Proud of your hometown and the kick-ass music coming out of it? Wanna hear the best, and newest, stuff from your city it all in one place? Froth Aussie music? If you answered 'hell yes' to any of the above, we’re stoked to introduce you to this brand new cool thing we made that we can all hopefully benefit from: Pilerats' 'Sounds From...' playlists. A playlist for each State, featuring top-notch, up-to-the-minute sounds from artists smashing it in that area of Aus', across ALL genres. New tracks added weekly.

Find out what your city's sounding like, or what those on the other side of the pond are up to! 'Follow' the playlists at the links below:

PER / SYD / MELB / ADEL / BRIS

There's about 90 tracks in the Sounds From..Perth playlist so far, so you've got heaps to get you through your working day/the drive home/your next summer road trip. If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the tune-age, we've gone deeper into five tracks that we really vibe from the list below. You gotta start somewhere.

SOUNDS FROM…PERTH: PAT CHOW - BAD THOUGHTS

Photo: Matsu

My favourite part of this song is… every part. I love how the song’s opening is kinda quiet then it amps up, I love the lead singer’s infectious vocals and happy ‘nah nah nah nah’ pop punk vibes that sound like Supergrass at their peaky indie 90s best, and I love the solid thematic backbone of the track; songwriter Ben Protasiewicmz’s honest detailing of what its like to suffer from schizophrenia: “I hear voices sometimes, I can’t escaaaape them.”

Bad Thoughts comes off October’s Are You Okay? LP,  a cohesive collection of fun, fuzzy garage jams; equal parts melancholy punk / fully-blown rock (wow I just listed three genres in the one sentence...that's how you know it must be good). There’s a touch of Flaming Lips-ish tripp-i-ness here and there, and bass guitar lines that will have you nostalgic for the sweet grunge of The Pixies. The LP boasts a maturity gained from years of hard work and relentless gigging from Pat Chow’s Ben, Jamie and Andrew. If you get the chance to see these guys live, jump at it - it’s chaos at its most charming.

Pat Chow on Spotify 

SOUNDS FROM…PERTH: GUNNS - SHE'S A RAINBOW

Feels like 2016 is Gunns’ time to shine. Over the past couple of years’ Gunns’ key players have had their hands full with tours and commitments for other outfits (The Growl, Hamjam etc), but it seems like the current line up of Clinton Oliver, Jennifer Aslett, Michael Jelinek, and Sam Ford are finally ready to Gunns party, proper. And they’re in very good hands with Spinning Top Records (GUM, Tame Impala, Felicity Groom).

These guys make awesome, tight dream-fuzz perfect for dancing somewhere dingy on a beer-covered dancefloor late at night. After a year of super-steady gigging that culminated in single releases in late 2015, they’ve started 2016 strong with a support for Mac De Marco, one for Albert Hammond Jr (The Strokes) on the way. While older tracks from a couple of years ago, such as Live By The Sea, took the form of Raveonettes-y style shoegazin’ numbers with surf twang riffs, newer material like She’s A Rainbow (we're still waiting for their latest single to get Spotified) sounds upbeat and cleaner; with killer vocal harmonies and a psych-rock vibe edging in. Keen.

Gunns on Spotify 

SOUNDS FROM…PERTH: STILLWATER GIANTS - PATIENCE

Perth four-piece Stillwater Giants have consistently made good on the potential triple j saw in them, when they selected them back in 2012 from a series of Unearthed finalists to play the mainstage at Groovin the Moo. Since then they’ve covered more festival ground with Future Music, Parklife, Southbound, St Kilda Festival, and an overseas stint at US tastemaker festival CMJ, and supports for Aus rock heavyhitters The Delta Riggs, Birds of Tokyo, The Rubens and more.

Solid 2012 singles Walking On Air and Not Like The Others showed their ability to nail a likeable, Phoenix-y kind of breezy indie pop-rock, replete with warm, three part harmonies. A few years on, the band have rewarded their fans for their ‘Patience’ with the aforementioned track, a super-strong one to lead with off new album - Munich - that’s en route. Patience abandons the charming indie whimsy of their past output for a more driven, mature rock offering, a la The Strokes, that’s very ripe for radio. Stillwater’s management - Monster Management - got Perth bands Tired Lion and Methyl Ethel out of the wings and into the spotlight last year - you can only imagine the big plans they’ve got for these guys in 2016.

Stillwater Giants on Spotify

SOUNDS FROM…PERTH: ELEVENTEEN ESTON - IT'S ALL OVER

Can you sail to it? Could its soft-rockiness render it eligible to be the theme song for an American telemovie from the 80s? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, you may well have come across a piece of music from “Perth’s fantasy windsurfer”, Eleventeen Eston. 

This one’s from his debut Delta Horizon from a couple of years back which was put out on Not Not Fun (an L.A. label), but Eleven Eston is an active presence in Perth, DJing the finest of cuts regularly as ‘Bill Frank’, presenting on RTRFM’s Disco Science, and putting out records of lo-fi, jacking house music for his other music project, Hugo Gerani.

Eleventeen Eston on Spotify.

Hear even more Eleventeen Eston here.

SOUNDS FROM…PERTH: ELK ROAD - NOT TO WORRY

Rory Garton Smith didn’t waste any time getting stuck into things when he came onto the scene last year; racking up a WA Music Award nomination for ‘Most Popular New Act’ and a spot on the Red Bull Stage at Splendour in the Grass. Both great reflections on the power of his debut track Not to Worry, which we premiered back in August, a pristine, sweeping, dramatic electronic number with emotional, BROODS-esque guest vocals from Governers.

Elk Road joins producers such as Just A Gent, Yahtzel and LDRU in the popular post-trap sphere, but has avoided homogeny by being selective about the elements he’s chosen to use in his work, bringing extra features to the table that gives “new” a good name. The video for the single was a stellar offering too; accompanying the audio perfectly - and even better, shot by Perth filmmaker legend Matsu on location in WA #perthpride.

Elk Road on Spotify

Go direct to all of the playlists by clicking the image below: