Take a little trip back to the stone age with me

Lime Spiders, The Devilrock Four and Screwtop Detonators
19 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

In my continuing series of seeing old Aussie 80s bands, I wasn't sure about the Lime Spiders. Yeah, Slave Girl is a pretty awesome song, but is that enough? I had an early morning the next day as well. But it is at the Northcote Social Club, like 5 minutes away, it seems silly not to go.



Not a lot of people there when I get there. In hindsight, the Screwtop Detonators shouldn't have been enough to get me there early either. Their myspace pages quotes a lot of old punk bands, mostly 70s NY punk, but I just wasn't hearing it so much. Some day when they are bigger than Blink 182, they can have proved me wrong, but for me there was something about them tonight that was just a huge mess. I also see that they have recently lost their drummer and have a new one now. I think that was a whole lot of their problem. The rhythm seemed to be a mess, it seemed like every time he did a drum fill, he would be late on the beat, or something that totally threw it all off. The singer at one point complained that his vocals were too loud in the monitors, he hated his voice, could they turn it down. Hmm, not a ringing self endorsement.

The crowd didn't warm to them very much (the 20 people who were there at the time) and the band made those silences between the songs rather awkward by being a little upset about them. Maybe they were having an off night, or they just weren't that great to start with. Although, they did do a version of Police On My Back, which I have a bit of a soft spot for, I have to admit having been in a band which did a version of it as well.



The Devilrock Four start and yeah that's more like it. I had a better feeling while they were setting up, the guitar player played along with TV Eye which was one of the in between set songs. Two guys were in back shuffling through their cds, playing stuff between sets, some of it cool - Saints, Celebate Rifles, and some of it not - Blink 182, I think. But Devilrock Four, launch in and I think, yeah, better, a little bit like the Fluid. They aspire more towards more harder punk, Radio Birdman or there about, than the Screwtops who wanted to be more pop. They also solved the problem of silence between songs Husker Du style, that is don't stop between songs.

But after a few songs, it starts to sound the same and I get a little bored. I mean they are fairly tight and have a pretty good sound but it just doesn't hold my interest past a few songs. There is a rather strange guy jumping around and dancing in the audience, spinning on the ground and whacking his own head with his hand. I assume that he wasn't quite all there. He was slightly entertaining yet I spent most of the set (and the next one) worrying that he would run into me, step on my feet, or whatever.



When the Lime Spiders come on, they don't quite match my picture of them, at Mick Blood and the famous voice. The rest seem grizzly enough, two guitars, bass, drum and that voice, I believe at least one guitar player and bass player are original members (or at least from the 80s when they did the bulk of their work). I enjoy their version of Are You Loving Me More (Electric Prunes). Slave Girl, they have to play it, is about 2/3rds of the way through and pretty much lives up to my expectations. I suppose Slave Girl is mostly why I showed up, you know, the one song that bands have that so far exceed anything else they ever did. Not to say the rest of the set isn't good, I like a lot of their other songs but really Slave Girl is like a perfect song.

They do a pretty decent version of Iggy Pop's I'm Bored. I spend a lot of the show closer to one of the guitar amps, some loud and cool sounds coming out of there. But yeah, I'm pleased I went to see them, it was a good set of loud psychedelic fuzz with that unique voice in the middle. They do one song for an encore then leave. At least they don't drag out the whole encore thing like some people do any more. Then home isn't far away, I'm home and in bed a few minutes after the show.

Old time rock and roll

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, Dan Kelly
11 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Every time I see a show at the Corner, the crowd is completely different. Yeah, obviously, the Hard-Ons are going to attract a different crowd than the Church. But you know, I'm the same at all of them, why don't they all just look like me? Tonight, the crowd looks a lot like Sha Na Na, a fair amount of pompadour hairdos in evidence. Even though tonight is sold out and it should be packed, I'm hoping there won't be as much pushing and shoving as normal.

I guess I'm just a recent convert to Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. I've heard some of their recordings and they seem pretty charming. Reports are that the live shows are fun and good too, so I have pretty good expectations which I can report were fulfilled during the evening.

But Dan Kelly is just coming on as we get there. I looked him up before going, since I had never heard of him. Apparently he had some successful stuff out a few years ago, some a little political (Sleeping on Election Night) and has gotten some awards (or nominated or something). He also seems to be a the nephew of well loved Aussie star Paul Kelly. His band for the evening seems to have been hastily assembled for this supporting spot for the tour. No bass player, a keyboard player who looked like he was a little stoned (or just grumpy), a drummer who apparently used to play for Eskimo Joe (I would probably know more about them if I listened to Triple J more often) and is tapped to play for XX (can't remember the name but it might not have been finalized since he got a little annoyed when Dan mentioned it), and a singing duo the Ukeladies on backing vocals.



So, a few songs I liked, although there was something in the overall sound that didn't sit well with me. I could never quite figure out, did it just sound way too commercial (although it was all a bit rough and the band didn't seem really very tight). The song about bombing power plants and being on the run from the helicopters (complete with helicopter sound effects), although he did screw it up and had to restart the song part way through. Some apparently were his older songs, which I hadn't heard. He did a ukelaile version of Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O'Conner) which was kind of cute.

The crowd was funny and different tonight. I mean it was sold out and packed but when people tried to crowd up front half way through, they would get scolded, you haven't been standing here for the last hour, have you?



So, if you haven't heard, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are siblings and were like 12, 14 and 16 (I believe that was like 4 years ago) who play rockabilly on a variety of instruments. They are now joined by their parents, dad on guitar and mom (former drummer for the Raincoats) on stand-up bass. Ok, that last one is almost enough for me. I'm a real sucker for stand-up bass and she was pretty good and could really pull it off. Obviously, the whole family is pretty talented, all the kids switch off pretty effortlessly between guitar, drums, keyboards, trombone, etc.

They really have the fun bits of rockabilly down. It is quite funny to see somebody who started singing about getting her mojo going, learning from a gypsy woman when she was a pre-teen. They really pull it off though. I think the vast majority of what they perform now is versions of old rockabilly songs (like Mean Son Of A Gun by Johnny Horton), all of them probably obscure enough to modern audiences that they are new songs. They have started to write some of their own songs too.

They play for like 90 minutes, switching instruments pretty much every song, switching who is playing drums, playing a keyboard, strapping on an accordion. Part way through, they bring on Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton, a legendary Jamaican trumpet player, who has to getting on in his 70s now. He is quite cool. They play a bit of rockabilly ska with him and a few other numbers before he heads off. They play pretty much everything off their one record, and if you have heard it, it is pretty true to that sound, happy up tempo music that makes you want to dance. They impress too which their musical skills, long harmonica feats of endurance. The crowd eats it all up and goes home happy. For me, two great shows in two days (Akron/Family and this one), completely different in every way but both great nights out.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Akron/Family, Fabulous Diamonds
10 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

I'll just start off by saying, wow. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought I would like it but really, wow, how could I have known?

So, the normal stuff, super rainy day yesterday, hard to make myself go out into it, and sickness took down some others who were supposed to go along. A shame about that, they would have loved it. Fabulous Diamonds had just started when we got there. I hadn't heard them before and various web pages say things like minimal psychniks, classic dub, experimentalism and post punk mixed together. So, basically it could sound like anything. They are a two piece band, a woman on drums and a guy playing keyboards (and turning dials on effects pedals).

She reminded me of Moe Tucker on drums, sometimes using mallets, simple drum patterns, very minimal, but with cycles in them and a different sound dropped in each cycle around. Much of it was instrumental but the singing was like Dead Can Dance when she did sing. The keyboards sounded like horror film soundtrack organs, mostly simple back and forth between two notes (and between two different keyboards) but that also cycled while he played with the digital delay and sound structure, like how harmonics and beats create different rhythms within the main rhythm. I suspect that there was some music theory in all of it, carefully thought out and constructed. In between it all, they didn't move much or say much.

Being experimental, I would say I liked about half of it, half the experiments worked. Like the 2nd to last song was 10 minutes or so of the simple two note variations that generated some really interesting rhythms, just got really hypnotic and trance like. Then the last song was sort of a variation of that, another long 10+ minute song that just didn't really feel like it fit together very well, just sort of beats and notes and stuff but not really a song. I guess not a bad choice for an opening band. I usually seem to be about 50/50 on them, they just had that split within the one set.

