LEVITYLAND BACKSTAGE BLOGGER

2009

2009-01-15T12:02:00.002+11:00

So being the first month of 2009, people are starting to comment on who they think is going to blow up this year. NME's top 10 tips include Florence and The Machine, The Virgins, Little Boots and even locals - Empire of The Sun - just to name a few....

What's your hot tips of 2009? Are there any local bands out there that you think are the next big things? Let us know at Levity because we LOVE new music....! We are yet to formulate our own opinions on what might be, but here's 2 for you.

Murmurs on the local scene say to watch out for Melbourne lads, the Temper Trap. Having watched these boys from the beginning and seeing their live show now - you can definitely say they have stepped it up a notch. Comprising of more members on stage a hell of a lighting show, and the new stool for front-man Dougy to shine on - it seems they have all the makings to indeed make something big happen in 2009. Go see them live in this new Temper Trap era and see what your thoughts are. www.myspace.com/thetempertrap

They've been mentioned before on the Levity blog, last year I believe - but Brooklyn lads, Amazing Baby, are a true favourite of mine. Who knows if they will take off this year but their T-Rex-ish-ness coupled with the new breee of physcedlic guitars, definitely takes you somewhere that music hasn't taken us in a while. www.myspace.com/theamazingababy

What else is out there? Let us know and come back soon so we can tell you more as soon as we discover them. xxx

Summer Lovin'

2009-01-07T14:40:00.002+11:00

Hey there! Well the summer didn't really start off like summer at all. It poured non stop - well where the music was anyway, at Meredith Music Festival! Heading down to MMF a couple of hours out of Melbourne, is definitely a trek worth doing for those of you out there who have not yet done so. Even if it did pour for 3 full days, it's one of the most invigorating music festivals in Australia you'll go too. I dont know if its the fresh air, the new faces, or the true music fans who make the trek that make it what it is, but there is definietly something magical about it.

Kicking of the festivities was Violent Soho and (some) vodka, and what a way to start.... I would have to say it was definitely my main musical highlight of the weekend. These Brisbane boys just rip up the stage and make you want to let your hair down and move your head until it falls off, because it would complete the music if it did. I'm not sure if they were stuck in a huge tupperware container in 1991 and only just opened fresh from the packet recently, but it sure feels like that - IN A BLOODY GOOD WAY. The sound, look and smell of them just oozed everything you love about that era. Rumor has it that the Soho camp returned fresh from a US stint performing showcases for some industry big whigs, you can tell they are already seasoned professionals even though more than half the crowd hadn't seen them play before. Definitely check them out as soon as you can. www.myspace.com/violentsoho

Fast Forward all through Friday Night and Saturday (you don't want to hear how I slept in a tarago) and you get to MGMT. After waiting for about 20 delayed minutes the boys finally stepped on stage. Having already seen them twice that week I was anticipation a grand finale for the long 18 month tour. Unfortunately technical problems throughout the set, rain and annoying booners in the vecinity of well, me - didnt really help the cause. I'm gonna blame my deflation of anticipation on where I chose to stand. I should have gone up front to the barrier with the fans to sing a long....

Coming back to Sydney where the rain was a little less full on, it was straight into the annual Christmas parties. Oyster Mag threw theirs @ Oxford Art Factory and was headlined by a band I so sorely miss, Red Riders. They played a bunch of new tracks and I cant wait for the new record, I heard its coming out this year! WOOHOOO!!!! New guitarist too... Brad from the Vines. Hot looking bunch, they always have been.

After the Christmas period subsided it was time to venture back into gig land, and I just had to do it, you're all going to hate me right now because i'm not sure how much music credibility they have - The Honey Brothers. Vinnie from Entourage eg. Adrian Grenier's band! You know what, they were fun and they played really well and Adrian looked sparkling. It was an entertaining night and if you feel free to break down you harshful judgemental barriers you might sometimes enjoy bands for just the FUN of it.

One more band to mention before I go to bed. After the release of their record Twenty-One last year (one of my favourites of 08) I just had to see them live. Mystery Jets ARE AMAZING! With a set of killer songs everyone was singing along and dancing their hearts out. If you haven't heard the record I urge you to go get it now. Every song is absolutely killer and when you see them live it's like your heart melting onto your favourite flavoured ice cream. I-spyed fellow UK mates Actic Monkeys also catching the show with girlfriend's in tow. I have to admit, I was more excited to see one Miss Alexa Chung than the boys.

Well that's it for me till next week.... when I see Temper Trap, Franz Ferdinand, Santogold, Oh Mercy, Philadelphia Grand Jury and more Red Riders.

xx

Scott's final blog for 2008

2008-12-01T14:20:00.000+11:00

Soon it will be 2009 and then most probably 2010 if bass drum doesn’t kill me between now and then.

Over the last week I have decided that we need a new dog at BJB studios, we had BEAR for 10 years but he lives in Tasmania now and everyone misses having a ball of flush running around. So if anyone knows where some cool dog is, preferably an endangered boarder collie with blue eyes

On the music front I have finished up The Protectors finally, I am really excited about this one and I think you will all be when you hear it. It has also been great to hear that Mr Pete Stalls has smashed all the guitars the band owns.

For old times sake and because I really want to know this as well, here is the list of bands I have done this year:

The Reptiles, The Presets, Bertie Blackman, The Seabellies, Cut off your hands, Cut Sic, Thirsty Merc, Model School, Steve Clisby, Katie Steele, Daniel Johns and Luke Steele, Faker, Channel Ten Theme with Paul Mac, The Scare, T Bolt, Tex Perkins, Former Child Stars, John Steele Singers, Wow, Matt Walters, Yen, The Wahas, Big Game Hunter, The Protectors, Rai Thistlewaite, Sarah Blasko, Teenagers in Tokyo, Turbo Weekend, The Protectors, The Polites, Sideways Hitchhiker, Tuesday Spoils, Cameras and I still have the Galvatrons to go which begins in Melbourne on Monday.

Thanks to all the bands and artists that have braved BJB studios in 2008.

Thanks to my business partner Chris and all the BJB crew Simon, Brudzy, John, JP, Henry, Jane and Sambo.

We look forward The Scares record being work on all through early January,
We look forward to BRUDZY getting back from his little self journey.
We look forward to more and more bands coming through these doors in 2009.
Have a happy Christmas
Love,

Scott

P.S
The rooms are filling up downstairs, be quick

Studio. Seafood. Studio.

2008-11-24T10:10:00.000+11:00

Another busy week for the studio and myself,
I am just finishing up my final projects before I commence a three-month venture with Melbourne band The Galvatrons. I start in Melbourne on December 1st and I have managed to squeeze a album in with Danish electro group Turbo Weekend in, which leaves me a day or two over the festive season to eat as much seafood and drink as much good wine as possible before getting back on the horse to finish the trons.

Over the last month I have done EP’s for The Protectors, The Polites, Singles for Sideways Hitchhiker and Turbo Weekend and did a day with the amazing Sarah Blasko. The studio is busy and the two new assistants John and JP are killing it.

We are turning lot 2 and 3 of our building into an amazing warehouse office space for everybody interested in the arts, so if you are excited to have a look and be quick because we have already filled rooms with visual artists, photographers, writers, musicians and a management group. The building looks a like it hasn’t been touched since the 70’s (in the best possible way) and has two cycloramas already built. Sorry to harp on but it is a fantastic space that will be great for the hood. Call Sam 9211 5434 for more details.

That is it for me for this week, everything is good!

Scott

Who am I in the studio with next?

2008-11-17T10:19:00.000+11:00

The beautiful things in life,
Sitting on the harbour eating seafood and then lying in the park for 3 hours while the sun disappears over you. It is a sharp contrast from sitting in a studio for 14 hours a day.

Summer is hear and I guess that means busier times for myself and the studio, bands get that summer buzz and want to get their newest offerings out just in time for the new year. I have had a handful of days off this year and it gets harder when you are listening to the same kick drum for hours when the sun is shining down on the trees outside and it is that time of year.

I have been watching several different televisions series on DVD, Boston Legal and Entourage being the two favourites. There is something inspiring about watching successful people like adventurous lives, even if it is all scripted.

The SOYA awards was a great night to be involved with, the winner MY DISCO where fantastic on the night and we really look forward to working with them over the year. From years of doing minimalist music myself and look fondly upon a band singing only 4 lyrics in one song.

Next week I start young Melbourne upstarts The Polites and then onto a 3-month stint with The Galvatrons.

We also are taking over the bottom level of 259 Riley Street, so if you are an artist looking for a really great space. Email info@bjbstudios.com and we will get back to you.

From the hand of Scott Horscroft

2008-11-10T10:03:00.000+11:00

So, it has been a big month, in a big year, in a big life of 31 years.

For those who don't know me, I'm Scott Horscroft. I've been a mixer, producer and engineer at BJB studios in Surry Hills in Sydney since 2003. Before that I experienced being an sound & noise artist, a music composer, lecturer, and world explorer.

I did plan to take a holiday with my mother for three weeks this October to clear my head and put up my feet, but am now in the last week of that extended holiday and i haven't left the grasps of the studio (which I am not complaining about, but my taste buds do miss the French wine and Spanish Stews)!

I've been up to a lot lately, from recording the amazing young band The Protectors to the swooping Matt Walters or Levity's own brilliant John Steel Singers. The records keep getting made and my world keeps getting crazier, busier and more exciting. We have also had Dappled Cities in at BJB Studios for 28 days doing a record with Chris Coady from New York. From all accounts it is sounding great.

I have had the privilege of being able to work with The Presets, who took home three big boys at the ARIA awards for their album Apocalypto. Whilst I didn't attend the evening, I definitely made the most of the champagne provided by the beautiful people at Modular. I also celebrated the ARIA success of The Panics, who were nominated for four awards, as well as two artisan awards for Best Engineer and Best Producer. I'm so proud of all the effort made by these talented performers, and it's great to see their audiences recognise them and reward them for all the long hours spent slaving away over their music.

Although it seems the international music industry is riding the rollercoaster of change its great to hear that so much music is still being produced and sydneys live music scene is in better shape than i can remember in the past 10 years

Your thoughts ?

See you next time.

Scott

YKB back in BRIS!

2008-10-27T16:07:00.001+11:00

Well, well dear Blog the last week has been great, for the most part because I have reacquainted myself with my own bed (as opposed to floorboard, couches, other flat surfaces that don't have nails sticking out of them). The first gig night was in Byron Bay, the beach right? WRONG! Well, the beach was still there but not as you and I might know it... I arrived with a joyous smile on my face, wearing board-shorts, and my best singlet, towel draped over one shoulder only to be robbed of my joy and my body warmth by the bleak skies, bone chilling wind, and sleeting rain.

After I was consoled by my family, and close friends I pulled myself together just in time for sound check (not load-in..... i missed that because i got there too late, my apologies to my band members), anyway long story short, we played a rousing set to a small but excitable crowd who seemed to be somewhat 'medicated' but if gigging has taught me anything that can only be a good sign. Though I'm not sure what it means when your merch girl is so adequately medicated that she is rolling out of her chair, but who could judge her it was a thursday night, a night which we have dubbed the start of the weekend.

Back to Brisbane the next morning, after the inevitable quest for organic doughnuts in Byron. A gig in our home town, in our spiritual home of the Zoo, what more could you ask for? Well if it include making it out of the Valley Corner Chinese joint alive (even after the imperial king prawn), and that we recorded the show both audio and visual, AND people actually came (always a surprise to me i assure you), and they danced, and the merch girl was coherent at the nights end...... I think that makes for a pretty awesome night really. Oh yeah, and we made sure that Chris' drum riser was 2 feet in the air, he needed a step to get onto it!

Saturday night, playing a beach town at a really great venue the Coolangatta Ho, apparently a few weeks before us the matches played there and found a severed pigs head left behind after a heavy metal gig! Which boggles my mind considering that heavy metalers have always seemed to be the nicest most misrepresented people groups. I have been wrong before. Anyway, our house guys name was Mud. Some said (including himself) that this was because of his mixing ability, I chose to make a vague correlation between the pigs head and the name Mud. Pigs? Mud? I rest my case. We went to big chief burgers, WOW! Seriously good burgers, Charles led us along the street of Coolangatta, like some kind of mystic, crouched over and beckoning us with his gross shriveled hand and making gurgling noises which we guess were coming from sound kind of mouth. Anyway, unbeknownst to me Adam and Clark (our amazing sound and lights duo) timed me eating my burger, as they believe that i don't chew my food. I would like to say that I do chew my food, but that I feel excessive chew degrades the flavors and robs you of the joys of it. My time was 2:30, and I had been trying to eat slowly.

Last but not least, the Sol Bar at Coolum, possibly the most fun you can have on a Sunday night up the coast. From a bands perspective, free dinner, half price drinks (including really fruity cocktails you would never have ordered before because of cost, and because the other kids would laugh at you) and a tiny stage were you can quite easily be mistake for a crowd member. Well I have sad news for all of you who think that sounds fricken awesome fun. Its being pulled down to put apartments in. I want to go on record and say that apartments suck and that they kill every live music venue they can sink their hands into. So I choose to remember the Sol Bar for the good times we had, for the el tropico's, the white russians, the crazy looking blue drink that Meg ordered, and the red cordials that we all consumed. Goodbye Sol Bar, goodbye Blog, Goodbye my faithful readership consisting of my mum, Meg our manager (she edits out my jokes), and any poor soul who stumbles across this just like in Jumanji.

New York, a festival and getting to see one of my favourite new bands live up to all my dreams.

2008-10-27T16:05:00.000+11:00

BY Jonathan Wilson

CMJ has been a bit of a head fuck to be honest and likewise for the city of New York in general. I've been working like a dog, mostly heading in and out of meetings for a new band I look after, who are amazing by the way. There have been a bunch of hyped bands at CMJ but none of them have really lived up to my expectations. I've done these types of festivals before, packed with thousands of hopefuls and I usually walk away with a handful of sounds in my ears and sites in my mind to plot some kind of future that is about to happen that I'd want to be a part of. So many bands with so many people touting them, the big hype acts Amazing Baby, Passion Pit, High Places, Crystal Stilts etc were good but I think we've heard it all before. Trust me though, you'll hear people the world over singing these bands praises before too long. Amazing Baby in particular have 'NEXT BIG THING' tag all over their cock rock meets The Killers swagger. They will be massive, I guess I'm just not sure what I think about personally...

While I was disappointed with most of the stuff one band lived up to every hope I've ever had from a debut album in recent times. Next month I'm releasing the Alpinism's by a Brooklyn band called School of Seven Bells. They are comprised of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza who used to front the awesome On!Air!Library! and former Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis. Their set at the Fader party got off to a rough start, not musically speaking, they have no drummer you see and the sound guy took a little dislike to them as a result. There music is a little droney and very beat heavy with the most heavenly twin vocals from the sisters I've ever heard. While the record is the die for, once the live set got started it was something so intense and beautiful that I've been speechless since and don't think I want to watch another band for a while to savour the moment for as long as I can.

Both Alejandra and Ben play guitar and the sound is just so fucking thick and heavy that it's a full on assault on your body, you feel it in your fucking bones. It has to be said Ben, who stands arched dead centre, is a complete machine on the guitar, I was blown away by the sounds made from just his guitar. Claudia plays additional key lines that are so much a part of the layering and could be making half the droney sounds that I think came from the guitars. It's hard to know where the sound is all coming from but one thing for sure is that it's dense, loud and thick! Then there's the vocals, holy shit there are amazing vocals. Claudia stage left and Alejandra stage right, Claudia with her eyes shut tightly as if she's closed in an intense moment at every breath she sings and Ale staring blankly, her 20 yard stare lost by the dim lights, singing from her soul. I can't even describe the power behind their vocals. The two harmonise with pitch perfect ease. It's beautiful, comforting and hot all at once. This band is perfect, I'm so fucking happy that I get to put their records out in Australia and if all goes to plan I'll get them down for some shows soon. So I guess in short, for all it was worth, SVIIB's saved my CMJ.

I'm in LA now, enough of the drooling, so I'm off to eat burgers, burritos and drink some Mexican beer with The Duke Spirit who are demoing for their new record. Killer huh!

