So now this all looks nice... I stole this tidy little template, which hopefully I will update shortly to truly make my own. This blog is only just finding its feet.
This post is mainly for anyone who didn't read todays MX. Tex Perkins has a new group of musician friends playing a bunch of bad 80's covers. They're called the Ladyboyz. Some of the band were in Dallas Crane, some were in the Vandas and they all wear matching suits. Watch this for more.
Some of the album is pure gold, some is a little grating, but for your listening pleasure, here is two of my favourites. MyspaceBuy the Album
Download this little application for your computer and everything you type will sound great. Actually the main reason I wrote this message is to hear how fantastic it is... I've got it on Celestia mode, so it sounds like the Skins theme song.
Oh yeah, went on CD binge yesterday... lots of new awesomeness to blog about in the next few days. Party time. ALSO ENTER THE GOLDEN PLAINS BALLOT! I'M NOT MISSING OUT!
I did that in capitals because it made all the notes sharp.
Those are some awesome burgers/sandwhiches/heartrapers. I've been staring at them for the good part of this morning, while I was hunting around for some nice tunes to blog about. I'm a bit stuck to be honest... a distinct lack of going out to the disco dances or garage bands last week and last has left me feeling a little uninspired.
Well to start, my friendos Major Major have their first EP coming out and are doing a tour of the East Coast. Good stuff... It's called Great Leagues, comes out November 1st, and they're playin the Tote on the 8th of Nov to launch it. Go to them...
Tim Sweeney is playing tonight at the Toff. I'm not going. This fact made me sad, but alas, there's no tickets left. Luckily, a show was announced for this Friday night at La Di Da. I will go to that. Smiles all around. Click here for an Awesome mixtape he did for DFA. Got some Lickadetev, the Juan Maclean, Hercules and Love Affair and Sister Sledge. I enjoy it... that's why it's here.
NOT HAPPY...
Scratch Perverts are no longer playing at Hot Barbecue. Fuck that shit off. Somehow organisers have thought putting Ladyhawk on the bill as a replacement is fair. It's not. It's shit. I want Scratch Perverts. Hopefully they'll be out here another time shortly...
Lanway festival was announced, and as part of a plea to get people to go with me, I've compiled a best of. It's a really good lineup.
A man can't walk down the street these days without being approached by someone trying to get your money. Which doesn't worry me too much, because I don't have any... so it's easy to escape. The real worry is the vampires who see your healthy rosy cheeks and start licking their lips. 'We want your blood' you hear them say... and no amount of garlic, sunlight or crucifixes can save you.
What the world needs is some sort of people who kill vampires and are fearless. Lo and behold, there is a group....
The Fearless Vampire Killers (MYSPACE) are some local Melbourne fellas who dress sharp and play old fashioned rock and roll. They have an EP out which I regrettably didn't buy as I didn't see it at thir gig. (INSIDER TRADING ALERT!) They play around town a bit, and if you read this blog and I haven't already asked, come see them play at revolver on Thursday 16th of October. They're playing with Major Major, who are just as good. More about them later.
I went to Parklife on Sunday, and other than Soulwax giving one of the best gigs I have ever seen in my entire life, there were few highlights. One of them being Ajax dropping a song that I've been kind of going a bit bonkers for the past week. This girl is named Lykke Li, she's Sweedish... always a good sign. Her album was produced by Bjorn Yttling (Friend of Peter and John). I think it's great.
That was kind of poppy, so here's something with a little more bollocks. Kind of. Years ago Mercury Rev were kinda big... they had a song called holes which was pretty big and nice and great. They've gone a bit nuts and thought they'd release two albums on the same day. Not only that... but one of them is free. Not only that... but you can download it off their website. Not only that... you have to provide your contact details... fuck that. That's why you should go to http://revolution9.blogs.se/ to get it... it's a hot blog full of albums to download. New stuff, old stuff.. very good. Probably will only last a week, but it's good for the moment.
Back to Mercury Rev... The free album is a crazy experimental rock record, which I likey likey. I think.... to be fair I've only heard the first track, but that was pretty pretty pretty good. Download it from this blog if you can't be bothered going the whole hog.
