Brisbane John Doyle lookalike Robert Forster played a gorgeous set in Sydney in August, mostly from his latest record The Evangelist. As usual ‘Surfing Magazines’ got a once over too. He’s been in the states ever since, reprising his Velvet Underground covers set as well as touring the new record.

Forster played a show at super intimate Joe’s Pub, and nyctaper got it direct from the sound board.

Ever woken up and felt the whole world shift on its axis? Same pieces, different configuration?

I mean objectively I know that my baby’s birth isn’t news. But quite seriously I woke up the next morning listening to Fran Kelly on Radio National, thinking WHY ISN’T SHE TALKING ABOUT MY BABY!

It’s spring, but it feels like summer. It was winter when Richard Macfarlane hit me with this meme. The months have raced.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your Spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Wildly emotional music always gets me, but I’m increasingly loving music that’s more three dimensional: knees up, head down. And at least the first few in this list of seven songs driving me wild right now are those kind of songs.

Nina Simone – ‘Strange Fruit’
Ms N. Simone’s voice is rough, sweet, tortured and beautiful in pretty much equal measure, like the woman. She’s so special we named our little girl after her. I’ve been listening to her albums over and over recently. And although a friend just gave me her wonderful 1959 live recording at New York’s Town Hall, an album so thick with mood it wraps around your ears like caramel, it’s her intense ‘Strange Fruit’ that never leaves me.

She’s ferocious and raw and honest and, more than anything, alive.

(Well said Big Stereo)

Tricky – ‘Council Estate’ (South Rakkas Crew remix)
A little while after my daughter began to kick down her walls, her mother’s stomach, Tricky released this record. “In my mother’s belly and I’m starting to kick.” It’s a Tricky life story… paranoia, superstar aspirations, pop hooks. In other words, vintage Tricky Kid, which might not be such a big deal if you’d only heard his first couple of albums (Maxinquaye, Pre-Millenial Tension), but is pretty amazing in the light of disappointing recent records (including Blowback with Ed Kowalczyk from Live). Desperate for a fading fame? Whatever inspired his return, the original is good, but the South Rakkas Crew’s soca-fied and time-stretched dancehall version is pure symbiosis.

Justin Townes Earle – ‘The Good Life’
I was in New York City a few months ago and saw in Time Out that a guy with Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt’s names was playing a show. I’d never heard of him before, but he’s named after Townes, and son of Steve, and I figured that was enough. Not sure what I was expecting, but he was much better. We’re talking rockabilly, country, the blues, or as Justin calls it, “mostly love songs and train songs.” I might save my other comments for a review, as I just discovered he’s touring Australia in November. If he’s half as good as the gig we saw in the National Public Theatre’s tiny side room (capacity around 20-30), you’ll be hearing a lot more.

Eilen Jewell – ‘Rich Man’s World’
This rollicking bluegrass and country pop record found its way to me a month or two ago. Along with Alela Diane’s The Pirate’s Gospel, it’s my kind of easy listening. Friends over, barbeque listening; Sunday afternoon listening (or morning if you’ve been tuned into my radio show).

The Rectifiers – ‘Climbing Giant Numbers’
I was obsessed by ’60s pop and admittedly very twee indie pop when I was at uni. I worked up the street at a record shop in Newtown, and devoured records every day in a circuit of record shops that would generally involve large piles of vinyl and pretty significant amounts of time listening. Around then, I got a spectacular compilation of new French music makers called Source Lab 2 – featuring, among others, Daft Punk, Dimitri From Paris, Alex Gopher, Doctor L – but the most astounding thing on the record was a sedate piece that spun in ’50s exotica and warm proto trip hop, Air’s ‘Casanova 70′. ‘Sexy Boy’ followed soon after, soundtracking far too many hairdressers and cafes, but their thing was pretty amazing. In the past couple of months, I’ve been listening to the third record from Melbourne’s Rectifiers. And it has a similar vibe. Air with a bit of another Australian group, Sun. Hard to choose a favourite track as the whole album is so easy on the ears, flowing by in a softly optimistic, blissed out blur.

Charge Group – ‘Lunar Module’
I could understand someone writing this off as bloated and slow. It’s definitely a ponderous thing and I’ve probably written off many great bands like that. Fortunately, I saw Charge Group play a lot of these songs at Sydney gallery and warehouse gigs over the past year or two, and was well and truly primed for their album. The band is basically old Sydney outfit Purplene: Matt Blackman, Matt Rossetti and Adam Jesson; plus Bree Van Reyk and Jason Tampake. This is really tugging the heart strings stuff, bleak, blanched and captivating. But while it touches on moods you might find elsewhere, Matt’s voice is so Australian and so earthy it’s almost jarring.