Now, I've been listening to a fair amount of Akron/Family lately, but that didn't really prepare me for the show. The records have lots of pretty little songs, slow and gentle pieces that have strange touches and unusual layers added on top, sort of acoustic sounding strumming, rhythm that sounds like it is sometimes played on cardboard boxes, creaking chairs, with happy vocals backed by choir like three part harmonies, then lead into noisier longer pieces. They are on Young God Records (Michael Gira's label) and I can see how they fit in with that sort of quiet intensity like the direction the Swans and Skin went in their later years.



I don't know where to start, maybe in the middle or towards the end with my favourite moment of it all. So, the band is a three piece with drum, bass and guitar, although that was flexible, might be three guitars at a time, or two drums and a guitar, or just singing with strange noises from effects pedals. But this song had two on drums (one a stand up set, tribal sort of drumming) and guitar as well as the two guests from Fabulous Diamonds hitting whatever sorts of drums were on stage. Just 10 minutes or whatever of tribal drumming and noises and just a crazy intensity which I haven't really seen at a show forever, like Crash Worship kind of crazy, just totally hypnotic then the bass play pulls out a little shrill pipe and starts blowing on that, almost like a fox hunt call to arms, all I could think is what the hell was that, how could this get any weirder. Wow.

There was some guy from the audience on the corner of the stage, dancing and bobbing around. They left him there for 10-15 minutes, you know he was just sort of there not doing anything. Security then goes and tries to push him off until the bass player goes and grabs him and pushes him away, so he stayed and danced away for a few more songs.

Just really, I can't describe it. Songs would shift into completely different things, and they just were indescribable in the first place. You know, this song is completely noisy but it seems like there is an Irish jig under there somewhere. Or the sea shanty underneath their final song of the night which already seemed to have some sort of jazz funk already on top of it. So, I really loved it. Three minute little pretty sweet songs with 10 minute noisy strange segues (all I could think of was vaguely Interstellar Overdrive like) into the next three minute pretty part. What isn't to love there? What an awesome mind blowing experience.

Church bells may ring

The Church, ASTREETLIGHTSONG, The Kicks
5 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

The weather has cooled off quite a bit in Melbourne the last few weeks. It wasn't pouring rain like the last time I was down to the Corner Hotel. (Seems like the Corner makes up the vast majority of the shows I've been seeing lately.) It was cool enough to need a jacket tonight. The Corner seems to be obsessively punctual but at 8:30, people were lined up outside, had to actually wait a few minutes to get in.

The Kicks are on the small 2nd stage tonight. 2 guy/2 girl band, apparently 2 of them are siblings, 2 guitar, drum, and bass. They say it is their second show. Just a tip, change your name. In the age of the internets, a name that isn't searchable is just ridiculous. I consider myself pretty savvy and it took me a long time to find their Myspace page. You know how many have Kicks in their name?

Not that it seemed worth the search. My mind wanders a lot during their set, what makes a band good or bad, even if they are practised and can play their instruments. Their pace never really changes. They have different guitar textures underneath, different things going on in the songs, but they don't really seem to fit together with everything else. And it all sounded a bit muddled, like lots of high school bands. The lyrics seemed a little annoying (lots of baby oh baby). They do a cover, they say what it is, black something or other, but I don't recognize it. Guess I spend too much time listening to Triple R and not Triple J.

I also think, guys and girls really do move differently with guitars. Both of the girls do that sort of curtsy knee bob bending backwards thing while the guys all sort of bop around moving their upper body.

ASTREETLIGHTSONG is up next on the main stage. Three guys this time, one on drums, one switching between bass and guitar and a third playing keyboards and singing (with that classic haircut, do all Aussie blokes dream of having their hair like that - straight down, like a helmet with spiky bits hanging over their ears and in their eyes?). Lots of it is sequenced too. And the drummer has a synth drum. Aack. Who ever thought one of those was a good idea, making even the greatest drummer sound like he is messing around with a Casio. But sweet dude, you can make handclapping sounds.

So, a totally cheezy 80s sound. I think, hmm, they sound a lot like Christian Death, although I haven't heard them in a long time, so I could be wrong. Keyboards way out there, bombastic, guitar so covered in effects that all the life has been taken out of it - just basically twangy midrange, and sort of gloomy vocals. So yeah, I didn't like them so much. I'm nostalgic about a lot of 80s music, but it reminds me there was a lot that also wasn't so great.



But the Church, they start with Tantalized. Looking at this review from Brisbane, they play pretty much the exact same set. I don't know, I'm not sure I agree with them. First of all, they think Astreetlightsong are great, which I didn't. And it seems a bit fanatical about the Church, I mean "guitar guru Peter Koppes emitting shards of freestyle noise from his Fender". It all seems a bit over the top.

I liked them but wasn't swept away by them. I know all the 80s stuff, sort of know the 90s stuff and haven't kept up at all with the recent stuff. After Tantalized, I think it is a bunch of the new stuff. They do an awful lot of guitar switching. Two guitar techs were on stage between each song, switching a 6 or 12 string and mixing up who is playing guitar and bass. Some of it was really great, although they have a tendency to wander off on long noisy jams, which got a bit long and dissonant (maybe out of tune). I did like Chrome Injury (I think, they said they wrote it in 1981, although I thought it had something about a coast in the title), which was long loud and noisy. It worked for them there. Despite reports to the contrary, they do actually move around while they are playing (besides the in between song guitar shuffle) and at times jumped around a little.

They did Milky Way about half way through, sounded good and it went over well with the crowd. People kept yelling requests and they ignored them, playing up their difficult reputation as ignoring what people wanted them to do and play. The cover of Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins) would have been nicer if it seemed more spontaneous. And despite what you might think of the Pumpkins, that song and sound does suit them, but not so much the Church, not enough spareness of the acoustic guitar. They said the Pumpkins covered one of their songs, so they were getting their revenge.

So yeah, nice but not as amazing as I hoped it might be. I found my mind wandering during the set, wondering things like why they are not the superstars that somebody like U2 is. I mean they are fantastic song writers, talented musicians, and certainly have songs that got huge and popular, why didn't they get huge? I know lots of accounts blame grunge for coming in and stealing away their momentum. That just doesn't jive with me, I mean R.E.M. went through that time too and after Nirvana imploded, they came out the other side. I think they is something about the long jams, a bit of deliberate inaccessibility that kind of kept them back. Anyways, that's a debate for another day.

What do I get?

Buzzcocks, Spazzys, and Royal Headache
Sat 21 November 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

After a week of burning heat, it started raining the day before and is still raining. Instead of riding my bike all the way, I guess I'll take the train most of the way. Even having done that, I still get pretty wet getting there.

The Corner Hotel seems to be obsessively punctual about their show times. I'm there on time but Royal Headache are already playing. It doesn't seem like that much of a loss. I've looked at their myspace page and some reviews of them and they seem to be fairly well liked, but I don't get it. In one interview, they say they sound like a Melvins song. Huh? Maybe it is a Melvins song I've never heard. The sound is vaguely jangly (sort of 80s Postcard like), kind of fast, and not very exciting. The guitar player (on a Rickenbacher, didn't help) and the bass player are just goofy happy and seem to be having a great time.

I guess the music isn't so bad, just not very exciting. The singing, I don't really like much at all. I keep racking my brain to figure out what it sounds like, maybe like some 70s singer/songwriter long story narrative, or I just can't place it. He paces back and forth and keep saying he is screwing up the songs. I don't disagree. The place isn't full yet but they seem to have brought a lot of their friends who yell for them and love them.

They leave, the curtain is pulled, and I work on getting my place staked out. A woman is in a wheelchair to the left, so that should be a good barrier for being pushed from that side. The other people around me take lots of pictures of themselves with their Blackberries. Don't know, maybe they can get pictures posted of themselves on the twitter quicker. They're drinking heavily and getting more and more annoying.

Curtains come back and the Spazzys take the stage, a 3 girl punk band. I like them a whole lot more. Bubble gum punk, sort of Runaways but with some Do Run Run Run in there. Lots of whoa-whoa, fast simple songs about my guy loves me, and they close with a theme song, Let's Get Spazzy, to boot. I think a theme song is generally a good thing for bands. Well, the Jonathans had one and they weren't that great but I still admire the effort.

