My backyard.

Came home last night and it’d fallen on some shiny new car.

John Cale – BrotherMan
Died Pretty – Life to Go
Scientists – Swampland (live in London)
Darling Downs – Circa ’65
Fabulous Diamonds – 2:54
Sly Hats – Bleach (Fabulous Diamonds Reincarnation)
The Crayon Fields – The Crayon Fields
Manitoba – Dundas, Ontario (remix)
Caribou – She’s The One (Hot Chip remix)
Mountains in the Sky – Pt 4 The Rupture (radio edit)
Explosions in the Sky – Catastrophe and the Cure (Four Tet remix)
Dirty Three – Stellar
Seaworthy – Map In Hand Pt 4
Low – Venus
White Rainbow – Pulses
The Polyphonic Spree – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (live)
Cuthbert & the Night Walkers – Trash
Frente – Ruby’s Arms
Tom Waits – Way Down In The Hole
Holidays On Ice – Diamond in the Mine
George W Bush & Wax Audio – War Is Over

Could the Sydney Festival lineup get bigger, I doubt it. Oh okay, I guess they could get Lou Reed and John Cale to do a Velvets reunion, with TV On The Radio doing an artspace gig somewhere, and the entire Can’t Stop It! lineup reprising the hits of Oz Post Punk. But living in the real world, Sydney Festival is pretty hot.

Latest announcement: Caribou, hooking up again with Mountains in the Sky, with added vibes from Jamie Lloyd, and me and Somatik playing records. Damn!

It’s FBI Radio’s supporter drive this week and next, and I’ll be on the air tonight (9-11pm) drumming up the love. It’s not for profit, virtually everyone volunteers, but although FBI’s not a commercial station it still pays commercial rates for everything. 6% of the funding comes from the government; the rest (more than $500,000 a year) has to be raised through our supporters. There are loads of prizes for renewing and new supporters too.

You can sign up here or if you want to speak to someone the number is 8 33 22 900.

What is a stylus if it’s not touching the record, etc. Stylusmagazine.com‘s shut down. I’m still not entirely sure why, but it’s a real loss.

Sydney was battered last night by a huge rain storm, Canberra’s getting cleaned out too.

(pic from SMH)

Rudd’s probably no better than Howard, but the prospect of those guys in power for another term had me on edge all Saturday afternoon. It didn’t help that I was hanging out with Howard lovers as the Liberals took an early lead. I was starting to rant about indigenous rights, asylum seekers and the like, so I said my goodbyes – “Guys, I’ve just gotta go” – and headed to the 2SER party at the Bat & Ball, Surry Hills.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever been happier to arrive at a venue. Underlapper were playing – gorgeous spine-tingling stuff – and a bunch of close friends were hanging out by the bar. The ALP and Greens started their ascent, Maxine McKew and Bob Brown gave stirring speeches, and the Liberals were out. And I won the Oz politics/economy board game Poleconomy – a Monopoly-esque game featuring loads of companies that no longer exist.

A sad counterpoint is that the inspiring Bernie Banton finally lost his battle with asbestos-related disease.

The new issue of Cyclic Defrost is out this week with launches in Sydney and Melbourne around the corner.

Interviews with Aaron Martin, Boy Is Fiction, Burial, Cameron Webb/Seaworthy, Clinton Green, Roger from Extreme Records (and a free Extreme sampler CD), Francis Plagne, Cailan Burns from Pretty Boy Crossover (our guest cover designer), Ivens, Mark Pritchard, the Nam Shub of Enki, Odd Nosdam and Danny Jumpertz from Feral Media.

They’re all online now, with several web exclusives including my vox pop from Australia’s emerging dubstep community and interviews with Solo Andata and Victor Bermon. Truckloads of reviews too.

The launches…

Sydney – Sunday Dec 2 from 6-10pm – Concrète @ Sticky Bar, via Taggarts Ln, off Crown St (Surry Hills) Sub Bass Snarl (live soundtrack to film), Peter Newman & Scott Morrison (live audio visual performance), DJ sets from Eli and I. Entry by donation with all proceeds going to the Hope St Mission.