Micah P. Hinson – ‘Tell Me It Ain’t So’
Every now and again a song sends tingles all across my skin. There are probably a quantifiable group of variables responsible, some combination of words and sounds, but I don’t care, I love those songs, and this is one. I heard it on the radio for a while before I got a copy, and every single time I hear it, my skin goes crazy. The forlorn “constantly, craving what isn’t mine” could be a riposte to the K.D. Lang song, or it might not be. It’s Americana with a crossover of folk, blues and country, but like so much great music, it’s also just Micah P. Hinson.

Back at you Macfarlane – you’re ages away in the UK blogging for tinymixtapes so you must be hearing some very fresh sounds – also, Rozie, Lee Tran, Andy Ramadge, Chris, Matt, Bec Paton and Everything At Once.

One of the most annoying things about blogging is how you tend to fade rather than finish. For a case in point, look at the previous post. In any case, it wasn’t a full stop. Just a comma, with a whole new break-out box.

One thing I’m excited about is this amazing girl, my daughter, who is not even a week old.

If it wasn’t for that, one of my favourite things this time of year is Newcastle for the TINA festival. It’s not happening for me this year, but it’s getting live blogged by (among others, most probably) Sound Summit director Eliza Sarlos.

Fake Twitter Morris Iemma gave me a moment in the sun.

Someone this afternoon briefly started using the Twitter micro-blogging service to impersonate newly ousted NSW State Premier Morris Iemma; and the results were hilarious.

If the real Iemma was this funny and charismatic in public he might have got away with all the other stuff.

Last day of the FBI supporter drive, we gave away a bunch of Izrock Kill Pixie/Marcus Oakley packs. Thanks to everyone who signed up. We also had CuriousWorks director/founder Shakthi Sivanathan, just back from a road trip to Roeburn in the Pilbara, WA.

Playlist

Melancholy Serenade – King Curtis
Nothing To Lose – Dimitri From Paris
I Won’t Be Found – The Tallest Man On Earth
3 Friends To The Stars – Purdy
1:52 – Fabulous Diamonds
Heavy Gum – Vincent Over The Sink
A Bright Tomorrow – Astronomy Class
Express Yourself – Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Summertime – Wiley
Speaking Zaans – TST
Fuzzbox (feat Jon Spencer) – Bomb The Bass
Last Ships – Firekites
The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) – Ollo
You, Dog – Deerhoof
Notorious – Turbulence
One Second – Qua
Kalise – El Guincho
Tire Swing (Live at FBI) – Kimya Dawson
Engine No. 999 – Westernsynthetics
He’s So Wigged Out – The Shimmys
Every Time We Say Goodbye – The Darling Downs
Upside Down – The Tropics of Cancer
Don’t Wait for the Needle to Drop – Dosh

It’s supporter drive time at FBI at the moment, and last weekend we gave away a $250 Co-op Bookshop Voucher to one of our listeners. It’s still happening next weekend, and we’ve got some beautiful art publications to give away. If you’re a listener you should be a supporter.

Simon Rann from Philippe Genty’s Lands End didn’t show, neither did the guys from Sydney Uni’s Verge Arts Festival. Fortunately we had plenty of great stuff happening. Jordana Maisie caught up with Greg Shapely, director of the Sound of Failure sound art festival and Jesse Cox went to ECR at Performance Space to see Chris Hanrahan and Marley Dawson’s recreation of a dirt bike track.

By the way, Jordana’s not just an art critic. She’s got a show on at Black & Blue Gallery on Cleveland St at the moment. I’ll just say it involves a video camera, a big silver cylinder and a video projection, and it’s pretty and fun. Worth checking out.

Playlist

Flex (DJ Q remix) – Dizzee Rascal
Heart It Races (DJ/Rupture refit) – Architecture In Helsinki
Nothing Ventured – Telafonica
Tell Me It Ain’t So – Micah P. Hinson
The If If (Remixed by Faux Pas) – Ollo
June – July – Panoptique Electrical
The Photographer – Panoptique Electrical
Lullaby For The Apocalypse – Charge Group
Kick The Drugs – The Wallbangers
Make It So – Daedalus
Pandanus – Robert Forster
Prescription – Scott Matthew
Tonight – Lykke Li
Bounce Bounce Bounce – The ELF
The Good Life – Justin Townes Earle
Voices Are Your Best Friend – Glissandro 70
Scrawny’s Beat – Hint
Wearing My Rolex – Wiley
Common Errors Traps
What Do I Get? (Peel Sessions version) – The Buzzcocks
Today We Lost a Great One – Sam Shinazzi
Little Acorns – Leila
Love Train – Hall & Oates