I was about to start this article by saying “there are so many great songs named for elements of the periodic table”, and then all I could think of was Lithium (this one, of course) and Twilight at Carbon Lake – and that last one is kinda pushing it in being named after an element. Nevertheless, that rather unimpressive list of songs is growing steadily, with the release of Iodine, a killer little single from Melbourne’s Sagamore, which we’re very proud to present to you, fresh outta the box.
More great stuff from Sagamore. We’re proud to double drop the audio and the video for the Melbourne 5 piece today, only on Happy!
Sagamore are a five piece out of Melbourne, who have brought a rather soulful, bluesy vibe to the traditional clean, lazy Melbourne sound. Their self titled EP, Sagamore was firmly grounded in Australian pop, at times touching on alt-country in a similar fashion to fellow Victorians East Brunswick All Girls Choir, if perhaps leaning more towards Wilco than Neil Young. That’s a compliment by the way – I enjoy Wilco.
Iodine, taken from their upcoming EP Longer, follows only vaguely in these footsteps, moving the whirling keys back in the mix (for the most part) and painting the guitars with a quick coat of reverberation. It’s still effortlessly cool, and the extra production sheen has brought the band’s songwriting to the fore – hella simple lyrics but a refrain that finds itself in your head and claims squatters rights, refusing to leave until ejected by reasonable force. A few minutes of No Age generally does it for me.
Alongside this awesome single, Sagamore are also dropping a video at the same time, which is super convenient for you crazy kids these days who use YouTube as a music player. Seriously, just torrent the album like the rest of us, it’s not that hard.
The black and white clip was directed by local Footscray City film students led by Sam Millar, over two whole days. Employing the dancing, modelling and amazingly named Maximus Po as the star of the film clip, it was shot in various rooms around the bass player’s house. It’s a strange discrepancy and duality between the dancing and the music, and I’m not yet entirely convinced it works. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool and she’s a real good dancer, but I get the feeling that there’s something artistic to be said, but my brain might just be too plebean for me to realise what it is. Give me abstracted, effected footage of a white horse in a muddy field any day.
The Longer EP will be out later this year via Flightless/Remote Control, and you can catch the band perform alongside The Church, Hiatus Kayote and… uhh Tripod at this year’s Queenscliff Music Festival, Nov 28 – 30.
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