The curtain is pulled again and the same tape plays again, some vaguely familiar 70s Brit punk pop (something like Toy Dolls or something) and then loops yet again. I guess they don't have much canned music for 70s Brit punk shows. I'm working hard keeping my spot, standing firm against the Blackberry crowd to my left and annoying dancing woman on the right, jamming her purse into me constantly (back turned dancing, or drunkenly lurching). No point in elbowing her or anything, probably too drunk to feel it until tomorrow. Until she starts tapping my shoulder, wanting to say some stupid things, ignore her, maybe she will go away.



Hurray, the Buzzcocks come on. Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and the two new guys. Both look a bit like they were in the Kaiser Chiefs. I look up the bass player later, apparently his London band gets compared to the Buzzcocks a lot, so appropriate then. I couldn't really see the drummer much, but he sounded fine. The bass playing was fine too, he just kept staring at the crowd though, it just seemed really strange.

They launch into Different Kitchen. You know, I'm not so sure about the whole album in its entirety format. I like the songs on the album and am familiar with them, but not to the extent of the singles. I still think the Buzzcocks are the king of singles. Insane that you could come up with that many awesome singles in just a few years, when you are still in your teens. It is a bit strange that they have to stand and wait for the sound effects (phone at the beginning of No Reply, for example) and all the Can inspired noodling around on some of the other songs (i.e.,Moving Away From the Pulsebeat). It felt a bit constrained playing the album instead of just playing songs. Still, I totally perk up for Autonomy (my favorite song) and some of the other ones.

They finish up the album and Steve and Pete do a bit of a high five with each other, good going, got it done, then into Love Bites. Ok, now this is getting a lot better, Real World, really starting to rock. Love Bites has a lot better songs, a lot more rocking. Just Lust is a bit of a mess but still pretty cool. Steve keeps drinking champaign and pointing his guitar up, sort of cheezy rock star moves but still fun. He gets his acoustic guitar for Love Is Lies and does a great version. After they finish up, they leave the stage one at a time, leaving the drummer to close it out.

Obviously they have to play more. Isn't it just expected that bands play encores anymore. They know why everybody came tonight, back on stage and into Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get, Ever Fallen In Love, Promises and then finish with Harmony In My Head. It is all pretty cool. I have to say, I saw them in Liverpool a couple of years ago and I thought they were a lot better. Partly because it was like the encore, single after single, all of them fantastic, with an occasional album track thrown in, still I go home happy. Well, I head out into the ridiculous rain storm (pretty torrential by now) and see about getting home. Hopefully the rain hasn't messed up the trains like it often does.

The sweater song

Hard-Ons (25th Anniversary Tour) with Dr El Suavo in between acts, Killer Birds, and Useless Children
Sat 10 Oct 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Back to the Corner Hotel again. They have had lots of things there lately. I'm a bit late getting there and they seem to run their shows pretty much on time. I get there as Killer Birds are finishing up their last two songs. A 3 piece girl punk/grunge band, seems a shame that I got there late. They seem to have a pretty decent rocking 70s old school punk sound. Their webpage mentions The Runaways which seems to fit. I make a mental note to check them out again.

Dr El Suavo takes the stage, as the MC for the evening. It is a fairly strange act, a mildly crude comedy act with magic tricks wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and a fez. The magic is inoffensive, lots of stuff you can pick up at magic shops like the 3 rings that magically link and unlink or bottles that hide shot tumblers inside. Even if you don't know the exact trick behind each, you have a pretty good idea how it is done. I guess he can cover that up by with his crude stage act. I guess also by working in props like dildos and drinking a lot of his props after each trick. It works for what it is, that 15 minutes or so between acts is generally pretty boring as they set up for the next band. He stands in the corner doing his act while they set up the stage. Kind of entertainment multi-tasking.

Useless Children take the stage next. It seems like the sound sucked all night at the show. Generally the Corner has decent sound but something about it is just muddy and buzzy all night. Useless Children are a noisy trio (girl drummer, which seems to be a pretty common arrangement for Melbourne bands). I can't really distinguish any of the vocals above the noise. The girl on drums sings most of them, growling through most of it. The rest of it is a decent wall of sound but nothing grabs me in it and I zone out a bit during it. The crowd is a fairly young one tonight with lots of different punk t-shirts. The guy in front of me has a Minor Threat one on and my mind wanders thinking of different Minor Threat songs I like or trying to think of the noisiest punkiest show I can remember seeing (I come up with the Cro-Mags, they were Harley's War that night though).

Mostly they kind of remind me of all those bands on old Maximum Rocknroll compilations, the ones with like 70 different bands. The Flipper or Dead Kennedys track was pretty decent but then there were about 68 other bands that kind of all sounded the same, whether they were singing in English or Italian or whatever.

Dr El Suavo comes back on and does some more tricks involving rubber chickens and then does his straitjacket escape. He yells at the audience to pay attention and clap while he dislocates his shoulder and suffers for the trick.



I guess a lot of the shows I've seen so far in Australia are a lot of them that I heard back in the 80s, some of my Australia imports. So most of them are on their 20-30 year reunions, reliving past glories and the rest of that. The Hard-Ons are doing their 25th anniversary, although they point out they were broken up for a number of those years in between. So far it seems like it has been a decent strategy, I see bands I liked way back when and get a handle on other bands around through the opening acts. I had a Hard-Ons record back then, mostly I just liked Girl In A Sweater and the rest of it was decent bubble gum punk. At least that's what I remember, I haven't heard it in a while. They play Girl In A Sweater for their encore then something quite speedy after that. The rest of the set was nice but not great. Or maybe it was just the sound, something about it was really awful.

So, another oldies band ticked off my list.

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

Ok, more like 52 bottles. Just got the second batch of beer bottled, an English bitter this time. The golden ale, my first batch, is just starting to get good after ageing for a few months now. These should be ready in a month or so. Hmm, what next?

I was in the house when the house burned down

Chapterfest - 19 September 2009 - Tote Hotel, Melbourne
Bum Creek, Dick Diver, Primitive Calculators, the Twerps, Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plástico, Hit the Jackpot, Minimum Chips, Pikelet, and Tenniscoats

This is a good way to see bands. 9 bands over an evening, about 30 minutes each. No time to get too bored if any of them are not so great.

When I get there, Bum Creek are already playing. Or something like that. I guess they would be like freeform noise jazz, or something along those lines. There are some genres of music, no matter if I actually like the music or not, that just make laugh, like Norwegian death metal, for example. Oh, they intend for some gigantic warrior god to come crashing out of the sky and crush you like a bug and bury you under a mile of snow and melt it all again with flames, and whatever, but when they are screaming and playing as fast as they can, I just giggle a bit.

But freeform jazz too, it makes me chuckle. There are three of them, two playing various combinations of keyboards and horns and trumpets and bouncing things off tambourines, and then one guy on drums and percussion (more percussion than drums). They have magnificent facial hair and run around like apes, hovering over their keyboards, pounding on them, playing with with their feet, and making a racket. It is a performance that would fit right into a WFMU broadcast. The one song goes like 20 minutes and towards the middle, they have a pretty good groove, a nice rhythm and assortment of noises, but towards the end they start to lose me and I get a little bored. I guess I mostly liked it, but I'm not sure. People clap and cheer at the end and the band makes a performance out of cheering and yelling themselves for another minute or two, the drummer plays the walls and ceiling, and then it is done.

Better zip up upstairs and check out Dick Diver. It is pretty good too, two stages alternating, so you don't have to wait for the boring setting up and tearing down between bands. Now, Dick Diver, I really liked them. They look so young. Maybe it is just me but I hear just so much Go-Betweens in a lot of these Chapter bands. They have a quiet sound, long chord progressions, sort of half spoken singing, but they also have a nice bit of noise and feedback underneath it all. A pretty good set, I'll have to check them out again sometime.

