Culture

‘Over and Out’ – Males

Males have just released their debut EP for free, because, you know, YOLO right? Not sure if this is the single, but it should be. Not that the other songs aren’t just as good, but “Over and Out” is one of those rare songs that sounds completely full, finished, and realised. It’s a pop song that follows the perfect avenues of sound and melody as it rollicks along, fulfilling each idea’s complete potential without overdoing it or boring me. Essentially, it’s the perfect pop song filtered through a garage rock band, a fantastically interesting singer, and a whole heap of clean-cut, stoner-behind-closed-doors vibes. Richard Ley Hamilton is one of the more prolific musicians in a city filled with prolific musicians, although unfortunately, and mostly due to reasons beyond his control, I and the rest of the public have been consistently starved of recorded material from any of his numerous bands. However, I hope this dearth disappears with the release of MalesMalesMales. With the reclusive super wordsmith networking burger king Sam Valentine and the rosy cheeked, ever smiling choir boy drummer Ben Madden, Males might just become a band that all of New Zealand can lose their shit to, just like all of ReFuel did at the dunedinmusic.com birthday party. They should swap instruments, though. That would make them way cooler.

Males debut EP available for free at malesmalesmales.bandcamp.com

‘Give You All My Lovin’ – Tom Lark

Tom Lark, New Zealand’s best new earthquake-surviving, one-name, five-person band of merry men, is basically just awesome from start to finish. His debut EP, available for free online, features a mix of great songwriting, quirky themes, catchy hooks, weird noises, and a whole lot of cheek, adding up to a tight and endearing release. “All Night Long” has a chorus dripping with honey and a hook that just won’t get out of my head even six months later. It includes one of my favourite ever lyrics, “my Midas touch might as well be doubt”, which is both terribly defeatist and completely relatable. “Give You All My Lovin” has a gunshot of a chorus, bursting out through the chest of the verse in a mix of blood, bone, and 90s nostalgia that slaps you in the face before reloading again. A jack of all trades media-wise, the band comprises Daniel Fowler of FowlerFace productions, who handles the video making for the band, creating an appropriately bright video for “All Night Long” and a strangely beautiful fast-paced clip for “Lovin” involving a horse mask, and singer/songwriter Shannon Fowler doing his best I’m-shy-but-I’m-a-rock-star pose. He writes fantastic songs, with a wit and sharp tongue belying his quiet demeanour outside of music. Tom Lark is wacky and weird, but in such a perfectly accessible way that shows that outsiders are in (shit that sounds hipster). All in all, this album would get a perfect score if Lark hadn’t changed the perfect name of their song “Christians Who Don’t Do Shit” to “Hipsteranity”. And more points off for playing at Parachute and not playing “Christians Who Don’t Do Shit”. That gives them a total of 7/5. Oh, and they are even better live – it’s ridiculous but true.

‘Pulled You In’ – Artisan Guns

This song sounds how I assume it must feel to float within a steady stream of clouds, basking in the light warmth of the sun as memories of a lost love fade into resigned nostalgia. There is something hypnotic about the rhythm, which chugs along underneath the perfectly understated vocals of Matthew Someone as he sings, “I cry myself, I cry myself to sleep”. It’s not a dark winter night of a song, though – instead of cold concrete floors and loneliness, there’s a winter warmth, like that core-warming yet bleak and hazy early sun on a spring morning. This song romanced me, carrying me along with its flow, enchanting me into only being able to write overly flowery and romantic things about its gorgeous form, and transforming me into a swaying field of summer daffodils, with my eyes closed, getting pulled under. I’d turn gay for it, basically.