Already creating tremors in their home country, The Grates have managed to replicate on record, the buoyancy and eccentricity that comes out in their live shows through Patience's "lost in the moment" antics.  Full text...

the good moments far outweigh the bad moments, and when closing track I Am Siam stretches out magnificently over the course of its four minutes, its quite easy to believe that The Grates are here for the long haul. For now though, this is certainly a debut guaranteed to put a smile on your face.  Full text...

Best of all, I get the feeling that Gravity Won’t Get You High, for all its commendable traits, is still a ways from the best of which they are capable.  Full text...

Big fun.  Full text...

A record that concocts punk, soul, country, funk, pop...oh just about every genre going in fact apart from disco and well, why would you need that anyway? into a 40 minute, 14 song frenzy that's shamelessly shambolic but all the more charming for it.  Full text...

This Brisbane trio's fashionably bass-less line-up is focused on the vivacious presence of frontwoman Patience Hodgson, who rivals Karen O for both wildchild energy and skewed dress sense.  Full text...

Stylistically the music is - sometimes impressively and sometimes not - all over the place from a nursery rhyme (“I Won’t Survive”) to Brit Pop (“Lies”) to skanky mainstream punk (“19 20 20 “ “Howl” “Seek Me”) to orchestral swoon (“Rock Boys” “Science Is Golden”). Here, sadly, “Sukkafish”, the highlight of last years EP The Ouch The Touch becomes a slow-witted, countrified outcast amongst most of the Gravity Won’t Get You High amped-and-cracked two-minute fits (Why, Brian Deck…why!?).   Full text...

The Grates obviously show enough potential and originality on Gravity WonÔáýt Get You High to break free of comparisons to other girl-led bands. If they can get a little more consistent, they could be one of the best things to come out of Australia since Nicole Kidman.  Full text...

Gravity Won't Get You High is both startling and distinct - a commendable achievement for a band's first full-length release.  Full text...

The Grates' garage-cum-indie is more about kicking up a bit of noisy jangle and having a good time than impressing the indie's pretentious hipster gatekeepers.  Full text...

Pulling stylistically from all over the map to create a sound that is hard to put your finger on, The Grates use and abuse everything from piano to banjo, punk to waltz, screaming and crooning. Yet somehow, they do pull it all together and keep it from sounding chaotic and without identity.  Full text...

The problem with The Grates is that at least one of their three members always remembers to bring respectable, if not interesting songwriting ideas back to juvenile, overbearing, irritating silliness that almost immediately forgoes connection with the listener for a mixed bag of adolescent jokes and rock-out posture.  Full text...