Augie March

[Aeglos]

I'm pretty sure very few people will have heard of this band. Despite having a very successful tour of the States recently they are still unable to secure a distribution deal for the US.

 

The single biggest asset of AM is their songwriter/singer Glenn Richards. I believe he's a eng. lit. major and i'd have to say he's one of the finest lyricists around today (along with Tweedy and Malkmus for me ).

 

They've just released their third album, 'Moo, You Bloody Choir' and its outstanding. Give them a go if you can get a hold of them.

 

For an e.g. of Richards' lyrics:

 

Stranger Strange

(Chance Meeting Bank of the Yarra More Kids = More Smack)

 

Some go high and very low

None too different or the same you know.

I know cos i've seen them come and go.

When summer comes the valley hums

With medicine trucks on the sidewalks.

Laid out those hands could be holy...

 

Stranger stranger hard earned familiar.

I've got no jokes.

And you hit me up for more than just my shrapnel and smokes.

 

Some go high and very low

No two different or the same you know.

I know co i've seen them come and go...

 

Stranger stranger strange you should be listening

like a river to the end of my curdled song.

Nobody knows what madness could come along.

Now if you see a being born into a trap you free it.

They know kindness when they see it.

Stranger strange would it come if you could call it?

 

Some go high and very low

None too different or the same you know.

I know cos i've seen them come and go.

 

Its quiet now, the streets are silent.

When music out of the arms of community flies...

 

Stranger strange i knew i knew you.

Now the bug lights in the bank imbue you

With eyes like decals and voice like an iron file.

Stranger strange though the earth be an anvil

I'm not waiting for the hammer to fall,

I'm not waiting for anything at all.

[Azzurri]

great band - i have the last two albums, but not the new one. does it compare favorably to the previous albums?

 

sort of like the Radiohead of Australia - not in terms of style, just because they are challenging and write very complex songs.

[Aeglos]

Its brilliant

 

A bit more musically ambitious and slightly denser sound.

[Loial]

I love the opening track of the new album, both lyrically and musically :

 

One Crowded Hour

 

Now should you expect to see something that you hadn't seen

In somebody you'd known since you were sixteen;

if love is a bolt from the blue, then what is that bolt but a glorified screw?

and that doesn't hold nothing together

Far from these nonsense bars and their nowhere music it's making me sick

And I know it's making you sick

There's nothing there, it's like eating air

It's like drinking gin with nothing else in

And that doesn't hold me together.

 

But for one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room

And I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom

I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June

But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

 

And I know you like your boys to take their medicine

From the bowl with a silver spoon

Who run away with the dish and scare the fish by the silvery light of the moon

Who were taught from the womb to believe to the tune

In as far as their bleeding eyes see

Is a pleasure pen, meant for them, built for and rent for them

Not for the likes of me

Not for the like of you and me

 

And for one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room

And I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom

I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June

But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

 

Oh but the green-eyed harpy of the songland

She takes into hers my hand

She says, "Boy I know you're lying

Oh but then, so am I,"

And to this I said "Oh well."

 

They put me in a cage full of lions, I learned to speak lion

In fact I know the language well

I picked it up while I was versing myself in the languages they speak in hell

That night, the silence gave birth to a baby

They took it away to her silent dismay

And they raised it to be a lady

Now she can't keep her mouth shut

 

And for one crowded hour, you were the only one in the room

And I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom

I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple June

But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin

[Aeglos]

Saw them last night - the sound was fantastic.

 

Langorous stage presence and good banter. I'm sure they'll tour the album pretty extensively so try and catch them if you can.