When I get back downstairs, Primitive Calculators are playing. It is a funny setup on stage, looking like a rock band but with a guy sitting in the middle at a table behind a laptop. Looks a bit like he is telecommuting or something. But he is running the drum machine from it. I wonder if he just sampled their original drum machine because the beats are totally crude and primitive, between him and the bass, they totally have a great Suicide sound. It would have been cool to seen them launch into Frankie Teardrop (and not Joy Division like some dork kept yelling from the audience). Or maybe a Metal Urbain primitiveness without the shouting in French.

Primitive Calculators are pretty legendary, starting back in the late 70s with the rest of punk, but unlike the Birthday Party and others they hung out with, didn't quite make it and then took 29 years off. A shame, because they are pretty cool. So, a cheezy sounding keyboard and bass player playing simple driving things, and guitar player making lots of noise and bellowing total nonsense. One song was like '1979, nothing, 1980, nothing, 1981, ...'. Maybe that was a band history song. So, yeah, I guess they are playing around more now, so I'll have to check them out again.

Then upstairs, I'm a little disappointed by the Twerps. They opened for the Bats a month or so ago and I thought they were great then. Tonight, they seem a bit off, out of tune, not quite together, I don't know what it was, it just didn't do it for me like they did the last time. It is probably a tough stage to play, the upstairs one, crammed back into an alcove and everybody watching has to crowd into a long hallway to see anything.

Back downstairs to see Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plástico. I wasn't too into them either. Jeremy Dower plays a pedal steel guitar, the other two guys on a handheld touch electronic percussion pad and the other guy alternating between an unusual pipe and a keyboard. Jazz with an Hawaiian guitar edge, maybe?

Upstairs again to see Hit the Jackpot. Maybe I'm getting tired by now but they didn't do it for me either. They all rotate instruments a lot, so maybe that helps a bit with the variety, but still there is a bit of sameness in it all, rather simple noisy songs (a description not a judgement). Now, I really like the intros to a lot of the songs, they start rocking but then into the song and it just didn't seem to go anywhere. It was the small upstairs stage again, maybe I'll have to give them another chance in a different venue.

Minimum Chips are playing downstairs by the time I get back down. I guess they have been around for a while but haven't played together for a while too. Guy is playing bass for them now, sort of busy basslines. They have a nice cheezy keyboard sound and a bit of jangle in the guitars. I imagine Stereolab has been mentioned in conjunction with them before. They are nice but I'm pretty tired by now.

Upstairs for Pikelet. The place is really packed by now and I'm stuck back in a corner and can't really see much of anything. They have a little trouble getting set up and it takes a few songs to get the sound right. Two keyboards and an acoustic guitar, and guitar and drums. Kind of spacey psychedelic overtures then switching into quiet acoustic guitar parts. Interesting, I wish I could have seen some of it.

I'm about ready to pack it in. Downstairs Tenniscoats are playing. They have elaborate acoustic guitar pieces with a Japanese woman singing very softly (I assume in Japanese) over it and sometimes playing a pipe or keyboard. I listen to a few songs but just couldn't connect to it. It is time to go home.

Takeaways then, really liked Primitive Calculators and Dick Diver and need to give the Twerps, Pikelet, and Minimum Chips another go.
Primitive Calculators

Pikelet

Bum Creek

Search and destroy

8 August 2009 - New Christs / Bowerbirds / Lindsay Low Hand - Tote Hotel

The Tote is a little further afield, down in Collinwood, but not much. Some idiots in a car squirt water at me from a squirt gun. If that is the most exciting thing they have to do on a Saturday night, that's a bit sad.

This show was pretty recently announced and I was pretty excited. Of all the 80s Australian punk bands that I was familiar with back in the US, they weren't the absolute best but they were still pretty good. I don't know whether I'll get to see the Saints or Scientists or some of the others, but I can get a start on it here. I had tickets to see Radio Birdman a year ago when I was living in London, but it was cancelled at the last second because they had immigration problems. It seems as they broke up again soon after that. Rob Younger has gone back to the New Christs now, so I guess this will be the closest I'll get to see them then.

$10 to get in, pretty good. There are about 6 people there when I get there and a lot of them seem to be the first band, Lindsay Low Hand. They start a few minutes later, playing to their few friends who are there and keep thanking anybody who is there for showing up early. I wouldn't say that I hated them but they were not all that great. I guess having named themselves after some topical celebrity, perhaps some sort of ironic statement about her crashing descent and the rest of that, or something.

80s sort of hardcore, fairly predictable stuff, stuff I remember seeing at like Gate 5 of Folsom Stadium (basically a classroom) where different hardcore bands were allowed to play - Acid Pigs or some others like that, can't remember who I saw but then I probably won't remember Lindsay Low Hand all that long either. Seems funny, the singer/guitar player really went nuts and screamed and jumped around and played his guitar harder but somehow it didn't really seem to show up in the sound. They only do about 30 minutes, so no worries then.

Bowerbirds are up next. They have a pretty appropriate look considering how they sound. There is a bandanna hanging off their mic stand, several of them have those 60s Beatles boots and haircuts like the Monkees. They have a real 70s edge to them, I'm thinking Peter Frampton, 70s NYC punk, a few other things. Not that they sound a lot like that, but there is just something about them that remind me of that sort of 70s sound. It gets me thinking too about what makes a band pretty mediocre and what makes one really good. They have some much more presence than Lindsay Low Hand. Whether that is sort of a swagger or the way they attack songs, or just express something up there. The music can even be pretty similar to worse bands but something about the presentation and spirit can lift it up. Ok, they weren't amazing but they were entertaining. I especially liked the fuzzy 12 string guitar they started out on.

The New Christs take the stage and look the part of old grizzled punk stars. Rob Younger has thinning old hair and looks suitable craggy. Jim Dickson, who played bass for them in the past, I think is totally cool. He looks like an old prep school English teacher, well, vaguely like Mr Kirkpatrick (or at least the essence of him) from my own past. His bass is well used, totally worn through the finish where his hand rests, like he has played it every day for the last 25 years (maybe he has). He is pretty cool playing too. Maybe that's what makes bands good. They all go at it, involved in their own things, attacking the song independently but it all fits together too. The two guitars sound good together as well as the occasional cheezy organ.



They are supporting their new album, which I haven't heard yet, so most of the stuff isn't familiar. Mostly it is fun watching Jim attack the bass and Rob gesturing and pointing and dancing. In the end, they do a ripping cover of Magazine's Shot By Both Sides and tear though Like A Curse, which rules. It gets the biggest cheer of the night from the probably 150 people there by the end. Nice show and a quick cycle home.


8/08/2009 9:00 PM - New Christs (album launch) + Bowerbirds + Lindsay Low Hand, Melbourne, Victoria 3066
- The Tote Hotel
Having just returned from a month long European tour that saw them play the huge Azkena Rock Festival in Spain (alongside Alice Cooper, The Black Crowes, The Breeders and more), Sydney band The New Christs are now setting their sights on home territory with the release of their latest album ‘Gloria’ and an east coast tour set for August. It has been an interesting journey since Radio Birdman front man Rob Younger formed The New Christs in 1984 to support Iggy Pop on his Australian tour of that year. A number of single releases featuring several line ups followed before the band recorded and released their debut album ‘Distemper’ in 1989. Over the next decade they would go through a number of line up changes, tour Australia in support of legendary bands such as Ramones and regularly take their live show to Europe. Following their release of the album album ‘We Got This’ in 2003 the band split while Rob focused on producing bands and touring with the reformed Radio Birdman. It was 2006 when the current version of The New Christs formed when former bass player Jim Dickson returned to the band and new recruits Stu Wilson(drums), Dave Kettley(guitar) and Brent Williams(guitar) lead the band into a new era. With two European tours under their belt, the band began work on The New Christs next full length album in December 2008. The result is ‘Gloria’, already received strongly overseas by its dedicated fan base, the band now tour their home country in support of the release after returning from their third European tour with this line up. The New Christs ’Gloria’ is in stores nationally on August 1st 2009.

Release the bats

The Bats / Crayon Fields / The Twerps - Northcote Social Club - 7 August 2009

The Northcote Social Club, only a 10 minute bike ride (up a huge hill though), so cool to be close to things. After a nice pizza and calzone dinner, the Twerps have just started playing when we get there. Ahh, I really like them. I hadn't heard them before but it is a nice surprise. It is obvious they have been listening to a lot of Go-Betweens records and at times I get a bit of a Feelies-Crazy Rhythms feeling.

