blues

From the early '80s onward, guitarist Kid Congo Powers (born Brian Tristan) was a distinctive presence at the nexus where roots music meets punk. Powers had memorable tenures with the Gun Club (which he co-founded with Jeffrey Lee Pierce), the Cramps, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. However, while he was the instrumental half of the Congo Norvell duo in the '90s, Powers didn't consider stepping out as a frontman until 2005. That year, Powers released two solo albums, Philosophy and Underwear and Solo Cholo. As Powers began refining his skills as a songwriter and vocalist, he ramped up his recording and touring schedule, and formed a band to accompany him on his projects. Fusing primitive, swampy rock & roll, garage rock, and fractured blues with East L.A. Chicano rock and a dash of punk and psychedelia, Powers dubbed his new band the Pink Monkey Birds. The group initially featured Powers on guitar and vocals, Jack Martin on guitar, Kiki Solis on bass, and Ron Miller on drums. By the time the band recorded its first album, Dracula Boots, in 2009, Martin was out and Jesse Roberts had stepped in on guitar and keyboards. Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds continued to tour regularly, racking up more miles than Powers had since the '90s, and they released Gorilla Rose in 2011 and Haunted Head in 2013. In 2016, Powers and the group delivered their fourth album, La Arana Es la Vida. The LP introduced a new Pink Monkey Birds lineup; Jesse Roberts parted ways with the band, and Powers recruited guitarist Mark Cisneros to fill the vacancy in the group.

The first offering from The Pleasures (Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan’s new outfit) is “The Beginning of the End”. Americana twang meets dirty rock n roll on this sassy single with its themes of mischief and recklessness - the perfect antidote for these austere times. Britt and Bryan’s perfectly matched vocals holler over a stomping, swaggering band, leaving us in no doubt that The Pleasures have come out swinging!

A 70s-psychedelia inspired music video accompanies the single, and it’s filled with the energy and intensity you can expect at The Pleasures’ upcoming live shows.

While Catherine and Lachlan already have established careers, this collaboration which began with a late-night sms exchange, quickly ascended into a feverish fortnight of writing and recording. The project represents a significant stylistic shift for both artists. Their debut album is already in the can and is set for release later in 2022.

“Lachlan and I have always clicked in life and in song” explains Catherine, “and we’ve always had an unspoken understanding and respect for one another. These songs came so easy - they flowed out of us like a raging stream. I just want more honest, real music in the world, and I couldn’t think of a better person to make it with!”

“I don’t think know anyone else who feels and understands country music the way Catherine does”, says Lachlan. “She sounds authentic because she is authentic. When she opens her mouth and sings you can hear the neon lights buzzing, you can taste the tequila and you can barely see for the cloud of smoke. It’s all that stuff that people try and fake – they try and put in on – but it’s like she was just born with it”.

“The Beginning of the End” was released January 21 2022 through Beverley Hillbilly Records via MGM Distribution.

The Pleasures will play their first shows in February at the following venues:

Wednesday 9th February – The Grant Junction Hotel – Maitland NSW

Thursday 10th February - Lazybones Lounge – Marrickville NSW

Wednesday 16th February – Ziggy Pops – St Kilda VIC

Thursday 17th February – Brass Monkey Cronulla NSW

A rescheduled show in April at the Welders Dog in Tamworth for

Tamworth Country Music Festival will be announced soon.

Dan Brodie is an Australian singer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, best known for his prolific solo career, during which he has released seven studio.

In addition to releasing his own albums, Brodie's songs have been recorded by other artists including two songs on Love Is Mighty Close, a Vika and Linda Bull Album. Also in 2010 Brodie appeared on the Paul Kelly produced Maurice Frawley tribute album, Long Gone Whistle – The Songs of Maurice Frawley, performing the Frawley track, "Roll me" to a sold out audience at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Brodie was raised in a musical family, his father, a professional guitarist and singer taught Brodie the basic chords of guitar. With his brother Chris Brodie (Dallas Crane), they began playing in bands together, honing their skills of playing live to audiences around the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne before landing their first pub show whilst still in their early teens at the Richmond Club Hotel in 1990.

Over the next five years, Brodie performed around Melbourne, recording his first proper Album in a student run studio at Monash University in Clayton in 1993, released on tape and sold at live shows. After a move to the inner-city in 1996, Brodie joined dirty swamp rockers, Luxedo, on bass, the line-up also including Tom Carlyon on lead guitar and vocals, Emilie Martin on violin and guitar and Jamie Coghill on drums, contributing to the debut LP, Beauty Queen and the follow up, City Lights and Roadkill departing in 2001 to concentrate on his solo career.[citation needed]

1998-2000: I'm Floatin' Mamma and Big Black Guitar
A five track EP, I'm Floatin' Mamma was independently released in 1998; followed by debut album, Big Black Guitar in 1999. Backed by The Broken Arrows which featured his brother Chris Brodie on slide guitar, Craig Williamson (These Immortal Souls) on drums and Dan Kelly on bass, Brodie signed to EMI who re-released his debut album. Both the EP and debut album were produced by Maurice Frawley and engineered by Dave McCluney at Atlantis Studios in Melbourne.[citation needed]

2001-2004: Make Me Wanna Kill and Empty Arms, Broken Hearts
In 2001, Brodie released a four track EP featuring songs recorded for his forthcoming unreleased album, as well as some from earlier demos.[citation needed]

Brodie's second album, Empty Arms, Broken Hearts was released in 2002. Containing the singles "Jesus, Try and Save Me", "Take a Bullet" and "Hope That We Get Home Tonight", the album was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards.