GO WEST

2008-10-20T13:32:00.002+11:00

YKB journey west! Like Christopher Columbus setting sail for America! Like cowboys riding into the sunset! Or like the opposite of traveling to New Zealand! We boarded a plane for Adelaide! (So i guess that is more like South-South West or maybe just South West...)

This part of the Immaculate Confection Tour took us to Adelaide, Perth, Bunbury and Fremantle. The most exciting thing about this tour is that we are travelling to cities where we have never played before. So needless to say, we were keen to immerse ourselves in the language and culture of these foreign lands.

To my surprise we didn't need passports at the airport and check in was as usual as a domestic flight. We landed in Adelaide around noon on Thursday night and headed to our hotel. What! A hotel?? Crazy huh? We are used to sleeping on the floor at friends houses.
Sean had to double check if we did actually have rooms booked or whether we were just going to camp out in the lobby.

Thank you to all the Adelaide fans, we were pleasantly surprised with the turn out and i think we played the best gig of the tour so far. The next morning we flew to Perth at 6am. This is an unnatural time of the morning and it should be made illegal.

Perth is a lovely city, the people are nice, the streets clean and they have this falafel store called Maoz, its awesome, you have to go there! After a good helping of falafel, we played a gig at the Amplifier Bar in the city. Thanks to everyone who came along and especially to those who danced up the front. (Note - I just spent half an hour trying to find a Star Wars quote that was something along the lines of "we will meet again". And i came up with nothing. Please don't ask me why. I will never have that time back.)

Bunbury! or Funbury as we like to call it has an awesome bakery. It also has a lookout tower that Sean and I both climbed. I'll show you the photos some time.
I would like to thank the Holidays for being the majority of the audience at the gig. We actually had a lot of fun and got to play some old songs. Michael and I were keen to do an AC/DC cover, but Sean and Charles said no.
The best part of the evening was when we had to rescue Alex and Andrew, from the Holidays, who had managed to bog to tour van in a sandune. Please refer the attached photo. It was a serious bonding session for the two bands and i think we came out of the experience with better knowledge of each other, in particular - never let Alex and Andrew drive near a beach.

The final show was in Fremantle. That town is fantastic! I want to live there. It has a river, a beach and the Little Creatures Brewery. Fanntastic. We played at the Norfolk Basement, where it is rumored the Beatles have played.

Thankyou to Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, Boys Boys Boys and Tracksuit for supporting us on these shows and also for lending us gear. Hope to see you all soon.â•¨
Thanks for reading. Im going to go find that Star Wars quote.

from chris and ykb

Music... the saviour whilst travelling

2008-10-14T15:10:00.000+11:00

BY Jonathan Wilson

Travel, remembering I have an ipod and the love affair of not speaking or looking up whilst cramped next to an overweight old man smelling of London grime on the tubes...

Ahh, a week has passed and I've found myself sitting here and thinking about what, if anything I have to say that may be of interest to you out there in the internerd. Do people have time to read the opinions of nobodies these days? Do they even care? Fuck knows I don't. There are too many people laying claim, and usually in an uneducated way about their likes and dislikes in all forms of the creative world.

Hmm..., I probably should stop going down this path and let you know what's happening in London town. After something like 36 hours door to door I arrived at the house of Shrimps and we hit the town for some much needed coffee. It's been raining here all day everyday. The weather is horrible but if I think about it, really it's just English weather. We're kind of super lucky in Australia that it's sunny and warm all the time pretty much. So I've been belting all over central London doing the rounds so they say with labels, bookers, record stores etc and it's exhausting to say the least.
When you're travelling like a headless chicken on public transport you need two things, a decent book and an ipod.
I hate ipods, I really do, the music is compressed and sounds thin and bad all round. I'm a cd vinyl type of guy. I will say that my ipod comes in handy when I'm away because I need to have all my music at my finger tips when I want it. Who knows what mood will strike going from Spring to Autumn and so on.

So what have I been listening to... It's always a little strange coming here, I find myself filing through old and new albums to fill the sites just right. While sitting in London Fields on Monday morning I put on an old Glide album called Disappear Here and for that moment the weight of the rain and gloom was lifted from shoulders. Glide were Aussies from the early 90's that were hands down one of the most amazing pop bands to ever grace the face of the planet. William Arthur the main singer/ song writer passed away in 99 and I personally think he is and will always be one of Australia's and the worlds greatest song writers. Glide were better than the posies, fuck they were even better than Big Star. If you need a place to start look no further than the single What Do I Know?. That song is perfect start to finish, lyrically it moves and opens up some wounds that would later surface in a much more realistic way. Tangled from the same album, is all moody minor keys till it hits the most uplifting chorus. Why You Asking from the next record Open Up And Croon was almost an extension of What Do I Know and with a fuzzy pre verse that so thick and powerful and an outro progression that is probably the best 30 seconds off guitar pop music I've ever heard. What a fucking band. Do yourself a favor and search them out. They should be respected forever.

It got me to thinking, when will artists, like this that have come before us get the recognition they deserve?

Everyone seems to make reference to the Saints, the go betweens, the church or the Birthday Party, the scientist blah blah blah. While I'll be the first to admit that those bands are hugely influential and are all amazing I'm still a little sad that the next generation of acts haven't yet or aren't being given the same props that they should be. Bands like the Underground Lovers, Gaslight Radio, The Paradise Motel, Sandpit all did it their own way and weren't running a game like any international acts. They stood apart with brilliant songs and powerful performances but it seems to be to no avail. No recognition really in the day and it seems none now either. Maybe it's too early, maybe people aren't interested in history anymore. I am... I have to go now and listen to Glide again.

p.s. I went out to dinner with a friend of mine who is about to sign a record deal for like a billion dollars and she'd just been hanging with Rick Rubin and Leonard Cohen. What a fucking small world.

YKB BAND ON THE ROAD!

2008-10-09T17:50:00.001+11:00

Week One:
I have left this as late as possible to ensure nobody misses a minute more than they have to and so that nobody has to endure a minute more than it is possible to write at 3am in the morning.
We’re on tour with the Holidays at the moment. We went to Mona Vale, Canberra and The Filth at Beach Road Bondi, perhaps you were there? If not, where were you? And why didn’t you invite us? We invited you to our thing!
(Sigh)
Ok.
I forgive you.
Lots of interesting stuff happened though –
Charles gets up early. (GASP!)
We coerce a vegetarian into paying more than she could afford to enter a meat raffle that was rigged by a ring of sinocentric back slapping butchers that dupe us into parting with what scarce cash money we have. (Luckily Chambers had brought with them cheap champagne, consumption of which is at once a celebration and a penance, so after a time we could come to peace with it. The vegetarian could not though, as the champagne label announced it may contain fish products. I tried to cheer her up with an interesting anecdote I’d heard earlier involving a midget but that just led to several more anecdotes involving websites which just depressed everyone.)
Chris and I take coffee in a very strange theatre restaurant before being asked to leave.
Seans’ brain explodes and he plays Eddie Current Suppression Ring ‘Which Way to Go’ and Nirvana ‘Rape Me’ back to back in a dance club. (I make up for it by dancing effeminately with the coordination of a newly born giraffe.)
Grand final night - Part I: I continue my annual tradition of desperately trying and failing to hide my complete lack on knowledge or interest in football.
Grand Final Night – Part II: I continue my annual tradition of getting whole heartedly drunk despite my indifference.(which I consider a testament in equal parts to my openness to all that life has to offer and my indomitable enthusiasm for tying one on.)
I wake up next to a giant sheep’s arse and eat a country sized portion of baked beans. (That’s a lot of beans.)
So you really don’t want to miss out when we come to your town you see.
Hmmm…What else – Oh yeah - We had MEGA CHICKEN for tea, on recommendation of the Holidays.
Great guys – They’ve been playing great sets every night and are in fine form, modestly claiming not to be when we tell them so; shut up YOU OLD LUGS! We trade EPs. We win because we’ve heard ours loads of times and theirs is excellent. SUCKERS!
For us, each night is the first night that we go on with our new set of songs. To play them live is a nerve wracking and enthralling experience for us. Each night proves not just another show for but the proving ground for everything we have been working on recently. At the end of the month we will fly to Los Angeles to make our first record. Already we can feel the difference performing has had on them and get more excited and nervous about the whole situation.We’ve still got all your old favorites as well though in there such as “Running with the Devil” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” so DON’T PANIC. (Stick around for our famously raucous joint band encore as well. You will regret not regretting you did.)
BREAKING NEWS: we have NEW T-SHIRTS as well! (They are black) The new songs and new t-shirts have been holding weekly support groups to talk about the issues they are facing.
THANKSto Trevor. We are indebted to the Stubbs and Trevor and to Tony of the Filth. I hope you will not mind me exposing my deep seated neurosis and no that I mean no offense when I say thank you for being lovely as opposed to axe-murderers. (I suspect almost everyone else could be axe-murderer, but I welcome you both to my inner sanctum.)
In a revolutionary change we do not go to the Big Prawn (in Ballina obviously!) for dinner on the way home. We begin to feel guilty at betraying the place that has always been so good to us and end up stopping there for ice cream, which in turn makes us feel evenmore guilty. Powerlessly trapped in a vicious cycle, we will stop again before the journey is out.

Thank you for sticking with the blog right till the end, I hope you enjoyed reading. Do stay tuned for our vivid accounts of our experiences in Adelaide, Perth, Bunbury and Fremantle. We are very excited to be off there as it’s our first time. Until next week, Seacrest out.
*Excerpt taken from M. Tomlinson’s’ recount of the unfortunate adventures of Sizzlebot, Cribble, Chong Choozler, Lord Hignett, NavMeg and the Booby Prize at the turn of the century.

Music u might not know about...

2008-10-07T10:41:00.001+11:00

By Jonathan Wilson

Hey there levitylanders, this is the first of my monthly blogs for levityland. Please excuse the cursing, the overload of words, the sentences that trail off and overall mind vomit that you may read. If you know me (unlikely yes, I mean it is the fucking internerd right), this is how I speak and it's also how I write. Hopefully I'll offer you an insight into something new and something old at the same time.

So It's Thursday morning and I'm about to lose my fucking mind, you see in two days I'm off to London again... always again and again to London. Hmmm, Again and Again great song by an even more fantastic band called Akron/ Family (www.myspace.com/akronfamily ). Anyway, I've lost my train of thought already...

So while I'm bitching and moaning about London (Rothko room at Tate, I will be visiting you again). I should note that I'm also lucky enough this time round to be heading over to CMJ at the end of the month in NYC. It's been a long time since I was last in New York, about 7 years. Fuck...come to think of it I'm pretty excited about it. My friend Cannonball Bob just came home from NYC ATP festival and he's pretty much been raving about My Bloody Valentine over and over for the last 3 days. He even bought me a Loveless T Shirt, it is awesome so I shouldn't complain. Everything I you ever need is in New York. Bring on Pop-eyes chicken, deli sandwiches as big as houses, cheap boutique guitar pedals, cool as fuck cloths and loads of drinking in lower east side bars till late late late.

CMJ will be great, I'm there with Cut Off Your Hands who I manage these days, they just signed to Syd from Les Savy Fav's label in America called French Kiss. Exciting times for them and me. I'll also be checking out some great new artist at CMJ which is always a treat. One band I'm particularly looking forward to seeing is School of Seven Bells. I've been chasing these girls and guy for Speak n Spell for a long time. Finally they have finished their debut album and I will be putting it out in Jan next year. SVIIB are made of Benjamin Curtis who was in one of my favourite bands of recent years called Secret Machines. Their second album Ten Silver Drops was fucking brilliant. Alone, Jealous and Stoned is the most amazing opening track. Also in the band, heading up the vocals are sisters Alejandra Deheza and Claudia Deheza. Some of you may recognise them from now defunct New York band On!Air!Library!. Their voices together are heavenly and Ben layers drones and beats so beautifully. Check them out on myspace (www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells ) and also look out for their album on Speak n Spell next year. Some other bands I can't wait to see are Crystal Antlers, Bear Hands, A Place to Bury Strangers, Beach House (They were so good at the Hopetoun recently) and about a million more names I'm be sprouting over the next few weeks. I'll be catching up with my friends the Duke Spirit in New York too as they're on tour there. Expect photo's, expect discoveries, expect extremes and extreme lows, expect a running commentary of burgers and fast food.

How good is ATP Australia going to be!!! M. Gira is coming. He was in Swans. Swans are the best band ever. Fact! http://www.myspace.com/swansaredead.

His solo albums are fucking brilliant too http://www.myspace.com/mgira

One last thing, here's what I've been obsessed by this week...

Deerhunter - Saved By Old TImes
Jack Ladder - Barbers Son
SVIIB - Wired For Light
Sad Waters - Listen Lovers
Salem - Snakes
Three Trapped Tigers - all their myspace songs www.myspace.com/threetrappedtigers
I don't swear nearly as much as this which makes me think I should swear more. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=RqtgfjkB6Pg
I've also been watching There Will Be Blood on repeat. "I DRINK YOUR MIlKSHAKE". try that line out on people, it really fucks with them.

laterz

Let Your Sol Glow.

2008-09-24T13:24:00.001+10:00

ROD - END OF FASHION

Its a lovely friday afternoon as we roll into Coolum on the End Of Fashion Endless and Nameless tour. Picturesque scenes of the beach and ocean pass us by. We are hiding behind our shades in denim and black creeping past the pastel citizenry. Tonight we are heading for the Sol Bar. A quirky place where the stage set up has us in a line left to right. Can not wait to see the Seabellies set with six people on stage. It is going to be very intimate and loud.

The night before we played the Sound Lounge in Currumbin... and it rocked!! It felt more like playing a party with the crowd either jumping around or lounging on the couches and cushions everywhere nodding along to the music, drinking a beer. Nights like that are fantastic. People want to cut loose and get into the music, grooving to the old and the new stuff. It gives us more energy to perform and give back to the crowd. Harlequin League and The Seabellies played great sets last night. Two sides of the musical coin. The Seabellies are choral, lush and anthemic. Harlequin League give passionate, intense slabs of rock.

Tomorrow night we play the Valley Fiesta. One of the highlights for us on the tour. Reading all the press for the festival in local media reminds us of home. Brisbane like Perth have a proud and passionate musical heritage, happily flying the flag for your home town. Well kudos to you Brisbane and to celebrate we'll have a party like it was 1999. Remember then... aah, they were good times.

Boom Shankar,

R.

Sunshine & Dance-Offs

2008-09-17T15:05:00.016+10:00

September is my favourite month by far, just when ive settled into that dark winter depression, the greyness gets replaced by sparkling blue skies, the cherry blossoms on my street suddently bloom, the melbourne "delayed easter" show begins and you can go out at night with just a cardigan - sans doona.
It seems the moment i peel off the layers and the first rays of warmth hit my shoulders, ace bands come out of hibernation and we are bombarded with album releases and tour dates.

Sometimes i daydream what it would be like to "be more than a listener" to my favourite bands. Foals new video makes you wish you were mates with them so you could get invited to their annual springbreak camping trip, lazing around in fields- getting high on helium, eatting bonfired octopus and swimming with fireworks.
And i would gladly jump in the boot of CSS's campervan so i can go roadtripping with them ,be on standby with the baby powder when lovefoxx changes her jumpsuit and warn them of the dangers of taking too many holiday snaps.

On the occasion when i flip through international music mags, i religously skip the ads in the middle due to the amazing festival lineups im missing out on. In between flicking the pages the bandname "white denim" kept popping up. Unless The Black Lips release another stella record in the warmer months these guys may just steal their crown.

This month Bloc Party chucked a 'radiohead' by announcing not only had they secretly made a new album they would be releasing it online in 3 days time (and are coming to oz in november!) but You Am I , The Drones and Snowman restored my faith in aussie rocknroll, Beck , The Cold War Kids and The Walkmen released offerings that distracted me from finishing major assignments and although its only been a week Kings of Leon's latest masterpiece is in worse condition than my badly scratched copy of youth & young manhood.
Sex On Fire

In this clip, Caleb rolls around on a bed all sweaty howling about the present a groupie left behind, the drummer shaves off his hobo beard and has a sensual shower, jared reads a book and "the cousin" chases around a chicken,then licks the southern fried goodness off his fingers.

