Music Is My Boyfriend

2011 In Review: Top Ten Albums, Part Two

2011-12-22T11:55:00.001+11:00

To recap, in case you missed part one, here's what has made my list of best albums of 2011 so far:

10. Zola Jesus - Conatus
9. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
8. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
7. Beirut - The Rip Tide
6. Feist - Metals

Not bad, but it's about to get a whole lot better. My top five is an eclectic bunch - comprising three male and two female artists; two Brits, a Canadian, an American and an Australian; one artist's debut album and another's ninth; and genres ranging from indie folk to electro to quirky pop or a mixture of each.

Interestingly it was quite difficult to get the order right for numbers ten through two, but number one has been a clear standout for a long time now. Anyway, enough dragging it out - here is part two of my favourite albums of the year: the top five!

5. Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia [Mercury Records]

Most people I know have chastised Patrick Wolf for this, his fifth album. They say it’s too cheery; that they want the doom and gloom, the darkness and mystique of the Patrick Wolf of old. Well, newsflash everybody: people change and so too do the things that inspire them to write. Turns out Wolf is loving life, having recently become engaged to his fiancé William, and Lupercalia, named after an ancient pre-Roman festival celebrating fertility and love, is basically one giant love letter to him. Perhaps I can relate because my own relationship has mirrored Wolf’s to a certain extent over the last few years, but where others perceive cliché, I find beauty and sincerity. All the best to you Patrick, keep it up.

4. Bon Iver - Bon Iver [Jagjaguwar/Inertia]

It was always going to be a tough ask for Justin Vernon to follow up his debut record as Bon Iver. For Emma, Forever Ago claimed the top position in my year end list in the year of its Australian release (2008) and originally I found its self-titled successor to be somewhat of a slow burner. But as the album began to gain increasing momentum on air and online, its haunting tracks and the true beauty of Bon Iver became apparent.

To my relief Vernon’s recent collaboration with hip-hop icon Kanye West hasn’t influenced the direction on album number two at all. That detour appears to have been more an exercise in gaining wider exposure for his own music as opposed to unearthing new musical inspiration. Bon Iver builds on the delicate acoustic style of Vernon’s first record and occasionally ventures into smooth ‘80s pop territory with the inclusion of horns and lush synths (see closer Beth / Rest).

To date Vernon’s lyrics have been fairly obscure and difficult to unravel. Though in a moment of heartbreaking clarity found in one of the album’s many highlights, Holocene (and if ever there was an effective ad campaign for Icelandic tourism, the song’s video clip is it), Vernon cries “At once I knew I was not magnificent”. I beg to differ, Justin.

3. Austra - Feel It Break [Domino Records]

The second debut record to place in my top ten this year, Austra (not pronounced how you might think – ‘ow-stra’) came to me via a friend who enthused the Canadian group were like “a more pop version of Fever Ray”. That description is apt, particularly for opening track Darken Her Horse, whose eerie vocals and slowly building electronica wouldn’t feel out of place on an album by the enigmatic Swedish singer.

But forget their peers, Feel It Break succeeds in carving Austra a path of their very own. Held together by singer Katie Stelmanis’ unique coo, the songs on this album are simply jam-packed full of hooks. Lose It’s repeated refrain of “Don’t wanna lose ya, don’t wanna looooose..." is one such indisputable earworm and the same could be said for just about every other song on the record.

2. Gotye - Making Mirrors [Eleven/UMA]

To say Making Mirrors was one of the most anticipated releases of 2011 would be a massive understatement. Ever since he hit the big time with second album Like Drawing Blood and its stunning lead single Heart’s A Mess, the pressure has been on for Wally De Backer to produce a follow up. He took his time – five years, in fact – and has returned with an outstanding collection of tunes.

Making Mirrors stays true to the Gotye formula, using a mixture of recorded samples and original instrumentation to piece together its content. By now you’d be aware of the two big singles; Eyes Wide Open samples an outback musical fence for its bass-line and laments our collective apathy and inaction when it comes to solving environmental issues, while Somebody That I Used To Know, De Backer’s musing on a failed relationship which features additional vocals from rising Kiwi songstress Kimbra, is destined to top charts and year end lists alike.

But the singles aren’t the only thing going for this album. Highlights also come in the form of the infectious Motown soul-inspired I Feel Better, the vocally warped ode to an antique musical organ State of the Art and a heart-warming letter to his girlfriend in Save Me.

My main criticism of Making Mirrors also stands for its forebear Like Drawing Blood. Both are essentially eclectic collections of strong to outstanding individual songs, but lack a common thread to bind them together and make them work as albums from start to finish. De Backer’s incredibly versatile voice and talent for writing moving and catchy pop songs are both unquestionable, but when the day comes that he puts together a truly cohesive set of songs, then there’ll be something to really celebrate.

1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake [Island/Universal]

Perhaps it appeals to my inner history buff, but the prospect of one of my all-time favourite artists choosing to write a war-inspired concept album – and a World War I-inspired concept album at that – was always going to be an incredibly exciting proposition. Turns out, she nailed it.

Let England Shake continues its predecessor’s foray away from Harvey’s traditional instrument of choice, the guitar, this time to the autoharp. There’s also an interesting selection of samples, with the dreamy Written On The Forehead lifting its chorus from a reggae classic by Niney the Observer and The Glorious Land, one of the album’s most polarising inclusions, works in a section of military staple The Last Post.

The album is musically quite pleasant and catchy, but it’s only when one delves deeper into the lyrical content that the true darkness of the songs is revealed. Harvey undertook extensive research on the subject of personal accounts of war, both from WWI and from more recent conflicts, and her hard work has paid off big time. She manages to beautifully articulate the destruction and pointlessness of war – On Battleship Hill describes the landscape faced by unknown soldiers as “Jagged mountains jutting out / Cracked like teeth in a rotten mouth”, while The Words That Maketh Murder spouts grotesquely “I’ve seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat / Blown and shot out beyond belief / Arms and legs were in the trees.”

While this album is distinctly English in its focus, there are also direct references to Australia’s contributions to WWI; Harvey’s research including a strong focus on the doomed Gallipoli campaign in particular. In the exceedingly bleak All And Everyone she cries with a tangible sense of urgency “Death hung in the smoke and clung / To 400 acres of useless beachfront / A bank of red earth, dripping down / Death was now, and now, and now.” The album comes to a close with a somewhat more upbeat campfire-type sing-along (The Colour of the Earth) in which resident Aussie in Harvey’s backing band and former Bad Seed Mick Harvey (no relation) leads a ballad that commences with “Louie was my dearest friend / Fighting in the ANZAC trench.” References to Australia aren’t reason enough to listen to an album but they are an added bonus for anyone who was touched by or is interested in this particularly dark period in our nation’s history.

An outstanding album both in concept and execution, whose message is only too relevant in this era of protracted terrorism-inspired conflict. A classic of our time.

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So there we have it, my favourite ten albums of 2011. What do you think? Did I get it right? Not enough Kanye/Lady Gaga for you, eh? No matter. I also plan on writing an entry on the five albums that almost did but not quite make the cut, plus what I'd like to dub five 'false starts': records that unfortunately didn't quite live up to their hype/potential. Plus there's also the pressing matter of the top ten SONGS of the year, though I think I might just cheat and include eleven. 'Cause, y'know, I can and also it matches the year (yeah, you see what I did there huh). So never fear, plenty more 2011 musical review goodness to come.

2011 In Review: Top Ten Albums, Part One

2011-12-20T22:35:00.001+11:00

2011 was a fine year for music (well done musicians, pats on the back for you all). To make sure we don't all forget how great it was, I'm going to bring you a series of posts over the next little while summing up the albums and tracks that meant something to me this year. To kick us off, I present to you part one of a two part installment of my favourite albums of the year: numbers ten through six!

10. Zola Jesus - Conatus [Sacred Bones Records]

On Conatus Nika Roza Danilova, the operatically trained, goth-inclined petite pop princess, has continued her transition from lo-fi distortion to polished, accessible and intelligent music. The album lacks some of the captivating drama and back-to-the-wall belting of her previous effort, Stridulum II, though there are moments (Vessel, Collapse) that hint at her true potential. One to keep an eye on, for sure.

9. Cut Copy - Zonoscope [Modular/UMA]

The deal was sealed for me with Zonoscope on Friday April 15 this year as I watched the boys from Melbourne do the nation proud by whipping the Mojave stage at the Coachella Music Festival into a dance frenzy at dusk. The tent overflowed with people clambering all over each other to let loose to Cut Copy’s brand of smooth electro. Need You Now is one of the songs of the year and Pharaohs & Pyramids peaks in all the right places. Cut Copy just seem to go from strength to strength, and it’s a pleasure to witness.

8. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints [Souterrain Transmissions]

Past Life Martyred Saints has been the dark horse of 2011. One of two debut albums to crack my top ten this year, listening to its raw, emotional and direct songs make for compelling listening. EMA’s frontwoman Erika M. Anderson treats the album like a diary; one that’s been ripped, scrawled on and abused. Turning the album on is akin to watching a medical program on TV – at times it can be deeply unsettling yet impossible to look away. She also wins the award for lyric of the year – I can listen to California’s opening line (“Fuck California, you made me boring”) and the diatribe that follows any day of the week.

7. Beirut - The Rip Tide [Pompeii Records]

For a while there Zach Condon rode the tag that critics placed upon him, that of a gypsy folk wunderkind. But there’s only so long that sort of description can remain valid. It’s been five years since the release of his debut LP; Condon is married now and no longer the wide-eyed innocent troubadour we first met on the Balkan-inspired Gulag Orkestar (though it’s probably still fair to refer to him as baby-faced). The Rip Tide is a mature, polished effort and at just over half an hour in length, it gets straight to the point. It’s evidence that just because Condon has such a large arsenal of instruments at his disposal (the usual packed horn section, strings, ukuleles, accordions et al) not everything needs to be thrown in the mix to get the point across. Some songs are just simple numbers, held together by Condon’s swoon-inducing warbling. Highlights include East Harlem and the title track.

6. Feist - Metals [Universal]

How does one follow up a hugely successful, four-time Grammy award-nominated album? In the case of Leslie Feist, remove yourself from the spotlight for a few years and return in your own time with a brand new collection of silky smooth folk pop songs. One thing becomes quite clear after listening to Metals the first few times: Feist isn’t in the habit of repeating herself. There is no 1234 here; what you will find instead are songs with a more natural, unpolished and collaborative feel to them. She utilises long time collaborators Mocky and Gonzalez to great effect and the group vocals and foot stomping on personal favourites Undiscovered First and Comfort Me are sublime. The lyrics tend to focus quite heavily on nature, which is perhaps representative of the time she spent recording the album in Big Sur on California’s central coast. A pleasing addition to her already stunning back catalogue.

I know the suspense must be killing you, but sorry - you're just going to have to wait. The top five will be on its way tomorrow!

Article: Alive and Kicking

2011-12-08T20:58:00.001+11:00

Alive and Kicking

"This’ll be the first time the Bad Seeds exist as a wholly different band than they were when they started."
Let me start this off with a short disclaimer: I love Nick Cave. In my eyes, this deity of Australian culture can do no wrong. So if you can’t handle a bit of personal bias, it’s probably best to shuffle along now. The man is an undisputable legend, boasting an extraordinary artistic career which spans the best part of the last three decades. You may know him as the hot-headed howler who fronted post-punk pioneers The Birthday Party, though his most well known (and loved) work has come via his stalwart group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. When not fronting rock bands, Cave also moonlights as a published novelist and regularly collaborates with his multi-instrumentalist muse Warren Ellis to create gripping film soundtracks.

Phew! With a resume like that, the 53 year old could be forgiven for taking it easy. But age has not wearied him; if anything, Cave is more focused and prolific than ever. The latest project he’s thrown himself into is a demented and devilishly perverse offshoot of the Bad Seeds. It’s called GRINDERMAN and the group is just about to tour the country with the Big Day Out on the back of their highly acclaimed sophomore effort, Grinderman 2. I was lucky enough to get the chance to speak with Jim Sclavunos, the American who drums for both bands and has been a part of Cave’s inner circle since the mid-‘90s.

“The origins of Grinderman were actually in this ‘Nick Cave solo’ thing that we were doing,” Sclavunos explains. “It never really had a proper name. Nick and Warren had started that at one point and it was a way of Nick being able to play live more frequently because the Bad Seeds are such a complicated operation to take on the road. Everybody was for the most part living in Australia, so he wanted a little operation that could do some of the smaller cities, some of the smaller venues, and eventually Marty [P. Casey, bass] and I got pulled into the ranks.”

One notable musical aspect that has set apart Grinderman from its predecessor is its brazen and unashamedly sleazy lyrics. No Pussy Blues was the group’s first big single; a sordid tale in which Cave, try as he might, is unable to convince the object of his affection to reciprocate his advances (and that’s putting it quite politely). The twisted humour continues on Grinderman 2. Take Worm Tamer for example: “Well my baby calls me the Loch Ness Monster / Two great big humps and then I’m gone.”

"I changed the sheets on my bed / I combed the hair across my head / I sucked in my gut and still she said / That she just didn't want to."

Sclavunos believes this kind of humour has always been present in Cave’s words, though it might not have always been so prominent. “[The lyrical humour has] often been so dark or subtle that people just didn’t pick up on it,” he says. “For years now there’s been sort of a sense of the Bad Seeds being a serious band, which is quite often totally belied by... take Murder Ballads for example. There’s an incredible amount of downright funny stuff on it, a lot of which is quite dark, a lot of which is quite un-PC. Even the creamiest songs have lines in them which are quite humorous because of the twist of the words or the manner of phrasing and it may bring a crooked smile to your face. It’s always been there; we wear it a bit more on our sleeves because it seems appropriate to the kind of general attitude of Grinderman.”

Though humorous lyrics seem to have been one constant in Cave’s output, other aspects of his life have changed drastically over the course of his career. Long gone are the wild days of alcohol and drug abuse; Cave is a family man now and approaches songwriting with a business-like attitude. Sclavunos reckons he’s much better for it. “His life got quite a bit more stable and part of that was getting clean, raising a new family with a new wife and reaching a certain age where your attitude just sort of changes.” He continues, “he’s been madly prolific in the past few years. I have to take that as quite a positive thing and a noticeable change.”

Prolific is an understatement. In the last four years Cave has blessed us with both Grinderman albums, 2008’s stellar Bad Seeds release Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! and has promised in recent interviews that 2011 will herald the arrival of the group’s as yet untitled fifteenth album. “We’re quite excited about the new Bad Seeds album,” Sclavunos admits. “It’s going to be quite an adventure because this’ll be the first time the Bad Seeds exist as a wholly different band than they were when they started. Nick’s the only remaining person from the original line-up; it’s been moving and evolving for years and when Mick [Harvey] left a couple of years ago, that was the last tie with the past.” He dismisses my suggestion of Harvey’s departure as a chance for a clean slate for the band, offering instead “we carry a lot of history with us and it’s a history we’re proud of even if we’re at times disrespectful of it. There’s definitely a sense of you’ve come from somewhere and you want the next step to make sense in the greater perspective of what the band’s done before.”

I query as to whether the current pattern of taking it in turns to release an album from each group will continue to be the norm. “Remains to be seen,” ponders Sclavunos. “That’s been the plan by default, if you could call it a plan, for the past couple of years. As long as both bands feel relevant to the people involved, then why not?” Go for it, I say. Switching gears and stepping into Grinderman mode has invigorated the Bad Seeds, with everyone – the band members and listeners alike – benefitting from the outcome.

This article was originally written in January 2011, when Grinderman were headlining the Big Day Out tour. Fast forward 11 months and they have just headlined the Homebake Festival and will continue on with a headline spot at the Meredith Music Festival this weekend. Rumour has it that they've arranged for a lunar eclipse to occur in the middle of their set - should be pretty darn special.

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Check out the boys belting out a pretty awesome studio version of Worm Tamer below.

Article: Heavenly Sounds

2011-11-23T21:33:00.001+11:00

Heavenly Sounds

"Some places were a little bit resistant to having secular music within their walls."

I’ve never been one to divulge too many juicy details regarding my personal life, but I think it’s time to come clean about something. I don’t mean to brag, but I had a four-way with three beautiful women a few weeks ago. That’s right, you read correctly – a four-way. Well, to be fair I should clarify a little – I had a four-way group interview with three beautiful women, namely Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby, the three lovely ladies who comprise all-female indie pop supergroup SEEKER LOVER KEEPER. Our interview was equal parts confusing and amusing; four-way phone conversations can be tricky beasts to tame. To avoid complete and utter interview chaos, each member would announce herself before responding to a question. The format felt necessary, if a little rigid, but as time passed and the girls began to truly open up it felt like I became a wallflower in the rehearsal room being treated to a rare chance to eavesdrop on an intimate chat between old friends.

The tale of how these three good friends joined forces to form a band is a simple one, explains Blasko. “We were just talking about making music and writing and stuff like that one night after one of Sally’s gigs and the three of us just felt like it’d be a really nice thing to do together.” Given the trio are all used to being front and centre in their respective solo careers, how do they decide who gets prime position on stage when they play together live? “You’ll notice that we actually are just next to each other on stage,” chips in Throsby dryly, giggling and quashing any notion of inflated artistic egos. “It’s a bit of a combination of who’s singing the lead vocal but then how well can I hear myself through the monitors if I keep changing mic spots?” chips in Seltmann.

To date the triumvirate has released three singles from their eponymous debut – Light All My Lights, Even Though I’m A Woman and On My Own – each featuring a different member on lead vocals and each paired with a stunning video featuring male actors (Barry Otto, Aden Young and John Waters respectively) miming to, dancing and interpreting the songs. The concept was all Blasko’s, says Throsby. “We were all at a loss for something that was really exciting and Sarah had this idea – she’d worked with Barry Otto on Hamlet, she composed the music for a Bell Shakespeare production and had seen him dancing the way he does in that clip by the stage just for fun and I guess had put that image away in her mind and thought it’d be great to bring it out sometime.”

Check out Barry Otto busting a move to the Blasko-led ditty Light All My Lights.

Seeker Lover Keeper are set to embark on a tour with a twist over the coming weeks – they will be performing around the country not in the usual pubs or theatres, but in churches and cathedrals. Entitled the Heavenly Sounds tour, the group will bring their angelic voices to a patch of hallowed ground near you soon. But what inspired the change in venues? “The album has been received really well and the [previous] tour went so well we just really felt like it would be silly not to do more shows,” explains Blasko. “But we want to do the shows in an environment that really supports the sound and so we thought it would be a nice idea to do a church tour, something a little bit different and in an environment that was really going to enhance what we were doing.”

I wonder out loud whether or not the fact the shows will take place in churches might affect the ticket buying decision process for non-religious fans of the band. Throsby doesn’t seem to think so. “Well I’m not religious,” she states, “but I don’t think I feel awkward. I think our fans are quite open-minded.” Blasko laughs, before adding “it might feel awkward because they don’t think they’ll be able to drink anything there. They’ll have to drink beforehand or carry a hip flask.” The other two then begin to toss around ideas as to how punters could get around the lack of alcohol at the upcoming shows, before a light turns on in Blasko’s mind. “We could do communion!” she blurts excitedly. “Let’s do communion.” Queue everyone bursting into a fit of laughter.

So the group hope their fans will be open to the idea of seeing them perform in churches, but what about the churches themselves? How receptive were they to the idea of playing host to a show of this sort? “We haven’t really had a lot of contact with it actually,” explains Blasko. “I have heard that some places were a little bit resistant to having secular music within their walls, but they seem to be okay.”

As for the group’s plans following the upcoming tour, Seeker Lover Keeper will be put on the backburner and everyone intends to return to their respective solo pursuits. “I want to have a little rest and I haven’t planned too far in advance actually. Sally, what are you doing?” Throsby asks. “I’m gonna make another solo album,” responds Seltmann, with Blasko concurring, adding that she is laying the groundwork for her fourth album at the moment in London. It appears the Heavenly Sounds tour might be the last chance in a while to see these three sirens on stage together, so say your prayers and get to a nearby church quick smart.

