Tomorrow night Adelaide band Like Leaves launch their album with support from Lady Strangelove & Steering By Stars. I’ve been really looking forward to the Like Leaves album, but also I’ve been sick for most of the week so fingers crossed that I’ll be able to make it to the launch.

Here are some Like Leaves videos (look closely & you might see me in the first one)

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JANUARY

• 14th – Like Leaves album launch at Jive with Lady Strangelove and Steering By Stars.
• 20th – Ben Revi (Cheer Advisory Council) at the Metro.
• 21st – Fkn Tutts, Shame Spiral, Old Mate at the Exeter.
• 23rd – I play an all Australian DJ set at the Metro.
• 23rd – Sea Thieves at the Wheatsheaf.
• 30th – The Holy Sea at the Wheatsheaf.

FEBRUARY

• 1st – Sufjan Stevens at the Festival Theatre.
• 4th – Big Day Out including Iggy & the Stooges, Primal Scream, Grinderman, MIA and LCD Soundsystem
• 5th – Satan’s Cheerleaders at the Metro.
• 9th – The Unthanks at the Gov.
• 11th – Laneway Festival with !!! (Chk Chk Chk) -THE ANTLERS – ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI  – BEACH HOUSE  – BEAR IN HEAVEN – BLONDE REDHEAD  – CLOUD CONTROL – CUT COPY  – DEERHUNTER  -  FOALS  -  GOTYE  -  THE HOLIDAYS – HOLY FUCK – JENNY & JOHNNY  -  LES SAVY FAV  – LOCAL NATIVES – MENOMENA – PVT -  RAT vs POSSUM – STORNOWAY – TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB – VIOLENT SOHO – WARPAINT  -  WORLD’S END PRESS – YEASAYER
• 12th Format Festival opening night with Woollen Kits, Absolute Boys, Terrible Truths, Fair Maiden.
• 25th Super Wild Horses at Format.
• 26th – Per Purpose, Bitch Prefect at Format.

MARCH

• 5th- Soundwave with Gang of Four, The Melvins and lots more.
• 6th – Wavves at Rocket Bar.
• 9th – Darren Hanlon at Jive.
• 11-14th WOMADelaide, includes Joanna Newsom, Omar Souleyman, The Necks, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Horace Andy, Don Letts, lots more.
• 16th Belle and Sebastian at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
• 20th Ed Kuepper at the Gov.
• 26th DOOM at the Gov.

APRIL

• 4-7th – Paul Kelly‘s A-Z shows at the Space Theatre.

MAY

• 11th – Kyuss Lives at Fowlers.

On the Stereo

• Moon Wiring Club – A Spare Tabby At the Cat’s Wedding LP (Gecophonic)
• Moon Wiring Club – A Spare Tabby At the Cat’s Wedding cd (Gecophonic)
• Moon Wiring Club – Shoes Off and Chairs Away cd (Gecophonic)
• Moon Wiring Club – Striped Paint for the Last Post cd (Gecophonic)
• The Gaslamp Killer – All Killer cd (B Music)
• Psych-Funk 101 cd (World Psychedelic Funk Classics)
• Espers – III cd (Drag City)
• The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter cd (Domino)
• The Fall – Imperial Wax Solvent cd (Sanctuary)
• The Fall – A Part of America Therein, 1981 cd (Castle)

Top news this time is Ed Kuepper returning to Adelaide to play at the Gov in March. This would be great news itself, but I’m happy to hear that for the first time in many years he’s touring with drummer Mark Dawson. It’s been incredible to see Ed working with Jeff Wegener again in recent years, but many of my first gigs I went to were Ed & Mark so I’d love to see them team up again. I haven’t seen it confirmed for the Adelaide show, but other shows on the tour are billed with “they re-imagine the Kuepper classics Electrical Storm and Today Wonder in their entirety, over two sets.”

