Ray Manzarek, incredibly influential keyboardist for The Doors, has passed away. His bouncy, jazzy organ melodies and rhythms were an essential ingredient in what made that band what it was.
Archive for the ‘music’ Category
Kingswood – they rock
5 May 2013Remember when Kings of Leon were good?
Melbourne band Kingswood (named, I can only assume, after the classic Australian car) have some of that sound. Perhaps it’s the shared initial five letters in their names. Or the beards.
Kingswood have less of the southern rootsiness in their guitar-rock sound. But they have immense energy, and a knack for a catchy hook. And they have that other thing I love: falsetto. Gets me every time.
I love their new song, “Ohio”:
Click here to check out more from their first album, like this blues-infused rocker:
Black Sabbath at Allphones Arena
28 April 2013In the continuing theme of “seeing musical legends before they die” a few mates and I got ourselves out to Olympic Park last night to see the first Black Sabbath tour of Australia since 1973.
1973.
The opening act was some NZ ’90s hard rock outfit called Shihad. We only caught their last song. Meh.
Then, because my mate Vince is charming as hell, he got all our nosebleed rooftop seats swapped for way-down lower-bowl right-beside-the-stage seats. Well done, Vince! A prompt start by Sabbath meant we missed the first few riffs of “War Pigs” as we moved, but we soon settled in.
Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Tony Iommi.
What followed next was legendary metal with a bit of awkward farce thrown in.
I was really impressed by the band. Tony and Geezer still have it, completely. The guitar riffs were dark and epic. The bass was fuzzy and menacing. Original drummer Bill Ward declined to take part but Tommy Clufetos did the metal drummer thing to perfection, including a 7-minute strobe-powered solo.
Ozzy’s voice was better than I expected, mostly. He can still hit the notes, and he’s largely intelligible, and his tone fits the unsettling music just right, as it did on the albums all those decades ago.
I remind myself several times during the night that these guys invented this stuff. Countless generations of black T-shirt wearing metal bands and fans owe a massive debt to those arpeggio riffs, to those minor-keyed laments of alienation, to all those tempo changes. Black Sabbath came out 43 years ago. It was awesome to hear it played live by the guys who dreamt it up, and to hear them still being able to lay it down.
“Children of the Grave”, “N.I.B.”, Black Sabbath”, “Fairies Wear Boots”, and encore “Paranoid” were thrilling highlights to hear.
Downsides: Ozzy gets a little annoying. It’s fascinating to watch his shambolic shuffling about and fun to watch him throw buckets of water on the audience. He’s as energetic as any other mid-60s frontman out there (except Iggy) especially considering that he’s spent so many decades in a chemical fog. But it’s still tiring to hear him ask us to “Show me your fucking hands!” or “Go fucking crazy!” over and over and over again. His crowd banter is pretty limited and repetitive.
Also, he wasn’t on top form for “Electric Funeral” or, sadly, “Iron Man”. And the new songs, plus iffy mid-career tracks like “Dirty Women”, weren’t great. The show slumped in a few of these songs.
But overall the good was much bigger than the bad. I got to see musical legends do what they did, and what they still do, live. The show was fun and good-natured (metal shows I’ve attended are always the most friendly) and epic. We thrashed and sang and shook and fist-pumped and yelled. Dark, brooding riffery has been part of the musical landscape as long as I’ve been alive; I’m glad its creators got to show me how it’s done.
You can see a couple of videos from the crowd in the embedded YouTubes below. Rock on.
Three awesome songs – Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, and Hole
18 April 2013I rode the train to work and back today. When I do I like to listen to Timinator Radio (which is the 19,000+ songs on my iPod classic on shuffle). Coming home the first three songs it randomised for me were particularly awesome. I thought I’d share. They were, in order:
Sheryl Crow covering Hank Williams. She’s got plenty of great songs of her own, of course, but tributes to a true legend like Hank are something special.
