"the blood brothers make music that will save us all". - Henry Rollins. That's about as much description as you need. such a shame they're not around anymore.

trip roundup

i never got around to finishing up my trip blogs. i traveled around a lot more in europe and therefore had less access to the internet and no home base to do blogs from. i'm writing this now in 2009 as i have decided to revive my blog, focusing more on music this time around. i've been bringing across previous posts/reviews from other sites, but i decided i'd better give some closure to this story before i move on. suffice it to say the rest of the trip was as awesome as the beginning. i'm not gonna go into too much detail about actions, but musically i got to see some great things. a local band called The Bookhouse Boys in London, and Krafty kuts in Brighton. I don't have any photos of either, but here's a video clip from The Bookhouse Boys, I thought they were fantastic.


I also went to the O2 wireless festival over 2 days in Hyde park in London, where I saw some fantastic acts, including:


Saul Williams


Jay-Z ("best rapper alive")


Jaguar Love (featuring former members of The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves)


Beck.
Morrissey headlined the second day, but he turned out to be a bit of a wingeing old bore really.

oh, and here's the massive box of stuff i purchased overseas and sent home.

fear and loathing in las vegas (and new york)

i'm back in new york. but not for long. i'm leaving to go to london tomorrow, which is a bit sad. i'm excited about going to europe of course, but i'm not ready to leave here either. it's been awesome fun. still, at least there's more adventures to look forward to.

las vegas was cool. a lot more fun than i thought it would be. the casinos are huge and bizzare and kinda scary, but they light up at night like you wouldn't believe, and there's all sorts of insane attractions inside them - roller coasters, canals in venice, an eiffel tower, lions.... you wouldn't believe it. and we spent most of the time drunk with these enormous, gigantic monster drinks - 100 oz margaritas (that's basically 3 litres!) went to the grand canyon one day, which was great too. and we got to see an elvis wedding. i wouldn't wanna spend too long there though.

then we came back to new york. we went to another baseball game, the empire state building, statue of liberty, got a group photo in times square and and spent the rest of the time just hanging out together and going to bars because the tour was almost over. i've been back at shannon's for a few days and we went to a broadway show and coney island. then i'm outta here tomorrow. which is a bit sucky. obviously i could write heaps more, but i kinda still need to pack. so that will have to be it for now.

learn to swim, i'll see you down in arizona bay

Got in to san francisco this morning. Finally have some internet access again. And a bit of time before dinner tonight, so I thought i'd better post now as it's been really busy and will be again over the next few days. I left new york for la on saturday. But first we went out friday night to do a flash mobbing type thing with improv everywhere. We created a mexican wave of camera flashes over the brooklyn bridge. Check out their website - http://improveverywhere.com/ - hopefully there'll be something about it up soon.

Got to la without any real issues. I didn't think too much of the city, because it's all freeways. But the tour is going well and i've met some cool people and doing fun stuff, so I enjoyed it.the first day we went on a tour of hollywood, santa monica and venice beach.

That night I got to see murder by death at the troubadour, which was awesome.






Then I got to meet them, which was even more awesome.





Went to disneyland the next day, which was fun. Too many kids though, and a lot of the rides were a bit young for me, but there were still some cool ones, and you're never too old for disneyland.

yesterday we went to universal studios, which was even cooler than disney. They had better rides like jurrasic park and the brand new simpsons ride which only opened this week and was so good we went on it twice. And there were less people (and much less kids). everyone went off in small groups and I spent the day hanging out with a girl from brisbane who's also here on her own. we seemed to luck out so that we hardly ever had to wait in a line, and managed to do everything in the park (rides and shows). Then we went out for dinner with two other melbournians.

Today we flew to san francisco and had a tour of the city. Going out for dinner very soon. And then tomorrow is a free day, so will probably go exploring to see the city (and check out music stores). Then we're going for a sunset cruise on the harbour, which should be awesome.

people always look better in the sun

i've done a few more of the museum things, like the met, natural history museum (dead zoo) and the new art musuem, but the weather the last few days has been beautiful, so i've focused more on being outside and getting to know the place and what new york is about. went for a walk over the brooklyn bridge, sat in the park on the other side, caught a ferry to staten island and back yesterday, went for a walk through central park and visited the zoo, and today we went to williamsburg for lunch. had really nice food at this awesome thai place with a pond in the middle of the dining area with a boat in it. lots of cool little stores around there too, like a cool bookstore and a shop with lots of fancy funky toy things. i think williamsburg is one of my favourite areas so far. also central park. and i spent a day walking around the east village (which is also a favourite) and west village too. i bought heaps of stuff in those places. we went out last night to see some local bands at a bar which was fun. i've got heaps of photos of everything, but i'll have to put them up some other time. also, i saw joey ramone place yesterday! whoo!

on saturday i fly to la.

new york city!

Well, i got here safe and well. The plane flight was very long and disorienting. the plane was pretty empty though, so i got to stretch out over 3 seats. Still too uncomfortable to sleep. Other than that, pretty uneventful. Even getting through customs was easy.

New york is fun. Shannon's apartment is great. and i've adjusted pretty quickly to the time zone. On friday i went to MoMA and spent almost 6 hours there. Then we went out to a bar with some locals after dinner.