The drummer is quite laid back. At one point, he almost worked up a sweat. The music has a nice quiet slow jangleness. They are quite young. The guitar/singer plays simple things and occasionally stomps on the distortion for almost ridiculous noisy guitar breaks (ala Dinosaur Jr) which make me laugh every time. The girl lead guitar plays a nice texture of notes underneath (almost a surf guitar sound) also giving it a slight pleasing discordance. It really does have that Go-Betweens two guitar interplay sound. At one point somebody in the audience yells to turn her up. Half way through the next song, she keeps gesturing to the soundman to turn it back down. It really does fit in better with the sound when it is a nice texture just under the music. But I thought they were great, I'll go see them again if they are around. Apparently they have only been around for about a year.

Next up, the Crayon Fields. I've heard them mentioned around but hadn't heard them before either. I have to say, they had some magnificent sweaters (jumpers). It must have been a band requirement because they all had total 80s sweaters on. They have quite a full sound. Like the Twerps, they are also slower but there is a lot more going on. The 2nd guitar player plays a whole lot more notes and sometimes fills with a keyboard. There is a lot of different percussion, shaking different things at points. It gives them a highly produced sound, sort of Belle and Sebastian like. The singing is funny, I don't think he was Japanese but it has that slightly stilted sound of English being a second language. None of their songs seem to go on for more than about 2 1/2 minutes. I enjoyed them, although I like the Twerps more, since they were a lot more fun.

They pull the curtain across the stage and the place really fills up. It was a sold out show and it was packed wall to wall. That's probably why 2/3rd through their set, I feel quite faint from the heat and have to go find somewhere to sit down for a while. Now Flying Nun when I was just getting into music years ago, it was sort of the holy grail for me, legendary, hard to find, and so exciting when I finally got to hear some. Before the days of the internet, the only way to hear any of it was to break down and pay like $20 for a crazy expensive import single. So, I had some Tall Dwarfs, Clean, etc, but I didn't have any Bats. How exciting though, my first Flying Nun band to see live.

The Bats

I guess of all the Flying Nun bands I've heard, to my ears, they seem to be the most Australian sounding of them. I mean they don't have quite that frenetic jangling, but sound more solidly folk, with that Australian ballad, sort of Triffids sort of thing going on. In a sort of theme of the evening, they also have a girl lead guitar who plays lots of notes and textures under the main sound and sings on some songs, giving them nice harmonies. They haven't toured for years and the audience eats them up. The band seems slightly blown away by it, promising to come back soon, not quite expecting the turnout they got tonight. They play a pretty good set, only really marred by me nearly passing out towards the end. Although of all of them, I actually kind of liked the Twerps most of all from the evening. Ahh, Melbourne does have some pretty good music about.

Crayon Fields

The Twerps


THE BATS (NZ) with The Crayon Fields and The Twerps SOLD OUT! ** The Twerps 9pm * The Crayon Fields 10:10pm * The Bats 11:20pm to 12:20am ** Mistletone presents The Bats in their first Australian shows in ages! The legendary New Zealand band have been playing their distinctive style of melodic infused pop folk/rock for long enough to have drifted in and out of fashion several times, without even trying. The Bats top many a music aficionado’s list as well as sparking for today’s savvy young music initiates. The Bats are set to release their wonderful new album ‘The Guilty Office’ as they head to our shores for the first time in six years with the same brilliant line-up since the band’s conception in 1983: Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant.

50 concerts I saw... (There's no business like show business)

I've been meaning to compiling a list of all the shows I've seen, or at least a lot of the first shows. I'm still pretty sure that REM was my first, but not completely sure. So, mostly shows from the 80s and my best guess at the year as well as opening bands and venue.

Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw.

Should you choose this challenge, here's what you do:
Copy my note. Click on "notes" under tabs on your profile page (if you don't find it right away click on the +). Select "write a new note" in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list of 50, with a new title for your note. Once you've saved, don't forget to tag friends (including me) on the right.

1 - R.E.M. (Young Weasels/Computer Class) - Rainbow 1983 (First concert, I think)
2 - Echo and the Bunnymen (Billy Bragg) - Rainbow 1984
3 - Violent Femmes (Fishbone) - Rainbow 1984
4 - Eurythmics - Red Rocks 1984
5 - Blasters (Beat Farmers) - Rainbow 1985
6 - Black Flag (Minutemen, Meat Puppets) - Rainbow 1985
7 - Swans (DC3) - Eagles Lodge 1986
8 - Husker Du - Blue Note 1985
9 - New Order - Rainbow 1985
10 - New Order (Echo and the Bunnymen/X) - Red Rocks 1986
11 - U2 (The Alarm) - Events Center 1984
12 - Elvis Costello (Aztec Camera) - Events Center 1983
13 - R.E.M (10000 Maniacs) - Events Center 1985
14 - Sonic Youth (Cage of Reason, Happy World) - German House 1986
15 - Sonic Youth - Aztlan 1987
16 - Nick Cave - Aztlan 1986
17 - Suburbs - Rainbow 1984
18 - Butthole Surfers - Normans 1985
19 - Butthole Surfers - Glen Miller Room 1986
20 - Replacements (Government Cheese) - Glen Miller Room 1986
21 - Rank and File - Boulder Reservoir 1983
22 - Billy Bragg - Blue Note 1984
23 - Billy Bragg (16 Horsepower) - Denver 1991
24 - Warlock Pinchers - A lot 1985-
25 - Boi (Pavilion Steps, Phil Wang, Shades of Grey) - Boulder Depot 1985
26 - Minus Bill 1986
27 - Siousxie and the Banshees - Rainbow 1986
28 - The Fall - Rainbow 1986
29 - Jonathan Richman (and some comedian) 1987
30 - The Fluid (Brother Rat) - Littleton Town Hall 1986
31 - fIREHOSE 1986
32 - Pavilion Steps (Sons of T, Decembrists, Mr Butler Died Here) - Littleton Town Hall 1985
33 - Bloodflower 1985
34 - B.A.D. - Mammoth Events Center 1986
35 - Midnight Oil - Red Rocks 1986
36 - Screaming Trees - Quigleys 1986
37 - Electric Third Rail (Free Lint) - Quigleys 1986
38 - Black Flag (Gone, Happy World) - Aztlan 1986
39 - Joe "King" Carasco - Glenn Miller Ballroom 1986
40 - Angst (Soul Merchants) - Clarkson St 1986
41 - Happy World (Shut Up Bitch, Gun Nuts) - Lawrence KS. 1986
42 - Tex and the Horseheads - Blue Note 1985
43 - Swans - 1987
44 - Crash Worship - Penny Lane 1986
45 - Lorena McKennit - Boulder 1989
46 - Steel Pole Bathtub - Quigleys + other places 1986
47 - Gary US Bonds -Glenn Miller Ballroom 1987
48 - Big Head Todd and the Monsters - weekly at the UMC FACs 1987
49 - The Cure - Red Rocks/Rainbow/Events Center 1986/1984/1985
50 - Fishbone - Glenn Miller Ballroom - 1987

Did you ever see a flower and hate it?

7 June 2009 - Nation Blue, X, Flipper at the Espy, St Kilda.

I've been waiting for this one for a while. I've had tickets for weeks. I still have regrets for not seeing Flipper way back in like 1984 and then there were years of not seeing much to make up for as well. Again though, I get there way too early. The tram is fairly quick and it only takes about 20 minutes or so to get there.

The Espy is one of the multitude of hotels (and pubs) around Melbourne. The front steps are dominated by smokers. The front room on the bottom level has some pretty lame band playing, background music for drinking. I head upstairs to pick up my ticket and get to the ballroom. It is a nice venue, lots of strange accents on the wall like antlers and Moroccan looking curvy fake doorways.

