Dirty Suits ‘Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm Tree?’

October 23, 2026 Marshall Cullen

The new single from Dirty Suits tells the story of an unsolved murder in Haygley Wood, near Birmingham, during WW2.

The case was wild with conspiracy, accusation, and inuendo. But at its heart a woman was murdered and stuffed down the hollowed out trunk of a tree. Theres even a UK Podcast.

This devastating reality can get lost through story and can even become cartoonish through grafitti and gossip.

Written in the first person by the victim, Dirty Suits strips back, and tells what is a tragic tale using big rhythms and an urgent performance.

Recorded at the renown Damien Gerard Studios just north of Sydney, engineered and mastered by Andrew Beck and mixed by Aria Award winning engineer Russell Pilling. The release is number 3 of a 3 single campaign to promote the forthcoming album available on CD and Vinyl.

The band’s recent releases on Foghorn/MGM have lifted them to a new level and live shows have been coming thick and fast. And now they have an entire album in the final stages, the first single was ‘She Won’t Fall’.

After surfing together for over a decade , Matt Ayliffe and Peter Cunnington started jamming in 2020. The click was immediate.

Coming from different musical backgrounds seems to help, not hinder the writing process. From Blues, Alternative, Punk and Rock’n’Roll the songs dictate themselves. Demographics and egos, all checked at the door.

Dirty Suits is creativity for its own sake.

And as of Feb 2023, Luke Brooks has joined the ‘Dirty Suits’ family on drums and any out there suitable piece of equipment he can whack a sound out of to get this trio rockin’ any venue down.

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Paul Scott Releases Single ‘Hovercars’

October 16, 2026 Marshall Cullen

What happens when the beautiful future we were promised actually arrives and we discover that being human hasn’t changed?

The song ‘Hovercars‘ is a meditation on disappointment, vulnerability, and the strange gap between the life we were promised and the life we actually inhabit.

The chorus lyric: “you were promised stars / not broken hearts in hover cars” is central to this theme: you were promised something extraordinary, but reality arrived damaged.

I’d describe the song as surreal existential pop about the emotional hangover of modern life.

The Insufferable Paul Scott is a Sydney-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer whose music occupies the fertile territory between indie pop, post-punk eccentricity and beautifully crafted lo-fi song. His work is characterised by melodic immediacy, skewed observation and an irreverent intelligence: pop music with its tie loosened, its shoes kicked off and its eyebrow permanently raised.

From 2020 onward, Scott has produced a remarkably sustained body of work. The EP ‘Radio Station‘ and single ‘Things Are More Like They Are Right Now, Than They’ve Ever Been Before‘, announced a songwriter equally comfortable with hooks and absurdity.

The 2021 album ‘Tea and Medals‘ remains a central work of the period. Recorded during lockdown and subsequently released in January 2022, its twelve songs turn isolation into invention, folding jangling guitars, synth-pop textures and understated experimentalism around Scott’s dry, often oblique lyricism. His collaboration with Steve Melville, who co-produced and mixed the record, also deepened a musical relationship dating back to their earlier work together.

If ‘Tea and Medals‘ consolidated Scott’s voice, 2024 saw him accelerate it. ‘Faster Than Witches‘, ‘Dopamine Mining‘ (recorded with The New Conniptions) and ‘Data Wolves’ formed a burst of releases that seemed less like a conventional release schedule than an ongoing argument with the limitations of genre and productivity.

In 2025 came ‘Extinct‘, described as the final stop on Scott’s “electro-pop” tour, followed by the twelve-track album ‘For They Are Sailors Just Like You And Seasick Just The Same‘ co-produced and mixed by LA musician and producer Gregg Leonard.

By 2026 the singles ‘Imperial Display‘, ‘Sunflower Seas‘, ‘Local Gods‘, ‘In the Dark‘ and ‘The Age‘ continued the trajectory: melodic, restless and defiantly independent.

Scott’s achievement is ultimately one of persistence and autonomy. He has made prolificacy itself an artistic principle, producing music that is funny without being frivolous, experimental without sacrificing melody, and unmistakably his own.

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The Argon Room Release Single ‘Empty Star’

October 8, 2026 Marshall Cullen

ARIA Nominated Damien ‘Diz’ Cassidy (Faker) , Timothy Powles (The Church, Multiple Arias and Hall of Fame), and Simon Starling (Cult45 and Etherland) joined forces for the ‘The Argon Room’. Tim Powles produced the record with notable guest Jeffrey Cain (The Church, Remy Zero-USA).

