Thought we'd try something a bit different and get Half A Cow recording artists Sneeze to review the most recent Demo Of The Week whilst the band travelled down the Hume Highway on their way to some Melbourne shows. A tape of The Avenues cd is put in the Tarago's sometimes-trusty cassette deck and the band sit back at take it all in. But they have just arrived in Submarine Capital Of The World - Holbrook - for their regular and comforting stop at the local bakery ("best custard tarts in the world," announces Simon). To get Sneeze in the right frame of mind to review The Avenues, they decide to review their purchases. Lucy (roadie): "My apple turnover wasn't very good." Chris (merch guy): "I had an apricot & ginger slice. It was delicious. The cake part was light and fluffy, with big juicy chunks of fruit - splendid value. But be warned if you were after the last custard tart, as Simon won't be very happy if he doesn't get it." Nic (who got the second last one): "Fantastic custard tart." avenues
Stomachs happy. Onto The Avenues. Well-recorded, tough and melodic indie-rock blasts out of the speakers whilst Simon drives along, listening intently to the first track (there was no bio or cover with the cd that was sent so Sneeze didn't know the names of the songs or where the band was from) . After a bit of thinking, Simon says, "You know who this band reminds me of? The Smithereens." "Gee, didn't expect you'd say that," replies Nic, "but it has a very catchy chorus. The harmonies are reminiscent of the Vines." "Sort of Posies-esqe guitars," Simon adds, "and the lyrics of the first song were really good." "Nic and Simon are copping out here by playing a game of 'sound-a-like'," chimes in Lucy, "They (the Avenues) seem assured." Simon: "I detect dashes of other bands, but they have given it their own original stamp which points to a promising future if they rise above their influences and don't get trapped by them." Chris: "Good to see them going to the trouble of coming up with a hook for the first song - it tricks the listener into having a first impression that the rest of the demo is going to be on the same level. Whereas it continues to have a similar attention to production (good separation on the different players, beefing up the vocals with multi-tracking) but not so much in the catchy melody parts." Hmmm, Chris is pretty tough on this weeks DOTW. Nic: "The recording quality sounds very good on the ballad." One track gets the attention of You Am I Ticket Holder #1, Tom, who has been asleep in the back. "You Am I rhythms infused with some Russell Hopkinson swing in the drum beat," was how Simon described it. All in all, the five tracks were given the thumbs up by Sneeze with Simon having the last say: "A far more promising proposition than the current crop of rock revivalists. It's good. I could listen to this again."
postscript: The Avenues hail from Perth and have an EP out through MGM.
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