100 Songs Project: Brisbane bands get involved!

An interesting idea that has popped up over the last few years is the 100 songs in 100 hours project. Watch this trailer to get an idea:

The idea being that artists/bands/performers from all over (but mainly Queensland) head into the studio to record 100 songs in a 100 hour window. These songs are then mastered and shipped off to both Triple J and 4ZZZ for immediate release to the public. As the video says, it's like a music festival, but broadcast (and with much better facilities and audio quality).

Come May 20-25, QUT will throw open it's doors for 16 hours a day to record the 100 songs. FOR FREE. Yes, that's right. Are you in a band and want to get a recording and some exposure? Well why not do this? It will only take a few hours of your day, you will be contributing to something big and awesome and you'll get a professionally recorded song broadcast almost immediately on radio. Who knows, you may even get put on their best of CD (which the 2011 version, called "Twelve" was released last weekend).

If you're interested, just fill in this form: https://www.qmusic.com.au/dsp_applications.cfm?opportunityID=29. The applications close a week from today. So get on it.

Congratulations!

As long term readers probably know by now, I don't really listen to Triple J much anymore, except for my weekly Doctor Karl, and sometimes Short Fast Loud and Full Metal Racket.

And now, there's a new host of Full Metal Racket, their weekly metal show. It's this guy:

 

Yep, Lochlan Watt. Local lead singer of Nuclear Summer and Iron Hide. Two of my favourite heavy Brisbane bands that I've photographed many times over the last year or so. Congratulations dude. I've read many of your interviews in zines over the years (especially Death Before Dishonour). I think you'll have me listening to the radio a heck of a lot more!

Triple J Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time: Why "mainstream" radio is crap

Yes. I called Triple J mainstream. These days it's basically a feeder station for Austereo. If a band makes it "big" on Triple J, it becomes high rotation on the other networks. And Triple J is almost fully a playlist station now. You can turn it on at any time and hear mostly the same stuff. The same crap stuff.

But the farce that has my blood boiling is the Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time. This is where we, the voting public, got to choose the best albums to ever come out of this country of amazing music.

You can read the results here. And while you do, imagine me hanging my head in shame. Maybe even shaking it slowly side to side looking wisftul.

Did you digest that list? Do you feel shame at some of it? I know I do. Before I rant any further, here's my contributions to the vote, and why:

Carpathian - Isolation (for a country of great hardcore, this album truly stood out and showed what we know at all of the local shows we go to)
Gerling - Children of Telepathic Experiences
Gerling - When Young Terrorists Chase the Sun (These two albums still get played by me a lot, pure gutiar pop (with a bit of electronica too)
Grinspoon - Guide to Better Living (It's the album that started it all, even if they sing about dead cats. Three times)
I Heart Hiroshima - Tuff Teef (raw indie-pop, experimenting with a non-traditional band format and having some catchy hooks)
INXS - Kick (One of the greatest Australian albums ever, massive international success combining funk and rock)
Living End, The - The Living End (punkabilly at it's best. How many of us didn't shout out the lyrics of Prisoner of Society to any teachers/power figures after this album?)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads (not his best work, but probably the most successful album from Australia's king of goth, culture, art, music and basically everything. It even almost made me like Kylie Minogue)
Silverchair - Frogstomp (it's where it all started. The angsty teens)
Testeagles - Non Comprehendus (joke vote, at this point there wasn't many albums left in their list I'd consider. And 12 years on I still love this album with it's weird nu-metal vibe)

Right, so here's what's wrong with the list that actually made it:

1. Nick Cave only got 2 mentions, all in the bottom 50. He has a body of musical work that should elevate him above legend status, to some musical-god status. But no, he gets shunned.
2. The following bands should not be in it at all: Gypsy and the Cat, Sleepy Jackson, Art vs Science, Karnivool, Birds of Tokyo, Temper Trap, Empire of the Sun, Tame Impala, Josh Pyke and Angus and Julia Stone. They are good bands on their own merits (well, some of them), but the albums aren't old enough to be "BEST OF ALL TIME"
3. The Saints. Number 80? No. Top 30 at the worst.
4. Cold Chisel at number 65. Sure, this isn't the Triple M countdown, but Cold Chisel did a lot more for Australian music than nearly any other band.
   
5. Some of the bands are right, but the albums are so wrong. Spiderbait? Ivy is awesome, but where's Grand Slam, the album that made them almost as popular as their later days Black Betty cover? How did Something For Kate's breakthrough (and most stunning) album Beautiful Sharks end up 32 spots below it's more recent and meh release? How did Sarah Blasko's newest album end up higher than her amazing debut?
   

Actually, you know what? I quit this rant. I could keep going on and on and on and on. Does this make me a musical elitist? Probably. I think the problem is that the Triple J public have short term memories and short attention spans. The public being those that vote and participate. Those of us that grew up on Triple J and miss the days of old left years ago. That's why I love 4ZZZ. They'll play anything and everything if you just ask nicely. And they're not afraid to play something new and out there that doesn't pander to the general audience.

