WILSN & L.R. Marsh

The artists worth checking out at cult music venue Pistol Pete’s Food n Blues

Celebrating the release of her debut album, Those Days Are Over, Melbourne’s WILSN (Shannon Busch) is heading to Geelong as part of her Australian tour, performing at Pistol Pete’s on Saturday 15 April.

Those Days Are Over has all the hallmarks of an instant classic. The record features singles ‘Those Days Are Over’ and ‘Hurts So Bad’, a duet with The Teskey Brothers’ frontman Josh Teskey. Other singles such as ‘Tell Me’ featured on Spotify US’s ‘Best Retro Songs of 2022’, while ‘You Know Better’ and ‘If You Wanna Love Me’ ooze with the sound, the feel and all the emotion of classic soul.

“Soul music never goes out of fashion because it’s pure,” WILSN describes. “It’s all about a great melody, a great beat and harmony that moves you and makes you feel something. In today’s landscape of artists trying so hard to do something different often for the sake of being different, it’s nice to just engage with the human voice in an unadulterated way.”

Two weeks later, on Saturday 29 April, Brisbane’s blues rock multi-instrumentalist and one-man-band L.R. Marsh will take to the venue following the success of his 2021 studio album Inside Outlines

Capturing the heart and soul of early 20th-century delta blues and delivering it through raw slide guitar work on a classic steel resonator and cigar box guitar, L.R. Marsh lands in the 21st century with multiple guitar amps, earth-shaking guitar tones, and thundering foot drum grooves. Classics such as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson are apparent in L.R’s sound, however, it is the foot-stomping wall-of-sound that really demands attention onstage.

Were you craving more? Eddy & the Exciters will take you on a joyride of blues harp-infused rocking good times on Saturday 8 April, Jay Howie brings his earthy, rootsy blend of rock and traditional acoustic blues on Saturday 22 April, and powerful singer-songwriter Nathan Seeckts who will be celebrating the first single from his forthcoming record on Saturday 6 May.

Find tickets and more gigs at www.pistolpetesfoodnblues.com.au

With two EPs already released in just two years of their history as a band, Telenova has a cohort of listeners that is growing exponentially.

Made up of Angeline Armstrong, Edward Quinn and Joshua Moriarty, the multi-instrumentalist expertise of Ed (Slum Sociable) and Josh (Miami Horror) paired with the hypnotising vocals and occasional guitar playing of Ange has proven to be a combination nothing short of enthralling.

Despite the creative collaboration still being in its infantile stages, at least from the perspective of time, the band seem to get along like they have been mates for years. In an interview they passed around a box of vita-wheats, sitting in the house studio of band member Josh and cracking jokes and bouncing off each other in an infectious way.

After churning out their two richly filled EPs they are preparing to record and release their debut LP, with a date purposely left unspecified.

“We have been working on a debut album,” says Ange. “And most of the songs that have made the final cut for what we plan to record have come in the last 12 months. We all have different influences and spread the songwriting process among the three of us.

“We trust each other. Someone can leave the session one day because they might be really zapped and exhausted and whoever remains can keep working away at a track.”

The ultimate decision on which tracks to record is a process that due to perennially writing music has become somewhat easier for all the band members. The band has learnt what to look for in a track in the preliminary stages of its life.

“As you write more and more you can get better at recognising what is going to work and what isn’t”, says Ed. “So, if a track isn’t sounding like it would fit well on the album you move on to the next one.

“With that in mind, we will start an idea with the intention of finishing it but realise that we might need to move on at any stage. We really just keep on making songs all the time. Which is made easier because we all like hanging out with each other and writing music together. It’s not a chore to write music together. If something has some energy to it, we will pursue it and try to sculpt it into a track that we want to release.”

However, despite the correlation between writing more and understanding their own creative process, the band agree that a polished and refined finished product should be paramount regarding their debut album.