‘Silent Biker Type’ from Seattle’s Kinski: the sound of avant-rock converging on dubstep?

I used to pore my way through book shelf and stacked cardboard box loads of music magazines: The Wire, Jockey Slut, Melody Maker, The Face, Muzik, Grooves, and all the rest. But although that had a profound effect on the way I interact with music – in 500 to 5000 words of thrilling prose rather an hour of sounds – as someone who always felt music, I longed for the direct impact of this music I was reading about. Obscene amounts of money went over the counter at Phantom, Waterfront, Red Eye, Central Station and second hand shops in every town I ever passed through; but it took months for new (read new and interesting) music to hit the shelves at any of those shops. Months! Sometimes longer. So community radio was vital for actually hearing new music. And in Sydney that was 2SER: Sub Bass Snarl, Miguel D’Souza, Chris Berkley, Simon Caldwell… Listening to those guys was a vital part of getting inspired about sounds that I wasn’t hearing otherwise (especially the ones I was reading about, but having to dig for/order unheard).

That was pre-internet (oh I know the internet existed, I had an email address that I could use to communicate with other students at my uni, but effectively it was yet to take hold). With the internet and social media and blogs and all the other things that foster direct communication and sharing shouldn’t we have moved on from this very old school way of communicating? You need a radio to do it; it’s totally push; it’s niche, but nowhere near as niche as an online station that streams 24 hours of your chosen sub-genre. But for some reason people are listening, maybe more than ever. I know I’m listening to a lot more community radio than ever.

Christie Eliezer reported on a new community radio study.

A two year study by Griffith University, NSW, found that community radio and TV stations are hugely important to the vitality of local communities. There are 480 broadcasters in community radio which has an estimated 7.5 million listeners, and represents over 100 indigenous and ethnic languages. The resulting report “Community Media Matters” concluded that audiences tuned in for similar reasons — diversity, alternatives and intimacy, an affirmation of their community and its values and a welcome escape from the predictability of mainstream media.

I’ve got a few questions. There’s a demographic of people interested in community radio (alternative/indie, concerned about authenticity/realness, involved in communities/engaged in arts and music) – are those people likely to be into the broad music coverage on radio, or niche online broadcasts (the long tail)?

I’ve seen stats suggesting a lot of people are tuning in. And heard mentions of the impact in local music/art scenes. I guess a lot of the people who read this blog are community radio people through and through. But I’m interested in whether the stations’ roles are generational; and will those people tuning in now be listening in five years time?

I’m interested in anyone’s ideas, but especially in what people outside the paradigm of community radio think.

Loene Carmen – The Things That Matter
The Dirty Three – I Remember a Time When You Used to Love Me
Silver Ray – Prove It, Don Quixote!
The Beautiful Few – The Sisters, the Mary Chain & the Triffids
Big Electric Cat – Paris Skyes
Tom Lucy – Paris, France
Paris Smith – Pentatonia
Kinski – Silent Biker Type (intro)
Horsepower Productions – Marseilles Connection
Kinski – Silent Biker Type
Jamie Woon – Wayfaring Stranger (Burial mix)
France Plagne – Replace U With An A
City City City – Spread Em
TV On The Radio – Things You Can Do
Ned Collette – Blame
Odd Nosdam – The Kill Tone Two (feat Tunde Adebimpe)
Hood – The Lost You
Why? – Pantone Cyan
Clouddead – Physics of a Unicycle
Underlapper – Haunted Cornice
A Handel/GL Seiler – Earthly Remains

Pop songs about science. Well not so much pop songs as music. And not so much science as well anything from rocks and geology to the hyper future of science fiction. Dots weren’t so much joined as squashed.

Bruce Haack – Super Nova
4 Layers of 9 – Chemical, Physical
Brian Eno – Fractal Zoom
Holland – Imperial
The Grates – Science Is Golden
Gerling – Enter Spacecapsule (Josh Abrahams remix)
Greg Graffin – Talk About Suffering
Animal Collective – Peacebone
Bumps – Biotic Discussion
Frost – Poking Holes In Your Research
MC Hawking – What We Need More of is Science
Casionova – This Is Not The Future
Ride – Perfect Time
Front 242 – Rhythm of Time
SubAudible Hum – Science Maketh The Scientist
I Heart Hiroshima – Neutron Popsong
The Shins – A Comet Appears
Digable Planets – Time and Space (A New Refutation Of)
Jordy Lane – Galileo
Air – Biological
Ellen Allien & Apparat – Metric
Datarock – Nightflight to Uranus
Blur – Chemical World
Nirvana – Lithium (solo acoustic)
Robert Vincs – Helix
Ninety Nine – Receiving The Sounds of Science Fiction
Dirty Three – Dirty Equation
Anaerobic Robots – Darwin or Lose
Cyne – Evolution Fight

Tonight’s Join the Dots is a national science week special inspired by Jordy Lane’s lovely song ‘Galileo’. 9-11pm today on FBI 94.5. Suggestions below.

