Angus and Julia Stone are a brother/sister group from the sunny northern suburbs of Sydney.  Originally they started out as separate artists who would play back up for each other at open mic nights.  From that humble background Angus and Julia slowly gained momentum and caught the attention of the alternative media in Australia and then the UK.  Using this momentum the recorded the album “A Book Like This” and released it in Australia in September 2007 and then in the UK in March 2008.

One of the things that make this duo unique is they both write songs independently of one another.  Because of this you get a wonderful variety in the album with songs written from different perspectives but with threads of common experiences holding it together.  What you end up with is a very listenable album that neither becomes predictable nor strays far from its roots.  This album plays like a summers day in a hammock with the surf breaking nearby.

The album was only recently released in North America (3rd March 2009) on Nettwerk.  Currently Angus and Julia are touring through the United States before they head back into the studio and I think we all should be holding our collective breaths to see what they release next.

Angus and Julia Stone (MySpace)

Recently I managed to get my hands on Hometowns by The Rural Alberta Advantage and it has been on high rotation ever since.So when I was perusing the interweb and found an article describing a band I had never heard of before as a cross between the RAA and The Postal Service (another one of my all time favorites) I just had to check it out.My efforts were rewarded with a wonderful little jem of an EP called frankencottage by the Dark Mean.

Frankencottage – Dark Mean

Frankencottage – Dark Mean

Dark Mean are a couple of high school friends who initially scored a play for a local artist Rebecca Nada-Rajah and in 2008 “The Constant K Determines the Fate of the Universe” debuted to excellent reviews. This spurred the band into sitting down and recording the following four songs at Vibewrangler in Hamilton.

While the similarities between the RAA and TPS may be a bit overplayed, there is little doubt that this band has a certain je ne sais quoi and are worth keeping an eye on.

They will be touring Southern Ontario extensively this summer and if they are in your neck of the woods make sure to check them out. Also their EP is available from their website so check it out.

PS, sorry this post took so long, lets never fight again…

So the first hints of spring are starting to sneak out from underneath the blanket of winter and with it comes eternal optimism, a sense of accomplishment for surviving another winter and the chance of finding new love…

Actually right now I’m in Australia, which means that it’s fall, the weather is changing from a beautiful 30 degrees and sunny to days that hover around 15 with a sprinkle of rain and a cool wind from Antarctica blowing in off the ocean. The winter is looming like some sort of shadowy figure in the corner of your eye that you know is there but you cannot quite see yet. But even with winter around the corner there is still the chance for new relationships to form in the most unusual or average of situations, as these next two songs will show.

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Exciting news everybody, theoretical physicists from Cambridge have recently discovered the formula for the perfect song and published it in the journal Science. The following is an excerpt from an interview with the papers author, “…it was simple really, we isolated the components and ran them through our supercomputer and it ended up with a beautiful correlation… really quite fascinating”. The equation was one part infectious beat, two parts jangley guitar and one part wailing vocals. Ok, so since this is my first post and I want to start off on a good foot I’m going to level with you, there was no paper from Cambridge, there was no interview, there are no theoretical physicists, I made the whole thing up. The important thing is that if there was a formula for a perfect song it would be that, and one song that would fit this formula perfectly is 1901 by Phoenix off their upcoming album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I have to admit I am fairly new to Phoenix’s work, however, from what I’ve heard so far I like ‘em and so will you. This French four-piece started out in the mid 90’s on the mean streets of Versailles. The band itself has some very strong ties with other high profile artists having initially worked on a remix of French band Airs song “Kelly Watch the Stars” and Laurent Brancowitz having been in the band Darlin’ before joining Phoenix with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo who later went on to form a little group by the name of Daft Punk. This isn’t Phoenix’s first rodeo either; WAP is their fourth studio album and has the potential to be excellent so keep your eyes peeled for this one, out May 25 if all goes to plan.

Phoenix – 1901

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Updates after the jump.

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