Also looking buffer than i remembered is TV ON THE RADIO! they are currently triple j's feature album and their quirky new video was released 2 hours ago!
Looking like the barn yard version of the village people- their golden guitar has the power to make police officers dance like ballerinas and shoot rainbows from their chest!

NEWS TEAM ASSEMBLE!

The Kaiser Chief's new video reminds me of the episode of Skin's when Maxxie's dad (BILL BAILEY) tells off a group of young lads for teasing him then embarasses him further by line-dancing with a border collie. My mate in London tells me you shouldnt be afraid of walking the streets at night, its the mob of school children hanging out at the swingset who are more likely to put you in hospital. At least these deliquents raided grandmas dress up box before they wagged school.Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat

I think the moment you offically become an adult is when you have your first "when i was your age" moment. Although not very long ago my childhood was spent trading pokemon tazos, climbing trees, riding bikes and pretending to be power rangers!
While its obvious now the monsters in the tv show were stepping on carboard cities, i still cant get over how much emotion the actors showed from a simple headnod or triumphant fist pump!

Crystal Castles have finally gotten around to making a video and it features snipets of a !!!GAY ZOMBIE MOVIE!!!! called "otto or up with dead people" (The director Bruce Le Bruce makes Tarantino look like a carebear!)Crimewave

Personally i think Zombies are overatted. For one they always complain about hunger, they have bad skin and the stench of rotting flesh cant be easily covered with overzealous sprays of lynx. They are bad at conversation, might eat your friends when you go to the bar and with exception for MJ in thriller they arent very good at dancing up a storm(shuffling up a light wind at best)

I want to go dancing with the underpants gnome who lives in a dumpster outside 3rd class!

Yep if i could choose any creature, my new bff would be the pointy eared star of midnight madness. Sure he has a tail but he also has a mirrorball suit, can get into any club with his wall scaling abilitys,can "catch" a cab for you afterwards and those 360 head and leg roations will guarantee winning any dance off hands down.

Nick Littlemore (aka the man who must never wear a shirt)seems to have the golden touch, im not sure how talented he would be solo but once paired he creates an unstoppable force.

Before she was famous, ladyhawke was in a great electronic duo called Teenager with Nick and his main project Pnau are finally getting the sucess they deserve (elton john is rumoured to be building a studio in their honour)whilst the crowds were screaming out for wild strawberrys to be played for the 2nd time i was hoping luke steele would jump out of a fruit mascot costume and launch into my favourite song of the album "with you forever" (which has been added to the new kitsune compilation) You can imagine my excitement when i found out Nick & Luke enjoyed their duet so much they created a sideproject called Empire Of The Sun.

Visually, its like Ziggy Stardust crash landed in Shanghai then decided to do some sightseeing with the newly single Andrew Stockdale.

"Do you use your pointy nipples as telescopic antennae bowie?"

Supermassive Black Hole

2008-09-11T18:08:00.013+10:00

I am writing this on the eve of the end of the world.

In the morning the multibillion dollar 27km long "Large 'hardon' collider" aka -the ultimate doomsday device, will be turned on. I was completly supportive of scientific advancements until the newsreader said "there is a teeny tiny possibility it may create a blackhole but dont worry ive been assured it is safe"Im sure im not the only person whos heartstopped and wondered if someone cut corners by getting the machine parts from acme. It sounds like the plot of a bad american summer blockbuster to me , featuring - Steven Hawking's talking wheelchair turning to the darkside and instructing easily corrupted scientists to create a blackhole that will turn the world inside out. In the final minutes Steven realises not only does he have telepathic powers to warn the world and shut down the machines , he becomes more bad-ass than bruce willis in diehard4 and Megatron combined- bursts out of his wheelchair, kills thousands of badnerds with his bare hands and generally brings the world back to order.

Im not actually that sad i may wake up in space and everyone i ever knew will be dead im just really pissed off with the timing caz I was kinda hoping I wouldn’t get a grim reaper visit before I went to Parklife, Meredith or Falls.

It also got me thinking what a waste it would be for all the cool underground bands with great potential to suddently vanish off the face of the earth just when they are starting to build a fanbase and gain momentum,
The following is a list of acts that have amazed me in the past months. Their demos and live shows are so awesome it scares me to think how good they are going to be this time next year....

Le Kingste –is a band of brothers who make the perfect soundtrack for the upcoming apocalypse.
The track “two pills” sounds like Matthew Bellamy howling and tinkeling the ivories on a stormy night whilst a grandiose theatrical mens choir plays Kirby's Ghost House on Super Nintendo.

The Voltaire Twins –are a brother sister electro outfit from Perth who make the kind of music the crystal castles could of created if they spent more time on original work than remixes and alice glass took singing lessons.They have just been added to parklife and ladytron handpicked them as supports. Their demos have been given a workout on fbi and can been heard blasting out the speakers at the indie discos

I found TRAPS' demo in the jar of “free shit” the weird and random bookstore polyester offers you when you buy an artist biography, big book of useless Japanese inventions or manual on satanic lesbian tattoo artistry.It really was a lucky dip caz I seriously thought the cd would only spend 5 seconds in my cd player before being retired as a coaster. But the tracks “ballad for the times –future and current” along with “common errors” are just so well developed and riveting I get urges to kidnap this band and lock them away in my wardrobe so they can get me pumped before i hit the town.

I was a bit apprehensive to hear triple j’s winner of the best high school band in the country.
Sure Silverchair had a great career, Bridezilla prove talent doesn’t have an age limit but The Flairz aren’t cute now that they are sprouting zits and i would rather eat razorblades than listen to “song about pingpong" part 2. But the winners IS are thankfully in Bridezilla's category. The song "Cult Romance" starts off really dark and athmospheric then all of a sudden changes direction completely by creating an insanely bright and poppy chorus that will be in your head for days. With most of the band members being an average age of 16, im excited to hear what they will come up with in the next couple of years till they are allowed to legally enjoy their rider.

The Frowning Clouds
Are another collective that needs adult supervison when they rock the pub circuit.
I wrote their name in my phone after coming across a picture of a fashionable band in Frankie magazine that looks like The Horrors if they grew up in the 60’s. As soon as I got home I looked them up expecting them to be a shit hot band from the UK but choked on my own spit when I found out they come from Geelong and had a gig down the road that very night. The place was packed full of scenesters trying to catch a glimpse of the pre pubescent boys in matching turtle necks and tight checked pants. The lead singer has a fondness for running around the audience acting like a gorilla during “jungle king” while the others bop around to the harmonica solos and bo diddley guitar twangs. It was incredibly fun without that derivative taste you get in your mouth after watching “retro” bands. If they were born 40 years earlier they would be megastars but I still want to shake the hand of the parent who left their early rollingstones records out for the kiddies to stumble upon.

Brisbane band Twist Oliver Twist!
Have thankfully got the songs to backup the use of such an awesome name.
Fun catchy and unstoppably dancey download “sass it” if you like the sound of a headbanging multi-synth battle royal with a dueling keyboard breakdown in the middle.

I felt really sorry for Fait Accompli the first time they played at The Espy, they were the last band during the StKilda Festival but played in the basement whilst the headliners were rocking the crowds upstairs. They just spent several hours in traffic jams driving from Sydney only to play to the barmaid who was counting the seconds till home time. Regardless they plugged in and played one of the greatest sets ive ever seen in that establishment. I stopped wipping benches and sat down crosslegged in the middle of the floor hypnotised by the punk rock fury they unleashed (that could rival death from above if they didn’t disband) and weaved beautiful melodies over the top of screams sung by one of my favourite drummers and maori multitaskers Mr.Ray.

Erase Release – if I didn’t stumble across this band on unearthed by accident I would of swore they were the latest act from the mecca of beardy yet awesome indie music from some sunny leafy cardigan wearing American state. I cant believe these guys have only been around for a few months as they have such a tight ,developed and impressive sound.
If you put the howls of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah , the layered guitar madness from The Cure, the lyrical finesse of Expatriate ,the melodies of the Cloudroom, scooped up the arty lo fi cred of Les Savy Fav and blended it up together like a creative juice smoothie then got The Bravery to snort it, their vomit sticking to the lightup dancefloor would sound like this (mmm creamy beige)

A few months ago I put my back out and spent two weeks coming in and out of conciousness from painpills. I got such cabin fever I decided to go out on a stormy weeknight and see an unknown band called KITCHEN. KNIFE. WIFE. (Due to the comic name alone). I was thrilled to see this band wasn’t a screamo emo band in wife beaters but the new project from one of my favourite local indie/ rocknroll acts that mysteriously went AWOL 6 months ago called The Sticks and consequently put my back out again from dancing like a madman.
Back when I poured beers for a living, on a good night I would see a few bands that can play their instruments well but they always lack that special something that makes the avg punter camp out for tickets or stick their poster on your wall.
The night The Sticks played, I went on a loo break, got hypnotised by their showmanship on the other stage and somehow returned to the bar half an hour later-sweaty, in a daze ,clutching their tshirt and ep that I spent my nights tips on.
They are currently touring with The Wombats in the trendy parts of London and are heading along to Berlin to wow the crowds at Popkomm.

As the line up for Splendour In The Grass this year consisted of ¾ of my favourite bands, I did not think the set I would be ranting and raving about afterwards would be the first one of day one. Whilst ART VS SCIENCE set up their many keyboards I admit I rolled my eyes and scanned the timetable for better offerings but within 2 songs, they converted me from music snob to hysterical fan where I found myself crowdsurfing with a 6ft penguin.
Their Midnight Juggernauts esque vocals, Calvin Harris hooks , fevered drumming and energetic wiggles-on-speed dancemoves was so infectious they drew a bigger crowd than some international acts and cemented themselves as the ultimate party band I will shaking my flippers to on NYE (just got added to falls!)

If your reading this blog it means we have survived the unthinkable.

Now that youve had a near deathexperience and are seeing life in all its technicoloured glory, give the same thrill to your ears and track down these acts ep's for the latest ipod assesory -the electronic gramaphone dock!

New album~!

2008-09-08T09:46:00.001+10:00

Hey there fashionistas

So word on the street is our next record is due to drop on September 27th which is um,...not too long now. It took us a while I know, but we hope when you get a listen, you'll see where all that time went. The general vibe from our end is that it's a damn fine listen haha!

Anyway, we're out on our first official headlining tour since some time in 2006. A good 2 years, so as you can imagine, we're pretty excited. Our first stop is Geelong and we'll be spending the rest of the first week in one part of Victoria or another so if you're around when we are, pop your head into a show and say hey. We'd appreciate the company ;) Word out to anyone who came down to our residency shows a few weeks ago in Northcote and Annandale.

Bit of a sneaky of some of the new songs. But that's no excuse not to come to the shows on this run. Mainly cos we've rehearsed more so we're playing all the tunes better haha!! Have to mention to the peeps that were there at the Levity gig we played down at the Hollywood. It was a cool night. Not the sort of venue we're used to playing sure but it was quaint and had a really intimate vibe. Any chance you get to see a band play there I'd recommend it. It's like playing in someone's well stocked living room. Good times, fond memories.

K well I'm writing this from the band room at the Barwon Club. If you're ever in the area stop in for a Rib-eye steak, you won't be disappointed. Our mates from Harlequin League are about to step on stage so I'd best be off, got to support the team and all. Keep your eye on this site cos I think I'll be adding a couple more of these before the tour is over. Hope to see you all real soon.

Lotsa love Justin and End of Fashion

Indie Kid's Guide to Melbourne

2008-09-03T18:04:00.026+10:00

Since i moved to Melbourne by myself 3 years ago, barely a month has gone by where an interstate friend or band hasnt rocked up on my doorstep and asked me to show them the town. They might be here for 3 days or 2 weeks but expect me to take them to the coolest haunts, go on shopping expeditions all day and go bar hopping every night. After my last visit i decided ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! as i ended up embarking on a 6 day bender which ended by vomiting in the middle of the main st then watched in horror when pigeons flew down to eat it, only to see guts get added to the mix when a tram ran over the poor thing. My vomit was that pigeons last meal. After this fond memory i now pretend im not home and created an 'indie kids guide to melbourne' that i slide under the door and hope they go away.

MONDAY - Public Bar . (opposite queen vic food markets in north melbounre) iconic rocknroll pub that sells $1 pots and was the birthplace of 67 special.

TUESDAY -Eurotrash- (corrs lane chinatown) if you want to experience the best indie nightlife Melbourne has to offer you better not be sitting in your hotel room (or crashing on my couch) on Tuesday. Not only is it free entry and all drinks under $5 before midnight there are three levels to run amok in. The top level has pooltables, a bathtub full of goonbags, you can lay on fur skin rugs and make up subtitles to dodgy 70's kungfu movies shown on the walls. The second level has the largest dancefloor and Australias' answer to girl talk -DJ Mugen is often behind the decks, there also a padded wall corridor (woo insane assylum! )that takes you out to the smoking stairway courtyard with more bars. On the first level not only are there hair straighteners in the bathrooms and arcade games inside put there is an arabian nights porn room (yes you heard right) and my favourite djs the sweethearts are responisble for the funnest night out you will have in ages with their captain planet vs the rapture or ninja turles vs bloc party mash ups.

WEDNESDAY - is generaly a quiet night, but if you want to be surrounded by luxury, sit in velvet and gold encrusted private booths sipping cocktails and dont mind abit of taxidermy (an emu in pearls greets you at the door and inbetween the palmtrees there is a girafe with a top hat) head to the CARLTON CLUB for 'homeless'(193 burke st cbd). the well dressed bums from local band the last gypsys 'play the tracks they listen to in their cardboard abodes' plus if there is an international act in town they will most likely be hanging out here. ive rubbed sholders with death cab, klaxons,brian jonestown masacre,the horrors, black rebel motorcycle club, the wombats, kasabian and muse.

THURSDAY - I would recomend going to the mother of all indie discos -POGO (corner of flinders ln and geddes ln $7 on a list) if you like starting your night watching the latest underground bands then dancing till dawn on light up dancefloors and getting lost in ballpits.

3rd class (duckboard pl-old honkytonks) is quite popular with the cool kids who have a fondness for electro suppied to them from miami horror & tranter. It is worth going just to try the bucket of beer or the infamous rave juice which is a plastic bag full of vodka, redbull and comes with your very own glowstick. You can also challenge others to wii battles and ipod wars (creating a playlist from your ipod to entertain those in line for the loos) if your south of the yarra, head along to 'loose thursdays' at cushion lounge in stkilda.its free entry, has dancin soul music of the 60's & 70s and $10 gets you a bottle of wine and a cheese and cracker platter. classy!

FRIDAY -Fashion Keyboard (189 lonsdale st cbd) is not the funnest place despite its free entry, cheap beer and jagerbombs.They often have special guests like art gallery owners and up and coming designers behind the decks. So its not a place to go dancing rather a place to stand around and get your photo taken. Despite being super pretencious i think the reason i have a grudge against the place is because the venue is an rnb superclub every other night . (although the other week miss shapes and bad teeth djs made a suprise apperance so the athmosphere improved dramatically) Look up in the streetpress when the next "us vs them" or "batman" nights are coming up then head to ROXANNE (coverlid pl china town) it takes ages to walk up that stairway in heels but those promoters sure know how to throw a party plus knowing that the scare and beach house are waiting for you up there - will motivate you to get buns of steel in no time.

SATURDAY - The newest additon to the the indie disco empire is the appropriately titled WOW! held at the same place as pogo but with more levels open($10 on a list). if you arrive early and have a smashing outfit (they often have dress up nights:)you get a wristband to the rooftop where the soccer mum and yacht club djs spin their disks and you dont need to wait in queues when the thousands of other scenesters arrive.

Black Night Crash (the rochester johnston st fitzroy) is like a portal to the most popular underground nightclub in camden. Knackered Converse plays the latest and greatest britpop to come out of london, they have space invader coffee tables and show the mighty boosh on projector screens -free entry & cheap drinks too!

