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I apologise straight away to any of the lovely female readers who are viewing this or accidentally got redirected here after clicking something by mistake. Now, I know I’m probably going to be alienating half the readership and the inner feminist in some of you may fizzle over in to some burning rage. But before you set fire to your bra and undies, at least let me make some points if that’s okay.

Now, I don’t know whether to call it a privilege or not, but I am blessed with being over six foot tall. If we’re being precise, it’s six foot two inches. At a gig it’s not really much of a problem for me to be able to get a decent view of what is happening on stage. Is the front man badly trying to smash up a guitar? Or has someone fell on their arse after slipping when attempting to dance around on stage? All I can say is, I roughly know what is going on if the crowd isn’t overly rowdy and hasn’t turned in to a general moshpit.

Some people who aren’t as fortunate to be blessed in the height division are a group of people I like to call “Complaining Indie Girls”. You can identify this group of people using your eyes and looking out for the following characteristics:

1) Whatever band is playing, they will have the official piece of merchandise on. Even if its a white logo on a black background, they will pay £25 for it.

2) They talk loudly through the support band. Because they haven’t heard of the artist in question, the assumption is made that they are rubbish. However, once they appear on mainstream TV channels and magazine covers, they are so totally kewl!

3) Any under eighteens’ egos will automatically inflate if they manage to acquire a beer from the overpriced bar.

4)Despite wearing stupidly high heels, they will still only come to the average person’s shoulders.

Like many a time I’ve been somewhere, got there nice and early, purchased a pint, plonked myself in a decent position where I can see everything. Only then I got an all too familiar tap on the shoulders. The conversation goes something like this:

Complaining Indie Girl: Excuse me, can you move please? You’re quite tall and I can’t see.

Me: No.

Complaining Indie Girl: Why not?

Me: I was here first and really can’t bothered to move. Go hassle someone else.

Depending how tanked up the Complaining Indie Girl is, she will reply with a bit of swearing in order to try and scare me off. The worst thing that can happen is for her to spike my  relatively defenceless feet with her high heels. Let me tell you, it’s not a pleasant experience. But you have to stand your ground. The end result is a pleasing one when the Complaining Indie Girl sulks off and moves further forward to bother someone else.

Subsequently, I think nothing more of these chats. However, it is amusing to see what happens when the lights go down and the main act waltzes on to the stage. If a particularly lively band like Kasabian are playing, the crowd will push, shove and generally become quite active from the static drab mob they were before. It’s only then that we see hoardes of Complaining Indie Girls running in terror from the front of the gig as they can’t deal with an overweight businessman smashing in to them and realising their glittery makeup is running in the sweaty atmosphere.

So a tip to any of you Complaining Indie Girls out there. Stay at the back where it’s safer and save yourself the bother of annoying multiple people by pushing to the front. We all know that you’ll be pushing your way back to stand next to the sound desk before the main riff in the second song is played.

Ladies, feel free to put your lighters away and put on your bras. I think I won that argument.

Photo: Dan’s Photos Flickr photostream

Who would’ve thought that four normal boys from the depths of Shropshire could come together and create brilliant music? Not only that, but brilliant live music too.

Having listened to LTD IQ on MySpace on many a night, sucked in by their mischievous lyrics and faces, the opportunity to see the band live was too good to be missed. I certainly wasn’t disappointed by what I saw and heard.

Playing at Lennons, a pokey indie club in the heart of Southampton, LTD IQ instantly brought energy and light to the venue. Smooth lead vocals came from Steve Evans, tinted with a cheeky northern accent adding to their authentic indie sound. Every song they performed was so catchy and uplifting with perfect guitar work, creating totally anthemic tunes to rock out to.

All members are in their first year at Southampton Solent, pursuing various music courses. They band have been together for a few years now, though have only just started on the live circuit. Being this impressive live after only two or three gigs, the future seems extremely bright for the awesome foursome.

Check them out for yourself at www.myspace.com/oflimitedintelligence

I never knew that there were places (homes, institutions or whatever you want to call them) for people who were deaf. Daniel Marando from the diabolically bluesy Maladies sits across from me, staring out the window. Something seems to catch his eye as he turns and waves to an older lady sitting across the room, intently watching the Bold and the Beautiful with closed captions blaring.

“HI  MARGARET, HOW ARE YOU?”

He bellows at the small woman, turns to me and in the same breath informs me that “she’s a lovely lady when you get to know her. Her husband died in the war.”

I wonder how hard it is to get to know someone who can’t hear a word you’re saying. “You’ve got to have a bit of time for these people. It can’t be easy for them either.” Daniel’s words are kind, understanding. My voice seems to echo around the room several times as I ask him how the album is going.

