Teddywaddy is a slumbering patch of country just off the Calder Highway in northwest Victoria, now mostly farmland. It sits 90 minutes from Bendigo, where East Brunswick All Girls Choir frontman Marcus Hobbs grew up, and he knows the drive all too well from regular visits there to see his father’s family. It’s also the namesake of the Melbourne ensemble’s long-awaited second album.
 
Alongside Hobbs who pens the songs is bassist/keyboardist Rie Nakayama, drummer Jen Sholakis and guitarist Rob Wrigley. Co-produced with Anna Laverty (Courtney Barnett, The Peep Tempel), the album is etched deeply with contrasts. For every spacious swath of majesty, there’s ample punked-up exorcism to match.
 
Following on from their 2014 Australian Music Prize-long listed Seven Drummers, Teddywaddy is the most profound and riotous statement of the band’s career, anchored at every turn by the ragged glory of Hobbs’ eruptive singing and the piercing details of his lyrics. 

Release: Milk! Records/Remote Control, June 29th, 2018
Words: Remote Control

Whether it’s because of their from-the-heart lyrics, their warm and welcoming stage presence, or their undying support for the local music scene, Luca Brasi truly are the brothers we all wish we had.

2017 saw the Tasmanians hit the road to play the biggest shows of their career; multiple sold out headlining runs, as well as doing the festival circuit with Laneway, Splendour In The Grass, Falls, and their very own Tasmanian based festival’Til The Wheels Fall Off.
 
The past twelve months have also been one of reflection and growth for the band. As they find their feet planted further into the ground, the realities of life have begun to settle in, but in true Luca style they have found a way to embrace what some consider limitations with positivity and open hearts, and from that mindset, their new album Stay was born.
 
“Stay is really about trying to realise what you have, understand what is working for you, and finding acceptance and balance in that life.” Explains vocalist Tyler Richardson. “Approaching 30, some of us having families, others having careers, it’s my first year teaching high school and it’s amazing, but it’s also been hard a times. We’ve seen opportunities come and go that maybe if we were 20 we could have jumped on, but we accepted we couldn’t be on tour all the time, and so we cherish the fact we can do a few Australian runs, maybe jump overseas once or twice a year. To us it really is about focusing on the positive and ensuring we pay it forward.”
 
Working once again with their tried and tested team of Jimmy Balderston (Ghostnote Studios, Adelaide) and Nic White, the band introduced new blood to the recording process with former tour mate Darren Cordeux of Kisschasy co-producing and Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room (Rise Against, Frenzal Rhomb, A Day To Remember) mixing and mastering. "Darren has a great ear for melody and we immediately thought of him when it came time to review these songs,” says Richardson. "He helped us push these songs to another level. A true legend."
 
In a time where everyone is focusing on what they’re missing out on, Luca Brasi are continuing to take us to school, putting something out into the universe to say thank you for what they have. “We have to focus on the positive, and to me, Stay is about finding that balance.”
                                                 
Luca Brasi is:
Thomas Busby – Guitar
Danny Flood – Drums
Patrick Marshall – Guitar
Tyler Richardson – Vocals/Bass

Release: Cooking Vinyl, June 22nd, 2018
Words: Cooking Vinyl/Little Giant PR

“'Devotion' is about how a lonely coastal childhood filters into a contemporary adult life built hundreds of miles away. I wrote this album for my mum, middle sister and myself as we were at that time - eccentric, romantically-unfulfilled teens and a stressed out single mum trying to have a love life.” - Laura Jean
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Melbourne artist Laura Jean's new LP Devotion sees the acclaimed folk auteur dipping into synth-pop terrain.  Critically acclaimed for her piercing and intimate albums, Laura has worked with producer John Lee on Devotion (Beaches, Lost Animal) to create an enveloping album, singular in its vision and scope. Laura's previous release, her self-titled 2014 LP, was recorded in the UK with John Parish (Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey) and featured Norwegian avant-gardist Jenny Hval throughout on backing vocals. On her latest release, Laura found herself tinkering with a 90s Kawai keyboard, enjoying its built-in drum rhythms and a crystalline synth sound. She began a series of shows performing with nothing but the keyboard, as the idea for her next album began to take shape.

Written to chronicle the vivid memory of teenage obsession filtered through Laura’s razor sharp lyrical focus, initial influences for the record took in contemporary R’n’B, 80s pop and 70s disco, but the end result is transformed into something wholly other, creating a delicate and dreamlike world.

Played entirely by Laura, John Lee and Augie March drummer Dave Williams, Devotion is both contemporary and timeless in its impressionistic portrait of the purity and endless wonder associated with adolescence.

“I see myself as the narrator, an ordinary woman wearing a shiny pink dreamcoat that signifies it’s my turn to tell a story. It doesn’t matter that my story is ordinary, what matters is that I tell my story with hard earned skill and loving sincerity. I want to show that the everyday story of a girl is important, and that seemingly inconsequential events in a girl’s life can have a huge effect on her.” says Laura Jean.

Release: June 8th, 2018, Chapter Music via Inertia
​Words: Chapter/Inertia