Seeker Lover Keeper will play a church near you on the upcoming Heavenly Sounds tour, taking place during late November and early December. This includes a stop at St Stephen's Uniting Church in Sydney on Thursday November 24, for which yours truly will be in attendance. For other show dates, check out the group's website.

Article: Jumpin' Jack Colwell

2011-11-16T20:40:00.001+11:00

Jumpin' Jack Colwell

Image taken by Matthew Burgess.

"I’m named after a Rolling Stones song and one of my middle names is Wolfgang."

When a musician lists his type of influences as “quite dark; people like Bridezilla, Nick Cave and early Patrick Wolf”, coupled with the fact that he’s been trained as a classical pianist at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and can also play guitar, double bass, autoharp and pretty much anything else that you can throw at him, you know he’s on track to make something pretty special. The young man I’m referring to is JACK COLWELL, the Sydney-based frontman for indie folk act Jack Colwell & The Owls. Colwell is in the midst of promoting his new single Hopechest and will soon be putting it on display for audiences to hear in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://jackcolwelltheowls.bandcamp.com/album/hopechest-single"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Hopechest - Single by Jack Colwell &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; The OWLS&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Given his classical background, it seems a little odd that Colwell is gracing the stages of intimate pubs instead of lavish concert halls. “Well, I wasn’t that good at writing classical pieces,” he offers. “I was okay, but I knew a lot of people who were better. [From a young age] I found it really easy to write songs. I’m even named after a Rolling Stones song, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and one of my middle names is Wolfgang, which my Mum gave me after her favourite composer Mozart. So even in my name there’s a marriage between the two genres.”

Adapting genres and making them his own seems to be a bit of a trademark for Colwell, whose new single is a reworking of a song written in the ‘60s by an obscure English folk singer. “The song is an adaptation of a Vashti Bunyan song called Diamond Day,” he explains. “These days to do a rework of a song, certainly in terms of classical music – it’s not a big deal. Classical composers use themes from other people’s music to echo an idea but then take the idea further.” A technique another of Colwell’s idols, Tori Amos, has also employed on her latest album. He continues, “The melody from Diamond Day is used in Hopechest in order to echo that traditional English folk heritage, which is what my background is – being English and Welsh – but then it takes it into a view of my own.”

Normally Colwell plays live accompanied by a talented backing band, but for his upcoming Canberra show he’ll be treating fans in the capital to a special, one of a kind solo performance. “They’ll probably hear a mix of older and new material, rather than just the stuff that’ll be coming out next year on my debut album Picture Window,” he says. “I think doing a solo show is probably one of the scariest things you can do because it’s just so much about you. For a very long time I didn’t really believe in myself as a solo player. But since having a successful run with the band shows, that gave me the power back in myself to have that presence for a solo show and to really make sure that when I was singing these songs I really believed in what I was singing.”

Jack Colwell and his Owls will be launching Hopechest over the coming weeks in three shows on the east coast. For show and ticket details, check out the poster below.

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If you'd like an idea of what a Jack Colwell and The Owls live show is like, get a glimpse with the following video - taken at his recent show at Sydney venue FBI Social:

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/center&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;g/" style="display: block; heigmp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Article: Saint Nick

2011-10-28T09:25:00.001+11:00

Saint Nick

Nick Cave, shot by Steve Double in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1994.

"My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race."

A few months ago I stumbled upon a video on YouTube that I didn’t know much about other than the title, which, for reasons you’ll soon discover, immediately caught my eye. It was called The Ship Song Project; a video promoting the Sydney Opera House. Once I clicked play it took exactly 14 seconds for the goosebumps to set in. The reason? None other than Neil Finn himself emerged from the shadows and began to caress those memorable piano chords which kick off one of NICK CAVE’s most beautiful tracks, The Ship Song. The video then goes on to feature cameos from some huge names in music and the arts – Sarah Blasko, Paul Kelly, Katie Noonan and Daniel Johns, to name just a few. All joined together in their love for the iconic venue and all paying tribute to one of Australia’s most treasured songwriters.

The stars must have recently aligned for the seasoned singer; people from all corners are suddenly rushing to recognise and pay tribute to his inimitable musical genius. triple j has also hopped on board, organising a series of concerts in November which will feature some high class local talent reinterpreting Cave’s extensive catalogue of work.

It would be fair to say that I am a devotee of Mr Cave. He is currently and will undoubtedly remain my most played Australian artist. I’ve elbowed and pushed my way to the front of moshpits just to get the chance to reach for his skinny, outstretched arm live in concert. I attended the same exhibition featuring Cave keepsakes in two different states. His striking visage adorns the wall of my apartment. I even once went as far as donning a cheap suit and slicking my then-shoulder length hair back in classic Cave style to attend a rock star-themed party. But what is it about the Warracknabeal, Victoria native that inspires such fervent adulation and loyalty from his followers? “Yeah, and why all the tributes?” I hear you chip in. Well, dear reader, to begin with, the contribution he has made to Australian culture at large (and I’m not just talking rock ‘n’ roll – he’s an acclaimed film score composer and published novelist as well) over the better part of the last four decades is unparalleled and invaluable. Let me explain.

Cave has played in a number of bands over the years. Rather than impart a tidbit about each, I’d like to focus mainly on the band that led me to him and that I hold closest to my heart: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Born from the ashes of Cave’s high school post-punk band The Birthday Party in 1983, the Seeds are still going strong to this day – a whopping 28 years and 14 studio albums later.

The Bad Seeds have never really flirted with commercial success; they’ve never needed to. The closest they’ve come was on 1996’s Murder Ballads, which included a bewitching duet with pop princess Kylie Minogue entitled Where The Wild Roses Grow. It was around this time that Cave coincidentally also received a nomination from the MTV Awards for Best Male Artist. He famously wrote to thank them for but politely refuse the nomination. Here is an excerpt from that letter:

“[My muse] comes to me with the gift of song and in return I treat her with the respect I feel she deserves – in this case this means not subjecting her to the indignities of judgement and competition. My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel – this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!”

He also stated “I am in competition with no one” which, taken out of context, could be interpreted as pretentious – but it’s true. Who else can do what Nick Cave does? Show me a man who in one song can embody a rabid and rampaging priest spitting fire over his cowering congregation while in the next sings a low-key and mournful ballad about love and loss. There is a Bad Seeds song for every mood, ranging in style from big band to gospel, clattering rock ‘n’ roll to sweet piano lullabies. The one thread that binds them all together is Cave’s wonderfully expressive and deep voice and his always highly intelligent and vividly descriptive lyrics.

There is something about Nick Cave that drew me in, an elusive spark that I’ve found difficult to clearly pinpoint for the purposes of this article. Everything about him I am drawn to. He exudes charisma and confidence in spades and his opinions are for the most part cheeky and anti-establishment. He has a wicked sense of humour that only seems to grow more crude and inappropriate with each passing year (his latest novel The Death of Bunny Munro features countless references to female genitalia and Worm Tamer, the second track of his latest album with Bad Seeds offshoot act Grinderman, features the charming line “My baby calls me the Loch Ness Monster / Two great big humps and then I’m gone”). But perhaps the thing I appreciate most about Nick is that he is an Australian who has built and maintained a long and internationally successful career in music whilst never deviating from his steadfast commitment to artistic integrity. His accomplishments rightly deserve to be celebrated. And with middle age showing no signs of wearying him, his best work may still be yet to come.

Straight To You: triple j’s tribute to Nick Cave features artists such as Bertie Blackman, Adalita and Tim Rogers and will be heading around the country during November. Show and ticket info is available on the triple j website.
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Now take a step back in time to 1996 and check out Nick and Kylie make eyes at each other in the vid for Where The Wild Roses Grow below.

Article: Easy To Love

2011-09-15T10:48:00.000+10:00

Easy To Love

"Whenever we write a new song it always feels like we’re getting better."

It’s not every day that the pathways leading to a major stage at the Splendour in the Grass festival are forcibly closed due to crowd congestion, least of all at three o’clock in the afternoon. But, lo and behold, that’s what took place earlier this year as frenzied festival-goers flocked to the GW McLennan tent, climbing over one another to get a glimpse of emerging young Sydney band THE JEZABELS.

“It was pretty fun. I couldn’t really tell how many people were there, but apparently it was really packed,” says a charmingly modest Heather Shannon, the quartet’s keyboardist and synth player. “I don’t know how many people the tent holds but apparently the crowd was kind of spilling out the back, so I guess if you include all those people it probably would have been one of the biggest [gigs we’ve ever played].”

A small taste of the packed out GW McLennan tent at Splendour in the Grass 2011. Photo care of Cassandra Hannagan / The AU Review.
Starting off her career as a classically trained pianist in Byron Bay, it was at university in Sydney where Shannon’s musical course changed slightly, teaming up with fellow Byron local Hayley Mary (vocals) and new friends Sam Lockwood (guitars) and Nik Kaloper (drums) to form a band. For someone more accustomed to Conservatoriums and Chopin, the indie rock scene Shannon now found herself a part of took some getting used to. “I found it a bit of a challenge at first to play and write pop music because it was something that I’d never really done before,” she says. “It was a pretty weird transition really, because I finished uni and I’d been playing in recitals and then straight away we were on tour around the world and playing in a band. That was very strange, actually.”

Another challenge presented itself in the band room; that of melding the eclectic influences of the collective and producing something resembling a cohesive sound. “Naturally I would, through my influences, play some particular harmonies or sounds that have got a classical sound. Hayley’s always liked pop music, Nik was in a metal band and Sam used to play a lot of country stuff, so we’ve all got our differences,” she explains. As for smoothing out any stylistic creases, compromise proved to be the key. “I think everyone ends up with a part they like. We just have to make sure that the parts work together.”

The band shot to fame after their music was featured on the triple j Unearthed website and were subsequently selected to play a spot at the Field Day festival in early 2010. But Shannon offers a possible alternative explanation for the group’s sudden far-reaching exposure. “There’s a video online that a guy called Danny MacAskill did on his BMX and he’s quite well known in that world of BMXing,” she explains. “He used one of our songs as the backing track and it’s had a million views worldwide, so wherever we go there’s always people at the gigs like ‘oh I heard that song in the Danny MacAskill video’. I think that’s been one of the biggest reasons why we’ve had a crowd overseas, just that video alone.”

BMX videos aside, the main drawcard for those clambering to get to a Jezabels show is the vibrancy, originality and sincerity of their music. The band has released three highly acclaimed EPs to date – The Man Is Dead, She’s So Hard and Dark Storm – and has enjoyed high rotation on radio with sprawling singles like Hurt Me, Easy To Love and Mace Spray. Now it’s finally come time for the release of the group’s debut album, Prisoner, and interestingly none of the previous hits make an appearance on the track listing.

“We just felt it was a bit pointless to re-release a song that’s already been released,” explains Shannon. “Mace Spray has already had lots of radio play and so have Hurt Me and Easy To Love, so we didn’t think there was any point because people had already heard it and it was kind of old news. We wanted to challenge ourselves to try and write new stuff and I think whenever we write a new song it always feels like we’re getting better, so I guess we felt we’d be able to write better stuff.”

Another talking point about the new album is that despite significant interest from a variety of major record labels, the band decided to stick to their DIY guns and release Prisoner independently. “We went through a period of a whole lot of meetings, meeting labels in Australia, but by the time that had happened we’d already established quite a big fan-base so the interest from those people came sort of late for us,” says Shannon. “We’d already toured a lot in the cities and rurally as well, so people already knew us and we felt like at the time we couldn’t get anything out of signing with anybody.”

As for what concert attendees can expect on the upcoming Prisoner tour around the country, Shannon plays her cards close to her chest. “It’s kind of a weird thing to think about because you spend all your time thinking about how you can make it sound good and then you’ve got to think about actually ‘oh my god, this stage is so big and there’s the four of us’ so you’ve got to make it look nice,” she says. “I think people can expect that there’ll be a really good show.”

Prisoner will be released in Australia tomorrow. For details about The Jezabels' upcoming national tour, head over to their website.

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And while you're here, have a gander at the video for Prisoner's lead single Endless Summer below.

Article: Mirrored Reflections

2011-08-19T10:44:00.000+10:00

Mirrored Reflections

"I’m like ‘dude, don’t worry, I’m fine. I’ve been nude in front of people before, not that often, but it’s okay’."

Were he not already an extraordinarily talented musician, I’m confident there’d be a career waiting for Wally De Backer in the circus. The man otherwise known as GOTYE has displayed the traits of a seasoned all-round circus performer. With a penchant for juggling two different musical acts and recently proving he looks damn good covered head to toe in body paint, De Backer wouldn’t look out of place at a Cirque du Soleil show. Since the last time we spoke, which was way back in 2007 to discuss his breakout masterpiece Like Drawing Blood, the Victorian-based independent artist has gone on to win an ARIA Award, garner the #11 spot in triple j’s countdown of the Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time and, most recently, pack out a stage at Splendour in the Grass. He also somehow finds time to write and tour with his other, less well known ‘60s rock-inspired band The Basics. How on earth does he manage to squeeze talking with journalists into his busy schedule? He multi-tasks, of course.

“I’m actually still at the post office,” admits De Backer, between issuing instructions to an unwitting Australia Post employee. “I’m just trying to Express Post proofs to the UK to get my vinyl finished on time.” The vinyl he’s referring to contains the long-awaited third Gotye album Making Mirrors, something a sizeable portion of his ever-growing fan-base has been waiting on with bated breath for the last five years. There’s the parts you’re probably already familiar with; the Winton Musical Fence-sampling dystopian lamentations of Eyes Wide Open and the beautiful new break-up single Somebody That I Used To Know, which is currently going gangbusters on radio and online (Ashton Kutcher tweeted about it, srsly). But there’s also a slew of yet to be discovered gems, including upbeat and infectiously catchy soul song I Feel Better and State of The Art, a vocally warped love letter to an antique organ.

Juggling apples: easier than juggling bands. / Photo care of FasterLouder.
De Backer appears to have struck a universal nerve with Somebody That I Used To Know, which sees him share vocal duties with up and coming Kiwi singer Kimbra. “It seemed to go down really well with the audience,” he says of the reception the song received at Splendour a few weeks back. “My sound guy clocked them at 115 dBA which is like ten decibels shy of a jumbo jet flying ten metres overhead.” Talk about an enthusiastic response!

One of the reasons the song has soared in popularity is the stunning (and quite revealing) video that accompanies it. With a reputation for producing primarily animated clips, it comes as somewhat a surprise when the camera pans up on what is eventually revealed to be De Backer’s bare thigh. Over the course of the video both he and Kimbra are painstakingly painted from head to foot in a kaleidoscope of colours, a feat which took two very long days of filming to achieve. “There was a bit of deep pain there,” he reveals. “I’ve got a little bit of a bad back so that doesn’t help standing straight for six hours trying not to move. I had moments where I was like ‘okay, this is such a simple thing but man, I’m ready to scream’. But on reflection it was definitely worth it; it proved to be a great clip and it wasn’t so tough in the end. I’d do it again,” he laughs.

What of the fact that he had to stand almost naked in front of a group of people for prolonged periods – surely that must have been a confronting experience? “It felt more awkward for a few people around actually. I cut part of my underpants to gaffa tape them around the part of my leg that’s used in the first shot. Generally over the course of doing those shots the gaffa tape and my underpants would always be flapping open and I was just like ‘oh it’s not even worth bothering. I’m not embarrassed, you know. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before.’ But the cinematographer would come up and give me some more tape and was like ‘you just take the time you need to be comfortable’ and I’m like ‘dude, don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s alright, I’ve been nude in front of people before, not that often, but it’s okay’,” he giggles.

Try as he might, De Backer’s secondary musical project The Basics has yet to rival the success of his solo work. His steadfast commitment to long-term bandmates Tim Heath and Kris Schroeder is admirable, but likely one of the main causes of the lengthy delay between Gotye albums. But, to his defence, De Backer chips in that Gotye wasn’t completely forgotten in the interim. “I only got a chance to find a way to release Like Drawing Blood in Europe and Japan two years after it came out in Australia,” he explains. “On some level I felt like I was actually still busy with it and was doing active things for Gotye even though in Australia it would have been like I was just off the scene and completely absent.”

De Backer is set to make up for any perceived absence from the Australian music scene over the coming months, as he heads out on tour to delight the nation with new material. So far he’s managed to sell out multiple shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane; an impressive feat. Before we part ways I chide him into pledging that next time it won’t be as long between drinks for Gotye. “I would hope that even if this record goes crazy which, based on how things are going, it seems like it might have the chance to do, that it wouldn’t be five years before I put out another Gotye record,” he laughs. Everyone at these upcoming sold out shows is going to hold you to that, Wally. No pressure.

For details about Gotye's string of upcoming sold out shows, make sure to head over to the man's website.

Article: On The Lamb

2011-06-20T11:46:00.001+10:00

On The Lamb

“It was almost like Lamb came into the room without us even planning it."”
No, not Gwen Stefani’s fashion label. LAMB, as in the modest Mancunian drum ‘n’ bass duo who gained attention in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s with heartbreakingly beautiful tracks like Gorecki and Gabriel. Still not ringing any bells? Well, you could be forgiven for having a mental blank because as a unit the pair have largely been absent from the music scene ever since their 2004 split. It took a five year hiatus, three solo albums and a lot of soul searching for singer Lou Rhodes and programmer/beat maker Andy Barlow to reconvene and resume touring. Finally this year has seen the release of 5, the group’s fifth album and follow up to 2003’s Between Darkness and Wonder.

But before we talk about that, let’s jet back in time a little to late December 2009. Your writer was in attendance at Melbourne’s Prince of Wales hotel as an enthusiastic Rhodes and Barlow took to the venue’s cramped stage for one of their first Australian shows since the split. The pair played their opening song and afterwards were met with a deafening roar that lasted at least a minute, leaving the band gobsmacked and unable to continue until the ruckus had receded. I put it to Rhodes that moments like that must have made her and Barlow think ‘why on earth did we ever stop?’

“Gosh,” she laughs, “I think you’re lost for words at those kinds of moments. It’s just amazing when you get that kind of response. It’s like ‘wow... I’m just going to have to take this for a while.’” But, as happened at the show in question, it doesn’t take long for Rhodes to get back on point.

Despite the sort of rapturous reception they received from audiences, she continues “we’re both glad that we did split because I think we’ve come to a really good place as a result of that time apart. We’d come to the end of a chapter for Lamb back in 2004. We’d had ten years, four albums and our relationship had become a bit frayed.” In addition to the pair’s inner tension, they also faced mounting outside pressures from their record label Mercury (a subsidiary of Universal) to release more commercial sounding music.

Rhodes admits that she had been longing for a change in musical direction, but not quite the shift their record label was after. “By that time I was really aching to make acoustic music,” she explains. “I guess I was trying to pull Lamb in that direction and in retrospect that just doesn’t work. Lamb isn’t about that. So I was able to go off and do my solo records and tour acoustically and fulfil that need. It means that [now] Lamb can be Lamb.”

During their time apart, Rhodes wasn’t the only one keeping busy. Despite the fact that he was quite devastated by the break up (“he was so used to being ‘Andy from Lamb’ that when Lamb split he didn’t know who he was, in a way”), Barlow travelled, became a father and worked on his own solo project as well as producing other records. Following a string of ‘one off’ reunion shows in 2009, Barlow offered to assist Rhodes with the recording of her latest solo album, One Good Thing, at his home studio. “It became obvious that he was quite a changed man in a lot of ways,” she says. “That was a really positive process and part of the deal was that I agreed that I would sing on one or two songs for his Lowb project. That led to us working on Strong The Root, which of course became one of the songs on 5 and the process of working on that – it was almost like Lamb came into the room without us even planning it.”