Thats all for the moment... stay tuned for a post where I complain about every festival lineup that has been announced lately.
Well the songs aren't that short... but it will be a short post.
Gwen Stefani got rockin and changed her name to Marnie Stern. Not a fact... but Marnie Stern does rock. Get the song Transformer here. Comes free with cool middlee middlee guitar. BUY IT!
I've also been listening to Of Montreal. My head asplode. Sgt. Pepper once went out with this band but said 'Noooooooo Nooo Noooo.... not tonight. You guys are too much... I'm gonna go fix a hole'.
And lastly, Fleet Foxes. The whole bloggy world has gone nuts about this band, but they're really good... and I haven't felt this way about a song since THIS song. Which has got to be one of the greatest songs of all time. I can't stress that enough. But this song 'He doesn't know why' is pretty good too.
Woah.... that last post was full of spaces. I blame the LHC. If you're not all turned inside out tomorrow, here's some fun.
Perhaps you heard the travesty that was Jet teaming up with Iggy Pop to cover Johnny O'Keefe's famous song 'theme from Rage'. I'm not gonna stick it on here, but if you're absolutely desperate, find it here. It's worse than two girls one cup.
But in the true spirit of Black Hole Day, Tick Tick Boom have taken any good parts of the song (like getting good corn out of a poop) and managed to turn it to some sort of fantastic tortilla.
In other news... I think I found the audio equivalent of the aforementioned two girls one cup video... I felt like a bad person after listening to it on the train... old ladies were smiling to each other... and I just felt like an asshole. BUT... It has a beat I can't escape. Drum and Bass rocks.
I've got a bit of a boner for Like a Hurricane by Neil Young at the moment... so enjoy it, see him soon at a largish afternoon in an exterior evironment near you! Did you know he's building an electro/biodiesel 1960 lincoln? I don't care either!
So I'm reading a book of short stories at the moment by J G Ballard. They're kinda science fictiony, but more realisticish science, like valve computers that write poetry and ultrasonic musicians.... not so much spaceships and vagina-like aliens.
But the stories are really cool, they were written in the early 60's, some have a real Orwellian vibe about them, others well.. don't. BUT, for those fact hunters out there, J G Ballard also wrote a semi-autobiographical book called Empire of the Sun, about his childhood growing up in Shanghai during WW2. It was turned into a movie by Stephen Spielberg, featuring Batman as Ballard. I haven't seen it, or read it, I just know about it. Apparently everyone else I talk to has seen it... how have I not.
What I have seen is the new video by new Pnau/Sleepy Jackson side project Empire of the Sun. The song is called Walking on a Dream, it's self describes as a cross between Phoenix and Daft Punk, and while everyone who has ever put a synth on a track says it sounds like Daft Punk, these guys are actually pretty close. Either Daft Punk or Phil Collins anyway. The video is really colourful and filmed in Shanghai, which sort of brings it all around like a Curb your Enthusiasm episode. So here it is, it's great fun.
Oh yeah, Luke Steel is some sort of Superhero I think. The Album is out October 4th. I think I'll buy it!
STRANGE FACT... If you put the video into an editing program and play around with the contrast, you get this video... Wow!
So there's been no post lately coz I had my awesome library of tunes robbed. And my computer. Assholes. But it's almost cathartic, I get to start all over again, get rid of the shit.... nothing like a big purge to work out what music is good.
Well... the Meredith first announcement was made.
HOLY FUCK / LITTLE RED / MGMT / SAUL WILLIAMS / MAN MAN / THE BRONX / MUSCLES / FINAL FANTASY / TAME IMPALA / BEACHES / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS / TEN EAST / THE RUBY SUNS / BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES / COMBO LA REVELACION / YACHT CLUB DJS / GRAND SALVO / ADAM GREEN / THE DATSUNS / ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI / REGURGITATOR
I think I picked three of those... to be honest I'm a little disappointed with the lineup. Some of the stuff I hadn't heard sounded interesting (Man Man, Black Diamond Heavies, Ten East), but nothing that's as great as past Meredith discoveries (Tapes n Tapes, Band of Horses, Girl talk). MGMT should be a lot of fun, Little Red are always lovely, Muscles... meh, The Datsuns and Regurgitator will both rock the party, and Tame Impala will bring the colours. Whatever that means. I also kinda like Holy Fuck. Here they are.
