Augie March are not well known outside their native Australia. In fact, I'm not sure how well known they are in Australia. I received their third album, Moo You Bloody Choir to review in 2007.
The main focus of the band is singer/songwriter Glenn Richards. I have to say, I am ambivalent about singer/songwriters, singer-songwriters, and singersongwriters: I am a huge fan of Dylan, Costello, Waits & Cohen, but these artists have also inspired a million whimpy wannabes - James Blunt, you are one of many. Augie March knocked me out from the off.
Firstly, they are so much more than a songwriter's backing band. Moo You Bloody Choir ranges from the jazz-tinged 'The Honey Month', through the garage rock of 'Just Passing Through', and on to 'Vernoona', which is as strange sounding as its title.
The highpoint is found in the lyrics to opening track 'One Crowded Hour':
Did you expect to see something that you'd never seen,
in somebody you'd known since you were sixteen?
And if love is just a bolt from the blue,
then what is that bolt but a glorified screw,
that doesn't hold nothing together?
Many albums start with a fantastic opener (often released as a first single), before trailing into mediocrity. Moo You Bloody Choir, however, presents highlight after highlight.
http://www.augiemarch.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWEahIQGsZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRgKaH4nDP4&feature=related
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