Not long after, the pair had a fateful phone conversation which Rhodes remembers was the catalyst to the band’s reformation. “He was like ‘you know Lou, I really miss Lamb. Give me one good reason why we shouldn’t make another album’,” she explains. “And I tried to think of a reason, but I couldn’t. Then we decided we’d get back into the studio and see how it went and of course we had Strong The Root anyway, because it really did feel like a Lamb song. So that was the beginning, really.”

The break from Lamb inspired a renewed vigour for working with Barlow, though not all the songwriting came easy to Rhodes. The lyrics booklet for 5 details her constant struggle with writer’s block. “The whole album was overcoming that, really,” she says. “My history as a songwriter has been mostly writing love songs and I came to a point that I was so disillusioned with love that it wasn’t my muse anymore and failing that I didn’t know what to write about. A lot of the songs was me sitting there going ‘oh I don’t know what to write’ and Andy going ‘well... get on with it!’” she laughs. “He doesn’t mess around, you know. He doesn’t indulge my struggles at all. It was really interesting for me to challenge myself beyond my comfort zone and I really like the result.”

On the subject of the future, Rhodes isn’t one to peer too deep into the crystal ball. “I would like there to be more Lamb albums,” she says, “[but] I’d also like to do another solo album before too long. What I’ve learnt is that I love Lamb for what Lamb is; the amazing programmed stuff and the sub-bass and the power behind it and all of that but I love making acoustic music as well, so it’s really good to feed both of those needs. I don’t know what the future holds – it’s all open and I think that’s the way I like it, I like to not necessarily have the next few years charted out and just let it happen.”

Lamb currently don’t have any plans to tour Oz (they were just here in February) but Rhodes says “I don’t think you can keep us away for long.” In the meantime, enjoy their excellent new release 5, which is available from all good record stores.

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Have a listen to one of 5's many standouts, Build a Fire.

Remembering Jeff Buckley, fourteen years on.

2011-05-29T23:15:00.000+10:00

So last year I made a promise to myself that one year from that day I'd have the following picture framed and on my wall.

Well, I managed to half fulfill that promise. I have the framed picture, but just don't have a wall to hang it on at the moment. But that will change soon (hopefully) when Matt and I find a place to live in Sydney.

One bottle of red down, contemplating whether or not to start on a second and the main thing that comes to mind when I think about Jeff this year is the impending biopic. Will it be any good? The last update I've heard is that Jake Scott (son of Ridley) is taking on directing duties. The guy has pretty awesome music video chops - he lists R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts, Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees, Tori Amos' Past The Mission and The Smashing Pumpkins' Disarm videos on his resume, so he obviously has good taste.

There's been a bit of speculation about who will play the lead role. Most recently I've heard rumours that Reeve Carney (the lead in the Spiderman musical on Broadway, which, not to brag, Matt and I just recently saw) is a contender. He's got the looks, he's got the voice, he's relatively unknown... it could work. What do you think?

Article: Rangas Unite

2010-10-22T09:28:00.000+11:00

Rangas Unite

“I can’t live without ARIAs! We’ve only got two – I need at least 24 more before I mean anything.”
CLARE BOWDITCH must be some kind of superwoman. There’s no other possible explanation for how the gorgeous redhead finds the time not only to write and tour her beautifully crafted albums, but question senior political figures on a variety of important social issues in her spare time and, on top of that, raise a family of three young children. Clare squeezed me in between loads of washing to discuss politics, technology, her stunning new album Modern Day Addiction and the three ARIA nominations she’s received because of it.

Bowditch, like many of us, was swept up by the soap opera that was this year’s federal election. Some of her more casual fans might be surprised to hear that her recent pre-election appearance on popular ABC panel programme Q&A, voicing her opinion on topics including the proposed mining tax, wasn’t Clare’s first public foray into the political domain. She has somewhat of a history of hobnobbing with political leaders; pressing former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks for an increase to arts funding over afternoon tea a few years ago and, more recently, conducting an hour long interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard for MySpace. So, did she convince the PM to really open up, one ranga to another?

“She’s a very clever communicator,” Clare reveals. “But she was tired and it was a long interview. There were a few points where she veered onto the party line [but] I got a hopeful glimpse of who she is and it was enough for me to not feel as despairing as I had going into the election.”

After tackling more serious issues like mental health and gay marriage, the interview took on a lighter tone when the PM dished out a master class in her famous ‘karate hands’ manoeuvre. Clare is clearly an avid student, as evidenced by her near perfect impersonation of Gillard on Good News Week.

Karate CHOP!
With her powerful singing voice, red hair and ability to impersonate Gillard’s voice and mannerisms, I put it to Clare that come the end of Gillard’s reign in The Lodge, whenever that may be, there would be no person more suited to play the role of the PM in a politically inspired production in the same vein as Keating! The Musical than her. She agrees, laughing, “Look, I might ring Casey Bennetto personally and put that to him because,” she says, pausing to put on her best Gillard voice, “I think you’ve got a point.”

While on the subject of politics, the conversation veers to fellow musician turned Environment Minister, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett. “I have some sympathy and compassion for Garrett and the situation that he’s in, where he’s gone in there and attempted to change it from the inside,” Clare says. “It’s been a problematic transition, a lot of people feel he’s lost his voice, but as a human being he was attempting to do something substantial, so I admire that.”

And given her own political interest, would Bowditch ever entertain the idea of running for Parliament herself? “I would consider running as an independent at some later stage in my life,” she concedes. “If I really felt strongly about it and wanted to basically give up my life, because that’s what it comes down to. But right now I am too enthralled with my children, my husband, my songwriting and my fun to consider that.”

One slightly less demanding activity Clare does manage to fit into her busy schedule is time to connect with her fans via Twitter. “I spend a few moments of concentrated effort on Twitter every day,” she says. “If I have a thought or see something that inspires me, I want to pass it on and that’s what Twitter is incredible for.” Though she does admit that it’s easy to become addicted. “I’ve had times where I’ve really got hooked into using it constantly. So it can spin into a modern day addiction in five minutes flat.”

While I congratulate her on a magnificent lead in to talking about her new album (“What a segue,” she exclaims. “Woo!”), Clare elaborates on the experiment that she and her bandmates undertook to explore the themes on Modern Day Addiction. “I gave up technology after hours, so [part] of that was Twitter and I was challenged to the max. It was the same week I was invited to interview the PM – I wanted to make the most thorough set of discussion topics that I could and it was a real challenge because my nights are the time where I catch up on my work.”

All of Clare’s hard work on Modern Day Addiction appears to now be paying off, as she recently scored three nominations for the upcoming ARIA Awards. I begin to question her about how important such awards are, but before I can finish my sentence she jumps in, interrupting and shouting “Imperative! Imperative! I can’t live without ARIAs!” she laughs. “More, more, more! We’ve only got two in our family – I need at least 24 more before I mean anything.”

Jokes aside, one of the more serious aspects of the ARIAs is the red carpet fashion. Last year Clare turned up to the awards wearing a dress entirely made out of garbage bags, in an attempt to draw attention to environmental issues. “I dressed up as Lady Bowdo, my superego,” Clare smirks. “I think that went down pretty well.” I enquire as to whether she might take a leaf out of Lady Gaga’s book for this year’s event and wear something from her local deli instead. “I was going to do a sausage dress,” she responds. “But no, Gaga beat me to it. Fuckin’ Gaga – always in my way.” Though perhaps, given the balancing act she performs between being a musician, a political commentator and a mother, a more appropriate choice of attire would be the cape of a superhero.

Lady Bowdo: cleaning up red carpets everywhere.
Clare Bowditch and the New Slang are currently touring around the country, including stops in Sydney at The Metro Theatre on Saturday October 23, Canberra at Stonefest at the UC on Saturday October 30 and in Melbourne at The Forum Theatre on Monday November 1.

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Have a listen to Clare's awesomely catchy The Start of War below.

Gig review: Sarah Blasko at the Palais Theatre - 8 October 2010

2010-10-14T15:38:00.003+11:00

Photo care of FasterLouder.
If the reception for opening act Seja was anything to go by, fans of Sarah Blasko must be a pretty timid bunch. Either that or the three-piece dream pop outfit from Brisbane aren’t used to playing in front of such politely quiet and attentive audiences. The Palais itself is a grand venue; its expansiveness and vintage charm obviously striking a chord with frontwoman Seja Vogel as she remarked “it’s nice not having to play to a room full of bogans for once.” The silence that followed the restrained applause after each of the songs in the group’s half hour plus set eventually got to be a bit too much for the wistful Vogel, who pleaded for the crowd to make themselves known – even if it meant aiming a few profanities in her direction.

Using profanities would be a tad harsh to describe Seja’s performance, however – the band provided a pleasant entree to Blasko’s main course. At times the songs could venture into the territory of synthesizer overload (yes, there is such a thing) but the late addition of electric guitars into the mix saved the day. The two instruments fused together in perfect harmony to create a fuller and more commanding sound.

Seja: moar guitars plz. / Photo care of Naomi Rahim from The AU Review.
The menacing tones of Portishead’s Third then played over the sound system as the stage was readied for the arrival of Sarah and her six-piece backing band. As the volume and intensity of opening track Silence grew, so did the anticipation for the main event. Blasko glided onto stage in a loose-fitting silky white number, decked out with large multi-coloured beads both around her neck and in her hair, complementing those lining the microphone stand nicely.

Double rainbow beads: so intense. / Photo care of FasterLouder.
One of Blasko’s older tracks, All Coming Back, proved to be an early highlight; the beguiling singer rocking back and forth with an almost deranged look in her eye, such was the intensity of her delivery. This commitment to the material proved to be a theme throughout the night – as an observer, it was truly captivating to watch Sarah completely immerse herself in the performance, pausing for air only briefly between songs before diving back in for more.

Singing is serious business. / Photo care of FasterLouder.
She was sans instrument for the majority of the show, with the exception of a brief spell seated at the piano – but this proved to be an advantage. Her voice soared, it is the ultimate instrument; versatile, powerful enough to reverberate throughout every corner of the vast theatre, yet delicate enough to be reined in and whispered when required.

Not being tied to an instrument also gave Sarah the chance to roam free about the stage, engaging in the odd dance routine when the mood invited it. Hold On My Heart saw her cantering on the spot, while the rolling drum fills of Over and Over inspired some military-style marching.

As a counter to the intensity on display during her songs, Blasko was nothing short of adorable when addressing the crowd in the breaks. She apologised for forgetting some lyrics during We Won’t Run, blaming jetlag – though if she hadn’t mentioned it, I highly doubt anyone in the lovestruck audience would have noticed.

Next up Blasko claimed we were in for a treat – the very last time she would perform the Cold Chisel classic Flame Trees in Melbourne. By saying that, she proceeded to jinx herself and forgot a few lines halfway, giggling and struggling to regain her place. As penance for the mistake, she half-heartedly committed to “maybe” owing us another performance somewhere down the track. Here’s hoping she honours that commitment, as she performs a truly stunning rendition.

The band then churned out a foot-stomping, bass-driven version of No Turning Back to close out the main set. A rapturous ovation ensued and the group returned to the stage to perform two additional songs for the encore – Down On Love and the spirited lead single from Blasko’s second album, Explain. Between the songs Sarah explained that she’d had grand visions of finishing the show with a bubble machine showering the stage, but she had set her sights a little too high and had to settle for a rather petit-looking bubble gun instead. She apologised, conceding it was “a bit pathetic,” but really Sarah – when you have a voice and stage presence like you do, who needs gimmicks?

Death by bubbles. / Photo care of Naomi Rahim from The AU Review.
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This post was originally published by The AU Review. I have a profile at The AU Review here.

Article: Junip It In The Bud

2010-09-29T23:34:00.000+10:00

Junip It In The Bud

“It’s nice to have this other band apart from my solo stuff.”
I daresay you might be familiar with the work of José González. The soft singing Swede rose to prominence in 2005 on the back of his particular brand of sweet acoustic folk, his stunning rendition of compatriot act The Knife’s track Heartbeats and, later, the seminal trip-hop classic Teardrop by Massive Attack. What you might not know is that prior to achieving this solo success, González and two friends – Tobias Winterkorn (keys) and Elias Araya (drums) – played together in a band called JUNIP. The band’s formation dates back to the late ‘90s, yet it is only now, over a decade later, that the group have finally released their debut LP Fields and are set to tour the upcoming summer festival circuit. I was lucky enough to get a chance to quiz both González and Winterkorn about what took them so long to get organised.

“In 2000 we released one 7” and we recorded a full length that we sent out to some labels [but] didn’t get that much attention,” González explains. “Then I started my solo stuff in 2003.” Between González’s solo commitments, the trio tried on several occasions to devote more attention to Junip, with varying degrees of success. An EP titled Black Refuge was released in 2005 but the band’s momentum was again stalled by competing priorities. “Elias went to study art in Finland and Norway and you, Tobias, you were...” González says, trailing off, waiting for his partner to chip in. “I was studying and working as a teacher and raising a family,” Winterkorn concludes.

Sensing that his bandmates may have felt left behind in the wake of González’s burgeoning solo career, I probe Winterkorn about any bitterness or resentment he may have experienced while biding his time on the sideline. “I was really proud of his success and I don’t feel anger or nothing like that,” Winterkorn says, dismissing any hint of negativity. “Sometimes I almost felt like a little jealous because I also wanted [success], but then I could be jealous of every artist who’s made it in the world.”

Given González’s successful solo career – which has seen him contribute guest vocals alongside our own Sia Furler on UK downtempo act Zero 7’s 2006 LP The Garden and on a cover of Nick Drake’s Cello Song with The Books on last year’s amazing Dark Was The Night compilation – why dust off Junip? And what differentiates the songs on Fields from those on his solo records? “I always felt like it’s nice to have this other band apart from my solo stuff because I get to do different music,” González says. “The main difference is the music, because the vocals are the same. It’s more fleshed out and the guitar is just a tiny part of the whole sound. There’s more variation with Junip compared to my own songs, a lot more things happening.”

Junip are visiting Australia for the upcoming summer festival circuit, including appearances at the Falls, Southbound and Sunset Sounds festivals.

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Have a listen to Junip's awesome track Always below.

Gig review: Washington at The Corner Hotel - 17 September 2010

2010-09-28T14:30:00.002+10:00

Richmond was buzzing on Friday night as rising star Megan Washington prepared to play the first in a string of an unprecedented five sold out shows at the Corner Hotel.

Kicking off the evening were Winter People, a well-dressed collective who matched duelling violins with sparse, twangy and reverberating guitars to display a flair for the dramatic. Their music shifted between a dark, almost country vibe to delicate ukulele plucking, whistling and hand claps. A very versatile, promising and thoroughly enjoyable young act.

The duelling violins of Winter People.
Next on the bill was Brisbane-based singer Scott Spark, whose soft and heartfelt ballads seemed to get lost amongst the murmurs of a growing yet disinterested audience. He began the set by joking that “I’d like to play a song by Sally Seltmann – I think the bitch stole it from me,” before offering up a solid rendition of I’m The Drunk and You’re The Star from Seltmann’s New Buffalo back catalogue. Spark’s tunes would be better suited to a more intimate venue like the Toff, which he and band are conveniently returning to later in the month to launch their new album.

It’s clear Dan Kelly is right at home in front of a crowd – he spent a good deal of his time on stage interacting with the audience, offering an insight into the often bizarre stories behind his songs (Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam anyone?). Kelly’s ability to pair such quirky stories to offbeat and whimsical song structures was captivating and a pleasure to witness.

"Every time I look a little sweaty and my hair falls to the left, sing the chorus."
Megan Washington has come a long way since making Alan Brough (and most of the nation) cry with her beautiful cover versions on Spicks and Specks. Tender ballads are still an important part of her repertoire, but her debut album I Believe You Liar is jam-packed with fun, upbeat pop songs that make you want to dance. And despite her “I don’t wanna dance with you” quip in single Rich Kids, the packed out Corner Hotel was certainly ready to dance with Megan Washington and her band.

...okay, I'll dance with you.
Those in attendance were treated to an energetic performance, as Washington bashed away at the keys and belted out lyrics with a huge grin, obviously very humbled and appreciative of the reception she was receiving. All the hits were included – Sunday Best, Clementine and How To Tame Lions to name a few – as well as some lesser known and new songs like Plastic Bag, whose chorus melody was not dissimilar to peer Laura Marling’s song Rambling Man.

Washington was having so much fun on stage that she decided to play straight through the end of her set instead of leaving and returning for an encore. A rousing cover of The Divinyls’ I Touch Myself and her own Cement brought the night to a satisfying close. One down Megan, four to go.

This post was originally published by The AU Review. All photo credit goes to Anna Palmer. Also, if you're interested, I have a profile at The AU Review here.

Article: In The Loop

2010-09-22T10:14:00.000+10:00

In The Loop

“Pikelets are [best] fresh from the pan, warm with butter on them.”
Over the past few years Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Evelyn Morris, better known by her adorable alias PIKELET, has been toiling away at her craft. With two captivating albums full of thoughtful indie folk gems now under her belt, it appears that Morris’ hard work is beginning to yield results. Her talent for looping instruments and weaving them together to create intricate and swirling layers within her songs has seen her become the support act of choice for many of her international peers – Dirty Projectors, Beirut and Goldfrapp to name a very select and impressive few. On the eve of a national co-headline tour with Sydney act Richard In Your Mind, Morris spoke eagerly with me regarding some of the big names she’s supported, the pros and cons of playing in a band compared to by herself and why she would like you to refrain from bringing pikelets to her show.

With a list of support slots that would make any indie aficionado salivate uncontrollably – if the three listed above weren’t enough, try Devendra Banhart, Kaki King and Patrick Watson – there must have been some surreal ‘pinch me, I can’t believe I’m doing this!’ moments. “Every time I’ve supported someone kind of biggish I’ve had a little freak out about it,” Morris concurs. “The biggest, hardest, most scary one was probably Sufjan Stevens. That was one of the first big supports I did and I had to play to 1,500 people every night. I’d been listening to his records for a while and when we played with him I was a bit of a nervous wreck! The refreshing thing was that he was extremely friendly and would come and hang out in our bandroom.”

The tour Morris is referring to took place in early 2008, back when her live setup consisted of little more than a stool surrounded by a microphone, a guitar, an accordion and other associated paraphernalia. The 2010 Pikelet lineup is somewhat different, to a degree abandoning the looping techniques that Morris is renowned for in favour of a fuller band sound. “I like playing solo because I know my own mind and I can just run with ideas and it all happens really quickly,” she explains. “But there’s heaps about playing with the band that I love too. The idea of creating things with other people is fascinating and it’s heaps more fun on stage. It’s hard to say which I like better.”

Given her band’s culinary association, it would be fair to make the assumption that some diehard fans have turned up to Pikelet shows in the past with offerings of the delicious golden mini-pancakes. Not so, says Morris. “There have been a couple of shows where the organisers have made pikelets, but there’s never been any fans turning up with them. Pikelets are [best] fresh from the pan, warm with butter on them. It’d be kinda funny to bring them to a gig.” There you have it folks – first eat some pikelets at home to warm your stomach and then come and listen to Pikelet’s music to warm your heart.

Article: Until We Meet Again

2010-09-13T23:19:00.000+10:00

Until We Meet Again

“I don’t want to have to perform art in a way that is catering to other people or making concessions.”
Lawrence Greenwood, the charming young man who is the driving force behind Melbourne-based acoustic indie-folk outfit WHITLEY, has decided to call it a day, much to the horror and dismay of his adoring fans. Greenwood has been struggling with the decision for a while now; caught between his desire to follow his calling to create and perform music whilst simultaneously not wanting to perpetuate what is in his mind a deeply flawed and money hungry music industry. Greenwood took some time to speak with me amidst the final Whitley tour about how he managed to come to terms with such a momentous decision.

“Basically there’s just a whole lot of bullshit in the music industry and I’m not really happy with how it all works,” Greenwood states, fairly bluntly. “I have to, for my own sanity, choose between being a musician who busts and tours his ass off to help a system support itself or figure out a way around or out of that system the best way that I can. I just want to write music and I don’t think anything should be compromised for that.”

