Priory Dolls

Luckily, some waves came in the form of quintet The Priory Dolls. The Priory Dolls have always been carrying around with them a slew of well-written, folk-esque pop songs, laced with leathered lyrics of wisdom. However, this particular performance saw them arming their dark and moody tunes with an aggression. The Priory Dolls bring together a mix of whirlwind keyboard and distorted duel-guitars, and the use of their drummer is far more positively abrasive than ever before. Three years ago this band as a support for Die! Die! Die! would have been an unusual choice, but now they're perfectly different. - au review

A long-running Melbourne operation – at least by the hectic standards of said city – The Priory Dolls have pulled a mild surprise by outlasting their own initial image, growing into a more substantive band, and coming out the other end with a quality debut full length under their belt. Said full length, Suddenly, At The Priory, is a cohesive statement by a band that has taken the time to figure itself out.

Having started off as something of a glamour-puss indie concern, The Priory Dolls have evolved towards a sort of post-Drones gutbucket blues-rock. Like Melbourne peers the East Brunswick All-Girls Choir, they bleed that distinctive sound of its slightly hokey Australiana associations. The Priory Dolls live in a world not of convicts and small-town boredom, but a world of inner suburban ennui, forged prescriptions, tough talk and bad vibes. Unlike EBAGC, they stir in some keyboards and some more adventurous guitar textures

The Priory Dolls specialise in foreboding; Jeremy Mair’s lyrics are suffused with late night/early morning ambivalence, exhaustion and paranoia. Mair’s possesses a gentle, rounded warble with a strange neutrality to it that, when set against the violent squalls that pass across the album, sound like a reporter on location, reporting on the carnage. A characteristic line appears early on in the opening title track, “Our infection’s spread to every corner, and filled up every crack, I see my own dumb panic in the eyes of every rat.”

Mair’s delivery works both for and against The Priory Dolls. It ensures that Mair never sounds so pleased with himself as to be unlikeable – a common issue amongst chroniclers of debauchery – but it leaves him sounding too dispassionate to evoke much of a response in the listener at times.

The band themselves are guilty of exacerbating this effect by providing rather by-the-numbers accompaniments for Mair’s tales; there are moments of excitement, particularly provided by Rory Lampitt’s deranged-sounding lead guitar breaks, but there are too many songs where everyone just slips into a groove and strums away. The album’s highlights all feature something, some sonic element that lifts them out of this mid-tempo danger zone. Riddles And Bones sees The Priory Dolls stripping right back to a pastoral, organ-led lilt, allowing Mair plenty of space to deliver his romantic lament, hinging on the chorus; you took me to the mountaintop, and you left me in the cold.

Likewise, Not One Second is essentially a Lampitt spotlight; his angular lead guitar gatecrashes the chorus, and commandeers an entire verse, as the rhythm section provide an atypical Stone Roses-like groove. The sparseness of the groove actually adds to the sense of impending violence, whereas Get Your Wizard On sees the band going full throttle, but coming off a little cartoonish. Still, the second verse features the classic line, “Johnny pulls out a handful of knuckles of and bunches them into a fist”, amongst many other nuggets.

For all the flaws though, this is still a debut album, and one gets the feeling that The Priory Dolls will only get better from here. Already though, Mair is a hell of a lyricist, and the band are capable of playing with real fire. These two factors alone make Suddenly, At The Priory a worthwhile experience. - www.fasterlouder.com.au

A long-running Melbourne operation – at least by the hectic standards of said city – The Priory Dolls have pulled a mild surprise by outlasting their own initial image, growing into a more substantive band, and coming out the other end with a quality debut full length under their belt. Said full length, Suddenly, At The Priory, is a cohesive statement by a band that has taken the time to figure itself out.

Having started off as something of a glamour-puss indie concern, The Priory Dolls have evolved towards a sort of post-Drones gutbucket blues-rock. Like Melbourne peers the East Brunswick All-Girls Choir, they bleed that distinctive sound of its slightly hokey Australiana associations. The Priory Dolls live in a world not of convicts and small-town boredom, but a world of inner suburban ennui, forged prescriptions, tough talk and bad vibes. Unlike EBAGC, they stir in some keyboards and some more adventurous guitar textures

The Priory Dolls specialise in foreboding; Jeremy Mair’s lyrics are suffused with late night/early morning ambivalence, exhaustion and paranoia. Mair’s possesses a gentle, rounded warble with a strange neutrality to it that, when set against the violent squalls that pass across the album, sound like a reporter on location, reporting on the carnage. A characteristic line appears early on in the opening title track, “Our infection’s spread to every corner, and filled up every crack, I see my own dumb panic in the eyes of every rat.”