But for something completely different, I agree with their number 1. Powderfinger's Odyssey Number 5 is just a great album in its whole. I imported it to the USA when I lived over there. That's how much I liked it.

(Oh, and PS, any Triple J hate does not extend to Short Fast Loud. I love that show and Stu covers all the bases with the diversity and constant shifting of his weekly playlist)

Free Music Friday 18!

Today's free music Friday is posted on Saturday morning for multiple reasons: I'm lazy, I was busy all day/night yesterday and it's a lot of music to digest.

Anyway, it's Rhubarb.


Rhubarb are Brisbane pop-punk rockers, who emerged on Triple J way back in 1999. You may remember them for a very catchy song called Exerciser. Heck, it was one of the first songs I ever downloaded.

They put out 3 fun albums before breaking up around 2006 (according to a quick Google search). I have no idea why, but now they've decided to put out their music for free. Every album. I'm pretty sure they're not coming back, but hey, you can't complain. It's free.

Download it all here.

New songs!

So it's not quite free music Friday yet, but I thought I'd rock your world with two free tracks that got put out on the world wide web today.

The first I heard on Triple J last night and is the new release from one of the main bands at the upcoming No Sleep Til Festival. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, the punk cover band featuring everyone who is anyone in the world of Fat Wreck Chords who has free time to play, are about to release an Australian tour EP in celebration of the festival. Covering great Australian songs. And the first one is Air Supply's All Out of Love, which the festival has put up for us all to keep. Right here. It's a bloody good cover.

The next one is the first of what I'm sure will be many Christmas songs, just in time for the opening of all of our advent calendars. They do a version of the classic carol Angels we Have Heard on High, which you can get from their webpage right here.

Enjoy!

Triple J Aus Music Month

So last night I went along to the Australian Music month show at the HiFi, put on by our youth network, Triple J. It was an amazing night of Brisbane music. First up were Ball Park Music, playing their funky rock.

They rocked pretty hard, but I about lost my shit when they bought out a special guest for a song: Dave McCormack (of Custard and the Polaroids fame). Sure, he just played percussion and a single song, but it was amazing.

Next up were the Hungry Kids of Hungary, who my friends were excited to see. I've seen them a few times before, and their live set was slightly less exciting than Ball Park Music. However, for a few of their tracks they bought out a bunch of friends to play extra instruments and sing the backing vocals for a Kylie Minogue song. That was definitely the highlight of their set.

Finally were local boys the John Steel Singers (plus a chick from Little Scout playing glockenspiel. I totally swooned for her). These guys get better everytime I see the, and I am just sad that their recordings don't do the grandeur and large sound of their live set any justice what so ever.

And the best part? They bought out Robert Forster (from the Go Betweens) to play a few songs. He played about 3 covers with them, and even did a stint on acoustic guitar.


The whole night was an amazing show of just some of the talent Brisbane has on offer. But it didn't end there. Oh no. All of the artists came back out for an encore, including Robert Forster. Massed on stage together they covered the Saints' Know Your Product. And I recorded a crappy quality version of it:

Once Triple J post the recorded audio for the night, I'll redub it to have it sounding awesome. Great night.

EDITED: For the redubbed video

New the Walkmen song!

I would just like to add, that on my last post, on the Triple J website, there was also a link to a new song by the Walkmen.


The Walkmen has to be one of my biggest missed concert regrets ever (next to Weezer, which I skipped to go to Prom in 2002 and ended up breaking up with the girlfriend the next day). It was 2003, I was in first year in university, and the Walkmen had just released their critically acclaimed debut album Bows + Arrows. I don't remember why, but I skipped it, and the next day my team project partner heard me listening to the amazing song The Rat and asked why I wasn't there. I'm still bitter about it. It was apparently $5.

The Walkmen are more easy listening these days, and their new song is good. It's called Angela Surf City and you can get it here. I hope I get to see them one day soon.

Regurgitator news

Quan recently announced that they won't be recording any more albums!

(Holy hell, I miss Recovery. As I write this on a Saturday morning, I think about how 15 years ago I'd be watching Recovery right now.)

Anyway, never fear, Regurgitator aren't breaking up, they are just releasing EPs only now. Quan says:

"It's just too much pointless pressure to follow an out of date paradigm. I don't listen to albums why should I make them? And tracklisting was always a real bitch in this band. Now thankfully that'll be in someone else's hands. :)"

In fact, they even have a new song! You can hear it over at Triple J's Home and Hosed blog, right here: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/homeandhosed/blog/s2997718.htm

Don't forget that they are playing the Tivoli on September 18.

