Pool scores

For those of you who keep asking, I'm now 6-3 down against my regular partner. All right? I may have to take up pub trivia instead.
And yes, I know Walter Lindrum played billiards, not pool, but what a great tombstone.

Bliss.

I was up late on Saturday, drinking. Champagne. In a tent. Until 3.00am. Woo.
Had an early breakfast of barbecued bacon, and then went over to the beach for a swim. Great hangover cure.
In the afternoon I met up with Greg & his wife. The Prayer Babies let me down, by somehow forgetting to bring the South Of The River gospel choir with them. Ooops. Maybe they left 'em in the car. Whatever, it was all good until some speedfreak started a fight. We left, taking a few Cooper's pale ales with us and drank them while sitting next to a lake watching the sun go down. None of this is very rock and roll of course, but it was all hugely enjoyable.

Phew.

Still recovering from last week's pig out, and think I'll be having a quiet one this weekend.
For the record- the Double Agents launch was great, Spencer Jones solo was great, Sixfthick were fucking explosive. A weekend of sweat, heat, beer & loud gritty music. I didn't get down to the Tiger By The Tail video shoot though- if you have a strong stomach there is a snapshot of proceedings here.
This weekend's details are in honour of and for the benefit of the mysterious G, author of the excellent blog Sex Kittens Compare Scratches , who is in town for a few days.


At the Espy Front Bar in St. Kilda tonight- Mach Pelican, The Havenots (Japan), The Gingers, Three Chord Disasters.

But they are up against the "Beasts VS. Drones" show at the Tote in Collingwood. This sounds a bit goddamn special, frankly- "Two of Australia's toughest and dirtiest rock bands attempt to out-cool each other in a rare solo challenge at The Tote, Fri 23rd of February with a special umpire in judicial mode. The night will feature solo sets from the old guards of oz rock: Spencer P Jones & Brian Hooper of The Beast of Bourbon, competing for street cred and raw sex appeal with the new wave: Gareth Liddiard, front person of the Drones, and Christian Strybosch, original Drones drummer. The totally impartial umpire in this death match, who will also grace the stage to break up the general machismo and any spontaneous punching-on, will be the gorgeous and delightful Laura Jean, making this a night of intimate performance from the cream of Melbourne's artistic crop. To enhance your listening pleasure, the normally sweaty Tote will be transformed into a sophisticated club atmosphere, with lounges, tables and candlelight, and all acts performing live in the pit. All that for only $12.00? Bargain.

There are rich pickings on Saturday too. Spencer P. Jones is doing his solo thing again at the idGAFF Bar in the afternoon, which you can follow with ECSR at the Corner Hotel, or maybe Dollsquad over at the Evelyn.

On Sunday , the Prayer Babies are at the Greyhound with accompaniment from the South Of The River gospel choir, from 5.00pm or so. Perfect end to the day.

For stubby holders, silly hats, fridge magnets etc, you're on your own, but they are all easily found in Swanston Street, just up from Chloe's Bar. Enjoy your stay, Greg.

Bo Diddley

is coming to town for one show only, at the Prince of Wales on April 4th. Someone very important to me really wants to meet him, but seeing as she is well underage, I can't just take her to the show.
Any tips? I'm guessing I'm going have to gatecrash the soundcheck.

Koala By The Tail

Greetings one and all!
Tiger by the Tail are playing their last show for some time, (basically we ain't got nothing else booked), tomorrow night Saturday at Cherry Bar, AC/DC Lane, Melbourne. We are supporting Paper Planes at their CD launch. We are on early at 9.30pm.
Come along and have a beer.
Oh, and Sunday morning at 8am on South Melbourne/Middle Park beach we will be filming a video clip for the song 'Summertime at the Beach". We will be playing beach volley ball dressed as a koala and kangaroo playing against an ape, tiger, arab and a lebanese youth umpired by two coppers! So if you're out power walking or just coming home from Pony come along, bring the kids or whoever you've gone home with! Should be a laugh!

Worth going just to see these extraordinary athletes in action...

This weekend.

Apart from the Double Agents single launch shows at Exile on Smith Street and the Excelsior, the only other option seems to be Sixfthick:

and that's fine by me.

Fake. Shitty.