Originally I was annoyed... but I was thinking of the Fuck Buttons... who sound a bit like the retarded introspective shite pitchfork love. I am not a fan of the Animal Collective. But here are the Fuck Buttons for those interested.
I know what I'd rather from the Fuck bands.
So the Robbers stole my computer, but not my TV or my Radio. So to celebrate, here's the new TV on the Radio song on their website. I like TV on the Radio. You can't download it though, but it's not as good as their old stuff, so here's some better old stuff.
Those songs are grand, off their first EP. It's very good.
Apparently Chuck Palahniuk is a dirty liar. Reading these following quotes from him would lead you toe think that my last post was true.
"Clark Gregg...knew that I'd written Choke while listening to Pablo Honey, with 'Creep', over and over and over. So Clark got Radiohead to contribute a song; to write a song for the very end of the movie, the final credits.
"Apparently Radiohead liked the movie so much, they've written the score, most of the ambient music throughout it. So it's 'Choke-- with the music of Radiohead'."
But he's lying. Radiohead is featured on the soundtrack, but it's just the song Reckoner. No new stuff. Bummer. But Johnny Greenwood did the soundtrack to There Will be Blood.
BONUS SCREENSAVER... You can get a cool screensaver based on the groovy video for 'House of Cards' here.
ON TO BETTER NEWS....
Tame Impala are the support for MGMT's tour. Yay... I feel vindicated.
ON TO NEW MUSIC....
The Mercy Arms are a band that I have liked for a long while. They supported cut copy a while back, I enjoyed their set a little more than the old Ctrl-x Ctrl-c. The guitarist is a bizarre kiddo (who is really friendly and possibly has acid tabs underneath his eyelids), but makes some cool sounds and provides some devlish screams and shouts every now and then. They turn what could be another boring Sydney band (Expatriate, Youth Group- Canberra is close to Sydney, Van Shit, Faker- Actually, I don't mind Faker. They might be from Melbourne) into what I consider one of our most interesting new bands.
Their new album is out on Saturday, they're going on tour. Hitting Melbourne on 30th August at the Northcote Social Club. Their myspace features the whole album, which is nice of them. If you ever wanted to hear Mr Bungle cover the Cure with spoken word by John Jarret, check out the song Shine a Light Down.. close as you'll get.
BONUS PREDICTIONS/WISHLIST
So the Falls Festival lineup was announced Wednesday. Yawn. Franz Ferdipants, The Hives and a whole list of other bands that have been here about a hundred times each. I'm sure it'll be fun, but come on, seem sas though organisers know it'll sell out anyway so decided to leave effort at home for the year. Luckily Meredith is around the corner, sure to have the imaginative line-up I crave. Based on rumours and stuff I want, here' s my predictions.
MGMT Fleet Foxes The Bronx (Confirmed on their Myspace) TV on the Radio The Drones You Am I Tame Impala Paris Wells Dan Deacon Pivot
Probably others too... I predict maybe 6 out of 10... including the Bronx.
I'm a big Chuck Palahniuk fan... actually, let me rephrase that... I and I think a lot of other ' Chuck Palahniuk fans' saw Fight Club and read the book. I like the look of some of his other books, but I really can't get my ass into gear to buy them. Stick them in a box set and maybe I'll get em. Or if somebody buys them for me, so be it. (I'm not ignorant... I do read other books.)
But I had heard a lot about Choke, I think his 4th novel. And when I heard it was going to be turned into a film, I thought great! Think of Fight Club...Aside from the great direction, casting, effects, use of Meatloaf, costumes and music, the story is freakin great. Choke looks just as good. Any money the Herald Bum uses the words 'Sex Club' at least once during the promotion of this film.
Stupid shit Fox site for the film doesn't believe anybody without a zipcode is over 18... so we have to make do with the standard family friendly trailer. The other one is better... lots of rude bits.