Bedroom Philosopher

When I went to Melbourne a few weeks ago, my beautiful host made me watch this video before we went out:

It pretty much got me prepared for the people I was going to see over the weekend. The track was recorded by a rather elusive artist called the Bedroom Philosopher, who a few years ago charted on Triple J's Hottest 100 with the song I'm So Post Modern.

He's put together a band to tour his comedic songs and he'll be making a stop in Brisbane on the 29th of August, playing an all-ages matinee show at the Old Museum. Joining him will be the Boat People and Pinky Beercroft (of Machine Gun Fellatio fame).

TripleJ Impossible Music Festival

For the first time in years, I actually listened to Triple J in my car the other day. I had left my CDs at home, 612ABC were droning on about rugby league and 4ZZZ were talking about god knows what, so I had no choice. But they were asking people their 3 favourite live acts. All in anticipation for their Impossible Music Festival.

This festival is when Triple J listeners vote for their favourite live acts and over the course of a weekend live sets of these bands are played. It's a novel idea. Back in the day I took a few down on casette and I still have Frenzal Rhomb's and Rage Against the Machine's. I lost my At the Drive-In one though. (Future project maybe, copying these to my computer...) So I got thinking, what are my three favourite live bands and what were my three concerts over the approximately 200 I've been to in the last 9 years?

Live bands:

3. The Bronx (the lead singer chugging wine in the pit while singing at Soundwave 2007)
2. The Matches (so much energy, stage presence and character. Also the lead guitarist broke his hand and played everything one handed)
1. The Dillinger Escape Plan.

And my favourite concerts in general:

3.Norma Jean/Every Time I Die/Darkest Hour/A Secret Death, 8th June 2007 at the Arena in Fortitude Valley

At the time, I knew maybe 3 Norma Jean songs, but was told to go. And I was glad I did.

The crowd was only half full, but the Norma Jean singer encouraged us to get into the music, just to "scream any words, it doesn't matter if you don't know the song!" And we did. The final song featured the singer climbing up and hanging off of the Arena's rafters while screaming into the mike. Not to mention I heard Every Time I Die for the first time.

I can't wait for Norma Jean to finally come back.

2. From Autumn to Ashes/The Bled/The Getaway Plan/The Paper and the Plane, 23 November 2006, at her Majesty's Basement in Brisbane

This was a great day for me. Earlier in the morning I went to the opening day of the Ashes cricket match, where Steve Harmison famously did this in the first ball:

I also got offered my engineering job that day. And later that night, Clus and I trooped into Queen Street Mall at 11 pm to go to this show. There were maybe 50 people in the audience. We didn't know of the problems with FATA losing their singer just days before. We didn't realize they had brought in a drummer and that Fran, the original drummer, only just learnt how to scream the vocals (as a consequence, he did his voice in and the tour was cancelled days later).

It was pure insanity as the clock ticked over towards 2 am. I was already tired (and fairly intoxicated from the morning). The Bled came out hard and fast, doing their first song as a sound check. The lead singer was stopping halfway through and asking for "more kick and snare" on his monitors. FATA squeezed onto the tiny stage and instead of doing an encore just played Short Stories with Tragic Endings (apparently for the first time in 5 years). There was broken glass and falling moshers everywhere, my legs were cut to shreds. There was a guy that had just got out of prison an hour before and had the band sign his parole docket. I walked out of that tiny basement stage as deaf as I have ever been.

1. Dillinger Escape Plan/Poison the Well/Every Time I Die/Evergreen Terrace, 25 February 2009 at the Forum in Sydney

This was a sideshow to the Soundwave festival and Clus and I trekked down to Sydney for it. Fucking hell Clus, you were standing next to me for all of these shows. I guess I've got you to thank for it all.

The lineup was incredible for Australia, 4 international bands that I loved for $40. The crowd were pretty shit for the first few bands and I got stuck in a lineup trying to get in for most of Evergreen Terrace (Nine Inch Nails were playing directly across the road and it was chaos) but when Dillinger came on, my entire idea of what live music is was changed forever. This video of Milk Lizard I took on my phone was about as quiet as they got all night:

Quiet, yet they are still jumping around like idiots. At one point the singer was climbing on the PAs, one guitarist was 2 storeys up swinging off chains while the other guitarist was on the balcony leaning over it and playing like a madman. I have never seen a band put so much energy into a show before.

Special mentions also go to:

Brand New (July 5 2003 at Gabes Oasis in Iowa City and 22 January 2008 at the Tivoli in Brisbane) - In Iowa City they were bumrushed on the stage and had all of their instruments unplugged. Jesse climbed up to the roof, hung upside and played Weezer's Say it Ain't So, while the rest of the band plugged their instruments in and joined. Never once did they make us clear the stage. And at the Tivoli they were a band possessed, trashing their instruments in an amazing 10 minute finish of Welcome to Bangkok (I think).

Mars Volta (24 January 2006 at the Arena) - Third time of seeing them, yet the first as a headliner. No openers, just them playing for hours of insanity. Including Frances the Mute.