Indie Rock Hit Parade Live Session: Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders

Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders | Photo by Eric Schuman

Our latest Indie Rock Hit Parade live session is with the Australian band Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders. To call this group the electro/dream pop vehicle for singer/guitarist Tim Rogers (a.k.a. Jack Ladder) would be putting it a bit too simply. Featuring several prolific musicians in its traveling roster, the Dreamlanders is just one outlet of a creative hive-mind. With the collaborative aid of guitarist Kirin J. Callinan, bassist Donny Benet, drummer Laurenz Pike and keyboardist Neal Sutherland, Jack Ladder brings songs from his new album, Playmates, to life in our studio.

As Playmates offers a diverse take on glittery new wave and proto-industrial, we weren’t quite sure what we’d hear in this session. Fresh off a marathon at SXSW, the band showcased the album’s finest moments in their in-studio set. The session begins the same way as the album, with the churning “Come On Back This Way.” Ladder’s tale of late-night staggering is given a bright makeover with the live instrumentation. The menacing “Her Hands” follows, with Callinan’s guitar creating some fearsome noise. A more pensive song, “The Miracle,” is next, and it’s perhaps the most emblematic of the ‘dreamland’ in the band’s name. Our session closes with the euphoric “To Keep And To Be Kept,” which has become a quick fan favorite.

Download the complete Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders Indie Rock Hit Parade live session, and check out photos from the studio below.