“It’s all been recorded and mixed and mastered and pretty much ready to go. We’re sending it out this week to some labels to see if we can find someone to put it out for us.”

Two young men sit behind us, quietly playing cards, oblivious to our unnecessarily loud voices and happy to be left to their own devices. Daniel tells me more about the motivation behind the album. “It was totally self funded, we just did it ourselves. Musically, it’s ready to go.”

A monstrous sound rips the room apart as a patient begins hammering on the keys of the baby grand piano that until recently had sat disregarded in a corner of the room, her head pressed to the ground in an awkward dance with the chaotic noise. Raising his voice over the din, Daniel explains that “recording to analogue tape made things a bit rough for a first recording. You have to be a lot more accurate.”

The piercing sounds of the tortured piano slowly begin to subside. The random batterings start to resemble a somewhat pleasant sounding melody. “It also limits you to twenty four tracks maximum so you can’t do five hundred vocal takes and take a second from each one. I think doing it to tape worked out well because of things like that.” Daniel starts to talk softer, slowly approaching an average level.

The piano fades into the background noise and I suddenly realise just how hard that is. There are no other sounds in the room but for the subtle flip of cards or the occasional unacknowledged fart. There really isn’t much going on here. It seems like a quiet vacation more than an institution. “It limited our opportunities for editing and we had to have parts more exactly as we wanted them.”

Daniel is hesitant to take any credit for his own actions. He admits that he comes here to help out the less fortunate, but maintains that it is a team effort to keep the place going. “We got a girl choir that we’re calling the Don Walker Appreciation Choir to sing on a few songs.”

“It’s most prominent on one song which is a cover of a song called Silos, which is a Don Walker song.”  A tall young woman with a ponytail enters the room. Daniel stands and gives her a warm hug.

“There’s horns and all sorts of percussion too. We wanted to give it a bit of a community vibe and we also liked what those things added and we wanted to do something fairly different to what we do live.”

Hellos and goodbyes are shared. Daniel and I head towards the revolving doors and the outside world. I ask him if The Maladies will be touring soon. “We’re doing quite a few shows in Sydney in December, basically just trying to get a bit of a vibe around the album.”

Passing the visitor registry, Daniel pauses to sign up for another visit next week. “We’ve been trying to write songs really since recording, we’ve been rehearsing a lot, getting together a lot and just nutting out some new material which is coming along as slow as ever but it’s all been rewarding.”

We stop and turn to face each other as we reach the kerb. I decide to ask Daniel straight up how he thinks he’ll manage, trying to balance all these different sides of his personality.

“I imagine it’s gonna be difficult. Especially with writing songs, it’s time consuming and it’s pretty hard to balance it all but you’ve just got to find a way to do it I guess.”

Musicfeeds - Spanish For Awesome!

We live in troubled times. Turn on the news, and all you seem to hear is how the world economic system is plunging further and further into recession. The news is bleak, but many independent musicians can at least take some solace in the fact that they have day jobs to subsidise their musical endeavors. Not so Sydney based artist Sui Zhen.

“I’ve actually just stopped working a full time job so I can concentrate on music.”

Perhaps somewhat intimidating given the current environment, this wasn’t an impulsive move. While Sui Zhen has been making her melodic folk music since at least 2003, it was several years later that she contemplated the pursuit as something of a career.

“Yeah, I’ve been writing for a long time but I guess I was always working and doing music as a hobby until about 2006. It was then I actually spent some money on recording my first Ep and started playing a few more shows.”

“I had finished uni and was about to get a job and started thinking about what I really wanted to do. I think I was just happy enough to do it for myself. But then obviously you start the whole kinda public persona thing, other people start getting interested.”

That public persona provided an opportunity to meet other artists and musicians who have encouraged her to continue writing, offering chances to collaborate and further develop her unique sound. It’s something that has surely helped to keep up the motivation.

“Yeah, I’ve gradually met a lot of really inspiring people locally. Like-minded people help each other out, and everyone’s different but you kind of find the similar minded people in the music industry. You work together, and get inspired by each other and that’s the whole reason you do it in the end.”

Still a daunting move to abandon a guaranteed pay check every week, Sui Zhen remains optimistic about her change of vocation. She has other things in mind too.

“It was good. It was a good move. It took me a while to adjust to the different lifestyle but it allows me to do all this other stuff that I want to do. I’m trying to do a lot of things with the visuals as well.”