Also, there is a partial schedule available for WOMAD, unfortunately my two favourites each only play one time each, but still great to be able to see them at all. Omar Souleyman is on Friday night only, and Joanna Newsom is Sunday night only. Some of the others I’m interested in play twice, Wildbirds & Peacedrums play both Friday night and Saturday daytime, and The Necks play both Sunday night and Monday night. Also, more acts are due to be announced sometime this month.

Also of note is that a couple of good local bands have cd launches coming up, on the 8th there’s God God Dammit Dammit at Enigma, and on the 14th there’s Like Leaves at Jive.

JANUARY

• 2nd – Earthless at the Ed Castle.
• 6th – Born Ruffians at Fowlers.
• 7th – Thee Oh Sees, Bitch Prefect, Terrible Truths at Format.
• 8th – Kitchen’s Floor, Hit the Jackpot, Dud Pills, Rites Wild at the Exeter.
• 8th – God God Dammit Dammit album launch at Enigma.
• 14th – Like Leaves album launch.
• 20th – Ben Revi (Cheer Advisory Council) at the Metro.

FEBRUARY

• 1st – Sufjan Stevens at the Festival Theatre.
• 4th – Big Day Out including Iggy & the Stooges, Primal Scream, Grinderman, MIA and LCD Soundsystem
• 5th – Satan’s Cheerleaders at the Metro.
• 9th – The Unthanks at the Gov.
• 11th – Laneway Festival with !!! (Chk Chk Chk) -THE ANTLERS – ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI  – BEACH HOUSE  – BEAR IN HEAVEN – BLONDE REDHEAD  – CLOUD CONTROL – CUT COPY  – DEERHUNTER  -  FOALS  -  GOTYE  -  THE HOLIDAYS – HOLY FUCK – JENNY & JOHNNY  -  LES SAVY FAV  – LOCAL NATIVES – MENOMENA – PVT -  RAT vs POSSUM – STORNOWAY – TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB – VIOLENT SOHO – WARPAINT  -  WORLD’S END PRESS – YEASAYER
• 12th Format Festival opening night with Woollen Kits, Absolute Boys, Terrible Truths, Fair Maiden.
• 25th Super Wild Horses at Format.
• 26th – Per Purpose, Bitch Prefect at Format.

MARCH

• 5th- Soundwave with Gang of Four, The Melvins and lots more.
• 6th – Wavves at Rocket Bar.
• 11-14th WOMADelaide, includes Joanna Newsom, Omar Souleyman, The Necks, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Horace Andy, Don Letts, lots more.
• 16th Belle and Sebastian at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
• 20th Ed Kuepper at the Gov.
• 26th DOOM at the Gov.

APRIL

• 4-7th – Paul Kelly‘s A-Z shows at the Space Theatre.

MAY

• 11th – Kyuss Lives at Fowlers.

On the Stereo

• Moon Wiring Club and Belbury Poly – Youth and Recreation 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
• The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the 60’s – Cycles and Seasons 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
• Belbury Poly and Mordant Music – Welcome to Godalming 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
• Broadcast and the Focus Group – Familiar Shapes and Noises 7″ (Ghost Box Study Series)
• Belbury Poly – The Owl’s Map cd (Ghost Box)
• Belbury Poly – From an Ancient Star cd (Ghost Box)
• Mount Vernon Arts Lab – The Séance at Hobs Lane cd (Ghost Box)
• Roj – The Transactional Dharma of Roj cd (Ghost Box)
• The Focus Group – We Are All Pan’s People cd (Ghost Box)
• The Advisory Circle – Other Channels cd (Ghost Box)

Time for a roundup of my favourite gigs for the year. First up I want to mention a bunch of local bands who I saw often throughout the year who were excellent. Often individual local gigs don’t stand out in the memory as much as visits from overseas or interstate bands (or gigs in other cities), but all of these bands have played excellent shows this year and have made up the bulk of the many gigs I’ve been to:

