STACK #132 Oct 2016

MUSIC

NEWS

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the meanies: LINK Meanie

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L ink Meanie is pretty sure about where the decision to release It’s Not Me, It’s You came from. “Well, from my end there was no effort,” he says jovially. “I just think Wally’s always been pushing me to record all these old demos that he’s had since the early ‘90s, and I think I just capitulated, finally.” If that’s the way it went, he certainly didn’t truckle easily – it took a good couple of decades to wear him down. It’s not all old demos, though: “There’s some recent songs on there as well,” Link says. “I’m really happy with it. I

didn’t go in there thinking it was going to be that great; I just thought it would be a bit of fun to do, but it turned out to be a pretty cool record.” He’s being humble; It’s Not Me, It’s You is bloody stupendous, full of the slap and biff of smart chord changes and the punky vocal delivery of Link himself, and never forgoing melody to sound meaner. They don’t need to, because this has been in their blood since they got together in the late ‘80s, all the way through into the re-release of their seminal albums last

year. “Yes, Poison City put out all the re-issues of our albums and stuff,” Link says, tracing back over the timeline. “It’s really nice to be noticed again.” Amongst that chaotic guitar and drums there are a few cool little percussive breaks and odd sounds, the origins of which Link can’t quite pin. “It was a whole bunch of things, as far as I remember,” he says. “We were pretty sort of lubricated there, so. There’s a few things we were excited about and a few things that have been canned. Some vocal parts were just completely, horribly cheesy. I think I threw

SILVERSUN PICKUPS: BRIAN aubert

Q1/ Why did you decide to premiere new single Nightlight on Nic Harcourt's Guitar Centre Sessions? It was a happy accident, which pretty much sums up a lot of our career. We have known Nic for a long time and he's always been supportive of us, so it was lovely that it came about that way. However, it was the very first time we've ever played that song publicly, so if you look closely, you can see us holding on for dear life... Q2/ You recorded the album at a studio in the Santa Monica Mountains – did the landscape influence the music? This is the second time we've recorded in that garage in Topanga; I think it played a bigger role on our last record Neck Of The Woods , but it will always be an aspect of our music since I'm from those mountains. Q3/ In which areas of the band's sound were you keen to push the boat out and find new ground? We always seem to jump away from whatever our previous record's vocabulary contained, not on purpose. You pour yourself completely into an album so by the time that's done, eventually your interests wander. It's the wanderlust that leads you to the next thing. [ Better Nature is] a bit explosive, somewhat simpler, and layered in lushness. What's fun for us is hearing that last bit of residue from the previous record in the new one. There's the last little bit of Woods in Nature . Q4/ You've described the album as 'its own quantum universe.' Do you think of each of your albums as a little universe unto itself? I really do. We sometimes joke to ourselves that we're making soundtracks to films that don't exist. The more of them we make, the more of these things we have to play with. when we play live, it's fun to dip into all these separate areas of our lives and relive them.

up in my mouth a bit when I heard them later.” The ones

that made it are straight heaven – particularly on closer Punchin’ Air , the title of which (just to be clear) refers to a moment of triumph, not an aggressive swing that failed to connect. “Yeah. ‘Don’t you forget about

me,’” Link confirms. “Classic moment.”

It's Not Me, It's You by The Meanies is out now via Poison City Records.

julia holter HOLDS HER OWN

A nnounced in the first round of artists for December’s hallowed Meredith Music Festival (Victoria), reserved singer-songwriter- producer-pianist Julia Holter is finding her filofax a little more crammed. Having said that, Holter has lived and worked in LA for years, making music with some of the best orchestral and rock musicians the city offers. She opens up when we begin talking about the various keyboards which she used in the arrangements and collaborations which went into the making of this month’s release, Have You In My Wilderness . “I have two digital pianos, but on stage I just use a Nord,” she explains. “On the Nord there’s digital piano, and a synth, and there’s also an organ. It’s all in one keyboard, which is good, because I need to have them all – I’m covering all the bases, I don’t have multiple keyboards going on.” The instrument she’s playing in the video for astonishing single Feel You is a virginal, belonging to her boyfriend. “It sounds like a harpsichord,” she says. While Wilderness is a drifting skip through literary allusions, Joanna Newsom-esque

punctuations of tone and the spectre of Allison Goldfrapp, Holter carves out a little spot for herself which seems to be about her solitude and repose within a quickly flowing world. Simon Winkler reviews the album on page 92.

Have You In My Wilderness by Julia Holter is out now through Domino.

Better Nature by Silversun Pickups is out now, via Warner.

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