Joan Osborne singing “Right Hand Man”. She had a smash hit with that stupid song about God being a slob like one of us, but this 7/4 blues rocker is way better.
Hole’s “Miss World”. Raw punk grunge was so good.
Bonnie Raitt at the Enmore Theatre
4 April 2013Last night I saw another great artist doing sideshows after Byron Bay: Bonnie Raitt. It was a significant change from The Stooges.
The opening act was a substantial set from R&B legend Mavis Staples. And yes, anyone who started performing as a member of The Staples Singers family in 1950 is a legend. She and her tight band served up a whole bunch of gospel soul. It was polished but heartfelt, a classy old-school set of songs that appealed to pop as much as civil rights protests as much as God. Mavis can still holler. They did a stirring version of The Band’s “The Weight”, and pledged some love to the departed Levon Helm. And Bonnie Raitt even came out early to play “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” with Mavis and the band.
Bonnie was soon out for her own set, though. Most people know of Raitt through her easy-listening blues-pop hits since the early ’90s, though she had been recording – and critically acclaimed, if never commercially successful – for two decades before that. She’s a comfortable songwriter and performer, a competent bottleneck slide guitarist, and has a knack for introducing a variety of musical styles into her songs in a really approachable way.
All of these aspects came out on stage. She never missed a beat, even with some ostensible on-stage confusion as she changed the setlist. Everything just seemed cool and smooth, every guitar lick sounded great. Bonnie herself sounded and looked amazing (for any age, we agreed, not just the 63 years she actually is).
The close proximity to the previous night’s punk antics made some of it a little too smooth for me, maybe. But you can’t hate Raitt, nor chastise her overmuch for being classy and caring about tone. She is the anti-Iggy.
Of course she played “Have a Heart”, “Thing Called Love”, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, and “Something To Talk About”. I was surprised she didn’t do “Love Letter” or “Love Sneakin’ Up On You”, but those are pretty lightweight hits so nothing was lost.
Highlights for me were songs that can serve as near bookends: her 1974 version of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” was beautiful, and her 2012 rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Million Miles” was spookily intense. You can watch live versions of both of these, from a show last year, below.
Note that “Million Miles” is one of two songs on her last release, Slipstream, that are covers from Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind album (the other being “Standing in the Doorway”). Good taste, Bonnie.
The blues – in one of its many and varied forms – lives on in Bonnie Raitt.
Iggy and the Stooges at the Hordern Pavilion
3 April 2013I’m seeing some of the big acts in the country for the Byron Bay Bluesfest as they do sideshows here in Sydney. Last night was – at last – my chance to see the Godfathers of Punk, Iggy and the Stooges.
First up was Beasts of Bourbon. Tex Perkins is one of those musical gems that never really made it outside Australia. I’d never heard of him until I saw him in a Johnny Cash tribute here a few years ago. But last night I became a convert to the Beasts. It was primal pub rock with punk sensibilities. Tex’s growl, the insanely loud guitar drone, and verse after chorus of profane, nihilistic blues made some of the best stuff I’ve ever heard that came out of the ’80s. I’m sorry I missed it. They opened with “Chase the Dragon“, kept the pace with songs like “I Told You So” and the newer “I Don’t Care About Nothing Anymore“, and closed with the nutty “Let’s Get Funky“.
Then, The Stooges. I remember hearing whispers about these guys from my cousins as a kid. How they were the most insane band ever, how Iggy had been institutionalised. Later I heard their music and saw how they took rock to its next, necessary evolutionary step.
I saw it written this week that The Stooges were, in the late ’60s, the first rock ‘n’ roll band to be completely devoid of any of the R&B influence, and I think that’s exactly right. It’s raucous, dangerous, everything that’s rough and scary and confrontational about rock music and nothing that’s groovy. Iggy Pop is the frontman that Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison gave birth to. Altogether it had to spawn punk, and that gave popular rock music the shot it needed.
