Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

These guys are unfairly good. I hope they never write a slow song.

Saw them tonight. I've mostly seen metal shows the past decade but this was glorious. Three guitars, harmonies and alternating vocals. They were SO into it, nice to see a band that's not worn out or jaded yet. Before first encore the only place for them to go was outside (no backstage), where there were apocalyptic thunderstorms. They said it was "beautiful" but they'll just go ahead and get back to playing.

Nice! I'm going next week in Brooklyn. I can't wait.

They were so great. This band is ridiculously good.

New track last week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2usB-nCwc

Seeing them in London tonight, v glad to hear good things about the live shows.

Have fun! I think you'll enjoy the show. Air Conditioned Man is yet another excellent song. It takes a couple listenings to sink in, but if it's any indication, the album will be great.

I unfortunately missed their DC show. Kinda jaded about rock bands, but like this group

"An Air Conditioned Man" is ridiculously compelling for some reason. Not sure I've ever before returned to a Youtube clip so many times in a week.

Yes they are very good.
Jnagle pop classic.

great guitarist too.

they have three great guitarists

https://www.subpop.com/news/2018/06/06/rolling_blackouts_coastal_fever_share_the_hammer_and_announce_us_tour_dates_hope_downs_out_next_week_on_sub_pop

So good and unpretentious.
The hooks,the melody,the guitars. Perfect.

The record is out and unsuprisingly it's great. AOTY as they say..

how can this band be so good

Yes..

The first e.p sounds like they've alredy been around for ages.

WHOOSH, this album is just so thrillingly fine. I have to see them live in October.

The album is good.

Good is this album

Oh man I can't wait!

Saw them in Camden last month and had been really excited but it really put me off them tbh. Dunno whether it was a heaving venue full of aussie blokes, but they felt a bit boorish, there was no space in the music, they almost felt like a jam band, patiently taking turns for their solos. Was hoping for something elliptical, cryptic to them, but the Go Betweens influence seems pretty superficial.

The album makes me think War on Drugs way more than Go Betweens and that wasn't the case with the earlier stuff.

and better than WOD!

I thought about WOD too. But RBCF are Better indeed. If only because they don't take themselves so seriously and don't suffer from pretentiousness.

These guys seem to have one too many band names in their band name(?)

first release was as Rolling Blackouts, but apparently an american band of the same name objected, so they added CF.

pissed i missed seeing them earlier this year. think i slightly prefer the first ep.

― mizzell, Thursday, October 19, 2017 6:26 AM (seven months ago)

They should’ve rebranded as the Rolling, I dunno, “Stones”

listening to the new one for the first time right now. initial thoughts: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - the best band since the smiths

Saw them in Camden last month and had been really excited but it really put me off them tbh. Dunno whether it was a heaving venue full of aussie blokes, but they felt a bit boorish, there was no space in the music, they almost felt like a jam band, patiently taking turns for their solos. Was hoping for something elliptical, cryptic to them, but the Go Betweens influence seems pretty superficial.

Will give this a spin though.

LOL. Two things can be true. We are all desperate for a good indie rock band, and RBCF would be fantastic no matter when they came out.

Really nice album, but two songs -"Talking Straight" and "Mainland" - are just 'amazing wowwow holy shit' good

This strikes me as a very “Sub Pop” band/record.

Surprised to be getting "Creation/Sarah/Subway/etc guitar bands circa 1987" sort of vibes from some of the new tracks.

It sounds like a slightly peppier Real Estate.

this is really good. i also noticed the real estate chord struck. fanatical midtempoism and maybe guitar tone. also similar, even when a couple of songs are inevitably slight or underwritten, they just sound good. first 5 songs are cap g Great, little spotty after that but still some keepers particularly the closer.

I came to the conclusion the e.p's were better

Same.

Don't get me wrong though- the record is pretty great. But...

Yeah EPs are better but they are still a great band and will make much more excellent music.

I wish Time In Common was longer. Definitely my favorite song on Hope Downs.

I like "Air-Conditioned Man" and the somewhat atypical "Cappuccino City" more than anything on the EPs. Such that I even bought a physical copy, which virtually never happens.

they felt a bit boorish, there was no space in the music...
Everything bled over the top of everything else so that each song was practically indistinguishable...“are we that desperate for a good indie rock band in 2018 that we’re salivating over THAT?