If you like your tunes more rockin head to weekender at Ding Dong (Market lane & bourke st) They have the best band nights and your aloud to dance hypnotised to the shiny silver cutains till 7am. (after 12 am the ticket lady goes on a 4 hour smoke break so you can sneak in for free:) but if the clientelle dont have enough leather, 80's metal hair and tattoos to your liking venturing to ac/dc lane is worth your while.

SUNDAY =rest liver. If you must roll out of bed ,head to St.Jeromes (where the laneway festival began- @caledonian lane behind maccas) sit in an alleyway on a milkcrate drinking a longneck , looking at streetart and catching up with everyones weekend shenanigans.

No matter what night it is everyone ends up at PONY (little collins st/exhibition) or Revolver (chapel st) -which plays dance music 24hours a day its VERY seedy and they let anyone in so proceed with caution. I would also recomend going to The Croft Insitute if you like the sound of drinking tequila out of test tubes, sterile environments and hospital beds conviently placed in the toilets. Its very hard to find if your a muggle i mean non-local ,so this is the only place i will escort you to. Expatriate also filmed their "crazy" filmclip here.

SHOPPING.

As we are Australia's fashion capital there are plenty of pamphlets out there telling you where to shop and too numerous to mention factory outlet tours that are a waste of money. I say get on any tram into the city and literarly get lost. Its always fun to discover a cool boutique down an alleyway you swear wasnt there a minute ago.If your addicted to oppshopping and need a new outfit to stand out from the crowd here are some places to pin point on your map.

Retrostar -the largest vintage clothing store in australia is bound to give you a clothesgasm .overpriced? yes . but you get a free lollypop on entry and next door is full of everyband tshirt imaginable -you can even make your own!(nicholas building swanston st)

Fat Helens - is run by a crazy old lady who collects teapots and old playboy issues but also has a keen eye for sourcing 80's party dresses around the world. (near windsor station)

Lost & Found Market (smith st collingwood) dont let the name fool you, inside isnt a stall selling missplaced scalves and books left behind on metlink, its a 60's treasure trove!

You know in horror movies when they are about to die and say "hush now go to your happy place children?" well Chapel Bizzare is my happy place. (chapel st prahran)maybe its all the bright colours but the place is a cross between the coolest things you could ever imagine to find in a $2 shop of another era and a museum. it is chock a block full of vintage dresses , kitch furniture, quirky assesories and so much weird stuff that is so utterly useless in the most wonderful way.

Camberwell Markets - Melbourne's biggest art & craft market, many sell bric a brac out of their car boots not to mention 300 + stalls dedicated to clothes and random jewelry.also grab some one-off pieces from the minds of textile students and somedays you can catch local bands selling their entire stage wardrobe to fund their tours like young & restless did last month.

A shopping trip wouldnt be complete with out a trip to SAVERS it is a magical land the size of a football field that is full of second hand clothes.The owners dont realise some of the pieces they stock are what i would spend my rent money bidding on ebay but here you can get cool shoes & dresses starting from $3. On september 15th they are having another 50% off sale that many camp out for. I always feel like im scamming them for getting clothes this cheap and feel bad caz the proceeds go towards diabettes research but it evens out caz i buy bags of the stuff. I wouldnt bother going to the one in Brunswick as all the indie kids have picked its carcuss dry so there is less "vintage" and more "dead peoples clothes nobody wants". So venturing out to the sticks like footscray and preston is worthwhile or if your not afraid of bogans and dont mind the 2hour train trip, Frankston savers is where you will find the gems and its 3 levels.

As your on holiday why not find some quality music thats not on limewire for a change? Support these local record stores and help musicans buy some more guitar pics.

Missing link - (405 bourke st -in between elizabeth& Colins st cbd) The eddy current supression ring instore performance at this basement was suprisingly one of my best gigs of the year.

Rare Records( 82 acland st Stkilda ) if you find yourself pigging out on the best cake shops in the planet on acland st, burn off some calories walking upstairs and browsing for hours at this store - if theres a particular autograph, band poster or deleted single your after they can help you find it asap.

Off The Hip (basement of 383 flinders ln CBD) specialises in aussie rocknroll, powerpop and garage. place to go if your radio birdman vinyl is scratched!

Greville st Records (in between prahran train station and chapel st) No other record store compares. quite small but ive seen Tim Rogers, The Black Keys, Nick Cave and members of Rocket Science browsing the racks.

Dixons Recyled-(brunswick st & chapel st) you know how industry people and streetpress reviewers get tons of promo cds every month? well as soon as they have listened to them they sell them here.

EATS
Melbourne cuisine isnt just swanky resturants and 24hour hungry jacks. If you are feeling peckish but spent all your money from activities above , you dont have to starve!

The Rochester Castle (johnston st fitzroy) sells the best pub grub hands down and all meals are twice the size of your head.

Bimbos if your walking down brunswick st and see a giant plastic baby figurine -enter. Inside you will find the yummiest $4 pizzas and 10 different flavour infused vodka they make on the premises. Plus they stop serving dinner at 2.30am!

As i was not born in Melbourne i too find it quite strange how so many locals sit around really really close together and sip coffee. Walk down any laneway in the city and you will see hundreds of people doing just that at all hours every day of the week -dont these people have jobs?! if you want to experience this head to degraves st for the best lattes, boutique cupcake shops and all day greasy breakfast.

50's diner soda pop - (257 torak rd south yarra) I took kate nash here for lunch and she got so excited about the tabletop jukeboxes and kitsch 50's booths she ate 2 & a half (aka mine) $10 rockin robin burgers. They also do dr.pepper spiders, chilli fries and sell big red, hersheys kisses and resses pieces.

Shanghai dumplings- is a melbounre insitution. For the best chinese food in town follow the trail of uni students down tattersalls lane.Its open till 10pm so get there early because you will order seconds and thirds as its just so scrumptious and cheap. you can get a plate of dumplings (12) with noodles and soup for around $5 and most main meals are around $10. Ive eatten there a few thousand times and never gotten food poisoning. If its your first time there tell them its your bday - they bring out a tape recorder and blast the chinese birthday song at your table -funtimes!

Incase your not a tightarse, i would recommend spending your last night by booking a table at "little blue" resturant . Its located right at the end of st.kilda pier and over looks the harbour .Its very swanky without the price tag and the food has won alot of awards and stuff - which can only be a good thing.Get there before dark you can eat a meal fit for a king whilst the sun sets on the water and afterwards watch the thousands of penguins hop along the pier. as tempting as it is to take one home to live in your bathtub. please respect the wildlife.

have a great holiday!

2008-09-01T09:54:00.002+10:00

Welcome to the fourth week in the life of Cut off Your Hands. So far you have read of our mystical journeys to Tokyo, death defying trips to Mt Hutt New Zealand and our intrepid journeys through Australia. Now its my turn…..I’m sitting backstage in the grey town of York, UK listening to the repeated sound of a floor tom being sound checked, eating a stale sandwich and killing time with You Tube footage of wrestlers getting accidental boners. (I would recommend checking this one out……sensitive viewers be aware)

One could be forgiven for thinking my pool of experience in which I get to write this blog on is a little dull. However, despite us being back into the routine of van, show, travel lodge – van, show, travel lodge we have managed to fit in a few memorable outings!

We landed at Heathrow around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, warmly welcomed by our now regular driver PJ. A stout Polish man with lots to say about everything. Normally sitting in London traffic after a 24hour flight is intolerable but our man PJ seems to know how to keep the laughs going.

The following day we started a short tour with We Are Scientist. They are possibly one of the friendliest bunch of fellow’s we’ve been able to tour with. If you’ve never heard them you should check them out. www.myspace.com/wearescientists. The little tour took us to Oxford, Peterborough, Middlesbrough and now York. By Peterborough we realised there was a few die hard fans who were following the tour. They attend each show and spend hours on end outside the venue each night so they can get a photo with one of the Scientists or anyone involved for that matter. A lovely bunch but frightfully dedicated….

The weekend brought us bank holiday, a regular event in the UK’s calendar. This particular bank holiday we attended the Notting hill Carnival. An annual event that has been running since 1965 to celebrate Caribbean culture in London. We had an amazing time watching all sorts of steal orchestras, moving floats, sambas and Calypso. (Political, social and satirical commentary, set to music!). The below float was but one of many amazing pieces coming down the road.

(The boys with some friends at the carnival)

By Tuesday we were heading up to Middlesbrough to play the show. Not to be let down, we we’re greeted by the loyal tour followers who had set up a picnic outside the venue. This show went amazingly well. Sometimes it’s hard to pin point what makes a show great or completely rubbish. This one however was amazing and thoroughly reminded me why I’m a band.

Wednesday we stopped off in a cute little town on our way to York to row some boats up a river. Nick and Mikey controlled the rudder, Phil rowed, and I took some photos (sorry I didn’t have time to have them developed). All was under control being somewhat of a nautical band. Although, we did manage to run into a family travelling in the opposite direction.

And now its Wednesday night….we just finished the show and I’m sweating all over my computer. A four hour drive home, two hours sleep and then a 30 hour journey back to NZ so I can see my hearing specialist. Fun!

Bye for now
Love
Brent

levity mixtape

2008-08-27T22:36:00.015+10:00

On my first day at Levity i made fast friends with the office stereo.
Shortly after i realised my co-workers were pretty rad too so just like a granny with a fresh batch of cookies i made everyone mixtapes.
For my first blog i decided it was only fair to create another for old times sake.

Not long ago METRONOMY was a slightly chubby pastel cardigan wearing loner who created remixes on his dads computer. Not exactly what you call a sex symbol but you havent heard his version of toxic - cut out the Britney, add some synths and accordions and you have 6 minutes of electronic arousal. He has since been joined by his cousins band "the food groups" as it's abit hard to operate a light show,3 keyboards, a drum machine and a bass by yourself and created songs that turned out better than the uber underground bands they're known for remixing. I would gladly chew off my right arm to see this band live. Plus their synchronised dance moves are so special i just want to wrap them up in bubblewrap and take them oppshopping for moogs.

Levity isn't the only one who gets the all important bond between music and fashion. Chainstores are famous for regurgitating fluro hotpants as shown on mtv so little kiddies can practise krumping in their bedrooms. GOOSE stay true to this trend by forecasting the latest in streetwear....Rubbish!

So when you find yourself with nothing to wear simply bathe in glue then roll around in a party goods dumpster for a truly original look. (Just remember to check the mirror before you go caz something tells me used condoms and bandaids wont be the latest hair accessories in vogue anytime soon) They were the standout out act for me at Parklife last year but in 28days i will be battling pillpoppers and tech heads for the front row centre position on the barricade for DOES IT OFFEND YOU YEAH?!!

Next time your on the town and see that special someone across the dancefloor, dont go home to a jar of Vaseline wondering "what if?"... be brave and request track 6 from the DJ. The constant refrain of "Lets Make Out! Lets Make Out!" is the best song to swap saliva with shy strangers since the Dandy Warhol's "Bohemian Like You"

THE BLACK GHOSTS debut album hasn't been getting the best reviews in the streetpress recently which i find extremely hard to believe for 3 reasons.

1. this track is stella

2. It is Simon Lord from Simian Mobile Disco's side project (aka god)

and 3. i wouldn't want to piss off a band that look like the most wanted members of the 'bald & deadly' biker gang.

I think the root of the hatred comes from the videoclip that makes musicians worried that robots will one day steal their jobs.

LATE OF THE PIER are the type of band i would follow to the ends of the earth. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to see hot indie boys dance around wearing texta and not much else. They keep churning out tracks that are continuously surprising and awesome. Look up "the bears are coming" and tell me honestly that tribal intergalatic indie rock with gameboy bip and beep samples isnt the best thing you have heard in a long time. Sure they are overacting in their new video but a pop art recording demon emerges from the pits of hell and bashes them up for it.

To help combat the afternoon energy slump i have inclued the UK's most kinetic math rock quintet and (fellow tour mates of Cut Off Your Hands) - FOALS. Who finally got around to releasing an album this year. Which is great as listening to their camera phone recorded demos on the internet for another 6 months would of made me go wrong in my mind tank.

When i was 12, my mum bought me a "facts of life pop up book" that featured a cardboard baby crowning out of a ladys legs and when you pulled the tabs you could make sperm swim up the fallopian tubes. This present was deeply traumatising not to mention embarassing and is something i supressed till i saw the amazing new video by SHIT DISCO (who take the cake for most awesome band name of the year next to fuck buttons)

if you now have a fetish for origami and cute indie music looking up "Pink Squares" by I Was A Cub Scout will fill the void.

I have a confession to make, the first time i heard a snippet of "L.E.S Artistes" i thought it was the best Tegan & Sara song they have put out to date.
Turns out the song in question wasnt by the sisterly canadian vagitarians but an incredibly hot and talented black woman called SANTOGOLD Oh the shame!

(if you pester jbhifi they can order you in a 'top ranking mixtape' which is packed full of 35 Santogold bsides and Diplo mashups)

When it comes to making intern mixes, i like to include some quieter tracks caz the coolcats at Levity dont just sit around talking shit about indie bands 24/7 theyre often known to work from time to time. For optimum productivity The White Rabbits, Bill Callahan and Deerhoof does the trick.

LYYKE LI -my favourite sweedish pop angel with a lisp, is the perfect soundtrack for those important conference calls.

The video however is abit creepy and distracting to say the least. Spray painted muscle women pounding drums, spooky Frida Kahlo twins and old people swimming backstroke on the floor. Click HERE to watch the live version featuring some of Sweeden's finest exports - Robyn, The Shout Out Louds and The Concretes.

If you like athmospheric, zany yet magical music like the track above you may like to lose yourself in THE HELIO SEQUENCE. The drummer (ex modest mouse) pulls the most disturbing faces you may start to think he has escaped a mental ward and been shackled to the kit. But he has what i like to call "keithmonella" -a virus that makes the face shrink up in pain when ones concentrating on keeping the beat.
I would of loved to of been a hobo under an underpass in Portland one winter and awoke to see this band shooting their new video in fairy light suits. Kinda makes eating garbage worth while.

Although the next song has been my most played track of half eight. Im not a big fan of the constant sweaty abandoned slow motion shots in this video.
(looks like they are beating off in a sauna!!)

For those of you who are abit slow on the uptake, THE DODOS are a Californian pop trio that makes the kinda of music the Animal Collective or Zac Condon would make if he was stranded in an african jungle and decided to teach the natives Shins songs.

'White Winter Hymnal' has been my profile song for the past 6 months to much dismay from some of my friends who cant understand why i constantly listen to "beardy old man hippy folk music" Although they do dress in flannos, have jesus beards and sing five part harmonies about rivers, trees and sunshine, FLEET FOXES are not hippys nor are they oldtimers (The AM country radio-meets-Paul Banks lead singer is only 21! and became best friends with the guitarist due to a shared love of dragon ball z in high school!!)
Their self-titled album is full of hauntingly- beautiful-luscious melodies and imaginative storytelling of a simpler time. Perhaps recorded around a campfire a few centuries ago. Ive never been so caught up in a piece of music before. 'its like watching the sun rise over distant mountaintops, over and over familiar and captivating all at once'
I found myself in a simular situation a few years back when all i wanted to do was lie in bed and listen to 'trials of van occupanther' on repeat rather than get shitfaced at the uni bar. My mates thought i had become depressed so they staged an intervention and stole my precious disk!
Like a true junkie i spent my food money that week on Midlake's latest offering only to have it hidden by my housemate again.
I havent touched a drop of folk music since ...until now mwa ha ha!

(Anyone recognise the blonde haired lass being serenaded by the flight of the conchords look alike bellow?) Yep before she was famous singing about ghosts, cheating, nightmares and hung out with the mystery jets, Laura Marling was doing backup vocals as one fifth of the cutest british folk pop band -NOAH AND THE WHALE.

