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Random Little Things: No Age, Cut Off Your Hands, Jet, The E.L.F.

Still haven't heard the new No Age record? What's wrong with yer? You can stream the whole thing from start to finish via the band's MySpace page. The record is OUT NOW locally via Stomp. Drowned In Sound have a track-by-track breakdown of the new record from the band.

Cut Off Your Hands have pulled out of the Come Together festival due to recording commitments. The band are currently in the UK working on their debut album, which is due out in August. They will be replaced on the festival bill by Bluejuice.

After six up-and-down years, Jet have officially parted ways with management, Winterman and Goldstein.

The E.L.F. has received some nice INTERNATIONAL props via Pitchfork's Forkcast. Whoa, the little guy is hitting the big time.

Capt Polaroid
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Artist Pages: No Age   The E.L.F.   Jet   Cut Off Your Hands  

Come Together 2008 line-up announced

Last year the Come Together Festival went all a little bit emo and fell off our radar. This year it appears to have returned to it's roots and features a tonne of local 'indie' bands that have been pre-approved by Triple J.

No real surprises in the line-up, but the possibility of Thrills sideshows is moderately exciting.

Saturday
Faker, VHS or Beta, The Thrills, British India, Dappled Cities Fly, Cut Off Your Hands, Young & Restless, Sparkadia, Little Red, The Dirty Secrets, The Seabellies, I Heart Hiroshima, The Holidays, The Galvatrons, The John Steel Singers, Former Child Stars, Lions At Your Door, The Jezabel, The Vignettes.

Sunday
The Living End, Gyroscope, Birds Of Tokyo, The Hot Lies, Mammal, Dead Letter Circus, The Getaway Plan, Children Collide, Trial Kennedy, Many Machines On 9, Calling All Cars, Skybombers, In Fiction, Stealing O'Neal, Number Station, Acid Eyeliner, Short Stack, Irksome Bliss, Paper Champion.

The festival will once again take place within the confines of Sydney's Luna Park, this year on the 7th and 8th of June. The festival is also ALL AGES so watch out if you are one of those folks that doesn't really like 16-year-olds who think they are the kings of Cool Town.

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Artist Pages: Faker   The Thrills   Dappled Cities Fly   British India   Cut Off Your Hands   Young & Restless   Sparkadia   Little Red   The Seabellies   I Heart Hiroshima   The Holidays   The John Steel Singers   Lions At Your Door   Birds Of Tokyo   VHS or Beta   Come Together Festival  

2007 - A Mixtape

22% Sydney
9% Wolf Parade
22% New Zealand
0% Modular
0% The Panics
100% tasty

DOWNLOAD (zip file / 121mb)

1. Dead Farmers - Violence
Is there any better way to open an album of the best songs from 2007 than with the feedback driven noise of Sydney's Dead Farmers? From the Violence 7" single.

2. Radiohead - 15 Step
Krunk music. The opening track and defining moment of Radiohead's In Rainbows album.

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Capt Polaroid
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Artist Pages: Andrew Bird   Batrider   Battles   Black Kids   Bluejuice   Caribou   Cut Off Your Hands   Dan Deacon   Dead Farmers   Die! Die! Die!   Hand Me My Jetpack   Handsome Furs   LCD Soundsystem   Liars   Menomena   Radiohead   The Ripping Dylans   The Shins   Shocking Pinks   Sunset Rubdown   Surf City   Talons   Tegan And Sara  

Cut Off Your Hands cancel Australian tour

Update: The Scare have replaced Cut Off Your Hands and will support Mercy Arms at the Sydney show on Friday.

The energetic New Zealand four piece have pulled out of their Sydney and Brisbane shows this week due to broken bones caused by an 18 ft fall during their final UK show.

At this stage the band is still planning to perform at the Falls Festival at the end of the month, as well as reschedule the Sydney and Brisbane shows for sometime in the new year.

Capt Polaroid
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Artist Pages: Cut Off Your Hands  

Iceland Airwaves Review

Last week I was lucky enough (but as it turned out not wealthy enough) to attend the 9th annual Iceland Airwaves festival, in Reykjavik, IcelAand. It will no doubt go down as one of the more memorable moments of my life, and aside from making heaps of new friends and getting drunk alot on lethal hostel-mixed drinks that we snuck into venues and shared around the bus, I also managed to catch a few bands. The following is who I saw and what I thought of them.

Day 1

Took Tony the traveller, a blind and 80% deaf, yet completely independant traveller out on the town and walked him in to venues despite him not having a wristband for the festival. Got kinda drunk, and forgot to watch any bands, or at least to remember who they were. 'Nuff said.

