Posts tagged “music”
-
Golden Plains 2024
Holly and I have been going to this incredible festival as often as possible since 2018. It's like no other festival: amazing people and vibe, single stage with a really diverse lineup of bands and so…
-
A gig! EGOISM supported by Ultracrush
Last night Holly, Rachel and I managed to get out for some live music. Amazing after all this time. The band we saw was local act EGOISM who we've been trying to see for a while. The earlier booking w…
-
Hot damn this tune will get your toe tapping
John Peel famously took the needle off The Undertones' Teenage Kicks and immediately played it again, it was such a perfect pop song. He was, of course, absolutely right. I had the same reaction heari…
-
The Cure: still going strong
I've been to four gigs by The Cure now: The great set but terrible seats in terrible venue for the Wish tour at Sydney Entertainment Centre. Incredible epic set in Hyde Park in London on a warm Summer…
-
Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ as a children’s book
via howtobearetronaut.com Awesome! From illustrator Andrew Kolb Download SpaceOddity_AndrewKolb.pdf.
-
Some upcoming gigs in Sydney
Some really interesting gigs coming up in Sydney. Who's in? Russian Circles Russian Circles are kind of The Necks with metal instrumentation. Cinematic metal? I think they're fucking awesome. Playing…
-
Top Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time
Just put my votes into Triple J's Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time. I just hope Farnsey and Barnesy don't make the top 10! Here's my top 10, not in any order: INXS - Kick Itch-E & Scratch-E -…
-
The Cure
An amazing gig in an amazing venue. The Cure playing their first three albums at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. Brilliant. Over three hours of brilliance. After missing out on tickets when they…
-
Fishing, Jinja Safari and Cloud Control gig
Last night Holly and I had a grandmother looking after Louis and tickets to a gig. Date night! Lots of fun was had. First, dinner at Arisun, the latest stop on our quest for the best Korean Fried Chic…
-
Yay for babysitters 2
Two gigs in one week! At Opera House for Blonde Redhead. Support were ghastly. Enjoying the view before main act. To be honest, the gig was a bit disappointing. I shouldn't be too surprised given the…
-
Yay for babysitters
We got to have an adult night out thanks to Grandma. Dinner at Spice Temple then Holy Fuck at Sydney Festival's Becks Festival Bar. Spice Temple was fantastic. The only baseball bat in the arsenal see…
-
Wanted: Tightly compressed, sunny music for my cycle commute
I love listening to music and I love cycling into work. Not having a death wish, I don't ride along with headphones, oblivious to my surroundings. So I've rigged up a set of stereo Bluetooth speakers…
-
Alexis Petridis' perfect New Year's Eve playlist
Chime Orbital Useful because a) it's great b) has vaguely Big Ben-ish bells on it, but also because playing it marks the inexorable passing of time: watch ex-ravers of a certain age "have it large" be…
-
Peats Ridge Festival 2010
Holly and I took Louis to his first outdoor music festival, and his first time camping over New Year. Peats Ridge Festival is held to the North of Sydney in a valley near the Hawkesbury River and bill…
-
Musical OCD
This came from my mate Mike, as a profound quote from his mate Dave. Women do not understand mans need to accumulate music, they seem to think it has something to do with a desire to listen to it. Thi…
-
Lotek - CTRL ALT DEL
via youtube.com Brilliant!
-
The High Road - Broken Bells
This track is a surprising little earworm. Starts off very MoR, like something Oasis would do if they were even duller. It gets better. http://open.spotify.com/track/5cwN1htZyoWqZCc33f3RfE
-
The future of the music industry?
Ten years ago I wrote this blog about how the music industry doesn't get it. It's interesting that also today Apple bought the subscription music site lala. Subscription is definitely where it's all h…
-
Untitled
-
Untitled
-
Untitled
-
Untitled
-
The music industry as we know it is over
Something big is coming to the music industry. The smart ones have already worked it out, and it scares the crap out of them. The really smart ones are getting ready. Weird music When I was young, my…
-
All Tomorrows Parties Cockatoo Island
On Saturday we went to the All Tomorrow's Parties festival on Cockatoo Island, curated by Nick Cave and the Bad Seas. Loads of fun and it was certainly nice, for grumpy old man, to be at a festival wi…
-
Sydney Festival First Night 2009
We went along to the Sydney Festival First Night last night, along with a few hundred thousand other Sydneysiders. I don't think it was quite designed to cater for the numbers they got, as moving arou…
-
Our Nick, improved
This poster around the corner from our place has seen Nick somewhat altered. Fortunately, we have tickets for the Saturday gig. It's gonna be brilliant!
