Another big week.

I've mentioned the return of X this week, at Ding Dong, in a previous post.
Cherry Rock 007 is on in AC/DC Lane on Sunday, but if you want to avoid the crowds and are happy to see only see a few of the acts, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and the Pink Fits are at the Espy on Friday night, for free.

Saints reform for Pig City Soundtrack show.

Some interesting news...

PIG CITY Brisbane's Historical Soundtrack
Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival,Paul Grabowsky announced today an event that will rock Brisbane like never before.Cult heroes, The Saints founded by Brisbane sons, Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper, and Ivor Hay will reunite on stage for a one-off historical performance in PIG CITY Brisbane's Historical Soundtrack under the giant Big Top in the grounds of the University of Queensland on Saturday 14th July 2007. In the place where it all began, The Saints will head up an amazing line-up of original Brisbane bands and musicians including Regurgitator, The Riptides, Screamfeeder, Kev Carmody, Ups and Downs, The Pineapples from the Dawn of Time and others.
Inspired by the bestselling book by Andrew Stafford, PIG CITY Brisbane's Historical Soundtrack charts a path through the heady days of Bjelke-Petersen's Queensland. The years when Brisbane dragged itself out of a somnolent country town daze and blazed alight with music and politics.

I read Pig City a while back, and it is a great book. It's not often that I wish I lived in Brisbane, but this is doing it.

RIP Lobby

Don't know if I can add much to the tributes that have flowed for the man following his recent death. I met him a couple of times, and he seemed like a nice bloke- fairly quiet at times, too. "G.O.D." is probably my favorite, though there is a Colored Balls b-side called "Devil's Disciple" that has to be heard to be believed. I'll be at his memorial service on Saturday, at Lauriston Girls School, 38 Huntingtower Road, Armadale. Special performances from Steve Lucas, Sean Kelly, Brian Hooper, Jim Keays, and Gavin Carroll, and this weekend on RAGE there is some kind of tribute planned too.

So much going on this week

that I can't quite decide. So I thought I'd post this early
The Double Agents LP Launch on Friday looks pretty definite.
But Leadfinger and the Swedish Magazines are on just up the road at Exile On Smith Street, too.
On Saturday there is a choice between the Hotel City Wrecking Traders at the Afterdark
or Youngbreeder at the Ding Dong Lounge

I know someone who is planning to go to three of these, I'll have to see how I shape up.

Rock & roll nurse.

Well, never let it be said I'm not open to new ideas.
Yesterday I got acupunctured by the lovely Janine Hall, the former bassplayer for the Young Charlatans and the Saints, among others. It was odd, and good, and seems to have helped calm the ringing in my ear. I could have done without passing out, though- that one needle to relax me worked a bit too well.
This has been a big month for for getting things stuck in me- a flu shot, a tattoo, and now this. Back for more later this week, I think.
After that I went over to the idGAFF to catch some of Steve Lucas' solo set, in front of a disappointingly small crowd. Come on people, where the hell were you all?

And here's another sauna pic, as promised. Those of you with keen eyes will see it features some of the same people, and indeed the same photo.


Edit- well, if Photobucket don't like it, maybe Flickr will. Let's try that again:

Views.

As this thing clicks up over 3000 hits (and more than 5000 individual page views), I have a request.
If you are one of the many Europeans who are visiting via a Google image search for "family sauna party", can you please drop me an email and let me know why? There have been dozens of hits on that post from January in the past few weeks, and I'm curious to know why.
Thanks. Here's the pic again, for your trouble:
This is from a postcard, by the way, one of several sent to me by a Finnish woman called Kiti many years ago. I probably should post those, too, seeing as this one's proved so popular and all.

Scrabble

Not quite sure why, but this week I signed up for the 2007 Mess & Noise Scrabblefest. I haven't played for ages, and I have no idea how good the competition is- an assorted gathering of fans, writers, musos and chatterers, as far as I can tell.
Round 1 kicks off in the Corner Hotel beergarden on Saturday afternoon (followed by Slayer), with more games at Exile on Smith Street on Sunday (followed by Penny Ikinger). I think I'm playing at Exile.
But I also have an appointment with an acupuncturist (hi Janine!) on Sunday afternoon, to try and get this infernal godamned tinnitus sorted out. Though I may then undo all her good work by going to see Steve Lucas at the idGAFF in the evening.