Mair’s delivery works both for and against The Priory Dolls. It ensures that Mair never sounds so pleased with himself as to be unlikeable – a common issue amongst chroniclers of debauchery – but it leaves him sounding too dispassionate to evoke much of a response in the listener at times.

The band themselves are guilty of exacerbating this effect by providing rather by-the-numbers accompaniments for Mair’s tales; there are moments of excitement, particularly provided by Rory Lampitt’s deranged-sounding lead guitar breaks, but there are too many songs where everyone just slips into a groove and strums away. The album’s highlights all feature something, some sonic element that lifts them out of this mid-tempo danger zone. Riddles And Bones sees The Priory Dolls stripping right back to a pastoral, organ-led lilt, allowing Mair plenty of space to deliver his romantic lament, hinging on the chorus; you took me to the mountaintop, and you left me in the cold.

Likewise, Not One Second is essentially a Lampitt spotlight; his angular lead guitar gatecrashes the chorus, and commandeers an entire verse, as the rhythm section provide an atypical Stone Roses-like groove. The sparseness of the groove actually adds to the sense of impending violence, whereas Get Your Wizard On sees the band going full throttle, but coming off a little cartoonish. Still, the second verse features the classic line, “Johnny pulls out a handful of knuckles of and bunches them into a fist”, amongst many other nuggets.

For all the flaws though, this is still a debut album, and one gets the feeling that The Priory Dolls will only get better from here. Already though, Mair is a hell of a lyricist, and the band are capable of playing with real fire. These two factors alone make Suddenly, At The Priory a worthwhile experience. - www.fasterlouder.com.au

Priory Dolls: Suddenly, At The Priory

- Priory Dolls teased us with a couple of really thrilling singles last year. Their dark indie-rock and gritty post-punk is uplifted by the intelligent lyricism of their front-man Jeremy Mair (who can go from a weedy little indie-boy whine to a ferocious roar in nothing flat) and stuffed with interesting and unexpected bits of sound, like looming acid synth or groovy Hammond Organ. The organ in particular, when pressed up against their gritty rocking gives the band a swampy American gothic quality which I really like. Interestingly they've been innovating their sound for the last five years (and apparently this record represents only a slice of what they're capable of) in the music industry wilderness; with a record of this strength I hope they find some decent label support. This is really fine rocking and rolling.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/thepriorydolls - 4zzz radio

Post Radiohead and Ian Curtis’s Joy Division, the dark experimental indie sounds of The Priory Dolls give you that classic immersive drone of euphoric mind-bending physcadelia, updated with a modern pop sensibility and malevolent as all hell. Don’t go unprepared to a Priory Dolls gig or your brains will end up splattered against the back wall along with your aortic valve. If you haven’t confronted that dark corner of your soul and reconciled yourself with those hidden secrets you’ve been in denial about, do it before you listen because they will inevitably bring it out of you in some unmanageable and dangerous way in front of others doing the same at a venue unsuited for such dominating introspection. It’s big, bold, epic and hypodermic in its penetration of all matters maniacal. Go walk in the rain after the show and wash clean – you’ll be coated in sonic slurry, a wholly igneous flurry of lurid fury.



Ripping into the set with ‘Me and My Accelerated Friends’ instantly set the scene and colour for another memorable Priory Dolls show. All members are on the same page, but that page is sliding off into a swirling abyss. The lead singer Jeremy, like an alien, beams in from another psycho-sphere. With an awkward almost reluctant manner during sound check, intimidated in his office collared shirt, like his mother has told him to perform or he’ll get into trouble Yet once the band kicks into gear, a complete relaxation envelopes him as he becomes bindingly absorbed in the sound dripping from the rivers of haze that flow from the band’s secret mountain. A pure, unadulterated amniotic liquid, like an infant fresh from the womb and thrust onto the mic he wavers and then finds his feet. His pupils dilate as if to take in their first look at the world and then a sly smile mixes with his weathered newborn scowl. His animal gets it’s gear on, unfurls it’s claws and ravages ragefully over the sacrificial fans, devouring victims with a loving murderous abandon. Poetic in its sonic anarchy. Joyful in its desolate isolation. This is the sound of The Priory Dolls. They thrive on subversion and the juxtaposition of blinding contradictions both in song writing and their own personal character.