Last night they (and “they” has, other than Iggy and drummer Scott Asheton, changed a lot over the years) showed that The Stooges’ vision remains a pure one. And “primal” remained the word of the night. The band are all old guys but they rock hard enough that my ears are still ringing today. They provided the aggressive aural world in which Iggy Pop could writhe and taunt and scream and spit and do things that no 65-year-old ex-junkie should be able to do.
“Raw Power” and “Gimme Danger” were fun and brutal and noisy and joyous. The three-song run of “Search and Destroy“, “1970″ and “Fun House” with its usual stage-dancing crowd invitation was one of the most powerful live things I’ve witnessed. Closing the main set with “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “No Fun” was brilliant. Even new song “Burn” was pretty cool.
Here’s the band playing “1970″ a little more than a year ago. Primal energy, love it or hate it: see what I mean?
Iggy and the Stooges: does what it says on the tin.
Bonus video: Iggy Pop and Tom Waits try to out-cool each other in Jim Jarmusch’s “Coffee and Cigarettes”.
Curing earworms with anagrams
26 March 2013An earworm is the name for a song that gets stuck in your head, that you may find yourself - against your will - humming and singing for days.
In yet another marvelous convergence of science and music researchers at Western Washington University claim you can rid yourself of an earworm by solving anagrams* (that is, rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to form another word or phrase). And if that doesn’t work you can just read a book.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
This can force the intrusive music out of your working memory, allowing it to be replaced by other, more amenable, thoughts.
But the researchers warn against trying anything too difficult because this can allow the melodies to wiggle their way back into your consciousness
For those unwilling to carry around a book of anagrams, a good novel can do the trick.
Me, I’m always getting Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” in my head. But doing an anagram of “dooby dooby doo” is pretty limiting; it doesn’t get much better than “Yo, Do Booby, Dodo”.
*Exciting finding: Google still has a sense of humour.
Kraftwerk – The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 for Vivid Sydney
15 March 2013Following sell-out performances in New York, Düsseldorf and London, electro-pop music pioneers Kraftwerk are bringing their eight-album cycle of shows to the Vivid Sydney festival.
They had a random ballot to allocate tickets and I’ve been successful for the show I put in for. A few mates and I are therefore going to see the live performance and 3-D show of their Radio-Activity album on May-24. If one of them is also lucky we may be catching The Man-Machine as well.
This is very cool.
The Tallest Man On Earth at the Sydney Opera House
6 March 2013Kristian Matsson is a singer-songwriter from Sweden who performs as The Tallest Man On Earth. He is, in fact, very small.
Irony aside, I enjoy TTMOE’s songs a lot. They’re quite troubadour folk-y, very Dylan-esque. His voice is heartfelt and unique, and it makes the songs feel ethereal. His lyrics turn some very clever phrases, and his instrumentation is simple yet accomplished. Matsson typically just sings and plays guitar, or occasionally piano, with no other accompaniment. The Dylan thing is really striking, especially when he includes lyrics about “boots of Spanish leather” and when you find out that his wife Amanda Bergman performs under the name Idiot Wind.
He had a show at the Opera House last night that I found out about late in the game. Luckily one became available at the last minute and I was able to sneak along.
The Tallest Man On Earth. Photo from Sydney Opera House.
I found TTMOE live a more rewarding experience than I’d expected. It’s just Matsson with his voice and guitar, and a piano for one song. But he swings his tiny body all around the stage, strumming and spinning his legs and his guitar, ducking and diving. It’s a far more expressive use of the stage than just sitting and playing and singing. It endeared him to the crowd, as did his sips of tea (or of whatever was in that cup) and his assertion that Swedes are discouraged from feeling overly proud of anything.
He started strong with “King of Spain” but covered all his albums (highlights: “I Won’t Be Found” from Shallow Grave, “The Wild Hunt” from The Wild Hunt, and “1904″ from There’s No Leaving Now). He sounded great live, clear and vibrant, and he put lots of dynamics – volume and tempo – into the performance. We got one last highlight at the end when Bergman came out and duetted much of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” inserted at the end of “The Wild Hunt”. So pretty.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so strong and spontaneous a standing ovation at the Opera House.