He goes on to say, “I don’t think I should have to be like a little jukebox, to keep playing and just do one more show or one more tour and management companies, meanwhile, are all walking away with tens of thousands of dollars, smacking their lips and feeling pretty good about themselves. So I suppose in a nutshell – I don’t want to have to perform art in a way that is catering to other people or making concessions.”

Trying to be helpful, I suggest that perhaps Greenwood could follow the example of Amanda Palmer, singer and pianist in punk-cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, who after years of bashing heads with her record label, Roadrunner, is relishing the freedom of having full control over when and how her music is released now that she is an independent artist. He politely stops me, saying, “I’ve got to make it clear – I don’t actually have the shits with my label. They’re a bunch of good people who really care about the music that they release. It just happens that the system that they are working in is something that I’m beginning, as I get older, to not agree with and think that this isn’t actually the most productive route for music to be made.”

“I’ve looked at the independent route, absolutely,” he continues. “I would love to do that but I’ve signed an agreement with a company – that’s been one of the many concessions, I suppose, to try and get my music out to as many people as possible – so I’ve come to terms with the fact that if they want to release more of my records, I have to do that and I will do it. I’m not trying to make this painful, but if I can become independent I would really love that.”

Admittedly prior to this discussion with Greenwood, I couldn’t for the life of me understand the logic behind his decision. The timing of it seemed highly questionable – with two stellar, heartfelt albums under his belt and a solid fan base in tow, why throw it all away? However as he speaks it becomes clear this is not a decision he has made lightly. A man of his integrity and ideals clearly does not fit the mould the music industry wishes to place upon his shoulders. But does this spell the end of Lawrence Greenwood as a recording artist? Not quite. “I’m definitely not quitting music entirely. I don’t think I really could,” he says. Whitley fans can only hope that following this self-imposed break, Greenwood can somehow find a happy medium between the artistic creation and business ends of the music industry.

Article: All She Wants

2010-09-05T11:02:00.001+10:00

All She Wants

“It’s not like I’m not going to be home for years or anything.”
A J Award, two ARIA awards, chart success and critical acclaim; SARAH BLASKO has had it all. Well, everything except international recognition, that is. It could only have been a matter of time before the enchanting Sydney-based singer outgrew the pond that is the Australian music scene and decided to tentatively dip her big toe into untested international waters. Blasko has undergone a sea change in the last year as she attempts to conquer the European market and it is from her new home in London that she chats with me about relocating to the UK, special edition albums, our mutual love of Joanna Newsom and some exciting new projects – including a remix of one of her songs by dance duo The Presets and the creation of an all female ‘supergroup’ alongside Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby.

Blasko reveals the move to London has been on the cards for quite some time, but the opportunity only recently presented itself when her stellar third album, As Day Follows Night, was picked up by English record label Dramatico for widespread distribution across Europe.

“It’s such a weird feeling starting over in all of these different countries,” Blasko says, on the subject of rebuilding her profile from scratch. “There’s so much ground to cover. It’s been really fun but quite a learning experience at the same time.” Rather than view the experience as a laborious task, Blasko manages to put a positive spin on the situation. “It’s quite refreshing because nobody knows who you are or anything about you. I’ve always lived in Sydney and it was just time to live somewhere different and have a different experience.”

Having said that, diehard fans fear not – the lady hasn’t skipped town for good. Come October, Blasko is set to return to our shores to play a string of dates nationwide. To coincide with the tour, a new edition of As Day Follows Night has been released; this time with a bonus live disc of songs performed over two nights at The Forum in Melbourne late last year. “We thought it would be great to have a record of one of the nights,” Blasko explains. “It was a nice thought for me because I’ve never actually released anything live before and I’ve wanted to for a while.”

Avid collectors will note this is not the first time a special edition of As Day Follows Night has been released. An earlier package contained a collection of special artwork cards that revealed an amazing assortment of vibrant colours when brushed with water. Was this innovative and charming idea a ploy to encourage the bit torrent generation to fork out for a physical copy of the album?

“I think that the record label probably feels that way,” Blasko replies matter-of-factly. “I don’t; I feel pretty happy with an album just standing on its own but then at the same time I’m always a sucker for the special edition of something. I just bought Joanna Newsom’s new album today and it was a special edition version.” I frantically try to maintain my composure as one of my favourite Australian female artists casually namedrops one of my favourite American female artists and continues, “I try to think about what I would like if I was really into someone’s music and to me, having a really limited edition thing is just an exciting concept.”

One track noticeably absent from any edition of As Day Follows Night is The Presets’ recent remix of Hold On My Heart. Not exactly known for her music’s ability to pack out nightclub dancefloors, I quiz Blasko on her opinion of the remix and how the collaboration came about. “I heard through friends that The Presets really liked the album and that they were particularly keen to work on the remix for that song,” she explains. “They just went about it and I heard it and it was really different to what I would have expected, because it’s quite different to their sound. It’s very summery and ripe and it’s very danceable.” And would she ever consider a shift from sweet, unassuming indie poster child to electro club diva? “I don’t know,” she laughs. “I think it’s one of those things that you’ve got to feel natural about. I would like to do something different like that.”

Something that has taken Blasko in a different direction is her collaboration with fellow adorable indie pop songstresses Sally Seltmann (formerly known as New Buffalo) and Holly Throsby. Blasko prefers to remain tight-lipped on the subject, offering “it’s kind of a secret, although I think it’s already out there. I don’t want to talk about it too much because I’d ruin the excitement of it later.” She scoffs at the thought of calling the endeavour a ‘supergroup’ (“it’s a bit of a tacky name!”) but does confirm the trio plan to record the album in New York during August and that it will get a release early next year.

The move to London seems to have provided the perfect tonic for Blasko; to have a change of scenery which, in turn, has helped her gain a fresh perspective. When asked whether living in another country has made her nostalgic and long for home, she replies bluntly “not really, no. It just really felt like it was time for me to move and the thing is, with being able to play music in Australia, I’ve got opportunities to keep going back, so it’s not like I’m not going to be home for years or anything.” Thank god for that.

Remembering Jeff Buckley, thirteen years on.

2010-05-30T00:16:00.000+10:00

There's nothing I can think of that I'd rather do each year on Saturday May 29 than pour a few glasses of red and listen to Jeff Buckley and smile, laugh and cry. I've been loving the man for ten years now and I can guarantee I'll still love him on the day I die.

Jeff, next year, I promise I will have this picture framed and on my wall. Love.

Article: All Star Cast

2010-04-08T23:14:00.000+10:00

All Star Cast

“We hate being grouped under that term of trip-hop.”
It’s not often that opportunities arise to pick the brains of a member of one of the groups that defined a musical genre. Trip-hop being said genre and Grant Marshall, aka Daddy G of seminal UK outfit MASSIVE ATTACK, being the man in question. Though he and fellow core contributor Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja led the way (along with fellow Bristolians Portishead) in the early ‘90s in the field of downtempo electronica, Marshall reveals that these days he is quick to distance himself from the term.

“We hate being grouped under that term of trip-hop because it seems like you’ve pigeonholed our activities and how we approach music,” he says. “Music’s a set of numbers – it gets redefined every now and then [but] it’s already set in stone what music really is. People sometimes come up with different definitions of sticking those numbers together and that’s what happened with us to a certain extent. We’re still up for learning lots of stuff in the studio and for a lot more experimentation.”

It was in this spirit of experimentation and innovation that the band regrouped after a seven year hiatus and released their highly anticipated album Heligoland. Named after a German archipelago in the North Sea (“It’s something that D read in books,” says Marshall. “He was drawn to it and we liked the sound of the word. There’s no real deep meaning behind it.”), the group’s fifth major studio release is a stark contrast to its predecessor, 100th Window. “100th Window was quite a hard album to digest, really,” he admits. “It’s an album with a lot of little sound effects all over the shop. This is more simple and stripped back and the songs hit you straight and direct.”

Heligoland continues Massive Attack’s longstanding tradition of collaborating with a string of amazing guest vocalists. Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Tunde Adebimpe (TV On The Radio), Guy Garvey (Elbow) and Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) all feature in what could only be described as an all star cast. Of working with such high profile musicians, Marshall says “they’re stars in their own right. With us, it’s really simple; we just go back to when we were DJs and we were playing these people’s records – people like Sinead O’Connor and Elizabeth Fraser. Working with them has been a godsend because we’re big fans and we knocked at their door for help to make the record, to come on board with collaborations and they have.” He notes that a number of the singers the band has been friends with for years, aiding the ease of the collaboration, adding that “it’s been more of a family occasion, this time around. Intimate’s the word.”

One of the most intimate and haunting tracks from Heligoland is Hope Sandoval’s contribution, Paradise Circus. “That’s a really weird one actually, because that is the only collaboration we’ve had that wasn’t an actual face to face,” says Marshall, discussing how the track came into existence. “That was done through the powers of electronics! We originally had quite an orchestral line but trimmed it right down and sent it to Hope because we love all the stuff that she did with Mazzy Star and she’s got this amazing voice. She added a sentiment to it that we love. Turned out to be something quite beautiful, really.”

An important part of the mystique surrounding the band over the years has been the compelling visuals that accompany the music. From the iconic shot in one take Unfinished Sympathy to a singing foetus in the womb in Teardrop, Massive Attack’s videos have always been eye-catching and the most recent Heligoland productions are no exception. The very NSFW Paradise Circus clip showcases an interview with a retired porn star, interspersed with scenes from her glory days, and Splitting The Atom features an incredible journey through a computer generated city frozen in time in a moment of destruction. “We’ve made some amazing videos in the past but they’ve cost millions of pounds to make and those days are gone,” says Marshall. “It was a case of saying to certain producers, ‘listen, we’ll give you literally a tenth of that budget and can you make a video from that?’ and this [the video for Splitting The Atom] is the outcome we get. The less the budget, the more creative the videos are, it seems.”

Given that the group have now been in the public domain for close to two decades and have achieved global acclaim and recognition (Teardrop is the theme tune to TV’s House), it’s refreshing to see that fame hasn’t gone to Marshall’s head. “With tunes like Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop, you kind of know in your mind’s eye that something special is going on,” he muses. “When you work with someone like Liz Fraser [who sings on Teardrop, in addition to a number of other Massive Attack tracks], you think there’s something special going on whatever song she’s on. So we never thought that would have such an impact, no. You put something out into the public domain and you don’t know what impact it’s going to have until you actually let it go.” Given the group’s track record and the calibre of its guest vocalists, anything they decide to “let go” into the world will almost certainly be an instant classic.

SONG OF THE MOMENT: Massive Attack - Paradise Circus

2010-03-02T23:55:00.000+11:00

Massive Attack are one of the few groups in my musical collection that have been around long enough and have churned out a consistently compelling body of work that I don't find it too difficult to take a leap of faith when a new album of theirs is released and go in blind (or deaf, as the case may be) and buy it without listening to it beforehand. On first listen to Heligoland, the group's fifth and latest studio release, I found my trust in the band to be well placed.

Paradise Circus, featuring guest vocals from ex-Mazzy Star frontwoman Hope Sandoval, is the immediate standout. Seemingly a fairly simple song musically, it's Sandoval's hushed and intimate vocals that draw the listener in. "Love is like a sin," she coos, made easier to picture with the aid of the song's racy, definitely NSFW video (included after the jump). This is Massive Attack back to basics, at their haunting and stripped back best.

Massive Attack - Paradise Circus

The timing of this post is made even better by the fact that I found out earlier today that I'm going to be interviewing Robert Del Naja, aka 3D, from the group tomorrow morning! Eeek. Pretty exciting news! I'll post the article in the coming weeks.

If you like what you hear, you can purchase Paradise Circus individually or Heligoland in its entirety through iTunes.

Article: Musical Chameleon

2010-02-27T16:38:00.001+11:00

Musical Chameleon

"I hate being the same as other people."
I get the feeling that BERTIE BLACKMAN is the sort of person who struggles to sit still for long periods of time. One glance through the Sydneysider’s back catalogue would leave the casual observer wondering if the three albums credited to her name were in actual fact written by three completely different artists. Over the past six years the singer has gone from creating soothing folk ballads on her debut LP to embracing the electric guitar and her inner rock chick on Black, her sophomore effort. Blackman’s latest offering, 2009’s Secrets and Lies, signals another change, being a predominately electronic-influenced and poppy affair. Just don’t make the mistake of asking her why she decided to change things up once again.

“The question that people keep asking me that’s driving me absolutely insane is why I changed from acoustic to electric to electronic and it’s because I don’t really have an answer. I don’t know!” Blackman exclaims. “I don’t know why I did it. I just did. I didn’t think about it.” But as the interview progresses, the reason behind her constant musical evolution becomes a little clearer. “I don’t like to repeat myself or do the same thing twice,” she explains, adding, “I hate being the same as other people. I hate doing things that go with the grain.”

Regardless of the style of music Blackman chooses to play, the one constant that remains throughout her work is her striking voice. It’s unsurprising to hear, then, that she tries to take good care of it while on the road. “At the end of a tour I’ll party and have a couple of glasses of wine,” she admits. “When you first start playing gigs, you party and drink and stay out really late but when you’re working a full on schedule your body can’t actually take it. So you either fix up a few things or you just end up a wreck.”

Blackman’s resolve to continually experiment with new musical styles has certainly kept things interesting for her fans, but has simultaneously made constructing setlists an absolute nightmare. How could the tender songs of her debut possibly gel together with more recent upbeat singles like Thump to form a cohesive live show? “I’ve been touring Secrets and Lies so I basically just play songs from that,” she answers. And what happens if a fan of her earlier work puts in a request for one of the classics? “I try to translate a few in, but [it’s hard] because the band lineup isn’t a rock ‘n’ roll lineup. Some of the songs don’t really feel comfortable within that kind of surface, but I’ll get there. I’ll figure out how to put all of it into the one thing.”

That said, Blackman doesn’t appear to be too concerned with the task of reformatting old material. “In a way it’s selfish, but I’m just really enjoying playing some new music that I’ve just written. It’s nice to have some fresh things to discover and explore when you’re on stage,” she confesses. Given her track record, I’d say that Blackman’s fans will definitely have something fresh to explore come time to write album number four.

SONG OF THE MOMENT: Gypsy and the Cat - Jona Vark

2010-02-25T00:18:00.001+11:00

Firstly, welcome to a new segment for the blog that I'd like to dub "Song of the Moment". The aim is to share with you new music I discover in an easy to listen format. None of this linking to external hosting sites where you have to wade through a swamp of ads just to get to the goods. Nope, here, I present to you nicely packaged streamable mp3s at your very fingertips!

To christen the segment, I'd like to introduce you to a Melbourne band that's just recently come across my radar. They're called Gypsy and the Cat and they can best be described as cruisey electro-influenced pop, kind of in a similar vein to Empire of the Sun. Jona Vark is the duo's standout single and has been getting a fair bit of airplay on triple j as of late. It's easy to see why - the harmonies in this song are heavenly and leave me wanting to press repeat over and over again.

Have a listen! My first Song of the Moment.

Gypsy and the Cat - Jona Vark

If you like what you hear, the song is available to download through the band's triple j Unearthed profile. Let me know what you think!

Two thousand and FINE: a musical review.

2010-02-17T12:14:00.003+11:00

2009 was a pretty awesome year musically, which made selecting its best songs, albums and shows quite difficult. To help me out in assessing what to pick as the best of the best, I made good use of my last.fm page. On 1 January 2010 I checked my profile, clicked on the feature displaying what I'd listened to in the last 12 months and noted down the results. It's always interesting comparing what you think your favourite song or album is compared to what you actually physically listened to the most.

Here are the results!

Top 10 listened to ARTISTS in '09 according to last.fm (with the play count in brackets):

1. Bat For Lashes (236)
2. Phoenix (225)
3. Grizzly Bear (210)
4. Patrick Wolf (206)
5. Metric (204)
6. Tori Amos (196)
7. Bon Iver (195)
8. Neko Case (193)
9. Andrew Bird (171)
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (159)
10. Sarah Blasko (159)

Top 10 listened to SONGS in '09 according to last.fm (with the play count in brackets):

1. Bon Iver - Flume (30)
2. Bon Iver - For Emma (26)
2. Phoenix - 1901 (26)
4. Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (25)
5. Phoenix - Lisztomania (23)
6. Bat For Lashes - Glass (20)
6. Phoenix - Rome (20)
6. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks (20)
6. Metric - Blindness (20)
6. Phoenix - Fences (20)
6. Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset (20)

Interesting to note that all songs on the list were from albums released in 2009, with the exception of the top two - both Bon Iver songs from my favourite album of 2008, For Emma, Forever Ago. Glad to see it's still holding up after all this time!

So, having looked through those lists, let's compare them to my vote in triple j's Hottest 100 for the year.

Ten Votes for triple j's Hottest 100 of 2009 (alphabetical order):

1. The Basics - With This Ship
2. Bat For Lashes - Daniel
3. Sarah Blasko - All I Want
4. Bon Iver & St. Vincent - Rosyln
5. Fever Ray - When I Grow Up
6. Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
7. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
8. Metric - Blindness
9. The National - So Far Around The Bend
10. Phoenix - 1901

The two lists only share three songs, mostly because I didn't want to double up for one particular artist (that artist being the one that dominated my most listened to songs on last.fm list, with a whopping FIVE entries). It also matches up pretty nicely with my top ten listened to artists, but I had to include The Basics (With This Ship made me insanely miss Gotye... pleasepleasePLEASE release a new album in 2010 Wally!) and make sure that the best/most indie movie soundtrack and compilation of 2009 were represented (Twilight: New Moon and Dark Was The Night, respectively). And Fever Ray of course. Have you seen the videoclip? So incredibly creepy and cool.

That brings me to what I chose as my ten favourite albums of 2009 for the end of year BMA issue (which was written in early December, well before the last.fm stats were collated so I had no idea what my most listened to albums would actually end up being). So, let's see how it all matched up! Scroll down to see my favourite albums of 2009 + accompanying descriptions... Could the winner have been anything else? ;)

Top Ten Albums of 2009:

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I was ashamedly a latecomer to the Phoenix bandwagon, but as soon as I heard the opening plinks of Lisztomania I knew this album was going to be something special. It’s short, but that directness ensures there’s no time for filler and every track is a standout. Brilliant and extraordinarily catchy.

2. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Natasha Khan goes from strength to strength on her sophomore effort. She maintains an aura of mystique throughout the duration of the album, while the songs waver from the achingly beautiful (Moon and Moon) to the sparse and haunting (The Big Sleep). This lady is definitely an artist to watch.

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

If you like harmonies, this album is definitely for you. This Brooklyn quartet sure give Fleet Foxes a run for their money in that department. Big single Two Weeks exudes so much charm it almost bursts at the seams. Believe the hype!

4. Metric – Fantasies

Metric’s fourth album is as consistently awesome as their previous three. There’s plenty to love here – their brand of infectious Canadian indie rock is extremely pleasing to my ears. Highlights include Gold Guns Girls, Blindness and Waves.

5. Fever Ray – Fever Ray

I never did fully understand why Karin Dreijer Andersson’s voice was so warped in her work with The Knife. In its purest form, it’s such a beautiful asset – the mind boggles why you would want to distort that. It’s in full flight here, complimented by tunes that are simultaneously foreboding and captivating.

6. Florence + The Machine - Lungs

Everything there is to like about Florence + The Machine can be summed up by their rollicking album opener Dog Days Are Over. Soulful female vocals, hand claps, stomping drums and delicate harp flourishes all combine to wind their way towards a howling crescendo. Bliss.

7. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Apart from choosing to close this album with half an hour of cricket chirps, Ms Case didn’t do much wrong with this album. She gets the awards for best album cover and best lyric of the year (“I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes.” Mmm.).

8. Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night

I might be making an unpopular statement here, but Blasko’s last album didn’t do much for me at all. So it’s with great relief that I say welcome back Sarah! She is at her adorable (see We Won’t Run) and haunting (likewise All I Want) best.

