We’re about to hit the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, and the new music keeps coming. This week we’ve added ten more tracks to our Discovery playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, and our track of the week goes to Bleak Squad, a new Melbourne-based outfit featuring four Australian music legends, with their debut single, “Lost My Head”.
Making up Bleak Squad is Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting). It’s a heady combination indeed. As well as the single, they’ve announced that their debut album, Strange Love, will be released on the 22nd of August. What’s more, live shows are coming to Sydney and Melbourne, as well as warm-up shows in Meeniyan and Queenscliff – head HERE for all the details. “Lost My Head” has some Crazy Horse guitar vibes, with moody vocals from Adalita, leaving us keen to hear more from the album.
“Broken Hearts” from Geowulf is a lush and dreamy slice of dream-pop. About the track, Geowulf writes, “I wrote this song with good friend and producer Duncan Mills. It was so nice to step back into OG Geowulf by writing something that felt very dreamy and spacious. The song feels melancholy but then ends with a more upbeat chorus/outro. It is an open-hearted letter to loving someone who is dealing with substance abuse and the heartbreak that can be involved in this.”.
Dressed Like Boys has released “Stonewall Riots Forever”, a tender and moving anthem and protest song. The video was filmed in the legendary Stonewall Bar in NYC. It’s a beautiful tribute to those that fought the good fight, who bravely risked their freedom and safety for equal rights. His debut album will be released on the 29th of August.
“Cyclone” is the feature track from Liverpool’s Michael Robert Murphy, frontman and songwriter of The Wicked Whispers and Whiskey Headshot. The album is described by Michael as a “A scouse lo-fi autobiographical psychedelic odyssey”. It’s a cracking record, and this is a beautiful introduction to it. The album has some stellar guest artists including Echo and The Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant and The Coral’s Ian Skelly.
Cooee is a newly formed collaboration between Gunai multidisciplinary artist Kirli Saunders and musician/producer Mark Chester Harding, and they’ve released their debut single, “Sacred Women’s Ways”. The track is a reverent tribute to matriarchal strength, rooted in Saunders’ poem of the same name. “Sacred Women’s Ways” features the Shoalhaven-based First Nations women’s choir Mudjingaal Yangamba and drums by Harry Day of Middle Kids.
We’re unabashed fans of CMAT with her big-energy pop. Her latest tune, “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” is her way of saying don’t be a dick. At first glance it seems as though it’s dissing Jamie Oliver, but dig a little deeper, and you will discover otherwise, as CMAT says, “The whole point of the song is actually my annoyance and intolerance and hatred of other people serves absolutely no purpose in my life and is a really bad instinct that I have. So it’s actually a love song for Jamie Oliver, if you think about it. It’s me being like ‘don’t be a bitch and stop judging people for annoyances.”.
Zac Henderson has released “Fever”, the haunting first single from his new album to be released later in the year. It’s a slow-burning meditation on longing, disconnection, and emotional vulnerability. Another beautiful folk song to be released is “The Lonely” from Domini Forster. It’s the title-track from her sophomore album that was released today.
Flipping to the high-octane rock ‘n’ roll, The Southern River Band have delivered another take-no-prisoners banger, “Don’t Take It To Heart”. “Metaphorically speaking, ‘Don’t Take It To Heart’ is sticking your finger in an electrical socket, knowing full well you’re gonna get shocked, getting shocked, going ‘why did that happen?!’ – and then doing it again,” explains frontman Cal Kramer. “It’s the new single off our new record that we’ve just finished doing with mega legend and all-round top bloke Nick DiDia (Google him) over in Byron. And if you like it, well, heck – you might like the other songs too.”. They have a never-ending supply of massive guitar riffs, best quenched by a cold VB or West-End.
Finally, we’ve added “Peace”, the lead-single from Cass McCombs’ new album Interior Live Oak, which will be released on the 15th of August.
Catch all the new music updated every Friday on Apple Music:
and on Spotify:
Here’s the complete list of new additions this week:
Bleak Squad “Lost My Head”
Geowulf “Broken Hearts”
Dressed Like Boys “Stonewall Riots Forever”
Michael Robert Murphy & By The Sea “Cyclone”
Cooee “Sacred Women’s Ways”
CMAT “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”
Zac Henderson “Fever”
Domini Forster “The Lonely”
The Southern River Band “Don’t Take It To Heart”
Cass McCombs “Peace”
Photo credit: Felix Oliver
