Music I've been into lately

I started writing a post for this months ago (featuring depressing winter music) but as one would expect, what I've been listening to has changed since then. Here are half a dozen artists/bands/songs I've been smashing lately during this weird in-between hot-cold-rain-drought summer (alphabetised according to Artist name). I guess my taste is always somewhat dark-ish but there's a bit of a mix of genres etc*

A Place to Bury Strangers - To Fix the Gash in Your Head

So I've been real shit at keeping my to date with music and stuff for at least half a decade or something, I can't believe I hadn't listened to these guys since recently (and as a consequence, missed their Sydney gig earlier this year). No surprise why I like these guys - noisy-as dance-able post-punk with distortion on distortion. That noise. My ears are pretty much never happy unless they feel like they've been strained through a grater. Jokes aside though, these guys are pretty sweet. And I have a strange fixation with drum machines.

Abbe May - Karmageddon

We randomly stumbled upon this badass lady from Perth one bored evening when searching for a gig to go to. She was fantastic live, juggling vocals, guitar and a drum machine with the intermittent help of a guy on saxophone and a sheep skull. Interesting mix of electronic elements with a dark blues rock-influenced songwriting style (especially evident in some of her older stuff, I think). I vaguely remember one of her songs mentioning kicking out her old drummer and replacing them with a drum machine because they didn't believe she had it in her to make it as a musician - and to that, I say a big "fuck yeah!"

Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love

Spent a night last month dancing in the rain to sweet tunes while Florence Welch pranced around the stage like a possessed elf. It was fantastic. She was a fantastic performer, and really brought this song to life  in a way that even this melodramatic music video can't. Before the song, she told a story about how she wrote this song while in the throes of one of the worst hangovers of her life. This song is one of the most beautiful takes on the pain of being in love, and makes me feel ashamed about my hangovers in comparison, where my productivity generally comes in the form of puke.

Goat - Hide From the Sun

Saw these guys live a couple of days ago. It was amazing. I don't even have the words to describe. Who can say no to a weird masked psychedelic Swedish artists' collective led by a guy called Mr Goatman who is supposedly a member of a commune under a voodoo curse?

Sleater-Kinney - New Wave

Combining two of my loves - Bob's Burgers and riot grrrl! And soon to be joined by another one of my loves (hi Melissa!), who I'm going to see these guys with in Feb (reliving our teenage BDO days haha). So much excite! Admittedly, it's been years since I've given these guys a proper listen, so I've been dusting off (digital) albums I haven't listened to much since high school, as well as giving their new album a spin. The only thing that disappoints about their new stuff is that it has much less of Corin's banshee screeching, which I felt gave their angrier stuff more sense of urgency.

Anyway, five is enough for now.

*Who am I kidding? I only ever listen to alt rock >_<