9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

It’s Blitz! is the album where everything came together for me and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There’s a sufficient mix of ballsy attitude, raw energy and passionate emotion that creates the perfect balance for a great album.

10. La Roux – La Roux

I must have a thing for redheads. So far in this list there’s Florence, Neko and now pint-sized Brit Elly Jackson of La Roux rounds out the trio. This album is ‘80s-inspired candy-covered calypso-electro fun, with a LOT of falsetto thrown in for good measure. Great for dancing around the bedroom in one’s undies.

Albums that JUST missed the cut:

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Bachelorette - My Electric Family
Bertie Blackman - Secrets and Lies
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Fischerspooner - Entertainment
The Gossip - Music For Men
Passion Pit - Manners
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
Peaches - I Feel Cream
Regina Spektor - Far
Röyksopp - Junior
St. Vincent - Actor
The xx - xx

Best Gigs of 2009:

Bon Iver @ Forum Theatre, 19/1/09 [I still get chills thinking about this show...]
School of Seven Bells @ Corner Hotel, 25/4/09 [Their album translated particularly well live. Can't wait for new material!]
Phoenix @ Palace Theatre, 3/8/09 [Pretty much flawless.]
Metric @ Billboard The Venue, 2/10/09
Sarah Blasko @ Forum Theatre, 4/10/09
Fischerspooner @ Forum Theatre, 16/10/09 [A performance in the true sense of the word.]
Tori Amos @ Regent Theatre, 12-13/11/09 [You can't get a better experience than having your seats upgraded to front row and then hanging out with Tori in her dressing room backstage after the show!]
Patrick Wolf @ Prince Bandroom, 14/12/09 [Patrick definitely saved the best for last on his last show of The Bachelor tour.]
Lamb @ Prince Bandroom, 30/12/09 [I'd been waiting for a chance to see Lamb for a while and they blew everyone away. So much love inside the Prince that night. Andy left in tears. And I got to touch his arse as he crowd surfed over me! Win.]

Well... *deep breath* THAT'S IT! But now for the most fun part - what did you think? Was 2009 a great musical year for you? What did I get right/wrong? Not enough Animal Collective for you, eh? What were your gigs of the year? I wanna know!

Article: For Whom The Bells Toll

2010-01-08T23:27:00.001+11:00

For Whom The Bells Toll

“I remember thinking ‘what the fuck am I making music for that I wouldn’t go and buy?’”

Juanita Stein, sultry lead singer of brooding Sydney-via-London act HOWLING BELLS, has undergone a huge transformation over the past few years. The first time I saw her perform, at the Sydney Big Day Out in 2003, she struggled to overcome the taunts of rabid Frenzal Rhomb supporters during a main stage set as part of her previous band, Waikiki. These days though, Stein would have none of it. “I’ve grown big balls,” she laughs. “So I don’t think I’d put up with it this time around.” Her attitude isn’t the only thing that’s changed – her band has a new name, home and sound, and has subsequently begun to enjoy a good deal of international success.

So what inspired the radical change of direction? “I just didn’t really care for it anymore,” she reveals, referring to her old outfit. “I wanted to do something heavier and more meaningful because that’s what I was drawn to. I wasn’t listening to music that sounded like Waikiki at the time, so I remember thinking ‘what the fuck am I making music for that I wouldn’t go and buy?’”

Changing musical styles went hand in hand with changing address for Stein. She and her bandmates packed up and moved to the UK to start their journey as the newly formed Howling Bells with a clean slate. But it wasn’t as easy as sitting down to a cup of tea and a few scones. “It was terrifying,” she admits. “Overwhelmingly challenging logistically. It was not an easy thing to do.” She tells me that the band contemplated throwing in the towel “every day” and they only overcame the relocation-related obstacles they encountered through “absolute pig stubbornness.”

Thankfully it didn’t take too long for the band’s persistence to pay off. The Bells’ rise in popularity can be credited in part to hard work, but it also might just have had something to do with the bands they started to score support slots for. Some of the world’s biggest bands – Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Placebo and the Killers, to name a few – came knocking on Stein’s door requesting the pleasure of her company on stage. She remains modest about the opportunities presented to her. “We’re terribly flattered that these bigger bands want us to support them and play with them and you learn a lot from watching them,” she says. “But you really need your own network within which to connect to an audience. It’s not enough to just support a big band.”

Howling Bells will soon be in town to showcase songs from their second album, Radio Wars. Stein tells me punters might get a chance to hear new material as well, which they’ve been working hard on. “We’re taking our experiences into consideration and definitely drawing a middle point between the two records, which is somewhere in between earth and the galaxy, if that makes sense.” It certainly does, because it’s clear Stein has her sights set on the stars.

New year: new blog!

2010-01-07T23:33:00.001+11:00

Well, the title isn't completely true. More like, new year: new blog host! I kind of outgrew LiveJournal - it's a bit last decade, huh? Or even earlier... anyways, I'm glad to have moved everything over here to Blogspot. Looks a lot snappier.

News for the new year? Some of the interview ops I mentioned in this post unfortunately didn't go ahead. Both Patricks (Wolf and Watson) cancelled on me, the bastards. *shakes fist* The downsides of writing for a small regional publication I guess. Despite their insolence, I can't hold a grudge. I saw them both live recently - the former in mid-December, the latter last night - and they were both excellent. Fingers crossed I'll get an opportunity for a chat another time.

On the bright side, I do have something else in the works. I conducted an interview with Bertie Blackman late last year and am going to finish off the story on the weekend. I've also been collecting a myriad of end of year tidbits, so I will get around to posting a 2009 review entry soon as well. And I have a Howling Bells story floating around too! Goodness.

Here's to 2010! Let's hope it is as awesome musically as its predecessor.

Article: Midsummer Graces

2009-11-27T23:44:00.005+11:00

Midsummer Graces

"I hope I die at the piano."
In terms of acquiring interviews with musical royalty, it doesn’t get much bigger than this, folks. At least not for me. If I could go back in time a few years, interrupt my teenage self – who, at the time, was busy flogging From The Choirgirl Hotel harder than a jockey does his Melbourne Cup-winning steed – and tell him that one day I’d be interviewing the one and only TORI AMOS, I think I would have freaked out. Hell, I’m freaking out now. I had the honour of meeting Amos at a meet and greet she conducted on the Canberra leg of her last Australian tour and had my heart pretty much hanging out of my mouth the entire time. I recounted to her a personal experience of loneliness and insignificance that I felt as I stood atop the Empire State Building a couple of years ago, where everything suddenly seemed to make sense to me as I listened to her compelling 9/11-inspired track, I Can’t See New York. I was a blubbering mess. And that was just a conversation piece I came up with to fill up the two minutes it took for her to sign my Scarlet’s Walk poster and get a photo before she had to be whisked away by a burly security guard to prepare for the show. What chance in hell did I have to maintain an intelligent discussion with the Goddess of Piano for 20 whole minutes?

Thankfully, my nerves prove to be unfounded. Despite her reputation for at times being, shall we say, an eccentric interviewee (listen to her notorious chat with triple j’s Richard Kingsmill and you’ll see what I mean), Amos was in fine form the night we spoke. Her responses were direct and intelligent and her enthusiasm and warmth radiated down through the phoneline, despite the fact she was calling from thousands of kilometres away.

Amos will soon be in the country to promote her latest record, her eleventh, entitled Midwinter Graces. It’s a Christmas record, which at first glance seems an odd choice for an artist of her calibre – a child prodigy who began playing piano at the age of three and one who has remained in the public eye for over two decades. Call me cynical, but aren’t Christmas records the domain of the over-the-hill and/or the mundane? Neither of which I would attribute to Amos. “Doug Morris, chairman of Universal Worldwide and the man who broke Little Earthquakes,” Amos explains, “said to me ‘look, with your background as a minister’s daughter and yet your feminist viewpoint and the fact you’ve made all this music and travelled the world, I’ve always wanted to know what you would present if you were going to do a seasonal record,’” she says, elaborating on the origins of the project. “He said ‘I’m hoping you’re going to write your own standards, do a different read and make some of the carols your own.’”

Midwinter Graces offers up a collection of 12 songs, evenly mixed between traditional carols and Amos’ own compositions. She reveals that she drew inspiration for the album from Charles Wesley, a leader of the Methodist movement who was known for his hymn-writing abilities. “He would take some of the songs from the bar room – sea shanties and drinking songs – he’d take hit folk melodies of the day and put Christology to it,” she says. “So what Doug was encouraging me to do was, ‘why don’t you do what they did and claim it back?’ And I said ‘you’re funny... you’re funny.’” Perhaps not as funny as the concept of a White Christmas-style album to us southern hemisphere dwellers, where a typical Christmas day is spent frolicking at the beach as opposed to making snowmen in the backyard. “Yes,” she laughs. “I was thinking about doing a Midsummer Graces for you guys instead.”

2009 has been quite the prolific year for Amos, with the release of Midwinter Graces following hot on the heels of its predecessor, Abnormally Attracted to Sin. Following this frenzy of creative activity, I ask how she manages to continue to find new inspiration after all this time. “I think the creative force is this endless well and if you’re able to tap into it and co-create, it’s a wonderful thing,” she says. And what happens if the creative well runs dry one day? “Well, I don’t know if it will run dry but I might just become old and then I hope that I will wilt and die at a piano. I’m serious!” she enthuses. “I just hope that I say ‘I need to take a little nap for a minute’ and then just rest my head on the Bösey and just fall asleep and that’s it.”

Considering Amos’ longevity in the music business, I put it to her that she must be an inspiration for the current crop of emerging left-of-centre female songwriters, including the likes of Regina Spektor, Amanda Palmer and Bat For Lashes. “It’s a wonderful place to be in because you can hold a space for the ones that are up-and-coming,” she says. “When I was making Under The Pink, my sophomore record, I wasn’t competing with people like Kate Bush or Joni Mitchell at that time. Those women were legends, you see; they’d already carved their place in history. I think my contemporaries would be more like Polly Harvey and Björk, women who were out in the early ‘90s and are still touring and making music. The ones you’re talking about are contemporaries for each other and we’re sort of like the big sisters.”

As our conversation comes to a close, I feel quite ecstatic with how it’s played out. I actually managed to carry out an intelligent discussion with one of my biggest musical idols without fainting or sounding too dorky! I think I kept it together pretty well, which is definitely an improvement on the last time we spoke at the meet and greet a couple of years ago. Speaking of which, one final question I have for her is how, considering her busy schedule, does she find the time to chat with her fans before most shows? “When you say ‘find the time,’ that’s bullshit, because I’m pretty busy,” she says. “You make the time. You get your ass up and do it – it’s about priorities and desire to connect with people. I have a desire to connect because it changes the whole show and my understanding of who I’m playing for. I learn a lot and it keeps me really grounded and from getting involved in that whole celebrity thing, which I think is dangerous because then you’re not a good channel anymore."

Article: Steele-ing The Spotlight

2009-11-18T23:45:00.004+11:00

Steele-ing The Spotlight

"I had to make sure that I didn’t murder one of the dancers with my headpiece."
Luke Steele strikes me as the kind of man who gets bored quite easily. That might explain his penchant for seeking out new and varied musical collaborators as often as, say, Lady Gaga changes outfits. Though if you saw Steele’s latest project, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, play at the Parklife Festival recently you’d be forgiven for arguing that Steele’s extravagant costume changes rival that of the American pop oddity. But I digress. The point is the man likes to change things up musically, whether it be within indie, mainstream or even, gasp, hip-hop circles.

Empire of the Sun, in case you’re unaware, make music that is at times comfortably cruisey electronica and others funked up, tripped out psychedelia. The eccentric duo is comprised of Steele and that mane-haired purveyor of delectable dance we’ve become particularly familiar with over the past few years – Nick Littlemore of Pnau. The pairing wasn’t hastily put together overnight, Steele informs me. “I first met Nick back in 2000,” he confirms, and after taking a few years to devote attention to their respective primary musical interests – Littlemore with the aforementioned Pnau and Steele with his band The Sleepy Jackson – the seeds of Empire of the Sun were sown with a collaboration. Steele elaborates, telling me that Littlemore wanted him to “sing on the Pnau track, With You Forever, and from that we realised that it was a bit of a waste not capitalising on our magical chemistry. That’s the way it started.”

Thankfully the duo didn’t call it quits after just the one song. The “magical chemistry” Steele describes managed to elicit an entire album’s worth of material that the pair christened Walking On a Dream. With the record being released in late 2008, it was only at the recent Parklife Festival, which Empire of the Sun headlined, that patrons were lucky enough to catch the first glimpse of exactly what the group’s live show would entail. It was a highly anticipated event, with rumours of the involvement of backup dancers, elaborate costumes and tigers and elephants setting the crowd abuzz with excited whispers. The stage was set for a bombastic debut performance, but there was just one problem – Nick Littlemore was nowhere to be found.

I think I smell a scoop, so I tread carefully as I press Steele for answers, keeping in mind that this could well be sensitive territory for the singer. “It was a bit disheartening at first,” he says of his partner’s no-show. “I don’t really know why he did it.” I offer that I’ve heard that Littlemore left so he could concentrate his efforts on completing the next Pnau record, leaving Steele in the lurch. “Yeah, that’s kind of the crux of it but it wasn’t negative,” he reveals. “It was more like ‘I’m going’ and that was that. It wasn’t malicious, it was kind of bizarre. I think he just needed to disappear.”

The desertion must have dealt a hefty blow to Steele’s confidence so close to the group’s live debut, surely? “Well, after two weeks of doing my best job as a full on alcoholic, I’d kind of gotten over it and took my father’s advice of ‘you’ve got to keep the show on the road’ and pretty much took it in my stride,” he says. “I didn’t really feel alone because there was a band and ten people on stage. It didn’t really take too long to get over it, a little heartbreak...” He trails off, leaving me simultaneously unconvinced by the sincerity of his response but full of admiration for his determination to perform for his fans with or without his bandmate.

Despite the absence of live animals in the Empire set at Parklife (tigers cost thousands of dollars a night to hire – who would have thought?), all reports suggest the tour was a smashing success. “It was a great tour,” Steele affirms. “It took quite a few months to put it all together because it took on a theatre project kind of environment – dancers, narration with the music and visuals. [I had to work out] how the songs would be played and make sure that I didn’t murder one of the dancers with my headpiece,” he laughs. “They’re so sharp, those things!”

Creative costumes and hefty headpieces are all part of the elaborate imagery that Steele has concocted to generate interest in the Empire of the Sun brand. The cover image of Walking On a Dream attempts to paint a complete story within the single picture, in a similar vein to the captivating Star Wars movie posters of decades past. “You’ve got the sun illuminated in the background, the goddess and the other characters,” Steele says. “The vision was to get that same impression you have as a child when you see these different cartoon characters and they just don’t belong anywhere except for another world. If an album is accompanied by imaginative visuals, it’ll be double as powerful.”

If you didn’t get a chance to see Steele and company perform live at Parklife, you’ll have another chance when the band take to the stage at the ARIA Awards in late November. The pair have been nominated in a whopping 11 categories (take that Gabriella Cilmi!), including Best Group, Single and Album of the Year. “I think it matters if you win something,” Steele says of all the recognition and fuss. “But if I get beaten by Jessica Mauboy then the whole thing is a joke!” he laughs. “Being nominated is great and confirmation of where the band – where I’m going. But you know these competitions sometimes – like when Sleepy got beaten by Delta every time it’s like ‘hey, she’s a babe, but how many awards does she need?!’”

Due to the bizarre and unreliable actions of one half of the duo, the future of Empire of the Sun as an entity is certainly not set in stone. Steele tells me that in terms of future plans he may “work on new Empire Stuff, new Sleepy stuff... but I could be playing the pokies in Germany next year for all I know, really.” It doesn’t sound like he’s too bothered by the uncertainty, but why should he be? The man has a project lined up with Daniel Johns under the moniker Hathaway/Palmer, during the interview he plays me a garbled snippet of a song he recorded with sister Katy from Little Birdy just because “she was in town” and he delights in regaling me with tales of how he came to provide guest vocals for the opening track of rapper Jay-Z’s latest album (“My main man Jay called up and had a track which needed some vocals. I was going to fly to New York, but it was going to take too long. I did it at home, sent it over and he called me in the morning and loved it. It was a pretty jam-packed 24 hours.” Indeed!). It really is anyone’s guess as to where Steele will end up next. But whether or not his mantelpiece is soon to be lined with pointy statues, it’s certain you’ll be hearing from Luke Steele, in one form or another, very soon.

Reviews + Interview Ops: La Roux, Metric, Sarah Blasko, Tori Amos, Empire of the Sun, Patrick W x 2

2009-10-18T14:22:00.000+11:00

I think I should have bought a lottery ticket the other week. All things were definitely coming up Josh!

To start with I had the pleasure of a visit from Nathan, a friend I first met back at Billy Corgan's solo show in Sydney in 2005. He was first in line for the show at the Enmore, I was second. We're both Pumpkins nerds to a degree and the friendship blossomed from there. Nath very generously decided to pay me a visit so he could accompany me to a series of gigs: La Roux on the Thursday night, Metric on the Friday and Sarah Blasko on the Sunday. Three high quality gigs in four days - I imagine that's what it's like living in New York (I can dream!).

La Roux played at the Palace (ex Metro) which was to their/her advantage, as it's one of my favourite venues in town, second only to the Forum. We had a nice vantage point away from sweaty moshpit bodies up on the first floor balcony. It took Elly Jackson, the singer, and bandmates a while to get into the swing of things; initially they looked quite bored and uninspired. But despite the fact they don't exactly have a massive back catalogue of songs to choose from, the one album they have released is pretty consistent and as such the majority of songs went down quite well. The girl can really belt out those high pitched vocals! Throwing in a cheap local plug by switching up the lyrics at the end of Quicksand to "I'm in ~~the quicksand~~ Melbourne!" didn't do anything to hurt the cause.

Metric were up next at Billboard The Venue. Why it's so clumsily named, I'm not sure. My dislike of the name also extends to the venue itself. I think it'd actually be much better suited as a nightclub, rather than a forum for live music. But I digress. Nath, Matt, Scott (who took some awesome photos of the gig which can be viewed here) and I were lucky enough to score an unobstructed view to the side of the stage for the duration of the show. Metric's performance couldn't have differed more from La Roux. Where Jackson was all about perfect pitch and pretty girl polish, Metric's frontwoman Emily Haines, who I must admit is quite the babe in person, personified passion and raw emotion. She thrashed her thin blonde locks about when the moment called for it and had the crowd eating out of her hand during show highlights like Monster Hospital and Help I'm Alive. Apart from seemingly odd choices for opening and closing songs (the mellow Twilight Galaxy and a slow-burning acoustic ballad, respectively), Metric put in a solid performance. That said, one area where both La Roux and Metric failed to excel was value for money. Both groups occupied the stage for just on an hour, which is excusable for the former given their newcomer status but with four great albums under their belt, Metric surely could have entertained us for a little bit longer.

Determined to show the internationals what gig stamina is all about, the adorable Sarah Blasko took to the Forum stage for a whopping hour and forty minutes on the Sunday night. In an outfit that wouldn't have looked out of place on a certain avante garde Icelandic pop princess, Blasko was resplendent in a shimmering white dress with intriguingly puffy shoulders which, at exactly the right moment mid-set, were pulled down to reveal a kaleidoscope of colours all folded together resembling the bellows of an accordion. The show was divided into halves, with the first being dedicated purely to songs from the singer's splendid third album, As Day Follows Night, and the second was a trip down memory lane, visiting the highlights from Blasko's first two albums.

