Black Board Minds
Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia | INDIE
Music
Press
Sometimes the phrase "You can't always judge a book by its cover" is inaccurate, and very much so in the case of the eponymous debut album from BLACK BOARD MINDS.
Just like the artwork, the album is psychedelic, bluesy, and very mellow. You'd be able to enjoy Black Board Minds without illicit substances, but boy would they add to the vibe and experience of this very chilled out album.
'Black Board Minds' is a definite grower of an album, as it takes a few listens to truly settle into the laid-back groove. Once you do, however, the album becomes very easily addictive. It's a truly excellent soundtrack for relaxing Sunday afternoon.
The album is a perfect mix of being undemanding and calm, but also catchy and memorable. It's not psychedelic in a wild 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' way, but more a hazy 'Obscured by Clouds' style.
Because of the general nature of 'Black Board Minds', there's no obvious highlight, but instead it's far easier to just hit play, and enjoy all the way through. Because it only runs for little longer than half an hour, it's even easier to hit repeat and let it run all over again.
In the end, there's nothing too much to say or explain about Black Board Minds, just press play and drink it in. Mix in some fine liquor, and or whatever relaxes your mind, and enjoy.
Black Board Minds, I'm feelin' it.
4 STARS!!!
-Zero Interest - Spaceship News
Black Board Minds are onto a winner with this 8 track mini-album, presented in a seriously sexy little digi-pack which I seriously want to root. Appropriation of psychedelic chic is rife in hipsterdom right now, but this band are the real deal.
Sanity is clearly high on this band’s list of priorities—“I’m not scared of losing my mind!”—but there’s certainly more to the sound than idiots savant and Syd Barrett destinies, as the great riff and charmingly loose Beatlesian vocal harmonies of Who Are You certainly attest.
Much as Black Board Minds is the soundtrack to a lava lamp, it’s important to note that it’s never boring. I cannot see people sitting down on the floor at their shows. - Perth Bands.com - Ben Watson
Tonight I’m at Manning Bar in time to catch most of Black Board Minds. The unsigned Fremantle five piece are obviously having a lot of fun right now. Their influences hark back to the 60s.... They make catchy songs that are reminiscent of a heavier and more blues influenced surf rock. They’re also donating proceeds from sales of their first album to buying instruments for psychiatric patients; something I applaud them enthusiastically for. - Kate Miles, thedwarf.com.au
Tonight I’m at Manning Bar in time to catch most of Black Board Minds. The unsigned Fremantle five piece are obviously having a lot of fun right now. Their influences hark back to the 60s.... They make catchy songs that are reminiscent of a heavier and more blues influenced surf rock. They’re also donating proceeds from sales of their first album to buying instruments for psychiatric patients; something I applaud them enthusiastically for. - Kate Miles, thedwarf.com.au
“It's a truly excellent soundtrack for relaxing Sunday afternoon…The album is a perfect mix of being undemanding and calm, but also catchy and memorable…. Black Board Minds, I'm feelin' it.”
- Zero Interest: spaceshipnews.com
Discography
BLACK BOARD MINDS self-titled Debut Mini Album (2008):
1.My hands
2.Im not scared
3.Train
4.Money man
5.Who are you
6.On my knees
7.letter to god
8.I got a feelin
8 tracks from dirty blues to psychedelic folk. Received great reviews and WAM Song of the Year in the Mental Health category.
The first single from the upcoming album is to be launched 26 November 2011 at Mojo's in Fremantle:
1.Hell with me
2.Wasting away
Photos
Bio
'Interesting’ is perhaps the best way to describe Black Board Minds, as they’re a particularly tonal band. If something sounds great, its genre of origin is irrelevant... the band find a way of working it into their own sound, and convincingly owning it.
Point in case, new single Hell With Me: a dark and catchy pop song at its heart, but one made spectacular by unexpected surf guitar textures, a crooked country swagger and a Morricone gallop. It’s a very pronounced slant, but nothing that feels out of place or forced. It simply makes the song more involving and more interesting.
So whether they are a country band, a surf band, a blues band, or a pop band doesn’t at all matter, because Black Board Minds are open to using whatever it takes to make their songs as powerful to listen to as possible. And, in their five years of existence, their songs have just gotten better and better... more adventurous and more confident.
Following on from their self-titled 2008 debut, Hell With Me and its buddy song Wasting Away are Black Board Minds the studio band, catching up to Black Board Minds the live band... meatier, grittier and unflinchingly delivered. As always, though, the band’s songs have hooks regardless of how they are tarted up because, at the end of the day, these are songs to sing along to. They are songs to dance to.
Based out of the port city of Fremantle, Black Board Minds are part of the WA music community that has produced artists such as Abbe May and Tame Impala... artists who aren't afraid to look outside their own era for inspiration. Musicians who are the utmost music lovers.
So there are sure to be some serious twists and turns when Black Board Minds’ debut album finds its way onto a shiny disc, and as the first taste of things to come, Hell With Me is a sign to put on your seatbelt and get ready.
Links
