Admittedly, most of the money would have gone on getting another punk onboard. That being CM Punk – the former WWE wrestler’s presence ensuring several thousands more YouTube views, and some of the most bizarre arguments in the comments underneath. Sports entertainment is serious business it appears. As well as managing to pin the champ, Turner comes at you in all his typical wide-eyed, yet caring, glory as he waits for The Next Storm (Xtra Mile Recordings) and the shit that will likely come down with it. 

Nick Batterham’s latest look has him wandering neon streets - sunnies affixed, cigarette dangling - like some dissipated wraith who’s been taking fashion tips from later-period Serge Gainsbourg or Lee Hazlewood. Dead End (Popboomerang) has a downbeat style, somewhere between Dylan drawl and Go-Betweens’ love of pop and a story open to interpretation. Put all that together, and you have an idiosyncratic talent worth noting. 

They say it’s Easy (Independent) but Tiny Little Houses have made something of craft as well. The echoey guitar and vocals here actually made me recall the very fine Panics very fine moments, although perhaps with a touch less of the country heat-haze about them. Whatever, this be a good song much suited to repeated playing on your local community radio station that specialises in the playing of new Australian music. Yeah, that one.