She's back

Detroit bad girl Niagara is back in town this week, with a new show opening at Outre Gallery on Saturday 16th. February.

Sadly, though, only Sydney get to see her play live, in front of the Hitmen, next weekend on 23rd February.

She and her co-conspirator in all things art and rock, Colonel Galaxy, are two of the nicest reprobates you could ever hope to meet. Get along if you can, and remember:.

Glenn Barr at Outre Gallery

Seems like a while since I had any new art up here. This will be well worth a look.

Outré Gallery is proud to be hosting a full-scale exhibition by one of our most popular advocates of the urban subculture and noir vision, a genre sometimes referred to as Pop Surrealism. Glenn Barr's work blends his own brand of gritty pop imagery from trash culture to a mid-century wasteland aesthetic. His brooding apocalyptic city scape vignettes of moral ruin still manages to embrace a visual satire of humour and pathos. All this and a stylistic nod from his underground comics and animation days thrown into the mix.
Glenn Barr will be out from hometown Detroit to meet and greet at his exhibitions in both Melbourne and Sydney. Glenn will be signing his books “Lowlife Paradise” and “Haunted Paradise” on Saturday 23 June at Outré Melbourne, and Saturday 30 June at Outré Darlinghurst. Both publications are available for sale from Outré.

2006 Top Ten list. At last.

I sent this in to the I-94 Bar a little bit late, so it's not going up there until the Barman gets back from holiday/out of detox.
Regardless, this is the shit-hot illustrated interactive version. It took me HOURS to do, so I would appreciate it if you could at least read the goddamn thing, OK?
In rough chronological order, then, here's a list of things that made an impression on me last year:

1- Getting kidnapped from the Niagara exhibition opening night at Outre Gallery, by Niagara & Colonel Galaxy. Two of the most charming and witty people you could ever hope to meet- Tracey and I spent an excellent hour or so drinking and chatting with them in the deserted beer garden of the Town Hall Hotel in North Melbourne.
We picked up a copy of the "Hot Box" 5 CD set, as well as a print:

2- Having my nose broken by an old friend in a stupid fight. I fixed it myself, at the bar of the Greyhound Hotel, with a handful of ice cubes in a napkin. Looked straight enough at the time.
So yeah, I finally ended up in Fred Negro's "Pub" comic strip- the hard way:

3- The second Tiger By The Tail LP. If it lacked the same impact as the first, that’s only because I had a better idea of what to expect. I’m looking forward to more from them in 2007.

4- Brewing- among other things, I brewed three batches of all-grain beer this year- malt, water, hops & yeast. From mash to mouth in a month. All tasted pretty damn fine to me, too. Then Little Creatures Brewery released their Bright Ale, which kind of removed the need to make it myself.
But our labels are better than theirs

5-
Pet frogs- if you want a really Zen pet, get a tree frog. They just sit there and look at you in a very calming way. Don’t get a yabbie, it will end in tears.
Note: they do get an absolutely murderous look in their eyes at feeding time, though. And they make a noise like a chainsaw, click here and scroll down to "calls" to listen. Then imagine hearing that at 6.00am in the morning, and repeated at random throught the day.

6- I can’t believe I only saw the Drones once in a whole year. Shit.

7- Radio Birdman- both “Zeno Beach” and the live shows. Standing inside the crush barriers at their final Melbourne show for the last few songs gave me as intense a barrage of music as I’ve ever seen and felt in my life. And of course them Bellrays, too. What did Lisa Kekaula whisper in my ear that night? I’ll never tell…
And I still can't get over this poster, which arrived in the mail, unsolicited and unexpected:

8- The net- all that myspace, podcast, message board and blogging stuff. I found old friends-hi, Hank! hi, Lindsay!- made new ones- hi, Grrtch!- heard some great new music, and tried to spread the word. Hope you found it entertaining.

9- Ian Rilen. Enough said.

10- Now I’m not really a list guy, so I’m gonna cheat by sticking a load of things in one item. I didn’t like the way the epicentre of live music in Melbourne got dragged even further north of the city this year. I did like the way so many people got it together and released their own CDs. Looking forward to – new Beasts of Bourbon, Penny Ikinger, Killer Birds & Double Agents CDs, the Lethal Weapons reissue, more RRR, more Kim Volkman, less broken noses…
I've heard the new Beasts album, and it's great. The Killer Birds are being produced by Ross Knight of the Cosmic Psychos- can't wait to hear it.

Outre Krampus party

I started the year having an adventure at Outre Gallery's Niagara exhibition, when I was kidnapped by Niagara & Colonel Galaxy, so it seemed somehow right to head back there last night for their Krampus-themed drinks evening.
And what a fine night it was too- cheers to Martin & all the crew.
If you've never been to either their Melbourne or Sydney stores- well what are you waiting for? You can never have too many Taschen books.