The Argon Room has most recently played at The Vanguard (Newtown) and Metro Social in Sydney. Previous tours have among others taken them to The Northcote Social Club and The Worker’s Club in Melbourne, the sadly lost Sandringham Hotel and Notes in Newtown, Moshpit, Petersham Bowlo and The Brass Monkey.

Influences include… David Bowie, The Cure, David Sylvian, Thom Yorke, Annie Lennox and David Lynch.

“This was the last song written for the record. Tim said we needed something up tempo. Luckily I had those chords and rhythm kicking around. It’s up tempo… but it couldn’t get much darker.“

Simon Starling began his musical career in 1996 with Sydney punk band Cult 45, known for their energetic live performances. The band released the debut single Now We Are Sick on Chatterbox Records, followed by a five-song EP, before evolving into Spectators. In 2000, Spectators self-released the mini-album Mood Music For Action Flicks.

After moving to Melbourne in 2002, Starling formed Etherland, which became a regular fixture on the Melbourne live circuit and released a self-titled EP in 2006. Their single Same Old Trap received significant community radio airplay on FBI, RRR and PBS, with the accompanying video also appearing on Rage. Starling returned to Sydney in 2008 and began a prolific period of songwriting.

This led to the formation of the band ‘Starling’ and the 2012 album Semaphore, produced by Steve Kilbey of The Church. The album featured contributions from Kilbey, fellow Church member Timothy Powles, pianist David Lane and pedal steel player Jason Walker. The single Lovebirds received airplay on FBI and Double J.

Damien Cassidy, originally from Canberra, began performing as Dizzi DeCazz with cult dirty-lounge-noir group CooCoo Fondoo before moving to Sydney. He joined The Pip Branson Corporation and later Faker, touring extensively and performing at major festivals and alongside P!nk on the Australian leg of her 2009 Funhouse Tour.

The 2012 touring lineup of Starling eventually evolved into The Argon Room, featuring Wes Gregorace, Cassidy and Shaun Gaida. With Timothy Powles producing, the band began work on a new album, joined by notable guests Jeffrey Cain and Mark Axiak.

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The Quixotics Release Album ‘Desdemona’

October 1, 2026 Marshall Cullen

Desdemona, the band’s seventh album, features 12 tracks mostly written in 2025-26 and saw the band return to Poons Head Studios to be recorded once again by Rob Grant, who also co-produced the album with Michael.

“One way to look at it is as a continuum – we’re returning to the same studio with the same engineer and I’ve never done that before. In fact, one of the songs on the new album, Blackish Blues, was actually recorded for the last session, and it didn’t go on it. We had to cut it off, and we’ve ended up with the same thing. I’ve got a few extra songs recorded on this session, an eight-minute epic, which we love, but we couldn’t fit it on the album, it’ll probably make it on the next.

“So there is that sense of continuation, but the huge difference is Aaron Powell’s joined the band on second guitar, and that’s what the significant change here is.”

Aaron Powell was in revered Perth jangle pop outfit The Hairs in the early ‘90s and has performed with the likes of Tim Minchin and Ruper Guenther amongst many diverse musical projects.

Across the full album the songs provide testament to Michael’s reflective songwriting spirit be it existentialist moments (Woe Begone, the eight-minute epic, Surfing Never Dies), jealousy in Shakespearean proportions on (title track) Desdemona, or corruption in politics and societal tensions (Crooked Times).

The heavier blues tracks Sweet Calamity and Blackish Blues, roll alongside the country/surf/pop of latest single, Keeping Warm, an ode to wistful uncertainty featuring Hannah Smillie in a warm, wonderful co-lead vocal. Closing the proceedings is the upbeat thrash-punk of Coming Home With Me which balances out the tone of the album and somehow ties it all up rather perfectly.

The QuiXotics are a band dedicated to enthralling song writing, recording and live performance. Impossible to pigeonhole, they deliver a diverse range of dynamic sounds
that traverse terrain from driving Indi rock n roll with catchy pop overtures and bluesy
guitar riffing always complemented by engaging lyrics. After a series of well attended launches in Perth and Fremantle’s best original venues to celebrate their 2025 vinyl
album ‘New World State of Mind,’ The QuiXotics have now been signed to Foghorn
records in Sydney.

Formerly a three piece featuring lead
singer Michael Gabriel on guitar with his son Gabe Francas on drums together with
Hannah Smillie on bass and magical harmonies, The QuiXotics have now added Aaron Powell on second guitar providing another layer to emphasise the guitar driven nature
of The QuiXotic sound full of riffs and surprising melodic invention. Now in a purple
patch of song writing while garnering national Airplay. The Quixotics continue to prolifically flourish with airplay support from RTRFM 92.1, Radio Fremantle, Melbourne’s RRR and community radio through Australia and overseas.

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