Sydney Festival: Osaka Monaurail at Town Hall
25 January 2013Last night was another music event for this year’s Sydney Festival. Like last weekend’s Kashmere Stage Band show this one was all about funk and was held at the great performance space in Sydney’s Town Hall.
The first act was Saskwatch. They’re from Melbourne, and are a nine-piece funk and soul band. I’d heard them on the radio and they sounded OK; live they were a whole other deal. They laid down some pretty good grooves. But the absolute star of this band is singer Nkechi Anele. Oh. My. God. She was passionate and powerful. Her voice was so strong, her soul sound so intense. And she moved and danced like no performer I’ve ever seen. She was a non-stop dervish of hip-shaking sexiness. Her moves punctuated her singing which punctuated the band’s songs. Saskwatch are amazing. Watch and listen.
Then were the headliners: Osaka Monaurail. They’re a Japanese funk band, and they live and breathe it. Lead singer Ryo Nakata has run this band for 20 years, with a rotating cast of musicians, but this one – like all of them – becomes a full-on ’70s-era funk machine. If you closed your eyes you would be entirely forgiven for thinking you were at an early James Brown show. Nakata grunts and yells; the horn players spin their trumpets on their fingers like pistols; the guitar players come up for solos. They were seriously tight. And when Nakata was in full flow he could shimmy, sing, bounce his mic stand, and do the splits in his dapper suit right on cue.
We got a surprise visit from UK-born, Melbourne-based Shirley Davis, with whom Osaka Monaurail made a single. She was a burst of vocal energy and jazz into the proceedings, a nice change of pace.
The one down side of this set was that Nakata’s in-between-songs shtick, storytelling, and joking with the horn section would sometimes go on uncomfortably long. This did make a few crowd members restless. But when the band kicked back in they killed it, with a fun, genuine, soulful set.
Sydney Festival: Thunder Soul and the Kashmere Stage Band
21 January 2013In the 1970′s a music teacher at Kashmere High School in Texas decided to inspire and challenge his music program kids. He did, and they became one of the most acclaimed funk bands in the US for a few years. They even travelled overseas to perform. I have some of their recordings and they are phenomenal.
In 2008 some of those band members reformed the band, to perform an inspirational concert for that music teacher that gave them so much. And someone else made a documentary about that, called Thunder Soul.
Last night, at Town Hall, Sydney Festival staged a great event: a showing of that documentary, followed by a concert of the still-reformed and touring Kashmere Stage Band. I was there.
The film was touching. It’s a great illustration of how a great teacher can make a great difference, how kids can rise to the occasion, how lessons stick with you through life, and how it’s better to thank people while they’re alive.
Kashmere Stage Band
The concert immediately after was a whole lotta funk. They played some of the classic KSB songs like “Zero Point”, as well as funk classics that inspired them (a lot of Sly and James, obviously). They’re all middle-aged guys now, obviously, but they had a lot of fun making us sing and dance. They still had their synchronised horn moves, and the funky steps that set them apart as performers from the more staid high school bands of the ’70s.
Even after all these years you can’t fake the funk.
Illawarra Folk Festival
20 January 2013I’d seen posters around for the Illawarra Folk Festival (caution: that link has a loud autoplay video, turn your volume down). I thought for quite a while about going but then decided against it. It was a bit of money, I’m more of a blues fan, and I’m seeing quite a lot of events this month already for Sydney Festival.
But then the good folks over at review site Yelp had a competition for weekend pass tickets. And I was able to take an extra day off from work this week because my employer has a policy of giving you a day off on the anniversary of your start date. So I entered the competition.
And I won. Hoo-RAH!