Nation Blue is up first. I had listened to a few of their songs on Myspace and wasn't so excited about seeing them. I couldn't get much from them, quite get a handle on what they were from those. I'm still not sure I have much of a handle on them but I did enjoy their set. Their drummer was great, quite powerful. It made their songs a strange mix of slower guitar stuff, chunka-chunka-rest chunka-chunka-rest, while the drummer was off doing double time thrash drumming. Somehow it all fit together and made a nice wall of noise. Probably helped that it didn't seem to be so important what the guitar guy was playing, he was fond of flipping his guitar around and sometimes playing it by rubbing it on his back, so it didn't seem to matter so much about notes and rhythm, it still fit in with the rest of the sound. And I like a band who runs around on stage, running into things, kicking amps, and the rest of that. I can't remember any of the songs now but I did like them.

I was really excited to see X at this show. It is a lot of why I wanted to come to the show in the first place. There is the X from LA that everybody has heard of, this is the other X, from Australia. Back in my youth, I was quite excited about obscure stuff from the other side of the world. Maybe they were not so obscure in Australia, but in America they were pretty much unknown. My trips to Wax Trax would yield me nice gems that no many others in the US were listening to, Celibate Rifles, Triffids, Go-Betweens, etc and when I really splurged (way expensive imports, something on Flying Nun Records from NZ. But I had At Home With You back then and really liked it.

X lost their original bass player a few years ago (cancer, I believe) but their lineup now is substantially the same as back in the At Home With You days. But when it comes down to it, X is mostly about (Steve) and his guitar and pretty distinctive gravelly voice. The sound at the show was mixed pretty much so that dominated the sound and it worked fine. The bass player had a five stringed bass and seemed to fit in fine. The drumming is laid back and certainly not the powerhouse that Nation Blue has, but she kept good time and filled out the sound a little bit. But like I said, the sound and rhythm all came from the guitar. He has a cool stripped down sound on his guitar, back from like old school punk, New York Dolls sort of rawness. They played a good set of all their old songs, All Over Now is really a magnificent song, and it was so cool to finally see them.

Ahh, Flipper. It is strange to see the crowd at the show. Probably about 1/3 is older people, kind of my age, who grew up in the 80s and for who punk was still something fairly new. I was a bit too young and musically unaware to really engage with the original punk scene, but by the early to mid 80s, when New Wave was totally in and the 2nd wave of punk was coming out, I was totally in with that. Flipper then was slightly old school but still coming up with new things. The other 2/3 of the audience looked to be in their early 20s, probably first heard Flipper on iTunes, but a lot of them sing along with everything.

Ted comes on, looks a bit like a dirty crusty hippie, long dreadlock, although it is greying. Steve reminds me a lot of Bobby from the Sopranos (the one married to Janice). He comes on stage and takes pictures of everything, the stage, the hall, and the audience. Rachel, the new bass player has harlequin stockings, a skirt, and saddle shoes. Bruce really surprises me, he comes on looking like he is just headed to the office, at least a business casual one, sort of nice trousers and shirt. They fuss around getting themselves ready. Bruce admits that even after 30 years, he still gets butterflies before going on. It is his 50th birthday today too. Wow.

So, it is basically the old Flipper but Will died years ago, and they have tried an assortment of bass players since then. Kriss Novelasek (of Nirvana fame) was the most recent one and was instrumental in getting them back together recently for an All Tomorrow's Parties and their most recent album. But he decided he didn't want to tour, so Rachel (formerly in Frightwig) joined just a month or so ago. She starts and she has the Flipper bass sound, super distorted, slow deliberate bass lines. Seems perfect and she seems to fit in with the rest of them pretty well. Ted makes a blizzard of noise on guitar (playing mostly bar chords and lots of notes in between to fill it all). He has a cool airline seat belt guitar strap too. Steve keeps pace and hits hard and Bruce screams. It is good.

They seem quite happy tonight. There is a big crowd, a few hundred, and they are thrilled. Apparently in Perth and Adelaide the few nights before, there were only a dozen or so at the show. But Melbourne is a lot cooler than those places. So, they play a long set and even play Sex Bomb, which I hear has been left out of a lot of recent shows. For that one, Bruce takes the bass and Rachel stands by and takes pictures. Random audience members wander up onto stage and sing. Another mic wanders around the front of the crowd near the stage and people scream into that. I'm front and center, right up to the stage and it is great there being close, except for the annoying slam dancers who keep running into me. That and the few people with cameras with huge lenses that take about 600 photographs. But slam dancing, you know, that annoyed me even in the 80s and I haven't enjoyed it much since then. It reminds me of seeing the Cro-mags at CGBGs a few years ago and having to wedge a table between me and the drunken idiots running around trying to smash into people. You know, if you want to dance and run into each other, yeah fine, but aiming at people who don't really want to is annoying. This was just like 5 people too, so not all that many.

They play lots of songs, Ha Ha Ha, Life, Sacrifice, well, a mix of old and new. It is everything I expected it would be. The new stuff sounds like the old stuff, which is just fine with me. They go late and I miss the last tram at 145 by a few minutes and have to walk the 20 minutes home instead, but it feels good to be out and stretching after standing for that long. Seen Flipper and X, can tick that off my life list now.

Flipper

Too little, too late - (Little corella) - Photo of the day

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

So, another disappointing picture of a corella, sadly the best one that I have in Melbourne. Not as many pretty colorful birds here as in WA, and when they are around, it is a smallish flock flying overhead to a far off tree. Saw these above a football field next to the farmers market we went to a few weeks ago.

Safety Is the cootie wootie (Australian (Eurasian) coot) - Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

Ok, so they are super common, I know. Most parks and waterways have them. There are a lot more of them than moorhens too, which I always mix up with coots.

She's a rainbow (Rainbow lorikeet) - Photo of the day

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

I haven't seen as many parrots and parakeets in Melbourne as I did in western Australia. But there are a few pockets of them. There are a few that seem to always hang out in a tree overhanging the railroad tracks a block away from here. It is hard taking a good picture of them, they are prettiest when they are in flight, otherwise they are hidden in the trees.

What is it up in the air for? - (White plumed honey eater) - Photo of the day

13 April 2009 - West Gate, Melbourne

I'm pretty sure this is a white plumed honey eater but am not completely sure. It never settled down long enough for me to get a good look. It zipped all over then was diving in the water and up and around for another run. Just sort of caught one of its splashes in the water.

Mongoloid he was a mongoloid - (mallard/Pacific black duck hybrid) - Picture of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

They are pretty but they appear to be a little bit of everything. I think this one is a mallard/Pacific black duck hybrid, or some other duck combination.

There's a big bird over my house - (Australian pelican) - Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

Ahh, pelicans have been a nice thing to see. When they are flying, they tend to circle up high, looking a lot like a bird of prey. When they are up close and in the water, they are generally scooping up water and seeing what they have caught in their beak, like this one.

Posing at the Roundhouse - (Red wattle bird) - Photo of the day

8 April 2009 - Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

I don't see them all that often, but when I do, they seem to be great at posing for pictures, not moving all that fast and being right out in the open.

Gotta let this hen out - (Dusky moorhen) - Photo of the day

11 April 2009 - Melbourne

Ok, kind of a crappy picture, I know. It was running off on the side of a bike trail. Not ideal conditions to get a good picture. There are zillion of coots around but not so many moorhens.

Ol' yellow eyes is back - (Spur winged plover) - Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

I have been mistaking these for lapwings for the longest time. I just don't think of them as plovers either considering I usually see them in parks and not wading in mud and they seem too big to be plovers. They are fairly common around the area.

Diver down - (Little pied cormorant)- Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

I quite like cormorants. They are one of the few of the sea birds that I thought were so cool in the UK, like guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, the cormormants (shags are being phased out in naming conventions) are one of the few carry overs of all of those in the southern hemisphere. You either see them hanging out on the end of docks with their wings spread trying to dry them out or out in the middle of the water constantly diving and diving again.

Poisoning pigeons in the park - (Crested pigeon) - Photo of the day

2 April 2009 - Melbourne

So, I'm not such a huge fan of pigeons in general but the crested pigeons are much prettier than the normal ones. They are not quite as common as other pigeons, so I've only seen them a few times here.

Swan Swan H - (Black swan) - Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

So, if you are in Australia, you will see the black swan at some time. Up until their discovery, swans were always white. The black swan has become a saying for something unexpected that changes everything. They are nice looking swans too.

