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FEATURE ARTIST: City Calm Down

4 April 2012 | 11:00 am | Staff Writer

This Melbourne four-piece make music which can truly be called experimental, without the constraints of any genre to impede upon their music.

Attention Sneakerphiles: I know that a lot of you are young adults who have taken the responsible post-secondary school life path of binge drinking and culture excess that many call tertiary ‘study’, and if you’re making the most of your student debt, that means you’re just now settling into prescribed readings, the doldrums of repetitive equations, and a general sense of ennui.

While I am no longer a member of the tertiary system, but now of Australia’s proud workforce, let me tell ya, it ain’t that much better. (Note: If my supervisor happens to be reading this by some cruel twist of fate…shit joke -- I love my job. Please don’t fire me.)

You know what gets me through the day (aside from news of the Anchorman sequel and my filthy, dirty speculative daydreams about the impending Splendour line-up)?

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CITY CALM DOWN, an experimental four-piece from Melbourne. They’ve shared the stage with Friendly Fires, Kimbra, and Last Dinosaurs, to name just a few, and opened the main stage at Good Vibrations Melbourne. More importantly, they’re now lodged deeply in my heart, alongside Community's Abed and baby chameleons.

So here’s the thing about City Calm Down:

Their tracks start off slow and thoughtful, in melancholy fashion, and build to emphatic, joyful climaxes (oo-er, that’s a bit cheeky). I don’t want to get too emotional here, because emotions are for tossers, but each of City Calm Down’s songs take you on a lyrical, musical, and emotional journey.

What’s so rare and so exciting about City Calm Down for me is that they’re one of the few self-described “experimental” bands bumping around right now that’s actually, y’know, experimental. There’s a joy in their music that’s unrestrained and uninhibited by self-imposed limitations. It’s exciting to hear a band so unafraid to go for it.

With an arsenal of glowing live reviews to their name (if you don’t believe me, check their website), it’s evident that same joy of creation and energy combines with the electronic aspect of their music to create a dynamic atmosphere, drawing the crowd in, and forcing all those in earshot to bump and/or grind. Who doesn’t love to shake and shimmy? (Answer: sadists. I know we’re all indie and super hip, but that doesn’t mean we have to be sadists, guys.)

Luckily for you, you can experience experimental ecstasy – the emotional kind, not the illegal kind – at CANT SAY in Melbourne on April 6th. They’ve also got a spate of shows upcoming in Melbourne.

Listen to 'Dare' below:

TOUR DATES:

6 April - CANT SAY

Cant Say Nightclub [now at Banana Alley, don’t forget!], Melbourne VIC

8 April w/ Strange Talk

Mentone Hotel, Mentone VIC

Liberty Social Club, Melbourne VIC