This band really is a little gem in my record collection. Its not just their wes anderson inspired videos, the ukelele solos , or the matching juno running team / mariachi band outfits with choreographed nerdy dancemoves that makes them go down a treat with the old folks down at the RSL. Its simply because they make me feel warm and fuzzy everytime they get shuffled on my ipod. If their work doesnt make you smile from ear to ear or shed a tear (you need to eat more jellybeans:)

And coming in last to end this madness is MGMT.
If i was hit by a steamroller and lost my memory, i have a feeling i could remember 'Oracular Spectacular' note for note due to the amount of times ive listened to that album this year.

If you camped out recently to see them but like me missed out on tickets due to scalpers and teenyboppers with daddy's credit card snagging them first - i can understand your heartbreak.
For the rest of you I HATE YOU. And i hope you piss your stovepipes from excitement as soon as you get there so your forced to spend a few hours smushed up against strangers who tease and threaten you during the support acts so you end up going home crying to your mother who will happily retell the story to your future dates for the rest of your life.
I also hope you dont get too much pleasure seeing Ben dressed up as a giant beer bottle and Andrew as a ciggarette lighter in this video for Destrokk.
The donut from the chewing gum ad does vocals & MGMT's snot provides backup -too cute!

!!! Kings of Leon's new album comes out in 23 days!!!

Buses & Lines..

2008-08-26T08:58:00.000+10:00

By Zohara

I'm on the excruciating one-hour bus ride home after a day at uni, lucky I have my iPod on me otherwise my selection of music would be the either 'Sweet Home Alabama' repeatedly on 101.7fm from the bus's radio or the electro-house beats radiating from some dudes head phones behind me. Today is Wednesday- Wednesdays at my uni are the days when bands come at lunchtime and play in our small bar. Over the last 4 semesters bands have been entertaining us in-between lectures for free (woo woo thanks to the Union!) We have had Mercy Arms, Ghostwood, Operator Please (they had the biggest crowd turn up on record), Dash and Will, Nathan Hudson, Luke Steel, Cuthbert and The Nightwalkers, Lover, Children Collide, Expatriate and last week Magic Dirt played, summoning an enthusiastic crowd who moshed to their new and old tunes. 1 in the afternoon is way too early for me to get dancing or into the mood to mosh so I just skimmed the sidelines of the bar and tapped my foot and nodded my head from a safe distance. Today Andy Bull played before Little Red at my uni bar and his style has obvious funk influences and he had the soul vibe going on too. His voice is presented in a high register which makes him sound different to what I expected but he was backed with a drummer, bassist and 3-piece brass band comprised of a saxophonist, trumpeter and trombone-player which was quite impressive. He's not my usual taste and right now I'm listening to his recorded tracks but I don't think it entirely gives him enough credit because the band live were very entertaining and I enjoyed his set quite a bit. Following him were Little Red who were pretty relaxed but seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely whilst they were draped with leis that were randomly being handed out around campus. My foot didn't stop tapping the whole time and I actually enjoyed them more in the relaxed setting of my university bar more than when they supported Vampire Weekend a few weeks back.

Andy Bull

Yesterday I turned up to Oxford Art Factory at 5pm and joined the long queue of people to see Death Cab For Cutie for a Myspace live show that was broadcasted across the internet all over the world. Like lemmings me all streamed into the gallery to access the main room via the back entrance adjacent to the bathrooms and as my friend and I shuffled closer and closer towards the door with the current three people in front of us were halted and told that the main room was now at full capacity and we had to sit in the gallery and watch through the window or view Death Cab on the projector. A wave a disappointment came over me and I didn't know whether to be angry or deflated. But my friend Peter was persistent to get in so he and I both said to the guard that we needed to leave the gallery to head into the bathrooms..which we did, but a few minutes later we waltzed right into the main room and another security guard just let us through! So I felt like I hadn't wasted my time and felt a bit naughty for 'sneaking' in..but knowing me if my friend hadn't lead the way I would have been a big push-over and would have sat in the gallery fuming. Take that..I still got through to the main room!!

YAY:
•Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin- this Missouri band have been around for a few years but I melt to their pop tunes such as 'Oregon Girl'.
•I've had some of Sparkadia's new tunes stuck in my head this week.
•'Young Bride' by Midlake. Mmmm!
•My friend sent me this comic..it's about music nerds and I think he was trying to hint that I have some connection to this comic: http://www.dustinland.com/archives/archives347.html
•I spotted some street art in Sydney the other day! In Omnibus Lane right near Ultimo Tafe some amazing people have decorated the walls.

Street Art in Omnibus Ln

NAY:
•MGMT tickets sold out in well-under a minute! Booohoo.
•My camera batteries decided to die on me during Death Cab For Cutie and kept flashing "BATTERY DEPLETED".
...I don't have much negative to say this week :)

LIL JOHN, SNOW JAM & CARS....

2008-08-26T08:57:00.000+10:00

MIKEY - CUT OFF YOUR HANDS

The past week in the life of cut off you hands has been pretty good.
We left Japan and landed in Auckland where we had some down time to
enjoy home cooked meals and old friends. Come Thursday we were out for
a life of luxury at MTV snow jam festival.

On the drive down to the mountain Nick was mid way through putting on
his safty belt when we had a crash. The belt never actually made it;
but thankfully it wasn't needed. An elderly couple thought there
little car was a bit faster than it was and turned across us. Our
driver swerved and braked smashing into the rear corner of the car.
The car spun around into another car. We were all on a bit of a buzz
after that. our cars wheels were pointing opposite directions so with
in 10 mins we had a new car and we are off to the mountain again.

We arrived, had dinner and a few drinks where lil jon from the other
side of the room kept yelling YEAH and WHAT. The next day MTV decided
to throw some cash around and we went jet boating which was pretty bad
ass. Our driver, jet boat Jim (who looked like hulk hogan), took us
out for a ride. Doing 360's and boosting way too close to the cliff
face, getting sprayed in the face and having the sorest brain freeze;
it was good fun. After that the boys and Brent's girl went on a
helechoper ride, they said it was worth every penny and it felt like a
magic carpet.

At sound check our finger froze. Coming from japan where it was 40
degrees to -3 at night was pretty crazy. Definitely the coldest show
we have ever played. luckily when it was show time it warmed up a bit
and the crowd were in good spirits. nick freaked out the camera crew
by climbing the lighting tower. all in all it was a fun show.

That night drinks were free and we all got down to lil jon. We all
flew back up to Auckland the next day; me with a slight hang over and
a regret her or there. 2 days later and one long plane ride with
stupid flirting Spanish teens in front of me, and now I'm in the UK,
back in the tour van heading to a We Are Scientist show in oxford
rearing to play through the jet lag.

RED CARPETS

2008-08-18T15:12:00.000+10:00

BY ZOHARA

Red carpets have so much appeal. Celebrities, musicians, actors, models and the VIP of the entertainment industry pose on the crimson walkway and I'm sure many people dream of stepping foot onto it to share some of the limelight with their idols. I've been on a red carpet once..back in July last year, my friend and I made sure we turned up fashionably late because it would have been embarrassing for us to walk on the red carpet while there were photographers and important people around us. The main reason: because we were neither musicians, journalists, actors, models or any form of celebrity. We were there to see Starky play their penultimate show. We shyly approached Crystal Bar in Martin Place with wobbling heels and goose-bumped skin, shuffling on the red carpet to an audience of none, apart from the door girls and guys who checked us off the list and pointed us towards Ray Ban's 70th Birthday Party. We entered the party and dropped off our coats and instantly recognised some faces, a Red Rider, Joel Edgerton, James Matheson, Gareth Moody, Saskia Burmeister, Rai Thistlewaite amongst the room of fellow celebrities. We nibbled on the amazing canapés, ate quality battered chips and calamari out of cute Chinese noodle boxes and sipped on a few glasses of bubbly to shy away our red faces. By the time the bubbly had us under the influence Starky came on stage, delivering an energetic performance along with their single "Hey Bang Bang" which was nominated for and ARIA award in the category of "Breakthrough Artist 2006". My friend and I left soon after Starky finished performing, deciding that we had a fulfilling night and our timidness wouldn't have helped us mingle with the Ray Ban party crowd. But I was young and naïve! I'd certainly stick around, sipping more bubbly and mingling if the opportunity were to arise again.

That opportunity nearly arose again when this year after a few beers with a friend he asked me to be his date to a music awards event. As you can imagine I was very excited to be asked to attend such an event with familiar faces of artists who I avidly listen to and regularly hear about. I also saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and didn't want to appear overly enthusiastic with the invite so I didn't nag him too much for details. I called my so-called 'date' on the afternoon of the event to check the time of arrival thinking the award was to be presented that night..he then informed me it had already been held that morning and that he had "forgotten" to tell me the details of the event. Ouch. For your information his band didn't win the award anyway..

The next big red carpet event for the music industry is the ARIA awards with industry insiders paying $395-$495 for tickets which includes a three-course meal, unlimited alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks (or until too drunk to be served), red-carpet entry and passes to the after-party. I can imagine many people would be itching to attend for the experience and to rub shoulders with some of the ARIA contenders such as The Presets, Gyroscope and Cut Copy..some people itching enough that they are going to pay $445 for industry gold tickets- some of my friends who work in the music industry are going to empty their pockets and their piggy banks to go. But i wonder how much of a strain it is for some independent musicians to cough up a few hundred to fund their attendance. Most independent musicians have day-jobs to pay and maintain the equipment they need for their band, touring and recording and it doesn't come cheap either. 2007 AMP music award winners The Mess Hall know all about that when they confessed that during the recording of their latest album, Devil's Elbow, they were living on tinned food as well as the dole- not exactly living the luxury life. Still it's all about the experience isn't it? But I would certainly drink up $445 worth of alcohol if I were to attend and see Connie Mitchell in a plastic dress again doing her robotic dance moves/poses..mind you, I wouldn't be drinking in celebration. Nevertheless I can imagine it would be a fun and unforgettable night. Is it an easy prediction to say that Faker will be nominated for their single 'This Heart Attack'? After the exhaustive radio play they have had it is inevitable that they will at least get a nomination.

YAY:
•MGMT and Wolf Parade have announced their hitting our shores later this year!
•'The Gardner' by The Tallest Man On Earth and trying to sing with his Swedish accent after a few too many vodka-lemon-limes.
•The Boat People- charming Brisbane pop band with sweet tunes and sweet cardigans.

NAY:
•4am RAGE with death metal/hardcore artists with weird growling vocals, weird eyeliner, weird hair and weird piercings. Weird.
•'Shake It' by Metro Station- Hurt me before I have to hear those whinging vocals again that sound like those boys have just hit puberty..they aim to lure in teenage girls with these lyrics: "I'll take you home if you don't leave me at the front door/ Your body's cold, but girl we're getting so warm/And I was thinking of ways that I could get inside ". Ewwww.

Hotel Stories

2008-08-18T15:04:00.004+10:00

PHIL - CUT OFF YOUR HANDS

As I write this blog the hotel I'm staying in (in Auckland) has just been hit by lightning! Which apart from being very amazing is kind of annoying, as now the TVs reception isn't working! I was watching the new single from Band Of Horses on the music channel and at the same time remembering fondly how I got to see them play in the weekend at the Summer Sonic festival in Japan, they were great!

Another flash of lightning but still no thunder.... Oh wait, a quiet one.

So anyway, following on from Nick's blog last week, which took us to the end of our Australian tour, we made our way to Tokyo to play at the SS festival! This was the first time any of us had been to Japan let alone been there to play so we were all totally excited and were looking forward to going. We arrived at the airport however to find that our plane had been delayed which meant we ended up spending something like 8 hours at the Melbourne airport and missed being able to go out that night in Tokyo! Another reason for that was our hotel was in Chiba, which although it was only a 2 min walk from the festival it was an hour train ride to the parts of Tokyo we wanted to see.

The next morning we had our rehearsal and following that we made our way to Asakusa to visit some markets and a temple. We then spent the rest of the afternoon looking around Harajuku and Shibuya until we couldn't take the heat anymore and looked for a bar to get a beer. We ended up finding this amazing restaurant in Shibuya where we each ended up spending about 5 or 6 thousand yen on dinner and drinks. After dinner, and after quickly going to meet some people from Warners Japan who are putting out our record, we met some friends and went to this rad bar (called Beat Bar) and spent the rest of the night drinking!

(The TV is now working again you'll be glad to know).

So the next day was show day and we were surprised with how many people turned up to see us play considering we haven't released anything there. People were singing along (or trying to) to some songs and in all we found the experience of playing in Japan to be new to us. For example: in between bands' sets they don't play any music – there is silence where there would usually be a cd or something, and also (later in the day) people use that time to have naps! Also because they are so into music, we had people coming up to us saying that they had tried to meet us at the airport…

The Dandy Warhols new song Mission Control just came on the TV, I like it!

After playing we spent the rest of the day at the festival watching bands (Band Of Horses, Hot Chip, Sex Pistols, etc…), drinking and hanging out in the backstage area. All artists could get a free massage so we did that, except Nick chose to get acupuncture instead. We flew out the next night after spending the half the day at the festival watching Vampire Weekend and others play and the other half at the shops buying gifts/presents for our friends back home.

So we've now been back in New Zealand for two days, both of which have been full of press interviews for NZ TV, radio and print. We leave Auckland tomorrow tho to fly to Christchurch/Mt Hutt to play the MTV Snow Jam festival, which apart from playing includes us getting filmed going jet boating and hopefully getting to go snow boarding (but that depends on if we can get free gear).

This is my favourite song at the moment after seeing it in a Twin Peaks episode - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmJzy0WrSXY.

Bye for now!

Phil xo

SPLENDOURIS!

2008-08-11T11:23:00.001+10:00

SPLENDOROUS!

This past week we have had creative people with instruments in hand arrive on our shores. These people have given live music in Australia that boost of excitement, with bands such as Sigur Ros, Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend, The Fratellis, Devo, Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club, Laura Marling and New Young Pony Club as a handful of the most anticipated bands to catch while they are down under. Most of these bands have also held side shows too and if you are like me and didn't get to road trip up to Byron Bay, the side shows were easier to fit around a busy schedule. Being a poor uni student I managed to see one of these side-shows on Monday at the Metro where Vampire Weekend charmed the pants off everyone, not literally though and I'm glad about it because I think it is rather distasteful when people throw their underwear on stage- reminiscent of Jason Mraz at The Forum 2006 when a woman and a man took off their hopefully unsoiled undergarments and catapulted it onto the stage. Jason was slightly amused but grossed out by it. I can just imagine the chaffing the man would have felt on the bus ride home..ewww.

Back to Vampire Weekend though..they were supported by Little Red who have received a great deal of praise for their short 60's pop and rock 'n' roll infused tunes off their debut album 'Listen To Little Red'. I have heard and read nothing but good news about these cats. The crowd at the Metro were very inviting when they came on stage and as soon as they began people were jittering and some were jiving as they played a musical-chairs-like game with their lead vocalists, rotating regularly and harmonising together. I didn't feel like I was in the 21st century, and I realised more suitable attire would have been a big polka dot dress, ponytail and scarf around my neck. I have seen Little Red before and it is hard to stand there without tapping a foot or two. Then Vampire Weekend graced the stage and the crowd erupted in excitement, cheering and wolf-whistling and they started with "Mansard Roof" which was a fun sing-a-long. Vampire Weekend have this boyish charisma that ooze out of them especially from the lead singer, Ezra Koenig, who shared multiple smiles all around and seemed delighted to be in Australia. It's hard for a few people to accept they are from New York since they seem like they hail from the UK but once Ezra greeted the audience with his American accent it was evident that they were not a British band at all. They cheerfully played through their entire debut album tracklist of afro-pop with three new tracks as well and their bassist was cheerful too, dancing as he played. It would have been next to impossible to not ingest the happy atmosphere and leave there feeling like they were as good live as they are on CD. As for the other Splendour side-shows I missed out on Sigur Ros which I heard was amazing and a friend of mine went to Band of Horses, informing me mid-set that he was close to tears because they were so impressive.