Melbourne – Thursday Dec 6 from 10pm – East Brunswick Club (280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick) Terminal Sound System, Marc Hannaford, Robert Vincs, Scott Tinkler and DJs. $10.

Next Friday I’ll be on a panel to talk about print media and why anyone would bother with the expense, environmental impacts, and time between conception and publication of print publishing. We’re packing up the new issue of Cyclic Defrost tonight, and I can assure you I find myself asking those questions from time to time, but when I’m holding a hard copy of the magazine later in the weekend it’ll all make sense.

It’s part of Vibewire’s New Connections, in Sydney next Friday November 30; a conference on ideas, techniques and technologies for building community dialogue.

Vibewire says it’s open to journalists, social change activists, community and charity organisations and academics with an interest in political participation, media, technology and social change – which basically means if you’re interested in those things then you should come (registration fee details at their site).

New Horizons in Violence – The Preserved Head of John Howard
Die! Die! Die! – Promises, Promises
Ivens – Well Oiled Machine
Naked On The Vague – Old Leader
Indelible – Left Right Left
Burial – Untrue
Lyrics Born – I Changed My Mind
Wax Tailor – The Man With No Soul (feat Charlotte Savary)
Shawn Lov – Can’t Complain (feat Tony D)
Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males – Drunk On Election Night
Faux Pas – Changes
iLiKETRAiNS – Death of an Idealist
Institut Polaire – Lullaby For a Warmonger
Built To Spill – Liar
By The Fireside – Join The Circus
Prefuse 73 – I Knew You Were Gonna Go
Jape – Always Knew
Thief – Does It Make Any Sense
The Heavy – You Don’t Know
The Lucksmiths – To Absent Votes
Yo La Tengo – Fourth Time Around
Psapp – Leaving In Coffins
The Darling Downs – Every Time We Say Goodbye
Clairaudience – A Big Dose of Love is What’s Needed
The Royal We – Back and Forth Forever
Black Lips – Step Right Up

Thanks to Leigh Tran, Bim, Alistair, Emmy and Mel for the suggestions.

If you’re still wondering just who to vote for on Saturday, Get Up’s How Should I Vote site might help. They’ve polled candidates in every seat in the country on a range of issues. Complete the 20 question quiz and see how your views stack up against the candidates in your seat. It also has primers on the election process and a guide to each electorate.

This Saturday Australians get to vote for a government to take us through the next four or so years. It’s exciting in a way that Grand Finals will never get for me, and I’m absolutely hanging out for it, so tonight’s Join the Dots (FBI 94.5 from 9pm) is all about the election. No, I’m not going to dig into the back-catalogue for Rudd’s high school trio or Downer’s ’70s glam outfit, though I may fit in a Midnight Oil number.

Instead, at this stage I’m lining up Boyz II Men’s ‘End of the Road’, D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ (as used by UK Labour), Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’, World Party’s ‘Put The Message In The Box’… it’s not looking great is it. What do you think should make the cut?

Alela Diane – Can You Blame The Sky?
ESG – Insane (Tambourine remix)
Geiom – Zalim Maar Daala (feat Khalid)
Mordant Music – Den On VelluMM
Cult of the Christian Gardiners – Coming Home
Sly Hats – Bleach (Fabulous Diamonds Reincarnation)
Syntheme – Finnial (Chevron’s Bhuna mix)
Burial – Archangel
Lennie De Ice – We Are E
This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
Burial – Etched Headplate
Beyonce – Yes
Groove Chronicles – Rawkus
Homer Quincy Smith – I Want Jesus to Talk With Me
Breakwater – Release The Beast
Resin Dogs – Coming With The Sound (feat Haiku d’etat – Mikah 9, Aceyalone, Abstract Rude)
Shocking Pinks – Smoke Screen (Glimmers mix)
Symbiosis – Lover (Mista Savona Dub)
Swayzak – Quiet Life
Karston Zuber – Jubilee