Author Archives: Stu

Ae, ASMZ, JN on Youtube

The other day I was excited at the prospect of a new album from A Silver Mt Zion coming out very soon, now I’ve found out that two more of my favourite artists have new ones out in the next couple of months – Autechre and Joanna Newsom.

I’ve had a dig around on youtube to find some great videos of some of their older work, first up some nice unofficial Autechre video clips:

Clipper from Tri Repetae

[youtube FLK70Ipe-tI]

Dropp from EP7

[youtube hWGUnrIiOoI]

A lesson in how to dance to Autechre featuring Cfern from Confield.

[youtube 8tiVmPXNzdM]

Now some videos for A Silver Mt Zion:

Movie (Never Made) from He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms

[youtube y7C7V8IK2Ek]

and a live clip of 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound from 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons in two parts (great footage but low quality upload, also the song is interrupted due to a weird setup at the festival):

[youtube y5rlp8powmA]

[youtube OgnDrdxC6PU]

Next, here is some live footage of Joanna Newsom from ATP curated by the Dirty Three (on the topic of Joanna Newsom live, at the show at the Forum next week she’ll be supported by the excellent Ned Collette & Wirewalker)

Bridges and Balloond from The Milk-eyed Mender

[youtube FsmNvsKVSWg]

Monkey and Bear from Ys at the same show

[youtube a3MwfSGUqjg]

[gigs]

Just a few small updates on the last post.

Satan’s Cheerleaders play at the Cranka this Friday, their first show since they played a great gig last year with God God Dammit Dammit & the Barons of Tang at Enigma. Well worth seeing, and for those who are already familiar with them there’s some great new material to hear.

Saturday offers an excellent choice between Neko Case at Fowlers, or Legends of Motorsport plus No Through Road at the Metro.

One more thing this weekend is that this Sunday arvo I’ll be doing a DJ set at the Metro from 4-7pm, and I’m in the mood for reggae.

Coming up in February is a rare gig by the Avant Gardeners at the Metro on the 13th. They were last spotted at Winnerfest in May last year (video here).

Also, I’d previously listed the Dinosaur Jr gig in March as being on the 12th – fortunately that was wrong, it’s on the 13th. Fortunate because Robert Forster is appearing that night at Julia Zemiro’s Comfort Zone.

Here’s Satan’s Cheerleaders at the Cranka last year (Adelaide band video care of Spoz as usual)

[youtube km3RnlFC4n0]

Something else to check out – Mess & Noise have an interview with Vince Giarrusso from the Underground Lovers about their album Rushall Station (as pictured in an earlier post here)

Also to celebrate the upcoming release of a new album from A Silver Mt Zion (or whatever variant of their name they’ll be using this time) here is a live performance of Blind Blind Blind from their last album (in two parts)

[youtube LbZgzQjiyug]

[youtube tH4pnlS230A]

and from their second album,  Could’ve Moved Mountains, again in two parts.

[youtube NPqvGupwS2c]

[youtube 9P9kyWSS95E]

It would be really nice if they finally tour Australia after this one. In fact, in a little over a week they will be right at the top of my list of bands that I desperately to want to see live. Expect more Silver Mt Zion promotion in future posts in the hope that I convert some fans and they buy the album and then the band tours because they are so popular here. I can hope can’t I?

One more piece of news before I get on with the gig listings – SWANS ARE NOT DEAD.

JANUARY

  • 15th Satan’s Cheerleaders at the Crown & Anchor
  • 16th Neko Case at Fowlers Live
  • 16th Legends of Motorsport & No Through Road at the Metro.
  • 17th Le Rayon Vert DJ set at the Metro.
  • 20th Handsome Family at the Grace Emily.
  • 20th (Melbourne) Joanna Newsom at the Forum.
  • 21st (Melbourne) The Dirty Three and the Laughing Clowns at the Forum
  • 22nd The Dirty Three at Fowlers Live.
  • 22nd (Melbourne) The Laughing Clowns at the East Brunswick Club.
  • 23rd (Melbourne) Camera Obscura at the Corner Hotel.

FEBRUARY

  • 5th Laneway Festival with Echo & The Bunnymen, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and lots more.
  • 11th RZA at Fowler’s Live.
  • 12th Le Rayon Vert DJ Set at the Metro.
  • 13th Avant Gardeners at the Metro.
  • 19th Yo La Tengo at Fowler’s Live.
  • 27th London Sinfonietta: Pacific Currents at the Adelaide Town Hall.
  • 28th London Sinfonietta: Wind & Glass at the Adelaide Town Hall.

