The Medics
Cairns, Queensland, Australia | MAJOR
Music
Press
With a wave of anticipation steadily building over the past 12 months, The Medics’ debut
album, Foundations, is finally upon us and it hits like a tsunami of energy, passion and power.
Producer Yanto Browning has captured the impassioned live intent the band have built their
reputation on and bottled it into 11 impeccable tracks, the album maintaining their
onstage vigour while polishing it just enough to allow it to burn brightly through the speakers.
The Queenslanders have this ability to drive their songs to pinnacles, allowing those heights to
then amplify the power in the music and the listener’s experience as a whole. The layered build
-up during Rust pulses until it explodes in a pause-gap punch of epic proportions, while the
frantic stick work and swirling guitars on Ocean Eyes provide the most suitable of platforms for
Kahl Wallace’s dreamlike vocal crescendos. Although the front half of the album is filled with
high-rotation singles such as Beggars and Joseph, it’s the latter parts of the album that show
the full spectrum of ideas conjured up by the four-piece. The therapeutic Deadman, straight-up
Slowburn and reflective acoustic ode, 50 Years, all add to the various shades of Foundations,
while Golden Bear provides the fitting finale the album deserves, the song a beautiful
celebration of all that tomorrow can bring.
The only reason Foundations doesn’t get full marks is because, frighteningly, this band still
have so much more to offer. Incredibly, The Medics have crafted a sound that’s uniquely their
own, and it’s by creating their own pathway and not following in the footsteps of others that
they stand head and shoulders above any young, emerging band in this country. A true victory. - www.themusic.com.au / Time Off, Drum Media
"Four young guys with luscious pop vocals and driving wall of sound guitars and an exciting on stage energy, think the next The Temper Trap." Record of the Day UK
"Really impressed by you guys from the getgo. Some killer idea's going on in this tune; catchy, layered, stays interesting... heartfelt vocals. Tops!"
Zan Rowe, triple j
"Wow, a track that's so inventively pieced together, it's really angular under the guise of something else! There's so much going on but it's all held together with a golden sense of pop-riffage."
Steph Hughes, triple j
"I have no end of good things to say about Cairns band The Medics "
WhoTheHell.net
"The Medics –a mixture of brooding menace and mayhem."
Faster Louder
"The Medics have a unique sound that is definitely worth checking out" thedwarf.com.au
"This Boat We Call Love walks eloquently along several different rock spectrums" Time Off
- Various
“The Medics sounded like early Radiohead . . . in the best possible way.”
Live Review - Beat Magazine (Melbourne) Oct 09
- Beat Magazine - Melbourne
BLOG REVIEW – posted 21/1/10
I have no end of good things to say about Cairns band The Medics (I posted about them last year too), so I’ll keep this brief and try to gush as little as possible.
The Medics have spent the last nine months touring the country, playing shows and festivals and getting good at playing live. I mean, really good.
After a fantastic showcase at Brisbane’s BigSound conference in October (sucked in to all of you who were too busy talking over Washington’s set and demolishing Dew Process’ bar tab to see them), Leanne DeSouza came out of semi-retirement to manage them. Her previous clients include George and Kate Miller-Heidke, so the boys are in good hands.
Their new EP This Boat We Call Love was produced by Mark Myers from The Middle East and is a contender for my favourite album artwork of the year. It’s folkier than their previous effort but definitely more cohesive.
They’re playing shows in Brisbane, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast this weekend, starting with a gig at Club 299 tonight. Go and see them.
- www.whothehell.net - Blog Review
Discography
Debut album FOUNDATIONS released 18 May 2012 worldwide via Warner Music Austrlaia on the Footstomp indie imprint.
"Griffin" single and released in April 2012 received high rotation Triple J airplay, #1 Air IT community radio chart and over 17,000 youtube views and growing.
"Joseph" released as Triple J Unearthed single and video only in November 2012. Receiving high rotation airplay on Triple J.
"Beggars" Single - released 04.06.11 and available digitally worldwide. Produced by Yanto Browning, recorded at Studios 301, Byron Bay, Australia. Received high rotation airplay on Triple J, Australia.