Yesterday we went to a Mets (baseball) game in Queens. Then went to grand central on the way home, and saw the view from shannon's roof. In the evening we went out for awesome bbq, then saw times square. Will smith was filming a movie, but the place was insanely busy anyway. We went to the m&m's store and the virgin megastore (both yays!) and i spent moneys. Today we're going to the met i think.

leaving. byez!

ok, i think i'm packed... i better be, i'm heading out in the morning. :) thanks to everyone i've seen/heard from over the last weeks. there's photos up on facebook now. i'll see you all again when i'm home. yay!

here's where i'm gonna be:
may 8 - 17: new york
may 17 - 21: los angeles
may 21 - 23: san francisco
may 23 - 26: las vegas
may 26 - june 2: back in new york
june 3 - 6: london
june 6 - 12: ireland
june 12 - 15: amsterdam
june 16 - 21: france
june 21 - 26: italy
june 26 - 29: back in london

which looks something like this:

then on the 29th i'll either fly back via bangkok, or stay on in london for a bit longer. we'll see how the money goes. ;)

bye for now!

traveling! (whoo!)

i originally started this blog just so i could comment on some other people's blogs. but now that i'm going away, i figured i might use it to let you know how i'm going. this way i won't have to bombard everyone with massive group emails and forget who i'm supposed to be sending them to, and you can all read it in your own time.

ok? ok. nothing to say as of yet. i'll probably put up some photos from going away events sometime soon.

i'm outta here on thursday. :)

The Super 8 Diaries Launch @ Coppin St Studio, Melbourne (19/01/2008)

12 hours, 12 bands, $12. A pretty good deal if you ask me. Put it in an old warehouse turned arts studio, combine with a photography exhibition and the launch of The Super 8 Diaries, a documentary showcasing the better side of local music, and I’m there. The fact that it’s being held less than five minutes from my house means, of course, I turn up late, and unfortunately I miss the Ooga Boogas.

But I do get there just in time for The Thaw. Visiting from Sydney, this three piece are masters of transition. Soft beautiful melodies transform into walls of feedback and distortion with such ease and subtlety you barely even notice things have changed until you hear screams over the top and realise everything is as it should be. Elsewhere they fall back on jazz chords and weird rhythms before somehow bringing it all down to a whisper again.

Touch Typist are a completely different feel, but such is the beauty of this lineup that you never know what’s coming next. Consisting of guitar, drums, keyboards, vocals and sometimes a trumpet, these guys deliver an electronic/indie type rock, which mixes programmed beats with some cool organic jams.

Hardcore is the best word to describe Majorca. An energetic blur of screams, fingers and arms for sure, but technical ability and an understanding of how to structure a song separate this group from what tends to pass as hardcore these days. Top it off with the intensity and screams to prove that there’s no faking here, only real passion for what they do.

Next up is Chris Cobilis, whose band The Tigers appear on the Super 8 Diaries. Using a laptop, miniature guitar and microphone, Chris creates long drawn out soundscapes. Sometimes these lead into what Chris jokingly refers to as “proper songs” where he sings about ideas such as how we name things, but the two styles form a good balance as notes from the guitar are used to build the next soundscape.

Charge Group just weren’t for me. Apologies to the band; they showed an easy talent, sung and played together well, and I’m sure their music would appeal to a lot of people. But they just didn’t grab me on the day. Never mind, enough people were enjoying them that I’m sure they didn’t even notice me down the back.

12 hours may be great value, but it’s also a long time. So I took this moment to step out, grab some lunch and a coffee. I was out a little too long and missed the start of Aleks and the Ramps, another band to appear on the DVD. But luckily I didn’t miss it all. In their cute matching t-shirts they made a sound that was energetic and crazy, but mostly fun. There was instrument damage, there was dancing and there was a good time had by all.

What better to follow this, than another wall of screaming intensity? Enter Eucalypt, who brought back the hardcore. I recognised one guitarist as the guy, who’d been up the front dancing and screaming for Majorca. Suddenly it all made sense. Although we were all lined up across the front of the performance area, one of the band pointed out that there was still a lot of space in front of that, so we swarmed onto the carpet to join with them in a mess of bodies and movement. I don’t know what else to say about Eucalypt except they write some great tunes and use their heaviness to great effect.

Ladybird were the sole international act of the day, visiting us from France. They brought a softer, sweet touch to the day’s proceedings. But their cover of You Shook me all Night Long had them embraced as if locals for a sing-a-long closer to the set.

Tucker B’s move from a relaxed early 90’s sound to something far more raucous. Another band to appear on the Super 8 Diaries, it’s fitting that they play before the screening of a teaser introduction/interview with the project’s creators. Made for Chickens by Robots plays a guitar and sings through a megaphone while using drum pedals to play percussion on suitcases. The similarities to Bob Log III are inescapable. Having seen Bob not too long ago, I found both suffered from being unable to understand a word they said, which made the whole performance hard to get into.

There could be no more fitting headliner to this night than Baseball. Not only are they on the DVD, they are probably the best band in Melbourne at the moment, and encapsulate everything the Super 8 Diaries project is about. While the members may all be in other bands such as Pikelet, The Assassination Collective, Love of Diagrams and Ninetynine, those bands are hard enough to describe – put these four together and they become something else entirely. It’s rock, most definitely, but it’s also got elements of gypsy violin and chaotic punk. Most importantly, it’s the most original sound I’ve heard from any local band. If you live in Melbourne and haven’t seen them yet, you really should. Their debut album is coming out in February, and then there will be no stopping them.

In the meantime, check out the Super 8 Diaries DVD for a taste, along with live footage and interviews from Colditz Glider, Love of Diagrams, My Disco!, Baseball, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Tigers, Mukaizake, Aleks and the Ramps, Bang!Bang!Aids!, Die!Die!Die! and Tucker B’s. Visit MySpace for info on how to get the DVD and a few clips.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)