So now that it is post-Splendour the other festivals to look forward to in Australia are The Great Escape and Big Day Out. But I have heard some news from a little birdy..supposedly The Great Escape has been canned due to poor ticket sales. Ouch. The lineup was pretty impressive with Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band, Ladytron, Joan as Police Woman, The New Pornographers and We Are Scientists as the top international acts for this festival. It is disappointing that, if this is true, that another chance to see some great bands from overseas as well as some of the best locals bands will be sent back home. The Great Escape Festival also offered free camping with every ticket that was sold. This reminds me of Playground Weekender which did go ahead but had poor ticket sales, free tickets were being handed out desperately so people would show up. What has happened that has caused people to become disinterested in festivals like this but festivals such as Big Day Out still sell-out? It's a mystery to me.

YAY:

•Bourke St Bakery- I visited there yesterday and bought a delightful strawberry and creme brulee tart, it contained real vanilla bean seeds and they were playing MGMT while I was ordering my dessert. Amazing food and great music playing while they are at work..I wish I worked there.
•Feist's 'The Reminder'- It's been out for a while but I love this album. I played it while I hosted a tea party and when I clean the house.
•Jack Ladder on "Good Day New York"- Jack had a chat to the female host before he performed "Love Is Gone", where the woman was short in comparison and with a strong American accent where Jack is tall and is a pretty quiet guy. The awkwardness of the conversation was enough to make me giggle but it's good to see the Hopetoun regular in the spotlight although I can imagine Kerry Anne wouldn't be calling him up for an appearance when he gets back.

NAY:

•Ian Curtis' Gravestone-I know it's old news but I think it is ridiculous that someone stole his gravestone. I can just imagine the jerk showing his/her friends the prized-stolen-possession and getting punched for it.
•The 'shock' of one of The Veronicas nude photos that leaked on the net- It was evident from their first single that they aren't sugar coated and have no talent. Lame lame lame.
•I can't escape The Living End's new single "White Noise". It's on in the bus, on the tv, on in my brother's room. I used to love TLE, I even covered my school folder in a poster i made that represented the album cover of 'Modern Artillery', but I'm not connecting with their new music although everyone else seems to be. Perhaps I'm being uptight. Perhaps I have to remind myself that Chris Cheney is one of Australia's best guitarists and that TLE are really good live..
•As good as Vampire Weekend were I had to stand on my tippy-toes the whole time, stuck in a crevice behind the two tallest guys at the gig. I rocked side-to-side to get a view of the stage. Where is the gallantry?

AUSTRALIA, JAPAN, LONDON!

2008-08-11T11:20:00.002+10:00

Nick - CUT OFF YOUR HANDS

It’s not yet 7am and I’ve just been woken up by Mikey and Phil for our flight to Melbourne this morning. We are off to Tokyo tomorrow for Summersonic 08, which is about the best festival in Japan..It's a pretty exciting way to finish off our little trip down under, especially as none of us four have ever been to Japan before. Today we're playing the last two shows of this tour which has been exhausting, relentless and heaps of fun. We followed our last tour of the UK with a 26 hour flight into Auckland, where we played that night before catching the first flight the next morning into Adelaide, where Violent Soho joined us. They were brilliant every night, I thoroughly recommend seeing that band.

This past Monday was my first day off since finishing our record and heading out on tour over a month ago, as in our 'off' days we've been busy recording B-sides and extra songs that have been floating about but not quite made the album.

Some of my personal highlights from the past week:

Being able to actually spend time with my girlfriend as we live in different countries for most of the year

-Getting a day off on monday!

-Using that day off to visit the Sydney Biennalle at Cockatoo Island, William Kentridge's beautiful animations especially

-Learning and recording 'Still Fond' in French, for the french release of our record.

-Packing out the Corner hotel the other night in Melbourne, it is easily our biggest indoor show we have headlined yet.

-and, this breakfast I’m about to eat...

The best thing I’ve heard musically in ages is this guy called the caretaker who creates these beautifully haunting ambient soundscapes by basically just slowing down old dance hall records from the 20's and 30's. The result is almost like an eerie memory at the back of your mind that you cant quite place your finger on, evoking spooky scenes similar to the ghost ball/soiree in the Shining...He's giving away all his records on the record labels website, whose name escapes me at present, but if you search the caretaker you're bound to find it. The name of my favourite record by him is 'stairway to the stars'

thanks for reading
nick

x

SYDNEY INDIE MUSIC NEAR IT'S END?

2008-08-04T11:15:00.000+10:00

“SYDNEY’S INDIE MUSIC SCENE IS NEAR IT’S END!!!”

So this is what I’ve heard a few people shouting out lately, ok..they weren’t exactly ‘shouting’ but they were prophesising what seems to be an apocalyptic ending to the beloved and rather creative music scene in one of Australia’s best cities (let’s not start on the ‘Australia’s BEST city: Sydney vs Melbourne’ argument). I think the idea that it’s near its end is pretty ridiculous but I think there are reasons for such suggestions and predictions:

Reason 1) Some people believe that independent music has lost some of it’s appeal.
This could be due to the current trends in music that are becoming tedious, predictable and past their time. Who knows. Or it could also be a reaction to neglect as a consequence of some of Sydney’s favourite bands who have been on hiatus over the past year recording albums (eg Mercy Arms) or venturing overseas (eg teenagersintokyo, Ghostwood), popping up for some quick gigs and then disappearing just as fast as they sell-out of their tickets. A prime example is Dappled Cities who left us last year to embark on an adventure in the USA after their truly wonderful double-headliner with Red Riders at The Metro-I had never seen so many girls at an indie gig scream in hysteria whilst clinging to their balloons that flaunted the words ‘I LOVE YOU’. I guess it was, after all, all ages. But those arduous six months that they were away flew by and the Dappled boys returned to us in late 2007, coming back to play across two nights and Oxford Art Factory where the sold-out second night sat on Valentine’s Day. They made all in attendance forget their singledom and presented some new tasty material as well as an emotional adieu to their drummer Hugh Boyce. Now the boys with a new drummer in tow are away again (hibernating!) to record for their new album. However they secured their appeal to Sydney last month when they impressed everyone at the Annandale when they decided to dress-up for the occasion in elaborate coats, hats, feathers and knickerbockers handing them the image of older century nautical captains. Except Ned, he was dressed as a tiger.

Dappled Cities

Perhaps the ‘loss of appeal’ that some are feeling is also due to the fact that over the past year there hasn’t been a vast array of fresh faces or names gracing our stages that we haven’t heard of before; of course we love the old faces but the familiar lineups have been becoming somewhat tiresome. This is where we can congratulate some recent support bands that have surprised us- such as Newcastle’s ‘Bear At The Door’ who seemed to make a pretty handsome impression on the audience at the previous said Dappled Cities Annandale gig. I think we should begin our excitement because I have a feeling there are new fun and talented bands coming up that will sweep us off our feet and reinforce that there is still appeal in Sydney’s independent music scene and that Cassette Kids aren’t the only ‘recently new’ band around.

Reason 2) Some people think indie is becoming too “mainstream”.
Perhaps this reason is a result of some Sydney bands who have recently had some exposure in the “mainstream” market, such as Bridezilla who have been hailed in Sunday Life and the like for their novel music with classical qualities at their delicate age, and being named amongst the “bands to watch in 2008” in the 2007 ARIA newspaper liftout. Perhaps it was because some of Sydney’s darlings, namely The Holidays and teenagersintokyo, have scored play on television advertisements with ‘Telephone’ featuring as the music for a Clearasil ad and teenagersintokyo’s ‘End It Tonight’ for Carefree panty liners. But really it is nothing to worry about and it is a bit of paranoia, although people are supposedly catching onto indie music, converting from the mainstream through word of mouth or by seeing an independent Sydney band support an international artist. Some people I know have approached me and have said “some friends and I are thinking of getting into indie music, lots of people are doing it right now”, this was coming from people who used to say “Indian music? You’re into Indian music!?” or those people who would tease me (and still do) by saying “You only like music that no one has ever heard of and if that music gets slightly popular you automatically hate it. You’re such a music snob”. But I think people are allowed to like the music they like but just as long as they don’t think they look ‘cool’ because ‘everyone else’ is getting into it.

Bridezilla

Reason 3) “Indie bands care more about the way they look than what their music sounds like.”
Hmm..well at least with this reason they identified that it is pretty common to find indie bands that have impeccable fashion sense. Of course not all bands are fashionistas but I think people who care about presentation get a tick in my books. At least if the music doesn’t sound good the way they present themselves is a bit of compensation.

But in honesty I think those reasons for the minor amount of people turning their back on Sydney’s independent music or thinking that it is on the verge of extinction is lame. They should get their ass to a gig and stop being such old prudes.

YAY:

•Visual art mixing with music- I’m a big fan of the murals by fine contemporary Australian artists at the Oxford Art Factory gallery. Kill Pixie is featured there right now, go have a look!

•“Wet Winter Holiday” by Philadelphia Grand Jury (band formerly known as The Sweats)

•Straight Arrows live gigs- Those kids perform fun and energetic live performances and they don’t take themselves too seriously either.

•2008 Sydney Biennale-It’s great to see the celebration of art in Sydney.

•Foals- Art school drop outs who have created magnetizing music and intriguing videoclips.

•A friend of a friend told The Teenagers when they were here the other month that they are (quote) “a fad”.

NAY:

•The Teenagers gig at OAF-For a sold-out 18+ event there were too many under 18’s to count. The Teenagers encouraged girls to jump on stage during the set, resulting in squealing girls to pose for photos with the musicians to post onto their myspace accounts.

•People smoking marijuana on ‘Super Thursday’ at The Domain for WYD- I was finding my way around the maze of barricades during my gallery hopping for the Biennale to pass the mass of pilgrims to smell that some were smoking joints. I think the Pope would have been mortified to know that his pilgrims were smoking pot in celebration of WYD.

I hope you kids like my photos I included..

Until next time lovelies! x

Lyrics

2008-07-28T09:33:00.001+10:00

JOEL - WOLF & CUB

Lyrics, they’re my Achilles heal, I usually avoid them until the night before vocals are to be recorded, sometimes and quite frequently actually, I’ll complete them whilst they’re being recorded. It usually results in weak lyrics and an even weaker vocal take, so I’m not proud of my attitude towards writing lyrics, and neither is Chris it would seem as he’s forcing me to complete the lyrics for every song before we commence any further with recordings. I’m now stuck in a room with little ventilation, warmth, a desk, three partially full note pads and a pen trying to complete the lyrics of 12-15 songs, I’d curse at Chris but I really only have myself to blame, I’m just lazy.

As annoying as it is however, it’s a challenge I’m up for and glad to be pushed into, because I really need to get out of my comfort zone on this album and thankfully Chris isn’t afraid to be the one to make it happen. It’s difficult, however because I’ve been stuck in a routine for so long, I’ve just never been able to settle on lyrics before the actual music is completed, I’ll sketch out a basic melody and a few words to accompany it but I’ve never gone into the recording of a track with lyrics I’m 100% committed too. I’m annoyed at myself. It reminds me of being back in school and even university, procrastinating over assignments and essays until its too late, I guess that’s how I tend to view lyrics sometimes, like assignments that have to been handed in by a certain date, something that only I personally will be judged on, its kind of pathetic. I guess I’ve never felt too strongly about my lyrics or maybe that just how I‘ve justified not working harder on them, because I’ve never seen them as being important for this band, which is just a cope out I guess. So like I mentioned earlier I’m up for the challenge and prepared to try a different approach on this one.

Well this week has been very steady for us; we’re deep into it. Tommy has pretty much finished his bass parts and there’s talk of him flying back to Adelaide, but I have a feeling he’s enjoying himself so he’ll probably stick around. Marv is still struggling to get over his backing vocal anxiety despite repeated ego strokes and copious amount of alcohol, I’m starting to think this isn’t going to happen, and it makes me sad, I guess JC (the other drummer) will have to step up to the plate. Personally I think there’s a voice of an angel waiting to be awoken in Tommy; check him out here second from right, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

Anyhow I know I said my last post was going to be the last for Levityland but it would appear that I can’t count as I actually had two more to go (that is including this one). So tune in next week for the actual final blog from yours truly, and this time I PROMISE to have pictures. Until then…
J

A Model Performance

2008-07-28T09:29:00.001+10:00

KRISTY BRADLEY - Ex YEN MAG

Last night I dreamt I was made to perform on this huge stage at this massive music festival. Before I go on, I should make you aware, that in real-life, I cannot sing. But all I was worried about (in my dream) was locating my skinny black jeans to wear on stage. This dream stems from my research on model performances. By model performances, I'm referring to runway/editorial models singing with professional musicians.
There's a long history of models appearing in music video clips. Some are wise to lip sync (or just look pretty) like super models Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz and Naomi Campbell in George Michael's Freedom '90 clip and Aussie model, Lisa Seiffert in Robbie Williams' Eternity clip.But others are not so wise. The 'singing with my rock n roll boyfriend/friends' trend that these leggy lasses are driving is slightly disturbing. Example number one: Kate Moss and Pete Doherty.

There are several YouTube clips revealing KM's desire to become the next Sonny and Cher. She has even appeared on stage with The Babyshambles at various gigs and festivals. Example #2: Agyness Deyn, who recorded a song with US band the Five O'clock Heroes. I do love her to death, well, I love her style, but Agyy should really stick to the runway. Example #3: While, local model, Louise Van de Vorst hasn't got up on stage as of yet with her new rocker boyfriend, Daniel Johns, it may only be a matter of time. Check out Grazia (the new weekly fashion magazine that launched yesterday). Louise features in a fashion story, 'It's only rock & roll' with her new lover's jacket. Is this a prelude to their model performance? Only time will tell.

P.S: My dream ended sweetly, and for some reason, the crowd starting cheering, it must have been because of those 'skinny black jeans'.

P.P.S: I'm really loving the new Beck and Mystery Jets albums. They're definitely worth purchasing!!

Australian in Paris

2008-07-21T09:49:00.002+10:00

Kristy Bradley (ex-YEN)

Bonjour, Bonjour

We've all got tragic stories of housemates who turn out to be absolute nightmares. So I'm not surprised when I inspected a room at an acquaintance's house in Newtown recently, she wanted to interview me. For inspiration, she actually looked up a website that specializes in questions to ask potential flat mates. I couldn't help but laugh at her, actually I couldn't but laugh after every question she asked me. Hmmm, perhaps that's why I didn't get the room???

One of the questions was 'what are your hobbies?' I didn't have an answer. I sat there silently for a few moments, pondering my existence and what I did with my life. Bing. Does shopping and hanging at the pub count? Nope. So, after not scoring the room and realizing that I didn't have any hobbies I put myself to work. I tried knitting, cross-stitch and crochet. Check. Boring. Check. So, I decided to dedicate all my spare time (i.e. when I'm not shopping or at the pub) becoming obsessed with Paris. Oui, Oui. Part of being obsessed with Paris means that you have to keep tabs on all the catwalk shows that occur in this fashionable city.

There's a lot to be learnt trawling through the Internet to seek out pictures from Paris Fashion Week. Like who is the latest musical muse Karl Largefeld has his leather clad fingers wrapped around. Last year it was Cat Power, now this year, after closely inspecting the front row at the recent Chanel couture shows, it would seem that Australian artist, Micky Green is his latest and greatest muse. Mikey Green, aka, Michaela Gehrmann, is an Aussie now living in Paris and is signed to Universal Music in France. See, I'm not the only gal in town who 'adores' Paris.

Her music is kinda poppy, definitely bluesy and has an indie edge to it. For those lucky peeps heading to the Super Sonic Festival, August 9 in Japan, you can catch her there. Otherwise, hit up You Tube or her MySpace – www.myspace.com/mickygreenmusic

That's all for now my cherries,

au revoir! xx

Tears & Mice

2008-07-21T09:46:00.000+10:00

Joel - Wolf & Cub

Week two in the studio, is turning out to be not unlike week one but there a few subtle differences; its still freezing unfortunately, the mice are still around, but thankfully we’re much more productive than last time we spoke. First week was spent in pre-production which involved Chris and I sorting through all the demos again and deciding which of those we dig and think deserve further attention and which ones are basically shit and deserve to be never heard again. I’d like to say it was a painless exercise but it wasn’t, Chris is too blunt for me sometimes and as I tend to get a bit attached to all our demos it can be difficult to take criticism, especially when your producer tells you a demo, which you had high hopes for, isn’t really that strong, or “just shit” as Chris discreetly puts it. What can I say demos are like your newborn; it can be hard to be told they’re ugly. Anyhow once my eyes dried and I could be in the same room with Chris again we decided that about 13 of the demos were strong enough to work on. There are also a few new new ones that I’ve been developing during the tour period so they’ve been included in the maybe pile, although I think that’s Chris’ attempt at a peace offering.

