The Preytells
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The Preytells

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"Preytells EP Launch"

Without trying to sound fatalistic The Preytells played the set everybody came to see them play. In short: they were brilliant. The aftermath of their Campus Bands win has clearly matured the talented group, who sounded as tight and professional as they have ever been. Wasting little time on between-song banter The Preytells aced radio favourites 'Don't Leave Me Alone' and 'Could I Change Your Mind' (the former featuring a deliriously manic guitar solo from Will Tell). They dabbled in less catchy, moodier numbers like 'Books' but their strength lies in hook-driven pop numbers like 'Nowhere to Run' - whose sweet boy/girl harmonies and lively rhythm made it the highlight of an exceptional set.

Will fits easily into the role of the singer-songwriter: playing and singing with confidence; as much inside the music as outside it; and as much for himself as for the audience. It was also great to see The Preytells genuinely appreciative of the support from both the audience and the other bands on the bill.

Perhaps the greatest compliment you could pay The Preytells is to say that they were fun. Surely it is only a matter of time before they enter the national consciousness.

- perthbands.com


"Debut Album FLOOD SONGS/JUNES SONGS"

For the past four years, The Preytells have been held in high regard in Perth for their beautifully crafted songs
and polished live performances. Their eagerly anticipated
debut album Flood Songs/June Songs has finally dropped, and it has me seduced.

The Preytells have a Beatles-esque talent for creating perfect two or three minute pop songs that are always thrilling, sometimes delicate and destined to plant themselves in your CD player until you've learnt all the words. In fact, listeners may find themselves singing along
to many of the fourteen tracks on the album alreadv. Some familiar favourites are here from previous releases alongside new favourites like Lord Hold My Hand and Nowhere to Run. And while it's tempting to have these songs on repeat, listening to the album as a whole is a goose-bump inducing
musical experience, like all the best ones are.

Will Tell's vocals are steeped in treacle; deep and alluring, with enough swagger to sit above the upbeat tracks and liquidity to weave between the gentle ones. Delicious harmonies, tambourines and tingling
guitars lend a retro element to the album without being derivative and mixed with Will's voice and such enlivened percussion, the whole sound is very cool.

There are some gorgeous quieter moments on Flood
Songs/June Songs, like the ethereal Keep Running and Devendra Banhart infused Sailing Houses, which will
surprise and delight. On The Lawn (And The Way You
Made Me Feel), again, is an unexpected treasure. But let's not forget The Preytells talent for danceable, artistic
pop, like Just Now and Lies, which stay true to Preytells form. All in all, this could be the local release of 2009.

Shannon Fox
24 Sep 2009 - Drum Media Perth


"Sacramento"

"The phrase 'avant-garde pop' may be broad enough to encompass a lot of different things, but with a band as hard to categorise as The Preytells, a more apt description is hard to find.

The band, who have already been crowned Perth's 'next big thing' by winning a well-known competition of same name, recently discovered they have also been nominated for WAM Song of the Year for their Shout single, potentially adding to their already-impressive trophy cabinet.

To many punters, the band evoke comparisons to the New York bohemian sound - a rich cross-pollination of pop smarts and artistic bravery - though, in many ways, they are distinctly 'Perth' in their ability to source a wealth of cosmopolitan influences without losing their 'homegrown sensibilities'.

Sacramento, a varied and undulating series of songs, is more than its limited track listing would have you believe - for as much as it is only an EP it has the dynamic range and listener satisfaction of a release twice its length.

Quality, as it were, means more to The Preytells than quantity."

- X-Press Magazine


"Sacramento 2"

Sacramento is another single release from The Preytells upcoming album. It’s more subdued and simple than their other singles, but sticks in your mind perhaps more so because of it.

Sacramento’s catchiness is of a darker variety, with a lowdown wooly bass riff pushing its roadtrip killer narrative. You can recall that riff long after hearing it only once or twice, which is a decent feat for any tune.


It locks in on the primal beat laid down by Jackie Pearson, who pulls right back on the hats until the choruses, where things are let loose in a 1960s style, thanks in part to the tambourine hits that cap off each cycle.


This track maintains the finely balanced ultra-real room sound that you seem to get with The Preytells’ recordings.



In line with the recent single Shout, this disc also has a demo-ish acoustic curio: On The Lawn. It’s suitably plinky-plunky, with xylophone to boot, and they lay on some strings for added drama. On The Lawn shows you a different side to Will Tell’s vocals and if that was the song's only virtue, it would still be enough.

The disc’s other tune, Closed Lines, is more typical Preytells; a short burst of indie-pop with fine harmonies.

It’s difficult to know if and when the Preytells will take off, but for now it’s good to have a WA indie band whose growing legacy is tilting towards a steady output of work with genuine artistic value rather than pure scene hype.

