Show Us Yours #26: Hideous Towns

Attentive readers will recall Clicky Clicky turned on to Melbourne shoegaze four Hideous Towns late last year, around the time it released its haunting and textured self-titled EP. We've been revisiting the EP a fair amount lately, and thought it is high time we checked in with the band to learn more about what they do and where they do it as part of our long-suffering Show Us Yours feature, which provides a window into the practice spaces of the hitmakers of the day. This is Show Us Yours' first figurative jaunt to Australia, so we're feeling particularly international right now, yeah. We couldn't resist asking about Hideous Towns' name, as it is -- as noted previously here in these electronic pages -- the title of a tune from The Sundays' titanic full-length debut Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. It turns out Hidous Towns aren't rabidly obsessed with the legendary British act, but guitarist Chris MacLean was hipped to them by his dad and has assumed ownership of his dad's copy of that debut LP. Mr. MacLean and the band were very gracious with their time telling us about their practice spot and answering our questions about the state of shoegaze in Australia and this upcoming weekend's Roogaze festival. MacLean also told us that Hideous Towns has new music in the works and aims to work more quickly to get new music out there, which, as a fan, we were obviously pleased to hear. Click play on the Soundcloud embed of the foursome's eponymous EP at the foot of this piece, set your clocks a breathtaking *14* hours ahead to get on local time, and then settle in to our Q+A below.

Clicky Clicky: So why do you use this practice space? What makes it the best space for Hideous Towns right now?

Chris MacLean: For proper practices we play at [drummer] Ashley's parents' place, which is about 45 minutes out of the city. We figure we have to go to a "Hideous Town" to write songs ; ). Up until recently he still lived there. It's a "granny flat"-type thing in the backyard which is decked out with gear and soundproofing stuff. He now lives near us but, thankfully, [but] it's still "his room," so we go there whenever we like, play until whenever we like, at whatever volume we like for free, with great hospitality from his awesome family. Those are the main reasons that it's the best space! It feels like the perfect place, I suppose, because it's where we first played with Ash, and first played as a full band also, many of our songs were written there or completed there. Also, for most shows we only need to bring a snare and cymbals so Ashley's drum kit lives there.

CC: Is there an idiosyncrasy or quirk to the space that has affected the sound of one of your songs, or even the overall sound?

CM: It strikes us as funny that we love playing there so much despite it being in a town/region that none of us can stand, a really dull urban growth area with shopping centres and fast food as the main features. But if anything I think it has shaped our sound in the way that it's quite a small room and we play very loudly, even with pretty, gentle songs. This has come to be a must for all of us, I think, we don't want to be a quiet band. Although it's quite a drive to get there, it's always good bonding time where we just chat and listen to music on the way. I can't think of any way that the song arrangements themselves are indebted to the space, though, a lot of the ideas come to us at home near the city, anyway.

CC: You walk into your rehearsal space. What's the first thing that you smell?

CM: The first smell is probably Ashley's clothing or just "his" smell, haha. Everyone has one, I think, that just becomes part of whatever room they happen to inhabit. Luckily it isn't so bad, he's a pretty hygienic lad. Actually, quite often his father is barbecuing something in the back yard right on our way to his room so that's probably still lingering in the nostrils as we walk in, yum.

CC: It's been 18 years since the last Sundays record, and we imagine you guys are all younger than Clicky Clicky's executive editor by a good fair stretch. What's a relatively new and young band out of Melbourne doing naming themselves after a song from a sorta-unsung but incredible British band from two decades past?

CM: Most likely yeah, Alana is oldest at 25 (Chris 24, Ryan 23, Ashley 22). That's a hard question to answer, I guess, we really didn't have a name for a long time while we were writing songs and it came at the last minute with a vote. My father had introduced me to The Sundays (I still have his Reading, Writing & Arithmetic LP at our place) and the track "Hideous Towns" had a bass line which I thought was (unintentionally) similar to one Ryan had just written. I thought it was a coolish name and brought it to the vote and it just scraped through really, not all of us are heavily into The Sundays, by any means. I think we share somewhat of a begrudging feeling in some way to our respective hometowns, more so to some of the people than anything else, and I like to think our collective migration to the inner city to see and play music gives the name a deeper meaning than just being obsessed with The Sundays.

CC: There's definitely a bit of the Gavurin/Wheeler feel to your terrific songs "Undone" and "Pets." But Hideous Towns' sound offers more, and we expect you guys are about much more than just being Sundays fans. What's an influence on the band that might surprise people?

