Song of the day – 3: Quasi
It’s Quasi, and it’s not even the finest track from their forthcoming album American Gong – that honour belongs (today) to ‘Everything & Nothing At All’. I have the whole album here, courtesy of kill rock stars, and I’m here to tell you that it’s as wonderful, melancholy, melodic, inventive, bitter, yearning, chaotic, climactic as […]
Song of the day – 2: The Deadnotes
Today is a Friday. This means I have the recordings of The Deadnotes (with The Legend!) from the previous week to listen to. This means that – if I’m being honest with you – I rarely listen to anything else. And this was a particularly fine session. Here’s our take on a Thin Kids song, […]
Song of the day – 1: The Unthanks
Let’s see how long this series lasts… First up, this beautiful lament, originally written in 1969 by Frank Higgins around the testimony of Patience Kershaw to the Children’s Employment Commission in 1842. (Asked why he chose this particular song, the critic replied laconically, “It has everything”.)
The Cribs live @ The Zoo, 16.02.10
I was on my way into QUT this morning, a little tired and a little cranky: sleep deprivation is a powerful anti-intoxicant. I was listening to The Unthanks, stuck at Normanby bus station for a little too long. (‘The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw’ is the one I’d recommend for today.) And they inspired me to write […]
Spotlight – 40: Ivy St.
Nasty, in that late 70s/2010 Melbourne way. Full of challenges and silence. Reminds me of awkward Brisbane sweethearts Kitchen’s Floor. The sort of music I would have thrashed around to, angrily, 30 years back. (Christ, I’m old.) The sort of music I might yet thrash around angrily to, if I ever manage to see this […]
Letters from Rosie 4
…today, I found this. Bikini Kill archive. Maybe Kathleen’s making a documentary – which would be awesome. Riot Grrrl has been so important to me, but I never saw Bikini Kill live or even owned a fanzine. Why does it mean so much to me? I was thinking about it the other day in the […]
Daniel Johnston live @ (outside) Monster Children, 28.01.10
The conversation between Loene, Millie and myself went something like this. “Looks like it’s going to rain. Let’s go inside.” “Might not rain.” “Let’s stay outside in the courtyard. There’s more room here – and look, here are the beers.” “It’s going to rain. Let’s go inside.” “We’re all set up here.” “Have you seen […]
Camera Obscura live @ The Zoo, 22.01.10
Camera Obscura played a few weeks back in Brisbane. Both myself and Charlotte were excited about this one: for years now, this Scottish band have been in-car favourites, the mix of 60s harmonies and melancholy lyrics, the sweet-sweet harmonies do for us, time and time again. In the event they didn’t disappoint, despite the late […]
Joanna Newsom live @ The Tivoli, 16.01.10
Joanna Newsom played a few weeks back in Brisbane. On occasion, she bordered on the magical: her voice slightly more reminiscent of Kate Bush then I recall it being before: the song about the daddy long-legs being particularly charming and lengthy (I might have dreamed the subject matter): the drummer in particular bringing his instrument […]
