Oh Mercy
Balaclava, Victoria, Australia | Established. Jan 01, 2014
Music
Press
“Oh Mercy’s lovely laconic melodies wash over you… a wonderful and authentic style that makes the whole album a delight to listen to” - The Herald-Sun
“Great Barrier Grief features wistfully soft vocals and is essentially about smart tales of love, longing, change and life altering trips…it’s easy to see how this is destined to be a big album of 2011 and beyond.” - The AU review
“Great Barrier Grief features wistfully soft vocals and is essentially about smart tales of love, longing, change and life altering trips…it’s easy to see how this is destined to be a big album of 2011 and beyond.” - The AU review
“Great Barrier Grief will earn its place as one of the best local releases of recent years…” - The Music Network
“The strength of writing here is phenomenal; killer opener 'Stay Please Stay' has enough hooks in it for three other songs and the sophisticated chord progressions move smoothly like the waves on a coastal beach.” - Pedestrian TV
“The strength of writing here is phenomenal; killer opener 'Stay Please Stay' has enough hooks in it for three other songs and the sophisticated chord progressions move smoothly like the waves on a coastal beach.” - Pedestrian TV
Discography
Seemed Like A Good Idea - single
In The Nude For Love - EP
Privileged Woes - Album
Keith St - 7" single (sold out)
Keith St - EP
Great Barrier Grief - Album
Drums - single
Deep Heat - Album
Photos
Bio
Portland, Oregon via Melbourne, Australia's Oh Mercy, headed by songwriter Alexander Gow, is a young indie rock band with serious talent.
New album, Deep Heat, was Oh Mercys second Top
20 debut on the Australian ARIA album chart and was
recently nominated for two 2012 ARIA Awards.
Oh Mercy have toured consistently since 2009,
growing a devoted audience through their own sold out
shows, and in support of the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Ben
Folds Five, Temper Trap, Father John Misty and
Crowded House to name a few & on the festival stage
at Falls Festival, Splendor In The Grass, Laneway and
the Big Day Out.
2014 will find Oh Mercy in North America for the third time
in as many years, as they begin to tour their third
album Deep Heat across the country.
Who says you cant have a collection of dangerous and sexy songs with great words?
From this basic premise, Alexander Gow and his Oh Mercy bandmates have crafted Deep Heat, the bands third and most colourful album to date; a collection of 10 propulsive songs with a groove as deep as the Mariana Trench.
After last years acoustic-based confessional Great Barrier Grief, Gow decided to shift the goal posts a little well, a lot actually decamping to Portland, Oregon, for two months and turning a bunch of songs hed written on piano in the traditional singer-songwriter fashion into something else entirely.
For the first time ever, he began writing in the third-person, taking on characters and exploring some of the darker sides of sexuality and desire. I read Paul Kellys memoir and was excited by the idea of writing from another perspective. Subsequently every song on the album is a work of fiction. It has opened up a whole new vocabulary for me to dive head first into.
From the Roxy Music-esque swagger of My Man (the first song Gow has ever written that wasnt autobiographical) to pulsating first single Drums (the product of a heavy Jorge Ben binge), Deep Heat is modern, forward-thinking pop; a colourful mix of styles all held together by a singular groove.
There is a reason people talk about Alexander Gow and Oh Mercy as being one of the leading new songwriting talents coming out of Australia.
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