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Song of the day – 428: Woollen Kits

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Woollen Kits LP launch

I like the fact no one from Australia sends me music*.

There’s no pressure. I’m free to like and dislike who I want. I’m free to write or not write about whom I want. No one expects anything so no one’s going to be disappointed. My take on whatever music is happening out there is dislocated. I know that there’s a certain style of music played on national youth radio station triple j; and that, by its very sound, it’s not a music I’m likely to appreciate. Not always, though. Example 1. Example 2. Some folk argue – see blog entry here – that music is best listened shed of all context. I always argue back that that is impossible, but oddly I probably hear music shed of more context than most. Especially music from Australia: a phrase here, a friend’s recommendation there… most of the tips come from abroad.

Not so with Woollen Kits, however. Their Sydney label R.I.P. Society is a label I like. I like the attitude, the music. Ramshackle, poppy …  some people call it punk rock. Why the fuck not? Better than calling it Family Guy Sucks Dick music. They release 7″ records; meaningless to me as I have kids who’d immediately destroy such an artifact as look at it. Maybe that’s the point? I was given the nod on Woollen Kits via a website I like, as infuriatingly worthy as it can sometimes be, Mess+Noise.

There’s a review of the Melbourne three-piece’s self-titled debut album that’s just gone up there, which boasts the strap-line:

Often compared to Calvin Johnson’s legendary lo-fi outfit Beat Happening…

I stopped and thought about this for a few seconds (I’ve been known to occasionally wax lyrical about my fondness for Calvin Johnson’s ‘legendary’ lo-fi outfit Beat Happening) and then I clicked on the Soundcloud. Do they have a bass-player? A female band-member?

Woollen Kits – Out Of Whack by R.I.P SOCIETY RECORDS

Sure. I could hear a superficial similarity. Particularly to the third and fourth Beat Happening albums. The vocals seemed a little anonymous, not unpleasantly so, but in a late-night, lo-fi Melbourne pub kind of way. Liked the guitar sound and the Shop Assistants-style stand-up drumming. More Pounding Serfs than Beat Happening if you want the truth of it, but I’m not denying I posses way too much knowledge here. I stopped and thought about it for a few minutes more. Was I to be put off, or snared in, by the comfort of familiarity? Fuck it. Why am I even caring about such notions? If I like music I like it. If I don’t I don’t. This song has a laconic bent, a warm beating pop heart. Sure, it sounds like some my favourites. Better than sounding like some of my non-favourites, surely?

So then I clicked through to YouTube, wondering what would turn up. And this did:

Just plain wonderful. The off-key vocals especially.

ADDENDA (see opening line above)

*This isn’t strictly true.

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