Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s selection, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “One More Tonight” by Total Control from the 2011 album Henge Beat on Iron Lung Records.
Total Control - One More Tonight (MP3)
Hailing from the remote western coast of Australia, synth-punk band Total Control was formed in 2008 by Mikey Young of famed Aussie garage rockers Eddy Current Suppression Ring and D.X. Stewart of UV Race. After putting out a number of singles, the group released their debut LP Henge Beat in August of 2011 via Seattle’s Iron Lung Records. They take their cue from post-punk icons such as Joy Division, Kraftwerk, and Gang of Four, but their sound isn’t overbearingly reminiscent of any of their fore-bearers in particular, instead fusing elements from each and adding some of their own to create a sound that, though indebted to post-punk, doesn’t have to be defined as being so. Though the raging spirit of punk is what drives their music more than anything, Total Control’s songs are surprisingly polished, well-constructed, and instrumentally precise...the recorded versions are, anyway. Their live shows are supposedly “legendary,” which isn’t hard to believe after listening to “One More Tonight,” the stand-out track off of Henge Beat and today’s featured song.
Henge Beat
Total Control recently finished up a US tour in December that brought them to The Crocodile in Seattle with Thee Oh Sees (it was a sweaty night!), and aside from the Laneway Festival in Australia at the end of January, it doesn’t seem like they have anything on the docket for 2012 just yet. For now, at least, you can enjoy another track, called “The Hammer,” from the new album: