Local Shows

Two great (albeit heavier) local shows coming up this month!

Milestones/Little Shadow at Fat Louies, May 12. (free!)
The Mercy Beat/The Quickening at Basement 243, April 28. ($10)

Both some of my favourite places in Brisbane and both full of great local music. Follow the links for the Facebook event details, as well as listening to the bands!

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.

Australian music! Tours! NOW!

San Cisco

They're going around plugging their Awkward EP again. Here's a song from it and it's not hard to see how their indie-pop is slowly taking over the airwaves and becoming ear worms stuck in your head for days.

May 10, Elsewhere, Gold Coast

May 11, The Zoo

Dappled Cities 

This one is courtesy of Darcy, probably their biggest fan. First off, they have a new song in anticipation of a new album very soon. Check it out:

They'll be playing this and hopefully a whole lot of new songs as well at Oh Hello on May 24.

The Medics

The best band to come out of North Queensland? Probably (I don't know many). In the past I've gotten them confused with the Dutch band of the same name. But not for this post. No. The Dutch Medics do zany rock, the North Queensland Medics make some beautiful indie-pop. Which they'll show case for you on April 21 at the Zoo. Get some free MP3s of them from here: http://www.triplejunearthed.com/themedics

Free Music Friday 38: The good Brisbane band edition

If you go to any sort of alternative, punk or hardcore show in Brisbane, you've probably heard of and seen Quiet Steps. Heck I've already seen them 3 times this year and for a good reason. They make good music.

It's hard to pigeonhole them. They combine elements of screamo, noodly math-rock and indie; which is why you see them open for so many diverse bands.

This week they finally released their long awaited new album, Secular. And yes, because it's on this blog entry, you can get it for free! Or, as is in my case, a donation. Head on over to their Bandcamp page to grab it, and if you like what you hear, chuck them a few dollars. If only for the reason the singer owes me a beer after he drunkenly grabbed mine at Archive one night and chugged the whole thing.

The new album Secular sways more to the indie side, there's nary any of the screamo or noodly influence there, but under the surface you can still grab glimpses of it. I've been jamming it constantly at work the last 2 days. I'll give it a few more listens before I write my customary Twitter review. But in case you were wondering, my favourite song is Pointless, as it builds up to a nice, almost punk, fast paced finish.

If you like what you hear and you're not doing anything this weekend, go see them at Woodland on Saturday. I'll more than likely be there with camera in hand.

Woodland's last call

So I've only been to Woodland once, in a drunken haze. I don't remember who I saw or when it was or anything, except that it was my kind of bar. Dingy. The shape of a box. Cheapish drinks. And a room for a band in the darkness.

Over the last 2 years they've put on some great punk and garage rock shows, featuring both local bands and internationals. I'm kind of ashamed I've never managed to go to one. They seem to always conflict with other things and have a reputation for running late and being almost impossible to photograph at.

It appears its short run is about to end though, on Easter weekend in April. It's a shame, as we're already hard pressed in Brisbane for venues of that size and quality. However, there's going to be some damn good shows coming up there.

The first I know about is the EP launch for the sludgy noise merchants No Anchor, supported by good Brisbane band Quiet Steps. March 17th, $12, bands start at 9pm. Go in, watch some great live music and enjoy the last few days of the venue.

Free Music Friday 33!

I've been waiting for this album for what seems like forever now. And finally, it's here. And even better, it's free! The band is Nuclear Summer and they are from Brisbane. And I took this picture of the guitarist doing some finger tapping at Fat Louies.

I've been raving about this band for the better part of the year now, with their mix of noodly riffs, clean harmonies and thrash-like vocals (not surprising, given their lead singer is one of the two from Ironhide). They dub this sound Sunshine Metal... I like that tag.

Their first album is pretty damn good. Get it for free (or give them some a donation) over at Bandcamp.

You can also catch them touring around supporting this album on the following dates:
December 26, Billionaire (18+ and with Mourning Tide!)
December 30, House Show, Sunshine Coast
December 31, Sun Distortion Studios, supporting Raein and Loma Prieta (all ages)

That las tshow is one you do not want to miss out on. Seriously. I just bought my tickets today. It's an all ages show, so it should be done well before midnight so you can still go off and party for NYE and kiss your girl. It also features to great skramz bands, Raein from Italy and Loma Prieta from the USA. It's also the very last show Sun Distortion Studios will host. Which is sad, as it has been an amazing all ages venue in Brisbane.