MARCH

  • 5-8th WOMADelaide at Botanic Park with the Skatalites, Calexico, Ravi Shankar, Dean & Britta and lots more.
  • 6th Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Festival Theatre.
  • 7th The Necks at the Spiegeltent.
  • 7th Pavement at Thebby
  • 12th Robert Forster is the guest at Julia Zemiro’s Comfort Zone in the Spiegeltent.
  • 13th Dinosaur Jr at Fowlers Live.
  • 18th Raekwon at HQ.
  • 24th The Pixies at Thebby (playing Doolittle)

On the Stereo

  • Cat Power – The Greatest cd (Matador)
  • Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Wilding in the West (Spunk)
  • Larsen – Musm II cd (Important)
  • Magik Markers – A Panegyric to the Things I Do Not Understand cd (Gulcher)
  • Fugazi – In On the Killtaker cd (Dischord)
  • The Sea and Cake – s/t cd (Thrill Jockey)
  • Jim O’Rourke – The Visitor cd (Spunk / Drag City)
  • Mercury Rev – The Peel Sessions 2cd (Universal)
  • Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind cdep (Domino)
  • Björk – Voltaic cd (Nonesuch)

[gigs] Difficult choices

There seem to be a lot of gigs happening on the same nights in this week’s gig guide, so possibly some tough choices coming. There’s four things this Friday, I think it would be a bit overambitious for me to aim for more than two though. I’ll go for the two late additions – locals Cheer Advisory Council, who I’ve been wanting to see for quite a while, they’re probably on first so get to the Jade nice & early if you want to see them. Later on there’s Joker at the monthly dubstep night at Live on Light Square. I haven’t seen any for quite a while, probably not since Reso back in August, and a Joker set is supposed to be about as good as it gets, so I’m definitely keen.

Note also that another week brings another Wu Tang member to Adelaide, with Raekwon touring in March.

JANUARY

  • 7th Dan V is playing a solo set with Two Suns at the Jade Monkey.
  • 8th Kaki King at Jive.
  • 8th Method Man & Redman at the Shores.
  • 8th Cheer Advisory Council with the Honey Pies & Keepsakes at the Jade Monkey.
  • 8th Joker at Live on Light Square
  • 9th Like Leaves are supporting DZ at the Ed Castle.
  • 9th No One Wants to Play With Me 2 at the Metro with lots of people from local bands playing solo.
  • 16th Neko Case at Fowlers Live
  • 16th Legends of Motorsport & No Through Road at the Metro.
  • 17th Le Rayon Vert DJ set at the Metro.
  • 20th Handsome Family at the Grace Emily.
  • 20th (Melbourne) Joanna Newsom at the Forum.
  • 21st (Melbourne) The Dirty Three and the Laughing Clowns at the Forum)
  • 22nd The Dirty Three at Fowlers Live.
  • 22nd (Melbourne) The Laughing Clowns at the East Brunswick Club.
  • 23rd (Melbourne) Camera Obscura at the Corner Hotel.

FEBRUARY

  • 5th Laneway Festival with Echo & The Bunnymen, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and lots more.
  • 11th RZA at Fowler’s Live.
  • 19th Yo La Tengo at Fowler’s Live.
  • 27th London Sinfonietta: Pacific Currents at the Adelaide Town Hall.
  • 28th London Sinfonietta: Wind & Glass at the Adelaide Town Hall.

MARCH

  • 5-8th WOMADelaide at Botanic Park with the Skatalites, Calexico, Ravi Shankar, Dean & Britta and lots more.
  • 6th Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Festival Theatre.
  • 7th The Necks at the Spiegeltent.
  • 7th Pavement at Thebby
  • 12th Dinosaur Jr at Fowlers Live.
  • 18th Raekwon at HQ.
  • 24th The Pixies at Thebby (playing Doolittle)

On the Stereo

  • Curse ov Dialect – Crisis Tales cd (Mistletone)
  • The Fall – A Part of America Therein cd (Sanctuary)
  • MV & EE with The Golden Road – Drone Trailer cd (DiCristina)
  • Condo Fucks – Fuckbook cd (Matador)
  • Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing cd (ATP)
  • Loden – Valeen Hope cd (Mush)
  • Various – Artificial Intelligence cd (Warp)
  • Various – Artificial Intelligence II cd (Warp)
  • Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh – s/t cd (Drag City)
  • Akron/Family & Angels of Light – split cd (Young God)

The Return of the Underground Lovers

Wow, still getting over the fact that I saw the original line-up of the Underground Lovers, one of my favourite Australian bands ever, last night. They played (possibly not quite in this order) Eastside Stories, Got Off On It, I Was Right, Beautiful World, Promenade, Holiday, Corn, Nice GI, Get It On, Dream It Down, Your Eyes. First encore: Ripe, Las Vegas. Second Encore: Losin’ It (complete with party poppers handed out to the audience for the last chorus)

I have no idea whether they’ll be back for more, but they were clearly having a great time so it’s certainly possible.

