For years Dinosaur City Records have been providing Sydney with a consistent stream of live shows, releases and mixtapes showcasing the best underground music Australia has to offer. In the last year alone, you have them to thanks for brilliant records from Sunscreen, Spike Vincent, and Cody Munro Moore, not to mention a host of others.
Today sees the release of Dinosaur City Records Mixtape #3, another brilliantly curated amalgam of everything DCR is all about. Featuring the likes of Mezko, Bored Shorts, Greenwave Beth and plenty of similar talent, it’s one of the label’s hottest compilations to date.
To celebrate the release, we caught up with Cody and Jordanne from the DCR team, asking them to run through a couple of the mixtape’s standout tracks.
Raw, spirited, and pulsing with individuality, Dinosaur City Records Mixtape #3 encapsulates everything there is to love about the Aussie DIY scene.
Navy Gangs – Jk Not
JORDANNE: I first heard this track when I was in New York back in 2015. I was stuck without accommodation and Cody and Nick from Big White put me in contact with this band who they’d played some shows with when they were in New York. I ended up going to one of their gigs at Berlin and this song stuck with me.
It seems to be about not wanting to be with someone, but not wanting to be alone. I didn’t hear it again until March this year when we saw the band play at SXSW. I love (singer) Matt Tillwick’s falsetto. We’re releasing their whole album here in Australia in August.
No Local – Stations of the Cross
CODY: I love this song so much. The first time I heard it I had to go back and just listen to it over and over again only so I could sing along half mumbling in the chorus, “stations of the cross, past the beach, past the rocks it was quiet there at dusk”.
Snowy works this track brilliantly. The ideas are simple, but the layers of it all are haunting and hidden, showing themselves sometimes even weeks later.
Monica Sottile – I Wanted
CODY: Monica’s song has an ability to place you walking solo across a large moor. It’s misty and it has that sense of falling rain, you’re not exactly alone but you’re getting closer to it. One of my favourite artists to be coming out of Brisbane right now and forever.
Bourgeoise Earth – Cockroach
JORDANNE: Bourgeoise Earth is the solo project of Nicholas Griffith (Big White, High-tails). Nick’s got a knack for writing simple-yet-strong pop songs. I’m generally not one for chipmunk-like vocal effects, but Nick makes it work.
The song sets off with a vaguely eerie feel (it’s about cockroaches, after all… or is it? – it’s somewhat hard to decipher the lyrics in this one). The thumping bass and drums loop for most of the track, with synths and vocals that build it into something real fun.
Solo Career – In 2 It
CODY: Solo Career is just that, the solo career of Annabelle Blackman. “I became into in 2 it”, it is true. A slow burner like a stick of incense, it has an aura around it. It keeps folding the layers, wrapping the listener up while never lifting the veil in the process. Only Solo Career can do that to you.
Real Love – Gutter
JORDANNE: Real Love are a five-piece band from Melbourne, made up of members from Babey, Spike Fuck, Lalic, Atrocities and The Dave O’Connor Band. I think this was one of the first songs we were sent for the compilation by our friend Janae who also plays in Babey.
The track bursts and hits out with this wavering kind of shimmer. While words like “cinematic” and “orchestral” get thrown a lot in rock music reviews, I feel this track has earned the two as descriptors.
Tuffence Meringue – Tender
CODY: This is the solo project of Sophie McComish, and it’s a very soothing track. The vocals have this effect to return to your thoughts at the most mundane times of public transport.
I’ve found myself multiple times staring out the window of a bus with the sun in my eyes, going “ah ah ah-ah ah” (terribly). There is a hypnotic effect that the song takes, and it is within this state that you’ll have to return again.
Mares – Aeroplane Mode
JORDANNE: Mares are another great act from Melbourne. A friend sent me this track well after the official cut-off date for the tape. Fortunately there had been some delays with mastering the comp as a whole, so this one made it on!
It’s one of those dark, brooding tracks that grows on you more and more, listen after listen. They’re releasing their album on June 9 at a ~secret location~ in Melbourne. If you’re in town, you should go!
Grab your copy of Dinosaur City Records Mixtape #3 here, and be sure to head along to the official launch this Saturday at Marrickville Bowlo. Tickets and details available on the Facebook event.