X- "At Home WithYou" relaunch.

Don't think I need to say anything more, do I?

More time out.

Well, it appears I now have bronchitis to go with the tinnitus. So, I'll be spending all day tomorrow on the sofa trying to catch up on some live and CD reviews for the I94 Bar (apologies to the Sacred Cowboys, Cold Harbour, X, the Killer Birds, the Kamikaze Trio and many others for the delay) and trying not to smoke too much, before fullfilling my annual obligations to the shareholders of Lindt and Cadbury.

I guess this means I'll miss the Scientists show at the Espy on Sunday...fuck.


Hopefully I can get caught up and back on my feet for the Double Agents album launch at the Spanish Club on the 20th.
Thanks to Patrick Emery for the use of his Scientists piece

Phew.

Well. What a weekend- three days worth, too.
On Friday I caught GUT, Kim Volkman & the Whiskey Priests, Intoxica & Sixfthick at the Greyhound. All good- and the place was nicely full too.


Saturday I went by the Corner Hotel early to say hello to Vinz and the others from Demi Dero Inc. then over to Exile On Smith Street, where I was too early for Tiger By The Tail. Went down to the idGAFF to see if the rumour of Sixfthick doing a last minute show as part of the GAFFStock weekend was true- it was, and they did.
Recovery session at the St. Kilda Bowling Club on Sunday went on a little too long, though. I had a very quiet day on Monday, I can tell you.
Except that it wasn't really that quiet- the tinnitus that has been bugging me off and on for the past few years is in full flight right now. The loud constant feedback-like whine in my left ear, and sometimes in my right, is making it hard to concentrate, hard to hear, and hard to sleep. It looks like I may have to give the music- especially live music- a break until I can get this fixed.


Thanks to Belinda for the shots of Sixfthicks Ben & Geoff Corbett at the Greyhound

I had a break

Yes, I took a break for a week or so, but am back now.
Did I miss anything exciting?

Free beer! and music.

This would be worth going to on Saturday, just to see Lisa Miller and Dan Kelly while drinking some Red Hill beer, let alone to win free beer all day just for reading the poster.

new Sacred Cowboys LP- "Cold Harvest"

Due any day now...I recently got a rundown from Garry Gray, which reads in part:

Cold Harvest: 2007
Garry Gray (vocals, backing vocals, lyrics), Spencer P Jones (guitar, backing vocals), Penny Ikinger (guitars, backing vocals), Terry Doolan (guitars, organ, backing vocals), Mark Ferrie (bass), Nick Rischbieth (bass), Stephan Fidock (drums).

“'Cold Harvest' with all guitars blasting out of a crumbling sun… I got this narrative … urban uprising driven by dysfunctional dreamers…powerless onlookers. I always wanted us to do this as a guitar album…. The 'Sacred Cowboys' are back shooting horses”, says Gray and adds, “It's about time. The world is at high noon and there aint nothin’ better to do.”

I always loved "Trouble From Providence", still do in fact, and that screed of verbiage has sure whetted my appetite for this.

Is there a name for this?

This thing where you stick a bit of linking code on someone else's page, and it sends loads of people to your site?
Because I just did it to Clem Bastow of the Age, with a comment on her blog , and, like, dozens of people are coming here through the link. Feels rude- I don't even know the woman. Oh well. Thanks anyway, Clem.

Local and/or General

Ryan Egan will be doing the last instalment of his excellent "Local and/or General" show on RRR on Monday 19th March.
Like all RRR shows, it will be available as streaming audio from here. Well worth a listen- check out this random sample from his playlists:
Dead Frenchmen - if only we could disappear
The Specimens - parasite head
Vanden - the river
Love of Diagrams - single cable
City Riots - signs
New Estate - while you were talking
Airport City Shuffle - when simians attack
About as local as you can get. Will be interesting to see what they replace it with.

EDIT: I forget to mention the fact that Diamond Dave Butterworth, of the Double Agents, is winding up his RRR program, "Galactic Zoo" this week, too.

Fake. Shitty. (2)

So, what's a dreadlocked musical warrior with a social conscience meant to do to flog his dodgy new album? Get the kids to pre-order it, and give 'em a crappy bit of merch in return for an extra $5.00, and then cross your fingers for that all important first week chart placement. Hope they ain't made in some Taiwanese sweatshop.