The festival was only about 80 minutes down the coast, so we booked a B&B for the weekend and headed out Friday morning. That day was the hottest in Sydney’s history, with the mercury hitting 45.8 degrees Celsius. It was only a couple of degrees cooler where we were, so we spent much of Friday at Austinmer beach. Mostly in the water.
But Friday afternoon and evening, all day Saturday, and half of Sunday we spent wandering the tents and sites of the Illawarra Folk Festival. This is the largest volunteer-run folk festival in Australia. It certainly has that “little festival” feel. The vibe was great. Everything was close together. It was easy to get to and park each day. None of the queues were too long. And show times kept pretty close to schedule.
Ruby Boots
The music acts ran a pretty big gamut, though all had some roots in folk. Most were Australian acts but a few were from overseas. I was as pleased with the quality of performers as I was with the laid-back festival atmosphere. Given its proximity to Sydney I would definitely visit this festival again.
Here’s a very brief run-down on the acts I saw at least a few songs from (in roughly the order I saw them).
Teifon & Gareth. Two 19-year-olds from NSW. Tangos, Irish reels, and lots of ukelele.
The Underscore Orkestra. Balkan/gypsy/swing band from the US. Lively and fun.
Karen Lynne Bluegrass Circle. A proper bluegrass outfit, no messin’ about.
Mike McClellan. A popular, long-running, award-winning Australian folk legend, apparently. Pleasant enough, but a little more genteel than I like.
Mzaza. Brisbane six-piece with French, Spanish, Turkish and other influences, and mostly sung in French. Loved the middle eastern instrumentation.
Vardos. Balkan string outfit, full of laments, laughs, and audience participation.
Shalani. This local girl is 10 years old. She sings others’ country songs, writes her own with her mom about the ocean, and is saving up to buy a pony. Sweet.
Fiona Boyes. HOT DAMN. One of the festival highlights. An Australian woman who plays like she was part of Muddy’s band. I’ve never heard anyone growl and yowl through Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightnin’” like that. Nor tell a story about how a Reverend Gary Davis song brought her and her partner together. Fiona is a wicked guitar player and had a huge performing personality, too. She is the real blues deal.
Big Erle. Rockin’ and rough-hewn blues-folk.
Dylan Hekimian. 18-year-old from Canberra. He plays a whip-fast acoustic guitar, with a whole lot of hand-slapping percussion against this guitar body. I took some video:
Gregory Page. Classy, jazz/blues/folk singer from the US. His stories and style and easy manner made for a charming, nostalgic set.
Mustered Courage. Really good bluegrass guys from Melbourne with great harmonies, and a fun cover of Queen’s “Fat-Bottomed Girls”. Here’s one of their other songs:
Ruby Boots. Nice country blues from WA.
The Ballpoint Penguins. Comedy a capella trio made me laugh with songs about jellyfish, bottled water, kids who won’t move out, and wine. I’ve got a feeling my mom might have told me about these guys before.
Ray Marshall & the Bluegrass Deputies. Ray is genuine old-timey bluegrass with some local help.
The Lurkers. Bluegrass, but not as you’d care to know it. This was the only act I really didn’t like. I left after a song and a half.
Tommy Polden. 13-year-old local writes thoughtful little songs about monsters and other things that kids think about.
The Go Set. Wow! More a punk band than folk, but they’ve got bagpipes and a bodhrán. They made the big tent explode, and rocked hard and fast. The crowd loved the high energy. And they finished with a cover of the best rock song with bagpipes: AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)”.
Paul Mbenna & Okapi Guitar Band. Paul was a singer in Tazania before moving to Australia a few years ago. Now performing with the Okapi Guitar band, Australia’s longest-running Afro-pop group, they made joyful, funky, jangly, danceable African grooves. And jokes in Swahili.
Jeff Lang. I missed his full band set on Saturday because the tent was overflowing, but caught his Sunday morning set with just him and his bassist. He was a virtuosic folk/blues guitar player, with some intense sounds.