Some things just make me sigh.
Like hearing that the fakest of all the shitty fake bands around at the moment are playing at the shittiest & fakest place in Victoria...I thought it was a joke, but no, it's true.
You couldn't make stuff like this up if you tried. Sigh.

The return of X

Last night I was lucky enough to be sitting in the right place at the right time, and so to be invited to watch X rehearse for their upcoming dates.
In a stinky pub back room, that usually holds about 200 people, there were five of us- Steve Lucas, Kim Volkman, John Hall (drummer for these dates) a sound guy called Wal & me.
You can quibble all you like about whether this is the "real" X, but don't ignore the music. For my money, this sounded like the real deal- an opinion confirmed by (long term fan & friend of the band) Fred Negro when he stuck his head in for a minute. Really, though, they needed nothing from me, or Fred, so I just sat and enjoyed it,
"But what did they play?" I hear you ask. What I saw went like this:
"TV Glue"- spiky ringing guitar to the forefront, Steve taking the spoken vocal.
"Degenerate Boy"- again, that guitar sound, wrung out of a new Epiphone.
"Moving On"- some trouble with the final few bars' speed metal assault, quickly ironed out.
"Dipstick"- played faster than I've ever seen it done before.
And more- "Oxford Street Nick" "I Like You And You Like Me" ("Oh, I light up so easily-ah...") "Halfway Round The World" (all slashing old style punk chords) "I Don't Wanna Go Out" (I was grinning like a schoolboy for the duration of THAT) and a very sharp take on Del Shannon's "Runaway"...
Questions?
Yes, Rilen is absent, but yes, I think Kim is a great fit as his replacement. Yes, Steve can still be a bit tetchy at times, but yes, these are his songs and he still enjoys- loves- playing them. Worth noting this is not the only project he has on the go, either. Cathy's absence from the stool was explained to me but it's not something I want to go into here.
You would be a fool to miss your chance here.
Dates, links etc- well, here's the band , here's Steve, here's Kim and here's Cathy .
And this is probably a good place to note that the Aztec Music reissue of "At Home With You" with bonus tracks, is now scheduled for May.

Drones and Dimi Dero Inc. tour

This just in:

All looks good to me. I think there are a few more Dimi Dero Inc. shows to be announced, too.

2007 Erotic Art Prize & Exhibition

For some reason I was not surprised to see Melbourne writer/artist/musician/filmaker Philip Brophy on the list of finalists for this, for his work The Body Malleable
Twenty years after he made "Salt, Saliva, Sperm and Sweat" he's still at it, and he's still out there.
And I have him to thank for the huge Astroboy posters I mentioned earlier too- he curated that exhibition.

Got nothin'

There is so much going on this weekend I couldn't get anything together.
All I know is I'm going to look at a swarm of wild bees.

Pool scores

While I'm here & posting, can I just say that it is really fucking bad manners to whine when, despite all the cue gymnastics, you start your half-arsed game off with a foul break, and then try and steal shots when your opponent is at the bar/putting money in the jukebox/lighting a cigarette?
A very satisfying win, that one. Oh yes.

Radio Birdman tour news- update

This just in:

Russell Hopkinson has parted with Radio Birdman and has been replaced on drums - for a planned American tour at least - by former MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson. He played with three Birdmen in the 1981 Australia-only combo New Race. Hopkinson had too many You Am I commitments to remain with the band.
Radio Birdman has pencilled in a June-July run through the USA and Canada but since Thompson has ongoing recording and live commitments with DKT (Davis-Kramer-Thompson -the collective of surviving MC5 members), his tenure with Radio Birdman will be temporary.
Some limited Australian dates before the USA have not been ruled out.

thanks to the Barman for the heads up on this.

the professor speaks, part one

Did I dream this or overhear it somewhere? Maybe I made it up.

