CMJ Thursday: Dingo Pop and Indie Rock from the Sounds Australia Showcase

The Sounds Australia showcase at CMJ's College Day was an Aussie-tastic taste of up and coming musical goodness, starting off with a personal favorite of mine from Down Under, Ball Park Music.  These guys (and gal) play some radio friendly guitar pop full of vibrant harmonies and non-abrasive instrumentation, at least until they take a solo, which is when you hear a bit of J. Mascis and Stephen Malkmus popping out of their guitar pickups, something that is a welcome compliment to the wavy mix of happiness and frustration throughout the tone of their songs.

The next band ended up being by surprise favorite of this showcase, Brisbane's Sheppard.  They opened with their single Let Me Down Easy, a song that carries even more weight in the live performance.  Beginning with some saccharine sweet (in the most positive way) acapella harmonies before strolling into some handclappy, jangle pop vibes.  Their other selction, Halfway to Hell was stuck in my head for the rest of the day, a significant departure from the lighthearted feel of the first number, and really showcased (natch) the diversity in the band's sound.  Although, it has to be said that their main streamline is unashamedly hooky pop songs ready for dancing. They struck me as a significantly less weird Dirty Projectors live, in an alternate universe where Dave Longstreth grew up in Australia and listened to FM radio and didn't take himself so seriously, instead of drawing weird dudes with baby peens on his album covers and shrieking all the time. 

Amber Coffman: Indie BB Crush 5Ever

 [While this opinion may be due in part (or totally) to the fact that there are two color haired alt baguette QT's holding down some swoony harmonies,  it also is a good excuse to put up a picture of Amber Coffman, before I deny ever comparing the two groups and put this to rest forever, since they really sound absolutely nothing like Dirty Projectors #FooledYa]

[Also, I feel it necessary to say that Dirty Projectors are a huge favorite of mine and I <3 Longstreth and all of his weird culty vibes to the most #XTREME of levels. .]

My one complaint about this entire showcase was that, due to time constraints, the bands were limited to 2-3 songs each which was a bummer, but also left me hungry for more material (fortunately, the Sounds Australia team were wise enough to give out lots of free downloads of the showcase soundtrack, yet another reason why they're better than America.)  Singer-Songwriter (which is amongst my least favorite descriptor/pigeonhole for an artist, but since this is CMJ related and CMJ is essentially an industry dog and pony show, I thought it appropriate) Courtney Barnett was another highlight of the showcase, but since she is scheduled to play approximately 134,277,218 more CMJ shows, we'll get to her chillness later.