Bands to Watch #309: Braves
If you’ve ever visited Australia like I have – or perhaps you’ve looked at one of those rotating physical globes all of our social studies teachers had back in the day, because my guess is that teachers today don’t have them (?) – you will notice that the country down under is about the same size as the continental United States. Meaning it’s a Very Big Place. Despite their country’s size, it’s a lot harder for bands there to get noticed globally. My last Bands to Watch feature was on High Highs, a duo from Sydney who now called Brooklyn home. Drum ‘n’ bass gods Pendulum moved from Perth in Western Australia to make a go of it in London; after Pendulum called it quits, Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen’s new electronic vehicle Knife Party is doing extremely well. Today’s Band to Watch are from the same Australian town as them; however, I wonder what would happen to today’s Band to Watch if they decided to leave the sunny life behind. The dangling carrot chance for success might be too great for them to say no, but I fear for a possible change in outlook – and sound – if they ever moved.
The lo-fi slacker sound has served fellow Aussie Courtney Barnett well: in case you’ve forgotten, the Melbournian had a prominent Park Stage placement at this year’s Glastonbury, and she’s had successful tours this year in both the UK and America. (To be honest, I’m still confused by her popularity: I want to have fun at a concert, not be lulled to sleep.) Braves also take the lo-fi approach but run in the opposite direction, yet with just enough restraint to keep them from becoming uncontrolled hellfire punk. The Perth foursome are an unsigned band for now, but I suspect they’ll find a UK label home soon enough.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT6uwc5VLtI[/youtube]
In ‘Seapunk’, the title track of their latest EP released in September, they recall the amusement of early Howler and Vaccines tracks (geez, where are *they* now?) while avoiding the darker corners as our Martin described as “chilled-out obscurantist rock” of Happyness. They’ve been tagged on their triplej unearthed page with the Drums, though a tune like ‘Losing You’ suggests a better comparison might be perhaps a sped-up Life in Film. ‘True Feelings’, one of the EP’s standout tracks, is so melodic, if you closed your eyes, you might imagine a ’60s band playing this song, except now as the song has been brought into the 21st century, the producer sped up the tracking, making it 100% brighter.
We’ve got enough sadness in this world. Maybe we should leave it to some upstart kids from Oz to make it a better place? (I like to think the opposing pizza slices on the top of their press release I received are supposed to represent yin and yang.) Well, to make life easier for everyone with their joyful music at least. You can help continue Braves’ journey by buying their music off their Bandcamp.
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