“It’s just small kind of stuff at the moment. I’ve just started getting back into drawing and a bit of painting. I like doing small scale visuals, some animations and some drawing but I’m not sure how far I’ll be able to take it. I’d love to be able to make whole music videos but they take a very long time for the kind of style I have. I might work for months and months on one thing and it’d only be twenty seconds.”

While entire video clips might be too time consuming, she has already developed ideas for “projections behind the stage” as she performs live. Her upcoming tour involves a mix of solo performances and shows with a full backing band. Both incarnations will be playing the same songs, and hence keep the same name, but she tells me there are some significant differences between the two.

“With the band it’s more of a band experience it’s not so much a singer songwriter vibe. It’s kinda more like the recording because we can do all those different sounds and stuff but then a lot of people still really respond to the solo shows and I enjoy playing them too. Some people really enjoy just seeing the one person.”

The apex of this tour will see Sui Zhen bringing the whole band along to deliver her full atmospheric sound to the main stage at the Peats Ridge festival. It’s a gig that she looks forward to with a surprising lack of nerves, given she’s never played a festival before.

“Nah, it’s really cool. I’m really excited about that. A lot of my good friends are all playing and I think it’s gonna be a really great festival. It’s part of a festival too, so there’s people who are there anyway so you’ve gotta try and get them to come and watch you.”

That challenge, getting complete strangers to connect with her music seems to be part of the attraction of playing live for Sui Zhen.

“I really like that challenge. That’s probably one of my favourite challenges about performing is playing your first song and drawing people in. I really like watching people if don’t know who the hell you are and then you start playing and kinda getting a bit interested.”

Devoting her time to music, she is currently working on two albums of material. One is a Sui Zhen release, the other a little different.

“I’m writing for a Sui Zhen album which has kinda been a slow organic process but I’m also working with my partner Jamie on a collaborative album together but it’s a bit more experimental so we’re using lots of different sounds from all over the place.”

For more info, including upcoming gigs, head over to Sui Zhen’s myspace.
Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

Twelve years playing together has given Perth band Gyroscope a lot of time to grow as musicians. Guitarist Rob reflects on how they have developed.

“We’ve grown as songwriters and arrangers and as players, you know.”

Things aren’t always perfect, but Rob explains that this is all part of the process.

“If you’re serious about what you do you pick up little mistakes. It might not be noticeable, it might just be you but you pick them up and iron them out and promise yourself you won’t do them next time.”

“You learn, that’s the best thing. All your mistakes you learn from.”

And one thing they have learned is that touring is an integral part of being in a successful band.

“Coming this far, eleven or twelve years with the band we know that’s how it works.”

“Without that touring formula there’s nothing. We started as a touring band and we’ll end as a touring band. The studio and all the other stuff is kinda the fun stuff in between.”

Getting older has made it more difficult to head out on the road for long periods, but Rob maintains that it’s still a necessary part of the job.

“It gets harder with age ‘cause you get older and get more attached to home, your family and friends, but fundamentally it’s the same thing as when you started touring that first time, when you were bright eyed and bushy tailed. You really wanted to get out there and you know that you have to do it because it’s promoting the songs you’re writing.”

The band cut their teeth negotiating the vibrant music scene in Perth. The “sort of mentality where it’s very eager and keen and competitive but healthy at the same time” and an environment that pushed the band to work harder.

“There’s a whole bunch of quality bands that are gigging week in and week out over here. You don’t have an industry type that’s breathing down your neck. We tend to just go hard until we’re ready to show the rest of the country or the rest of our peers what we’re about.”

“There’s not a lot of venues. Everyone’s competing for that dream to get over east. The eastern state bands might take that a bit for granted because that’s something they can do easily. That’s essentially what it is. We know we’ve got it hard so we go harder.”

For the next couple of months Rob says Gyroscope will be busy working on new material and keeping the touring to a minimum.

“Just a few festivals here and there on the weekends but apart from that we’re doing some writing.”

“We’ve got about ten demos at the moment. That’s where we’re sitting at the moment and that’s where we’ll be for the next few months until we get in there next year and record the album.”

Any new album brings with it new ideas, but Rob is unsure how it will all sound when they’re done.

“I don’t know yet man. It’s hard to say. It’s all sounding good though, very happy with it all.”

For more info, check out http://www.myspace.com/gyroscope

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr. Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

I’d like to call True Vibenation pioneers, but in truth what they’re doing is trying to resurrect the soul of modern day hip hop from what they see as “the ego and this whole idea of consumerism” and bring it back to its more organic roots.

“We originally started music just for ourselves really. I remember writing rhymes in the back of class, writing about how crap class was just for a bit of fun and then eventually as it got further we started realising that you can actually say quite a bit with rap. It’s the sort of medium that lends itself to expression and because we had that freedom we thought ‘why don’t we make it and start sharing it with people?”