So this week the rest of the band arrived and as soon they came to terms with the cold conditions, the mice and Chris Colonna we jumped straight into tracking. Right now Tommy, who plays bass, is laying down his parts, not without hassle though unfortunately. His bass seems to be playing up a bit and it’s not responding the way it normally would so we’ve had to drive to Canberra for a minor repair, thankfully Canberra is only an hour away so it hasn’t put too great a dent into the schedule. In the meantime however it’s allowed new member, Marvin and I to go over some new songs and get him feeling comfy with the arrangements. Speaking about Marvin actually, he’s under enormous pressure from everyone to step up to the plate and provide some backing vocals on this recording. It’s turning out to be a bigger hurdle than anyone had counted on unfortunately as Marv has developed an insane insecurity complex which seems to be crippling his attempts to sing so fuck knows how we’re going to get his angel like voice present on this album. Its very frustrating actually, because he can really sing and it would really add another element to the w&c palette, let alone make my job allot easier. I think alcohol is going to play a big part.

I really wish I had some photos for you this time, believe me it was the plan but for some fucking reason this digital camera that I borrowed is not cooperating at all, I think I’m going to head into Canberra on the weekend to get another one

Making records

2008-07-14T09:27:00.000+10:00

JOEL - WOLF & CUB

Ok so here we are again another blogging attempt from me, I think the last one was ok so I’ll stick with the same formula for this one. Unfortunately, Wolf & Cub still seems to be on my mind probably because we’re still on tour and also because the single is being released officially this Saturday on July the 5th. I’m excited but very anxious. It’s been almost two years since the last release and I’m a little concerned that we’ve been forgotten. Thankfully the shows have sold well and the crowd seem receptive to our new material. So you know that’s a positive thing.

Actually by the time this goes to print we would have again already played the upcoming shows in Melbourne and Adelaide, so with that in mind here is a review; each show sold out and both were equally electrifying, they will be remembered as definite highlights for Wolf & cub fans and the band themselves and seen as fitting end to a successful min-tour.

The shows in Sydney and Brisbane were actually pretty good, I know I gave a pre-emptive review on my last post that said that they went well, but I’m now glad to report, post-performance, that they went as well as I predicted, or perhaps ‘hoped’ is more accurate. Both shows did actually sell out so that was great, and for any who missed out, there is some footage from the Annandale show up our myspace so check it out at www.myspace.com/wolfandcub. Thanks to both Valley Studios in Brisbane and The Annandale in Sydney for looking after us so well. Also thank you very to the people that showed up.

So what’s next after the tour? Well we head back into the studio to complete the record. At the moment we’re about a quarter to a half way through, and things are looking good! To be honest I didn’t really want to have this little break from recording but Chris Colonna, the guy who is producing the record, had some touring commitments overseas with his band Bumblebeez that just happened to conflict with our recording time. I have to say though I really think its worked out well, we were able to do this little tour and we’ve also been able to assess what we’ve done so far and just a get a little bit of perspective on the record so far. Now we can’t wait to get back in so it’s also helped motivate us, I guess you need to come up for air every now and again.

My next post will be straight from the studio so stay tuned, until then.

SEX, TV & ROCK N ROLL

2008-07-08T16:17:00.001+10:00

KRISTY BRADLEY

I was very bad this week and handed my blog copy in terribly late!! What a blogocracy! But it's very rock 'n' roll of me, right?

Congrats to Joel from Wolf and Cub for handing his in on time. Ha! I saw him play at The Annandale Hotel last week and his band totally rocked out. I love music that takes you on a mind tripping adventure and makes you forget about life on the outside. Mission accomplished. There isn't a bad thing I can say about this gig except how friggin' annoying it was having three drunk Scottish dudes dancing like they were at a Rave. I guess we've all got one of those stories?!

Ok, that's as much rock 'n' roll as you're going to get from me this blog!

There's a matter of great concern that I must explore this week:

While watching another Sex in the City episode - I admit I've watched every season at least three times and I've just recently seen the movie – I realized that music doesn't play a huge role. Firstly, you never hear them listen to records at home, buy music, talk about music or more importantly when it comes to SITC episode to have dated a musician. Carrie dabbled once; remember when the jazz guy she dates liked to played her like a double bass. Music doesn't seem to hit the SITC radar.
It's an atrocity that not one of the gals dated a 'black skinny jean wearing' band dude. There isn't a single Fab or Albert Hammond Jnr in sight (side bar: he's dating London It model, Agyness Deyn). Calling out to all you up-and-coming film/TV makers who are sick of watching SITC and all those me-too shows that are now playing on commercial TV, it's time to flash your creative gear and create a TV show about four girls who love to have sex with musicians, drink lattes and wear fabulous shoes.
Love and fat tunes,
Kristy xx

P.S: If you get a chance to see a Dappled Cities gig do so. I saw them play their new music last week and they were amazing.

Wolf & Cubssssssssss

2008-07-07T09:24:00.000+10:00

Which side of slurry are you?

2008-06-30T10:57:00.000+10:00

Kristy Bradley, ex- YEN Editor

Just another love story? You decide!

I hate to be so Sydney-centric with my first post for this fine musical blog, but I believe this is an important matter that has to be taken by the balls. It goes something like this... Which side of Surry Hills do you root for? Do you wear black or fluoro? Do you listen to rock or dance? Do you like grass or sand? Are you indie or glam? Are you an Inner West or Eastern Suburbs person? These are vital questions you must ask yourself before we can proceed. I know I'm about to divide a city, but if Howard and Rudd can do it, so can I.

It used to be about which side of the bridge you came from. But I'm taking it to another level or should I say another direction. I'm proud to announce to the world that I'm an Inner Westie kid from way back. And for those who aren't from Sydney, it's like saying you've got to choose between Melbourne or the Gold Coast. In one corner Melbs represents the Inner West and in the other corner the Goldie represents the Eastern Suburbs.

There are many, many reasons why the Inner West is the 'best', but since this is a music blog, I'll keep my 'tight' case to this genre.

The Inner West is full of musical genii. There's Ginsberg Studio in Petersham where local bands like Expatriate rehearse and record from. Then if you cruise on down to Parramatta Road, Leichhardt, open the doors to The Bald Face Stag and you'll hook up with one of Sydney's new monthly Indie nights, Band Wagon. It's vibe is like Gas Light five years ago - full of indie kids and local musicians minus the pretentious attitudes. In one night at this local hang I mingled with many local Inner Westie musos; Matt from The Lovetones (he's a great kid and is supporting Brian Jonestown Massacre in August), the dudes from The Dolly Rocker Movement (who supported The Black Keys last week at the Manning Bar) and Nick from ex-The Mares. A few lefts and rights and you're outside Laughing Outlaw Records in Lewisham, which is an independent record and management company but also has a great record store. This hidden gem is located near the train station and is full of old vinyl, books and CDs. I won't mention The Annandale here because we all know about that.

But it's time to head a little closer to the east (if you dare) and you'll meet up with the boys from Speak n Spell Records whose head quarters are behind Pigeon Ground Records and Clothing (an awesome vintage store) in Camperdown. When the boys from SnS aren't in the UK looking after their number one band, Cut Off Your Hands, they're spreading some indie love by touring and releasing music from the likes of Dandy Warhols, Mystery Jets, The Concretes, Dappled Cities and that's just to name a few.

The list of great musical talent in the Inner West goes on and on but none of us have the time to read all bloody day and night about it! Put it this way, I could start one of those Celebrity House Spotting Tours they run in Hollywood, but for all the indie dudes who live in the Inner West.

To confess your love for the Inner West, join the Inner Westie Kidz Society at www.facebook.com. And for those who don't wanna be the 'best' they can be, facebook us anyway, we'd like to hear what you really think.

Peace, love and Inner Westie goodness

Kristy xx

HOW TO GET YOUR BAND A GIG

2008-06-30T10:53:00.000+10:00

STEPH FROM FIDELITY CORP

I struggled a lot to get this blog out by deadline, and even then I’m 24 hours late. It has everything to do with sending 168 emails out yesterday and having a mild case of writer’s block, and absolutely nothing to do with spending the entire weekend in my backyard drinking cider.

So anyway, I’ve just taken on booking a new night every Friday and the thing about booking venues is it’s a lot fucking harder and time consuming than booking for a band. Even harder still doing it in Perth where the pool of bands you have to choose from is very limited, let alone the pool of good bands, let alone the pool of good bands that haven’t screwed themselves over in the past who you will never give a gig to again.

So here’s my quick tips for how not to piss off a booker:

BE GOOD
Too many crap vocalists, not enough muzzles. Repeat sentence and replace vocalists with “songs”.
BE AWARE OF ‘THE RIGHT TIME’
I had a tour not long ago that, to be perfectly honest, stiffed its nuts off. It had the potential to be really great, but it was a case of wrong place/wrong time sort of thing. Anyway, had about 50 payers at the main show in a 600 cap venue – I had expected minimum 200. I was also doing the door the entire night so was not only frustrated by lack of payers but also bored out of my head by lack of payers. So as I’m counting up the money and giving back the float I get that horrible sinking feeling when the realisation of having lost a whole bunch of money sets in. I’m sitting in the beergarden having a cigarette and drink with a mate who was in one of the bands feeling pretty shithouse when a dude from the opening band comes up and goes “just wanting to get our cash for tonight” which, at $1/head after door person cost, was $38. I had lost at least a grand. Pretty sure that this is the kind of guy that would interrupt a funeral by taking a phone call.

BE PROACTIVE
Posting a bulletin on myspace is NOT being proactive as much as you’d like to think that every single one of the 2,000 odd friends you’ve managed to add over the past 3 years give a fuck, or, in fact, even see the bulletin in the first place. There is a real big problem with complacency and that once you’ve been added to the bill, the work is done. WRONG. It is a two way street, booker and band need to work together to make the night the best it can be. Make the effort to bring as many people as you can to every gig because it has a domino effect – you don’t make the effort, bookers will be less inclined to book you. Slack bookers are just as much to blame, by the way. Too much vanity, not enough love.

NEW WOLF & CUB....

2008-06-30T10:50:00.001+10:00

JOEL - WOLF & CUB

I’m not quite sure where to begin. Blogging is a very foreign concept for me, I mean I’m aware of the notion of ‘blogging’ and I’ve visited many ‘blogs’ but to be a practicing ‘blogger’ has never come naturally to me. I don’t know why, perhaps its because I never kept a diary or maybe I’m just too self-conscious. Anyhow I suppose the best place to start when writing a blog is to write about what’s on your mind, heres whats on mine.

Wolf & Cub, the band I’m in seems to be dominating my thoughts at the moment, well not just momentarily, actually it’s been my obsession for the last 6 years. I hate having an obsession, as it can be such a winless battle, you’re never satisfied. That’s not to say I’m never proud, truth be told I’m feeling very proud of what we’re doing at the moment and what we’ve done.

Anyway, the band is dominating my thoughts more so at the moment because we’re in the process of recording the new album. It’s going well, very well actually. We’ve enlisted Chris from the Bumblebeez to produce it for us and it’s a decision that I’m starting to be proud that we made. We’re recording a lot of the album at his hometown studio in Braidwood and even though its got mice running around at the moment, the place has a good vibe and we feel comfortable, so that makes for a positive working environment.

We have also just released the first single, which is out June the 5th, and currently on a little tour to promote it. By the time this goes to print we’ll be half way through the tour, so with that in mind lets go ahead and just say that the first half of the tour was great, the shows were astonishing! It has been triumphant return to the live scene for us.

Also if you’re interested the new clip for the single should be floating around on the internet, it was made by SPRPPL, the team that is also responsible for most of our artwork, the clip is another example of the team’s ability to make something out of miniscule budgets and it’s a partnership that I’m grateful for. Anyhow the clip is good and we’re proud of it so hunt it out on youtube or visit our myspace (myspace.com/wolfandcub) to have a peek at it.

Ok be back soon, gotta go finish the album, talk soon.
-Joel

TIRED, SOOOO VERY TIRED...

2008-06-20T15:48:00.006+10:00

PHDJ (Boundary Sounds)

Not sure if I mentioned it in previous blogs but next week I am off to the
UK for 5 weeks to do some djing, some business and some film making. As well
as to hang out with some old friends.

I love London. I lived there for almost 3 years a few years back, and it
spoils you. There's literally an international act coming through town every
single night. Most nights there's three or four bands you want to go and see
but can't. And during Summer there's a festival every weekend. Some weeks I
hardly went home cos I was partying so hard. Then again I was pretty lucky
as I was working as a DJ and nothing else at the time, so as long as I
turned up for my sets I was OK. Even if I was still drunk.

Last few years it's a bit different. Ever since I started Boundary Sounds I
take my annual trip to London quite seriously.

The trip serves multiple purposes. I'll be playing clubs London, and I'll be
dropping in to Paris and Ibiza too. I'm also going over because I've started
filming a documentary that is exploring the ambiguous term of Oindie' and
the concepts behind it. I'm lining up interviews with guys like Alan McGee
(Creation records) and Geoff Travis (Rough Trade) - guys who were
instrumental in defining the early days of Oindie'. Back when it still
referred to being unsigned or signed to an independent label, pre-Radiohead
days. I shouldn't start on that topic as we'd probably be here all night.

I'm flying over and staying in London with my bestest buddies Sparkadia.
They are both lucky and good enough to have signed to a label over in the UK
and Europe as well as have an agent that look after them quite well. They've
been booked onto just about every British festival worth playing this
summer, so as a result I'll be tagging along to Glastonbury festival, T in
the Park in Scotland, Oxegen in Ireland, O2 Wireless in London and a
plethora of other gigs. I'll probably end up filming some tour diary action
as well, so look out for that down the track.

On my way back I'll be dropping into Japan to go to Fuji Rock Festival
before I come back to Oz for Splendour in the Grass.

Anyway, back to now so where that brings me now is that I'm fuckin tired.
I have so much work to finish before I leave. I'm not quite sure when I'll
do my packing. Luckily for me a long time ago I devised a wardrobe for
myself which consists only of blue jeans, Cons, my trusty Chicago Bulls hat
and whatever band shirt I can get my hands on. And even more lucky for me,
the best band shirt shop in the world is at the stables markets on Chalk
Farm Road in Camden Town (London), so it means that it's not long now before
I get my annual band shirt refresher. And it also means I gotta pack light
going over to London as I'll be carrying excess baggage in band shirts on my
way back!!!

Oh well, that's enough from me. I gotta go give Ruby Rose (from MTV) a DJ
lesson. Next time you'll be hearing from me I'll probably be on Sparkadia's
tour bus on our way to Glastonbury Festival.

Until then, Cowabunga!!!

M

Busy Busy Busy!

