Ridiculous falsetto, ludicrous stage presence, absurd jumble of genres - just some of the words used to describe Melbourne outfit Aleks and the Ramps, which doesn't even begin to capture the exuberant dynamics of the band in their live form. Led by Aleks Bryant, the band also features brother and sister Joe and Janita Foley, guitarist Simon Connolly and drummer Jon Tjhia.
Much like my favourite Sydney bands and musicians, members of the Ramps are in a myriad of bands and personal projects including Extreme Wheeze, Potential Falcon, ii, Scissors for Sparrow and Denim Owl.
They released a fine debut full length earlier this year, Pisces vs Aquarius, which came off the back of a self-titled EP from 2005, and it is a joyous affair with vocals veering from that falsetto to a soulful baritone and offset by the twang of his banjo and accompaniment of glockenspiel, casio and melodica. Add to the mix darkly humoured, vividly illustrated lyrics and it really is an album that I can't recommend highly enough.
The next video on the Traffic Sounds youtube juggernaut (youtube.com/trafficsounds yo!) comes from the most recent Aleks and the Ramps performance in Sydney (15.9.2007), at a newly opened warehouse venue 303 that promptly shut its doors the next day to live music in response to landlord complaints (unfortunately for sydney's gig goers this same building also housed the Last Bastion of Civilization and Black and Blue warehouse venues so 3 great spaces are now gone). The night also featured Charge Group (who headlined) and Captain Nemo (who opened).
The Ramps gave a sterling performance, somewhat confounding part of the audience who did not know to expect moments of spazzed out rock and shambolic dance performances (sans basketball outfits which they've been known to don occasionally) in between their jubilant brand of banjo pop. It climaxed with this final song in the set Ex Riot Cop Dad which is on the new album.
The second clip is now up. The song Ghost Kitten is a new one, and I love it muchly. The audio quality is not as good as ex riot cop dad but I wanted you to see the lingering closeups of the rather dapper looking band. They really are a bunch of cuties.
I'd also suggest you hop along to the Tape Relay page to hear songs from the live set recorded with me at the 2SER studios. Great live set, maybe bit rough around the edges but that would be entirely my fault + lack of skills, and nothing to do with the band themselves. Photos of the live set in the studio are also on the flickr page.