They’ll be launching the Sacramento EP at Mojo’s Bar in Fremantle on 27 September, so there’s an opportunity not only to see them play live, but to check out the quality of the support bands they’ve selected (always a good chance to spot new talent).

The EP will apparently be “packaged in very arty and very limited edition handmade 'pouches', which will be available on the night until stocks run out.”
- The Mercury


"Could I Change Your Mind"

Every so often you hear a record and just know that you're hearing the beginning of something really special. This EP from WA four-piece The Preytells is on of those records. The aesthetic is perfectly familiar, that vaguely post-Beat boom mid-'60s pop mixed with a post-punk sensibility that addresses the music of bands like The Arcade Fire and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, delivered with a shimmering incandescence. There's nothing too complex, the arrangements and production spare yet elegant - it's just the complete package. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Will Tell has got the whole thing sussed without an ounce of pretension.

Michael Smith - Drum Media Sydney


"Shout / I'm So Sorry"

Locals The Preytells have taken some time to grow up. The result is two mature and polished singles on this taste of an album due out some time in the future. The recordings come from a bedroom using software the band members taught themselves to use, but sounds big, bold and from a world far beyound a bedroom. The shimmering beauty of Shout sees them aspiring to an Arcade Fire level of intensity, with a captivating rhythm and layered vocals. I'm So Sorry is similarly as grand, with vocalist Will Tell revealing his voice's power, reminiscent of My Morning Jacket's Jim James.

Laura Miller - Drum Media Perth


Discography

FLOOD SONGS/JUNE SONGS LP (2009) out 11 Sep 2009

SACRAMENTO EP (2008) released independently

SHOUT/I'M SO SORRY EP (2008) released through MGM Distribution

COULD I CHANGE YOUR MIND EP (2007) released through MGM Distribution

Photos

Bio

What is the relevance of pop music today? As the genre approaches pension age, how do bands that love the simple interplay of guitar, bass and drums reinvent the three-minute pop song without coughing up the ghosts of its 60 year history, or morphing it into an unrecognisable mess?

Perth indie phantasms THE PREYTELLS have a way.

When they hit the scene in 2005 they experienced a quick, intense wave of success. Since then, instead of pursuing their early favour like desperate careerists, they decided to hit and run. Over the following years they hunkered down for months at a time, coming up only when they had something to show for themselves. The first salvo was debut EP COULD I CHANGE YOUR MIND in 2007, which snapped the ears of those who forgot about THE PREYTELLS back toward the band. It demonstrated songwriting strength and studio confidence beyond their years. But after its launch, they again went to ground.

They came back up in 2008 with the same tactic in mind, plus a little extra fuel. Two more EPs in that year, SHOUT/I’M SO SORRY and SACRAMENTO, showed two things: THE PREYTELLS were ready to make a deeper impression at home and abroad, and they had the musical chops to do it.

Doubt it? Their album, FLOOD SONGS / JUNE SONGS, will prove you wrong. It contains remastered versions of previously-released tracks Shout, I'm So Sorry, Sacramento and On the Lawn, and they remain as impressive as ever. Shout’s persistent piano and demented guitar lands the band midway between the Beatles and the Pixies, while Sacramento’s swagger and reverb smashes the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion into the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

But it’s the new material that rounds the band out as an important voice in Australian rock. Lead single Lord Hold My Hand builds on the band’s previous songwriting, relying less on Sacramento’s swagger and Shout’s knife-edge guitar and instead drawing sweet tension out of the interplay of its parts. A rollicking bells rhythm and wandering guitar introduces the song before an inspired glockenspiel melody takes over, and singer Will Tell croons images both quintessentially Australian and dementedly mythic: “Who are we, lying naked at the bottom of a Boab tree,” he sings in the lead up to the song’s eponymous chorus, then “You said you were the sacrificial lamb of all mankind”. It’s a hooky love song that also manages to tap into the confusion and weight of human relations in just two minutes and thirty seconds, after which a riff worthy of ELO wipes it from memory.

That is the real strength of the album – there are no place-holder songs. Every track, even slower tracks like mid-album, piano-based breather Keep Running, is imbued with its own infectious vitality, and announces itself as the most important song you have heard. An ambitious claim for a small WA band, but their music backs it up.

Though THE PREYTELLS index the history of guitar-based rock and pop throughout the album, FLOOD SONGS / JUNE SONGS is not an act of mimicry. It comes from an earnest, talented songwriting core, which strips down the music of their background to its basics and reforms it in a fashion true to their vision. What is that vision? Music that invades the body and electrifies the mind, encoded with the fractious energy of the 21st century.

MANAGEMENT
For bookings & enquiries, contact Daphne Tan at: preytells@yahoo.com.au

myspace.com/thepreytells