<span><span><span>- Wow, I’ve got that ‘I’m gonna regret this…’ feeling. In one fell swoop I’m going to take a chance on a local band that I’ve never heard of before today, with less than a hundred followers on Facebook (don’t you judge me, I know you look at this stuff too!) and admit just how many earnest teenage hours I nodded along to </span><strong>Alice In Chains </strong><span>on my discman, in my bedroom.</span></span></span>

<p><span><span>- Under Joyce Manor’s shambolic charm, they've always hidden away an overachieving ability, working like crazy to shield a pop song behind endearing punk. In every release to this point, that insulated pop flair has been gradually, but ever more insistently pushing its way to the forefront. Thirteen years on from their debut demo, it sounds to me as though the now three piece have come to a comfortable point where they can fully embrace this. There must be something in that SoCal water, man.

<p><span><span><span>- I wonder how they came up with the name for this project. It’s difficult to think of two musicians who less fit the description of ‘flightless birds’ than </span><strong>Madeleine Cocolas</strong><span> and </span><strong>Marike van Dijk</strong><span>. The pair of world-tripping composer, sound-artist, music-supervisor, band leader, muso types are significantly more often in the air travelling between the US, Europe and Australia than most of the arty folks I know.