it was a pretty sleepy show last night…

moodymann – shades of jae – peacefrog
homelife – harder – ninja tune
abe duque featuring blake baxter – what happened? – abe duque
sola rasa – sugar lines – fmr
fuselage – babylon approach – cdr
louie vega featuring anane – ma mi mama – vega
el diez – el diezeo (extended) – white label
mylo – drop the pressure – hussle
fym – grace (ark mix) – boogizm
twotone – disturbance – bug
product 01 – clone – promo only
umod – love devine – sonar kollektiv
subway – testing (dexter mix) – sunday best
dsico – this is not a love song – groovescooter
basement jaxx – right here’s the spot (switch’s drunk at the dogstar mix) – xl

i know popbitch is probably not the most reliable source in the world, but! their latest mailout mentions that THE SMITHS are in early talks about reforming. that beats a hundred pixies and happy mondays filthy lucre tours, though doesn’t quite hit the level of the vu one that i missed (because i was still in school).

wow… this month the american jewish committee awarded howard its highest award the american liberties medallion.

in recognition of [his] longstanding commitment, as a member of the Australian Parliament for more than 30 years, and as prime minister since 1996, to championing democracy and human rights, and his unequalled friendship toward the United States and support of Israel.

as unsw politics lecturer geoffrey levey says in the smh webdiary, the friendship with the us and israel is no secret.

but this is the same pm who opposed nazi war crime legislation; downgraded the human rights and equal opportunity commission; ignored calls for mandatory detention to be scrapped, suggested that refugees are criminal/terrorists and treated them as such (even though most are eventually recognised as refugees); cynically played on our fears of invasion by whipping up the children overboard and ‘illegal boatpeople’ frenzy against asylum seekers; worked to reinstate the white australia policy early on in his career, then failing that used more subtle methods 20 years later; and has consistently worked towards the interests of media and business moguls in eroding ownership laws, checks and balances that had previously underlain our democracy.

it’s hard to see any basis for awarding howard a human rights citation at all, unless it’s the kind that comes with a 20 to life disclaimer.

i really hope not, though for this poor fellow, a lifelong obsession with music has come to an end…

doesn’t seem as though i’m approaching it just yet. my fascination for music seems to come in ebbs and flows. at the moment i get nowhere near enough time to listen to all the music that’s coming out.

but a few things that have hit me are:-

fym – emotions under curfew ep. on the label boogizm, this wild slice of minimal techno and weirdass electro is just the thing for anyone over the boredom of polite, respectful genre records.

tv on the radio – desperate youth, bloodthirsty babes. i was surprised to see something new on the brilliant 4ad label, but after a while of listening it makes sense. this incredible album takes ideas from jazz, indie, rock, soul, electronic… for all the talk about new punk-funk or no-wave bands, franz ferdinand have nothing in common with esg or liquid liquid. this sounds like the real deal. irreverant, exciting, packed with ideas, but still for all that it’s not just a technical musician’s album, the songs are great too.

moodymann – black mahogani. feels like something in between a dark smoky jazz club after far too much absinthe, and a beautiful deep house mix. whispers from the vocalists appear in the mix, dip down again only to reemerge several songs later, repetitive minimal loops of beats and disembodied gospel singers. disco loops are cropped into the tracks, snatches of norma jean bell or amp fiddler… as you may be able to tell, i’m still getting my head around this one. but, it is beautiful.

other things i’m digging:

slaughter mob – saddam/dub weapon – soul ja. this has been around for a while, but i only picked it up a little while ago. dark and deadly.

three kings featuring jaygun & bashy – shake dat booty (pal joey interpretation) – coco machete. i haven’t heard anyone do deep moody hip house better than this.

umod – enter the umod – sonar kollektiv. umod, better known as domu to broken beat heads, or other names like zoltar, kotoko or rima, has just released an album through the great sonar kollektiv. some of their stuff has tended towards the jazz funk end of the broken spectrum, but this is pretty minimal stuff (at hip hop tempo)… still getting my head around it, but enjoying it so far. i’m interviewing dominic soonish, so if anyone has questions (or suggestions of things of his to check out), drop me a comment!

and if you’re in canberra, come down to my thursday nighter – warmup at toast (above electric shadows in civic) – where evilchris and i play a set of pretty much whatever we’re getting into. free entry, cheap drinks, cheap pool, la la la.

after the disappointment of sunday night’s show from scottish exponents of the fey & winsome, belle and sebastian, i was almost ready to write them off. but after poor presales for last night’s show at the tivoli in brisbane, they decided to do a free gig. my friend said:

they were absolutely incredible. they played for almost 2 hours – a set of 95% old material including ‘belle and sebastian’, ‘dog on wheels’, ‘loosing it’, ‘don’t love anyone’, ‘if you’re feeling sinister’, ‘I know where the summer goes’ and lots lots lots more… took lots and lots of requests even when it meant finding different guitar pedals. eg someone requested vu’s foggy notion… they practiced a bit and mumbled to each other and then did a killer, if twee, version… stevie: what key?, stuart: lets do it in e, stevie: lets do it on e, anyone got any pills. They were noisy and having fun… f***k stuart even left the guitar delicately leaning against the amp making gentle, jangly feedback when they finished.

damn! wish i’d been there instead.

apparently the promoter, Michael Coppel, was so pissed with the free gig strategy that he had the venue keep a tally of non-payers and will be charging the band.