CM: One aspect of The Sundays music that we do all respect is their songwriting, so thanks! I think our sound is more diverse, just due to our inherent inability to write songs that sound too similar. Ashley is pretty big on Snoop Dogg at times, haha, and Alana's singing inspirations are more rooted in soul singers of the '60s. We also really like The Drums.

CC: We read with interest the DKFM piece about Roogaze, the Melbourne shoegaze and dream-pop festival that is rapidly approaching and which Hideous Towns will play. Is there any act you are particularly excited to see at Roogaze? We are familiar with Kigo, but the rest of the acts are new names to us.

CM: I'm really excited to see Kigo and the other interstate bands that I haven't seen before (Miners and Blush Response), though Day Ravies are always great to see too. We've played with all the other groups before and are friends with them, but never in one show, so it should be an awesome day! I'm a little surprised you've heard of Kigo but not Lowtide, they are the most well known and established in the list, but every band is really great so you should check them all out! The best part for me is that each band has shoegaze elements, in different amounts, but all the groups sound different and have different songwriting styles so it's pretty exciting to be involved.

CC: So what do the next six months look like for Hideous Towns? What can you tell us about progress on new material, or even new recordings?

CM: We have a song called "Heart Attack" which we [have just finished mixing] and we're going to release it as a single and try to really push it to new ears. We're very proud of it and think it has more instant appeal than the EP tracks. We recorded it with our great friend and genius Matthew Hosking (who also did the whole EP, he has a band called VHS Dream who are incredible, so keep an ear out for them, gorgeous song and video coming soon!). We're aiming to get a 7" pressed, make a video and do some shows with bands we really like to promote it, including some interstate shows most likely. Apart from that, we have a stupid amount of new songs, some of which we've started playing live that would be good to record as soon as possible -- so hopefully this year. I've recently been sold on the idea of putting out more recorded stuff, or as much as possible, because that's what really lasts and reaches like-minded people around the world (like legends in Boston!). So if we have the money and time, I think we'll be recording more fairly soon.

CC: Thanks for doing this, Chris and everyone!

CM: No, thank you, Jay! Your kind words have sincerely meant a lot to us. We can't believe someone rad from such a far away place has taken an interest to this extent, so cheers to you man :).

As noted above, Hideous Towns play this coming weekend's Roogaze festival, and if you have the very good fortune of actually being in Australia (which this writer has keenly wanted to visit for the better part of two decades), hit this link for all the details about the festival.

Hideous Towns: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud



Previous Show Us Yours episodes:
Shapes And Sizes | Dirty On Purpose | Relay | Mobius Band | Frightened Rabbit | Assembly Now | Meneguar | Okay Paddy | Charmparticles | Calories | Sun Airway | It Hugs Back | Lubec | A Giant Dog | Bent Shapes | Krill | Golden Gurls | Earthquake Party! | Hallelujah The Hills | Seeds Of Doubt | The Cherry Wave | Coaches | Night Mechanic | Kindling | Julius Earthling

Today's Hotness: Hideous Towns, Her Magic Wand, Primitive Parts

They come from the land down under, but their name is lifted straight from a track on The Sundays' legendary debut Reading, Writing & Arithmetic, which is the reason why Melbourne foursome Hideous Towns first caught our eye. The quartet's stirring shoegazey ballad "Undone" is set to feature on a forthcoming Beko Records comp titled Oz Do It Better Vol. 2, which is slated for release in 2015. But a little Googling tells us that the swaying noise-pop gem was included on a self-titled, debut EP Hideous Towns self-released just last month, and you can stream the entire short set via the Bandcamp embed below. We recommend you do, as the Aussie act -- which has apparently only been playing shows about a year -- certainly channels a Sundays vibe, although the dense guitar work and pretty vocals on "Undone" and elsewhere on Hideous Towns aren't as uniformly intricate or fluid as those of Sundays' David Gavurin and Harriet Wheeler, respectively. We admit the comparison is an unfair one, and we should be clear that the merits of Hideous Town's EP are many and should be celebrated separate and apart from the work of the UK legends (who are apparently a functioning operation again, we learned in recent days). Where The Sundays are more literal and dour, the Aussie act is more abstract and aggressive. "Undone" and its shuddering, gigantic chorus is undeniably the highlight of Hideous Towns, but the song's beauty and majesty are recreated on the succeeding track "Devolution," and the vocal harmonies in the relatively spare and placid closer "Pets" are riveting and affecting. Hideous Towns fête their self-titled EP with a release show Saturday night at Boney in Melbourne; the bill also includes Bad Family, Zig Zag and Basic Spirit. We imagine most readers aren't going to be hopping a plane to make the show, so take comfort in the fact that the favorable exchange rate means you can get the EP for less than a buck a song in USD. We think you will find that to be money well spent.



