Traps Recently ventured to Adelaide to play a showcase gig as part of the Fuse Festival. Traps focused on playing a diverse set of tracks from their previous releases as well as sharing a few new tracks that ould appear on their upcoming album. The album is in the process of being recorded as we speak and is tilting towards a darker sound than they have been know for in the past. Stay tuned for more traps news, here are a few pics from the night.

Traps Fuse Showcase, Ed Castle Adelaide, Thursday 25th Feb 2010.

This debut solo album, We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares, is an emotionally sophisticated recording, one which reveals the sort of mixed euphoria astronauts, or pilots, may feel when an affair begins mid-flight… or whenever joy is tempered with survival doubts.

If it doesn’t sound like a debut, it’s because Seja has spent years playing synthesizers in Sekiden and Regurgitator, two of Brisbane’s finest ever pop bands. Late last year Seja found herself wanting, curious to discover if she could make an album alone. So she stayed home a lot, writing songs, recording lots of old synthesizers, and using her beautifully clear voice more than she ever had before.

An artist constantly wanting to push her own creative boundaries, Seja has also lent her keyboarding and singing skills to touring buddies such as SPOD, David McCormack and The Polaroids, and The Mess Hall on an ad-hoc basis.

There are a few collaborators: Saul Jarvie sings, having turned an instrumental that was emailed to him into one of the album’s best pop songs, Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans and Spod assist with some structural suggestions and beats, and Cameron Bruce lends a hand in providing some beautiful piano playing for the album’s final track.

Seja’s brother Mirko produced, mixed and mastered the album, allowing its wide spaces to be further opened, and amplified the instrumentation is virtually all vintage electronics (Seja is known for her loyalty to vintage synths), and it’s with a simple, neat song structure we hear the stuff of classic pop. But the context is modern, and lyrically a touch hard-nosed, too busy living the present to be looking over its shoulder, ala ‘80s fans and alumni M83, granted it’s always in a dream. Crumbly, hand-crafted synth tones evoke such dreaminess, but the thematic focus of We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares never loses its way. Despite what Seja may tell you in a song.

WE HAVE SECRETS BUT NOBODY CARES IS OUT MARCH 27th
www.myspace.com/sejamusic

TRACKLIST
01. I’ll get to you
02. Through the backstreets
03. Framed you in fiction
04. Fire this fuel
05. Delay
06. A million wheels
07. One year later
08. Sing me the song like you said
09. Silver in my eye
10. We can’t see past our hands
11. We begin
12. Wir haben geheimnisse
13. Between a slur

There are many reasons why musicians make solo albums. For some, the delicate artistic temperament simply cannot bear collaborating with or being around other people. For others, collaboration is a truly wonderful experience, but a time comes when they just want to test themselves and see if they can make something special alone. Seja could never belong to the first example.

This debut solo album, We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares, does not sluggishly lumber from extreme isolation. Emotionally sophisticated, what reveals is the sort of mixed euphoria astronauts, or pilots, may feel when an affair begins mid-flight… or whenever joy is tempered with survival doubts.

If it doesn’t sound like a debut, it’s because Seja has spent years playing synthesizers in Sekiden and Regurgitator, two of Brisbane’s finest ever pop bands. Late last year Seja found herself wanting, curious to discover if she could make an album alone. So she stayed home a lot, writing songs, recording lots of old synthesizers, and using her beautifully clear voice more than she ever had before.

An artist constantly wanting to push her own creative boundaries, Seja has also lent her keyboarding and singing skills to touring buddies such as SPOD, David McCormack and The Polaroids, and The Mess Hall on an ad-hoc basis.

There are a few collaborators: Saul Jarvie sings, having turned an instrumental that was emailed to him into one of the album’s best pop songs, Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans and Spod assist with some structural suggestions and beats, and Cameron Bruce lends a hand in providing some beautiful piano playing for the album’s final track.

Seja’s brother Mirko produced, mixed and mastered the album, allowing its wide spaces to be further opened, and amplified the instrumentation is virtually all vintage electronics (Seja is known for her loyalty to vintage synths), and it’s with a simple, neat song structure we hear the stuff of classic pop. But the context is modern, and lyrically a touch hard-nosed, too busy living the present to be looking over its shoulder, ala ‘80s fans and alumni M83, granted it’s always in a dream. Crumbly, hand-crafted synth tones evoke such dreaminess, but the thematic focus of We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares never loses its way. Despite what Seja may tell you in a song.