In other awesome music-related news, four amazing interview opportunities have landed in my lap over the past week. The two Patricks (Watson and Wolf) are to come, but this week I conducted phone interviews with Luke Steele from Empire of the Sun and, wait for it, Tori Amos. Tori freakin' Amos. I think any knowledgeable music fan would forgive me for the expletives I uttered after I found out via email that I'd be interviewing the lady who has a firm hold on the number two spot on my last.fm profile. She was so lovely. I had the time to ask her pretty much everything on my question list and she was thoughtful and sincere in all her responses. "I hope I die at the piano" is the quote I think I'm going to lead the story with. As the 20 minute mark approached, I stopped her so that I could tell her thank you, that she was wonderful and that I was eagerly anticipating seeing her again at one of her upcoming Melbourne shows. I was so pleased with how it had gone; I didn't think it could have been any better and I was just so grateful that I had my own small shared moment with her, recorded for posterity. Then, out of the blue, she told me to get in touch with her press guy and tell him that she said I could get backstage when she was in Melbourne. I almost had a heart attack! Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed she'd offer that to me of her own free will. Wow, wow, wow. I've emailed her press guy about it and haven't received a response just yet, but if he disputes it - I have her saying it on tape!

Sometimes life can be incredible.

Article: Rattle The Cage

2009-09-03T22:09:00.003+10:00

Rattle The Cage

"You're in the hands of people paying to see you tour."
Anyone who’s been to more than one gig in their lifetime will know that live music has an uncanny knack for attracting an eclectic clientele. You know the types. There’s the shirtless, dread-locked stoner who’s too far gone to care if he brushes you repeatedly with his sweaty arm. The screaming teenage fangirl who lined up for hours outside the venue to ensure her chances of securing a front row spot and setlist after the show are as high as possible. I could go on. Keeping such a varied audience placated must surely be a tough job for a band. Not so says Simon Leach, guitarist in Perth-via-Melbourne four-piece LITTLE BIRDY, as he discusses the punter-friendly idea behind the band’s latest tour.

Theatres are the new pubs for this tour according to Leach, with the rawness of the venues the band started off in now replaced by an air of sophistication. “[We want] the building itself to become part of the show,” he explains. “People can sit down at the back, if they wish, and watch music. People who want to dance can go to the front. We’re just trying to cover all kinds of fans so that they can get what they need from a live show.” When pressed about what kind of fan stereotype he fits into, there are no doubts for Leach. “All my type of people will be up the back. I like to sit down and watch, rather than dance,” he laughs.

A quick glance over the band’s recent gig itinerary reveals that singer Katy Steele has been branching out into solo side project territory. A little alarmed, I put it to Leach – does this new venture pose any threat to the future of Little Birdy? “I guess ‘threat’ isn’t the right word,” he says, downplaying the significance of Steele’s solo aspirations. “If she became successful in that way, we’d just work stuff out. We’ve all got hobbies and stuff that we do in our down time. It wouldn’t be fair to say to her ‘you can’t be creative in your own time.’”

While Leach is seemingly at ease with the prospect of Steele flying solo, the question of what the future may hold post-Little Birdy does inevitably come to mind. “You have to be mindful of what’s down the track,” he admits, “‘cause the band is day to day, month by month. You’re in the hands of fans and people buying your records and people paying to see you tour.”

Having already bought a house and establishing his credentials as a graphic designer prior to becoming fully involved in music, should the band go belly up tomorrow I have a feeling Leach will survive. “Next year you might not be doing it,” he says warily. “You don’t really know and that’s the best way to be, so that you don’t take it for granted. We’ve been really fortunate to have lasted this long and have this as our work. As long as we’re all happy, we’ll just keep doing it.”

Remembering Jeff Buckley, twelve years on.

2009-05-30T01:34:00.003+10:00

I usually always attempt to say a few words every year come May 29, the anniversary of the death of Jeffrey Scott Buckley, one of the greatest musicians of all time. Though his time on this planet was short, he certainly made the most of it and left an impressive musical legacy. He has made a huge impression on me and that's why on this night every year, this is what I do.

I think it's what Jeff would have wanted.

♥

Photo: Patience Hodgson (The Grates)

2009-05-18T00:01:00.004+10:00

On Friday night I saw the Grates perform at the Forum here in Melbourne and they were magnificent! Excellent sound and contagious energy.

As you can see by the picture above, I had another one of those moments after the gig. I was lucky enough, after waiting two hours in the cold with my friend Elle, to get the opportunity to meet Patience, John and Alana from the band and chat with them for about 20 minutes about all sorts of things. I'm yet to meet a more lovely bunch of musicians. You'd be hard pressed to find people more genuine and down to earth than them.

It was extra special for me because I got the chance to show Patience the article I wrote about her. She loved it, but I already knew that because she was kind enough to tweet about it. (For those of you who aren't following her, she wrote: "wow this interview is really great musicis-mybf.livejournal.com/7163.html#cutid1 thanks Josh brown") As a result of our conversation, I'm pleased to report she's now following me on Twitter! Awesome!

Let me finish up with some more Grates love.

Article: Grated Cheese

2009-05-03T15:18:00.005+10:00

Grated Cheese

"We've played out the back of a pizza parlour!"
Chatting with Patience Hodgson – the tutu-wearing, impossibly energetic frontwoman of Brisbane rock band THE GRATES – is similar to watching her perform on stage. She's cute, quirky and interesting, but can quite often be all over the shop. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as I discover during the course of our second interview. After speaking with her for 20 minutes, I feel a bit scatterbrained. She has this uncanny ability to make you feel like you're catching up with your best friend about nothing in particular, yet afterwards, when I go back and listen to the interview, I realise that somehow, in amongst all the random tangents and chatter, I'm able to tick off all the major subjects I wanted to speak to her about. Topics of conversation swing between culinary skills (the secret ingredient in her signature dish, spaghetti bolognaise, is grated apple... what?), how second album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won has been received by fans, playing at massive US festival South By Southwest, the band's success at the annual triple j Hottest 100 music poll and microblogging on Twitter.

Last time I spoke with Hodgson Teeth Lost, Hearts Won was days away from release and she was fretting. I remind her that she confided in me that if the album release didn't go well, she threatened to cry. Well, were any tears shed in the end? “No,” she responds with a laugh. “It's been very good. We didn't seem to lose any fans and it actually got a much more positive response than I had imagined. I really liked what we'd made and I was really hoping that I wasn't just delusional and that a couple of other people out there would, you know, agree, [to prove that] I wasn't just living in a fantasy world! I'm very relieved.”

If anyone, Hodgson included, needs evidence that Teeth Lost, Hearts Won has been embraced with open arms by fans all over the country, the proof is in the pudding. And by “pudding” I mean “triple j's 2008 Hottest 100 result.” Hodgson and fellow purveyors of red-cordial-overdose-inspired stage antics, guitarist John Patterson and drummer Alana Skyring, clocked in an impressive three mentions in last year's countdown (Carve Your Name came in at #83, Aw Yeah at #80 and massively catchy lead single Burn Bridges led the charge at #34). Other bands that scored three songs or more include Vampire Weekend, the Presets, MGMT and Kings of Leon. An impressive little club to be a part of, huh?

“I was very excited about that! It felt like we were the little band playing with the big boys,” agrees Hodgson modestly. “When I looked at the bands that had gotten four and three songs – they were really big bands!” I ponder out loud whether such an outstanding result for such a 'little' band is testament to the devotion of said band's loyal fanbase. “I felt like our fans had pushed us into competition with the big guys all of a sudden,” she chimes in. “I do definitely think the Hottest 100 result was directly because of the dedication of our fans and it was excellent.”

Dedicated Grates fans can now take their fandom that one obsessive step further by following the band's every move on suddenly-all-the-rage microblogging website, Twitter. As soon as I mention the T word, Hodgson lets out a slightly bashful laugh, similar to one I imagine she would let out if I was instead quizzing her about her (hypothetical) collection of mint condition Star Wars action figures. It just has a very novel and nerdy feel to it, doesn't it? “I don't do it as much as John,” Hodgson is quick to state, passing the nerd baton to her bandmate without hesitation. “There needs to be a reason why you're following someone. Like if you're not in a band and you follow your favourite bands, it's really exciting. John follows Travis Barker from blink 182 and he gets a massive kick out of it because he gets these tweets from Travis that are like 'I'm at Disneyland with my little son and he's the man and he's pushing his little sister around.' He writes it in hilarious Travis Barker style and John gets super pumped about it, as lame as that is.”

One thing the band used its Twitter account for recently was to post updates from South by Southwest (SXSW), an enormous annual music festival held in Austin, Texas where bands from all over the world jostle for industry and media attention. “It's massive,” confirms Hodgson. “You cannot walk around Austin City during SXSW and not hear music. They close down all of the streets and everywhere turns into a venue – like we've played out the back of a pizza parlour! And when you're playing a gig, the loading in and out is nuts. We'd try to park as close as we could to the venue but because the whole city centre was shut down, you have to put all of your gear out on the road and you might have to carry it three blocks through like 100,000 people. It was just mental, but it was amazing.”

The Grates are now home from their overseas jaunt and are busily preparing for their upcoming national tour. Recent achievements such as playing at SXSW and scoring such a stellar Hottest 100 result are surely proof that the Grates' star is on the rise. Hodgson attempts to put it into perspective with the following analogy: “We played fairly early at Big Day Out [this year] but we got to play on the main stage. Maybe that reflects how we are as a band: we played early, but we played on the main stage.” At this point in their career, that's definitely not a bad situation for the Grates to be in.

Article: One More Time

2009-04-19T16:03:00.006+10:00

One More Time

"Next year people probably won't give a shit about the Presets."
Is there much left for THE PRESETS to accomplish? 2008 was quite a stellar year for the insanely popular indie-electro duo. Last time I spoke with Julian Hamilton, engimatic frontman, his band’s sophomore album, Apocalypso, was on the verge of exploding into the mainstream and he was dialling in from sunny Berlin. Nine months have since passed and the band has enjoyed major successes at the ARIAs, triple j’s Hottest 100 music poll and the enormous charity concert, Sound Relief. This time he’s calling from the other side of the Atlantic – the American capital, Washington D.C – where he is due to take to the stage in just under an hour. So, how’s it compare to Canberra, Jules?

“It's way bigger,” he responds with a laugh. “We're nowhere near the White House [but the venue is in] a cool, hip little part of town.” Playing in a city bigger than Canberra, hey? Not a very difficult task to achieve, Mr Hamilton. However, after a little research, I discover that the capacity of the venue that he and sticksman Kim Moyes are playing in Washington, the 9:30 Club, is a mere 1,200. Well, I'm pleased to report that due to overwhelming demand the 'sets have upgraded their upcoming Canberra show from the humble surrounds of the ANU Bar to the five thousand strong confines of the mighty AIS Arena. Take that, Washington!

While this upgrade is certainly good news for both band and audience alike, I can see one potential problem here. The word “arena” is pretty much synonymous with “stadium,” the scourge of indie bands the world over. Are the Presets in danger of becoming the next big stadium band, joining the likes of Kings of Leon, Coldplay and, dare I say it, U2? “I don't think so,” replies a fairly deadpan Hamilton. “I'm pretty sure those bands you mentioned are probably still a bit bigger than us, but that's just another level in terms of popularity.” He finalises this particular topic of discussion by adding that “I don't think we'll be doing [the 21,000 person capacity] Acer Arena just yet.”

That may be so, but the Presets are no strangers when it comes to playing to large crowds. Don't forget, the band were a part of the out of this world Daft Punk-led Nevereverland tour in late 2007. More recently, they played, quite coincidentally, alongside two of the aforementioned three big stadium bands as part of the recent Sound Relief concerts, organised to raise money for the victims of the dually devastating Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods. “It was a great day,” recalls Hamilton. “It was pulled together so quickly and we weren't sure what to expect, 'cause to put on a big festival like that – it's quite a big job and takes months of planning. When they turned it around in four weeks, we thought 'oh god' and were kinda preparing ourselves for shit to go wrong, sound to cut out... but it was incredible! When we got on stage, it was so much fun. The crowd was so excited, even though it poured down with rain the whole show, so everyone was drenched. It was probably one of my favourite gigs I've ever done – it was really special.”

19 October 2008 surely has to go down as another special night in the Presets' history, as it was the night the band blitzed the annual ARIA music awards. Hamilton and Moyes took home a staggering six pointy things, including the coveted Album of the Year award, and were the only group who really posed a threat to emerging pop princess Gabriella Cilmi's dominance of the awards. I put to Hamilton the question you're all dying to know: was Cilmi's poor performance at the podium a result of a little underage drinking or simple incompetence? “I don't think she was drunk,” he ponders. “I think she's just young and not super stage polished. Some people can get up there and really crap on and look confident and some people find it a bit more difficult. I think she's quite sweet actually and people gave her a bit of a hard time that night. She's just a kid, you know!”

Awful acceptance speeches aside, it must have been a pretty amazing night for you and Kim? “It was pretty horrible actually, to be honest!” replies Hamilton, somewhat surprisingly. “We were quite stressed out because we were performing right at the end of the night, so we had to sit for the whole of the awards without too much to drink and were really nervous. God, when we finally got around to performing it was such a relief. We sat back down at our table and had a scull of a huge glass of red wine to loosen up. Then we won the damn Best Album award which was amazing and then we went and did all this promo backstage. Suddenly the night was over, the place was empty and we found ourselves falling asleep in the back of a limousine going to the afterparty.” Oh, the pressures of the rock star lifestyle!

Hamilton assures me that while awards and accolades are pleasant, what it really comes down to for him is creating music. “Once we make a record – and that's the thing we really love to do most, sitting down and making music – then you're happy to play sell out shows, sell hundreds of thousands of records and win awards,” he explains. “All that stuff's nice, but really we're happiest when we're sitting in our studio making beats and making music. That's the really fun stuff for us. I guess with all the ARIA stuff, it's nice to be recognised by your peers and of course it's nice to sell more records as a result, but you've got to take a lot of stuff with a grain of salt. Next year people probably won't give a shit about the Presets and they'll be moving onto the next thing.” It's at this point in the conversation that if I could, I would reach through the phone line and slap him for uttering such blasphemous words. Gently, of course.

Article: Doe, a Deer...

2009-03-23T23:42:00.006+11:00

Doe, a Deer...

"It used to be a sin for a musician to sing in English in France."
Homer Simpson. He’s who you need to keep in mind if you can’t remember how to pronounce the name of catchy indie-pop duo THE DØ. But unlike Homer’s famous grunt, there’s nothing to be annoyed by in the sweet tunes of this Franco-Finnish pairing. Their name instead references the notes at the beginning and end of the musical scale - simultaneously representing both new and old - and is also a metaphor for the abundance of musical styles found on their quite aptly named debut LP, A Mouthful. Olivia Merilahti, the cute-as-a-button singer of the group, phoned in from Paris to chat with BMA about The Dø’s upcoming tour of Australia, A Mouthful’s only non-English track and her ability to sing in three different languages.

The V Festival, taking place across the country in March and April, sees The Dø’s first visit to Australian shores in their relatively short history. “We haven’t been before and it’s really far and everyone who comes back from there tells us how great it is, for real!” Merilahti gushes. “Australia’s really popular, so we’ll see if we have as much fun as everyone tells us.”

One would certainly hope they do, but the festival circuit can be tough – especially on bands with little gig experience. Merilahti reveals that she and bandmate Dan Levy were thrown in the deep end when it came to learning to play before an audience. “It was all so new for us,” she admits. “When our tour manager came to us [in 2007] and said ‘okay, you have a gig in a month’ – we didn’t have a band, we’d never rehearsed before and we had no idea how we were gonna do it. We just took a drummer and started playing the songs and rehearsing like crazy. It was quite terrifying for us in the beginning! It was really scary to get on stage because we’d been so used to this cocoon that we had in the studio. It was dangerous!”

Despite Merilahti’s apprehension, I get the feeling that learning to play before an audience wouldn’t have been too big a hurdle for the singer to overcome. She is a very talented individual after all, and has the ability to converse not only in English, but in French and Finnish too. The majority of the material on A Mouthful is sung in English, yet one of its most intriguing songs is Unissasi Laulelet – a beautiful tale sung in Finnish. “It means ‘you’re singing in your sleep.’ I wanted it to be very traditional, so it’s obviously some kind of really naïve and natural imagery with nature and animals,” Merilahti says, kindly explaining the meaning of the song for all of BMA’s non-Finnish speaking readers. “It’s just poetry about someone singing in their sleep and, how can I say... being caught back with the wind and the sea and the ocean and the snow.”

For a band with diverse European roots, it seems a tad strange that the majority of the lyrics on the album are in English. An attempt to appeal to and break into the lucrative British and American markets, perhaps? “Oh, that’s just me,” Merilahti confesses. “I’ve always been singing in English. I grew up in a family where we spoke French and Finnish and then English was the music we listened to. It used to be almost a sin for a musician to sing in English in France. There was a terrible pressure on musicians because it was protectionism. They wanted to keep French music a majority on radio and releases.” The French public seems to have become a little more open-minded as of late thankfully, as evidenced by A Mouthful’s top placing in the French charts in its first week of release.

With any luck, this success will extend to the Dø’s appearance at V Fest in a few weeks. And the imminent chants of “dø/d’oh” will be out of admiration, not frustration.

News: Dark Was The Night - best mix CD EVAR?!

2009-02-09T22:55:00.003+11:00

What would you say if I told you that Feist, Ben Gibbard and Bon Iver could all be found on the one record? How about Grizzly Bear, the National and Sufjan Stevens? My Brightest Diamond, Antony, Beirut, Andrew Bird... believe me, I could go on. The calibre of indie rock royalty on this thing is ridiculous.

The wonderful folks at Red Hot have facilitated the project, entitled Dark Was The Night, and it is set to be released in a week's time. Red Hot is a charity that specialises in raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS through pop culture, so all proceeds will go to an excellent cause.

Full tracklisting can be found after the jump. Prepare to salivate...

DARK WAS THE NIGHT

THIS DISC

1. Dirty Projectors and David Byrne - Knotty Pine
2. The Books feat. José González - Cello Song (Nick Drake)
3. Feist and Ben Gibbard - Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre)
4. Bon Iver - Brackett, WI
5. Grizzly Bear - Deep Blue Sea
6. The National - So Far Around the Bend (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7. Yeasayer - Tightrope
8. My Brightest Diamond - Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone)
9. Kronos Quartet - Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson)
10. Antony and Bryce Dessner (the National) - I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan)
11. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (the National) - Big Red Machine
12. The Decemberists - Sleepless
13. Iron & Wine - Stolen Houses (Die)
14. Grizzly Bear and Feist - Service Bell
15. Sufjan Stevens - You Are The Blood

THAT DISC

1. Spoon - Well-Alright
2. Arcade Fire - Lenin
3. Beirut - Mimizan
4. My Morning Jacket - El Caporal
5. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis)
6. Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) - With A Girl Like You (The Troggs)
7. Buck 65 - Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets, feat. Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8. The New Pornographers - Hey, Snow White (Destroyer)
9. Yo La Tengo - Gentle Hour (Snapper)
10. Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian) - Another Saturday (traditional song)
11. Riceboy Sleeps - Happiness
12. Cat Power - Amazing Grace (traditional song, feat. Dirty Delta Blues)
13. Andrew Bird - The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family)
14. Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch - Lua
15. Blonde Redhead and Devastations - When the Road Runs Out
16. Kevin Drew - Love vs. Porn

Analysis: triple j's Hottest 100 of 2008

2009-01-31T03:23:00.005+11:00

...and the winner is... *drumroll*... Kings of Leon! What a surprise. I don't know about you, but I picked it. It was always going to be a race between the Kings and MGMT and with the former placing at numbers 3 and 1 and the latter at numbers 5 and 2, Australia's love of these two bands was confirmed. I was quite pleased to see Empire of the Sun poke their heads into the top 5 at number 4 with their sublime single "Walking on a Dream," which I'm proud to say I voted for.

That brings me to how the rest of my votes fared. Five out of ten made it into the countdown, which I think is a reasonable result:

Band of Horses - Ode to LRC [didn't score]
Bon Iver - Skinny Love [21]
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream [4]
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal [65]
Goldfrapp - Clowns [didn't score]
Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning [26]
Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone [didn't score]
Pnau - Embrace [12]
Portishead - The Rip [didn't score]
Sigur Rós - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur [didn't score]

So, a big WTF to two things. Fleet Foxes coming in at 65?! That song deserved a much higher place, c'mon. And no sign of Lykke Li... geez Australia, what's wrong with you?

