Yesterdays Hedgehog

Modern Convenience is the debut LP from MOD CON, out April 6 on Poison City Records. Modern Convenience follows a series of themes that question the modern world; is it a joke? A burden? A clean slate? These lyrical cornerstones, along with the undeniable ferocity of this three piece, make a compelling debut release.

It features already released singles, "Do It Right Margo" and "Neighbourhood" which have received heavy support across community radio.

MOD CON is the trio of Erica Dunn (Tropical Fuck Storm, Harmony), Sara Retallick (Jimmy Tait, Golden Syrup) and Raquel Solier (Various Asses).

Drawing influences from Aussie punk, 60s garage and surf, Sophisticated Dingo are ripping up the indie rock scene by ripping out killer tunes that have you moshing before you realise!

Lewis “Lew” Matte and James “Jimmy” Medley pack a lot of noise for so few instruments. They explode on the stage with a high octane set of bangers. Each trashy song gets the blood pumping more than the previous as they pummel through super catchy melodies after melody with fuzzed out precision.

Their panache for thrashy guitar tunes is only matched by their cheeky taste for blood. Social commentary is but the tip of the iceberg as they rip through telling anyone and everyone what they think of them with comedic slant that make them all the more delicious.

Fleur Green and The Keepers are an Adelaide band who perform original songs by singer/songwriter Fleur Green who accompanies her voice with 4-mallet vibraphone, piano and violin. Solid, energetic drumming provided by Gerard Spalding and the indefatigable Flik Freeman assist with arranging. Together, the band weave sweet and heavy alternative pop melodies.

They have recently released their debut album, When The Tide Rushes In. The 12-track album features guest performances from the likes of Peter Whish-Wilson (tuba, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), classical guitarist Alex Tsiboulski, cellist Brihony Taylor and saxophonist Jason McMahon.

Anthony Charles McPhee (born 23 March 1944) is an English blues guitarist, and founder of The Groundhogs. An early version of this band backed Champion Jack Dupree and John Lee Hooker on UK concerts in the mid-1960s. He is often credited as 'Tony (TS) McPhee'. He was given this name by the producer Mike Vernon who suggested adding 'T.S.' to his name when McPhee released a duet single with Champion Jack Dupree in 1966 called Get Your Head Happy, in order to make it look more like an official blues name. It stands for Tough Sh*t.

The Groundhogs evolved into a blues-rock trio that produced three UK Top 10 hits in the UK Albums Chart in the early 1970s. Although they have continued to play in various line-ups to the present day, McPhee officially retired from the band in 2015.

Solo album The Two Sides of Tony (T.S.) McPhee was released in 1973. Side A of this record is blues rock and Side B is a single psychedelic art rock electronic composition, featuring Arp 2600 Synthesizers, Electric Piano and The Rhythm Ace Drum Synthesizer exploring McPhee's strong stance against Fox and Stag-Hunting.

Mia Celeste Dyson (born 1981) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She has released six studio albums, Cold Water (May 2003), Parking Lots (April 2005), Struck Down (August 2007), The Moment (August 2012), Idyllwild (June 2014) and If I Said Only So Far I Take It Back (March 2018). Parking Lots won the Best Blues & Roots Album category at the 2005 ARIA Awards. In 2009 Dyson relocated to Boston and then moved to Los Angeles in 2010.

Future Islands is an American synthpop band based in Baltimore, Maryland, and signed to 4AD, currently comprising Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars), and Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals). The band was formed in January 2006 by Welmers, Cashion and Herring—the remaining members of the performance art college band Art Lord & the Self-Portraits—and drummer Erick Murillo.

Your Girl Pho is the stage name of Phoebe Gunson, a voice you've definitely heard on Pilerats before, either in her side project with JCAL, Phocal, or laying down smooth as hell vocals on tracks like Palais' Instant Crush.

'Feelen' recalls old-school jazz and soul with an enigmatic twist; some deliciously slinky electro-pop that bolsters itself over dithering synths and poppin' beats that grips you by the soul and drags you into a euphoric void. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 'Feelen' is all about the feels, detailing those beautiful moments when life sneak-attacks you with some self-realisation and drags you out of the passionless rut of everyday life.

