New Band of the Week - 25/02/2013 - The Wharves

Do you remember Trogons? We do, we loved their offbeat musical stylings and most importantly the effortless tones vocals from their lead singer Gemma. Sadness at discovering Trogons were no more quickly turned to delight when we found Gemma has a new band, The Wharves. There are splashes of That Dog, Can, The Pixies, but I've never been fond of pointless comparisons.

In short, we love good vocal melodies, and the warm fuzzy guitars against a number of female vocal harmonies does create some great soundscapes, especially on the killer chorus of "Renew!" which can be checked out below.

Trogons / Fishing / Guerre at Old Blue Last, 14 July 2011

 A few photos from last week's show:

Trogons

Trogons 

 Fishing

Fishing

Fishing - Doug

Fishing Freakout

Fishing - Russell

Fishing

Guerre

Guerre

Guerre

SNH Interviews Trogons

In anticipation of our upcoming night on the 14^th of July at the Old Blue Last, we spoke to Gemma from Trogons and about taxidermy, Sean Connery and bad ass superheros.

SNH: How did Trogons come together? Was there an idea of the sound you wanted?  

Basically i wanted to do a band like The Doors and coin myself the lizard queen but the others kind of rebuked this and had ideas of their own.

SNH: How did you come to call yourself Trogons?

We were in the Tring zoological museum and I saw a collection of taxidermic Trogons. I thought they sounded like an alien race or good band name.

SNH: I keep seeing the term psyche rock mentioned alongside your name. How would you guys describe your sound? Is psyche rock a fair description? 

Psyche is a rather fragmented genre. I have definitely had some psychedelic experiences whilst making our music but not sure if this was mainly due to the mastic fumes in our rehearsal space. One day I became convinced my left kidney was parasitical.

SNH: I can hear splashes of Hammer Horror, Blondie and Broadcast. Who are your personal biggest influences in music?

 Indeed aesthetically I love surreal British stuff, Terry Gilliam,  and hammer glamour. Musically I really love Kate Bush, Slapp Happy, prog and a lot of the US female fronted 60's psyche stuff like Victoria, Fifty Foot Hose and the United States of America

SNH: What’s your plans for the upcoming year? An album maybe?  

We have the songs we simply need to wait for the correct atmospheric conditions for recording. 

SNH: In your short time as a band, any stand out gigs you’ve played?

I had a dream that we played a gig to the mining colony from the Sean Connery film Outland. It was totally banging…

SNH: So, you all seem to feature in other bands as well as Trogons. Does this mean the end of the respective bands, or merely a break whilst you make wonderful sounds together?  

 We are all quite good at multi tasking and have various other projects on the boil. 

SNH: I read in Loud & Quiet that you’re all a bit geeky and your first single was comic book inspired. If you each had to compare yourselves to a comic book hero, which ones would you be, or like to be? And why of course?

I would probably like to be some kind of uncompromising bad ass like Amy Racecar (the inspiration for our song Contina) or Rorschach from Watchmen 'I'm not locked in here with you... you're locked in herewith me' etc mwa ha ha ha but yeah maybe it wouldn't be much fun. Maybe i would be Swamp Thing skulking about a bit before transporting my consciousness into all living vegetable matter on the planet and reclaiming the earth for the plants. 

SNH: Can you give us a heads up on some of the lesser known bands in your area/you played with/you know of that people should know about?

I don't know about lesser known as we are not all that well known but at the moment i am loving Two Wings, Early Man, Thee Ludds and the Pheromoans .

SNH: And lastly, an odd Trogons fact please?

I was once babysat by Fish from Marillion 

You can catch Trogons at our show with Fishing and Guerre at the Old Blue Last on 14^th July. You can also listen to some awesome Trogons music below:

  HEAVY DRAGOON by TROGONS 

Fishing | Guerre | Trogons - 14 July - The Old Blue Last

We are trebly excited to present two of Australia's finest new talents in Fishing and Guerre making their UK debuts. Joining them is London's extremely talented Trogons who are on a steady path to superstardom.



It’s hard to talk about Fishing without resorting to an obvious metaphor. This Sydney based electro-pop duo are making big ripples in the blog-pond and it won’t be long before they are making big, big, waves and move to a large pond. Last summer’s digital release of the track “OOOO” made Pitchfork wobbly-kneed enough to feature them as their daily Forkast selection, calling it a “sparkling, post-Dilla jawn”.

Fishing’s beat-makers Russell Fitzgibbon and Doug Wright carefully craft a sound that manages to combine both chilled out and bouncy big beat party stuff at the same time. Great live party music guaranteed! This is sample-happy, staggering, and hook-laden stuff that amalgamates video-game music with glitch-pop and joyful electronic beats. It is masterfully put together and has earned them a growing reputation with support slots and remix perks for Cloud Control, Guerre and Alpine, to name a few. They haven't been around very long, but Fishing are certainly going places fast, and are the soundtrack to a perfect summer's night out.

Having tinkered in lo-fi vocal experiments and bedroom recordings in his hometown Toronto as a teenager, Lavern Lee (Guerre) moved to Sydney and with that move began creating a genre-bending form of slow-burning sweet soul music (dubbed neo-soul) filled with layers of delicately interwoven vocal melodies and accompanied with atmospheric, understated electronica. It’s a far bigger and more soulful sound than one man alone should be capable of making and prompted Unholy Rhythms to exclaim “. From the first time I heard his music, I fell head over heels”.

His combined love of RnB vocals and electronic experimentation is thrilling and every song feels like we're bearing witness to some personal voyage of discovery, unravelling with every turn of melody and layer of sound. Intimate and ostentatious at the same time.
Guerre joins us as part of a European tour and his debut EP 'Darker My Love' is set to be released in June by Yes Please with an accompanying remix EP to be released which includes a reworking of his stunning track “River Hymnal” by his pals Fishing, also on the bill tonight.

After catching them playing a festival for Night School Records, we were completely blown away by the velvety vocals and organ ladened post punk musings of Trogons. Featuring ex and current members of Kasms, Wolfie, Betty and the Werewolves, Trogons are carefully carving out a niche with their unique blend of "theatrical sci-fi garage". Think concise pop songs, organ solos, slightly doomy (but in no way gloomy) guitars, somewhat reminding us of reading a 70s horror comic. Mentions in NME and Loud & Quiet confirm their growing appeal hence it is imperative you check these guys out whilst you have the chance.

You can find out more info on the night here and you can get your ticket here.