Batrider, Bitch Prefect, Cheer Advisory Council, Fake Tan, Fair Maiden, Hit the Jackpot, Like Leaves, Mondo Phase Band, Satan’s Cheerleaders, The Sea Thieves, Steering By Stars, Terrible Truths

Now for the individual gigs that stand out:

• Joanna Newsom at The Forum (Melbourne), Jan 20
  Gig highlight of the year. Thanks to my train being 2.5 hours late I missed all of Ned Collette’s supporting set and the first couple of JN songs, but fortunately she played a very long set so I still got to hear plenty. I was also happy when shortly after arriving I heard someone call out for Emily since it meant I hadn’t missed it. I can’t wait to see her again at Womad next year.
• Laughing Clowns at the East Brunswick Club (Melbourne), Jan 22
  For the second night in a row (they played a “don’t look back” show the night before), I found this gig better, partly due to the more intimate venue, but also there was better sound and they played more. Afterwards I got to chat with Ed & Les as well. News just in – Ed plays at the Gov on March 20!
• RZA at Fowler’s Live, Feb 11
  Lots of Wu-Tang tours lately (e.g. Ghostface, Raekwon), this has been my favourite.
• Yo La Tengo at Fowler’s Live, Feb 19
  Things were going great and an amp died. If you want to see a band come up with a comprimise at the last minute it’s definitely YLT, they abandoned their setlist and played a largely acoustic set including lots of requests. While I expect the set as planned would have been fantastic, it was fascinating to see them play such an impromptu set.
• Pimmon at EMU, Feb 20
  I was a Pimmon fan for a long time before first seeing him play live, fortunately in the last couple of years he’s playing a lot more than he used to. He plays abstract electronica/noise with a laptop, I can’t think of anyone I’ve seen do it better and this (with the Adelaide city skyline as backdrop) was probably the best I’ve seen of him. I was fortunate enough to see him again later in the year in Sydney for another good show.
• Curse ov Dialect at Shimmering West, Mar 5
  Left the first evening of Womad early for this. It was poorly advertised and almost noone was there. There were about five or six of us CoD fans at the front, and a bunch of unimpressed hip-hop fans at the back who were there for the supports. While CoD do play hip-hop, it’s very unconventional and they would do much better playing to the sort of crowds that go to places like Format or the Metro, who are open to all sorts of music, rather than hip-hop crowds. Despite the poor turnout they were still amazing though, it just leaves me thinking it will be a long time again until they’re back here.
• Pavement at Thebarton Theatre, Mar 7
  Another early departure from Womad. I don’t mind a bit of nostalgia now & then and that’s what this show was all about, and very satisfying it was too.
• Dinosaur Jr at Fowler’s Live, Mar 13
  This on the other hand is not as much about nostalgia as some might think since I think their latest album Farm is right up there with their best. DJ aren’t just playing the old hits, they’re making great new music as well.
• Eddy Current Suppression Ring at Jive, Mar 24
  This was immediately after another nostalgia show (the Pixies), while I thought they were good it was ECSR who were the highlight of the night. Definitely deserve their reputation as one of the best live bands in the country.
• Jandek & Primitive Calculators at the Gov, Mar 28
  I’d seen Primitive Calculators at ATP a couple of years ago and thought they were OK, but this show was much better than there, they were in top form. How do you describe Jandek? Let’s just say it was a unique experience. You can measure how much I liked it by the large number of Jandek cds I’ve bought since then (10 I think).
• Crayon Fields & Aleks and the Ramps at the Northcote Social Club, Apr 24
  Last chance to see CF before they went off overseas, they’ve been favourites since first seeing them last year. A bonus was finally getting to see A&tR.
• The Bats at the East Brunswick Club, Apr 25
  Still no visit to Adelaide, but closer this time than the last time I saw them in Christchurch. Lots of the old Flying Nun bands seem to be back together and touring (Chills, Clean, Verlaines), but the Bats aren’t reunited, they never split up. Their latest album is great too.
• Autechre at the Hi Fi Bar, May 29
