PULLED APART BY HORSES Tough Love

PULLED APART BY HORSES

Tough Love
Transgressive Record

Pulled Apart By Horses made their name as a live act, all quick-fire energy and adolescent impatience. Their self-titled first album was a rough but engaging collection of dada-punk cut-ups. Its lack of cohesion is its biggest asset.

For Tough Love, Pulled Apart By Horses have raised the production standards, working with producer Gil Norton (who produced the Pixies’ Doolitle, an album which spawned many of the tropes that Pulled Apart By Horses are playing with here). The album retains the live feel of the first album, but with a little more polish and a few moments of studio magic to strengthen its impact.

Their second album has lost some of the absurdity of their first but none of the impatience. At just over half an hour, and with barely a moment under 130 bpm, it is an album with no time for loose ends.

Tough Love’s strongest moments are when it embraces this impatience as a tool such as in the jagged disco edges of Night of the Living (I’m Scared).

The album’s closer, Everything Dipped In Gold, is another highlight with the guitars flitting nervously about whilst being slowly swallowed up by Norton’s idling synths: Pulled Apart By Horses defiant to the end.

_HENRY ANDERSEN

BALLS OF STEEL

Hair metal throwbacks Steel Panther are “more infectious than a bad case of herpes” and they’re set to bring the love back to Perth this year. After rocking the main stage of Soundwave back in March, the LA rockers will hit the stage of Metro City on Wednesday, October 10.

RIDE WITH ME

Do you remember what you were doing in 1992? Well, Mark Gardener does: he had just released the masterpiece Going Blank Again with his British alt-rock group Ride. To celebrate that momentous year, Gardener is heading to Australia on an acoustic tour where he will revisit some of that shoegaze classic as well as other hits from across his career.

BAKED SALMON

With his name synonymous with The Scientists, The Surrealists, Beasts Of Bourbon, and oh so many more, Kim Salmon is one of the most influential musicians ever to have cut their teeth Perth. He promises to “guitarfuck” Perth when he drops by The Bakery on Saturday, July 28.

SKY’S THE LIMIT

Combined their talents on full length album Songs Of The Southern Skies, Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp are now joining forces for an Australian tour. The album features contributions from the likes of artists Iva Davies, Gurrumul, The Living End’s Chris Cheney and heaps more.

GROWING UP

You may have seen them on the Rage couch over the weekend, but you will have to wait until August until you see them again. They are Melbourne rockers Children Collide and they’ve just released their third album Monuments.

SKULL CANDY

Fresh from the announcement that On The Bright Side is taking a year off, we get one more Splendour In The Grass sideshow announcement. UK trio Band Of Skulls are returning to our shores for their Sweetening Up Winter tour and they will step into The Bakery on Monday, July 23,

SMILING POLITELY

It’s official: there is not going to be an On The Bright Side festival in Perth this year, but we can tell you that at least one of the Splendour In The Grass headliners is making their way to Perth in 2012! The Smashing Pumpkins are true survivors of the ‘90s grunge movement.

WAKE ME UP

After pulling the pin on his proposed stop in WA earlier this year due to a stirring bout of pneumonia, George Michael has announced dates to make up for it, including a stop in WA which will go down in history.