Author Archives: Stu

[gigs]

Pick for this weekend is the Sea Thieves cd launch at the Jade Monkey, and don’t forget that the Avant Gardeners are launching a cd there the following week.

 

MAY

  • 16th – Gary Numan and Severed Heads at HQ.
  • 21st – The Sea Thieves cd launch at the Jade Monkey.
  • 26th – The Dandy Warhols at HQ.
  • 27th – Jamie Hutchings, Cheer Advisory Council at the Metro.
  • 27th  – Jet Boys, God God Dammit Dammit, Strawberry Fist Cake, Pink Flamingos, DJ Sex Pest at Tuxedo Cat.
  • 28th – Avant Gardeners and Mondo Phase Band at the Jade Monkey.

JUNE

  • 2nd & 4th 3rd & 5th – The Wagons at the Wheatsheaf
  • 4th – Ghoul & Collarbones at Format.
  • 18th – Tumbleweed at Fowler’s Live.

JULY

  • 1st Van Dyke Parks and Kinky Friedman at the Gov.

On the Stereo

  • Cheer Advisory Council – Distance cd
  • Ainslie Wills – Somebody for Everyone cdep
  • Bill Callahan – Apocalypse cd (Drag City)
  • Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the Cairo Gang – Wonder Show of the World cd (Spunk / Drag City)
  • Sleater-Kinney – One Beat cd (Spunk / Kill Rock Stars)
  • Naked On the Vague – Twelve Dark Noons EP (Sacred Bones)
  • Royal Trux – Twin Infinitives 2LP (Drag City)
  • God God Dammit Dammit – The Very First Day of the Sunshine cd
  • Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Quintet – Flutter cd (Tzadik)
  • The Focus Group – Sketches and Spells cd (Ghost Box)

Fox Creek Rd

Went to check out Fox Creek Rd today, haven’t been there before. You can use it to connect up a Gorge Rd ride with Lobethal Rd, in the middle there’s a bit of a climb through Mt Crawford Forest, nothing too bad though. Made for quite a long hills ride all up though, on the way back the climb to Ashton seemed to go on forever. Shame the sun didn’t come out the whole time, but on the other hand at least it didn’t rain.

 


 

[gigs] Tumbleweed to play Adelaide

A number of the first gigs I ever went to involved Tumbleweed so I’m happy to see that their reunion continues with a national tour including a show at Fowler’s Live. In fact it will be exactly 18 years to the day since the first time I saw them.

Here’s a video from even earlier than that,

[youtube 19TX-fEZRkU]

For this weekend don’t forget the long awaited cd launch by Cheer Advisory Council, also possibly the last chance to see them in their current form.

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APRIL

  • 30th – Cheer Advisory Council album launch at Jive with support from Steering By Stars, Danvers and Ghost Knife.

MAY

  • 4th – Herbie Hancock at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
  • 6th – Yellow Fever at the Metro.
  • 7th – Ghost Notes at the Metro.
  • 8th – Ghost Notes at the Grace Emily.
  • 9th – Murs and 9th Wonder at HQ.
  • 11th – Kyuss Lives at Fowlers.
  • 13th – Johnny McIntyre cd launch at TPI association (318 South Tce).
  • 14th – Avant Gardeners and The Big Band at the Metro.
  • 16th – Gary Numan and Severed Heads at HQ.
  • 21st – The Sea Thieves cd launch at the Jade Monkey.
  • 26th – The Dandy Warhols at HQ.
  • 28th – Avant Gardeners and Mondo Phase Band at the Jade Monkey.

JUNE

  • 2nd & 4th – The Wagons at the Wheatsheaf
  • 18th – Tumbleweed at Fowler’s Live.

JULY

  • 1st Van Dyke Parks and Kinky Friedman at the Gov.

