Various Artists
Community: A Compilation of Hobart Music
19 Track, LP (2010, Rough Skies)
Related: Ivy St, Native Cats, Hobart.
I visited Hobart for the first time last year. The gig was at the Brisbane Hotel on a cold, wet and miserable Sunday. The kind of night suited more to sofas, heaters and DVDs. The show itself was fun. As was the late night karaoke in the front bar with the local hair metal heads, pouring our own beers. You could say we were well looked after by the Brisbane’s Gibbo and Julian Teakle, half of Native Cats and the guy behind Rough Skies Records and this compilation.
Driving out to a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary the following morning, Teakle gave us a quick rundown on the current Hobart music scene; one that’s well documented on Community, although as the press release qualifies, “You cannot know Hobart music from this compilation alone.” Nonetheless, it’s a title well suited to a project of this type. As you would expect from a city the size of Hobart, the scene is close. A quick glance at the liner notes and you find that bands share members, produce each other's songs and rehearse/record in the same studios/bedrooms.
I could mention Hobart’s geographical and cultural isolation or its lineage of awesome bands from Mouth to Little Ugly Girls, but on this occasion I won’t. Instead, I’m going to talk about ‘Notes From a Fighter’, a song by Our Sails (aka Andy Brazendale) that was recorded at home. It may not the best track on the record, but it’s indicative of how important a comp like Community is in getting a song like Brazendale’s out of the bedroom and to a wider audience.
The lush spacey pop that Brazendale creates and his warbling vocals is similar in mood and feeling to something off Grandaddy’s debut Under the Western Freeway. It’s a good song, one that’d probably fly under the radar if it wasn’t for its inclusion on this compilation. The fact that it’s now going to be in retail stores on the mainland, alongside cuts by other more well-known Hobart acts such as Ivy Street and The Native Cats, is undoubtedly a good thing.
Other highlights include Drunk Elk’s moody, albeit off-key ‘Quintessence’; the instrumental noodling of Billy Whims; the breezy pop of Anthony Rochester’s ‘You’re A Singer Now’; the awkward, stilted brilliance of the Native Cats, who on the unreleased ‘Little Me Belongs to Little You’, sound more like Arab Strap; and the truly lovely closing song ‘Eye For an Eye’ by Transcription of Organ Music.
As far as compilations that capture a particular music scene at a particular point it time go, you can’t get much better than Community. It's essential for anyone wanting to tap into the Hobart music scene, without having to endure late night karaoke sessions on a chilly night at the Brisbane’s front bar.
by Tim Scott
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rad
after going to hobart once i found it hard to think that anything i liked could come from it, but this definately sounds worth the dosh and the listen. thanks tim, i always take your advice on this thing.
paint your golden face....yes!
Nice work JT.
There's a review of the album in the March issue of the Monthly by Robert Forster.
On sale in Missing Link, Sunshine & Grease, Repressed & Big Star.
and Tommy Gun Records in Hobart of course.
Whose on it?
There's a handy tracklisting to the right of the review, Lax..
anyone read this review yet?
''controversial''
I found it really confusing! On the one hand he talks about how great the Hobart ''scene'' is but on the other hand he doesn't seem to like any of the songs on the compilation. So eh, I dunno. I'm not smart enough to understand it, I guess.
Oh, wait, I know who you are! Hello ''Scale''.
volume 2 out soon:
Community 2 – A compilation of Hobart music
1. Anthony Rochester – Copenhagen
2. Tiger Choir – Young Loving
3. Billy Whims – I Stayed Out On the Porch Too Long
4. All Fires The Fire – This Awful Mess
5. Gutter Parties – Be The Right Kind Of Primitive
6. Lucky Dips – Assistance
7. Manchester Mourning – Duffle
8. Treehouse – Silvertwenty
9. The Steadfast Shepherd – A Drift Of Snow
10. Drunk Elk - Factotum Vague
11. The Native Cats – K-Man
12. Mess O’Reds – Love Me Dead
13. Naked – One Foot After The Other
14. Moe Grizzly – Form A Form
15. M.O.1.O. – M.O.1.O.
16. Transcription Of Organ Music – By Frozen Rivers
17. Peter Escott – Circle The Wagons
18. Myblackson – Living Room
supposedly out now!
need to find a copy.
have just put copies of community 2 in both the polyester stores.