I'm excited to see supremely b***y comments like this, because I believe it means the band has arrived! They may not be making any magazine covers or headlining festivals within the year, but it's a start. I think the album is an improvement over the EPs. They are touring hard too, doing their second North American tour of the year this fall. When I saw them in April, the sound was crystal clear, plenty of separation. It was a small room with great acoustics. Perhaps the venues had shit sound? Or, since guitars have been so fashionable in pop and indie for a while, some brains aren't used to processing all the multiple tones snaking from three guitars?

http://fastnbulbous.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/rbcf-schubas-2018-05-02.png

"Sisters Jeans" and "How Long?" just sit there. Often their sound is so attractive that I mistake it for songs. I listen to "Bellarine," "Talking Straight," and "Cappuccino City" all the time, though.

i love sisters jeans! conversely, that's exactly how i feel about bellarine, which could've been a great song with a bit more work on it, but as it is is mostly raw materials

I love Sisters Jeans and Bellarine. Conversely, that's how I feel about How Long and Cappuccino City.

clearly the takeaway here is there is something for everyone, and they ought to have done better with how long

...and added a couple minutes to Time in Common.

you're not talking straight!

"There's fire in the west, I never did my best"

This lyrics ruin the song foe me

I only listen to songs 1-4,8,10 from the LP. Time in Common is thr best indeed. More post punk than pop. When they are less sugar-y they are beteer

Agreed re "How Long?". I'm increasingly skipping that now.

"Exclusive Grave"--the one track I haven't seen mentioned by name--is quite attractive. A rare instance where I can actually hear the Go-Betweens vibe alleged in most reviews.

Is that the one that sounds a bit like "Secondhand Furniture"?

If ILM has lost interest in this band then I sense, three listens in, that Endless Rooms will not be the LP to win folks back.

The second half remains an undifferentiated cloud of reverberating guitars and mostly moderate tempos. It's not unpleasant, at least. Admittedly their records rarely make much of an impression on me till 4 months later anyway. I mean, they'd largely unveiled the first half already and I've only just come around to "The Way it Shatters". Though having typed that, "Caught Low" and "Blue Eye Lake" are suddenly feeling like pretty immediate earworms, if hazy ones. I guess I'll try to decipher the lyrics in the fullness of time. Lucky they've virtually the only current guitar band I'm this persistent with lol!

This is quite illuminating:

https://www.stereogum.com/2185502/rolling-blackouts-coastal-fever-endless-rooms/interviews/footnotes-interview/

It's becoming one of my favourite sorts of the records. Ones where I have no idea whether I actually like it, but feel compelled to keep listening repeatedly in order definitively settle it. Maybe I'll arrive at an answer and then won't need to listen any more, either way lol. The haziness of the second half is kinda sorta appealing now, at least.

The Spotify algorithm keeps choosing "Julie's Place" and then the Twerps, when the album concludes, as if to illustrate that they don't actually sound especially like that song these days, nor terribly much like old-school Melb dole-wave etc.

I'm digging this one quite a bit. I can see what you are saying about the second half, but the first half sucks me in so thoroughly that I'm enjoying the ride.

Thanks for the link, I really want to hear the 8-minute version of "Open Up Your Window" though, that's one of my favorites.

these guys should really take up the art of the 10 minute jam

they have a number of songs that remind me of shoegaze with less volume and more jangle, they could totally lean into that

Anybody know what's up with these guys? Haven't updated Instagram in almost two years now and no new action on their website. Could use a new album from them soon!

I was wondering the same thing. Last week I randomly pulled out the first two EPs. Love 'em both.

Heard nothing for a few years, then 3 or 4 months ago someone posted an instagram story of them rehearsing, but I've heard nothing. Felt like there was a drop-off in quality on the last two albums so some time to regroup might have been useful. Also imagine there's a lot of sitting and considering when you don't really break out like it felt they might after French Press.

It does feel faintly ominous to deliver 3 longplayers in barely 4 years and then nothing, release-wise, for 3.

Despite my "not sure I'm feeling this" jibber-jabber above (ugh, wish one could delete posts) the notion of more RBCF is appealing right now.

They have in fact performed in recent weeks, including some new tracks.

eg. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rolling-blackouts-coastal-fever/2025/thornbury-bowls-clubs-melbourne-australia-734f0e85.html

On November 2nd they returned to Instagram and posted - Hi friends, we’re back… been a minute, did we miss anything?

They announced one gig as a benefit for Palestine Australia Relief and Action (PARA)

New single! It rules, imo. Hope this means a new album announcement soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYY97d_Zgvc

Haha, I saw that billboard somewhere but I had no idea what it referred to. (Probably not in person. Maybe an unexplained Stella Donnelly photo?!?)

Vibe of the song reminds me a little of "Read My Mind" which is no bad thing IMHO.

Did he just sing "Caroline springs eternal" lol? A+ suburb pun if so.

I woke up with "Sunburned" cycling endlessly through my brain this morning. Wouldn't have guessed I'd heard it enough for that!