Song of the day – 127: The Thin Kids
I’m running this to celebrate The Thin Kids nabbing the support slot on Kate Nash‘s forthcoming Splendour side-shows in Melbourne and Sydney. Fair play to Mess And Noise for running a news story on this. At least they printed it, even if it was in tones of complete incredulity. Most would have ignored it. I’m […]
Mark Lanegan live @ The Zoo, 06.07.10
As much as I really like Mark Lanegan, and all the music he’s been involved with, he’s not an easy subject to photograph, preferring to perform in extreme darkness with his eyes tightly shut. The cause isn’t helped tonight by being at The Zoo, which doesn’t have a photo pit and choosing the wrong side […]
Teenage Wolves live @ Young Bloods #1, The Legion Club, 02.07.10
I popped into Young Bloods #1 at The Legion Club on Friday night to check out the headline act, Teenage Wolves, as I’d been hearing good thing about them, even though they’ve only been around since the end of last year and have only played a handful of gigs. I’d never been to The Legion […]
I Used To Skate Once 6 live @ The Zoo, 24.06.10
With the best part of 90 minutes to kill before Hope Sandoval is due to start her set at The Tivoli, I Used To Skate Once 6 down the road at The Zoo means that I have something to do whilst I wait. Although previous years’ events have always been in my diary, this is […]
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions live @ The Tivoli, 24.06.10
One thing I often wonder about the move away from music as a physical product to a digital one is whether the same emotional attachment is there as it was for the older generation. It’s just not the ritualistic nature that used to exist – buying the album, looking at the photos on the inlay […]
Song of the day – 71: The Gin Club
Nice single. Very nice single, in fact. I was listening to a recording of (band-leader by default) Ben Salter, playing solo at Ric’s Bar a few weeks ago, and was once again struck by what an extraordinary, evocative drawl he has. He’s not singing on this – the first track released from The Gin Club’s […]
Tumbleweed + The Meanies + Hytest live @ The Hi-Fi, 02.05.10
Since moving to Australia, I’d heard a lot about Tumbleweed, mostly via the Time Off Message Board, all of it glowing in its praise of the band; they’ve been talked about as the main Australian band from the 1990s that missed out on becoming massive. Although I’d checked out a few songs on YouTube and […]
Spotlight – 42: Velociraptor
There’s a dinosaur exhibition down the Science Museum on the Southbank: and Isaac’s favourite part of it is the video of the dinosaurs singing, “Danger, danger/Velociraptor/Danger, danger/He’s got the hook claw”. Now I have no way of ascertaining whether this song was a formative influence upon the frenzied scenes of chaos and surf rock magic […]
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 […]
Patrick Wolf live @ The Zoo, 10.12.09
Animal Collective played Brisbane recently. I’d already spilled a mug of beer of my Pet Sounds CD, so I didn’t feel the need to duplicate the effect twice. I skipped across the Valley to where Patrick Wolf was putting on a stadium rock show – three costume changes! – in front of 100 people. He […]