  Can you describe Autechre’s music with words? Even a thorough knowledge of their recorded output only partly prepares you for the intensive onslaught of their live show. A darkened room is filled with pummeling beats which gradually form patterns, before disintegrating and reforming into something new. To experience Autechre live is to witness their creativity in raw form. Sometimes it’s hard going, you can’t make sense of it (often it takes many listens to make sense of their records), but then there are those sublime Autechre moments, where cold electronic sounds come alive with an organic warmth and you’re not quite sure why you ever listen to anything else.
• Ed Kuepper & Chris Bailey at Bennett’s Lane, May 30
  I’d already seen Ed & Chris play together with the Saints, but this intimate show in a small jazz club was even better.
• DJ Lord at Rocket, Jun 5
  Some were there because DJ Lord is the DJ for Public Enemy, but there’s a lot more to him than that as anyone who saw his Dubstep set a few years ago at the Summer Break festival (where PE also played). At this show he started out with Dubstep until the hip-hop fans looked ready to desert the venue, then switched over to hip-hop and filled the dancefloor and then kept going with long set that was all over the place (in a good way).
• The Crying Game at the Metro, Jun 13
  It was enough to make you laugh, cry and fear for your life all at once. Go read Spoz’s five star review. An excerpt
  “Every song is hamfisted through with the bare minimum consideration for tuning, timing, structure, lyrical content, cohesion or even for the audience foolish enough to stand too close to the stage to which they’ll frequently target for all out abuse. Matt Hayward is the main offender for this: as he’ll spend most of the second half of the set barrelling straight into them and sending everyone flying like he’s a bowling ball to their ten pins; but each and everyone of them will just as easily bicker amongst themselves like a bad family reunion.“
  I guess you had to be there.
• Home for the Def at Format, Jun 1
  This was the launch for Stan Mahoney’s book which featured reviews of all fifty Home for the Def releases and HftD played a great set for the occasion, which even included everyone taking communion with HftD biscuits.
• Straight to Video at the Metro, Jul 3
  A one-off reunion, lots of fun had by all, great to hear songs like Lightning Over the Asylum and PhD in Apathy again.
• Grong Grong at the Metro, Aug 21
  Election night, so I’d spent all day handing out at polling booths, and then had done a fair bit of celebrating at the Greens election night party, but this gig was so good it kept me going until the early hours. I’d heard of this legendary Adelaide band but hadn’t heard their music before and was very impressed.
• No Through Road at the Metro, Sep 3
  A farewell for a local favourite of mine for quite a few years. Some of their other recent gigs had tended to turn into a bit of a mess but this one went perfectly, a very fine send off. Video here.
• Paradise Motel at the Troubadour, Oct 1
  Another comeback, the only other time I saw the Paradise Motel was at the Royal in 1998. This time they played a set of material from their excellent new album Australian Ghost Story, I think it was even better live than on cd. For an encore they played some of their 90’s material which was also great. A show in Adelaide is a definite possibility for next year.
• Broadcast at the Hi-Fi Bar, Dec 9
  Another long time favourite, I liked the experimental edge to their show along with the general hauntological weirdness, and balanced out by some great songs (e.g. Valerie, Corporeal)
• The Fall at Billboards, Dec 10
  Given the bands reputation I was prepared for just about anything … but three encores? That was a surprise. Mark E Smith was in great form (possibly because he was having so much fun pissing off the sound guy) and the band were tight. There was a great mix of songs, with a focus on the most recent (and rather excellent) album, but a sprinkling of material from the last decade plus a couple of really old ones (2 from 1979’s Dragnet!). Given that they’ve previously toured Australia twice – 1982 and 1990 – it’s quite likely this is my only chance to see them so it’s great that this was such a good one.