>> Who remembers 2010? Anyone? Maybe a few of you? No... OK. Well. Way back when we devoted some of our attention to the Parisian dream-pop project Her Magic Wand, which had just self-released a notable EP titled Catch A Rainbow. We were surprised to get an email from mastermind Charles Braud earlier this month, reporting that a new single from Her Magic Wand was in the offing, and directing our attention to the understated, perhaps Dntel-inspired electro anthem "Everything At Once." Mr. Braud tells us that "Everything At Once" concerns itself with the phenomenon of synesthesia, which he ably defines as "a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway and where letters or music can be perceived as inherently colored." The lyrics do much of the heavy lifting in driving this point home, but really it is Braud's dreamy delivery amid stormy, electric crescendoes that provides the most exciting moments of "Everything At Once." The song chases a desperate electro pulse, the rhythm tracks drawing out cool synth chords that deeply layer as the canned beats pile up and white out in the tune's smouldering choruses. The tune is a taster for a forthcoming full-length set recorded over the course of 10 months and mixed last summer by Stephane "Alf" Briat, who has worked with basically every French rock act you could name if given 30 seconds. We certainly recommend the single to your attention, and you can stream it via the Soundcloud embed below; click through a link there to purchase that jawn from Apple's ITunes digital music store.

We feel compelled to mention here that at this point Apple = "The Man;" the company presently touts a market capitalization of $676 billion dollars and recorded a net profit of $8.5 billon dollars for its 2014 fiscal fourth quarter closed Sept. 27. Read about the alleged human rights abuses attributed to the company right here. If we choose to, we can make the world a better place. How's all of that for a tangent?



>> Nervy and spikey post-punk has been the Brighton, England-based Faux Discx label's stock-in-trade, and it is backing a winner in a forthcoming single from the sorta supergroop Primitive Parts. The trio is comprised of a who's who from label affiliates Cold Pumas, Sauna Youth and Male Bonding, and its new offering is the single "TV Wheels" b/w "The Bench," which you can stream in all of its glory via the Bandcamp embed below. B-side "The Bench" in particular is a strummy and cool hip-shaker, just a little bit of attack on the guitars, tambourine and hand-claps driving an inevitable groove toward a gloriously rudimentary guitar solo that emphasizes the band's garagey bona fides. "TV Wheels" would sell tens of thousands of singles if it were a new Dandy Warhols song, but we don't imagine that Faux Discx will be able to keep the single in stock no matter who recorded it, as the two-minute tune is air-tight (indeed, some pre-orders have already shipped). Primitive Parts previously issued in February its debut single "Open Heads" b/w "Signal" on Sexbeat, and also had its cover of The Yummy Furs' "Chinese Bookie" featured on Faux Discx's 2013 comp Collective Hiss. Faux Discx releases "TV Wheels" b/w "The Bench" Monday as a 7" single in a humble paper sleeve with insert, pressed in a limited edition of 300 pieces. Primitive Parts are planning a UK tour for 2015. We previously wrote about Cold Pumas here two years ago; the act disclosed in September it had recently wrapped recording on its own sophomore effort.

Today's Hotness: Big Science, The Sundays, Archers Of Loaf

>> San Diego-based post-hardcore trio The North Atlantic is no longer, but according to a recent MySpace bulletin the band has split into two different acts. One of these is the quartet Big Science based out of Chicago, and we are digging heavily the demos the band has posted at its MySpace dojo here. In particular we are grooving to the layered vocals and insistent rhythm of the track "DNC." We're not certain how to describe Big Science's music. There's a looseness of the arrangements -- particularly on "My Career As A Ghost" -- that kind of reminds us of the more radio friendly Talking Heads stuff, although we also hear some British New Wave influence. It becomes less and less of a surprise the more you listen that the first influence Big Science namechecks at MySpace is Big Country. Honestly, were it not for some flat drum production we'd say these demos are worthy of release right now. You're definitely going to hear a lot about Big Science in the future. We reviewed The North Atlantic's Wires In The Walls here in July 2006.

