The Lucky Setback - Buy Low Build Cheap

Ottawa's The Lucky Setback have only been together for a couple of years, but I'be listened to what they've been doing in that time and been more and more impressed. It's all culminated in this nine song debut that is a fine album.

This is great down and dirty Indie, but the highs are high and the hooks are plentiful. There are real glimpses of the likes of Payola$ here, yet the band seem equally comfortable in the great Pop of Cut Me To Quick. Bang Bang Electric is a sort of Funk Glam and All In My Head is a splendid meander of a song.






You do sense there's a liking of Grunge, but fortunately when they head there, they nail it, particularly on Full On. There's plenty here to admire and Buy Low Build Cheap is a splendid debut album. I look forward to seeing their career prosper.






You can buy the album here and find out more about the band here. You can listen to the album here.



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I Don't Hear A Single Volume 69

Welcome to the I Don't Hear A Single Audio Delight that is Episode 69. You will hear 20 of the finest new songs from the finest new albums and one classic archive track to open proceedings.

You'll hear a four second watermark at the beginning of each, this is because I'm using the software as a trial. If I do them permanently, I will find the best program to buy.


The playlist details are on here and by clicking the Mixcloud tab. You can listen to the previous IDHAS Aural adventures on Mixcloud here.

Number 69 awaits your lugholes now. The playlist is as follows  :

01 Terrorvision - Middle Man
02 Berwanger - Bad Vibrations
03 Wreckless Eric - Strange Locomotion
04 Ausley - Make This Relevant
05 Big Character - Favourite Record
06 Nick Lowe - Love Starvation
07 Deco Auto - Turnaround
08 Thrush Hermit - From The Back Of The Film
09 Yipes!!! - Pure Insanity
10 Moon Goose - Goldfish In A Bag
11 The Last Bees - Way Too Deep
12 The RAZ Band - I Got This
13 The Artisans - A Week of Wednesdays
14 District 8 - All Is Forgiven
15 Radiator Hospital - For Daydreamers Only
16 Joe Sullivan - Mr. Positivity
17 The Bungalows - Davola's Funhouse
18 Lolas - A Dozen or Seven Tapestries
19 James Clarke Five - What Do You Know About Ray
20 Amoeba Teen - Suit And Tie
21 Big Big Train - Theodora In Green And Gold

IDHAS Volume 69 Mixcloud Link

Alex Lahey - The Best Of Luck Club

I seem to be listening to a lot of Australian artists lately and maybe because they have discovered the mainstream after a bit of a lull. This is the third Oz related review in quick succession, but with all three, the vibe has been anything but antipodean.

Since Avril Lavigne seems to now want to be Lady Gaga, there's a definite space for a female vocalist who can rock and why not Alex Lahey? Don't misunderstand me, Lahey hasn't got that Lavigne shouty drawl, she's a much better vocalist and there's a real self depreciating quality in her songwriting. The production is also a bit Butch Walker, but thankfully without the audio compression and those bloody hand claps.

The Best Of Luck Club though comes across more as a rockier KT Tunstall with far more self awareness. The album doesn't come up from air until nearly halfway through with Unspoken History and then that's followed with the wonderfully noisy, venomous, Fuzz Rock of Misery Guts.

Lahey's debut album. I Love You Like A Brother was a really good album, if a little rough edged, but album number two irons out those creases and results in a splendidly melodic album, it's never short of a hook, but more importantly the toe tapping quotient is very high.

The time spent in Nashville shows at times, Black RM's is very current FM Country , yet I Want To Live With You is far more 80's Big Hair, very Belinda Carlisle. Don't Be So Hard On Yourself has a Clarence Clemons like Sax Solo that catches you by surprise, particularly as the chorus is so jaunty.

The gem is I Don't Get Invited To Parties Anymore which could very well be a Song Of The Year.  contender. You'll hear that on an upcoming I Don't Hear A Single Audio Extravaganza. But Am I Doing It Right, with it's killer riff and storming chorus and the brooding Interior Demeanour are every bit as good.

