BHAGAVAD GUITARS – UNFAMILIAR PLACES
The place may be unfamiliar, but the sound echoes deep in the back of your consciousness. Well at least for those of you to whom the Trade Union Club and the Hopetoun Hotel are haunts from times long gone by. The Bhagavad Guitars rattled around Sydney in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Led but John Kilby (yes Virginia, there is another Kilby), with Jeremy Butterworth, Matt Kerr and Adrian Workman, the Bhagavad Guitars chimed their way into many hearts. Now some fourteen years after their last outing, we have a new album that shows the more things change…John Kilby is still more than capable of writing an infectious pop melody and the band has not been wearied by the years, the interplay between Kilby and Butterworth’s guitars still one of the bands strongest points. Nothing Left to Fight Over shows the band doesn’t lack for energy and the harmonies are as sweet as ever, while I Wanna Know Why creeps along with echoes of Kilby the elder. It is hard not to place the sounds on Unfamiliar Places along side other 90’s luminaries of the Sydney indie scene like The Clouds, Died Pretty, Rat Cat et al. But then again, a pop song, well it’s still a pop song in any era.
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