What can I do? The river's overrun. We're swimming in a flood, you know

All of my flood related blog titles are songs from my soon to be "Flood - the Mixtape". It's actually hard to find songs about flooding and I haven't had much time, but it will happen hopefully. Even just to live in my car.

As you can see from above, the water line on my apartment was barely head height. I got truly lucky. All I lost was the stuff in my garage: a drum kit, old golf clubs, some furniture, a fridge, a keg and random other things. Mere metres down my street was different. Poor souls. You can see my pictures on my Flickr, including a huge boat found in a park down my street.

But now, flood related music news!

Big Day Out released a release releasing the fact that they are still open for business. And they're donating $20k to the flood efforts. Honestly, I forgot that BDO is like a week away, I still have to sort out my transport/accomodation/etc. Obviously I had thought of other things this week.

The cancelled Mos Def/Talib Kweli show at the Tivoli has now been moved to January 26. EDIT: Now at the HiFi. Existing tickets will be honored.

The Beautiful Girls show at the HiFi tonight has now been moved to March 18.

As I mentioned yesterday, Burst City was hit by the flood water. Last night's Danish punk show was cancelled, but tonight's show with Blank Realm and Feathers will be going ahead.

Woodland is still open, with the Health/Death Set/DZ gig in full force tonight.

I would encourage anyone going to gigs to use public transport where possible please. It's free right now, and after being stuck in traffic for 5 hours last night trying to get to and from my place to clean, it's kind of annoying. You're not helping the flood people by being on the roads unless you have to.

And now the big one: Flood Bank, a benefit for flood victims, will be held at the Old Museum on February 3. Some of the best local indie bands will be playing, including:

Violent Soho
Ball Park Music
Inland Sea
The Medics
Bang Bang Boss Kelly
The Baby Seal Club
Blonde On Blonde
Grand Atlantic
Texas Tea

Tickets are $30 and go on sale this week from Oztix. The event is 18+ and licensed. Get in quick, it should be great and will help people much worse off than me.

If you're under 18 and want to help buy listening to music, an all-ages show will be announced in the next few days.

Good luck my fellow Brisbane music-fans that were affected by the flood.

I'm Stranded

So the floods continue. It's supposed to have peak 20 minutes ago. It's dark and early in the morning and no one knows. But here's a picture from yesterday:


The floods have affected the music scene. Yesterday I blogged about the Zoo cancelling shows. There's a few others. Talib Kweli/Mos Def at the Tivoli tonight is gone. X&Y and Rics have cancelled all gigs for the forseeable future.

It seems that there is a great show on tonight that I didn't know about in the Valley. Gold Panda, an electronic producer/artist, who put out a great album in 2010 is playing at Alloneword. Here's the Facebook link. They're doing a fundraiser for the floods, like everyone. So go along and support and have a great time at one of my new favourite bars, with one of my new favourite artists.

As for me, I'm at my parents safe for now. My apartment...Who knows, probably underwater. The Saints said it best.

If anyone in Brisbane is doing any benefits or anything, leave a comment/contact my twitter/email me and I will do a plug for it. Brisbane and Queensland will need all the help it can get and what better way to do than with music?

Mos Def and his partner in crime

The gifted MC, Mos Def, is coming out for a tour in about a fortnight's time. Unfortunately, he's had to delay the start of his tour due to some sort of reason. But this doesn't bother us at all. Not one bit, as he'll still be playing the Tivoli on January 13.

To make up for it, he's bringing along a good friend of his, Talib Kweli, who's also a genius MC. And if we're lucky, we may get them to play a few of their collaboration songs, known as Blackstar:

Mos Def

Most people probably know Mos Def for this:

Yes, the black guy in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I feel sorry for you. You should know him for his mad skillz (and yes, I typed it with a z, observe):

That's just him freestyling. "But Chuck" I hear you crying, "hip-hop is shit!" And yes, I will agree 89% of the time. Most hip-hop is absolutely crap. But like most music, there's someone out there that does it special and is not following the crowd. And Mos Def is one of those. He doesn't rap about pimps and hos, he uses his brain and has just an amazing delivery with a very distinct voice.

He'll be doing a tour for his new album and we can catch him playing the Tivoli on January 13. 18+

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