WE HAVE SECRETS BUT NOBODY CARES IS OUT MARCH 27th
www.myspace.com/sejamusic

TRACKLIST
01. I’ll get to you
02. Through the backstreets
03. Framed you in fiction
04. Fire this fuel
05. Delay
06. A million wheels
07. One year later
08. Sing me the song like you said
09. Silver in my eye
10. We can’t see past our hands
11. We begin
12. Wir haben geheimnisse
13. Between a slur

TRAPS harness the dark and dirty to create songs of indie beauty. Characterised by distinctive vocals, driving rhythms and swelling guitars, their recent releases have confirmed them as the strong song-writing band that they are.

For the first of what will be a few trips to Melbourne in 2010 Traps are playing

• Friday, January 22 PONY Late show 2am

• Saturday, January 23 COLONIAL HOTEL Rats presents

• Monday, January 25 THE JOHN CURTAIN BANDROOM Australia Day Eve

• Tuesday, January 26 THE ESPY Australia Day

On their last visit to Melbourne…

As of November 2009, Traps don’t own that ‘indie rock’ label as fully as they used to. In its place is something a little more diverse, the percussion ramping up, Kieran Day experiencing some Buckley moments on vocals and the guitars ramming it home with plenty to do. It’s less We Are Scientists and more Eddy Current. Less indie, more noise, more psych, more fitting for their new label, Rice Is Nice…Hopefully it wont be another year before Traps are back in Melbourne.
- Inpress, November 2009

Visit:
www.trapsband.com
www.myspace.com/killthetraps

He’s a full-time member of The Stabs, a gun-for-hire for the likes of Love of Diagrams and The Breadmakers and with his new solo project Miniature Submarines already making waves, Mark Nelson tells DOUG WALLEN why he can’t help but submerge himself in all facets of Melbourne’s music scene.

There’s an unmistakable dark side to the debut 7” from Miniature Submarines, the solo project of Stabs bassist and itinerant collaborator Mark Nelson. And yet the Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist calls it his version of pop. Really, it’s the friction between his gentle, melodic singing and his penchant for gritty guitar and squealing feedback that makes the project instantly engaging. A similar combination of pretty and crunchy is a hallmark of so much ’90s rock, which provides Nelson with ongoing inspiration. But the gloomy noise-pop of both ‘The Little Room Under The Stairs’ and ‘I Heard That You Turned Into A Loser, Baby’ doesn’t recall any one band, which is saying something, really.

The project began as an outlet for Nelson’s home recordings – and it is still is, although Monica Fikerle (Love Of Diagrams, Baseball) played drums on the 7”. As for gigs, Nelson has built a rugged lineup in guitarist Greg Kerslake (Mother & Father), bassist Alex Jarvis (ex-Automatic) and drummer Duncan Blachford (ex-Witch Hats). While keeping the live band intact, Nelson aims to play nearly all of the instruments on his upcoming releases, something that shouldn’t prove too difficult for a guy who plays in at least five bands. A fairly deadpan presence on the phone, Nelson was articulate and often funny while discussing why a project like Miniature Submarines was good for his health.

I don’t know if I’ve ever interviewed someone on the basis of just two songs.
There are more on the way, actually. I’ve started recording the next record. Well, I started a while ago but the computers got stolen. I was working at Jet Studios and it got broken into. People lost albums. I had only recorded three songs, so I lost three. I’m going to Birdland [Studios in Melbourne] to start again. The next one’s going to be a 10”. And then an album.

So you’re sort of working your way up?
Yeah, well, I’ve got this batch of songs. The 7” was just to get something out quickly. Looking at my list of songs [after that], it just seemed like a 10”. If I pair them up into appropriate groups, a 10” makes sense. And then [from there] I’ve got a really good list of album songs with nothing that really sticks out like a sore thumb. I feel like these two songs sleep much better at night on a 7” than they would do among the other songs on the album.

When you re-record the three songs you lost, will you change them at all?
No. I’ve demoed them and then recorded them, so in a way I’ve demoed them a couple of times now. I know how they go, and that’s how they go.

Read the rest of the article here on Mess + Noise

We here at RICE IS NICE are so very happy to be bringing you this very special 2010 limited tour 7″.

Forming from the ashes of Welsh powerhouses Jarcrew and Mclusky, Future of the Left have truly forged an identity of their own.