“There’s a lot of hip hop that’s lacking in recent times. There’s no message anymore. It’s gone back to getting put up on a pedestal. Too many people are concerned with themselves and their ego. It’s really about conveying a message or telling a story. That’s sorta what’s getting lost in hip hop these days.”

That’s exactly what these guys seem to be about: delivering a message and actually saying something with their music.

“Hip hop as a medium is perfect for that. Rapping is so direct. With other forms the meaning’s maybe a bit more hidden but with rapping you can just say it straight out.”

“I think that’s one of the big benefits of hip hop. You can be positive and really say what needs to be said very clearly through music. It has the ability to bring people together as all music does, as well as express the thoughts and fears of the community which is where it birthed from. That’s where it came from and that’s where we’re trying to keep going.”

Their most direct vehicle for this is a regular night called On The Real that runs the last Monday of every month at World Bar. It’s here that the group is trying to spread their message and bring the art back to its origins.

“It’s trying to establish an outlet for proper hip hop where it started the way it was back in the early stages in America. In the late 80s and early 90s there was places like the Lyricist Lounge or the Good Life where Catholic Skills would just come down, jump on a mike and strut their stuff. There’s no real money involved, it’s more about the growth of hip hop and getting down.”

“And building on it. That’s the most important thing. Keep building so that other MCs can see the direction we want to take it and let it keep happening in a positive way and not let it get dragged down like America has, in the pop charts at least. Just being honest to yourself is the main thing.”

With extended freestyles after their sets, and beat boxers emerging from the crowd to drop their skills they assure me “the nights are really good fun.”

“One guy came up and did a rhyme last week and it was pretty cool. Later on he came up to us and said it was only the second time he jumped on the mike.”

The group plans to release a sampler soon “which we’re gonna start selling at shows, so that should be pretty cool” but for now you can see them peddling their craft every month at On The Real.

Check out http://www.myspace.com/themessageaustralia

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr. Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

There is a clip on the Thundamentals MySpace page that quite conveniently sums up the underyling principles behind their musical philosophy.

DJ Morgs - “I guess Thundamentals to me has always been about fun. Havin’ my three best mates in my crew with me is like… probably the dopest thing anyone could ask for.”

Jeswon - “We just stay true to the music that we believe in and takin’ it back to the root of hip hop which was havin’ a good time and representin’ for your crew, representin’ with ya mates and not takin’ yourself too seriously.”

Having fun, having a good time. It’s a theme that seems to run through the conversation as I sit down to talk to the crew. There is something more significant to their rhymes than just the superficial party exterior, but the Thundamentals assure me that when they’re on tour it’s all about connecting with their audience.

“We’re not all blasé party raps. You know, we’re tryin’ to get a bit deeper than that but essentially when you come see a live show we just want to have fun, meet the locals and hang out with you guys. That’s the main objective.”

“There’s no fuckin’ wankerish bullshit about pretentious fuckin’ performers. We want to meet the people and fuckin’ get down.”

I get the feeling these guys are trying to connect on a personal level, despite their larger than life personas. There’s nothing controversial in their approach to music and it’s endearing to hear them talk about it.

“Thundamentals are all about peace, love and unity. It’s all about the music. People get in to whatever music they like to get in to. Hopefully they enjoy the stuff that we’re doin’.”

“We just came to rock the part-ee” another member chides in over the top, a common occurence throughout the conversation. The crew can’t help but drop in over the top of each other sometimes, removing any doubt that this really is a crew full of mates out to have a good time. Those good times have been committed to wax recently for their new release.

“We just got a seven track Ep out. That’s self titled, and then hopefully pretty soon we’ll have an album ready. We’ve got a coupla tracks up our sleeves. They should be well and happenin’ about mid next year.”

“Ready for all the good people out there to… cop.” A good marketing slogan to be sure - “Straight cop that shit.”

With a healthy hip hop scene in Australia, the Thundamentals admit to feeling the pressure to establish an identity in the midst of all the quality (and sometimes crap) artists out there.

“Yeah, we’re tryin’ to be as professional as possible. It’s a very cutthroat market at the moment. There’s a lot of talented people come out of Australia, let alone Sydney. There’s a fuckin’ thriving scene here as well so you’ve just gotta have your game on.”

“Hopefully what may stand us in good stead is our work ethic and just tryin’ to maintain and be as busy as possible and push all fronts. Any opportunity we’ve got to get involved and push our name out there we’re gonna be takin’ it. Hopefully that will set us apart.”