Here are 10 songs that will have some singing along. whilst others will investigate the lyrics, either way all will be listening. The Best Of Luck Club is a really admirable affair, it'll be up there fighting for IDHAS End Of Year Awards.

You can buy the album here.


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I Don't Hear A Single Volume 68

There's been a delay in posting the Audio Extravaganzas due to technical problems at Jim's end. With Volumes 68 - 71 already compiled, I'm aware that delays at my end have also created a backlog. So with Volume 72 in compiling mode, I felt we were getting a bit out of date in bringing you the best of the new.

So, I've done the mastering and mixing of these four volumes and to catch up they'll appear every other day to the end of next week. Please be aware that these sound fine to me, but I'm no expert. Jim is brilliant mastering wise, so with these being prepared by me using two shareware programs, please bear with me.

They sound great and normal service will soon be resumed. You'll hear a four second watermark at the beginning of each, this is because I'm using the software as a trial. If I do them permanently, I will find the best program to buy.


The playlist details are on here and by clicking the Mixcloud tab. You can listen to the previous IDHAS Aural adventures on Mixcloud here.

Lose yourself in  No 68 by clicking on the link at the end of this post. 66 minutes of Audio Joy.

The playlist is as follows  :

01 Ulysses - Dragons
02 Pezband - Back In The Middle
03 The Wildhearts - The Renaissance Men
04 The Armoires - Not A Good Man
05 Donnie Vie - Beautiful Things
06 Adrian Belew - The Times We Live In
07 More Kicks - I'm On The Brink
08 The Gold Needles - This Autumn Road
09 The Pearlfishers - Love And Other Hopeless Things
10 The Smallgoods - Satellite
11 The Damned Things - Omen
12 Singing Swords - Mario
13 The Kaams - Floating in My Fantasy
14 Sofa City Sweetheart - Stanley Waited
15 Dream Cars - Dream Cars
16 Kitty Kat Fan Club - I'm Loving You More Than I Should
17 The Top Boost - Dreaming
18 Pale Moon - Exile
19 Peawees - 'Cause You Don't Know Me
20 I'm Glad It's You - The Things I Never Say
21 David Mead - Bedtime Story

IDHAS Volume 68 Mixcloud Link

Traffik Island - Nature Strip

It's back to Australia for the debut Traffik Island album. I've long been an admirer of Flightless Records, a superb Melbourne Psych label, home of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs and ORB. The latter is relevant.

ORB come across as a modern day Hawkwind, a sort of Psychedelic Space Rock that is bewitching. Zak Olsen has taken a break from leading that band and been touring as Traffik Island. Live, the band are a fourpiece, but Nature Strip is largely his solo recordings.






This is great Psych Pop, splendidly twee and lo-fi, there's an endearing quality to the whole shebang. That's not to say this is throwaway or bedroom doodling. Queens Park is Syd Barrett Pink Floyd in Bike mode, Mind You has a 60's film soundtrack charm with unexpected twists.

Ode To Everything is wonderfully Toy Town, as if played on Party Bag Instruments and has Olsen crooning away. Bluish pale is piano led and again very 60's groovy. Something Sweet barrels along like a Madness Song.






The closer, Lazy Cat, is all Sunday Afternoon Kinks, but overall, I'm very much reminded of Orgone Box, particularly on the jangling 17. There's also a great gentle Psych instrumental present with One Tenth Of A Second.

Nature Strip is one of the best Psych Pop albums that I've heard in ages. It's the sort of album that you just don't hear so much these days. I'd recommend it to all. Wel Done Zak Olsen and yet again, well done Flightless!






You can listen to and buy the album here.


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Wreckless Eric - Transience

Everyone loves Whole Wide World. With Nick Lowe and The Rumour's Steve Goulding, Eric Goulden possibly offered up the definitive Stiff Single, more so than many of the more lauded label mates. I can think of none of my associates who think this anything but a great DIY anthem.

There's the spirit of WWW present on Transcience. The Cover of Kevin Coyne's Strange Locomotion is very much a Part Two and what's more, Steve Goulding plays drums on the album. However, those expecting a return of those Stiff days haven't kept in touch with his solo career, because there is far more to Wreckless Eric than that.