2008-06-16T11:19:00.003+10:00

Phew! What a weekend! Friday night I went to check out VHS or Beta at the Factory and they were great. They are probably one of the most danceable indie bands around. They really put on a show. They played a few extended versions of their tracks where they morph into long extended instrumental jams, and it was super. ‘Bring On The Comets’ is just as good live as it is on record, which cements it as my favourite track. After their gig the whole band came down to Purple Sneakers to hang out and Craig and Mark from the band spun some tunes for an hour. And surprisingly for a guest DJ band they didn’t suck. I later found out from Craig that they had been working as professional DJs for about 10 years, which would explain why they were two of the tidiest mixers I’ve seen for a long time. Coming on to close the night out til 5am after VHS or Beta was a pleasure. Saturday morning was a combination of being hung over and trying to make my way to Luna Park. Purple Sneakers DJs were playing at Come Together Festival there, so I made my way out. It’s kinda weird, I always have greater energy levels in the night than during the day. For some reason it doesn’t matter how tired, hung over, or pre-occupied I am at the time but as soon as I get to a gig at night or start to see the city skyline I get this sudden rush of ‘fuck yeah bitches, let’s do this!! So although I really wasn’t feeling up to any djing or partying before I got there, as soon as I walked into the Big Top I felt my whole body say ‘GAME ON!!!’ So needless to say, Saturday was a riot. With just about all my mates in the same building how could it not be. Jake (from Bluejuice) played with a cast on his leg (courtesy of me the week before), Alex and the Sparkadia guys kicked ass, Nick Findlay and DJ Fle represented Sneakers behind the decks. And generally anyone who was anyone in the Sydney band scene was there. A highlight of the day was seeing The Dirty Secrets and Little Red play on a large stage. Both these bands are gonna be big. The rest of the night turned into a bit of a haze. We went on the rides, got in trouble for taking my video camera out on the dodgems, and then again on the big slippery slide thing. I lost the slippery slide competition. We decided that it was wind resistance and not weight that makes you go faster. Then afterward we all went to the after-party at The Supper Club drank free beer (thanks Tony!) and passed out late again. Sunday I am kinda lucky that with versatility of my djing and the appeal of Purple Sneakers that we are just as easily booked to play a band festival like Come Together as we are on a dance festival like We Love Sounds. I’d never previously been to We Love Sounds festival in the past, so being invited to play there was exciting. And I must say that aside from the awesome line up of DJs and bands that were on the bill, it is also probably one of the best-run festivals that I have ever played at. Throughout the day I did not encounter any hiccups nor see anything that made me think that it was anything but a slick operation. And the acts playing were great. I got to see DJs that I’d been wanting to see for a long time. Some, like Stefan Bodzin, Mr Oizo, The Whip and Duke Dumont were every bit as good as I had imagined, and others, like Cassius and Dubfire, were not as good as I had expected. Watching Mr Oizo was a highlight, even though I’m not a huge fan of deep crunchy electro, this guy played one of the more entertaining sets that I’d seen. His mixing was clever and the great thing was that he was able to step out in front of the decks every now and then and have fun with the crowd. The only low point for me was that I was billed to play at the same time as Mixmaster Mike so that meant I missed him. Everybody said he was awesome. Although at the same time I can’t complain because my set with Purple Sneakers DJ buddy Walkie Talkie was a killer. We started with the room about a third full and ended up with a barn full of raving kids. They even got down to the rockier stuff we dropped into the mix. That night came to a close with djing at an after party at Qbar. Then sleep. Monday, yes, it was a long weekend. Which meant that Monday I could do work without any disturbances. I am currently finishing off a Dirty Secrets remix with and I also got to play around with stems from tracks by the Jezabels and Bluejuice. So I slept in and then spent the next 16 hours working on music production and eating delivered pizza. Can’t really complain – a pretty perfect day to end a pretty perfect weekend.

NYLON TOUR

2008-06-12T09:51:00.003+10:00

CORY KENNEDY

i was so happy to wake up in new york. so were the native new yorkers the virgins. i went to chrissie and nicks house till the show. we picked up jessica and headed to irving plaza. i had to show them my living quarters they were all so shocked.it was beyond packed. completely sold out. and the energy for the show to start was energizing. everyone was so pumped and ready to rock out. so many buddies were there! been on the road for almost 6 weeks and im loving every moment.

i sleep so well on the tour bus. it basically rocks you to sleep. just being in a bus with 18 people is such a bizarre experience. the weather has been predominately very hot and humid which sucks. every night be your own pet puts on a fantastic show. jemina doesn't stop moving the entire time. nathan the guitarist and jonas get mad air. even if their music isnt your style.... just watching them is incredible.

theres 11 days left till tour is over and im pretty sad about it.

STUFF I'M DOING AND MUSIC I'M LISTENING TO!

2008-06-06T17:15:00.003+10:00

PhDJ (Martin Boundary Sounds)

Launch of Levity Nights
You may or may not know, but I own an events company called Boundary Sounds. I’m neither the brains nor the brawn of this organization, I’m simply the pretty face (OK, not strictly true). The hard workers at Boundary Sounds run weekly nights like Purple Sneakers, as well as one off events, plus we are involved with presenting stages at festivals and the like. So when the guys at Levity Label asked us to help them put on a new weekly club night we immediately went “hell yeah!!”. Last Thursday saw the launch night happen and it was ace! Months of hard work realised in one awesome launch party!! The Holidays played, Red Riders DJd and my man Nick Findlay and I both spun tunes too. And if you’ve ever seen a band play in a room a little bigger than your bedroom it’s a pretty exciting affair. Bring on this Thursday!!

Other shit to look out for in coming weeks of the blog…

Sparkadia UK Tour
I got asked to join Sparkadia on their UK tour later on this month. They are playing at a series of huge British festivals including Glastonbury and O2 Wireless in England, Oxegen in Ireland and T in the Park in Scotland. So I’ll be keeping you up to date with my travels with the band and then on my way home to get back for Splendour I’ll be dropping by Japan’s huge Fuji Rock Festival, so will keep you in the loop on that too.

VHS or Beta at Purple Sneakers
VHS or Beta are DJing at Purple Sneakers this Friday, and I get the pleasure of driving them from their gig to Purple Sneakers in my big black Bedford (pic attached). Last year Chk Chk Chk (!!!) got to ride in the very same van and on the trip back from Playground Weekender of all things they taught me a brief history of Southern Hip Hop and kick-started my love for Three Six Mafia.

Festivals Festivals
This weekend PhDJ (that’s me) and Purple Sneakers DJs are playing at 2 festivals. Saturday sees us playing at Come Together Festival, and Sunday we get to play alongside Bonde Do Role, !!!, The Bravery and others at We Love Sounds Festival. I’ll give you a run down of the weekend’s activities in my next blog.

Music I’ve been listening to lately:

The Dirty Secrets – The Dirty Secrets
I couple of weeks ago I was asked to work on an official remix of a track for Dirty Secrets together with my production partner Black Anthony (we go by the name of Dept.). The Dirty Secrets are essentially a danceable indie pop band from Perth, and they are a touch on the synth side so I suppose due to that they inhabit the same musical territory as Dardanelles and Van She. And honestly they are every bit as good as these bands, both on record and live. Their self-titled debut album is pop gem after pop gem. You’ve probably already heard the single Five Feet of Snow, but on top of that there are other soon to be hits like ‘Devil’s Inside’ and ‘White Lies’, but to me the highlight is ‘Thoughts and Considerations, which is a Killer’s style slightly ethereal number with a touch more emotion. I suppose the Killers reference can be levelled at them as a criticism, but the fact is that unlike many bands these days they actually write songs rather than just ‘angular riffs’. Go get em!

Booka Shade - Movements
I’ve also discovered an old Booka Shade album from a couple of years back called ‘Movements’. I have an extremely large ‘music to acquire list’ which doesn’t discriminate across genre, and this record has been on it for ages. I finally got it and I gotta say that even though I’m not usually into music without words, nor am I really into non-song-based dance music, but as far as minimal techy stuff goes this is quite pleasing as daytime listening or night time driving music. I presume it would also be great at 5am at a big night club too, but you’re not likely to be seeing me dancing to music like this.

Breaking a Bluejuice leg & DJAM Party!

2008-06-04T14:07:00.003+10:00

MARTIN - BOUNDARY SOUNDS

Hey, I’m new to this blogging thing. Not sure what to write about nor how interesting it’s gonna be but I figured that over the next few weeks we’ll get to know each other bit by bit.

So it’s been a pretty huge week in PhDJ land. The last 7 days has seen the following stuff happen to me in no particular order:

Touring with Bluejuice and Breaking Jake Stone’s Ankle
I have spent parts of the last 2 months with the boys on planes and in vans and in clubs and venues DJing on the tour at the shows as well as hosting the Purple Sneakers after-parties in all the capital cities and some of the smaller towns in between. Together we went to Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and last week Brisbane. I also brought my video camera along for th trip and have been filming a video diary of the tour (which you’ll probably be seeing down the track).

Brisbane was a great show for the guys. The Paper Scissors and Bluejuice had been touring together for two months and had sold out every show along the way, and this second last show of the tour was no different. Except for one thing… Later at the after-party I was dancing (well, jumping is a more appropriate word) with my mate Jake Stone (he’s one of the MCs) and we got a bit excited when I dumped Warren G’s ‘Regulate’ on the decks, and after a bit of jumping around whilst holding hands in our drunken haze and a bit of a tangle we both fell. And as you may know, Jake’s not a big guy, and I’m not a small guy, and in an awkward landing I ended up cushioning the fall with a bit of Jake Stone leg. Ouch!! No sooner had I landed back in Sydney the next day than I’d heard that Jake had ended up in hospital with a fracture.

Needless to say the trooper that he and Bluejuice are he played the final date of the tour with his leg in plaster!! What a band, and what a tour!!

Throwing a Party for DJ AM
A couple of weeks ago I was approached to personally throw a party for LA superstar DJ AM. Yeah, we all know that he was the guy that went out with Mandy Moore and Nicole Ritchie and that he’s total Sneaker Freaker, but over and above that he’s actually just an awesome DJ!!!

I invited my mate DJ Kato to organise the party with me at 77. In less than 2 weeks we had arranged the party, done the flyer, pulled the press and pushed the PARTY button. On the night 77 had line ups snaking around the corner.

Dude, the guy plays my kinda party shit. He literally plays everything and anything. He’ll go from Justice to the Knightrider theme to Outkast to Oasis in the space of minutes. And toward the end of his set he was really letting rip with the indie classics, so like a giddy school girl (and given that he was playing such a variety of music) I requested he play ‘Waiting Room’ by Fugazi. And minutes later the guy was nailing it. Definite highlight!!

Albums of May

2008-05-29T09:50:00.000+10:00

So, May’s coming to a close and I have to say there hasn’t been a tonne of new records flooding in, but all the bands that we thought would be on everyone’s lips are seemingly keeping their end of the bargain. MGMT, No Age, Yeasayer, Bon Iver and Fuck Buttons are proving to be massive favourites on the current summer circuit. I heard 60s garage pioneers The Sonics are back together and playing Primavera Festival in Spain. Holy S**t. If I could catch them playing “Have Love, Will Travel” live I could die on the spot.

Speaking of harking back in time, Weezer’s Red album is leaking out slowly, reminding us all of the Blue album of the late 90s. It’ll probably never scale the heights of “say It Ain’t So” et al, but how could it? A not so new band (well still really new I guess – ha) that is intriguing is Fleet Foxes, from Seattle. They’re this basement brooding, indie-folk bunch of fellas who have a debut out. It’s kinda like Midlake in parts, plus they draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, traditional music from Ireland and Japan, and film scores. Awesome stuff.

What Josh is loving and envy(ing) !

2008-05-08T10:31:00.002+10:00

#1
Festival Envy We’ve definitely a bunch of cracking festivals here, no doubt. In fact, it has to be said, Australia’s long recovered from being an untrodden tour path for internationals. For instance, I was totally chuffed to see Bjork and Arcade Fire at this year’s Big Day Out and BRMC at Falls. Splendour, too, always manages to attract some top shelf acts (Devo, anybody? Ha!).Yet, upon receiving the tidal wave of newsletters from all the coming overseas, summer soirees, I can’t help but express some infant like jealousy at the calibre of the North’s festivals; despite Shakespeare’s warnings, what was it? “Beware my lord of the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds upon”. Erm, sorry about that...Of course it all makes sense, given most of the acts are born and bred in that locale, but it doesn’t make it any easier to digest. Now, let’s leave out Glastonbury this year, because it kinda bites, but to name just a few, we’ve got All Tomorrow’s Parties in NYC http://www.atpfestival.com/events/atp-ny/ My Bloody Valentine are the curators, and if that wasn’t blessing enough, they’ve only gone and picked Thurston Moore, Fuck Buttons, Mogwai and Shellac to play with them, among others. Looks set to be a pure noise love-fest! Latitude http://www.latitudefestival.co.uk/ in the UK not only has British Sea Power and Foals but, hell’s teeth, also gracing the bill is the legendary Blondie, celebrating their 30th anniversary of the seminal album Parallel Lines. And Coachella recently wound up, too, featuring his lordship, Prince, plus Swervedriver, Santogold and Black Lips setting fire to their guitars. Actually, truth be told, it’s getting too painful to go through the whole list. Without picking them apart further, I’ll just roll call some to give you a sense of my woe. Sonar, Benacassim, Roskilde, Isle of Wight, Primavera, Summersonic, even Reading and Leeds, bless their chav-full, cotton socks. Might be time to check out those frequent flyer points me thinks....

#2
Is World Music taking over the, ah, World?....Once the province of WOMAD attending, yoga fanatics and lonely Anthropologists, “World” music and its Enya-like tribal roots has made a huge leap into the realm of indie music. Reviving the spectres of past musicians like 1980s icons Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Paul Simon http://www.paulsimon.com/, current acts like Vampire Weekend, The Ruby Suns, http://www.myspace.com/ryanmcphunandtherubysuns MGMT, Yeasayer http://www.myspace.com/yeasayer and El Guincho have joined in the fun. Much like the Animal Collectives, MIAs and Beiruts who’ve also been mining a wealth of ethnic musical strains. Everything from Afro-Beat to Bhangra is up for grabs. And how good is it! This vanguard of artists are not only illustrating a modern age of accessibility – for never have nascent bands and musicians drawn from such a wide range of sonic inspirations - but in dredging the seas of sounds for some point of difference, they’ve successfully, and most of all, refreshingly, ranged from the traditional formula of straight-up, genre specificity. Bless the music blogs, file sharing and the incessant curiosity of youth that have opened the flood gates to a rich tapestry of world history, sounds, beats, flavours and rhythms!!

#3
Video Heaven At A TouchOh internet, shall I compare thee to a summers day? Jeez, enough Shakespeare. Sorry, I’m stuck in the 16th Century this week! But TV, you’re out!Current favourites - This Bjork clip made with Spike Jonze. Holy smokes, how tough is it!? http://media.ghostrobot.net/7020_wanderlust.htmlSnuff Box – Comedy gold from the UK, Mighty Boosh fans keep an eye out for Bob Fossil and Bainbridge -

& I also just discovered this old Raconteurs video for “Steady As She Goes” - Jack White enjoying the fruits of his labours it seems.

And last but not least – The Jonathan Ross show. This guy is totally hilarious, such a fresh and easy interviewing style, and what an amazing list of guests. Check out the Brit-King Morrissey to cut your teeth. Classic.

New Sounds

2008-05-01T12:33:00.002+10:00

Hello, hello all,

Well, for my first Levity blog I thought maybe a quick rundown of my current musical favourites would suffice to introduce myself and my sonic aesthetic.So, in no particular order, here goes...

The tall, deep-south muso Bradford Cox of Deerhunter has recently made this amazing album under the nom de plume of Atlas Sound.
http://www.myspace.com/bradfordcox Ethereal, atmospheric and downright moving, it’s giving me that heady, sought after kick, the spine shiver.

MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular is also rocking my world. This record is totally infectious. Freakishly good.
Now, normally that sort of immediacy and the contemporaneous boat load of hype about a band usually causes some hesitation and the ringing of alarm bells (not to mention sunglasses on during indoor interviews dudes!), but I have to say I’m at their mercy...The Youth (the third song) has me all wrapped up in some powerful web, it’s like an anthem for an age that has so few...

When I want to blow my brains out with a squall of homemade pedals that re-wire the possibilities of six copper-wound strings and a warm valve amp A Place To Bury Strangers is sheer awesomeness. But for lighter moments, Vashti Bunyan and her lovable ‘60s sound has been a favourite in the car coming back from the beach and on Sunday mornings, as has the spaghetti western, LA bandits Spindrift , these guys are killer. http://www.myspace.com/thewest

Then there’s this band from San Diego called Dodos. Kinda bluesy- psych stuff. They are s**t hot and are definitely on the highest of rotation.

Other new things I’m enjoying include Sleeping States’ new EP and the New Zealand post-rockers HDU’s new album Methamatics. (art attached for this claire) It’s tough as. And I can’t leave out the sultry, rumbling rock of The Duke Spirit. Their new album Neptune is mind-blowing.

Joshx