No time for a full gig guide post but there’s something else coming up at the East Brunswick Club, the Laughing Clowns play there on January 22.

Videos about the CRU Hack

I’ve noticed that some of the disinformation being spread about the CRU hack (called Swifthack or Climategate – lots of info here) is starting to creep into reports on climate change on the ABC, for example this morning some radio reports regarding the WMO’s finding that the last decade has been the hottest on record has been qualified by mentions of the hack, when there is no credible reason to believe that the leaked emails indicate a problem with the instrumental record -  I note that the online version of the story doesn’t do this though).

The following videos show how comments have been taken out of context to generate controversy

[youtube 7nnVQ2fROOg]

[youtube P70SlEqX7oY]

[gigs] RZA at Fowlers

The Wu Tang Clan seem to really love Australia lately, next to tour is the RZA who’ll be at Fowler’s in February.

DECEMBER

  • 10th Jarvis Cocker at HQ the Gov.
  • 16th Darren Hanlon at the Grace Emily
  • 18th Sandy Cenin & Paul Champion’s Xmas show at the Metro.
  • 19th (Melbourne) Underground Lovers at the East Brunswick Club.
  • 23rd (Melbourne) Kim Salmon & the Surrealists, No Through Road and lots more at the Low Transit Industries Xmas show at the Corner Hotel.

JANUARY

  • 5th Cat Power at the Gov.
  • 8th Kaki King at Jive.
  • 8th Method Man & Redman at the Shores.
  • 16th Neko Case at Fowlers Live
  • 20th Handsome Family at the Grace Emily.
  • 20th (Melbourne) Joanna Newsom at the Forum.
  • 21st (Melbourne) The Dirty Three and the Laughing Clowns at the Forum)
  • 22nd The Dirty Three at Fowlers Live.
  • 23rd (Melbourne) Camera Obscura at the Corner Hotel.

FEBRUARY

  • 5th Laneway Festival with Echo & The Bunnymen, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and lots more.
  • 11th The RZA at Fowler’s Live.
  • 19th Yo La Tengo at Fowler’s Live.
  • 27th London Sinfonietta: Pacific Currents at the Adelaide Town Hall.
  • 28th London Sinfonietta: Wind & Glass at the Adelaide Town Hall.

MARCH

  • 5-8th WOMADelaide at Botanic Park with the Skatalites, Calexico, Ravi Shankar, Dean & Britta and lots more.
  • 6th Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Festival Theatre.
  • 7th The Necks at the Spiegeltent.
  • 7th Pavement at Thebby
  • 12th Dinosaur Jr at Fowlers Live.
  • 24th The Pixies at Thebby (playing Doolittle)

On the Stereo

  • Crayon Fields – All the Pleasures of the World cd (Chapter)
  • The Holy Sea – The Beginner’s Guide to the Sea cd
  • The Angels of Light – Sing “Other People” cd (Young God)
  • Wire – Live at the Roxy / Live at CBGB Theatre 2cd (Pink Flag)
  • The Fall – The Infotainment Scan 2cd (Sanctuary)
  • Jaga Jazzist – The Stix 2LP (Ninja Tune)
  • Daedelus – Exquisite Corpse cd (Ninja Tune)
  • Stacs of Stamina – Tivoli cd (Werk Discs)
  • Battles – Mirrored cd (Warp)
  • Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain cd (Load)

Upcoming Gig Highlights – Youtube clips

While hunting around for ATP clips (for the previous post)), I came across a few other things and I thought I’d post some clips from artists who are touring soon.Lots of my favourite artists ever featured here, but there is only one amongst them who I’ve never seen before live, so it’s particularly exciting – it’s Joanna Newsom with a live version of the incredible opening track to Ys (which, since everyone else is coming up with such lists, I’m tempted to call the album of the decade)

Joanna Newsom – Emily (in 2 parts)

[youtube g9djWq0fP6s]

[youtube eTsqf24XcDw]

Underground Lovers – Beautiful World (couldn’t find any live footage)

[youtube LYLhKKy_cLM]

Kim Salmon & the Surrealists – I Fell

[youtube PVF5u7Eeod4]

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

[youtube WmPzYztFmSo]

The Dirty Three – Authentic Celestial Music

[youtube Bo4OrfS2K8Y]

Laughing Clowns – Eternally Yours

[youtube E1XZbDFBJvo]

Cat Power – Nude as the News

[youtube qqTIxgpF3RE]

Yo La Tengo – Here to Fall

[youtube NPQbJ5kmLlE]

Dinosaur Jr – Sludgefeast

[youtube 53P5d1MsTZ8]

Pavement – Summer Babe

[youtube tU_68xRikG0]

The Pixies – Bone Machine

[youtube NJfCIQHwQT8]

ATP Day 2 (finally)

Last night I watched the ATP movie which is highly recommended, here’s the trailer

[youtube i-QV10TDphQ]

It reminded me of a couple of things

  1. That ATP is the most amazing festival ever and it is really depressing that there is no Australian ATP in 2010
  2. I never got around to posting my photos from day 2 of the 2009 festival.

