Beaches Myspace

MP3: The Sky Was White

BEACHES ALBUM LAUNCH DATES:

MELBOURNE: Saturday Nov 29 @ Northcote Social Club w/- Circle Pit and Lindsay Low hand
Tickets are available online, via box office on 9486 1677, or in person at 301 High St Northcote

SYDNEY: Thursday Dec 4 @ Hopetoun Hotel w/- Circle Pit and The Garbage & the Flowers
Tickets at the door.

BRISBANE: Friday March 6 @ Summer Tones, The Zoo @ w/ Dan Deacon, High Places, Lawrence Arabia, Beaches and Ruby Suns.

Also playing MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: Friday December 12

“It’s fuzz, it’s savage wah wah, it’s ripping beats, kinda 60s but with a progressive punk vibe and a little wigged-out Crazy Horse action. It’s a lot of things but most importantly it’s their own unique thing… a beautiful searching sound.” - RHYTHMS MAGAZINE

“A paean to freedom and knowing its truth, Beaches’ debut is a powerful, sex-driven record smacking of Stooges greatness… Full points.” - THREE THOUSAND

The debut self titled album by Beaches is a journey into the sublime. Twelve songs born out of sprawling jams, chiselled into rough-diamond perfection, laden with cosmic guitar stretches, vast textures, conjuring voices and phantom frequencies. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, the five women of Beaches have created a psych-rock epic, steeped in the imagery of the natural and temporal world.

Beaches was born of humble intentions, an unmeditated dialogue between friends fuelled by the joy of playing together. After nine months of occasional jams, the band played their first show in October 2007 and have since built an avid following for their trancelike, sonic overdrive live shows.

Beaches are Antonia Sellbach (Love of Diagrams) on guitar and vocals, Alison Bolger (Panel of Judges) on guitar and vocals, Ali McCann on guitar and vocals, Gill Tucker (Spider Vomit) on bass and vocals and Karla Way on drums and vocals. The album was recorded by Jack Farley in Melbourne and mastered by Bob Weston in Chicago and features songwriting by all five band members.

The band’s communal creative processes are collaborative and intuitive, a shared stream of consciousness and subconsciousness which allows each member’s textural layers and sonic harmonics to emerge and merge into the whole. The stylistic shades reflect the shared musical loves of Beaches, from 1960s hit parades to 1970s psychedelia, shoegaze to prog, southern boogie to krautrock. Yet Beaches transcend their influences to create something wholly new. Partly inspired by naturist poetry, the lyrics are almost entirely based in nature; the only manmade objects appearing on the album are a mansion, a car, and an arrow.

The music of Beaches swells. It ebbs. It is already swept away on the next high tide.

Three Thousand review:

A paean to freedom and knowing its truth, Beaches’ debut is a powerful, sex-driven record smacking of Stooges greatness. Edgeless and heavy, freely oscillating through song forms, and everything done with never-ending feel; Beaches are classic musicians’ musicians - light on nothing stupid and heavy on the rest. And so they are on record; freely eliciting that strange and wonderful feeling of having lost something you didn’t know you had… of the cosmic unknown… or of simple, druggy-good summer heights. Confirming what live audiences have known for the better part of this year, this inspired quintet hold mantle to Melbourne’s rare history of hedonistically talented groups.

The general tip is swirling, hazy and toned as fabric. Extended, three-way guitar weaves draw in and out of focus as halcyon Super-8 from The Year That Punk Broke. Songs like ‘The Rip’, and ‘Eternal Sphere’ lay down with Scientists‘ ‘you’re a goner’ release - giving up absolutely to erotic death-drive riffing, guitars turn to Neapolitan chrome. ‘Horizon’ is like ‘We Will Fall’ off The Stooges’ first record - a deep, purple risk taken early and trounced; a perfectly administered danger with backwards guitar, Brian Hooper-heavy bass, bare wah licks and all-band chanting. ‘Vikings’ shows Beaches as Omen force - sped-up, noise gushing from all walls - and closer ‘Field of Dreams’ sets the art coda new standards. Full points.

By Mark Gomes

From JMag by Zan Rowe:

From Rhythms magazine:

Inpress live review (Flip Out Festival):

Beaches altered the flow of things and, in the process, told us how it was. Their music proved a refreshing break from the four-chord assault we’d been blessed with for most of the night. In creating a textural type of guitar vastness, Beaches let their guitars do the talking and their instrumental bravery paid off big time. Awesome use of reverb almost created an extra player as the ladies took us meandering into a very different experience.

From Groupie magazine:

From the Herald Sun:

Mess + Noise review:

Last night I thought of Beaches, the movie starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. It was the first time I had thought of that movie since Beaches the band started going, which made me love the band even more. Apologies to Bette and Barbara, but Beaches are the new Beaches: Ali, Alison, Antonia, Karla and Gill.

The other night Beaches played a show. It was the fourth for them and the first time for me. People I trust said it ruled. It certainly did and I’ve seen a lot of rock shows. Four blondes, one brunette, three guitars, one bass plus drums, producing better indie rock than almost any man I have ever known — not an important comment, just a passing one.

Three of Beaches’ four blondes play in celebrated, yet arguably inferior rock groups (Love of Diagrams, Spider Vomit, Panel of Judges). Probably premature to compare them to the mighty Panel, even though both bands churn out a sticky melodic juju that’s hard to find and even harder to resist: a potion of vixen rhythms and diamond-light guitar strokes. At the Public Bar, the instrumentals rocked finest. ‘Sandy’, punctuated by Gary Glitter-y yelps, is the obvious cut for half-time at the MCG, though I doubt Beaches would agree philosophically, it would make them revoltingly rich!

After years of studying her former beau, Paul, in action for Panel of Judges, Karla Way has made her drumming debut. It’s like a version of Karate Kid III with Paul as Pat Morita and Karla as Hillary Swank with far more interesting results. Karla drums just like Charlie Watts!

I hesitate to make comparisons with other bands, especially after only seeing them once, plus my memory is hazy, ah what the hell, The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You tour circa ’81 (see I told you). My wish is that someday there will only be two types of people in this world, ones who know Beaches the movie and the ones who know Beaches the band and the ones who only know Beaches the movie will have to get their heads examined.

by Shane Moritz