The SOLD OUT signs outside the Annandale said it all. The launch of Urthboy’s The Signal sold out some time last week, and by the time Radical Son took the stage, the room was buzzing with anticipation. Radical Son was captivating, no other word for it – his piercing eyes, his (can you really call it) banter (when it pretty much knocks you between the eyes), his… well as GURU would say it’s mostly about the voice. Soulful mellifluousness with a powerful undertow that threatens to drag you down. I need to hear more.

Spit Syndicate’s name is a bit of a misnomer. It suggests tough western suburbs heads, the kind of hip-hoppers who’ve grown up with a chip on their shoulders, expecting the worst. The reality seems different. The preppy duo jumped around the entire set, good-naturedly trading rhymes over uptempo beats that soon had the (now full) Annandale bouncing. In particular, a small crowd of teenage girls screaming with Beatlemania-esque abandon at edge of the stage – apparently a regular fixture. Prince V kept the vibe up with several hours of between band beats. The Herd bass player, and erstwhile sack of potatoes, is always a good choice behind the decks.

As far as I was concerned it was all about Urthboy though, and from the crowd’s thunderous applause, that was the general consensus.

I tried to capture the moment, but Tim moves too fast.

(These Urthy cut-outs were all gone by the time the venue emptied out.)

There’ll be other reviews. And if you missed the launch, there’ll be a tour later in the year featuring The Tongue and Hermitude. Suffice to say there was a lot of love in the room, and not just from fam beaming side of stage. Eventually I gave up on photos and recorded a short clip, sorry about the sound.

Pauly J – Verses in Enigmatics
Upshot – Tango (feat Sereck)
Mostyn & Quro – It Might Be
Fuglemen – Linear Notes
Object – [After]
Groovescooter feat Quro – My Spine (Is The Bassline)
Reference Point – BackwordsForewords
Subsketch – Vessels Part One
Zeal – Salt
Faux Pas – Get Acquainted
The Basics – (Love, Love) Speak To Me
Gotye – Out Here In The Cold
James Grehan – Breathing In Beslan
Beth Orton – She Cries Your Name

Brian Chase and Seth Misterka Duo – Segmented Fun
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Turn Into (Nick Zinner remix)
The Thing – Art Star
The Tussle – Elephants
Motorpsycho + Jaga Jazzist – Pills, Powders and Passion Plays
Jaga Jazzist – Day (Herbert’s Garden Mix)
Lydia Lunch – Potato Tango (Remix)
Lydia Lunch – Memory and Madness
Lydia Lunch – Guernicana
The Birthday Party – Release The Bats
Tom Waits – Way Down In The Hole

Toni Collette’s management sent out an email today, imploring industry folk to rethink her record, Beautiful Awkward Pictures (released October, 2006). She’s a fabulous actor. Apparently a pretty great person too, especially considering she self-released the record when all signs point to her having a lot more success on a major.

Despite all the exposure this amazing band has managed to achieved, they have still struggled to gain significant airplay. Those in control within radio have provided assurance that this is no reflection on the quality of the work, but as the record is rich and piano driven in a Nick Cave sort of way then Toni, like Nick, does not seem to suit many mainstream radio formats.

The manager’s appeal asks industry egos of “some considerable taste & influence” to relisten to the record. But despite the flattery, this record has little to compare it to Nick Cave. Sure: it’s by an Australian; instruments are played; a singer sings self-penned songs. But that’s pretty much it. Nick’s magnetic. He’s wild and his songs are rawly intimate. Toni’s songs are trite, the music’s bland. There’s a reason noone’s playing it. Toni’s a celebrity – so in a TV or feature context she’s still interesting despite the music – but that doesn’t count on radio.

Do you know what it’s like to wake up in the morning and see a guy dressed up as Borat running past your window? The annual City to Surf fun run is on today. For the record, I just searched ‘Borat+City2Surf’ and found his page – I guess someone fronted with $1000 (and one of those people was Aparna).