70, no, make that 80 percent of what is known today as rock and roll performance is utter bullshit, that requires the total and willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience to get off the ground, let alone fly any distance (says the professor, drink in hand, and fat arse firmly planted on a Tote barstool).
Buying a Strat and a Marshall amp does not make you a god. Leather pants? Don’t make me laugh! But people will still go for it if you’re lucky. And Danny Sugerman's “shaman” theory of Morrison, Jagger & Rose -yeah, stop sniggering at the back there, he did really mean AXL Rose- is complete cock, too, but those moves still pull ‘em in.
For most of the bad boys, though, the highway to hell actually leads them to semi-comfortable retirement, plugging old tunes at reunion shows & hoping that old hit gets picked up for use in a beer ad. Unless, of course, that shit really does kill you, in which case it’s game over for everyone except the lawyers & the record company.
Now, (belch) if someone wants to stick a dollar in the juke box and punch in “My Pal”, let’s move onto today’s classics lesson…

There's more of this to come, I think. Comments welcome, film & TV rights still available

Louis Tillett live

I promise, I will stop doing the cross-posting thing.
But someone involved in this show sent me a very positive message about this I94 Bar piece, and I figure they would be happy for it to be spread around a little.

How was your weekend?

Mine was hot, and countrified- you can get a glimpse of Saturday's Jon Langford show here.

Pool scores- lost another one.

More to come soon, I promise.

Duh.

Goddammit, how did I forget about this?

I Won't Pay For Punk Records... and you won't either.. when true to form reunited Sydney punks The Thought Criminals, give one away free to each person attending their Melbourne show at The Tote on Saturday February 3rd. Written and recorded over 3 days, the Peace, Love and Under Surveillance 5 track coloured vinyl 7" EP (or CD, the choice is yours) features all new tracks that were previewed when the band recently supported The Buzzcocks. You excited? You should be, as The Thought Criminals will be joined by special guest TV Smith of ex '77 UK punk legends The Adverts. In addition, comedian Bruce Griffiths, founder of infamous Sydney punk label Abberant Records, will be kicking the night off.

Pool scores: 1 - 1

It's all even after my 3 ball choked in the lower left pocket FOUR times. Damn. Ended up rifling it up the table & into the top pocket.
More to come.

Can't think what to call this one.

So much going on this weekend...

One of Melbourne's living rock & roll treasures, Mr. Fred Negro, is inviting everyone in town to his birthday party at the Pint on Punt in Windsor on Friday 2nd February. He'll be taking the stage with the Twits , and has promised special guests, fun and drunken depravity. Well, he didn't actually promise drunken depravity but it's a safe bet, trust me.

I like this graphic for the Devil's Kitchen Festival, which is on over the next two weekends at the CERES eco-park, hippy sanctuary or whatever it is.


At this stage it looks like I'll be taking my own advice - someone has to- and seeing Jon Langford on Saturday afternoon.

Hmmm, what else?
Oh yeah- that old charmer Quincy McLean reminds me that Blue Ruin have re-tooled their 1986 LP "Flame" for CD, and are re-launching it at the Corner Hotel with support from Kill Devil Hills and James McCann & the Dirty Skirts on Saturday night.

I'm sure there is something going on on Sunday too, but I plan to be somewhere quiet, with a hammock & a martini shaker. Somewhere like this:

Jon Langford house party

This has been getting a fair run on myspace, but there is still room on the RSVP list. It promises to be a unique afternoon's entertainment, get there if you can.

The postmodern man of BBQ, Mr Julian Wu is hosting a house concert featuring the renaissance man of insurgent country music -- Mr JON LANGFORD!!
Founder of legendary UK proto-punkers MEKONS, Chicago hellfire country band THE WACO BROTHERS, star-studded western swing ensemble THE PINE VALLEY COSMONAUTS, duet partner with SALLY TIMMS, death penalty campaigner, visual artist extraordinaire, collaborator with the famous and the obscure, radio personality on WXRT, papa bear figure to the entire Chicago indie music scene -- is there nothing this wiley Welshman can't do?!

Come join us for a house concert with Jon Langford, raconteur, provocateur and drinking partner par excellence, on Saturday February 3 from 3pm (music starts 5pm).
Jonboy's band for the occasion will feature Nev Anderson, Dave Hastings and Roy Payne of Fat Dusty + Jason Walker (Last Drinks) on steel, and maybe some added mando and accordion for good measure.
There will be several amazing Langford paintings on display (and available for sale), including his portraits of the Aboriginal country musicians featured in Clinton Walker's "Buried Country" documentary.

This here party is hosted by Julian Wu, Melbourne Music Identity and Iron Chef (BBQ), famed for his rock'n'roll hospitality and mouth-watering Wu-B-Q.
Tickets only $15 and that includes Wu-B-Q!!

Click to RSVP Sophie Best via email.