Local Brisbane Music extravaganza

Every few weeks I harp on about this, but goddamn Brisbane has some of the best local music around. So much good stuff is happening lately that I just have to share it with you all.

Snitch

I stole this picture from Jess. Sorry, but it was the only one I could find of the month's poster. I'm normally not a fan of any Destroy All Lines clubs. They have good bands ocassionally, but the crowd of scenesters isn't my favourite at all. They just kind of annoy me. But this month I'm going to have to make an exception with so much good music coming up at Snitch, their Thursday nightclub.

This Thursday, the 3rd of November, old Brisbane punk rockers The Gifthorse will be playing an acoustic set, while two of my favourite (and not to mention great) bands Fires of Waco and Quiet Steps will be playing full sets.

Then come 24th of November, my friend's band Castles Sunk Below the Sea will be playing their post-rock/emo stylings alongside Jud Campbell (former singer of the Disables doing acoustic), Fires of Waco and Perth's hardcore giants Break Even. It is two great Thursday night gigs of great Brisbane bands. Get on it.

Quiet Steps
Speaking of Quiet Steps, they will be playing the last ever show at Sun Distortion Studios. Come New Years Eve, they will be playing a show with Nuclear Summer as well as the awesome Italian screamo band Raein.  I may have squee-ed out loud when I heard of this show.

Lofly records
Also on this Thursday night (but at the Zoo) the local record lable Lofly will be putting on a showcase of their local acts. Included on this will be Mr. Maps (who's new music video you can see me in) and Re:Enactment.  It's $10 for great indie and post-rock.

Mr Maps: A music video, and a cameo

A while back I mentioned that Nabs and I were at a filming for the new Mr Maps music video. Well, here it is. And you can even see me after 2 minutes making an idiot of myself. I also saw flashes of me, camera in hand, in the first few minutes. Just flashes though.

Airwaves: a late pass

I don't normally blog about albums individually, but I got my hands on one this week that has just blown my mind. The only problem is, it came out years ago. It's an odd collaboration between 2 Brisbane music collectives: Topology and Loops.

Together, with the archives of 100 years of radio transimissions, they've put together a 99 track album called Airwaves. This album features samples (in reverse chronological order) of some of the most important radio broadcasts in our history, put together with a jazz, and at times noodly post-rock, backing track. I sat at work today, enthralled by how it all worked together, at times the samples and the music were at complete opposites, but at times they worked magnificently together, especially the track Gough Whitlam: Well May We Say.

What makes this late pass even worse is that they performed it live less than a week ago at the Powerhouse. GAH! A chance to up my culture, history and general awesomeness and I just missed out.

There's something to be said for music that makes you sit back and really pay attention. Although I'm young, I still found myself listening to this and remembering where I was during some of these historical speeches (even though with me it was only the first few tracks that were relevant).

If you're willing to take a risk with something new and interesting in music, do yourself a favour, get this. And if you like what you hear, and have some management skills, Topology are looking for a new manager. This job popped up in my daily updates today, completely unrelated to the fact that I was listening to the band.

Free Music Friday 31!

Last night the ever wonderful Kelly won tickets to see Japanese post-rock band Mono and was wonderful enough to bring me along. As good as Mono were, I was blown away by one of the local opening bands. They consisted of 2 bass guitars and a drummer.

I fucking love bass guitar. So much. Two bass guitars in a band? They have to be amazing. And they are. They are No Anchor.

I've heard a lot of buzz about these guys lately. But I've never had the chance to see them. Until I got lucky last night of course. Their two bass sound borders between crazy detuned sludge hardcore/metal, post-rock (their 5 minute feedback bridge last night an excellent example of this) and even a bit of drum and bass, with some parts giving me a DFA 1979 vibe. But all around, it's the kind of music I just like.

They have a few albums, but their latest one is free over at their Bandcamp. Get on it, and support a great local band.

And if you really dig it, get on over to Waiting Room in West End this week, where they are playing 7 days of shows. All at 8pm, all with different bands, all $5 and all BYO. Every night from October 15 to October 21st. My picks will be October 15 with local hardcore punks Dick Nasty, or October 21 with the USA Shoegaze band Happy New Year.

Quiet Steps

I may almost be too late for this, but I got sidetracked with life/work/free tickets to Mono last night. I bang on and on about how good Brisbane bands are, and some of my favourites are playing tonight at Snitch at X and Y. Quiet Steps and Nuclear Summer to be exact. Rad dudes, good music, not too expensive drink prices.

