Round-up This Week In New Music (21st June 2014)

Neu looks back on the past seven days of new music, with highlights from Broods and Deers.

Words: Jamie Milton
21st June 2014

The collective age of those mentioned in this week’s new music round-up is probably around the 160 mark. If you consider that equates at least 8 people, all in their late teens, early twenties, collectively making some of the most exciting new music on the planet, there’s likely to be a pang of regret about not picking up a guitar and getting a Bandcamp account when you turned 14. If you happen to still be of age to make a go of things, follow in the footsteps of siblings Broods - who made a go of it by writing earnest, direct pop - or best friends Deers (pictured) - who grew up on Ty Segall and made homemade videos on webcams. The lesson taught below is that any chancers who put themselves in the spotlight, so long as they’re themselves and don’t give into self-restraint, are capable of getting the goods.

Here’s the best of what happened this week in new music:

TRACK OF THE WEEK:
Broods - Mother & Father

Every aspect in New Zealand duo Broods’ journey so far has been documented in song. ‘Coattails’ - the final song on their head-turning debut EP - was about being swept up in the major label business and having to make big decisions. Its de-facto follow-up ‘Mother & Father’ tangles itself up in similar themes, but it’s more personal.

Considering the family connection, it’d be understandable if Broods didn’t want to emphasise the fact that they’re siblings in a band. It’s an overdone angle, a story that’s been heard before and distracts from the music. But together on ‘Mother & Father’ they express this connection with brilliant honesty. “As faces start to fade, they’re slipping through my hands,” sings Georgia Nott, aware of the air miles that separate her settled past and glitzy, whirlwind future. On Lorde’s debut album, she sang earnestly about leaving home and jet-setting off for bigger things, way before she even ended up being a Massive Deal. Broods are going for a similar thing, and there’s a similar inevitably in their eventual stardom.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
Deers - Bamboo

Madrid band Deers recorded ‘Bamboo’ in one (seemingly drunken) take. Ana Garcia Perrote and Carlotta Cosials spend every second trying to shout over each other and get one last gasp into the microphone. It’s a strung-out homage to all-out shouting, a testimony to all things rowdy. Their video is no different - in fact, it’s even more intense. Recorded in one day in both Barcelona and their home city, it sees Perrote and Cosials doing exactly the same as in the studio - fighting for space. They spill over each other while on bikes and sofas, tearing down city streets like they own the place. The dynamic of Deers works because both its songwriters are desperate to get the last word, so they end up rambling, interrupting and generally making themselves the most exciting, endearing new band around.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:
Wand

Newly signed to Drag City, Wand are quite possibly the rudest, most forthright strand of psych music to have emerged since Aussie stragglers Pond’s weirdest thoughts. The LA band are technically inked up with Ty Segall’s God? Records, and both acts share a certain kinship in thrashing the hell out chainsaw guitar sections. All emphasis on the epic, latest track ‘Flying Golem’ is a forthright, disturbingly harsh introduction. Nostalgia runs through their veins - think Temples with a few used cigarettes tucked into their ‘fros - but somehow, this sounds like a brilliantly terrifying future.

Tags: Broods, Features, Neu