-
Holy Fuck at the Annandale Hotel
Last night Holly, Todd, Pete and I went to see Canadian band Holy Fuck at The Annandale. Quite an incredible gig. For many many years, bands have been trying to do electronic music completely live, an…
-
I love a snaky review
There's few things finer than a review that slams an album, and none could be more deserving than the long-unawaited album from Axl Rose's Guns N' Roses cover band. Ever since waiting forty minutes at…
-
Vive le FIP!
I discovered a really great French radio station recently, France Inter Paris (FIP). It's got a quite unique format, playing blocks of themed music grouped roughly into styles. You tend to hear a half…
-
The Grates at the Metro
Holly and I saw The Grates last night. What an amazing live band! Full of energy and brilliant renditions of their infectious pop tunes. The support band, The John Steel Singers were fun too. It's cle…
-
Brilliant music review
I love Metacritic's summaries of reviews. This one summarises reviews of an album by The Little Ones. As usual, NME is incoherently raving. For the NME, a band is either the greatest band ever, or an…
-
Gotye: What a nice bloke
Last week I had a whinge about trying to buy one of Gotye's albums online and failing. A day later I got an email from the man himself! I was very disappointed to hear about your shoddy experience wit…
-
Malcolm Middleton: fantastic gig
Holly and I went to see Malcolm Middleton, formerly of Arab Strap at the Hopetoun last night. Brilliant gig! As well as the miserable Scot, the two support bands were excellent, which is refreshing as…
-
The Social Services respond
I recently a rant about not being able to buy an album for a band I'd stumbled upon.. Lucy from the band has evidently been vanity googling, as she found my post and dropped me a note. Just did a rand…
-
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Dance music's sexiest forty-something has come out with a rather... different album this time around. It's kinda like Joni Mitchell or Tori Amos in parts, with the occasional Sergeant Peppers flick. W…
-
The Social Services
Peter Moore got me into the blog Swedesplease which is all about Swedish indie pop music. I figured I could find some interesting music, after all The Shout Out Louds are Swedish. Much of the music ha…
-
M83 a no show
Holly, Mikey and I were quite excited to be seeing M83 last night, ostensibly supporting Midnight Juggernauts at the Enmore. Unfortunately, his band's gear was all somewhere between Paris and Sydney,…
-
Progressive electro funk?!?!?
Just heard Nicole Foote describing tonight's mix up programme as featuring someone playing progressive electro funk. With a straight face. WTF?!?!?
-
Need cheesy, upbeat techno
I've started going to the gym to get me fit enough for this bike race I'm doing in a few weeks. My music is all a bit cerebral. I used to listen almost exclusively to techno, but these days I only rea…
-
Great photo from Glastonbury
The Grauniad has this great photo and caption taken by Billy Bragg at Glastonbury. Very jealous of all the people there, even with the mud!
-
The Conspiracy has now left the building
I'm very upset about this. My favourite radio station, The Global Pop Conspiracy has shut down. It was such a brilliant station, always playing new and interesting music. I discovered a few really gre…
-
Pop covers in metal
Stig followed up my recent post about covers but got it wrong. He's enjoyed the pop and acoustic people covering metal songs. What I meant was the best ones I've found so far are metal/glam bands cove…
-
Great covers
I downloaded a giant directory full of covers last week and have been working my way through them. I love cover versions of classic songs, but only when the cover finds a new angle on the song. So if…
-
Fratellis and Gainsbourg
I've been listening to a couple of great albums recently. I'm really getting into Costello Music, from Glasgow band The Fratellis. Great spiky guitars and catchy, almost Beatles-esque tunes. Loads of…
-
New music
Bought some CDs recently. Remember them? Maybe ask your grandparents what those were. The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done is by a band we caught after going tothe Barfly in Camden to see Melbourne…
-
Demented, and I love it!
GPC just played a cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by The Cardigans. Brilliant!
-
Save rave from superstar DJs!