>> If we had it all to do over again, one thing we would have done more of is hang out with the guy who bought an ice cream truck and sold ice cream around the campus of the second small liberal arts college we attended. The guy was into The Church Of The Subgenius and liked Brit indie pop sensations The Sundays and had me out to his place to shoot pool one night. Anyway, here's to you ice cream dude, whose name we know but aren't mentioning because, hey, he's a private citizen. Here is The Sundays performing "Here's Where The Story Ends" live on French radio, December 15, 1992. Incidentally, years later Sundays bassist Paul Brindley freelanced for the dot-com we worked at back at the turn of the century and we had a chance to chat several times on the phone. Small world.

The Sundays -- "Here's Where The Story Ends" -- France Inter FM Radio Black Session, 12/15/1992
[right click and save as]
[buy The Sundays records from Insound here]
[Insound is selling The Sundays' three records for $9.45 each -- that's a steal]

>> If you are too young or just hopelessly uncool, you might not be familiar with the superlative, defunct, legendary indie rock quartet Archers Of Loaf. Fortunately for you, the blog Old Fart At Play runs down the facts and posts some music here. Definitely grab that "Harnessed In Slums" single, if only to save yourself the trouble of ripping your own vinyl.

>> Turns out Glaswegian indie rock quartet Frightened Rabbit are opening next Monday's Sons And Daughters show at the Middle East Rock Club in Cambridge. We don't know how we missed that, but fear not: we intend to be there and will provide our usual coverage. Scroll down for our review of FR's forthcoming sophomore set The Midnight Organ Fight.

Today's Hotness: Answering Machine, Frightened Rabbit, Jesus Lizard

>> Turns out we're back already. Check us out.

>> You know, Pitchfork is right: this tune "Silent Hotels" from UK-based indie popsters The Answering Machine is awesome. Great melodies, delicious guitar tone, snappy production. Pure gold, particularly when the call and response lyrics "And I drink till I'm sick / you're sick!" kick in. The track is the A side of a single that will be released June 18 on High Voltage. We've re-posted Pitchfork's stream of the tune in one of those Imeem doo-hickeys below. Pfork ventures that this track sounds akin to the music of Los Campesinos, who we wrote about previously here, but we'd argue that Mancunian trio The Answering Machine has a tougher sound more reminiscent of our favorite Birmingham, UK-based noise pop trio. Anyway, if you live in the UK make certain to hit the link to High Voltage, where you will see the band is playing out darn near every single night in June. There are also three more tracks at the band's MySpace dojo, including the B side to the "Silent Hotels" single. Here's a question: does this band really have no drummer? A better question: where can we buy this single digitally when it is released?



>> There was all manner of interesting industry news in the last couple days. Perhaps the trad music industry types feel the need to make a splash before their fiscal second quarter ends and takes another chunk of its business model down the toilet with it. Anyway, most interesting of all was news that the new DRM-free files sold through Apple's unimaginately monikered ITunes Plus have your name hidden in the metadata, meaning The Man can totally take you to task if you decided to put the files into the P2P hive. There's coverage of that little bit of happiness here, here and here. To Apple's credit, they also announced a deal by which you will be able to access YouTube content such as this The Answering Machine video for "Silent Hotels" via the Apple TV non-set-top home-networking and content-holding lightbox apparatus. The newest Apple TV box is outfitted with a 160GB hard drive that allegedly holds some 200 hours of video or 36,000 songs or 25,000 photos. This new model costs $400, but we don't know why we would ever buy one.

>>The courtship is over and music-oriented social networking service Last.FM has finally been snapped up, as we first speculated here in February. The successful suitor was CBS Corp., who paid $280 million for the UK-based company. This is significantly less than the $450M figure we mentioned here a while back. Last.FM has 15 million users, meaning CBS Corp. paid a little less than $20 per user. We like Last.FM, although we don't hardly take advantage of all of its features, which apparently includes calendaring and show listings and the like in addition to your run-of-the-mill "scrobbling." Here's our Last.FM profile, and here is a link to a Reuters piece about the deal.

>> The other CBS says here that Glaswegian indie pop savants Frightened Rabbit were considering deals with Domino and Fat Cat. Interesting.

>> These candles remind us of the cover of The Sundays' excellent sophomore set Blind.

>> And a final local note: we've been far too busy to crack open our promo copy yet (perhaps Sunday), but for folks less lazy than us, get out and see a screening of the new Jesus Lizard DVD "The Jesus Lizard -- Live" next week at The Middle East (Downstairs) in Central Square, Cambridge. The screening starts at 7PM and is followed by a set from by legendary punkers Gang Green. Do you think they'll put chairs down there? We'll definitely just watch it at home. Look for a review by the end of June.