2005-2009: Beautiful Crimes
Brodie's solo album entitled Beautiful Crimes was released in 2005 that veered away from country into a more indie rock sound and was produced by Barry Palmer of Hunters and Collectors, releasing the two radio friendly power-pop rock anthems, "Wanna Shine" and "Sweetheart".[citation needed]

Brodie took an extended break from touring with a band and spent several months playing solo shows across the Americans.[citation needed]

2010-2011: My Friend The Murderer
Brodie returned to Australia to record My Friend The Murderer which was released in 2011. The album was recorded at Headgap Studios in Melbourne, Australia by Brent "Sloth" Punshon and for the first time showed off Brodie's newly formed backing band, the Grieving Widows, featuring Chris Brodie on bass and Dave Nicholls on drums.[citation needed]

2012-2014: Deep Deep Love and Run Yourself Ragged EP
Brodie completed work on his fifth album Deep Deep Love in 2012 before a diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma and subsequent treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy sidelined him for most of 2013, delaying the record release. Deep Deep Love features minimalist backing of double bass by Dean Schulz Layla and Rhianna Fibbins on backing vocals and Grieving Widow's alumni Chris Brodie and David Nicholls on guitar and drums respectively.[citation needed]

In June 2014, Brodie entered St Charles Recording Studio in Northcote with the Grieving Widows to record a song from their live set; a cover of Ian Rilen’s (Rose Tattoo/Love Addicts) "Booze to Blame". Three more songs of original material quickly followed, and Run Yourself Ragged EP was released.

2015-2016: Big Hearted Lovin Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014
In March 2015, Brodie released the live album, Big Hearted Lovin' Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014. The album was recorded in one night in January, 2015 at Salt Studios in Melbourne. In April 2015, Brodie embarked on a three-month solo acoustic tour of Europe playing back to back shows at France.[citation needed]

2017: Lost Not Found and Funerária do Vale
In early 2017, Brodie returned to Melbourne to record Lost Not Found a collection of reinterpreted cover songs.[citation needed]

Brodie's seventh studio album, Funerária do Vale was released on 30 August 2019. The album cover and title are taken from a photo that Brodie took of a funeral home in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil during a six month stay in 2007. He said "I found the imagery so evocative (with its English translation of 'Valley of the Funeral Home'), and always hoped to use it as an album cover. In a way I wrote the songs to fit the existing photograph, exploring themes of loss."

Georgia Rodgers has fused her many years of playing and learning the guitar with an authentic vocal style.
Leaning into her dynamic guitar playing, she is slowly but surely developing a discography of music that abstains from the stereotypical verse, chorus, verse structure of song writing.

“I’m basically a singer/songwriter,” says Georgia, “but I am more-so taking people on a dynamic journey through a song. With more of an emphasis on a composition as opposed to your typical verse, chorus, verse.”.

Although evident in the music she has released and the live performances she has showcased, she admits that the sound she is creating is a work in progress.

“I’m still kind of finding what sound I want to put out there,” says Georgia, “I’m so much more comfortable behind a guitar than my vocals because I’ve always fallen back onto being a guitarist. I learnt guitar for a long time and then singing just became a part of it, so I depend heavily on that. I can write nice lyrics it’s just the way of how I can best suit that and include the work I’ve done as an instrumentalist as well.”

However, this journey to find a sound she is content with releasing and performing lends to the style of music she creates. The dynamic nature of her pursuit of establishing such a sound is also woven into her music with complexity. A process she pins down to experimenting with layering and ebbing and flowing between stripping a song down and building it up again.

“A lot of it is layering,” says Georgia “So I might play a song live that goes for eight minutes, and a lot of it is a little bit of atmospheric layering and it is kind of floaty and then the next song I might play might start with just the one note, the root note of the chord and then progress into playing the full chord.”

“It’s just stripping back and then including in other songs that layering to build that dynamic and then dropping it down and doing that to draw people in.”

When it comes to her compositions, she also places a significant importance on including any iota of a live resemblance or authenticity that might arise in a recording setting.

“I like a live-ish feel to my songs.” Says Georgia, “I’ve always been very particular in the recording. The next single I’m releasing I want to sound awesome, but if it’s not capturing that live element, I can’t see it as the song. I can see it as a good song, but without that live element, that’s not what I want.”.

In her most recently released single ‘Hold On’, the emphasis on replicating a live sound is abundant throughout the velvety and dreamlike near six minutes. Georgia iterates that minimising the number of vocal takes in conjunction with utilising a damaged guitar pedal resulted in the rich, dynamic and authentic sound.

“The last time I recorded I did one warm-up vocal take and then I did another one and finally one more and after that I was like ‘nup, that’s dead now’, that was the live one. If there is a note that is a bit off, or some element of it being quite live, authentic, or honest I don’t really care.

“So, the start of the song I recently recorded, I had bought this pedal from cash converters, and it was completely a piece of crap and I thought it was awesome. It was leaking battery acid. When I clicked it on it made this cool crackling, almost like a needle on a record sound.

“The engineer ended up asking me if I wanted to cut that out, but I was like ‘no way’. Instantly that was a sound that’s not the song, it was something that can be that authentic, you’re in the room feel. I think it’s hard conveying your songs in the studio.”

For her forthcoming gig at the Wesley Anne on Friday September 30, Georgia has pieced together an arrangement that is set to amplify her dynamic storytelling. A set that is due to fluctuate between a big band supporting her and individual renditions of songs.

“I’ve got a launch for that single ‘Hold On’ on Friday September 30 at the Wesley Anne in Northcote. I’m performing with a band, which I have never done, at least in a rehearsed setting. I’m going to have a few backing vocalists, a cello, a double bass, and a drummer, possibly with some piano too.”