Terry Serio’s Ministry of Truth. Gritty, eerie country songs of danger. I really liked his voice: very emotive.
Dom Flemons. Festival highlight. Incredible. Caught his last song or two the previous day, so ensured I caught his whole set this time, and decided to call it quits afterwards. Flemons is from the US, and is part of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. He is the real deal: steeped 100% in old-time hillbilly music, Appalachian banjo styles, early jazz, and every bit of roots Americana that informed everything that came after. He was engaging, and wide-eyed, and charming, and really pleased to be here. He blew me away. Check this out:
It was an amazing festival to see for free. Thanks again, Yelp.
Sydney Festival: Summer Sounds in the Domain – Sing the Truth with Angélique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright
13 January 2013Last night was our first event for Sydney Festival 2013. It was one of the free weekend concerts they stage in downtown park The Domain. It’s always a great excuse to pack a picnic and stake a grassy spot with friends while hearing some great tunes. That’s just what we did.
It was busy by the time we arrived in the early evening and we had to get our earlier-arrived friends to come get us to get in an area reasonably close to the front. I’m always pleased to see so many people come out and take advantage of these free music shows.
The opening accompaniment to our sausage and cheese and wine was Sydney group Slowpoke Rodriguez. They played very mellow, groovy jazz. It was good background music.
The main event were three performers who could each do a fantastic show on their own: Angélique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright. These ladies met on the jazz/R&B/soul/world music circuits and found they really enjoyed performing together. So last night we got all three.
And they were great. They sang songs that influenced them, including many soul and R&B classic, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, Bob Dylan’s “Gotta serve Somebody” and a few of their own. They were soulful, enthusiastic, and charming. Their voices covered the whole range. Some songs were done solo, some as duets, some with all three.
It was perfect music for a gorgeous Saturday night in the park with a few thousand other festival fans. And it was a great start to the festival.
First Aid Kit at the Sydney Opera House
4 January 2013I’ve been in awe of Swedish sister folk duo First Aid Kit since the first time I heard them and I have blogged about them before. It’s incredible that ladies so young could have such a deep sense of folk and roots music but they do.
Last night I finally saw them live at the Opera House with a bunch of friends who also appreciate good music. They were fantastic.
First Aid Kit. Click to embigggen.
The perfectly genetically-matched harmonies were stronger live than on their recordings. While many songs sound the same it’s a great sound. The tone of the performance was emotional, coming as much from the girls’ disbelief at playing a sold-out Opera House as from the heartfelt lyrics of loss.
They were engaging without being overly cheesy. They came forward to take advantage of the House’s acoustics by singing “Ghost Town” without amplification. They asked us to sing along to songs like “Emmylou”. They smiled and told stories and made me shiver when they covered Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”. And it’s not many performances that get a shout out to Richard Dawkins.
First Aid Kit. Click to embiggen.
I find it encouraging that there are still young performers who can be successful doing the type of music that they love and not just what’s likely to be popular. Good luck girls.
You can listen to several First Aid Kit songs on their web page.
Abbe May at Goodgod Small Club
20 December 2012Abbe May is a musician from Western Australia. I found her name in an article praising her last album, Design Desire, which came out in mid-2011. I checked it out and absolutely loved it: Abbe has an intense, soulful voice, and is a wicked guitar player. That album is a swirling mix of blues and rock, punctuated and punchy. I’m told her previous band, The Rockin’ Pneumonia, was very bluesy too (I like blues).
Then a few weeks ago Abbe released a new song, “Karmageddon“, from upcoming album Kiss My Apocalypse. It was fantastic too, but in quite a different way: all the reviews call her new sound doom-pop, and that’s pretty apt. It’s dark and catchy and repetitive and buzzy and sexy. I love it when artists grow, and was excited that she was adding a whole new sound to her repertoire, especially such a good sound.
