News Update!

The floods have come and gone, but I'm still stranded. I'm the last person on my street with no electricity (even the flooded houses have it!) and it looks like it may be another week until we get it back. As a result, I have almost zero internet access outside of work hours and can't do updates too much. This is why I'll bundle all of the news up into one post! And here's a funny comic to start with:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

HAHA KINGS OF LEON
So Kings of Leon originally decided they were going to do a stadium tour. Now they've decided to make the shows "more intimate" by downgrading their venues to something smaller where the punters can get up close. And by more intimate, they mean the Entertainment Centre. Read between the lines and you can see it written on the walls "ticket sales were shit. U2/Bon Jovi we are not."

I used to be a huge Kings of Leon fan with their first dirty, innuendo filled, blues inspired albums. They were fresh and amazing. Then they decided to (I think they even did an interview stating that they would) sellout and make as much money as possible. And started writing shit songs.

March 8, Entertainment Centre

Good Vibes loses yet another one to the Grammys
With Cee-Lo already pulling out of the February 19th event to perform at the Grammys, another artist has decided that playing the Grammys is better for her career than a field full of drug-riddled dance music poseurs. Janelle Monae is doing the same thing.

Thank God It's Monday
Carlton Dry kicked off the free Thank God It's Monday gig series last month, with the Hungry Kids of Hungary playing a free Monday show for us. For their second round of gigs, this month, Carlto Dry has one-upped it, with Philadelphia Grand Jury playing a gig the 31st of January at the Normanby Hotel.... Wait... The Normanby?! Am I seeing this right? So confusing. Hopefully the stop the flow of Bundy/fights for this show.

It's sponsored by a beer company at a bar, so obviously its 18+.

Gary Numan
It's been over 30 years since Gary Numan blew us all away with his synth-pop masterpiece that was the Pleasure Principle, released in 1979. Abandoning nearly all guitars and writing it mainly on a Moog, it went number 1 in the UK and lead the way for the hugeness of New Wave. So in celebration, he's touring the album.

Tivoli. May 12

If you don't know the album, you'll at least know this song (even though it's the Fear Factory version with Gary Numan singing).

God God Dammit Dammit
I am late on this, but most of my friends are already going. Tonight a 12 piece funk-punk party band called God God Dammit Dammit are playing a free show at Fat Louies with Headaches and Ironhide. Get in on that and have a great time!

MySpace

Club 299 Redeems Itself
Although switching from indie/hardcore hangouts to top-40 bad pop/dance music club in an effort to be profitable, Club 299 is still dedicated to the music. I'd hope so, especially since the owner is formerly of Her Majesty's Basement, a great old music venue buried under Queen Street Mall. Every Wednesday now they will be showcasing some of Brisbane's best young and unknown bands. Entry is free to students and there are lots of giveaways to be had. So head in, what else do you do on Wednesday nights?

I Heart Hiroshima

As I've mentioned on this blog in the past, one of my favourite local bands is I Heart Hiroshima. They have an interesting take on lo-fi indie with 2 intertwining twangy guitars, a stripped back simple drum sound and 3 vocalists: 2 male and 1 female.

After releasing their second album the Rip in 2009, they went on tour and then buggered off to Germany to pull a Bowie and find themselves/write new music/have fun/whatever. Little has been heard from them in the last 6 or so months, until Susie, the drummer, randomly turned up as the new Philadelphia Grand Jury drummer on their recent tour, which is still ongoing.

Susie, on her Twitter, let it be known that the rest of I Heart Hiroshima will be in town while she's touring and that there will be a show! January 29 at Woodland. 18+. Hopefully they'll be showcasing some of their new stuff in this homecoming show.

MySpace

News news news!

I'm watching the cricket and have been meaning to blog about few things, so here's that entry where I squeeze everything into one, much like a ladette squeezing into a tank top a size too small to dress sexy for a night out at the Vic.

And yes. I went there.

The Chariot
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Chariot were announced to play for Easterfest in Toowoomba. I had it from a fairly reliable source that there were going to be a few other Queensland tour dates on the back of the festival appearance, but it appears no longer happening. We'll get them playing Easterfest on April 22 and then they're buggering off to NSW the next day. Sad. Although looking at the tour dates, it's going to be a very tiring tour for them, crossing the country back and forth in what seems to be a baffling order.

MySpace

Motorhead/Black Label Society
Heavy metal legends Motorhead are teaming up with guitarist extraordinairre Zach Wyld (and his Black Label Society) to shred our ears off next year. They've announced the tour dates, but no venues have been mentioned yet. Which is really odd. But we will get them here April 3rd.

Motorhead
Black Label Society

Philadelphia Grand Jury regional tour
Following a successful return to Australian shores last month, Philadelphia Grand Jury have decided to take their show on the road to regional Australia, dancing the nights away with fellow rockers Bluejuice. The gigs in our area are:

Tuesday 4 January – Ballina RSL, Ballina
Wednesday 5th January – Kings Beach Tavern, Caloundra
Thursday 6th January – Coolongatta Hotel, Gold Coast
Friday 7th January – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay

Philadelphia Grand Jury
Bluejuice

Wolf Parade
Apparently are on a very extended break now. Rather sudden, especially since they've been saying they'll tour here since October. I only just listened to their new album this week, and it's pretty damn good.

MySpace

Week of concerts (a photographic review)

So last week turned into a mega week of local and Australian bands. I ended up 4 gigs, 3 of them in 3 days, seeing about 15 bands. And it was a whole lot of fun. Two of them were at the HiFi, which for the first time ever did not allow me to take my SLR in. Boo. But here's photos of the gigs I managed to get.