3 hour drive home from sydney this morning and very sleepy now.
the weekend went by in a blur. got into sydney on friday night, and immediately set about getting tipsy playing records at the popfrenzy party at the metro.

met up with jamshed – a friend of ours who’s recently been released from the australian refugee detention centre in nauru. he’s cool/excellent and that just makes it harder to deal with the stories he tells of time inside. he spent 24 days on a hunger strike. the first 4 days he didn’t even have water. he’s only 21 and he hasn’t spoken to any family for over 3 years (since he went into the centre), and has no way of getting in contact with them in afganistan, except for sending a message with a personal courier (ie a friend going to that part of afganistan).

puts everything else into pretty stark perspective. especially the rest of our day, after farewelling him at the airport we spent the afternoon getting hair cuts and listening to/buying records.

sunday night was great… way too hectic though. had a lawn bowls birthday, then went up to the sly fox (renamed the shy fox) to listen to nick + chris play indie records, before nervously wandering down enmore road. grabbed my record box en route and went to the newtown rsl and played for an hour and a half. nerve-wracking only because so many music makers and music lovers that i respect hang out there. anyway, it seemed to go pretty well, and i ended having some great conversations afterwards.

which meant i ended up missing architecture in helsinki’s set at the enmore – though from all reports they weren’t up to their usually geek pop glory. i walked in on belle + sebastian’s first song.

it was great, but kinda boring…

it felt like a hologram projected by their cd. smooth, emotion-starved, restrained. the best bits were the aha and acdc songs and stevie’s fantastic elvis impression – the unrehearsed moments.

i thought it might be something more, especially after reports of their shows in portugal the year before last being epic almost entirely instrumental sets.

i like krispy kreme donuts.
i’ve only had one exposure to their wily charms – wutang bought pencil a dozen in a cool box for her birthday a few weeks ago – but i feel lucky that they’ve set up camp in sydney. and i am going straight to the wynyard shop when i get to sydney tomorrow!
but this takes it a little far, i mean seriously who wants a donut flavoured milkshake. well, i’m curious. but no!

i’m playing records this weekend at the franz ferdinand afterparty at the metro in sydney – the night’s put on by the supercool popfrenzy cats. then on sunday i’m playing again over at frigid in newtown (@newtown, old newtown rsl) with bec paton, seb snarl and sir robbo…

then straight after – belle + sebastian and architecture in helsinki!

finally!
belle + sebastian are playing this sunday night at the enmore in sydney… so many false starts on this tour.
plus architecture in helsinki supporting, which is pretty perfect.
and i’m playing records down the road beforehand at the newtown rsl – at seb’s night frigid. i always enjoy playing there, music head crowd, relaxed atmosphere, and all that. fun. i’m thinking hip hop and broken beat sounds.

i’ve gotta write up interviews with youth group and bit by bats – strange to be interviewing two bands that i’m actually really into for a change! quite different from each other, but both from similar indie backgrounds… though unfortunately, i’ll miss their set in canberra as i’m heading down for the weekend in sydney.

i saw fahrenheit 911 on the weekend. it is no doco. just propaganda and as much as i’d love to see it influence the us (and aust) federal elections, i don’t think it’s a must see.

he plays as hard & fast with the facts as any murdoch editor. eg. $400k per year for president vs 14billion from saudi oil interests (followed by a very quickly muttered ‘over the last 3 decades’). and i thought his (by now fairly cliched) stunts were particularly pointless.

ollo – the lunatics (have taken over the asylum) – groovescooter
elite force – driving me crazy – tcr
feature cast feat kool keith – channel surfing – catskills
koolism – nite time – invada
lee coombs + christian j – dubhead – fingerlickin
audio cephlon – wrapped in nori – cdr
felix da housecat – rocket ride (freeform 5 reform) – emperor norton
prince po – hold dat – lex
bass kleph – wild card (cut the deck mix) – breaking point
disko pigs – raw (ed’s bastard mix) – cdr
via tania – on sawyer (a grape dope mix) – trifekta
freestylers – raw as fuck – shock
radio 4 – party crashers (headman dub mix) – city slang
wagon christ – nighty night – ninja tune
jason sparks featuring pauline taylor – don’t i feel (lawgiverz mix) – botchit & scarper
homelife – harder – ninja tune
koolism featuring bva & nfamas – stage presence
faze action – walking time – bar de lune
freestylers – push up – shock
nubreed + luke chable – one day (poxymusic mix) – mob
tim wright – kick the door in – novamute
rhian shannon – degrees of freedom – loop

if you’re making music or djing let me know i’d love to play your tracks.

first there was a rude message for paulini – they knocked her off the number 1 position after it was found that bulk sales had been made at a single store. then they penalised her 1228 sales! read that again, 1228. doesn’t that seem like a lot of sales for a single shop? it’s hard to imagine any shop getting that many copies of a single, especially in these mp3-fueled days of small cd single turnover.
 
now the current number 1 from hillsong church is looking even shakier. it turns out that it hit the top spot before it was officially released. all the sales before that had taken place at the hillsong church itself - at a special event. you don’t often hear about bands being able to count their own sales (eg. at gigs) towards their chart sales. but hillsong are registered as a music store by ARIA.
 
seems manipulative and kinda dishonest… even if you think that’s ok, wouldn’t the sales of the hillsong cd be classified as a bulk sale at a single outlet?