When she announced a tour, with a Sydney date at tiny Goodgod Small Club, I bought tickets immediately. That show was last night.
The support act was Shy Panther. They were a group of young guys: a singer, two keyboardists/synthists, a bassist, and two drummers. They did a trip-hop sort of thing, but with perhaps jazzier influences, and lots of falsetto vocals. It was OK, but a bit distant and same-y and never really took off for me.
After they finished I got right up front in preparation for Abbe. I got a shot of the setlist as the crew taped it to the floor:
Wait a minute, I thought. I don’t recognise any songs from Design Desire on there.
Sure enough, Abbe and her band came out and played a set of songs that I presume are entirely from Kiss My Apocalypse. They were all in the same heavy, sexy, fuzzed-out vein as “Karmageddon”. There was nothing from Design Desire (or, I assume, any earlier albums). Abbe did not play guitar (her brother did), she only sang.
Abbe May and band
I was a little disappointed by this. This isn’t Abbe’s fault: I only found out about her recently. If I’d done so 2 years ago I’m sure I could have seen her play lots of rockin’ blues guitar shows. But she’s obviously gone in a new direction, and she’s clearly trying out her news songs in a live setting.
On the downside: On first listen none of the songs struck me as quite as good as “Karmageddon” (and the pre-recorded multi-track vocals even on that song made it impossible to tell if she was actually singing it live). There was a similarity of sound amongst the songs. The volume levels got ‘way overboard near the end, with more distortion than they intended, I think. And the band only played for about 40 minutes with no encore.
On the upside: Abbe is a powerful singer, and it was amazing to see and hear her up close. She’s not afraid to throw in lots of non-verbal vocal punctuations (“oohs”, “ahs” and yelps) for the sake of ramping up the emotion (that’s gotta help when you have a song called “Sex Tourette’s”). The songs have a pulsing, moody vibe that sticks up a middle finger to the mainstream and is yet compelling to those with a love for the groove. Her cover of The Motels’ “Total Control” was hot. And I’m certain that her parents were beside me, in front row centre (family support is nice).
Abbe May
All in all I left a little disappointed because I’d hoped to hear a mix of music from Abbe May’s already amazing output. That’s a comment on my experience, not on her capability, though, because the new songs are really creative and catchy too. Maybe after the new album comes out she’ll tour again with a mix of music old and new. Or maybe she’s cut ties with the past and is striking out in this direction, never to look back, and I missed my chance. I like it when artists move on, so I can’t whinge when they do, I guess.
Foals – Inhaler
11 December 2012I like UK rock band Foals quite a bit already. But I’m really loving first track from upcoming new album Holy Fire.
That song, “Inhaler”, has the same staccato danceable guitar sound they’ve done before. But the verses are all funky falsetto, and that’s a win whether it’s Prince doing “Kiss” or Muse doing “Supermassive Black Hole”.
And then the chorus comes in and it’s heavy, man. Hey, Pixies: quiet/loud ain’t dead!
You can listen to “Inhaler” here:
You can watch the somewhat NSFW video here:
John C. Reilly & Friends at the Factory Theatre
4 December 2012You probably know John C. Reilly as an actor. He’s made quite a career in Hollywood, doing films both serious (The Thin Red Line, Magnolia, Gangs of New York, We Need To Talk About Kevin) and silly (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Step Brothers). He’s here in Australia now promoting the new Disney videogame homage film Wreck-It Ralph.
I did not know that Reilly is also a great lover – and performer – of old-time roots music. And on his promotional tour for the film he’s taking the opportunity to play a couple of shows. I heard on fbi radio yesterday that the Sydney show was that night, and only 5 minutes from my house at the Factory Theatre, so I went.
First up was Australian singer-songwriter Steve Smyth. I’d heard just one of his songs before, that morning on fbi, but liked it. He’s a beardy bloke with a guitar and deep, wistful moods, a bit like Bonnie Prince Billy. But his vocal dynamics were incredible, and as often as not he’d bear down and growl and channel more than a little Tom Waits. The first video on his media page, labelled A Pop Up Performance, is “Barbituate Cowboy and His Dark Horses”, is the song I heard on the radio and the first tune he played. He was pretty bewitching.