(also it was a bit sad to see great performances by Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Akron/Family since they’re all playing in Australia next week but not Adelaide!)

Here’s the photos  (previous posts here and here)

I caught bits of some of the acts that played early – Hunter Dienna, Bridezilla and The Small Knives (missed the Stabs though). First international act for the day was Afrirampo, about whome I knew very little.

AFRIRAMPO! TOP OF MOUNTAIN! POWER!!!! (see video below for more detail)

Michael Gira
I’d been a fan of Gira for a long time, going back to the Swans but also right through to the present with the Angels of Light. As he took the stage a bunch of people got up off the hill and moved closer and he quipped “Who are you people and what do you want?”.  What follwed was the most powerful performance from one person with an acoustic guitar. Really incredible. Despite his somewhat gruff demeanor it was clear that Gira was having a great time at the festival, you’ll see his white hat amongst the crowd in some of my photos from both days (in particular right up the front for James Blood Ulmer).

Robert Forster
Earlier in the day Forster and his band had asked me for directions on a lonely mountain path. I had no idea, so I was quite relieved to see that they had safely made it back for their set. A show last year at the Gov had confirmed me as a Robert Forster fan (I was already into the Go-Betweens but hadn’t heard his solo stuff). The lineup for the festival was so amazing, with all these long time favourites who I never expected to get to see live, it was easy to forget about some of the acts I’d already seen quite a bit before (e.g. Forster, The Necks, Bill Callahan), but they were all fantastic. The spectacular setting, the wonderful crowd of dedicated music fans, everything just added up so that even the shows by familiar acts were really something special. Forster played a mix of solo stuff and Go-Betweens classics and was having the time of his life.

Harmonia

I’d been aware of Harmonia for a long time via my interest in Neu!, but there records only recently became easily available. Their music, made in 70’s, really lives up the the “ahead of their time” description. The live album “Harmonia Live 1974” in particular got me excited about seeing them, and they turned out to be one of the highlights in a weekend of great music. The crowd response was great, I think they converted lots of new fans. It was a great set, and not just an exercise in nostalgia (though a couple of times I just stood there in awe at the fact that I was watching Michael Rother from Neu!). The band seemed genuinely surprised and delighted by the warm response from the audience. It was a really great moment between the band and the audience when they left the stage to enormous applause.

The Laughing Clowns

What can I say? My favourite band ever, who I never expected to see live, after all this was their first show since 1984. It was all a bit overwhelming actually, I’ve been to a hell of lot of gigs by bands that I really love, but this was something extra special. They played

The Flypaper
Come One, Come All
Everything That Flies
Them From Mad Flies, Mad Flies
Nothing That Harms
Collapse Board
Eternally Yours

I would have been happy if it was longer, but apart from that it was about as good a set as I could expect (given that I love all of their songs it would be hard to be disappointed). Of course Eternally Yours was a truly superb end to the set, the moment when Louise Eliot brings in that Sax line was sublime.

Psarandonis

I didn’t see much of Psarandonis, I was recovering from the amazing run of acts that I’d just seen, and trying to find some food before the big conclusion, but I think this photo goes a small way to capturing the glorious view from the Amphitheatre Stage.

Spiritualized

It’s a long time since I’d really listened to Spiritualized much, so with all the other highlights I hadn’t given much thought to them, but the high quality of the festival continued. My interest in Spiritualized was renewed by a great performance, with I Think I’m In Love being the highlight.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds delivered a spectacular finish to the festival, but I didn’t get any decent photos (but I have since found the instruction booklet to my camera and may read it at some point so that I will be able to get decent photos in the future). I was keen enough to want to see them again in Adelaide the following week but they’d sold out (perhaps also I was desperately trying to cling to anything related to ATP … I really never wanted to leave).

Here is some footage of the festival from Youtube

[youtube q9XC3cG0rOE]

[youtube cmwfc68-vGE]

[youtube lcfk5FiX2Ag]

[youtube ALF_1JdYcWA]

[youtube uoOrQPpGFb4]