Aussie band credits Beatles for giving it much inspiration

A band member terms its music psychedelic.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
The Lovetones aren't the first band to turn John, Paul, George and Ringo inspiration into mind-blowing rock.
However, as evidenced on the Australian group's latest effort, "Meditations," it's the latest to do it well.
"I guess what makes us sort of a bit different is we sort of have a pop edge, too," said band singer-songwriter Matthew Tow, during a phone call from Los Angeles.
"It's not different because there are a lot of bands who do that but it comes from being obsessed with the Beatles and stuff like that. So, I mean, it's not something, say, that couldn't be accepted by a wider audience because it has the pop aspect to it. It's still psychedelic and there are a few jams but I don't think it's too much of an imitation."
New tracks that define The Lovetones' current mind-set are the rockish "Mantra" and poppy "Stars." It definitely sounds like Tow suffers from Lennon-McCartney syndrome with different extremes constantly fighting for creative expression. Whereas such a predicament paints the songwriter as extraordinary in his homeland, where he says the psychedelic movement remains decidedly underground, in the States and U.K., bands have been continually modifying the genre -- ostensibly adding to the seminal Beatles "White Album" -- for decades.
Found his muse
Perhaps this explains why Tow feels so at home in America. It's also where he found a muse in Anton Newcombe, the visionary behind the experimental indie rock outfit The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It wasn't until 2003 when Tow toured with Newcombe's band that his perspective toward his craft, as it relates to the business, changed.
"I guess what sort of impressed me by the whole thing was the attitude he had toward the music, which is the music was all that was important," Tow said.
"Not the stuff that surrounds it, the success or the stardom or any of that crap. Just the complete artistry of it all and just the whole music is sort of everything, I guess. That changed my attitude toward how I try to deal with the industry. I'm not too concerned anymore with having sort of a hit."
Newcombe's influence over Tow can only help the Lovetones as it endeavors to find a stateside audience. Without the worldly pressures of radio success or units-sold weighing down members' thoughts, the band can concentrate on its music as it tours. This includes a Friday show in Youngstown at Cedars Lounge.
"Hopefully, people dig it," Tow said. "It's basically a psychedelic rock show and I think we're a bit more rock live than we are on the album. I think when they hear the record, it's going to be cool and sort of open their eyes to this sound. It's going to be good."