They certainly seem to be maintaining a healthy amount of activity, with MTV associate producer and ‘good mate’ James Bullock lending a hand to produce a video clip for the single off the EP, Storm Warning.

“We’re just busy workin’ on that and I guess just trying to make this long player as bangin’ and massive as we can get it soundin’ for its release halfway through next year so yeah, just always got music to write and always got things on the go.”

“The Ep is just a learning curve for us so getting it out and doing video clips and all that kind of stuff is just tryin’ to prop us up for the long play and the albums we have yet to write. We’re just makin’ it all come together so we have a real good firm idea of how to bomb the scene mid next year.”

I’m already looking forward to their next gig with Dialectrix after sitting down with the MC, so I ask the crew what their expectations of the night are.

“Should be large. These boys are doin’ plenty of promotion. We’re gonna promote the turd out of it and just try and make it the biggest night Sydney’s seen I suppose. The Tongue will be on hostin’ duties, and a little bit of freestyle action with ourselves.”

For more info on the band, check out http://www.myspace.com/thundamentals

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome baby!

Talking to some mates of mine who are in independent bands I get the feeling that it’s not always easy to book gigs in Sydney, let alone around Australia. This is obviously not a problem for Brisbane band the John Steele Singers, as the past couple of months have seen them touring with the likes of the Polyphonic Spree and The Grates. When I called to talk to keyboardist and singer Pete Bernoth, the band had just arrived home from the latter’s national tour.

“We only got back yesterday after finishing the Grates tour and so I’m still waiting for my sleeping patterns to return to normal. It’s been a really busy month, busy couple of months really.”

Reclining on his front porch “just chillin” Pete confides that hitting the road for such long stretches is not always easy, but the band takes it in their stride.

“I dunno, we’ve just been offered these amazing opportunities which are just to hard to pass up. It’s costing us a fuckload of money yet the experience we get and the fun we have is just like totally worth it. It’s definitely worth giving up a month of work to go out on tour with the Grates because you can just party for a full month and come back and you’re absolutely fucked and just get back into normal life for about a week and then go out again.”

Playing with such high profile bands has also given the boys a chance to establish a bit of a reputation for themselves, as well as solidifying contacts within the music industry.

“Yeah, totally we’ve met a lot of people and especially with this Grates tour. Just because they’re pretty high profile we’ve had a lot of attention and it’s done wonders for us. The exposure that we got from touring with those guys was probably like… uh, you can’t put a monetary value on it. But yeah, it’s definitely starting to get a lot more momentum for the band and we just can hopefully capitalise on it with the EP and our own tour and make the most of it and keep on movin’ on.”

Their new EP, In Colour, is slated for a November release but it’s not the first release for the band. Pete explains that they’ve previously recorded a ‘mini-LP’ called The Beagle And The Dove.

“We call it a mini-LP coz it’s like 8 tracks and 31 minutes and I think you need 32 minutes to call it an LP or something so we just missed the mark. We recorded that up in White Rooms studios which is up in Mount Nebo near Brisbane, just like secluded in rainforest pretty much. It was a really fuckin’ cool environment to record songs and for our first experience of recording it was amazing.”

“[For the Ep] We got to go down to Sydney for a week and stay in an awesome house in Darlinghurst and just record and then party on the weekends, often partying like on the nights after finishing recordings. I love getting out to new cities. We’ve been to Sydney a heap now and have a heap of good friends and just party on like motherfuckers, it’s great.”

The John Steele Singers will once again be loading up the van and hitting the road, this time on a headlining tour in support of the new EP soon. Once that’s all wrapped up Pete says the boys are keen to do some more recording.

“After this tour we’re going to have to get down, busy and start demoing some tracks for an album which is just in planning stages. We’ve got songs that we’d like to record but other than that it’s just a plan. We’ll have an album out some time early next year hopefully if everything goes according to plan which quite often, well most often with us it doesn’t but eventually we’ll have an album out next year. We’ll be able to tour that and hopefully get overseas for a few shows and just spread. Spread the love.”

Spread the love. I like it. One last thing springs to mind though. There’s no one in the band called John Steele, so I wonder out loud where the inspiration came from.

“Trim, Scott and I used to work at an undisclosed family restaurant back in 2004, 2005. John Steele was a kids toy that was left there by the previous owner and was adopted by the service staff as some sort of mascot. I don’t know where the name John Steele came from, I can’t remember for the life of me. The Singers aspect is well, there’s four people who can sing in the band so it has some sort of merit.”

For more info check out the band’s MySpace page.