If it's too late notice (and I don't blame you if it is) never fear, you can still catch Quiet Steps playing the afternoon of October 16 in the 4ZZZ car park in Bowen Hills.

As for Nuclear Summer, this may be the last chance you ever get to see them, as one of their members is off overseas. Which sucks, because they are about to release their debut album. So let's hope it's just a temporary thing. Here's a track off it though:

Endless Kickflips Forever (unmixed/unmastered) by Nuclear Summer

The Grates

1) I'm in love with Patience of the Grates.
2) I love this song so much:
(removed the video because it auto played. Click here instead)

3) Did I mention I'm in love with Patience from the Grates?

She's one of the best performers I've ever seen. She dresses up, dances around to every beat of every song and just looks like she's always having the best time of her life.

Oh she's very cute too.

And writes some great music.

She, and the band she is part of, the Grates, will be playing a bunch of shows in our area to celebrate their new album.

October 27, Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
October 28, the Tivoli
November 17, Coolangatta Hotel
November 18, Kings Beach Tavern

EDIT: Someone should hook me up with a photo pass to this. I'd love to photograph her dance moves. It would be a fun challenge.

Review: Iron Hide/TesseracT/Periphery, the Zoo, July 29 2011

The guys over at AltMusicHub asked me to take pictures of this gig for them. Since it was my first time taking pictures for any reason more than fun, I was nervous as all get out. The nerves were also compounded by the choice of venue.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the Zoo. They are the perfect medium-sized, yet still intimate, venue in Brisbane and they'll host any genre or event there. I've seen some of my favourite bands there and it's great, there is almost no separation between audience and band.

Taking photos there is another story though. The no seperation thing means you, as a photographer, have to get there early and muscle through the crowd to score a spot at the front of the stage. If the venue is full, like it was for this gig, there's no chance in hell of moving around and getting different angles. If the crowd is really into the music and moving around, like at this almost at capacity gig, you'll lose your position quite quickly and end up taking photos from a few people back while trying to protect your equipment from beer and mosh. The lighting is pretty shocking too. Up front of the stage it's mainly red and dark, and all of the good lighting seems to be in the middle of the stage where no one stands. But all up, it's quite a fun challenge and can lead to some great angles and pictures.

The full gallery can be found over at AltMusicHub's facebook page. This blog post is for supplementary pictures that didn't quite make the cut.

An advantage of being in early was the chance to see the local openers: Iron Hide. I love this band and think they are one of the best Brisbane bands at the moment (click the link to check out their music). Although I'm not always a fan of their technical metal genre, this was an excellent chance to see them play with a great PA system. And as expected, they blew the crowd away. The two-singer style they have works so well. It also makes me swoon a bit for Lachlan, who is also the singer of one of my other favourite Brisbane bands, Nuclear Summer. I hope they won over more people in the crowd during the gig, as they deserve to be bigger.


Next up were TesseracT. Although I knew nothing about them, a fair majority of the crowd were very keen to see them. I was a bit dubious at first, with their 7 string guitars (do you really need that extra string?!) and more singing-than-screaming metal style (deep down I'm a really heavy music kid) but they won me over within a few songs.

Like every band tonight, their skill at their instruments was phenomenal. It was really a day for technical metal heads to rejoice.

I'd seen Periphery before. But I'll be honest, I don't remember them. They were opening for Dillinger Escape Plan, who eclipse everything and anything in their wake like a bloody black star. So seeing them this time was basically like seeing them for the first time.

Despite not knowing any of their songs, I enjoyed it. They seemed to have the perfect balance between heavy and soft, including what the singer dubbed "the faggoty emo parts".

I was pretty excited, as I've never gotten good pictures of a lead singer before at the Zoo. However, the Periphery guy was a great model.

Don't forget to check out the full gallery here at AltMusicHub.

Mr Maps

So a few weekends ago, me and Nabil headed into Brisbane's latest guerilla gig: Mr Maps at the tennis courts at New Farm Park.

Who are Mr Maps? Think of instrumental post-rock with huge overtones of twinkly emo guitar but much more densely layered. Does that description confuse you? Well head on over to their Triple J Unearthed website to get some tracks for free to check out.

The band was started by the guitarist, after he wrote most of the songs for his university honours project. The end result was way more impressive than my final uni project! The rest of the band came together to help him and the guerilla gig was for them to film a music video for their new song Tennis Party. Whenever it comes out, hopefully you'll see my and Nabil's beautiful beards in the music video. Or at least us trying to catch some tennis balls in a bucket.

Here's some pictures I took of the day.

