What a week for live music. No matter how much the weather tries to deter us from heading out, the Melbourne music scene feels more vibrant than ever at the moment. It’s truly a nice time to be alive. I caught Karnivool at one of their many sold out performances at The Corner and was completely gobsmacked at Ian Kenny’s vocals. The dude sings that effortlessly that he’s almost otherworldly. His register and precision is pretty impressive to behold. I’m officially really excited to hear some new material from them. The lineup at The Corner on Saturday wasn’t bad either – Batpiss, Colossvs, High Tension and King Parrot all jammed onto one bill meant that the show was always destined to sell out. After having their appetites tickled by the brilliant, international quality support acts, the crowd was absolutely ravenous by the time King Parrot came on stage. Their new LP Dead Set is a banger. Make sure you grab a copy.
The Decline have returned with a new lineup ready and raring to go. Their new LP Resister is on its way (it’s out on June 12 but you can pre-order it from Pee Records from May 21) and they have some tour dates on the way as well. Check them out at Next on June 11 with Ganbaru and Pitt The Elder.
New Orleans band Pears have been tipped as the next big thing by a lot of people for some time now and Fat Wreck Chords have just snapped them up. The label will re-release last year’s awesome Go To Prison album next month and then back them on their next effort, a full length LP due for release in 2016. The guys have been touring with Strung Out, Red City Radio and La Armada for the past couple weeks and will soon hit the road with Teenage Bottlerocket.
Sydney’s Hand Of Mercy will tour extensively this winter. They’ll bring Sydney’s Vices and Melbourne’s Glorified with them when they hit Ding Dong Lounge on June 26 and Arrow On Swanston on June 27. That’s plenty of bands for your buck.
Melbourne quartet Flour have joined Poison City for the release of their debut LP Morbid Thoughts. The album will drop in September and after dropping their neat Silver Spoon video a couple of weeks ago, it’s safe to say it’s hotly anticipated. They play pretty regularly around Melbourne, so keep an eye out for them in the meantime.
If you missed out on Poison City Weekender tickets that got snapped up super fast then you should hurry up and grab tickets to see Iron Chic, Modern Baseball, Ceres and Laura Palmer when they play at The Reverence for ‘Pre-Keender’ on September 3. Limited tickets are available at time of print so pray to the punk rock gods that you don’t miss this lineup.
Melbourne’s Ocean Grove have announced they have a new album on the way. Black Label will come out on June 12 via Shock Records and they’ll tour in support of it with Void Of Vision and Devastator in July. See ‘em all at Ding Dong on July 17, or OLP in Ringwood for an afternoon all ages jaunt on July 19.