The Greyhound (again)

Well, there have been 16 objections to the redevelopment lodged so far. Closing date to register is this Friday, 16 March if you feel inclined- you can do it via that link, in about 20 seconds.
The local paper carried a story this week wherein someone representing the new owners claimed that nothing would change, that the bar & bands would carry on as before. But when Neil Wedd says that he's been told that his Indie Initiative nights will be coming to an end after seven years, I believe him.
Final show list looks like this:

Friday 16 Mar
BRITISH INDIA, YOUNG LOVERS, NEVERELEVEN, SKYBOMBERS
8pm, $10

Friday 16 Mar
MOTHER
9pm, free

Saturday 17 Mar
THE BREADMAKERS, THE VIOLENT MOOD SWINGS
9pm, free

Sunday 18 Mar
THE PRAYERBABIES WITH THE SOUTH OF THE RIVER COMMUNITY GOSPEL CHOIR (40 voices)
Gospel, country, blues and world music spectacular
4.30pm, gold coin donation

Wednesday 21 Mar
Indie Initiative:
Quinn, Nyssa, Bradsworth, White Summer
8pm, free

Thursday 22 Mar
Nervous Wreck, The Ribbon Device, The Pass Outs
8pm, $6

Friday 23 Mar
THE FUCK FUCKS, HYBERNATORS (with THE BOX WARRIORS), BITTERSWEET KICKS, THE BANG BANG BANGS
8pm, $10

Saturday 24 Mar
THE EXOTICS
9pm, free

Sunday 25 Mar
ROSIE HADEN and THE SLIDEWINDERS
5.00pm, free

Wednesday 28 Mar
Indie Initiative:
The House Of Slunk, From The Ashes, Calling All Cars
8pm, free

Friday 30 Mar
SIXFTHICK, INTOXICA, WHISKEY PRIESTS, GUT, SCREWTOP DETONATORS
8pm, $15

Saturday 31 Mar - Our Last Show
P TEX, LARGE No 12s
9pm, free

What kind of phrase is this?

Been listening to the new Amy Winehouse CD, "Back To Black" a fair bit lately. It's great modern soul-y stuff, and "Rehab" is catchy as hell- you can hear that here on her myspace. But my fave is "Me & Mr. Jones", partly because, well I just like it, and partly because in the lyrics she coins the phrase "What kind of fuckery is this?". You can hear it here.
"What kind of fuckery is this?" Use it a lot, people- I have been.

Alice on the air.

Crappy radio network DMG is syndicating Alice Cooper every weeknight from 10.00 til midnight, on their Vega stations in Melbourne & Sydney. Worth a listen if you are up that late with nothing to do- he's a very funny guy. But then you knew that already.

The high life.

It's not all fun doing this, you know. Try this for a slice of life.
Got pissy drunk at a few bars last night, woke up at 5.00am on a hard iron bench in a train station waiting room- an early outbound freight was pulling 80 or so empty boxcars past, man it was loud.
I rolled over and noticed a pigeon picking bits of rice & stuff out of a puddle of vomit- oh yeah that was mine, it was on my shirt too. Shifted a bit to ease my sore back, then went back to sleep.
Got woken again just before 6.00, some prick who was opening up the ticket booth. "You can't sleep here", he said. "Well, it wasn't easy, but yes, I can, actually." I replied. Motherfucker called the cops...they told me to move on, even though I tried and tried to explain I'd missed my lift home, and was waiting for a train.
Went over the road & found a laundrette that was open, threw my shirt & tshirt in a quick wash and went back to sleep. The Vietnamese woman who runs the joint came in around 11.00, woke me up (yeah, that makes it three times in one morning) and would only let me use the drier for like 10 minutes. Shirt still damp, but put it on anyway.
I left, went looking for a beer and something to eat. Realised I had lost my mobile phone- no, wait, I lent it to someone last night. Hopped a tram & went to get it back, banged on the door too hard and had a big shouting match. End result- phone thrown, hit me & split my eyebrow. Fuck. Ouch. And now it doesn't work properly.
Took some of my rent money out of the ATM, went to a pub for lunch. Had a beer & a burger, stuck $10.00 in a poker machine, won $20.00, had more beers. Took more rent money out, had more beers. Went home.
Puked in the shower, went to sleep.

Oh yes.