Animation of Nabs not catching the ball:

Me not catching the ball:

Guerilla Gigs: the Wimbledon Edition

Yes, I ranted on-and-on the other day about how much I hate post-rock, except for a small handfull of bands. And one of those bands, that I forgot to mention at the time, is from our own sweet home town of Brisbane. They are Mr Maps.

I didn't include them because they really aren't that post-rock. I prefer to think of them as just bloody awesome instrumental music. Yes, there's no singing, but my god, what they do is just make some absolutely beautifully layered music.

Their launching their new single soon and it's named Tennis Party. And to celebrate all things tennis, they're going to do a guerilla gig... on a tennis court. On the 17th of July, between 1pm and 3pm, head over to the New Farm Park Tennis Courts (Hopetoun Way in New Farm, next to the park) for an absolutely free all ages gig. I think it's a good excuse for a picnic as well.

They've got a few free MP3s, including the new single, on their Triple J Unearthed page.

EDIT:
This is how excited I am for it

Brisbane Garage Rock, the festival

Is there anything better than garage rock? That raw sound of distorted guitars, not-so-clean bass and fast drum beats with not quite sung, not quite screamed vocals? I think not, I love it to bits. And so does Brisbane, as we're having a full day festival.

On July 9th, from 4pm to 3am, make sure you bring your ear plugs to Woodland, because it's going to be loud, oh so loud, for the Flavours of Skuzz festival.

Highlights for me are the ever funny hardcore boys Dick Nasty (whose song titles are longer and 80% more funny than their songs), Velociraptor (whose band members chop and change each performance, but can include 12+ people) and Undead Apes. For only $25, you're basically paying a dollar for each band. In this post-GFC climate, you won't get a better deal than that, not even on Cudo or Catch of the Day or any other cheap skate website.

Mercy Beat

Brisbane is home of some of the best music in Australia right now, especially if you like your music heavy. And one of my favourite local bands is the Mercy Beat. Imagine if Queens of the Stone Age still had Nick Oliveri singing all the songs and played even more hardcore style.

That's these guys. And they fucking rock.


Last year they put out a tops CD called How To Shampoo a Yak. And although they plugged it a lot then, they've decided to do the whole East Coast run to play it to the whole goddamn country.
We get 3 shows out of it.
July 15 at Kings Beach Tavern in Caloundra
July 16 at Runaway Bay Tavern on the Gold Coast
July 29 at the Beetle Bar

I've blogged about these guys plenty of times before, and there's a reason for it. They're awesome

The Flood

I bang on and on about the local music scene, but for good reason. It's bloody good up here in Brisbane. A bunch of rad people in rads bands making rad music. And they know this, so together, they've put together a collective and called it the Flood.

And to celebrate, they're having a show!


I feel as if I've gone on and on about these bands before, I love so many of them. So really, there's no excuse not to go if you like anything about local heavier music.

EDIT: Apparently demand is strong, so it's been moved to the Morningside School of Arts Hall, cnr of Thynne Rd & Wynnum Rd

Free Music Friday 20!

Today's (or tomorrow's I guess, I'm posting this early), free music Friday comes straight out of Brisbane. It's a band that a friend's little sister once dated a member of. It's the Cairos.


The Cairos are one of those Brisbane indie bands that the women love. They're hard working and make some really dancable tracks, but you go to a gig, and there's all these teenagers/early 20s girls just hanging around, swooning a little. I've seen them a few times now, as they're always that band that opens for bigger indie bands. And to be honest, I also like them. So I'm a 16 year old school girl.

They've put their new EP up on their bandcamp and you can get it for free. They're not even asking for a donation. For me, this is actually the first time I've ever heard them on record. It's not as good as their live show, but I actually like their recorded sound. It's a bit more indie and less dance.

Free download here

Regurgitator

Oh hey, it must be that time of year again. Regurgitator's going on tour.

It's becoming an annual event, kind of like that two weeks of freezing cold mornings we get in Queensland when our cars actually ice over. Well it's not that bad, as I actually like Regurgitator. And this Brisbane band is still putting out music, occassionally, and still rocking out.

Sure it's been a while since their heady days of the Unit album, when they'd play Recovery seemingly every few weeks with a new hit single (gosh, I miss that show). Trust my though, I go out and see them every year and they still put on a good show.

There's quite a few shows in our area for this tour:
18th August - Hotel Great Northern, Byron Bay
19th August - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast
20th August - The HiFi, Brisbane
21st August - King's Beach Tavern, Caloundra