After a string of appetite-whetting singles over the past year or so, Melbourne sextet Cool Sounds have just released their eagerly-anticipated debut record Dance Moves.
Ten tracks of intertwined guitar/saxophone melodies and vocals smuggling genuinely arresting pop hooks, it’s already on our shortlist as one of our favourite albums of the year. The band have run us through each of the tracks – tongues planted firmly in cheeks.
The album is out now through Deaf Ambitions, and the band kick off their national album launch tour tomorrow night at their label showcase.
June 25th: Deaf Ambitions x Spunk Records label showcase, Melbourne
July 8th: The Phoenix, Canberra
July 9th: The Union Hotel, Sydney
July 15th: Barwon Club, Geelong
July 22nd: The Tote, Melbourne
July 29th: The Eastern, Ballarat
July 30th: The Metro, Adelaide
August 13th: Sonic Masala Fest, Brisbane
Control
Australiana is one of those buzz words that I have never really ‘got’. Gudinski, Sony, and some other industry big wigs seem scared of ‘it’. I guess I can relate to that because it is easy to be scared of things you don’t understand.
Shake
This initially came about from a guitar part Steve wrote years ago. I was trying to write a song with a big chorus, complete with ‘oooh’s and these uplifting chords, which was totally inspired by this stupid super-teen-pop Bruno Mars song I was listening to too much at the time. I couldn’t remember how the song went when it was time to record but that didn’t seem to matter?
In Blue Skies
Heaps of different people played on this track, but when it was time for Snowy to mix it he deleted them all. He replaced all of their parts with bongos, then deleted all the bongos and we had to record it again. I would still use him again though, because he is a good friend.
Runs Wild
The film clip to this song features a girl dancing and a dog watching. Even though the film clip was made months after the song, I feel like the song was really written about the film clip. Or is that just the mark of a good film clip?
Nervousness
Everyone feels different emotions, and I think it is important in some way to rank these. I think ‘jealousy’ is very powerful and has taken down kingdoms. We should try and learn from history so we do not make the same mistakes twice.
Heartbreak
I really like that song ‘Inside Out’ On the latest Spoon album. One of those songs where a guitar band goes electric for one song on the album. Usually they turn out pretty bad, but this is by far the best song on that album. So maybe Spoon should become DJs?
Dance Moves
The music for ‘Dance Moves’ was written and demoed very early on, based around some bass riffs Steve wrote – very un-Cool-Sounds in sound. We joked that it could be the soundtrack to cruising down the beach in a sweet Jeep.
Patina
It’s interesting how almost all of our lives are made up of ones and zeroes. People are always connected to their devices, but what they don’t realise is that they are just seeing an aesthetically pleasing interface whose task is to hide the raw data behind its smart use of material design and pleasing colours.
Rinsed
Nick from the Pinnacle kicked in the doors to the studio and demanded that Sticky Fingers finish whatever bullshit mix of laid back coastal funk and reggae they were working on, so he could quickly do this one. Turned out good.
Overg8
The boss of our label, Erin, said that if we didn’t tone down the rock, he would bury this album so deep it would never see the light of day. Katie did singing on it and it turned out good.
