The bane of my time living in the USA was the band Men at Work. Without fail, at least once a day, I'd hear the song Land Down Under. Every. Single. Fucking. Day.
It's enough to drive you to the point of no-return. But then, the lead singer popped up in a Scrubs (my favourite show at the time) video, which redeemed him and the band for me, and led me to discover that Colin Hay is not a one-hit wonder. In fact, he's a song writing machine.
He's got a new album coming out, called Gathering Mercury. To launch it, he's only playing a select few songs around the country. Queensland's will also be a flood relief fundraiser. It'll be May 20, at Joe's Waterhole in Eumundi. It's a bit of a drive away, but I can't think of a better place for him to play. The crowd won't be your regular city hipsters, but more the kind of people that appreciate Colin Hay, what he's done, and what he continues to do.
While you read this story, you should play this song in the background.
Presenting: Track and Field.
The idea is the brainchild of a bunch of local band managers. The idea being that instead of having regular music club nights, or an annual festival, they create some sort of fun medium ground. And thus, Track and Field was born. Every few months now they'll put together bands and DJs in a warehouse like space for good party times.
The first installment of Track and Field will happen on June 4 at the Old Museum. The bands include Last Dinosaurs, Ball Park Music, The Belligerents and Mitzi. The DJs will be members of bands such as Hungry Kids of Hungary, the John Steel Singers and the Honey Month.
Tickets will be $17 on pre-sale and $22 later on. I'm pretty sure this is 18+ too, as I imagine this won't be a party without some sort of drinks flowing.
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.
It's very un-Brisbane and un-hipster of me to say I never once went to a show at the Troubadour. But here we go, I'll admit it here. I never once went to a show at the Troubadour. So many good gigs came and went, and I always thought "next time". Until the next time became the last time and I couldn't get a ticket in.
Not too long ago I was mourning the fact that it was closed. Brisbane live music was dying! But oh, what providence. What divine intelligence... It's back.
Sort of. It's re-opening in May as the Black Bear Lodge, which will have a distinctly Canadian feel. I imagine with black bears. And mountie costumes. And possibly Ryan Adams' albums playing between bands.
And yes, I said bands, because they are bringing back live music. Although it won't be the same. Instead of having bands, they will focus predominantly on solo artists. The best part though, is it will be free entry, so you can always just wander in for a drink and catch some of Brisbane's best.
Today's Free Music Friday only fell into my lap at the last second the other day, when my mate made a comment to me about this band.
They are local, I've seen them play before and they go by the name of Ironhide.
They are made up of a bunch of dudes that are generally in a bunch of other bands, or just guys you see around any Brisbane gig you go to.
Ironhide play a technical metal, somewhat in the same style of Protest the Hero or Between the Buried and Me. But they mix it up by having two lead vocalists, both with excellent metal ability. One does a very deep metal growl, while the other has a slightly higher thrash style. Put together, it works excellently.
They've recorded a debut album and released it. When I first was told this, my initial reaction was "eh, it'd be a crappy mix like most local bands." But my god, this has to be one of the best produced albums I've ever heard by a local band. They apparently sent it off to Umea in Sweden to be mastered by the pros that helped shaped Refused. And it showed.
Create/Collapse/Repeat is just a superb debut metal album. I was blown away by it. It's available on their bandcamp on a free/donate style, with a few limited edition vinyl options as well. You can pick it up here. Although I picked it up for free, I'm going to go back and probably at least get one of the vinyl options. It's that good.
Outkast. Probably that one hip-hop group that changed my mindset about hip-hop. Before them, I thought it was (as Triple-M would say) rap-crap. And then I heard this. My mind was blown.
Over the years they've put out some great albums, but after Speakerboxx/Love Below, things were a little bit worse. It seemed that there was some turmoil between the band, so they broke up and did their own things.
Big Boi (the Speakerboxx guy) went on and released a pretty damn good album last year by the name of Sir Luscious Leftfoot.
It was decent. It was better than decent. I was always more of an Andre 3000 fan (The Love Below) but his album has definitely brought me back around to his side.
He'll be playing the Tivoli on August 26th.
It may be one of the only chances I get to see even a part of Outkast, as their future is still in limbo.
Lately, Clus has had a pretty good mantra when it comes to music: if it's on the Bridge 9 label, it's good. And this tour, it features a Bridge 9 band.