Day 2

Caught 15 minutes of Skatar, a local Icelandic band. Their record The Ghost of the Bollocks to Come, aside from having a brilliant title, is a pretty good listen, which makes me kinda pissed for not catching more of them.

I also caught Late of the Pier from the UK on one of the bigger stages of the festival (which in reality is probably only a 400 person venue). They were pretty dancey, but surprisingly entertaining for a scenester band, and the silver matte jumpsuit with silver gloss patches of the lead man was a nice touch.

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Sir Android
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Artist Pages: !!!   Annuals   Buck 65   Cut Off Your Hands   Deerhoof   Late Of The Pier   Mugison   Reykjavik!   Skatar  

Big Day Out '08 First Announcement

The initial lineup for the 2008 Big Day Out has been announced, and is as follows...

• Rage Against The Machine
• Bjork
• Grinspoon
• Arcade Fire
• Hilltop Hoods
• Billy Bragg
• Paul Kelly
• LCD Soundsystem
• Faker
• Midnight Juggernauts
• Sarah Blasko
• Dizzee Rascal
• Something With Numbers
• Battles
• Cut Off Your Hands

This would have to be the strongest Big Day Out lineup in years, especially given the increasingly saturated Australian festival market... and there's more to come. Late January should provide for some awesome sideshow action.

In addition to the first announcement, organisers have brought in some ticketing changes. Sydney festival-goers will be limited to 2 tickets each. Furthermore, the sales dates for each city have been staggered to relieve pressure on website ticketing. Also, as was the case last year, 10,000 tickets will be held aside for an online ballot.

The Sydney leg kicks off on Friday, 25 January and is on sale October 10. More information can be found at the Big Day Out website.

el zilcholas
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Artist Pages: Arcade Fire   Battles   Billy Bragg   Bjork   Cut Off Your Hands   Dizzee Rascal   Faker   Grinspoon   Hilltop Hoods   LCD Soundsystem   Midnight Juggernauts   Paul Kelly   Rage Against The Machine   Sarah Blasko   Something With Numbers  

Levity Records launch

Last night we attended what we thought was more to be a launch for Cut Off Your Hands' new EP, Blue On Blue at the National Art School in Darlinghurst. It ended up being more of a launch for Levity Records and did feel somewhat like a bit of a corporate event.

Levity Records is Levis' record label. They have been established to help raise their image by associating themselves with up-and-coming bands as well as, if you believe their marketing pitch, 'to support local music'. Cut Off Your Hands are their first signing and in exchange for their association with the fashion company - photos of them are used in some ads - Levis funded their latest EP and letting them keep ownership of the songs. Not a bad deal.

The event was pleasant enough. It's hard to diss the free drinks and food being forced upon you. There did seem to be a fair few 'celebrities' about as well, which, if you are like me don't mind a bit of star-phuck, was a nice way to kill some time before the band got on.

I went along with three people who were only vaguely familiar with Cut Off Your Hands' material. This provided a nice, neutral perspective on their performance as my judgment on them is clouded by memories of seeing them absolutely destroy tiny venues from back in the early days.

First song in, frontman Alex charged into the crowd of unsuspecting industry, press and leeching types, pushing women and children out of the way as he aimlessly marched around the room. To be honest, the whole act seemed slightly forced. I have seen them do this type of thing countless times before as a method of engaging the crowd in the show but on this occasion it just didn't seem to fit the set-up.

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Artist Pages: Cut Off Your Hands  

Gig Review: Young and Restless + Cut Off Your Hands @ Spectrum - 16/06/2007

Two bands that are quickly becoming stalwarts on the local scene teamed up on Saturday night for a promising double bill.

Canberra's (Melbourne's?) Young and Restless have still not released any recorded material, yet fans of the band have yet to tire of their energetic and often brutal live performances. Their show consists of front woman Karina screaming and moving about the front of the stage, while the 3 guys on stringed instruments try to get as close as possible to her with their instruments without knocking her out cold. It all adds up to some weird sexually tensioned performance that leaves always leaves one feeling satisfied but a little bit uneasy.

New Zealand's Cut Off Your Hands live show is also infamous, but in place of the strange instrument gangbang is the lone front man diving into the crowd and spasming all over the place, while the rest of the group are content to sit back and pump out the catchy riffs to the ever appreciative audience.

This was also supposed to be our first chance to see Soft Tigers, but due to scheduling conflicts (aka getting too drunk beforehand) we missed them, which we are mightily dissapointed about.