ROFLMAO
-
Review: Ladytron - Witching Hour
The NME famously described Ladytron as "...a teasing glimpse of how Britney Spears might have sounded, had she been born in the GDR and a heroin addict." Their latest album, Witching Hour, gets them b…
-
Ozomatli
Just got back from seeing Ozomatli at the Islington Academy. Wow what a gig. Holly's comment: "I wish I'd seen them at Glastonbury." From memory I think everyone at Glastonbury heard the crowd chantin…
-
Adult. playing next Monday
Adult. from Detroit are probably the most exciting techno act I've heard this century. Kinda somewhere like New Wave Techno. NME's description: "If John Lydon was a mad scientist, and he decided to ma…
-
Sucker for a good bridge
In songwriting, I'm a sucker for a good bridge in a song. To make an ordinary song in the standard Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Chorus-fade turn into something extraordinary for me, all you need to do is…
-
Bought loads of Aussie music
While I've been here in Sydney I've bought a huge amount of Aussie music. Stuff you just can't get in London. Combat Wombat - Unsound $ystem seems to be a grouping within the Elefant Traks keiretsu. F…
-
Blinding EDMX Mix
A couple of years ago I saw Ed DMX (of DMX Krew fame DJing at 93 Feet East. He played a blinding set of booty bass and electro. Absolutely awesome and had us sweating our arses off the whole time. Wel…
-
Musical Russian Roulette
Everyone's doing it, or so it seems, so here's the first ten tracks selected randomly from my entire music collection: Mr Bungle - None of Them Knew They Were Robots Frost - In Memoriam (The Silent Sp…
-
Regurgitator - Mish Mash
Just got my copy of Regurgitator 's new album, Mish Mash. Have to say, it hasn't really grabbed me. The album was recorded over 21 days with the band locked inside a plastic box in Melbourne's Federat…
-
Music on wheels
Finally got my little radio transmitter sending Minidisc music to the radio on the handlebars of my bike. Now I don't have to be subjected to the horrors of British breakfast radio (where every DJ is…
-
New policy on bands
To avoid ending up like my parents (who recently saw Simon and Garfunkel) I've decided to adopt a new policy. I won't see any bands unless they have put out new material, even crap new material, withi…
-
Nick Cave and frapaccinos
Just listening to Nick Cave's latest album, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus and there's a great line in "Abattoir Blues": I woke up this morning, with a frapacinno in my hand. Oh dear. Nick has b…
-
Dance music is dead?
Interesting article in today's Grauniad about the death of dance music. Is it dead, or just going back underground?
-
John Peel RIP
The only good DJ left on Radio 1, John Peel, has died. A very sad day for all music fans. This man has broken more new bands, giving them their big break, than probably any other. His incredibly broad…
-
Orbital - The Blue Album
Orbital's new, and last album, The Blue Album has hit the stores. It's pretty damn good! Mixing the sounds of many of their earlier albums, particularly some of the ravier sounds of the Brown Album. H…
-
Build an ark?
We're off to Glastonbury tomorrow night but the weather looks, erm, dicey. English Summer and all, I guess. It's been raining all day today but should clear up tomorrow. The big worry, however, is the…
-
Glastonbury tickets!
Our Glastonbury tickets just arrived. Wahoo! So getting up at 5am in Sydney to buy the tickets was worth the effort.
-
Orbital to break up
According to their web site, Orbital are breaking up after the next album. Fortunately, their last UK gig is at Glastonbury for which I have tickets...
-
Ahhh Kooky
Three and a half years ago, Holly and I spent our last night out in Sydney at Club Kooky. All this time on, and it's gone through moving location, stopping for a time and now it's back at Club 77. I w…
-
Got twee indie pop?
Deerhoof, a band that fans of twee indie pop will love, Shonen Knife fans especially, are playing in London next week. Check out this song if you wanna hear what they're like.
-
Kraftwerk
I saw Kraftwerk play at the Brixton Academy on Saturday night. It was a midnight show and they played for about two hours. Wow! Absolutely amazing. This is a band I've wanted to see for many many year…
-
Fantomas playing the Astoria
This is what I love about London: any band that's doing any sort of tour ends up playing a gig here. So in May, Fantomas are playing at the Astoria. Yay! I've wanted to see a Mike Patton band for year…
-
Okay indie pop fans...