Coming around in June will be America's Cruel Hand. They can best be described as New York hardcore punk with Metallica-style riffs. You like the sound of that? Check out their MySpace.
Following them on this tour will be one of my favourite current Australian bands: Phantoms. In fact, thinking about this, both bands are mightily similar. Phantoms also do hardcore punk with a metal influence. Basically, I'm going to enjoy this tour.
South East Queensland gets two shows. June 16, Boys and Girls (X & Y), 18+ June 17, Sun Distortion Studios, All-ages
One of Brisbane's noise-rock bands, Stature::Statue are deciding to call it a day. But they're going to go out in style, with a giant noise-rock show at the Zoo, surrounded by other local bands that also enjoy making noise.
On April 28, for only $10, you can say goodbye. Playing with Stature::Statue are Velociraptor. I've yet to see this band, but everyone says I'd dig them, not just because they are named after my favourite/most feared dinosaur. Apparently, the band ranges from 3 to 12 members, depending on how they feel and the make some excellent noise.
Another week, another amazingly crazy all-ages hardcore show.
I rocked up early to Sun Distortion Studios, as although this show was sold out, they said they'd release a few tickets on the doors at 5. So I made the trek there straight after work and lined up feeling like a sore thumb in my business clothes while surrounded by 16-year old scene kids. But it was worth it, I got my ticket and found out that no one would be playing for another 45 minutes at least.
It was my first foray into Sun Distortion Studios, which turns out is less of a 'studio' and more of a very tiny industrial warehouse space. Apparently 200 people were going to squeeze in there, yet I could only imagine about 60 crammed in.
In the spare time I hoofed it home, got changed, grabbed my car, got a parma and a beer and headed back in time to catch local guys I Am Villain. Mixing together some pop-punk and some hardcore, they stomped and jumped around the very small stage.
And that's where things got ugly. The stage basically gave out underneath them. After they wrapped up their set, a crew of randoms moved in and started disassembling the stage. The Chariot then started setting up on the floor. In a very tight and cramped space. And all I could think of was "my god, it's going to be like Perth." I was a little bit more than excited to think that this set was going to just fall apart into a sea of hardcore crazy.
I wasn't even close. I underestimated the entire evening.
Photographing a gig like this is hard. The light came from two fluorescent tubes overhead and was just crap. The band wouldn't stop moving and my auto-focus was no good. The crowd was insane and surging, meaning I kept being moved. So in the end I grabbed my widest angle lens, which happens to be a manual, I set it to an approximate focus, I turned my flash on, held my camera in one hand, held on to a railing behind me with the other hand and balanced on the edge of a very small couch. It's no surprise some of the photos didn't turn out. It was really just guess work, luck and me trying hard not to fall on my ass and get crushed. Because what came next was insane. Within a song the band was just tearing it up. Instruments were unplugged, the crowd was everywhere, the band was under them, on top of them, screaming, playing along wherever they could and just losing themselves in the music.
Even as it was only one song in, they already said this would probably be their best show of the tour. And we all made sure it was. The bass player climbed up the sound booth behind me during their second or third song and just stage dove straight in. Basically, like their music and sound, it was just organised chaos. Barely organised chaos of course...
The set list was a healthy mix of their entire career, a perfect mix for their first Australia tour. I was actually surprised how little of Long Live, their 2010 album, that was included. But in the ones they did play off Long Live, they even included the samples, like in Evan Perks.
Not that it mattered. Some times, with random instruments unplugged, you had no idea what songs they were playing. But it didn't matter. It was just the vibe. Like in this video:
Definitely one of (if not the) craziest gigs I've ever been to. It was just uncontrollable musical chaos. And I was by far one of the oldest people there. Kids, they just know how to do it. At the end of the gig, most of the members of the Chariot just collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. The few still standing got hugged to death by the supportive fans.
Gig of the year? The Defeater show may have something to say about that.
Tomorrow's the Chariot All-Ages show is looking to be the hardcore show of the year. If you're wondering why, check out this video of their show in Perth a few days ago.
It got shut down. For a bowl of pears. But that didn't stop them. Oh no. Not at all. That is why I love hardcore.
Tomorrow's all-ages show is sold out. Because of that, they're moving it from the Old Museum to Sun Distortion Studios in Albion. And if you're like me, and don't have a ticket, you still have a chance, with a small run of door tickets available. So I'll be heading out from work early to go wait in line for one.
Actually, if you don't have a ticket, don't go. I want to be the one that gets in. Not you.
