SLB BLOG

Red Tape outfit The Optimen are currently on the road for a national run of dates. For details just click the poster above or head to http://www.myspace.com/theoptimen.

And while you're at it, check out their new clip for Drop That.



Drop That from TheOptimen on Vimeo.

It's been getting plenty of love on the radio, and now Plus One artists The Gin Club have released the new clip for the track 'Pennies'.



The band is touring extensively over the coming months, so keep an eye on http://www.plusonerecords.com.au.

Brisbane hip-hop outfit The Optimen have more than delivered the goods with their new album The Out of Money Experience - out now through Red Tape.

Grab a free slice by downloading the track "Fire Fighters" here.

Having just launched the album in Brisbane - check out Andrew McMillen's review on The Vine - The Optimen have a busy few months ahead.

Keep track at http://www.myspace.com/theoptimen

El Nino El Nino artist Carry Nation is earning plenty of fans with the release of the exceptional new album 'Like a River Does'.

Grab a taste today with this exclusive free download of the track 'Phil Spector'.

Just click here

"Though she takes her performance name from early-1900s anti alcohol activist Carry A Nation, a cantankerous dame who went around smashing up bars with a hatchet, it's not likely a planned act of government support that Brisbane's Jessie Warren has delivered her debut album just as the Queensland capital is facing further absurd liquor licensing restrictions.

Like A River Does is far from a bar-smasher of a folk record, though it's also not grown from the kind of late-night barroom whisky-swilling much of the city's inner-city songwriter output has etched scenes in recent years. There's something far more domestic and welcoming to this, akin to the nuanced but accessible stuff Gorgeous once made.

Not attempting anything in the way of a grandiose statement of sounds, Warren relies on her ability to pen a simply affecting tune and nurses her songs primarily with an accoustic guitar and her broadly accented (well, she's from Queensland) voice, with a gathering of local friends to add extra, though subtle, instrumentation.

The waking notes of trumpet rise from the delicately picked Respect Your Elders; cello leads the down-facing slow-dance of the Beth Orton-touching Braking Is For Heroes; droned harmonies, wooden percussion and a few piano twinkles happen somewhere in the background of Phil Spector, a tale of regret that manages to give weight to lyrics like darkly humorous (given the title) opening line, "Uh-oh, the secrets we keep, the white lies that we say," and leads into, "In rage I killed my wife".

It's those kind of lyrics, too, that reveal Warren as a deft storyteller who never once loses your ear. Hers is a conversational but wrenching voice: the girl next door done wrong, the singer who could probably wow with a long-held note but uses her ability to far more grabbing and emotive effect. Like A River Does is evidence that sometimes it takes a less complicated approach to get through; and get through Carry Nation does." Inpress

News in from Valve

"While I Heart Hiroshima's Susie is currently on expedition in New York enroute eventually to Berlin...  Paul Ranking completed a second video for the track RIVER.

It was shot before Susie's disembarkation and their great going-away-show at Brisbane Powerhouse in late Jan where they play both albums in their near completedness. Paul has pieced together another spirited visual interpretation drawing forth the pagan in a dark river forest. Online now and desecrating television shortly."

Find it on YouTube and Vimeo

Other news...

THE RIP will be released in Europe on Cargo Germany in July.

The album is now available in other territories online... and discussion is underway for a US album release.

Shakeytown was picked up for US TV show The Deep End as well as new Brisbane film JUCY





I Heart Hiroshima – River from Paul W. Rankin on Vimeo.