On the Stereo

  • Vex’d – Bombardment of Saturn DL (Planet Mu)
  • Shackleton – Fabric 55 cd (Fabric)
  • Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Live in New York 2LP (Honest Jon’s)
  • Jackson and His Computer Band – Smash cd (Warp)
  • Jonny Trunk – Animation and Interpretation 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
  • Hintermass – The Open Song Book 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
  • Bushman’s Revenge – You Lost Me At Hello LP (Rune Grammofon)
  • Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I cd (Southern Lord)
  • Yellow Swans – Deterioration cd (Modern Radio)
  • Doom – Born Like This cd (Lex)

Port Willunga ride

Still no internet at home so not much blogging, but here’s a bike ride I did yesterday


The Blank Workshop

There’s not going to be much blogging for a while, I’ve moved house and am having trouble getting internet connected. In the meantime you can keep yourself busy by exploring the weird and wonderful world of The Blank Workshop. I recommend Scrumptytons Sweets, A Literary Expedition, the Clinkskell Tourist Board and A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding. Also I can heartily recommend anything they are selling in the online giftshop.

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[gigs] Thrones + John Wiese this Friday

I somehow managed to not notice an upcoming gig that looks interesting, from the Heathen Skulls website:

Heathen Skulls are proud to announce that legendary doom metal bassist and avant-garde punk Joe Preston will be bringing his revered one man band THRONES to Australian shores for the first time this April. After his departure from both the Melvins and Earth in the early 90’s, Joe went onto to mastermind the idea of touring as a solo artist in a one-man band, the results being THRONES! A Portland based sludge doom industrial project that’s recorded countless releases for the likes of Southern Lord, Conspiracy Records and Kill Rock Stars, not to mention shared stages and the road with every well respected artist with in the experimental, drone and doom metal genre.

During this time Joe has also recorded and toured as an active member with the likes of Sunn O)), High on Fire and Harvey Milk.

As an added bonus, Joe will be touring with the legendary Los Angeles based experimental noise artist John Wiese. John toured here as a member of Sunn O)) in 2005, not to mention touring with them around the world, he’s also collaborated with the likes of Wolf Eyes, Evan Parker, Merzbow, Smegma, Kevin Drumm and Cattle Decapitation. John also has his own project called Sissy Spacec.

It’s this Friday at the Ed Castle.

MARCH

  • 30th Johnny McIntyre at the Highway.
  • 31st The Hard-ons at Enigma.

APRIL

  • 2nd Grong Grong play at the Metro.
  • 4-7th – Paul Kelly‘s A-Z shows at the Space Theatre.
  • 8th – Collarbones, Steering By Stars, Panoptique Electrical at the Metro.
  • 15th – Eat Skull, Slug Guts, Hit the Jackpot, Terrible Truths, Dud Pills at Format.
  • 28th – Rites Wild EP launch at Format
  • 30th – Cheer Advisory Council album launch at Jive.

MAY

  • 4th – Herbie Hancock at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
  • 9th – Murs and 9th Wonder at HQ.
  • 11th – Kyuss Lives at Fowlers.
  • 14th – Avant Gardeners. Don’t know where, maybe the Metro?
  • 16th – Gary Numan and Severed Heads at HQ.
  • 28th – Avant Gardeners.

JULY

  • 1st Van Dyke Parks and Kinky Friedman at the Gov.

[gigs] Grong Grong are back

Great news this week, Adelaide legends Grong Grong are playing a gig at the Metro soon, it’s on Saturday April 2nd. I saw them at the Metro on election night last year and it was absolutely amazing, really looking forward to seeing them again.

Here’s footage of them supporting the Dead Kennedys at Thebby Theatre in 1983!

[youtube xzapSPSQKmg]

 

A bit sooner is Ed Kuepper at the Gov tomorrow. I always recommend seeing Ed, but in particular it’s of interest to see him team up with Mark Dawson again, should be fantastic. Seeing these two play together regularly in the mid 90’s helped make me into the live music fan I am today!

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MARCH

  • 20th Ed Kuepper and Mark Dawson at the Gov.
  • 26th DOOM at the Gov.
  • 27th DJ Wolfpanther plays an all Warp Records set at the Metro.
  • 27th The Sea Thieves play at the Wheatsheaf.
  • 31st The Hard-ons at Enigma.

APRIL

  • 2nd Grong Grong play at the Metro.
  • 4-7th – Paul Kelly‘s A-Z shows at the Space Theatre.
  • 8th – Collarbones, Steering By Stars, Panoptique Electrical at the Metro.
  • 15th – Eat Skull, Slug Guts, Hit the Jackpot, Terrible Truths, Dud Pills at Format.
  • 28th – Rites Wild EP launch at Format
  • 30th – Cheer Advisory Council album launch at Jive.