Anyway, as awesome as the film looks, it's just got Awesomer. Apparently Chuck was listenin to Radioheads album Pablo Honey a whole lot during the writing of the novel, so they were approached to write the tune for the closing credits of the film. If I were radiohead, I'd have given this song.
But unfortunatly, I'm not Radiohead.... and they decided to score the whole film. Exciting stuff yeah?
It seems that I'm sort of following a hard-rock theme the past few posts, so I'll round it off with this one and then maybe you can look forward to doo-wop or calypso music for the next post.
The Sword are heavy metal heroes that will save the day. I don't know if the new slipnot is any good, or if the new Metallica will be any good either (there's gonna be an Unforgiven 3... not a good sign), but it doesn't matter, coz the Sword exist. You probably don't need to hear them... just check out the logo.
Ah fine, you can hear them too. Go to their Myspace or just check out this clip.
Wow, that rocks. It also rocks that they have Norse mythology style song names. If there's one thing I hate it's heavy metal bands that don't realise they are crappy crappy poo poo if they have sci-fi themes. I'm looking at you Powerman 5000.
OLYMPIC FACT!
Until 1932, only the Bronze medal was actually a Metal... Gold and Silver was made of cheese.
Hot Leg is Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) new band. Believe it or not, the man is more diverse than one would believe. I am of the opinion that once an artist goes sober... then they turn bollocks. But the new stuff sounds incredible. One epic track has a full orchestra, with almost african style drumming, and rather than the falsetto vocals, Hawkins goes for a more tender, almost Lou Reed sounding approach. The second track begins acapella for the first 3 minutes, then finishing in what can only be described as a latin funk jam being performed by Kraftwerk, including a jazz scat in Italian.
I'm shittin ya, it sounds exactly the same as the darkness. Sometimes that's all you need though.
It's been longer than I was hoping that I'd post on this blog, but I'll make up for it some how.
BATMAN!
I finally saw the dark knight... not as great as the above promo shot led me to believe it would be, but still a good time to be had. HOWEVER....
Walking out of the cinema and spying a open doorway into another cinema, I saw what appeared to be an incredibly badly choreographed musical featuring the devil wearing prada singing and dancing to a Yngwie Malmsteem song.
The film looked bad. By the way, that is not Yngwie Malmsteem in that video. If you find it a little hard getting past the fact that those sweedish girls sound like Metal gods, here is the song so you can play it to any other visuals you like.
FUN FACT- Yngwie Malmsteem is so named because he was conceived on a scrabble board.
NOT SO FUN NAME- There is actually a band called the Devil Wears Prada. They're Christian Metalcore, which does not help them either. Music Genre Rules: Christian + x = Shit y + Metalcore = Shit Christian + Metalcore = Shit ^2 x + y =
It started in San Francisco, came of age at Woodstock, and changed us and the world forever. Time Life presents Flower Power: Music of the Love Generation. You will hear hits from the most impressionable artists of the '60s and '70s including: The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, The Youngbloods, Jefferson Airplane, and many more.
I really want those CD's. Peter Fonda is on the ads for it... man... I could spend hours searching the internet and record stores looking for all the classics featured on it.
I watch too much late night TV.
However, if in 30 years time there's a Time Life CD featuring the hipster music of today, I have no doubt that Children Collide (myspace) would be on it.
Social Currency is the new single for Children Collide, off their new album which I think is coming out in October. This song is right up there in my favourites for this year... the looping bass is great fun, the way it loops around and when the chorus comes in... ROCK AND ROLL! Jwhores may remember this song...
I get the feeling Children Collide may get pretty big over the next little bit, which can only be a good thing. i can imagine hearing them in some sort of store that sells shirts or shoes or hats or jeans. Or on a Time Life CD.
BONUS LINK
For those not in the know, hipster runoff is a great blog. Just the right amount of cynicism for a quiet afternoon.
Sick of hearing about British bands I hear you say? Have no fear, these lads are from Perth. They're the latest-ish signing on Modular records, and look to be the band that Wolfmother should have been (instead of the boardshort brand they became).