Fashion plague - (Indian myna) - Photo of the day

April 2009 - Melbourne

So, I'm pretty much over the myna bird. They seemed charming and cute when we were in Thailand. Now in Melbourne, they are all over and are worse then pigeons. Apparently in the 1860s, somebody had the bright idea to introduce them as insect control for the markets. They didn't do a very good job of that but adapted quite well to urban life and then just became incredibly invasive and negatively impacted a lot of the other native species. Oops.

I am the king of the divan

Saturday 9th May 2009 - The Old Bar, Fitzroy
New Estate
Elizabeth Pistol Club
Midnight Caller
Ashtray Boy

Tram downtown and then over to Brunswick Street. It is the first time I've been over in that area. My current area is a bit posh/fake/cafe culture, so it is a welcome change. Dinner first at a Chinese restaurant. I have been looking for mapo dofu as good as I ate in China. I try it here and it is fine but not the same. They also have lots of Mao things scattered all over, I feel souvenir regret again, not buying that cool Chairman Mao poster of him waving hello with sunlight coming out of his fingers from that one shop in Beijing. Damn. We bought lots of Vietnamese posters which are pretty cool but that doesn't completely make up for missing that. You know, it was the first week of China and it was all over the place, but once we got further south, there wasn't as much cool stuff like that around. And carrying it around for another few months (or shipping it home), put us off a little bit. Oh well, next once in a lifetime trip then. Dinner takes forever, which is another difference from China where most meals arrived a few seconds after ordering. Also, it was rather expensive, unlike China. But I should stick to the subject here.

Ashtray Boy is already playing when we get there. Apparently they have been around for decades (mid 80s), constantly shifting lineups except for Dr Lee, the guitar player. Liz Phair sang on a few of their songs back before she was famous. A friend of C's is playing drums for them now. They are nice. A bit mellow, indy, jangly, low keyed. I wish I could hear more of the vocals, just barely above the music in the mix. I guess I think they are a bit like the Feelies but a little bit slower.

Midnight Caller are up next. Damn, I should have brought ear plugs. I need to include that in my going out kit in the future. Now I like loud music and all but I feel a little cheated about this one. I think there was something about the bass player that really bugged me and he turned out to be the main abuser of volume. He was soundchecking Metallica bass lines before they started and at times used ridiculously fuzzy distortion and really liked whacking things with his bass to make loud clunks. (The sound guy seemed decidedly unamused when he smashed the mic stand and the microphone was rolling all over the floor.) Now done correctly, I'd be on my feet cheering that sort of thing but it just seemed like noise that didn't really fit the rest of the music. I liked the bits where he just kind of played normally or even better where it was just the two guys on guitar throwing back and forth fuzzy jangly point counterpoint almost trance like sounds. The vocals didn't really register much over all the music, so I'm not sure of they were good or bad. It was easy to kind of let it wash over you and let your mind wander. I was thinking back about things I had seen way back, I had recently unearthed some old concert fliers and realized, wow, I had seen Sonic Youth for $4, or Nick Cave for $7 on Halloween, or seeing the Swans at some crappy warehouse, or, ahh good times.

Elizabeth Pistol Club, they were kind of cool. The guitar player was on the other side so I couldn't see or hear a lot of him. The bass player had a bass with high cutouts so he could play even higher notes and tended to play mostly quite high and lots of chords. He also sort of sang, almost low talking. They had a girl drummer, she hit hard and had lots of fairly complicated patterns, was pretty good but really kept screwing up the last song, off by a beat or so every so often and everybody had to pull it back together. They seemed to be having fun though. She played a lot of toms and with the low singing and the way the guitar sounded, it reminded me a whole lot of Dance With Me era T.S.O.L. or maybe a less industrial Savage Republic.

Unfortunately, public transit in Melbourne doesn't go much past 1 so we couldn't stay for the entire set for New Estate. Apparently they have been around for years and years too. They were quite fun, lo-fi jangly, quite distorted electric piano, and everybody switched off singing. I kept thinking of Sonic Youth covering Ca Plane Pour Moi. We only got to see about five songs before we had to run to catch one of the last trams. Next time, ear plugs and a bike so I won't have to be at the mercy of the tram schedules.

Thus quote the raven, nevermore - (Pied or grey corrawong) - Photo of the day

1 May 2009 - Windsor, Melbourne

I didn't get a great view of it, this one was taken through a window, so I'm not completely sure if it was a pied or grey. Either way, they look totally cool.

I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman - (Whistling kite) - Photo of the day

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

Ok, this one was pretty cool too, a whistling kite leisurely wandering across the sky, followed by a few other birds, paying no attention to them.

I am the owl (Southern boobook) - Photo of the day

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

This was probably my favorite bird sighting so far in Australia. A small owl, the southern boobook, who was startled out of its tree, stumbled around in the daylight a little bit before finding its way back to its hiding place in the tree.

Everybody's talking (Melbourne birds)

Birds of Melbourne

I know what everybody is thinking, bird pictures. Have you seen any birds in Melbourne? Funny you should ask, I have seen a bunch of them and even compiled a list as well as some photographs of them, which I'll post in the next few days.

Rainbow lorikeet
Pied (or grey) currawong
Pacific gull
Silver gull
Little pied cormorant
Little black cormorant
Rock dove
Indian myna
Starling
House sparrow
Song thrush
Blackbird
Australian (Eurasian) coot
Dusky moorhen
Willie wagtail
Butcher bird
Welcome swallow
Spur winged plover
Whistling kite
Black swan
Little corella (?)
Mallard
other ducks
Southern boobook
Austrlian pelican
White plumed honey eater
Red wattle bird
Crested pigeon

Plus a lot of other small things I haven't identified yet.

Labour of love

Angie Hart and Guy Blackman at the Toff, 5 May 2009

Caught the tram downtown and wandered around Swanston Street looking for the Toff. It is still silly to be worried about being late since nothing ever starts on time. But this one didn't start too awfully late. The Toff is up a few flights and seems like a pretty cool lounge/club. $7 for a beer though, ouch.

Guy Blackman was on first. He is a friend of C's and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It wasn't at all what I expected. I knew it was an acoustic show. Nothing against that, although I tend to like music that sounds more like people getting beat up or things being destroyed. He alternated between acoustic guitar and an electric piano and occasionally played some pre-recorded backing music from his iPod. It was quite gushy confessional with a touch of lounge thrown in. He sheepishly throws in a Dusty Springfield cover at one point, how dare I presume to cover Dusty, the rest of the songs being almost exclusively about his failed or past and current romances or just generally throwing yourself into it all. It is nice and quite sweet while hovering so very close to unbearable schmaltz without quite descending into that.

Angie Hart was the voice of Frente and her voice is such a huge part of their sound. They had a song on the Melrose Place soundtrack, so she is super famous. Ahh, Melrose Place, do you remember that episode where Brooke drowns in the pool then comes back as a ghost and haunts Billy and Billy gets this stupid look on his face because he is a horrible actor and being haunted by a ghost is just totally out of his range, ahh, good times, but I can't get caught up in Melrose Place here.

Angie has a guy with her, Sam, on acoustic guitar. He is quite good, plays loud and gets a lot of sound out of it with just a edge of classical guitar. I've listened to a few of her new songs online and they have lots of instruments and lots of production, but I guess what I really liked about Frente was the sparseness. With her and an acoustic guitar tonight, it has that and is good. She has a great voice. She plays lots of new songs I've never heard, a few old Frente songs, and does a fun duet (tri-et?, Sam played too) with Guy coming back to play along on Book of Love (Magnetic Fields) while she forgets a lot of the lyrics and screws up a bit in the middle. Then comes back for an encore, ending with Bizarre Love Triangle. It is funny, New Order can play that whenever they want but Frente really owns that song now. To me, it is the way to do a cover, either take a loud, complicated, or electronic song and make it super simple and quiet or take a quiet song and totally kick its ass, either way totally remaking the song in your own image.

Then home and in bed by 11:15, that's the way to do a show, no fuss, just music and quick in and out.

I'm a member of the right brigade

So, one of my resolutions in moving to Melbourne was being better about getting out and seeing bands. I lived in London for years and was just incredibly lame about that, I'm just embarrassed how few things I saw there. But big to medium acts, they sold out months in advance, and the smaller bands, there were like hundreds of them playing everything. Going through Time Out every week was pretty overwhelming. But I'm determined here, it will be better.

