Culture

This week I had the pleasure of hearing the track ‘Toilet Doorhandles’, an advance release from the Something Quartet’s forthcoming album. Just to fill you in, the Something Quartet are usually a Septet who squash half of Dunedin’s music scene into a band. Bugs is the lead music director of the project and he takes a very quotidian approach to song writing. I caught up with him for a soundbyte:

 “It's a true story. You know when you go for a piss and then you finish and as you're washing your hands, you see someone else walk out of the toilet without washing their hands, and then you go to leave but you have to grab the door handle (the one the other guy just put piss hands all over) to pull the door open to get out. Refuel is a classic example … Why don't they just make push doors? It would be much better.”
   Having had time to ferment, the song is richer than its premise. The opening guitar line and the vocals are reminiscent of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang’. That’s a pretty great place to start. It’s also a little Cat Power-esque in all the right ways and from Sinatra the song graces us with the psychedelia that the Something Quartet enjoy.
   But the Something Quartet are educated musos, and after the preamble in psychedelia they swirl around to deliver aural salts and nutrients. Regardless of genre, this is fucking good and there’s no pretension here, it’s all play. The Something Quartet unassumingly and unconsciously present ‘Toilet Doorhandles’ as an aperitif to what should be one of the most anticipated local releases in 2010/2011 music round.
 
   Get in ahead of time and track down a copy of the Something Quartet’s debut, The Time I Made An Album. And make sure you see them at live shows. Close your eyes, stop thinking, and you will be rewarded.