The 7″ includes an awesome exclusive new B side, “Pre Occupation Therapy” which follows the killer A side, “Stand By Your Manatee” taken from their latest record Travels With Myself And Another.

This release will be available as soon as the band hit Australian soil at their not to be missed shows, your grand indie record stores and the RICE IS NICE shop! It really is limited too, incase you think im pulling the other one.

The brutal and irreverent Future of the Left will be playing sideshows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, in addition to their appearances at the Falls Festival and the Southbound Festival, thanks to Handsome Tours.

Also available at the RICE IS NICE online shop.

We here at RICE IS NICE are very excited to be releasing a limited edition FUTURE OF THE LEFT Australian tour 7″!!!

We are over many moons.

The 7″ includes an awesome exclusive new B side, “Pre Occupation Therapy” which follows the killer A side, “Stand By Your Manatee” taken from their latest record Travels With Myself And Another.

The release will be available as soon as the band hit Australian soil at their not to be missed shows, your grand indie record stores and the RICE IS NICE shop! It really is limited too, incase you think we’re pulling the other one.

The brutal and irreverent Future of the Left will be playing sideshows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, in addition to their appearances at the Falls Festival and the Southbound Festival, thanks to Handsome Tours.

Forming from the ashes of Welsh powerhouses Jarcrew and Mclusky, Future of the Left have truly forged an identity of their own.
We couldn’t be happier to start the new year and end the old with a release as good as this.

Available now at the RICE IS NICE online shop, Missing Link Melbourne, Polyester Records Melbourne.

SEEKAE have won the Best Live Act award at this years Sydney Music Arts and Culture Awards!
We are all thrilled that people out there voted for SEEKAE and agree they are one of the most exciting live bands around. SEEKAE have also been announced to play Laneway Festival and both Big Day Out’s next year (syd only). We have much, much more SEEKAE news for you to come in the new year. You can download the full set of SEEKAE’s remix ep launch as recorded by FBI on our home page.

RICHARD IN YOUR MIND’s Summer EP is out now on ITUNES and has landed album of the week on Faster Louder and more awesome reviews all round, including DRUM MEDIA’s quote “it could only be them and we should be glad they exist”. Album is out early 2010, its going to blow your head off.

MINIATURE SUBMARINES limited 7″ is out this weekend! Brand new musical project from Mark Nelson of The Stabs, featuring two tracks – “The Little Room Under The Stairs” & “I Heard That You Turned Into A Loser, Baby”. This 7 rules and comes with a free download. The future is here. Listen to the A SIDE and read more HERE

TALONS debut album makes it in to the MESS AND NOISE READERS POLL TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 09 as well as FASTER LOUDER!

TRAPS are playing some regional NSW shows with CHILDREN COLLIDE and are heading back down to Melbourne in January. They will play a bunch of shows and receive more love like INPRESS quote “As of November 2009, Traps don’t own that ‘indie rock’ label as fully as they used to. In its place is something a little more diverse, ..less We Are Scientists and more Eddy Current. Less indie, more noise, more psych, more fitting for their new label, Rice Is Nice.” New single THE MEMENTO is OUT NOW and available on ITUNES!

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN TO SEEKAE.

A motley crew of extroverted dorks, shy bookworms and punch-spiking delinquents, the songs on the Summertime EP felt they didn’t need those new album songs to be cool. Instead they started their own club.

From the early 90s hip-hop flavours of ‘Make It Chill’ through to the frenetic 60s- meets-now explosion that is ‘Summertime Boogie (do the)’, RIYM have crafted a super-fun half hour of music, best served with BBQs, beach volleyball and tasty, tasty naan bread. Richard In Your Mind’s Summertime EP is your one-way ticket to party paradise and inner tranquility.

Rice Is Nice have signed the phenomenally talented Richard In Your Mind. Their first outing on our label will be the digitally released Summertime EP. The Summertime EP sees Richard In Your Mind delivering a refreshing treat in anticipation of their soon-to-be-released 2nd album.

A motley crew of extroverted dorks, shy bookworms and punch-spiking delinquents, the songs on the Summertime EP felt they didn’t need those new album songs to be cool. Instead they started their own club.

From the early 90s hip-hop flavours of ‘Make It Chill’ through to the frenetic 60s- meets-now explosion that is ‘Summertime Boogie (do the)’, RIYM have crafted a super-fun half hour of music, best served with BBQs, beach volleyball and tasty, tasty naan bread. Richard In Your Mind’s Summertime EP is your one-way ticket to party paradise and inner tranquility.