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

Mark Ronson, can the man do any wrong? He may not even know a thing about CMJ, the infamous NY indie rock festival that hosts more than 1600 bands, but it didn’t matter. On Tuesday, Oct 21st, he got together a roomful of friends, as part of his Allido Record Label showcase, and it topped 90 % of the other showcases that week.

To kick off the party, Rhymefest pulled onstage Rahzel from The Roots for some shared rapping… and some serious Obama endorsing. Needless to say, the crowd got hyped on his energy. Then Ronson’s new rock acquisition The Rumble Strips showed off their slap-happy Brit rock rock. Daniel Merriweather performed with Sharon Jones’ usual accomplices, The Dap Kings… and mid-way through the set, Ronson ditched the DJ booth and played a soulful song or two.

Lastly, Wale brought DC go-go to NYC to finish off the night. If you don’t know much about DC go-go, it’s a funk-based movement that’s infectiously dance friendly- heavy on bass, snare and congo drums. And by dance-friendly, I mean grind friendly. Give the crowd drinks and go-go, and it’s bound to be merry, sloppy, and lascivious. Hence, as the new rap ingénue representing go-go with a stage full of drums, U.B.C. band members and miscellaneous rapper friends wearing heavy shades, Wale was at an advantage- beasting through tracks like “Nike Boots”, “Back In The Go-Go,” and “The Mixtape About Nothing.” To finish it off, Daniel Merriweather got back onstage and acted like old buddies with Wale and kicked off a spontaneous version of “Stop Me” (in fact, Wale almost had to grab the mic back from him). Encouraging a full-on dance-a-thon sing-along, they brought the house down.

Sierra Fin’s favourite Eastern European language is Estonian. Not a particularly enlightening piece of information in and of itself, but after listening to the song ‘Blue Day Sun’ from their soon-to-be-released debut EP Shake Stare Sleep I’m quite lost for words. Fortunately, the band had a bit to say as they prepare to make their presence felt on record for the first time.

“Shake Stare Sleep is the first foray into the record world for us as Sierra Fin. Though we’ve each individually released music, it is a giant leap forward musically from our past projects. With each track, as in everything we do, we’ve tried to bring something new to the table, from sonic cacophony to sparse soundscapes all nestled around our simple melodies. We’ve explored lyrically the themes of love, death and society and how the three intermingle.”

Their simple melodies belie a rich tapestry of sound that is more than a little unique, reminding me quietly of the grander moments of Jeff Buckley, or Travis before they started getting all pretentious. Even the explanation of their name has a sublime quality to it.

“It came to me in a dream where I was falling off a mountain that looked like jagged teeth.”

To say Sierra Fin are unique is not to suggest their music is inaccessible, although they do admit initial reactions might be a little confused.

“Confused like an Estonian fisherman who’s just misinterpreted directions, but by serendipitous fortune, they lead him to the catch of the day.”

So what’s the key to building a following while you’re still an up and coming band?

“Play music you enjoy, ignore what the latest hipster tight jeans wearing trend is, and play every gig like you are on the main stage at Glastonbury.”

Their philosophy on music sounds as honest as their songs. I hadn’t even heard of Sierra Fin before last week, but now I’m starting to think their EP launch could be something quite special. The band assures me they have some surprises in store for others thinking of attending.

“This launch is the culmination of more than a years worth of work. Aside from our set, which we will be stepping up by our own standards, we’re making the entire evening a spectacle. From the moment you step through the door you will know this isn’t your average EP Launch.”

“In saying that we have involved an amazing classical guitarist, a quartet of lovely Saxophone ladies plus artists Heidi Elva and Kent Eastwood. All will be intermingling to present a memorable night. And at the perfect setting: The Vanguard sucks you into it’s deep red walls making you feel right at home.”

And then?

“It’ll be a busy time as we ride the promotional roller coaster on the back of Shake Stare Sleep. Our main focus will be organising an EP tour early in the new year. Thoughts of shows at regional schools are on the cards and then we plan to tour Estonia to study the intricacies of the Finno-Ugric languages.”

Catch Sierra Fin for their Shake Stare Sleep EP launch at the Vanguard, Newtown on 12th November. For more info (on the band, not Estonia) point your browser to www.myspace.com/sierrafin

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

There must be something about the seclusion of a remote location that brings out explosive inspiration in some people. The Unabomber lived in a remote cabin in the wilderness of Montana, and Melbourne band The Drones adopted a similar dwelling to write and record their latest studio release, Havilah. Guitarist Dan Luscombe explains how it all came about;“Havilah. Yeah, it’s the name of the tiny little town we made the album in. We brought a whole bunch of equipment up from Melbourne and Burke who produced the album brought a whole bunch of equipment from where he works in Big Jesus Burger studio in Sydney. So we set up what turned out to be a rather state of the art studio in this house that runs off a generator where the nearest neighbours are several kilometres away, this big mud brick open plan four bedroom house.”

