Sidewave update

In what's a rarity, Brisbane is having a few excellent sideshows to the Soundwave festival this year. One of them is a heavy music fan's wet dream, Kylesa, Trash Talk and High on Fire. But the Soundwave organisers are not one to rest on their laurels, instead they though they'd taunt me with my decision to go to Melbourne for sideshows by adding these guys on the bill:

Yes, they've added Canada's crazy metallers Protest the Hero. This is now a show not to miss. March 1 at the HiFi. Unfortunately, I'll be missing it. Maybe I'll go see the Melbourne One Day as a Lion show instead...

Brisbane Sidewaves

So the best part of the Soundwave music festival is generally what they call "sidewaves". That is, the sideshows where a bunch of international bands get together and play longer sets in smaller venues. My favourite gig of all time was one (back when I made that list ages ago). Normally only Sydney and Melbourne get them, but this year Brisbane is getting a few. Unfortunately, it's the same time I am in Melbourne watching a few. Bad timing, but oh well. I thought I'd share them with you.

First up, is one of the greatest modern rock guitarists of all time. This guy (in the hate, not the redneck ginger).

Yes. Slash. Who's recent solo album is bloody tops. He will be playing a gig with prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria and a Las Vegas band that grew up on Slash's music: Taking Dawn. An interesting gig, but given how quickly Slash's last tour sold (and the lack of Coheed after cancelling an earlier tour) you'd best get in quick on this tour. March 2, Tivoli, 18+ and tickets go on sale tomorrow.

The next one is a gig I really, really want to see. But can't. It features metal band High on Fire, thrash/hardcore legends Trash Talk and new sludge-metal band Kylesa. I only just got into Trash Talk and Kylesa, but whoa. They are just amazing. This one is happening March 1 at the HiFi. 18+

I'm sad I'll be in Melbourne for these, I wish they'd put them before the festival, which makes sense, instead of them travelling back from Sydney. Especially since I outlayed the cash and timeoff to go to Melbourne to see a few sideshows...

EDIT: A final bit of Soundwave related news, the Blackout, who are also playing Soundwave, will put up a free track from their new album on their website on January 24.

One sentence album reviews (#4)

Some more album reviews from the last week or so:

From Monuments to Masses - The impossible...(2003): Noodly instrumental post-rock with way too much overdubbed political speeches. 2/5

Islands - Vapours (2009): Disappointing: they've lost their sounds of the first 2 albums and become generic indie-electro-pop. #yawn. 2/5

Kings of Leon -Come Around Sunset (2010):wasted potential; like most of my classmates that are now drug dealers or managers at Woolies. 1/5

Kerouac - Cold and Distant...(2010): Dirty, angry, hardcore and invokes violence and hatred with their music and lyrics. Yet oh so good 4/5

Forest City Lovers - Carriage (2010): Upbeat indie folk pop music, with vocals that sound a little bit like Lily Allen 3.5/5

Gayngs - Relayted (2010): Electronic folk music that is very chill and perfect for a Sunday lying around relaxing, even with a hangover. 3/5

Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (2008): Very quiet ambient music, I actually didn't notice the album playing a few times. 2/5

Marc Houle - Drift (2010): minimalist techno; cross between nintendo music and 90s neo-gothic apocolyptic movie soundtracks. Amazing. 4.5/5

Girl Talk - All Day (2010): If nightclubs in Brisbane played this music, I'd never stop clubbing. 71 minutes of amazing mashups. 4.5/5

Grown Ups - More Songs (2010): Math rock collides with pop-punk; two guilty pleasures rolled into one. 3.5/5

Koalacaust - Koalaaust (2010): Makes me thing of old school Against Me!, less angsty but with lots more accordians. 3.5/5

Interpol - Interpol (2010): Everything they do is ultra-criticised, but I find this their darkest and most brooding album to date. 3.5/5

Jeremy Messersmith - The Reluctant Graveyard (2010): peaceful poppy folk singer-songwriter, this album is almost like lullabies. 4/5

Kylesa - Spiral Shadow (2010): Amazing sludge metal album that is not too heavy and quite accessible. 4.5/5

Magic Kids - Memphis (2010): It's as if 1960's pop-rock is reborn in an indie band (4/5)

free metal from [adult swim]

Although the idea of [adult swim] may be lost on my Australian friends, they will know about some of the shows on it. It all started in 2001, with Cartoon Network showing cartoons aimed to an older audience than their usual childish affair (which I still love, by the by). Basically, they were targeting my friends and I. With shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Harvey Birdman, Space Ghost, Family Guy, Futurama, Metalocalypse and a bunch of Anime.


They've also encouraged music through their programs. The show Metalocalypse is a cartoon about a metal band that has actual CDs out. A few years ago they even had Danger Mouse and MF Doom collaborate on the amazing Danger Doom album, which was great hip-hop featuring a lot of the characters from Adult Swim (and by researching this, I found that there's a new album in the works. Yes!).

What they've done now is Metal Swim, a free album of unreleased material from some great (although probably unknown to most) metal bands. It features Kylesa (who are playing Soundwave next year), Isis (who were my pick of the bands at Soundwave last year), Jesu, Zoroaster and more. Sure, you've probably never heard of any of these bands, but it's not your generic metal. This album is full of quality songs, covering doom, sludge and more traditional metal.

It's free, there's good bands on it, so what have you got to lose?
http://www.adultswim.com/promos/201009_scion/index.html