TheFrowningClouds TheJunipers


IAIN MCINTYRE welcomes the new breed of authentic Oz garage/beat merchants


The industrial city of Geelong, situated 75 kilometres from Melbourne on Australia’s East Coast, may not have produced any “name” acts during the ’60s and early ’70s, but it’s been producing stellar bands influenced by that era ever since. A particularly fruitful period from the late ’70s to the mid-90s saw a slew of garage-punk, psych and Detroit-rock groups emerge, most notably Behind The Magnolia Curtain/Sunset Strip and Bored! In more recent years the city had


quietened down somewhat, but since 2008 a new bunch of teenagers sporting stripy tops, waistcoats and bowl haircuts and playing an authentic, yet refreshing version of ’60s R&B have been wowing


the early ’60s mould of The Rolling Stones, Kinks and Poets. Although perhaps not so unusual in other climes, their distinct lack of fuzz and distortion marks them out from almost every other Aussie garage band in existence. Despite moody tunes aplenty and a lack of amps on 11, the band are nevertheless capable of pounding out a solidly effervescent party vibe as evidenced on their killer 2011 single ‘All Night Long’/‘Dame A Dozen’. The A-side of this follow-up to 2010’s


excellent Listen Closelier album (Off The Hip) was recorded to four-track cassette, in Straight Arrows front man


ListenCloselierwas recordedtofour-track cassette,literallyfive minutesafterthewriting processwascompleted


DAVID BASH comes over all coniferous in the company of Leicester’s folky tunesmiths


As most readers of Shindig! know, there are several current bands who have attempted to bring that classic ’60s soft-pop sound into the New Millennium… and failed. There’s always something not quite right, whether it’s the timbre of the vocals, the production values, the melodic structures, or a combination thereof. Well, The Junipers, have managed to perfect their wonderfully shimmering, Curt Boettcher-


we started rehearsing as a band to take the songs out on the road,” says Wiltshire. Several of these demos ultimately were re-recorded for their first full-length album, Cut Your Key, which was released in ’08 and garnered several fine reviews. Shindig! was so enamoured of theses recordings that we included ‘Geordie Can’t Swim’ on our hand-picked compilation, It’s Happening Volume One. Their wonderful new


“We'veneverstopped andsaid,‘Thatdoesn't sound’60sor’70s enough’.Wejustplay itanditsoundslikeit does”


crowds in their hometown and beyond. With a frenetic live show and catchy tunes galore, The Frowning Clouds have also found themselves heading up a host of young Geelong musicians, including acts such as The Cobbwebbs, Living Eyes and Hierophants, who have embraced the sounds of the past to create a new revivalist scene. Despite their somewhat psychedelic


moniker (inspired by The Moody Blues’ ‘Evening: The Sunset’) The Frowning Clouds’ sound is very much rooted in


Owen Penglis’ Sydney lounge, literally five minutes after the writing process was completed. Embodying all that’s great about mid-60s garage-pop, the single is well worth tracking down via Seville’s Saturno Records. Later this year there will be a new single, which may see some mid-60s effects slip into the band’s repertoire, followed by an LP. If you missed their 2011 Euro tour, which saw them hit the UK, France, Germany and Spain, then don’t miss these.


esque folk-pop sound without even consciously trying to emulate it. Says Junipers lead vocalist Joe Wiltshire, “It’s the era that we all listen to most, so it just falls naturally together. Even when we’re recording and adding effects, it’s what we know so it’s what we do. We’ve never stopped and said, ‘That doesn’t sound ’60s or ’70s enough.’ We just play it and it sounds like it does.” The band formed in


Leicester around 2000, and recorded demos at home. “We started passing the recordings around town and got some good feedback so


album, Paint The Ground, retains a similar ethos as Cut Your Key while taking it to the next level. “During recording of the the new stuff we got well into Space Opera and a lot of the moodier ’70s sounds like America and Danny Kirwan,” explains Wiltshire, and tunes like ‘Dandelion Man’ and ‘In Her Reverie’ certainly reflect this. The Junipers have


decided to eschew the usual label route and release Paint The Ground themselves – the album will be available on iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon for download, and in physical formats at their live shows.


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