Not to brag or anything, but 2003? Bloody great vintage.

That clownfish got kidnapped. The fruit shop invented “iTunes”. Someone let a bunch of music nerds in Sydney make live radio 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And a band called Dappled Cities Fly spread their little dappled wings. (Although they didn’t get to Fly for long, because the American market “wouldn’t get it”. Flying is quite hard to get, we hear.)

Since then the band have travelled the world and toured with the likes of Silverchair, Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie.

To celebrate ten years of being Dappled as all hell, the boys have scoured their back catalogue and assembled an array of treasures spanning their history. Entitled ‘Many Roads‘, the new collection will have a few gems that longtime lovers might recognise (and rejoice at) but most will be new to your ears.

The title track, however, is an entirely new jam – one that Sally Knight premiered this morning on Up For It. Now you can listen to it over and over to your heart’s content, while watching the boys drive around places you’d rather be:

‘Many Roads’ is a jaunty, introspective musing on the past and how it leads into the future. Fast paced and unrelenting, blending synth with guitar alongside layered, almost sinister vocals. Lyrically it’s the successor to Robert Frost, stopping in a yellow wood; if only he’d driven a classic Citroen round Paris.

“Start again,
gonna be myself again,
gonna sail the earth,
anyone who cares…”

It’s tempting to imagine the song as the band’s reverie on the past decade – while looking wistfully into an imagined future. That future is near though, and bright; with new solo material from Tim Derricourt (Swimwear) and Dave Rennick on the cards for 2014, we can look forward to another year of being Dappled as all hell.

———

‘MANY ROADS’ TRACKLIST: 

01. Many Roads
02. Cave Country
03. Easy Money
04. Battlewon
05. The Sleeper
06. A Walk On A Wire
07. Save Your Money
08. Waves
09. Cramps
10. Steven
11. Our Warstore
12. Madly Fadly
13. Father & Son
14. Something That Matters

Many Roads is out 17 January 2014 through Hub The Label / Inertia.

Dappled Cities | Andrew Pople