“We got a hold of some great mics and preamps, spent two days setting up the house and for the next two weeks we were there. Cooking meals in the drum room, which was also the kitchen, sitting around eating together and being very very free from distraction, at times almost too much really.”

Whereas the Unabomber embraced the seclusion of his log cabin for destructive purposes, The Drones have channeled their energies towards more constructive ends.

“It’s a great way to record because you can make that thing that you’re doing all that you think about. It’s great waking up in the morning and wondering about what you’re gonna do on a certain song, what kind of sound you want to get as opposed to all the other things you worry about in regular life.”

Never ones to do things conventionally (their last album was recorded in an old mill in Tasmania), the prospect of laying down new material in a tradtional studio didn’t really appeal.

“I don’t have anything against them as such, I mean they’re expensive for a start, but there’s this clock on clock off factor you know. You show up for work around 11, or well twelve and once you’ve sort of had enough you tend to go home. In the house we could wake up at any time and get straight to work, and if something dawns on you at some ridiculous hour you’re not too far away.”

With a busy touring schedule last year, singer Gareth Liddiard and bassist Fiona Kitschin took some time off to concentrate on writing new material before bringing in Dan and drummer Michael to rehearse and record the album.

“We didn’t start work on any new stuff when we were touring last year, it just doesn’t lend itself to that. We travel pretty frequently when we’re on tour, driving in the van, like on the European tour we did 52 dates in 63 days. You don’t really have time to rehearse and when you do have any free time the last thing you feel like doing is picking up the guitar, you’re just trying to get through the day and to get away from music for a second.”

The new album was written over two months and after four weeks of rehearsing the band was ready to lay it all down.

“The whole process really, from the writing to the mastering was done very quickly but with a lot of intent and a lot of excitement. It actually happened really smoothly, we didn’t get stuck on any tracks for too long and we kept up a good work rate, mind you Paul Burke who recorded and mixed it was up to 9 o’clock in the morning on the last day of mixing.”

“What’s the saying? Art is never finished it’s only ever abandoned. You don’t look back and say I’ve finished but I’ve still got a week of studio time, maybe my friends want to use it.”

If their earlier releases are anything to go by, Havilah will be a brooding mix of noisy guitars, howling vocals and ever so subtle melancholy that latches on to your eardrums and demands attention.

“If you’re taking a lot of different influences you’ll inevitably end up doing something different each time. There’ll always be common threads through your playing and approach. There’s always going to be a linear thing going through there.”

“I think the idea is just to enjoy yourself, and if you like a whole bunch of different music, you’re bound to try a bunch of different things. At the end of the day it comes down to what the song is, and if it’s a good song you can spend a lot of time and have a lot of fun dressing it up in different ways. “

With a new album plucked from the foothills of Mt. Buffalo, Victoria, The Drones are excited about presenting their newest creation to the world with another round of touring.

“It’s always great to have a new record out, it’s wonderful to go on stage with a whole bunch of new songs, and it’s been a while since we’ve done a show where we could do that. We’re really keen to see how the record is received because it’s a bit different for us.”

For this and much more on the live music scene in Sydney check out musicfeeds.com.au. And you thought Drum Media was the be all and end all of local independent street press… (btw It isn’t, check out the site and you’ll know what I mean…)

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Michael Carr

Let’s face it - live music in Sydney has been stifled for a long time. Recent changes to liquor licensing laws have made it cheaper and a whole lot easier for small, boutique style bars and clubs to host live music, and while it will still be a while before these kinds of venues start popping up everywhere, it’s worth noting that there are already a few little gems scattered around the city. The Brass Monkey is one of these; a small quaint Spanish-style restaurant nestled amongst the displays of crass commercialism that begun engulfing Cronulla in the mid 90s. It was here that Visionaries Of The 1980s tore up the stage, accompanied by some notable opening acts.

First to grace the small, somewhat cramped stage was Max, a solo singer-songwriter and ‘Shire’ local who blended a couple of his own compositions with covers of well-worn classics like a medley of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ and Pink Floyds’ ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ that was as much unexpected as it was impressive. Most endearing about Max was his between song banter, dropping obscene yet amusing diatribes about ‘hitting the mud button’ and pissing off Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was a nice way to get the party started and work the audience.