Sir Android
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Artist Pages: Cut Off Your Hands   Soft Tigers   Young And Restless  

Gig Review: South By Inner West Festival @ Annandale Hotel - 10/6/07

Another long weekend in Sydney, another all day 7 band showcase at the Annandale. Nothing to sneeze at, but would the rather ambitious comparison to Indie music's week of weeks held in Austin Texas every year hold up?

Cut Off Your Hands were the highlight, with the band almost taking a busted bass amp in their stride (a little bass throwing dummy spit has to be somewhat expected) and getting on with the show in their usual energetic, writhing on the floor, dancing on the bar kind of way.

The Shake Up were a pleasant surprise. Their overt likeness to 70's and 80's British punk bands came off more as a tasteful head nod rather than a direct rip-off and seemed to amuse the dancing drunk girls down the front to no end.

Moscow Schoolboy didn't come off as naturally however, most of their energy seemingly channeled into looking cool with their music droning along behind in an entirely forgettable manner.

Other bands that were on show that were missed by us were The Panda Band (WA favourites), The Mares (New EP Love Billows From My Soul to Consume You Splendid People as an Avalanche Does a Mountain out now), and The Waysiders.

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Sir Android
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Artist Pages: Cut Off Your Hands   The Mares   Moscow Schoolboy   The Panda Band   The Shake Up   The Waysiders  

Long weekend activities

What is it with long weekends that prompts venues to put on special events and kick out such awesome shows?

Tonight, there is a joint album launch for Kes and Sly Hats at the Hopetoun Hotel. With awesome supports in the form of Rand & Holland and The Garbage And The Flowers this is very much the pick of the night, especially if you enjoy your music melodic and 'soundscapy'. You can get in for $10 as well, which is only slightly more expensive than 'free'.

Tomorrow night (Sunday, for those that have lost me already) there are two awesome (mini) festivals going on. The South By Inner West Festival at Annandale Hotel may have an incredibly cheeeeeesy name, but it does also have a barrage of awesome bands playing - seven, in fact - all for the measly price of 20 shucks. The line-up includes The Panda Band, Cut Off Your Hands, Bright Yellow, Moscow Schoolboy and some other equally great bands.

If you get to the door at the Annandale Hotel and it's either sold out or you are $4 short of the entry fee, you can hitch-hike yourself over to Spectrum for the Upside Down Festival. You will be treated to a whole load of great bands, including Spod, Whitley, The Seabellies, Richard In Your Mind and a bucketload more.

If you're SUPER cheap and/or all your bills are due and/or you have been badly robbed DO NOT WORRY - there is still something for you. Over at the Hopetoun Hotel legendary indie rockers, Peabody, are showcasing their new line-up and songs. They will headline what is surely the greatest ever mish-mashed line-up of all time as they will be supported by one of our faved bands of Sydney Talons, as well as those delicious kids from Canberra, Soft Tigers. How much will this barrage of awesome set you back I hear you ask? You guessed it - ZERO dollars.

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Capt Polaroid
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Artist Pages: Bright Yellow   Cut Off Your Hands   Garbage And The Flowers   Kes   Moscow Schoolboy   The Panda Band   Peabody   Rand And Holland   Richard In Your Mind   The Seabellies   Sly Hats   Soft Tigers   SPOD   Talons   Whiteley  

Young and Restless sign to Dot Dash and new songs from The Go! Team and Spoon

Winners of Triple J's Unearthed competition, Young and Restless have just signed with Dot Dash Records, the 'alternative' home of Wolf and Cub and New Buffalo. The Canberra five-piece are set to release their new single Kapow! any day now, with their debut album to follow in mid-July. To launch the new song they are heading on a tour around the country, supported by the awesome-ness of Cut Off Your Hands. The tour will include two Sydney shows, one at Spectrum on June 16 and a followup the next night at the Beach Road Hotel, Bondi. Full details of the tour can be found here.

The Go! Team have a new album coming out soon (as yet, it's still untitled) and the first little piece of it is floating around the interweb in the form of Grip Like Vice. It sounds like a nice dose of awesome-ness wrapped up as a pop tune. By the sounds of things the album is going to be some sort of poptastic party.

We talked a bit about the new Spoon album a weeks back and, besides the stupid title, it sounds like it's going to be good, especially if the first, somewhat spooky cosmic 'leaked' track The Ghost Of You Lingers is anything to go by.

Capt Polaroid
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Artist Pages: Cut Off Your Hands   The Go! Team   Spoon   Young And Restless