Anyway, personal gripes aside, I attended a very fun Hottest 100/Australia Day BBQ at my friend Hannah's place in Richmond. Part of the festivities involved me printing off a whole bunch of Hottest 100 sweepstakes forms for everyone to fill out to see who could pick the top ten. My picks were:

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire [1]
MGMT - Electric Feel [2]
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream [4]
Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa [58]
The Presets - This Boy's In Love [8]
Cut Copy - Lights and Music [15]
TV on the Radio - Golden Age [didn't score]
Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning [26]
Pnau - Embrace [12]
Bon Iver - Skinny Love [21]

I was pretty proud of that effort. It wasn't perfect, but it won me the sweepstakes competition! Though I think it's fair to say I had a pretty unfair advantage over most of the other people at the party in that I listen to triple j almost every day to keep me sane at work, so I have a pretty good idea of what's popular.

To see the rest of the results, click here.

Article: Pnau or Never!

2008-11-14T19:58:00.015+11:00

Pnau or Never!

"Being around real artists [like Elton John] is like going to university. 'Cause in this biz you can't train in an institution, it's all street knowledge."
Life is currently pretty sweet for Nick Littlemore, the shaggy-haired frontman of Sydney-based dance outfit PNAU. He is a man in extremely high demand. When not busy packing out dancefloors across the globe to the groovy tunes of his group's hugely successful recent eponymous album, Littlemore spends his time collaborating with a diverse range of artists. Emerging Kiwi new wave sensation Ladyhawke, phenomenal Sleepy Jackson vocalist Luke Steele and the Rocket Man himself, Sir Elton John, have all crossed musical paths with Littlemore in the past year. Littlemore somehow managed to find a tiny slice of time in his busy schedule to write to BMA about lyrical meanings, touring and relocating to the UK.

Commencing triple j's Hottest 100 this year with a bang, Wild Strawberries is a psychedelic ode to, er, well, it's not very clear. With hard to decipher lyrics like "I'd rather go and pick some of those wild... strawberries! Come pick 'em up," Littlemore offers an explanation behind the meaning of the song. "It's a fun song about finding something that changes the way you see things," he elaborates. "To enter a new space like playing on the fields of the nephilim [offspring of humans and sons of god mentioned in the Bible, according to Wikipedia. WTF?]. Most of our songs are based in reality but get twisted somewhere along the way and always with a hint of sexuality or humanity," he continues.

One of the most popular tracks from 2007's PNAU, Embrace teams Littlemore and partner Peter Mayes with Pip Brown, otherwise known as New Zealand's own electropop star Ladyhawke. The result is a match made in heaven. With its booty shaking inducing beat and soaring chorus, Littlemore tells me that 'Embrace' is a song about love. "It's a duplicitous song – [about] both the love for a friend and the greater love for the world outside," he offers. "In those moments when you seek the night out and your energy levels rise from nowhere to take you on a flight beyond imagination."

All Aussie Pnau fans will be sad to hear that Littlemore and Mayes have now relocated to the other side of the world and have set up shop in the UK. "London is our home now," Littlemore confirms. To avoid homesickness, the pair packed "our cases full of cuddly koalas and seafood." Who knows how they managed to slip that past Customs!

"Over here we can drive to the top of the UK and then drive to France the next morning," Littlemore says when asked to expand on the benefits of living in the mother country. "The world over here is much closer together than what we have experienced in Australia. There are more people over here so there are greater collections of things like art and artifacts," he says, revealing his fondness for European culture. "Also shows that won't come to Australia are on here every other week."

Another advantage to living in the UK for the Pnau boys is being in close proximity to one of their biggest fans, Sir Elton John. John reportedly became a fan of the band after hearing tracks from PNAU. He then proceeded sing the album's praises to many in the UK music industry, including the Scissor Sisters and Lily Allen. Littlemore is humbly appreciative of the support from one of the UK's biggest recording artists. "All I have seen from Sir Elton is support and kindness," he says gratefully. "The will to create is extremely strong within him and we have been lucky enough to learn much more about this enigmatic man," Littlemore reveals. "Being around real artists [like John] is like going to university. 'Cause in this biz you can't train in an institution, it's all street knowledge."

The future is looking bright for Littlemore. His chilled out and dreamy collaboration with Luke Steele, Empire of the Sun, is fast gaining momentum and Pnau have been playing to packed crowds the world over for most of this year. Littlemore will also perform in Canberra under the Pnau moniker as part of the insanely awesome Foreshore lineup in late November. As for the future, Littlemore and Mayes are currently working on material for their next album. "It sounds like Burt Bacharach. All lovely piano and melancholy," he confides. "The music will reach the people when the time is right, that's all I can say," he adds mysteriously. If the sound of songs like Wild Strawberries and Embrace is anything to go by, Pnau's performance at Foreshore will be anything but melancholy. Expect a dance riot!

Article: Click Renegades

2008-11-08T00:33:00.001+11:00

Click Renegades

"Technically Kylie's supporting us as we're playing after her in the tent. Maybe that's been written on our myspace page wrong – she's actually supporting us."
Daydreaming about your ultimate music festival line up: who hasn't done it? Lord knows I'm guilty of such flights of fancy. I quite often find myself mentally salivating at the prospect of artists such as Jeff Buckley and PJ Harvey gracing the stage in the festival of my mind. Well, somewhere in Colombia, one lucky music fan's improbable music festival wish will soon be granted. Come early November, Bogotá, the Colombian capital, will play host to a festival that sports a line up combining the unlikely duo of Melbourne indie-electro party starters CUT COPY with none other than Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue. How did this peculiar pairing come about? I demand that Dan Whitford, frontman of Cut Copy, explain himself.

"It's kind of a strange one," Whitford admits between chuckles. "Kylie's on one stage and we're playing in the dance tent." So who is supporting who then Dan? "Technically Kylie's supporting us as we're playing after her in the tent," he boasts. "Maybe that's been written on our myspace page wrong – she's actually supporting us."

Bigger than Kylie. This is a bold claim from a man whose band is only two albums into its career. But one look at Cut Copy's exhaustive touring schedule quashes any doubt that Whitford and bandmates Tim Hoey (bass) and Mitchell Scott (drums) have earned their stripes. Since the release of their sophomore album, In Ghost Colours, in March this year the band has criss-crossed the Atlantic as if it were a small puddle and played a swag of shows across North America and Europe.

When asked to discuss some of Cut Copy's stranger touring experiences, Whitford relays a tale about a predominantly metal-based Swedish festival. "I think there was only one act that we really knew on the bill and that was Interpol. The rest were weird Swedish metal bands," he recalls. "We were actually really scared of going on stage because we thought 'this is going to be intense' and 'they're gonna throw bottles at us' but when we went on it was one of the most insanely positive festival crowds we've ever had," he reveals. "In between songs they just started chanting 'Cut Copy'. Not even for the encore! In between regular songs in our set, they just started chanting and it was just absolutely nuts!"

Cut Copy's popularity is unsurprisingly not strictly limited to obscure Scandinavian metal festivals. When I speak with Dan, he's calling in from Seattle, at the end of a long tour across the United States co-headlining with Modular labelmates the Presets. "Doing this tour with the Presets has been great because we're big fans of theirs and great friends as well," Whitford muses. "When we first started, we toured for a long time with those guys so it's cool we get the opportunity to tour again."

Unless you've been hiding under an extremely large rock, you'd be aware that in addition to Cut Copy and the Presets, Modular boasts a stellar line up of the hottest indie-electro acts that Australia has to offer. Whitford expands a little on the subject of the camaraderie felt between Cut Copy and their labelmates. "What we really value about Modular is, beyond the label itself, the other acts," he says appreciatively. "[They're all] people that we really get along with and enjoy hanging out with. We obviously have musical admiration for them as well but just as people, we all hang out and we're all good friends."

The Yanks seem to be embracing the Aussie electro explosion like a long lost relative, with the majority of shows on the current Cut Copy/Presets tour selling out in quick time. "The States have been where our record's caught on the most of anywhere in the world," Whitford points out. "We've sold a lot more records in the States than we have anywhere else and our shows here are as big as the ones in Australia." He notes that the sheer size of America has enabled them to expand their tour to thirty odd shows, a feat not so easily achieved in their homeland.

Breaking into the overseas market can prove to be quite difficult for some Aussie bands. Whitford reflects on the factors influencing Cut Copy's rise to international stardom. "When we first started we didn't really think of ourselves as being totally like an Australian band," he ponders but is quick to add, possibly to ensure he doesn't offend anyone back home, that "we obviously identify with our roots and starting out in Australia. But I think we always considered our music would have a fairly broad appeal internationally so it's reassuring that it seems to be catching on so well."

The success of an album can so often depend on the timing of its release. With a four year gap between Cut Copy's debut, Bright Like Neon Love, and its successor, Whitford is keen to come clean about the delay. "[Our first record] came out in the States maybe six months or a year after it came out in Australia and then later again in the UK and Europe," he explains. "It was spread out over a couple of years, so we ended up touring for probably a couple of years longer than we would have had it just come out all at once." He notes that the delay boiled down to a scheduling issue, which is something the band is keen to avoid in future. "We hope to have our next record written next year and released as soon as possible after that. I don't think we're going to be waiting three or four years for the next one."

Whitford admits the band was worried about the possibility of their name dropping out of the public eye, but ultimately felt confident in the quality of the music they'd created. "I guess if people didn't catch onto it because of the timing of it we still would have been happy that the record itself was a really good one," he says with pride. "But thankfully it doesn't seem to have made a massive difference. It's almost like it was almost too long but not that long that people don't still appreciate what we're doing musically."

With outstanding album sales and sold out shows across the globe illuminating their musical résumé, Cut Copy could be forgiven for wanting to take a break. But Dan Whitford is not one to rest on his laurels. "It's definitely not like it's time to retire [and we don't feel] like we've done everything that's there to be done," he tells me. "Our measure of success is more based on what we're doing creatively rather than achieving commercial success or big crowds at our shows. We're just excited to try and push the envelope on the next record and to continue to innovate and write great tunes and make good records. That's what our aim is, ultimately." With their glittering track record and passionate outlook, it wouldn't surprise me if Cut Copy are indeed the most popular act at this upcoming festival in Colombia. Watch out Kylie...!

Article: Chasing The Sun

2008-11-02T04:44:00.005+11:00

Chasing The Sun

"I've found when touring, even a couple of girls can make the guys behave a whole lot better."
THEREDSUNBAND like touring. A lot. They must think Canberra's a bit of alright too, as barely four months have elapsed since the pint-sized purveyors of broody dream pop last graced the beer-soaked stage of the ANU Bar. This time the Sydney-based trio – combining sisters Sarah (guitar/vocals) and Lizzie Kelly (keys), with recent addition, drummer Jasper Fenton – are bringing they of Forever Young fame, Youth Group, along for a co-headlining tour around the nation. I spoke with Sarah straight from the heart of the action: the tour bus.

One of the first things Sarah tells me about her surroundings is the noticeable gender imbalance within the vehicle. "There are two girls and ten boys in this van," she laments, admitting that she and Lizzie did have some minor concerns about being outnumbered by blokes on tour. "We purposefully asked to get a girl [Laura Imbruglia] to support us for the second half of the tour, just to try and even it up a little bit more," she adds. "I've found when touring, even a couple of girls can make the guys behave a whole lot better. So I think our influence will be fairly positive and hopefully the van won't smell too much!"

If, like me, you think pairing the glittery pop songs of Youth Group with the dark and distorted tones of theredsunband seems a strange choice, well, you'd be wrong. "I think our two bands are more similar than maybe is immediately obvious," Sarah argues. "When we've played shows together in the past it's really worked because we are both very melodic bands."

She also notes that the two bands share a history dating back to the early days of the millennium. "The first show that Lizzie played with theredsunband was a Youth Group support at the Hopetoun Hotel back in 2002," she recalls. "And Toby has this awesome story of being given an early copy of 'Sleep Forever' – which was our second single – and he gave it five stars in a magazine review. I wish I could find that, because I think that's pretty nice."

Pleasantries and praise are fine and dandy within the confines of the tour bus, but will the claws be out when it comes time to decide which of the bands will headline each night? "We staged a coin toss. We went out to Erskineville Oval one afternoon, got an old Australian penny and just flipped it a few times," she explains. "But it was organised so it would be fairly even, even if one person won all the coin tosses which, I would like to point out, I did!", she exclaims with a cheeky sense of pride.

Coin tosses aside, Sarah assures me that the quality of the Youth Group/theredsunband bill is definitely not a gamble and neither is her passion for touring. "We like being on the road," she admits, with the prospect of traversing hundreds of kilometres across five states and territories clearly not troubling her. "We really like touring because we like the travelling and we like going back to all the places we've been and visiting our friends. We really love doing it," she reiterates. "I don't think we'll ever stop." The gig-going public of the nation's capital implore you, Miss Kelly: please don't!

News: Lykke Li duets with Bon Iver, tours with Friendly Fires

2008-10-06T23:12:00.007+11:00

Charismatic Swedish songstress Lykke Li has teamed up with indie-folk's man of the moment, Bon Iver, to sing a spontaneous version of the former's Dance Dance Dance on the streets of Los Angeles. Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my keyboard...!

As reported in a myspace blog here, the whole thing was caught on tape and the delightful video evidence can be found after the jump.

And if that wasn't enough of a reason for me to jump with joy, the talented Swede has selected one of my favourite new bands, UK indie-electro group Friendly Fires, as support for her current tour of North America. Stop it with your good taste already!

Li will also tour down under later this summer, as part of the Falls and Southbound festivals. Crossing my fingers for sideshows.

Review: Van She/Lost Valentinos/Art vs Science @ the ANU Bar, Wednesday 24 September 2008

2008-10-05T15:22:00.004+11:00

Impossibly tight jeans, artfully tousled hairstyles and plain, oversized t-shirts emblazoned with large phrases were in abundance at the ANU on Wednesday evening. The reason? The Modular party bus had arrived in town, bringing with it some of the hottest young indie-electro acts going round.

Energetic genre-defying trio and triple j Unearthed favourite Art vs Science treated the early crowd to a fun and interactive show. Utilising a collection of electro-rock/hip hop hybrid songs (Beastie Boys, anyone?) seemingly tailor made for hand claps and singalongs, the band set a cracking pace for the rest of the night.

Dreamy and subdued rock was next on the agenda, with Sydney outfit Lost Valentinos taking to the stage. A complete contrast to Art vs Science, the band provided a broody calm before the ensuing storm of excitement created by the Van She set.

At long last, they of Changes and Cat & The Eye fame arrived onstage to a rapturous reception. It was clear who the crowd had been waiting to see and the Van She boys did not disappoint. Rattling off track after track from debut LP V with an enthusiasm that was almost palpable, the boys were in top form. The sweet sounds created by their combination of dreamy synths and rocking riffs ensured no one left unsatisfied.

All in all, a perfect nigh... wait! What happened to the Van She DJ set we were promised?! I was informed by an insider that it had to be cancelled due to curfew restrictions. Bollocks! That's what you get for going to a mid-week gig in this wretch of a big country town. Don't worry Van She, you can do no wrong in my eyes. My beef is with the man... *shakes fist threateningly*

Photo courtesy of fasterlouder.com.au.

Photo: Michael Di Francesco (Van She)

2008-09-30T20:57:00.001+10:00

Michael Di Francesco from VAN SHE, who I had a chat to here, holding up the article I wrote about him! Success! And he totally loved the article too! Especially the closing sentence, haha.

Was very cool to get the chance to follow up like this...!

Article: Van Banshe

2008-09-20T22:40:00.004+10:00

Van Banshe

"It's like looking at the flowers while you're walking through the garden. You don't really look at them, you just kind of walk past them."
Remember that annoyingly talented guy from school who consistently scored near perfect grades, was the star player of most, if not all, the sports teams and was going out with the hottest girl in the year? Well, Michael Di Francesco, guitarist and synth player extraordinaire, and his bandmates from Sydney outfit VAN SHE are the musical equivalent. Damn them! Don't you wish you shared a label with the Presets, had the privilege of remixing Feist and possessed mad DJ skillz to boot?

Di Francesco is unexpectedly philosophical when quizzed on the band's rising profile. "It's like looking at the flowers while you're walking through the garden," he muses. "You don't really look at them, you just kind of walk past them."

Floral analogies aside, Van She are definitely no shrinking violet. After a three year absence following the release of their eponymous debut EP, new album V sees the boys return with a bang. Or is that a lick?

Closer inspection of the album cover reveals a somewhat saucy gesture being made by a young lady. Di Francesco laughs off my innocent outrage at such suggestions of sexual innuendo. "That's why there's a 'Warning: Explicit Material' [label], but the funny thing is that it's too late," he chuckles. "By the time you look at the cover, you've already seen the explicit material." Sneaky devils!

Though there may have been a lengthy delay between releases, Di Francesco is quick to point out that Van She have kept quite busy in the interim. "In short, we just got side-tracked doing dance music," he admits. After impressing critics and fans alike with their remix of the Presets’ Are You The One?, the boys were offered song after song to add their own synth-pop spin to. "It got to a point where the label was like 'hey guys, you're a band... what are you doing? Are you an electronic act now? You've got to write an album. You've gotta get on with it, this is ridiculous," he recollects. "We were like 'that's fine, but you keep giving us all these remixes!'"

The solution to getting Di Francesco and company to knuckle down and churn out a quality album? Banish them to the countryside. "[Our record label] sent us away to Berry, on a farm," he explains. "We went there – no distractions, no remixes, no girlfriends, no internet – and hung out for a couple of weeks and wrote a load of songs." The result is the too cool for school indie-electro retro goodness of V which, coincidentally, the Van She boys are preparing to unleash at a venue near you in the very near future.

What they have in mind for their upcoming tour, however, is more intriguing than your average concert. "We didn't want to do just band gigs," Di Francesco reveals. The band will play live and then immediately follow up with a blistering DJ set, lasting until the wee hours of the morning.

Essentially you get to see Van She twice for the price of one performance. Neat! Though won't this live / DJ party tour take its toll on Di Francesco and his colleagues? "That's what we do," he shrugs. "If there's no work, you're complaining and when there is work you should embrace it." Talented AND modest... talk about dreamy!

News: Cave, Ellis to score third film

2008-09-18T23:40:00.001+10:00

As reported a few days ago by Pitchfork, fan of Westerns and bad-ass moustaches alike, Nick Cave and loyal Bad Seed/Dirty Three maestro Warren Ellis have collaborated on the score to new film The Road, due out in mid-November. If the pair's previous two collaborations, soundtracks for The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, are anything to go by, music fans will be in for a treat. Cave's delicate piano and Ellis' mournful violin combine to create lush soundscapes, tailor made for the big screen.

Based on American author Cormac McCarthy's 2006 Pulitzer prize winning novel of the same name, The Road "is a post-apocalyptic tale describing a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted years before by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and, seemingly, most life on earth." (Wikipedia)

If that isn't an awesome premise upon which to write a dreary but beautiful score, I don't know what is!

Article: Eve of the Apocalypso

2008-08-25T22:56:00.001+10:00

Eve of the Apocalypso

"Some of the songs on the record are about some of the weightier issues, like My People, and some of them are really quite light-hearted and flippant. Some of [them] are about hand jobs or dancing at a techno party."
If the indie-electronica musical genre could somehow be transformed into an event at the Olympic Games, Australia would be blitzing the field. The past few years has seen the rise of a number of outstanding local electronic acts, many of whom have gone on to enjoy huge success on the international stage. Though the amount of these groups is plentiful – and I could spend all day namedropping – at the end of the day there is only one name which stands out from the rest of the pack: THE PRESETS.