'Feelen' recalls old-school jazz and soul with an enigmatic twist; some deliciously slinky electro-pop that bolsters itself over dithering synths and poppin' beats that grips you by the soul and drags you into a euphoric void. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 'Feelen' is all about the feels, detailing those beautiful moments when life sneak-attacks you with some self-realisation and drags you out of the passionless rut of everyday life.

 It comes at a time when Gunson is putting more time into Your Girl Pho, with an EP on the way along with a band coming together for live shows, and can be seen in Brisbane on Sat 7th April @ The Milk Factory 19:30

Ruby Vidor, is a 19-year old Melbourne based singer-songwriter releasing her debut independent single, 10 Days. 

10 Days is a song about the pain and heartache when time conspires against a relationship. It’s melancholy and gentle vocal underlies the heartbreak that weaves through the captivating melody. The lyric starts with a question - can the relationship survive? As the songs builds it reaches the conclusion that the relationship has come to a natural end.

Fairport Convention are a British folk rock band. Formed in 1967, they are widely regarded as a key group in the English folk rock movement. Their seminal album Liege & Lief is considered to have launched the British folk rock movement, which provided a distinctively English identity to rock music and helped awaken much wider interest in traditional music in general. The band have drawn heavily on the Child Ballads, songs of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century.

Original guitarist and singer/songwriter, Richard Thompson was born this day the 3rd April 1949.

Richard Thompson, OBE (born 3 April 1949) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He made his début as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material regularly and frequently performs live at venues throughout the world.

Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson Award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991. Similarly, his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio. Many and varied musicians have recorded Thompson's compositions.

Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen

Jeff Lang (born 9 November 1969) is an Australian songwriter, singer and slide guitarist. He is a leading performer in the Australian roots music scene and purveyer of his self-described "disturbed folk" style, which incorporates primarily folk, blues and rock. The songwriting in his music is heavily influenced by the folk music of the southern United States and the British Isles but has distinctly Australian lyrical content whilst his guitar playing mixes folk, blues and rock styles with Indian and African modalities. He plays various types of guitar, both slide and standard, as well as banjo, mandolin, Chumbush and drums.

This song is a cover, originally by Richard Thompson.

Achromatopsia is a condition characterized by a partial or total absence of color vision.

Tara Emily Simmons (born 22 March 1984) is a musician residing in Brisbane, Australia. Simmons is proficient in voice, keys and sometimes cello and is known for her use of bedroom, bathroom and kitchen items to sample extra sounds for her recordings.

Tara began to play piano at the age of three and the cello at the age of eight, dabbling in songwriting along the way. Vocal lessons soon followed and she attended a performing arts school that taught her music technology and performance. She then went on to study at university in both production and songwriting at the Queensland University of Technology

Third Ear engage the senses and offer an exquisite arrangement of themes and mood, designed to gently guide you as you embark upon a shared journey.  

Sometimes breezy, laid back and cool, sometimes taut, explosive and rollicking, Third Ear’s musical works are textured throughout with depth, imaginative flair and a soulfulness that seeks the heart. 

Having well served their “live music apprenticeship” by travelling and performing extensively across the country supporting various headliners, Sunshine Coast based act Third Ear have released their debut single “The Ghost Road.” 

Produced by Mark Paltridge and recorded at Spark 1 studio’s Maleny, The Ghost Road displays a captivating mix of classic American 60’s surf beat and Jim Morrison style dark lyrics and overtones reminiscent of The Doors.

Christopher Giffard’s latest single, Talk To Me is an unlikely blend of percussive jazz piano, dreamy vocals and washy drums, Talk To Me is an acoustically complex, lyrically simple exploration of the powerlessness felt when watching a loved one struggle, and yet refuse help.

Featuring Birds of Tokyo keyboardist Glenn Sarangapany and drummer Michael Hardy (Kim Churchill), Talk To Me was recorded and produced in collaboration with engineer Nathan Sheehy (Dune Rats, Bluejuice, Creo, The Vanns) over a number of days at A Sharp Sydney and Glenn's own studio Electric Sheep Music (featuring a menagerie of Glenn's vintage analogue synthesisers brought out of storage) — Talk to Me represents over a year of sketches, nearly a week in the studio, and a mountain of discarded takes.