I've been enjoying this great online radio station recently. The Global Pop Conspiracy plays a suitably eclectic and fun mix of indie pop music, with a bit of pure pop shoved in for good measure. Nice…
-
Franz Ferdinand
I'd heard about Franz Ferdinand before, but hadn't heard the music. So I got hold of the album and it's excellent! Kinda New Wave in a way, a bit Stranglers or Clash even. Energetic, witty, intelligen…
-
Warp does digital music right
One of my fave record labels, Warp Records has just launched their digital downloadable music site, Bleep. At last, someone has done it right! Have a look at this little exerpt from the EULA: You shal…
-
Jean Grae: The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP
I've followed the career of Jean Grae since her collaborations with The Herbaliser (as "What What") back in 1997. Since then she's changed names, crews and producers, making her very difficult to trac…
-
Spearhead gig
Holly and I went to see Spearhead last night. As usual, an excellent gig. Spearhead are one of the best bands you can see live, but it's kinda hard to recommend their uniformly cheesy and dull albums.…
-
Kraftwerk at RFH
Turns out, after looking at their site, Kraftwerk are also playing at Royal Festival Hall which means there are cheaper tickets, but seated, available. Not sure which I'll go to. While looking at the…
-
Kraftwerk playing Brixton
Ooh! I just discovered that Kraftwerk are playing at the Brixton Academy next March. Yay! I'll definitely be grabbing some tickets.
-
Alchemists of Sound
I just saw an amazing documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the creators of spooky soundtracks for BBC programming. Anyone who grew up in the seventies remembers the scary sound effects and…
-
New musical discoveries
I've just discovered some new, and re-discovered some old, music worth passing on. Ellen Allien has been around for years but I've only recently discovered her music. She has an excellent mix on her s…
-
Critically listening to The Beatles
I've recently been listening in some detail to the more structurally complex Beatles songs such as Happiness is a Warm Gun and the Abbey Road medley (You Never Give Me Your Money/Sun King/Mean Mr Must…
-
Zappa's Thing Fish
An adaptation of Frank Zappa's musical, Thing Fish, is being performed next week at the Battersea Arts Centre. I'm thinking Saturday matinee. Get in touch if you wanna see it. Should be a laugh!
-
Glastonbury 2003
We got home from Glastonbury last night and wow, was it a great festival! Musical highlights were Ozomatli's brilliant, energetic morning set on the Pyramid Stage and Asian Dub Foundation's lively set…
-
Sub Bass Snarl playing this Sunday
Sub Bass Snarl (and Kerrii) arrive in town tomorrow. They're playing on Sunday night. I finally managed to get details out of them. Apparently playing on laptops these days, due to problems with equip…
-
Bastard Pop this Thursday
This Thursday night, a Bastard Pop experience at Asylum, corner of Charlotte Street "under the newsagent" apparently. Featuring Aussie pop mangler dsico.
-
New Bowie tour and album
David Bowie is touring again this year! London gig will be at the Wembley Arena on 25th November. Tickets on sale this Friday, apparently, though already available to Bowienet suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmem…
-
Ooh great Meltdown!
This year's Meltdown is being curated by Lee "Scratch" Perry and the lineup looks a doozy! According to NME it includes Public Enemy, Tortoise, Michael Franti and Spearhead, DJ Spooky, Linton Kwesi Jo…
-
Glasto sells out
Yeesh, tickets to this year's Glastonbury Festival have sold out, 24 hours after going on sale. That's 112,500 tickets or about 78 a minute. I guess I can forgive them for having a slow website yester…
-
Mash-up pop madness
In case you haven't heard, dsico does crazy mad cut-up pop shit. Currently I'm listening to his remix of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart with Missy Elliot's Get Your Freak On. Yes that does sou…
-
A good mix
While I'm somewhat underwhelmed by most of her musical output (it seems her collaborators do all the good stuff, hence Golden Boy and Felix Da Housecat had good results and The Hacker somewhat crap),…
-
Copy protection on new Asian Dub Foundation album
A colleague at work brought in the new Asian Dub Foundation album on CD today for me to have a listen. This album was one of those albums on the "buy without even listening first" list, but I hadn't g…
-
2002 musical highlights
Some fantastic music was releaed in 2002, and I managed to churn through a large amount of it despite the demise of Audiogalaxy as a useful method for musical discovery. Electroclash Perhaps the most…
-
The music industry as we know it is over
Something big is coming to the music industry. The smart ones have already worked it out, and it scares the crap out of them. The really smart ones are getting ready. Weird music When I was young, my…