It seems as if this pair from Sydney – consisting of singer and synth wiz Julian Hamilton and his partner in crime, drummer Kim Moyes – can do no wrong. Their debut record, Beams, released in late 2005, was a commercial success and had both indie and club kids shaking their booties like there was no tomorrow. Three years and a sophomore album release later, the Presets still receive a frenzy of attention wherever they go. Only now they're experiencing it on a much grander scale. This is largely due to the success of the first single from their second album Apocalypso, entitled My People.

Evoking many a dancefloor riot, the true subject matter of the song often goes unnoticed by oblivious fans. With lyrics such as "I'm here with all of my people/Locked up with all of my people/So let me hear you scream if you're with me," fans could be forgiven for thinking the song was written with them in mind. Not so, according to Hamilton. The song is written from the perspective of a refugee in a detention centre, although he concedes it is open to interpretation.

"I think that's fine that the song is interpreted in different ways and I know most of the fans think it's about them and that's fine!" Hamilton enthuses. "I'm really happy for the song to work on different levels and I must admit when I'm onstage performing it in a club or at a festival, it's hard not to think of the audience as the people you're singing about."

He's quick to point out that despite delving into deep issues such as the plight of asylum seekers, not all of the tracks on Apocalypso pack such a heavy punch. "Some of the songs on the record are about some of the weightier issues, like My People, and some of them are really quite light-hearted and flippant," he reveals. "Some of the other songs on the record are about hand jobs or dancing at a techno party."

When they're not busy packing political punches with their lyrics, the Presets also like to cause the occasional stir with their video clips. The clip for second single, This Boy's In Love, features stunning slow motion imagery of Hamilton and Moyes banging away at their instruments in a blizzard of glitter, interspersed with shots of two scantily-clad, attractive young males duking it out in what appears to be a giant pool of milk. Homoerotic much?

The clip has inspired a myriad of responses on popular video-sharing website youtube, with punters leaving such comments as "i love the presets.. they wouldnt loose me as a fan or anything just was hoping they wernt gay.... kinda like u hope ur kids arnt born with defects.. LOL!..." – and that's the poster's actual spelling, folks.

Homophobic comments such as this are like water off a duck's back for Hamilton. "The kind of people that leave messages on youtube are usually a small percentage of people, you know? I think if you leave a comment on youtube you've gotta be pretty fired up and angry or really, totally in love with something," he shrugs.

"When we read the treatment that the director sent us, his ideas, it sounded like a really classical thing. A really beautiful thing. Like an old painting... a Rembrandt or something. When you see cherubs and angels in these beautiful Renaissance paintings, you don't think gay. You think just... beautiful," he gushes. "With the video, it's sort of the same thing. I want you to think of ancient Greek statues." He pauses thoughtfully and then adds, "I think it's a classical thing before it's a gay thing. But then it's not as if we shy away from the gay imagery either. A lot of our favourite artists are from that sort of scene."

Hamilton points out that the video shouldn't really be that big of a deal, considering the type of fanbase he feels The Presets attract. "Perhaps back in the day things were a bit more rock 'n' roll and guys didn't care what their hair looked like and everyone just wore black. But people are a bit more open to new things these days and that's the world in which we operate," he explains. "If Cold Chisel came out with a new song and it was the This Boy's In Love video, I think that would be really weird. That would be controversial!"

Ultimately, hit singles and polarising video clips aside, The Presets' real strength lies in their dynamic and exciting live shows. Their ability to turn a shy audience into a mass of sweaty bodies yearning for the next thrilling climax or thumping chorus is second to none. "It is a good feeling when you see everyone jumping around to it and getting into it," Hamilton admits. "It's like 'Fuck yeah! We made this thing and everyone loves us.'" Indeed we do, Julian. Indeed we do.

Article: Back For Seconds

2008-08-07T21:53:00.005+10:00

Back For Seconds

"I just hope that [the album] goes well so that I don't have a cry!"
The dreaded sophomore release. There are few things that strike fear into the hearts of musicians as much as the phrase 'second album syndrome.' Patience Hodgson, singer from Brisbane outfit THE GRATES, laughs nervously as I probe deep to uncover the difficulties the band encountered on their way to completing recently released second album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

"I definitely had a bit of second album syndrome myself," she admits. "I found it hard at times to be able to write lyrics and do something that I was really happy with. There were definitely periods like that," she agrees. "There were also times that we just got sick of each other and had to be like 'You know what? Let's just have a month off.'"

Fear not, Grates fans, for tensions were always short-lived. "The good thing is that all the arguments we had were born out of passion or frustration for not being able to write a song," Hodgson clarifies. "I wasn't fighting with John [Patterson, guitars] or Alana [Skyring, drums] because I didn't like them – it was all purely based around the music."

Teeth Lost, Hearts Won has been described in some critical circles as 'angsty, but fun,' which is a sentiment Hodgson agrees with. She is quick to point out, however, that the angst level on the finished product is nowhere near that of the album's early incarnations. "When I listen back to the demos we had for this album it was possibly even more angsty before we went and recorded it," she recollects.

Better known for her onstage hyperactivity and quirky attire rather than for her serious side, it wasn't long before the fun started creeping back into the recording process for Hodgson. "When we went into the studio we had a chance to take a step back and put in little bits of flare here and there that were more fun. We were able to add in little bits of instruments, like we stuck in a bit of glock, and it's so funny that even having a small amount of glockenspiel in a song can all of a sudden change some bits that may be heading towards something a little bit angsty into something that's a little bit sentimental," she reveals. "It's about that balance of putting these two separate types of sound or two different types of emotions and letting them play with each other."

Though traditionally a formidable obstacle for most bands to overcome, the Grates' second album seems only to have empowered the band. Teeth Lost, Hearts Won walks a fine line between old and new. It maintains the same light-hearted fun and catchiness that the band has made their name on, while at the same time maturing and exploring new territory. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to personal satisfaction for Hodgson.

"Everyone wanted to make something that they could be proud of. I'm very proud of it because I've invested that emotional interest," she beams. "I just hope that it goes well so that I don't have a cry!" Somehow I don't think Ms Hodgson or her bandmates will need to reach for the tissue box anytime soon.

News: Feist adapts "1 2 3 4" for Sesame Street

2008-07-16T23:22:00.000+10:00

As if you needed another reason to like Feist. Now she's gone and adapted her hit single 1 2 3 4, co-penned by Aussie artist New Buffalo, for Sesame Street. It's a perfect match.

With lyrics like "one, two, three, four penguins that are by the door," along with cameos from Oscar the Grouch and Elmo, the clip for this song is quite possibly the most adorable one going around youtube at the moment.

Video after the jump.

Review: theredsunband, Sianna Lee from Love Outside Andromeda @ the ANU Bar, Wednesday 25 June 2008

2008-07-14T22:29:00.000+10:00

Once upon a time, on an icy winter’s night in a magical land far, far away (okay, so the ANU Bar isn’t that far from Garran, I lie) a small but devoted throng of youngsters assembled to get their booze on and witness some stellar interstate musical talent.

First up was the lovely Ms Sianna Lee, frontwoman of the now on indefinite hiatus Melbourne band Love Outside Andromeda. Playing sans band on the first show of this nation-wide tour clearly didn’t faze Lee, as she strummed her way through a number of tender ballads that had more than one audience member comparing her to the great English songstress PJ Harvey.

After a brief but intimate set, Ms Lee made way for the pint-sized powerhouse that is theredsunband (and no, that’s not a spelling mistake). Fronted by the sisters Kelly – with Sarah on guitar/vocals and Lizzie on keys – and assisted on drums by an aesthetically pleasing young lad named Jasper (for those unaware of their history, theredsunband seem to go through drummers as often as Amy Winehouse goes through lines of cocaine), the band launched into a set that was a non-stop assault on eardrums and nearby windows alike.

It’d be fair to say that theredsunband like a bit of distortion. It’d be even more accurate to say that they can’t get enough of the stuff! Their chunky riffs, droning synth-bass and crashing drums all combined to create a massive wall of sound that would have made even the most diehard Sonic Youth fan proud. And atop it all floated Sarah’s enchanting yet slightly deranged vocals. Though she may be small in stature, on some songs (such as the cover of Bill Callahan’s Bathysphere and epic closer Lonely Children from new album The Shiralee) it sounded as if she was channelling the raw emotion and tortured wailing not heard since Cat Power’s early material.

All comparisons aside, theredsunband are a truly talented group in their own right and thoroughly impressed all in attendance. A couple of happy snaps and a poster signing later, this reviewer went home and lived happily ever after.

Article: The Odd Couple

2008-06-26T22:40:00.004+10:00

The Odd Couple

"[Mark has] always been a gentleman to me. I know he has that [dark] side to him, but he can be very charming when he wants to be. I can vouch for that!"

Digesting Coke and chocolate simultaneously. Drinking orange juice straight after you've brushed your teeth. Wearing a fluoro shirt to a metal show. All things that don't go well with one another, no? Well, on first observation, that's how one might categorise the pairing of ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN. Before hearing the duo sing in sweet harmony together on their new album, Sunday At Devil Dirt, I would have agreed. On paper, Campbell's winsome, soothing higher tones seem like they would be an awful match for the low, gravely edge of Lanegan's world-weary voice. Yet somehow it works.

When prompted, Campbell herself is at a loss to explain the strange combination. "It's really weird, our voices blend really well. I didn't really realise how much until I was mixing the record and I just realised we have this really good blend when we're singing."

Campbell, a former member of indie twee-pop group Belle & Sebastian, explains how exactly she and former Screaming Trees/occasional Queens of the Stone Age frontman Lanegan came together in the first place.

"To be honest, looking back, it was really quite random," she laughs. "I've always been such a fan of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra and I knew that I had a light voice. In the back of my mind I was always on the lookout for someone with a low, dark voice and in about 2002-03 I said to my boyfriend at the time "I need a low voice" and he said "check out this guy." He played me something and I was all "oooh, yeahhh..." so I just completely blindly sent Mark a half-written song and then two months later he called me up and he's like "I've written the melody" and he'd written lyrics as well. I spoke to him on the phone and he'd finished this song and sang it down the phone to me. Then a couple of months later he was in town with Queens of the Stone Age and I went along to meet him then." The rest is history.

Lanegan is not the nicest bloke in rock, so the story goes. He has a reputation for being the dark, brooding, formidable type that you don't want to mess with. Campbell assures me that that portrayal is not always one hundred percent accurate. "He's always been a gentleman to me," she confirms. "I know he has that side to him, but he can be very charming when he wants to be. I can vouch for that!" she enthuses. She adds that the pair are on the same page musically and that "I'm quite honest, you know, and I think he's a bit like that too. So if something we write sounds pretentious and shit we'll just go 'oh my god, that's shit.'"

Sunday At Devil Dirt is not the first time Campbell and Lanegan have met to make beautiful music together. (Oi! Mind out of the gutter, thank you.) This new release follows on the back of the success of their first collaborative effort, Ballad of the Broken Seas, which contained a pleasant mix of acoustic indie folk duets and was released in 2006. The album received critical acclaim and earned the pair a controversial Mercury prize nomination (controversial because Lanegan is American and the award is for British artists only). Not that it should have been that big a deal, considering Campbell is without a doubt the dominant force behind the music.

"It's totally my baby," asserts Campbell. "On the last record, Mark wrote one song and I wrote the rest of them on my own. And then with this record I wrote most of them on my own as well."

Campbell is no stranger to making music on her lonesome. Since her departure from Belle & Sebastian, she has released two full length solo albums and a number of EPs. She decides to sit on the fence over the issue of which setup she likes best – being in a band or being by herself. "At first, [after leaving Belle & Sebastian], it was like 'oh, will I ever work again?' But it was really liberating," she confesses. "With the liberation comes a lot of pros and cons, you know. It is really liberating, especially making the records with Mark. The new one was really hard work for me but to be able to realise a creative vision is just wonderful. I couldn't hope for any more really. But it's not always easy. It can be quite tough and sometimes when it's tough – when there's no money, when Mark can't tour for a long time – sometimes when it's tough I think 'oh I wish I was in a band' but it does have good points too."

It's interesting to note that despite the fact that Campbell is the one who wears the pants in their musical relationship, so to speak, it is Lanegan who handles most of the lead vocal duties. "I like writing," she muses. "It's one of my favourite parts of the process because I get to go off into my imagination and just explore stories and sculpt away at things. It's complete escapism. It seems really magical to me, I really like that."

The creative side of the process, as opposed to the technical side, seems to be Campbell's forte. "When I'm writing, I'm in my own house and I'm comfortable, it's private... if you're in the studio, you're in the studio with some sweaty engineer who wants to talk about rock bands or you know, the latest... who's number one. I mean, what do I give a shit about that?" Indeed!

Spending weeks on end cooped up inside a recording studio with chart-obsessed sound engineers isn't exactly Campbell's idea of fun. "I've figured out that engineers that work in studios are all pretty mad. They're all just locked away all the time, so... it's quite tough, you know." Thankfully the album is now complete and a number of tour dates, sadly so far not including Australia, await Campbell. "I'm so glad my record's finished and I don't need to be in the studio for a very long time," she laughs.

After chatting with Campbell for a good fifteen minutes, it becomes clear that she is an extremely sweet and charming woman. It comes as no surprise that someone like Lanegan would be keen to work with her once again. After all, though they may come from two seemingly very different backgrounds, the formula works. Perhaps next time Slipknot are in town I'll bust out my bright pink polo shirt... With the collar up, of course.

News: Goldfrapp, Peaches to headline Parklife '08

2008-06-18T18:08:00.007+10:00

It is with great pleasure that I report the recently announced lineup for the Parklife Festival for this year!

Headlining will be English electro duo Goldfrapp, in addition to Belgian outfit Soulwax and Peaches, queen of all things vulgar and absurd.

Full line up after the cut.

GOLDFRAPP
2MANYDJs
PLUMP DJs
XXXCHANGE
METRO AREA
YUKSEK
FAMILJEN
BOY 8-BIT
SOULWAX
DIZZEE RASCAL
DIPLO
DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
ELEKTRONS
VAN SHE
BAG RAIDERS (live)
GRAFTON PRIMARY
PEACHES
MARTIN SOLVEIG
JESSE ROSE
BLACKALICIOUS
DRAGONETTE
SLYDE
AJAX
VAN SHE TECH
+ many more

Adelaide 27.09.08
Melbourne 28.09.08
Perth 29.09.08
Brisbane 04.10.08
Sydney 05.10.08

News: Sia blogs about pet obedience, sexual experimentation

2008-06-11T23:06:00.000+10:00

I'm all for artists devising new and interesting ways to reach and communicate with their fans. Trent Reznor uploading source files to the Nine Inch Nails website for fans to create their own remixes is one such innovative idea. Sia blogging about her dogs' sanitary habits is not.

Seriously, I like the girl and all, but who really cares about where her dog takes a shit? Not me. Yikes! Give me more about tour dates, new music or, hell, an additional tidbit about this "sexual experimentation" she's apparently been engaging in. Sounds juicy!

Remembering Jeff Buckley, eleven years on.

2008-05-29T21:48:00.003+10:00

Jeffrey Scott Buckley
17 November 1966 - 29 May 1997

Picture courtesy of verucasalt82.

It's now been eleven years since Jeff Buckley tragically drowned in a tributary of the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee. Continuing a tradition that I've been observing for the past four years, I've lit a candle, poured a few glasses of red and have been listening to every one of his songs that I possess.

It's always an emotional and somewhat spiritual night for me. I know it might sound a little bit silly to some, but the man and his music have had a huge impact on my life. I've been listening to Jeff for at least eight years now and by this stage I can quite confidently say that I'm never going to grow tired of his voice. It never fails to amaze, astound and move me.

There's only so much you can say about the man. He was incredibly talented and it was the biggest of tragedies that he died so young. But enough chatter. These nights are about appreciating him and his music, so that's what I'm going to do.

Here's to you, Jeff. *clink*

News: New Sigur Rós not far away!

2008-05-28T00:08:00.003+10:00

In an announcement made on their website in the past few hours, Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rós revealed details about their soon to be released fourth album. Entitled Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (translation: With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly), the album will be released "the week of June 23," which will hopefully mean Saturday June 21 in Australia.

Tracklisting and cover behind the cut.

1. "Gobbledigook" - 3:05
2. "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" - 4:05
3. "Góðan daginn" - 5:15
4. "Við spilum endalaust" - 3:33
5. "Festival" - 9:24
6. "Suð í eyrum" - 4:56
7. "Ára bátur" - 8:57
8. "Illgresi" - 4:13
9. "Fljótavík" - 3:49
10. "Straumnes" - 2:01
11. "All alright" - 6:21

Interesting to note the two titles in English and that the track times seem to be shorter compared to those on Takk.... Either way, I'm sure it'll be good. I can't wait to hear the new songs and see them performed live in Melbourne in August!

Review: Portishead - Third

2008-05-24T22:46:00.000+10:00

Portishead
Third
Island/Universal

Musical reunions usually fall into one of two categories. Bands get back together either because bank balances are running low or to attend to some form of unfinished business. Thankfully, Portishead belong to the latter category. Despite the decade-long wait between Third and its self-titled predecessor, the trip-hop trio from Bristol has reemerged from obscurity with some of its most exciting work to date. The style and substance of Third aren't exactly puppies and rainbows. There's a dark and vulnerable edge that permeates throughout the eleven new offerings, exemplified by the stuttered industrial throb of first single Machine Gun. Despite her fondness for chain smoking, singer Beth Gibbons' piercing vocals and bleak lyrics are mesmerising and go hand in hand with the haunting sounds emanating from the instruments of collaborators Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow. Though it feels slightly minimal at times, there is a lot to discover on this album. In this writer's opinion, Third time's a charm.

---
I'm proud to say that this review is the album of the week in the current issue of BMA! :)

Review: Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy For Evolution

2008-05-19T00:08:00.001+10:00

Ólafur Arnalds
Eulogy For Evolution
Erased Tapes Records

Okay class, hands up who knows the population of Iceland. Any takers? No? Let me enlighten you: approximately 300,000. Yes folks, that cold little island houses less people than our nation’s capital yet consistently churns out the most amazing and uniquely beautiful music. Ólafur Arnalds is the latest Icelandic sensation – a 21 year old composer who knows his way around a piano and pulls on the old heartstrings with, er, swarms of soaring string flourishes. The astute observer will also note the occasional indie rock and electronic influences, helping to give the songs a quirky flavour on their epic journey. It’s impossible for the young Icelander to avoid comparisons to his famous peers, Sigur Rós, but Eulogy For Evolution differs in the sense that it is sans vocals and more delicate – like a snowflake dancing on an Arctic breeze.

Review: Camille - Music Hole

2008-05-15T18:47:00.001+10:00

So the first few entries will just be me catching up with a bit of backlog... reviews that I've written in the past month or so and have already been published in BMA. First off the rack is Camille!

Camille
Music Hole
Virgin/EMI

My first reaction to hearing this record was one of absolute horror. Barking, meowing, squealing… what the hell has Camille done now?! Then I remembered who exactly I was listening to. The French songstress hasn’t made her name by writing conventional pop songs. She likes to push the envelope and does so brilliantly on this new album. Music Hole may initially offend the listener’s ear but given time it unfolds to reveal true beauty. This album is different to its predecessors in that the vast majority of it is sung in English. Any mystique lost with the axing of the French phrasing is made up tenfold with an explosion of innovative aural delights (ranging from operatic warbling to dirty beat-boxing). There is a fine line between genius and insanity. Animal sounds aside, Camille’s new work definitely leans towards the former.

Introduction

2008-05-13T16:40:00.000+10:00

Welcome to my music blog! In case you were wondering, the title is a reference to the CSS song Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex.

My name's Josh and I'll be using this page to upload any reviews and articles I write... or just random music-related commentary. I've always liked music and writing, so the logical thing seemed to be to combine the two. I write for BMA Magazine, the free local street press in Canberra. My music taste is fairly eclectic, but generally falls under the broad "alternative" tag. If you'd like to get a better idea of exactly what I listen to, check out my last.fm page.

Anyway, introductions aside... bring on the music discussion, I say!