Christopher, based in Sydney, blends jazz, electronic, and an avant-garde compositional approach to create a truly new flavour of complex, involving, yet listenable fusion rock. A lapsed pianist, Christopher approaches music as soundscape over structure — through layers upon layers of instruments and effects which build and evolve in freeform, a method more sonically expository than literal. With no particular philosophy in mind when writing music, Christopher's work is connected much more by feel than by genre — a dark techno piece might seem unrelated to acoustic jazz, but the two share a mood and motifs that are immediately recognisable.

Software engineer turned musician Christopher has been producing electronic beats for as long as he's used a computer — but in 2016 he ventured out of his apartment studio to record the jazz-fusion single Smash and Grab. Inspired by contemporary jazz and anything in its lineage, as well as a mash of electronic styles, Christopher brings a flavour to rock that only a naive outsider can.

Delirium Seeds is Brisbane indie rock band featuring members of psych assault team Purple Avengers & punk legends Mystery of Sixes. Their debut album takes the listener down some mysterious paths where Goldilocks might fear to tread!

Sydney/Tongan reggae outfit VTribe have released their latest single ‘You’re the One’ online, celebrating with a tour of South-East QLD and Northern NSW. VTribe are a 6 piece Reggae band who have been smashing Sydney venues since exploding onto the scene in 2006 and have no intentions of slowing down.

They are a band of brothers, consisting of 4 brothers and 2 childhood friends, who they call ‘tokos’ (which in their native tongue means ‘brothers’).

SUNSHINE COAST: Full Moon Dance, Verrierdale on Saturday 14 April 7pm-midnight w/ Oka and Reuben Stone

BRISBANE: Bearded Lady, West End on Sunday 15 April 7-10:45pm w/ Ofa Fanaika

Brisbane songstress Bec Laughton's broad vocal ability recently earned her a 2012 Queensland Music Award – not a bad effort considering the Dance/Electronic category win was a bedroom side-project collaboration that came in the midst of her work to release her sophomore EP By The Fire.

Her debut release, “At First Sight … “ that features this song, was released in 2010.

Songhoy Blues is a desert blues music group from Timbuktu, Mali. The band was formed in Bamako after they were forced to leave their homes during the civil conflict and the imposition of Sharia law. The band released their debut album, Music in Exilevia Transgressive Records in February 2015, while Julian Casablancas' Cult Records partnered with Atlantic Records to release the album in North America in March 2015. The group is one of the principal subjects of the documentary film They Will Have To Kill Us First.

This song features Iggy Pop.

The second album from new Rock'n'Soul band from Melbourne, The Sugarcanes.

Taking from all sides of the Rhythm and Blues spectrum, mixing up, and dishing it out, what the critics say is "an eccentric mix of the good old soul sound"

Led by the talented Wilson siblings, Jack and Lucy, the Sugarcanes were started with the intent to encapsulate the best of the music they love, and fuelled by soul this band is ready to take you by the hand and break your little heart.

Albert Louis Hammond Jr. (né Hammond III; born April 9, 1980) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer. He is most famous for his role as rhythm and lead guitarist, as well as occasional keyboard player and backing vocalist, in the American rock band The Strokes. He is the son of singer-songwriter Albert Hammond. Hammond Jr. released his debut album Yours To Keep in 2006 and followed up with ¿Cómo Te Llama? in 2008 and his EP, AHJ in 2013. His third solo album, Momentary Masters, was released through Vagrant Records on July 31, 2015.

Hammond, Jr.'s fourth solo album Francis Trouble, will be released via Red Bull Records on March 9, 2018.

Sydney is a long way from Mexico but The Mezcaltones still know a thing or two about sultry nights and dangerous days - not to mention sultry man and dangerous woman.

Inspired by tunes from Tito and Tarantula, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Los Lobos, Santana and other artists with a sizzling Mexican sound.

The Mezcaltones latest Album Second has sounds only described as Tex Mex, 60’s, cowboy rockabilly surf guitar style of twang and incorporating Mimi’s spellbinding dance moves they are hard to pigeonhole.

But one thing everyone does agree upon is The Mezcaltones are highly entertaining! It’s more than a band: it’s a show, a journey... with ATTITUDE!

Shaun Kirk (born 1988 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an independent Australian soul and blues singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released four albums: Cruisin′ in 2010, Thank You For Giving Me the Blues in 2011, The Wick Sessions in 2012 and Steer the Wheel in 2014.