MAY

  • 4th – Herbie Hancock at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
  • 9th – Murs and 9th Wonder at HQ.
  • 11th – Kyuss Lives at Fowlers.
  • 16th – Gary Numan and Severed Heads at HQ.

JULY

  • 1st Van Dyke Parks and Kinky Friedman at the Gov.

On the Stereo

  • Darren Hanlon – Fingertips and Mountaintops 2cd (Candle)
  • Darren Hanlon – Early Days cd (Candle)
  • Bitch Prefect – Marilyn Munroe / Holiday in America 7″ (RIP Society)
  • Sonic Youth su Tim Barnes – Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui cd (SYR)
  • Joe McPhee and John Snyder – Pieces of Light cd (Atavastic Unheard Music Series)
  • Sun Ra – The Magic City cd (Evidence)
  • Tagaq – Auk/Blood cd (Jericho Beach Music)
  • Omar Souleyman – Dabke 2020 cd (Sublime Frequencies)
  • Natalie Natiembé – Karma cd (Sakifo)
  • The Necks – Aether cd (Fish of Milk)

Womadelaide Highlights: Monday

Monday didn’t really have 1 or 2 standouts for me like previous days, but there was plenty of stuff I liked throughout the day. When I got up on Monday morning I was feeling a bit exhausted from 3 days of Womad and wasn’t really sure I needed more but once I got there I found it to be really enjoyable, and like last year, had no regrets at all about going for the extra day.

The act that really got the day going for me was DakhaBrakha from Ukraine. I was on my way to see Asa again but heard these guys as I was passing and stopped to check it out, and ended up staying for the rest of their set. They were obviously popular since their cds sold out fairly early on. They are a trio with accordian, drums and cello, and all doing vocals. The droning cello work was probably what drew me in the most (would love to hear them play Venus in Furs!).

From then on the standard was high for the rest of the day, starting with Horace Andy on the adjacent stage right after they finished. Somehow in the leadup to the festival I’d sort of forgotten that he was playing with all the excitement of Omar Souleyman and Joanna Newsom being on the bill, and I missed his first set because of a clash. The first song didn’t really work for me, but from there on it was brilliant. Great singer, great songs, great band. Skylarking was a particular highlight. I’m a huge fan of the old Studio One stuff and loved the chance to see one of the stars of that era (reminded me of seeing Ernest Ranglin at my very first Womad).

The All Star Gala was run by Nitin Sawhney and was enjoyable with some genuine collaboration between various artists (including welcome reappearances by Horace Andy and Asa).

Then I was waiting around for The Necks, didn’t expect Juan De Marcos Afro-Cuban All Stars to be my sort of thing but was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it.

The Necks were once again brilliant, very nice laying back under the stars listening to them.

After they finished it felt a bit like everything was over, stalls were closing, people were leaving and I was getting sleepy, but resisted the urge to leave and stayed for Faiz Ali Faiz which turned out to be a great decision, as they brought the festival to a close with a brilliant display of qawwali.

Womadelaide Highlights: Sunday

Quick update before heading back over to Botanic Park.

Sunday highlights are no great surprise with a couple of my favourite artists performing.

One was Joanna Newsom (aka Joanna Newsom vs the Apocalypse as she had to contend with a plague of locusts/crickets/something similar invading the stage), great set with songs from all three albums – from memory the setlist was Easy, Have One On Me, Inflammatory Writ, Monkey & Bear, Soft As Chalk, Book of Right On, Good Intentions Paving Co.

Only problem at the start was they managed to stuff up by indicating it was seated in the printed program, but not seated in the online one. Apparently there were similar problems with Martha Wainright the day before as well, they really need to sort this out! To make it worse the text colour/shading to indicate either one off shows or seated shows followed opposite conventions in the two places.

Second highlight was the Necks who played a superb late night show. I’ll be back for more tonight, especially worth seeing them more than once since every set is spontaneously created so it’ll never be the same.

Also enjoyed Os Mutantes, and repeat performances from Tanya Tagaq and Natalie Natiembé