Next was a surprise comedy interlude from Sarah Silverman, who’s also in the country to promote Wreck-It Ralph. She has a short 10- or 15-minute bit, and was, as expected, hilariously offensive.
Without delay, John C. Reilly & Friends – those friends being Tom Brosseau and Becky Stark – came out and ran through a big list of old-time folk, blues, and country. It was a bit disconcerting at first to see the smiling face of Reilly croon and strum. But it quickly became clear that he has genuine musical roots; that he has a deep love for timeless music, and gets a great thrill from playing it live for people.
The three musicians played in close physical and musical harmony, all leaning into a mic and adjusting their guitars to work around each other. They played old songs from Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, the Everley Brothers, Claude Ely, and several others. I was surprised and pleased that I didn’t know most of the songs; they were gems pulled from influential artists’ work, not just crowd-pleasing hits. I did know “Blues Stay Away From Me” by the Delmore Brothers, “The Wayward Wind” by Patsy Cline, and “Crying Time” by Buck Owens.
Crowd-pleasing wasn’t a problem, though. The songs were all eminently listenable, and touching in that maudlin old-time way. The assembled room of fans listened closely to each gentle phrase (and the funny, ham-fisted Reilly guitar solo) and exploded in applause and hoots after each song finished. Big closer “Goodnight, Irene” got us all singing and classing and swaying along.
Thank you, Walt Disney Company, for bringing John C. Reilly here and letting him out for a night.
Today’s tunes
23 November 2012I took the train to work today. Here are the random tunes my iPod shuffled up for me:
- “I’m Dancing In The Show Tonight” - Ween
- “West Palm Beach” - Palace Music
- “The Desert’s On Fire” - Murder by Death
- “Bingo Masters Breakout” - The Fall
- “blckrcrd” - Tolcha featuring Maxx & Noelle Poeller
- “Goin’ On” - The Flaming Lips
- “Feliz Navidub” - Sub Santa
- “Chillin’ Tonite” - Lil’ Kim
- “Ty Cobb” - Soundgarden
- “A Little Bit of Shhh” - Lady Sovereign
- “Ice Cream Van” - Glasvegas
- “Music Is My Radar” - Blur
- “Fire Boy” - Grinderman
- “Concrete Jungle” - The Specials
- “Monkey” - Robert Plant
- “Now Mary” - The White Stripes
- “Maybe I’m a Leo” - Deep Purple
- “Fo Yo Sorrows” - Big Boi
- “Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys” - T.Rex
How To Destroy Angels: An Omen EP
16 November 2012Nine Inch Nails dude Trent Reznor’s other maritally-inspired group How To Destroy Angels has just released their second EP, named An Omen. Or An omen EP_ if you’re into graphic design.
You can preview the EP here on Soundcloud.
You can watch a video of one of the tracks right here, too.
New Australian music: triple j’s nominees for the Australian album of 2012
16 November 2012The J Awards celebrate the outstanding music of homegrown Australian artists.
+ Tame Impala – Lonerism
+ Alpine – A Is For Alpine
+ Hermitude – HyperParadise
+ Ball Park Music – Museum
+ The Rubens – The Rubens
+ Bertie Blackman – Pope Innocent X
+ Regular John – Regular John
+ Oh Mercy – Deep Heat
+ Urthboy – Smokey’s Haunt
+ The Presets – Pacifica
+ Sarah Blasko – I Awake
+ Parkway Drive – Atlas
I’ve heard something from just about all of these as a result of my heavy reliance on triple j and fbi radio. Tame Impala, The Rubens, and Oh Mercy are my faves at this stage, but I should give some of the others a better listen. Except Parkway Drive, they’re terrible.