First up was Friends with the Enemy/In Trenches/Anchors at Fat Louies on the 13th. I've already blogged it, so you can see it here: http://moshpitson.blogspot.com/2010/11/in-trenchesanchors-fat-louies-november.html

Here's In Trenches:

On the 18th I saw the Triple J Aus music month show, which was at the HiFi. That included Ball Park Music, Hungry Kids of Hungary and John Steel Singers playing with special guests such as Dave McCormack and Robert Forster. I put a video and a gig review up here: http://moshpitson.blogspot.com/2010/11/triple-j-aus-music-month.html

Friday saw me back at the HiFi for the Howl/Philadelphia Grand Jury show. The Philly Jays now have Brisbane drummer Suzie (from I Heart Hiroshima) and this was her first show back in Brisbane in ages. It started with her standing right behind me, rapping 99 Problems. They put on a short, but excellent, show playing most of their songs. It ended up almost where it started, back in the crowd near me.


Always an enjoyable party band.

The next day, after an unsuccessful fishing trip, we decided to hit up Punkfest at the Jubilee. We got there just in time to see the Black Market play their Rancid inspired punk. We even got to see what it would be like if Bob Dylan played bass guitar for a local punk band:

Yes, that's a harmonica.


A lot of other local bands played, including the hardcore boys Wheatpaste and Mouthguard, who were supposed to be playing no shows for the rest of the year. LIARS!

It's not often I'm the youngest person at a punk gig, but Punkfest always brings out the best of Brisbane's old school punk scene. Everywhere you looked were amazing tattoos, torn denim, girls in hot dresses and crazy-ass hairstyles. And of course, lots of mohawks:


But the highlight of the night was most definitely Melbourne's celtic-punkers, the Go Set. They started with a bit of a parade from outside, led in by bag pipes. Like any good folk-punk band, they had an arsenal of unusual instruments, including an accordian and tin whistle:


These guys were great. The crowd loved them too, with lots of skanking and moshing:

All up, it was a great night of local punk, ending an excellent week of Australian music. And there was even a drummer that looked like ?uestlove from the Roots

As always, you can see my gig photos at my Flickr. I like to think I'm getting better at this after a few weeks of practice.

Philadelphia Grand Jury new drummer

Philadelphia Grand Jury are about to return home to Australia to do a quick tour, including November 19th at the Hifi. And before their tour kicks off, they've got a new drummer. The band says:

“This will probably come as a shock to a lot of people, but we’re extremely sad to say that Calvin Welch won’t be drumming with us in Philadelphia Grand Jury any more. No-one is angry, but it simply hasn’t been working. Calvin has a wife and children to support and being in a totally independent band with a lot of hard touring to come over the next few years and it just wasn’t viable to keep going with the current setup.

Berkfinger and I are both extremely grateful for the excellent times we’ve had with Calvin and there is always a chance of all of us doing stuff together again in the future, as it seems that none of our drummers can stay away from us for too long!”

“Susie Dreamboat (who you should know from the uber-cool Brisbane band I Heart Hiroshima) has come straight from Berlin to join us on the road in the UK and will be with us throughout the USA and Australian tours. It might seem otherwise, but we’re pretty lucky with with drummers, because Susie is freaking amazing.”

That's right, the drummer from my favourite Brisbane band, I Heart Hiroshima, will be taking over the sticks. She's a very fun person and always adds a lot of humour to her shows. And here's one of my favourite songs by I Heart Hiroshima:

Another lazy post!

Yes! I know you're excited, it's another one of those posts where I just list off a bunch of shows and news, because I haven't had time for anything else.


Belle and Sebastian new song
My favourite Scottish indie-pop group have released a new song, for free, from their new album due out in October. Download here. I love Belle and Sebastian and their take on 60's style pop/twee. I'm on my way to slowly getting all of their releases on vinyl, so you know for sure I'll be pre-ordering their new record Write About Love (also the name of the free track).

U2 sells out (in the 80s), but adds a new show for their Brisbane concert sell out
Yep, not just their music, but their shows (surprisingly) sell out amazingly fast. They've added a second show with Jay-Z at Suncorp on the 9th of December.

Die! Die! Die!
New Zealand's best noise/gaze/random band are putting out a new album soon, so they'll be doing the tour of our country playing their noisy garage rock, which I love. October 14 at the Club House (Tempo Bar). If you like a noisy and energetic great live show, do yourself a favour and go!

Soundwave bands
Added to the lineup we now have:

• Bring Me the Horizon
• Bullet for My Valentine
• H2O
• We the Kings

I've seen the first two and have no desire to see them again. The only one I'm keen (actually really excited about) is H2O, one of those few old-school straight-edge hardcore bands still kicking.

The Mess Hall
A great Australian two-piece garage-rock band, had a pretty big song with Metal and Hair in 2005 and a great album in 2007 with the Devil's Elbow, are going out on tour. September 17 at the Zoo. 18+

Philadelphia Grand Jury
Although they packed and moved to London only a few months back, they are coming back for their biggest run of shows yet. Catch their garage-party-rock November 19th at the HiFi. 18+. This is sure to be close to selling out, like their last show did at the Zoo. They are just a fun band to listen and dance to.

Fat Louie's Local Hardcore Gig
September 25, at my favourite pool bar/after work place, catch a great hardcore show and get some cheap drinks. Between the Devil and the Deep, Marathon, Headaches and the Quickening. All great heavier (mainly local bands) at my favourite haunt. 18+ of course.