For their debut album, Melbourne’s Tiny Little Houses have gone decidedly more hard rock than their previous array of singles and EP’s, which, though they sounded a little like Ween and even Sydney 90’s indie group 78 SAAB with their balmy, summery surf guitar, didn’t sound like they do now. The Pixies, Pavement, Weezer, all decidedly more hard rock US indie greats and even a little Ben Folds Five, as well as the continued kooky, off the wall echoes of Ween, you can hear them all here. Not that that’s a bad thing, and not to suggest Tiny Little Houses are a blatant rip off of their heroes, they sound completely original and inspired.
And not to mention, they are excellent songwriters. Notice a theme here? Yes, the US alternative and indie groups Tiny Little Houses sound like and are so clearly inspired by and love are all fromTiny Little Houses with new album Idiot Proverbs the 90’s.
The lore of Tiny Little Houses is well established, the love for 90’s US college rock, alternative and indie they blatantly wear on their sleeves, so don’t just take my word for it. And this is a boon for fans of the genre and 90’s US alternative music lovers, for it is a great style of music and Tiny Little Houses write and perform it so well, it’s like stepping into a time machine into the musical and social paradise that those of us old enough to remember the 90’s know it was.
And yet, Tiny Little Houses sound totally now and completely fresh, new and relevant. What is equally extraordinary is that Tiny Little Houses hail from Melbourne. Lead singer Caleb Karvountzis sings in an American accent and the band’s whole sound comes across as having been seamlessly transported not only in time but geographically from America. The songwriting and music is so good it’s entirely successful and I can really only describe it as staggering that Tiny Little Houses have recreated it so well. And as I was saying earlier, with not a hint of cynical replication or cashing in, they are completely authentic and original. There are also echos of 90’s Australian alternative quirk rock greats, The Fauves and Custard.
If they are a kind of an organic and inspired 90’s US cover band of sorts inside a new and original group, Tiny Little Houses seem to have managed to ingeniously psychically channelled the time and music mentioned here. Idiot Proverbs is an excellent album, traversing a satisfying and varying range of melodic variations, tempos and sonic
exploration to completely succeed as a record. Karvountzis’ buoyant vocal delivery and incisive social commentary brim with a sense of fervent, wacky hilarity as he recounts the human foibles of himself and his young generation in songs like ‘Garbage Bin‘ and ‘Entitled Generation‘.
Any underlying angst in the emotion and vocal delivery is superseded by this good-natured, fun-loving sense of humour in life. In this sense, I think Tiny Little Houses are more successful than their most obvious US contemporaries, Weezer and Ben Folds Five, who always came across as taking themselves a little too seriously, a bit egotistical and self-important, and likewise their Australian contemporaries, The Fauves and Custard. This is a mighty fine feather in Tiny Little Houses’ collective caps, that they could actually improve on these very big heavyweights of the 90’s American and Australian indie rock scenes.
Tiny Little Houses’ songs also lurk with great hooks that generate yearning and romantic emotion, in a similar way to the manner in which Ween do, lurching from joke band to one revealing big, romantic hearts, such as in Team Player and the mesmerising, dreamy blur of Everyone Is. Despite the wailing guitars towards the end of the album in The Void, Tiny Little Houses bring out that yearning emotion to great effect once again. Idiot Proverbs has found them bursting with a quite astonishing level of talent and creativity, joining the rapidly growing mountain of a new wave of incredibly gifted Australian bands, from The Chats and The Skeggs to Flight Facilities, SAFIA, Running Touch, Touch Sensitive and many more. Tiny Little Houses have made a big splash with their debut, Idiot Proverbs.
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