Now, their myspace only has two songs on it, they did have a fantastic cover of the old Blueboy song 'remember me'. Apparently Modular doesn't want people to hear their bands music.... interesting strategy to say the least. I'm not gonna describe what they sound like... you can just hear them yourself (By visiting their myspace... I'm not gonna supply you with free music.)
FREE MUSIC...
That's the original 'remember me'.... if I'm feeling really nice, maybe I'll put up the Tame Impala cover... but Modular will probably send Wolfmother around to beat my ass. Oh yeah... .they're playin at the prince on Friday 15th August with a woman with a mullet,some yacht rock from Sydney, a bumblebee and Jack Osbourne. But it could be fun.
DID YOU KNOW?
There's some rudey nudey shots of one of the Veronicas floating around the internets? I'll let you lads do the searching yourselves.... I am merely a messenger. And I certainly do not hide links on my blog.
This is another British Band which is getting a lot of my attention... and they're playin in Melbourne soonish. (At the Prince Bandroom on 14th August).
I'm convinced that this band is some sort of cult, check out their tracklisting for their CD 'Beat Pyramid'.
"..ce I Will Say This Twice" – 0:16
"Numerology AKA Numbers" – 3:11
"Colours" – 2:26
"Swords of Truth" – 3:12
"Doppelgänger" – 1:30
"C. 16th ±" – 1:38
"En Papier" – 4:55
"Infinity ytinifnI" – 2:26
"Elvis" – 2:46
"£4" – 2:43
"MKK3" - 2:13
"4" - 0:07
"Navigate-Colours" - 4:20
"H." - 0:28
"Costume" - 3:36
"I Will Say This Twi..." - 0:08
Come on.... those 7 second tracks are surely harboring secret messages. It is also good to note that they have two people listed as playing the 'guitar-cannon'. Some sort of anti-establishment weaponry? Anyways, they are a very cool sounding cult, if I were to join one, it would either be them or the foot soldiers from Ninja Turtles (is that a cult? They have a cool logo, but I'm not sure if you'd have to pay or not.)
FOedsPeopyRbIxuztamZ if you've come for a hot video inquire within sPBhdENEnUxkoKibQKOLZK
Make of that what you will, but I tend to go with the opinion of the second guy.
RANDOM QUIZ Why does Wikipedia take so long to load?
These New Puritans are a bit of fun, the other night at the Rochy Castle I quite enjoyed hearing the above track. I may have danced, I may have sat on a chair... I don't quite remember.
You should start a blog they said... so here it is.
HADOUKEN!
This is a very cool band from the old country who are younger than me and my friends. They like video games, bright colours and keyboards. They sound kinda a bit like prodigy, and kinda a bit like Dizzee Rascal (I read this from their bio... but they actually sound like that. It also said Bloc Party... but that doesn't really mean shit. Bloc Party don't even sound like Bloc Party anymore.)
THIS BAND ISN'T NEW. THEY ARE JUST COMING OT MELBOURNE NEXT WEEK AND PEOPLE SHOULD GO TO SEE THEM.
So if you're not one of the people who I sent this blog link to, and you're thinking 'what a twat, this guy thinks nobody has heard of Hadouken... I'm never visiting this blog again'... then that message is for you.
Seriously tho, this band is good, and I'm yet to hear them on the radio or out and about, so maybe they're not so big over here yets. I bought the CD in Macau... which was an odd place to buy fluro-indy-ravy music, but it was cheap. Yay. HERE'S A LINK.....
Because I can't be bothered uploading a song myself, I'm linking to another blog which has very good tunes. I visit it quite a bit. It has a pretty dodgy picture of a fish with 'find-edges' applied to it... but who am I to judge, I'm still using blogger template 1. Leave a comment with what picture I should have up there ^^^^.
The link on that site is for the song Driving Nowhere, which is a bit of a slower tune compared to the rest of the album, but it's really great. And the song was produced by Jacknife Lee who had a great song that used to be on Recovery, where he was holding a balloon shaped like a baby or something.
EDIT: Found the proper song... last one was wrong. Damn Internets.