Love them and will be going again. Many in the scene are beginning to appreciate the artful manner of The Priory Dolls.





Thierry Bulgarre



Check out the clip of ‘Get Your Dark Wizard On’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3_KIuva84w





http://www.myspace.com/thepriorydolls

http://www.priorydolls.bandcamp.com

- in the street vibe

"Jack Of The Morning Sun is one of the most interesting songs i have heard by a young band in a very long time. The Priory Dolls are definitely a band to watch out for. Very promising, indeed".
Ricky Maymi - The Brian Jonestown Massacre


"It was like being on a lucid drug: eyes and ears open, appreciating something beautiful and at the same time feeling torn about the imminent end of the moment. Sometimes a band will just get it right. Morning Smoke is a song you could listen to on repeat. Watch out for these boys they’ve got something worth paying attention to.
" - FasterLouder.com


"lyrics wise and weathered far beyond their years. The Priory Dolls’ performance was quietly powerful." - The Au Review


"If the young Melbourne rock and roll scene were a sitcom, meet the real deep guy that your girlfriend has a massive crush on; The Priory Dolls. Heaven is a Dirty Place is their debut EP. And it’s pretty darn good. " - Thedwarf.com


"One can only wish them every success, because they have the talent, and they most certainly deserve it." - Indigo 4 music



Read more: http://www.myspace.com/thepriorydolls#ixzz13X0KMRWF
- various

Plucking bits and pieces from their various singles, EPs and demos from the last five or so years, the Priory Doll's finally decided to grace us with their debut full length album, Suddenly, At the Priory. The band's ability to effortlessly create stories soaked in whiskey and set years beyond their time, sees the songs tramp down damp city streets of distressing highs and sombre lows, hauled along from sleazy beer-soaked bars to strip clubs by the in and out of chaotic noises.

Opening with the title track, Suddenly, At The Priory, the whole album is encapsulated within its snide guitar contrasting against calm, tired vocals, angelic background harmonies and a Gospel-esque keyboard melody. Through slow lamenting drums, tracks such as Me And My Accelerated Friends and Poison Arrows drag themselves onward to battle against the strange waves of sound.

Riddles and Bones , from the early days of the band still remains naked and vulnerable, radiating a heartfelt honesty and subduing a feeling of peace, which is then completely eradicated by Get your Dark Wizard On and its sinister Drones-like baseline. Jumping about are shocks of perverted guitar.

Marching off to war, Jack Of The Morning Sun is melancholy and regimented, sounds of a frosty wind blowing through. Havoc is ensured as the song spirals into madness, like soldier slowly losing their mind.

The Priory Doll's have finally created a beautiful anthology of their hard work and intelligent, challenging song-writing. Suddenly, At The Priory goes further than an enjoyable listen, but one of exhilaration and exhaustion.

Best Track: Jack Of The Morning Sun

If You Like These, You'll Like: The Doors' Strange Days. An obvious one, but fitting.

In A Word: Noisy
- Beat magazine

The Priory Dolls have one of Melbourne's most dedicated fanbases, and deservedly so - they've played great shows for years. For the regulars, a Priory Dolls show is like a reunion, there was a real sense of community and friendship between the band and the crowd, which in the less-than-always-friendly world of music was a welcome change.


The set was a blend of old and new, audience favourites 'Jack of the Morning Sun' and 'Poison Arrows' had the audience moving in time, and the new material was a well-received exploration of some dark and psychedelic territory. The affect was well assisted by keyboardist Tyson Slithers, whose strange and malevolent melodies sound like something Willy Wonka might listen to when he really wants to get crazy. Drummer Erin Taylor holds a commanding presence in the band, a rarity among rock drummers in that she's capable of both nuance and power while still keeping the rhythm together. With an upcoming residency at Ding Dong Lounge with The Process next month, The Priory Dolls are set for bigger things.


- AU review