Eric isn't wreckless any more, his trio of recent albums including this have shown a depth that many would not expect. When you have Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson  and the splendid Alexander Turnquist on Guitar, you know this is serious stuff

His previous two albums AmERICa and Construction Time Again join Transcience with a theme resembling an Englishman abroad. All three albums and his work with Amy Rigby, who plays piano on the album, reveal an artist pushing himself to the limits. Lyrically excellent, Goulden's real strength is making something so deep sound so haphazard.






The opener, Father To The Man, a memorial to his dad could make you weep. Dead End could be a Ray Davies Song and Creepy People has a country vibe with a Jagger - Richards song bursting to get out. Tiny House desperately wants to Jangle. Indelible Stain is all Maharishi with few words.

What does really stand out though are the two seven minute songs which inhabit a surprisingly Psych Pop world. The Half Of It is pure Psych Folk, California / Handyman is all stream of consciousness with it's meandering arrangement, it's really trippy.







Transience is an exceptional listen. One of the best things that I've heard this year. Forget those Stiff days, this is an artist at the top of his game. You can listen to and buy the album here.


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The Bungalows - Something's Going On

The Bungalows offer up their third album and the four piece from Gerringong in Australia don't disappoint. There's an awful lot going on across these 15 songs, none of it sounds that Oz, it's a big big sound that changes as many directions as is possible in it's 55 minutes.

The production is very Brit Pop, but the influences sound so varied that pigeon holing is worthless. You can here Classic Rock but there also seems a ska undertone and then everything changes by an addition of a sort of Together In Electric Dreams synth.






For all the chord changes and big choruses, it's that drums and bass back beat that glues everything together, mix in unexpected Guitar solos and the keyboard interruptions enhance something that feels so singalong, as though there's a group in the studio joining in with those choruses.

A song like Davola's Funhouse is very The Strokes with more words with a Surf metal soundtrack. Crazy Ain't Clever is pure early 80's Blue Oyster Cult. We Get Along is again very Strokes like, although Marc Bolan could be the front man.






Ireland Knights could be from some late 60's Kitchen Sink Drama and yet First Bit Of Light could be one of those big Brit Pop closing Anthems. Wasteland is Goth, Roll could be INXS, perhaps the only time this album sounds Australian, with a killer riff.

There is so much here to like and the variety of songs is admirable. There's a lot of different styles and that may confuse some, but it's an album that will allow you to keep finding different favourites. In these days of people blabbing on about the end of the album and the death of the guitar, we should make them listen to Something's Going On. They'll realise they were wrong.








This album is highly recommended and can be listened to and ordered here. You can also get the band's back catalogue at Name Your Price whilst you are there.



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The Decibels - Scene, Not Herd

Sacramento's The Decibels cap off their return with a splendid new album. Their heyday was in the second half of the 90's and after their 2001 split, you wouldn't be forgiven for thinking that was largely that, bar a few hometown gigs.

However, a highly successful tour of Spain in 2013 revealed that there was a real appetite for the band and led to a proper reunion in 2017 with the eventual intention of recording a new album. The result is Scene, Not Herd.






It's really pleasing to report that the new album is as good if not better than they ever were. Although that Spanish Tour encouraged many to hail them as a great Mod Pop quartet, Scene, Not Herd is primarily straight ahead good old fashioned Power Pop.

After my recent adventures in compiling a couple of 80's things and being awash with the syndrum and that awful dated keyboard sound, it's refreshing to be back on more welcome territory. It's refreshing to hear three minute pop songs in the say what you've gotta say and get off style.






Although the album feels very mid to late 60's UK Beat, those Mod references are few, although All Of Your Lies and It's Not Me are definitely from that mould. There's a great jangle on She Thinks Of Everything and The Truth is very much in The Beat and The Plimsouls territory.

The band feel and sound far more UK New Wave than Californian Pop and they pull it off really well. Riffs are plentiful, harmonies spot on and all this leads to doing what it says on the tin. This is a perfect brand of toe tapping Power Pop.






You can buy the download, vinyl or CD here. The CD is another on the Kool Kat label and continues KK's wonderfully varied 12 months of releases.