Luckily there is somewhere just a few blocks away so it isn't a huge effort. Chapel Street is mostly cafes, fancy second hand shops, trendy clothes shops, and night clubs. But Revolver also has bands some nights. And for $7, what the hell.

On the bill tonight, Red Brigades, The Sophisticants, and The Jonathans. Now I'm quite out of practice about the arrival time. I leave late to get there yet still have to wait for an hour before anything happens. Sigh. Nice comfy couches though. I sit next to the mom of two of the Jonathans. She seems familiar with lots of the songs, probably heard them from the basement/garage a lot. So, they are not so great. Revolver has a tv projection system showing strange old stock footage superimposed over live video of the band. I enjoy the stock footage, the effect is a bit like old 60s tv shows of bands, cheap video effects over strange random images. It would be fun to put together film and images like that. I keep hoping they will start rocking and get out of that groove they are in but besides the Loose Change In My Pocket song, where I think, hey, this isn't so bad, well, it is only $7.

It is a real flashback to high school/college, those earnest yet trying to be epic songs, singing that is just a bit off key and phrasings with just a few too many syllables to fit in a line ahh, good times in college, drinking and watching your buddies play and make a lot of noise. They seemed to bring a lot of their friends along, about half the crowd disappears after they finish. Must make a note for myself, Jonathan by the Jonathans, they said it is about somebody they knew who died and they named the band after him. Maybe it will fit on my dead teen song web page.

I'm a little more hopeful about the Sophisticants. While they are setting up, the bass has a nice fuzzy sound and the drummer hits really hard. When they start playing, it is amazing what a really good drummer can do for a band. He is pretty kick ass and the bass guy fits in well and makes a pretty rocking rhythm section. I can't really hear the guitar much, but they all seem to aspire to a sort of Stooges/New York Dolls sound. It is great when bands can pull off double time thrash sections, that drummer is pretty good. They throw in a few ska sounding things (was thinking of Sublime at the time) It is nice that they seem to be having a great time on stage, smiling and laughing and having fun. The singer bounces around a lot, trying different things, a bit of Elvis, some Roger Daltry, some of that guy from Sublime. I wish I could remember some of their songs now, but at least they were fun and I enjoyed watching the drummer go at it.

Red Brigades, I had high hopes for them. From the clips on their webpage, looks like 2 girls on guitar and bass making lots of noise with a boy drummer. Seems good. They play mostly slow dirges. The guitar has plenty of delay on it, sometimes looped, and lots of other effects. Seeing it live, the songs are much simpler than I thought, depending a lot on the effects, simple bass lines, and slow drumming. I still like it and occasionally they really kick it in and launch into a fast bit and jump around a lot. The violin bow on guitar technique makes me think they have other musical training. I'm pleased to see a wah-wah pedal thrown in there too, not enough of that in music anymore. They play a pretty cool set of all of this, and am quite entertained. I'm not entirely convinced by their cover of Dancing Queen, which resembles the original in very few ways, mostly the same lyrics. It is funny and a cool thing to do but somehow doesn't quite work for me entirely. I'd be interested in what other covers they could warp like that. I'll keep an eye on them and might have to check them out again sometime soon.

Midnight, Saturday night on Chapel Street, most everybody has that glazed over stumbling look of the tail end of a night out drinking. A group of girls in bed-sheet togas yells Wooo as they walk down the street. Oh my, where am I living?

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, enough goofing around in WA, time to be moving on and settling down. After about 10 weeks in Perth, Fremantle and Albany, the I'll be flying off to Melbourne and work on getting settled down there. I meant to write more over the last 10 weeks but it was a bit busy. I'll have to see how it goes after getting there. There is a lot to set up and organize.

It has been a really good 10 weeks and I have seen some really great things. Dolphins on the south coast in the Southern Ocean, a few off South Beach in Fremantle, and two just a few days ago well up the Swan River in central Perth. The marsupials are quite cool. There were lots of kangaroo wandering around down south. The bandicoot that wandered around the garden was great. Then the quakkas on Rottnest Island, yeah, they were cute too.

I'm getting a good handle on the birds here after sighting eagles, osprey, honey eaters, and more parrots and cockatoos than you can shake a stick at. I could probably make a list of about 50 different species that I've seen since I've gotten here. I'm looking forward to seeing which ones are different in eastern Australia.

There has been cycle camping from Albany to Walpole, a week in a fishing shack on a cliff over the Southern Ocean, a few days on Rottnest Island, snorkeling and swimming in a lot of different bays and rivers, kayaking in a few other rivers, and hmm what else? It is nice that most museums are free in Australia, so I've wandered through a few of them.

I should be to Melbourne then pretty quickly. I'm looking for a few good concert buddies. It has been too long since I've seen many live shows. Drop me a line and tell me what bands are cool to see. So, here I come.

Where the hell is Bill? (Short billed black cockatoo) - Photo of the day

12 February 2009 - Nornalup, Australia

Just walking outside the Valley of the Giants campsite, there was a grove of trees with 3-4 cockatoos up in the trees. This one was the lookout, keeping an eye out while the other ones went about their business.

The tooth fairy and the princess (Splendid fairy-wren) - Photo of the day

12 February 2009 - Nornalup, Australia.

Maybe the prettiest bird I've seen so far is the fairy-wren. I know the parrots and parakeets are pretty but the male fairy-wrens just glow. At the Valley of the Giants campsite, there was a group of rather tame ones, the male with his harem all feeding their chicks, who would walk right up to you and cheep at you.

Lady Water and the hooded one (Hooded plover) - Photo of the day

23 Feburary 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

Hooded plovers are endangered and quite uncommon. So, it was nice to see a few of them wandering around the beach.

Do the ostrich - (Emu) - Photo of the day

11 February 2009 - Near Parry Beach, Australia

Emu are related to the ostrich and are native to Australia. They are slightly smaller. I believe they are the state bird of Western Australia. Here are a few of them.

Like cockatoos - (White cockatoo) - Photo of the day

15 January 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

White cockatoos fly around the garden here occasionally. Mostly up high in the trees but sometimes they come down low and you can see them better. I wonder if these are seasonal since I haven't seen them for a few months now.

Think pink (Galah/pink and gray parrots) - Photo of the day

18 January 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

There are a lot of these around, galahs, or pink and grey parrots. Quite noisy when they are flying and chasing each other around. Here they are working on some sunflowers near a telephone pole on a street corner.

Like a bird on the wire - (Red tailed black cockatoo) - Photo of the day

18 March 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

A few noisy red tailed black cockatoos perched on the tree in the back garden a few days ago. They are really pretty when they fly and the red in their tail really flashes. They are a little harder to take pictures of when they are in trees, the red doesn't show as much, nor does the gold speckles on their chest.

(Under The Screaming Double) Eagle-(white-bellied sea eagle) - Photo of the day

4 March 2009 - Torbay Inlet, Australia

While rowing kayaks down the Torbay Inlet, a nice white-bellied sea eagle flew overhead and then landed in a tree and was good enough to stay there as we drifted underneath. Usually you see them circling over the sea and cliffs but it was nice to see this one close up.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree - Picture of the day

19 January 2009 - Subiaco, Australia

The laughing kookaburra is one of the birds you hear about from Australia. It is a large kingfisher. They look pretty cool, although in Western Australia they are considered invasive (from eastern Australia) and compete negatively with other native species in WA.

Just like honey (New holland honeyeater) - Photo of the day

23 January 2009 - Albany, Australia

More bird pictures, I hear you, you can't have enough of those. I guess I have a few days worth of those from various parts of Australia. Here you have a New Holland Honeyeater, they are pretty common along the south coast of Western Australia.

New Holland was an old name for Australia, originally for the whole continent and then after that everything that wasn't New South Wales (i.e. Western Australia).

Polly wants a cracker - Photo of the day

14 March 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

Back to the present day, I could probably spend a lot of time posting pictures of all the nice birds I've taken pictures of in the last few months. Australia has some good ones, lots of colorful ones at that. Walking around Fremantle, here we have an Australian Ringneck (commonly known as the Twenty-Eight Parrot) on a powerline.