"This Boat We Call Love" 5 track EP - released early 2010 through Starving Kids (Australia only) and Sugarrush Digital (Worlwide). Produced by Mark Myers (The Middle East).
Photos
Bio
The Medics
“The Medics don’t simply make music – they move people.” Time Off Magazine
Music is at its best when it’s unpredictable. When it comes packed with surprises, the unexpected. Truly great music has always been about challenging convention, the ‘didn’t see that coming moment’. It’s a tradition that’s at the heart of The Medics – as both people and as artists. It’s a sound that is all over the band’s stunning debut album Foundations – instores and online 18 May 2012 (Footstomp/Warner). Overflowing with ideas and emotive intent, the record captures a band that has truly made good on the standout promise they have shown since day one.
The band’s history of confounding expectations starts in Cairns, far north Queensland. A postcard tropical paradise, it is an outdoors town of fishing, swimming, running in the summer storms – not the kind of place one would normally associate with the cinematic rock The Medics make today. But it was here, just a few years back, that this collection of cousins and friends came together to make music for the first time. From the get go The Medics were never about killing time or breaking the regional town lethargy. They’ve always wanted to write, to do something more than simply messing around in a jam room.
While originally a five piece, the core of the band has always been cousins Kahl Wallace and Jhindu Lawrie, alongside friends Andrew Thomson and Charles Thomas. Quickly making an impression on the nascent Cairns music scene, the band soon found themselves playing any show they could find. This was a band constantly on the move from day one – both literally and creatively. Their first recording session turned out an EP that was soon overhauled by a seemingly endless fountain of new songs as the band began finding their sound, and flexing their newfound creative confidence.
The Medics are the first to admit their take on soaring rock didn’t always fit with their home-town scene. They were always on their own path and pretty soon, bigger opportunities started calling. The two-day road trips to Brisbane became more frequent and when they were invited to showcase at the 2009 BIGSOUND music industry conference, things really took off.
Having convened in the home studio of respected engineer Mark Myers (The Middle East) the band soon took the wraps off their first official release – 2010’s This Boat We Call Love EP. ‘Unearthed’ by national broadcaster Triple J, the band went on to collect a swag of rave reviews and accolades – including earning spots in the finals of the annual Queensland (Q Song) and International Songwriting competitions.
The EP also provided the band with the fuel they needed to launch a full scale touring assault and since its release they’ve hit the road across the country. They’ve played alongside Birds of Tokyo, The Grates, Gypsy and the Cat, The Jezabels and The Panics while also turning in highlight sets at the Dreaming, Woodford, Peats Ridge, St Kilda and Groovin’ the Moo festivals. Just this past summer alone, the band put in show stopping sets at Laneway, Big Day Out, Perth International Arts Festival, Woodford, and Festival of the Sun – with an appearance at the 2012 Splendour in the Grass just around the corner.
Live, The Medics are truly something to behold. An exhilarating blur of passion and movement, the band bring an all-too-rare sense of urgency to their songs that underpin Kahl’s emotive delivery. It’s an intoxicating spectacle and has seen them quickly become one of the country’s most talked-about new outfits. And anyone who has caught their live show wouldn’t have been surprised when they collected the Band of the Year award at the 2010 Deadly Awards.
Capturing that live energy and intensity was the driving motivation behind Foundations. The tracks, recorded by producer and confidante Yanto Browning (The Jungle Giants, Tara Simmons) – capture The Medics’ growth as artists, individuals, and a band. While The Medics will tell you they are still exploring exactly what their ‘sound’ is, these songs are brimming with confidence – a kind of reassured energy and scope that only comes when four people work as one. Layers of atmospheric guitars to rumbling bottom end, each track is its own little world. But always front and centre of it all there’s ‘that’ voice. Fragile one minute, on the edge the next - it speaks volumes about the band’s commitment to make music underpinned by honesty and integrity.
The reaction from critics and fans alike has been overwhelming. Recently named Triple J “Next Crop” artists the singles ‘Beggars’, ‘Joseph’ and, most recently, ‘Griffin’ have all scored high-rotation on the national broadcaster while J Mag describes the new album as an “…epic vision realised”.
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