The second act, R.J. Chops, were perhaps the most surprising of the night. These guys were like The John Butler Trio but with a dark, intense edge. This is the direction Mr. Butler should have been heading. They’re louder, heavier and the influences of early 90s grunge acts Nirvana and Alice in Chains seeped through their sound to instil it with an urgency, a sort of manic inspiration.

Headline act Visionaries Of The 1980s are a compelling group. Their lead singer, Graeme, is from Sheffield, England, so their post-Brit-pop sound is automatically infused with a sense of authenticity. It was hard not to get excited about their refreshing take on the genre. They remind me a lot of the Arctic Monkeys, before everyone (and I mean everyone) jumped on the bandwagon and announced them as the saviours of Rock’n’Roll. These guys have been together less than a year, but the harmonies they managed to pull out of two guitars banging away to a solid bass and drum line were so mature you wouldn’t know it. It is perhaps more of an afterthought for them, but the juxtaposition of English lead vocals and Aussie back up really made them feel like Bloc Party and The Living End going head to head on the same stage. There’s something unique about that, and something that raises them above the level of competent genre proprietors to potential pioneers.

Check out The Visionaries @ http://www.myspace.com/visionariesofthe1980s
For info on RJ Chops, see http://www.myspace.com/rjchops

For this and much more on the live music scene in Sydney, head on over to musicfeeds.com.au. And you thought Drum Media was the be all and end all of the independant street press in Sydney (btw it isn’t… check the site and you’ll know what I mean…)

Ladyhawke looks good on paper, a hot, multi-talented chick with camera happy appeal, wielding a highly strung guitar as the crotch level musical sword it is. Hot on the trail are a mob of followers waiting to be knighted by this mop of feline, fringed, feistiness, wrapped up with tight songs, a tight look, and a tight band - you would imagine this to be a perfect combination. However, this sweet as candy combo wasn’t enough to ignite the flame coloured walls of Koko at the Kiwi tinged Endeavour event last weekend. Firstly, the sound engineer broke every law of sound engineer/ knob twiddling school. Muddy sound and inaudible vocals were on course, only to straighten out for ‘The Checks’ set immediately after.Riding high on the success of ‘Paris is burning’ she is hot on the tip of the release of her debut solo album later this month— imaginatively entitled ‘Ladyhawke’. Named after ’80’s fantasy Rutger Hauer movie ‘Ladyhawke’, stylistically, Pip Brown looks like a cross between Stevie Nicks and Blondie. LH is no pushover, having been indoctrined into music at age eleven and mastering the same number of instruments. So with this and a crowd full of Kiwi homeboys in mind, one could not help feeling a tad dissapointed at her lack of stage presence at Koko on Saturday, she didn’t command the stage like we all wanted her to.

I’d like to use this opportunity to bring up the personal issue of having to endure ‘unknown track foreplay’, which is an annoying wait for the catchy first single at the end of the set, a condition that oddly became obsolete with Michael Stipe favourites and Ian Broudie produced headliners, ‘The Checks’, who owned the stage like an over zealous stage pimp. Stomping all over Koko’s boards, like a antipodean Jolly Green Giant– top shirt button done up all proper. They owned the venue and the crowd giving a world class, electrifying performance (they’ve toured with REM, Maximo Park, The Cribs), as well as converting (me) non Checks believers into believing they’re the best NZ band in the world.

Word.

Ladyhawke—- Check out ‘Paris s’enflamme’ - it’s Ladyhawke in French and it’s tres belle.

Words: Eleanor Conway

www.elle-online.com

www.myspace.com/elleuk

With the relative lack of high calibre bands touring Australia in the last couple of months I’ve come to appreciate just how much good live local music there is in Sydney. On any given weekend the hard thing isn’t finding a band to see, it’s deciding which one. Club Blink is an alternative nightclub in the middle of the city that weekly hosts plenty of alternative rock and heavy metal bands. Recently, I dropped in to catch progressive rock band Superb Lyrebird.

These guys unleash hard rock hooks reminiscent of bands like Tool and the Deftones. They play impassioned, angry music that forces you to bang your head along. What makes them different to some others is their use of samples and synthesisers to create a brooding ambience in transitions that adds to the punch when the wall of chunky guitars and pounding drums is unleashed. It’s hard not to hear echoes of Maynard James Keenan in singer Dave Bleus’ voice at times, but it’s more of a subtle nod than it is straight out imitation.

Some might compare them to Aussie contemporaries Cog, but Superb Lyrebird achieve much more depth to their sound, infusing it with a dark, atmospheric edge. They have the kind of subtly sinister undertone that often gets produced away when hard rock bands sign a major lable deal.

That’s one of the exciting things about seeing local bands perform. They’re not under any pressure to produce their next big hit, and with that comes the freedom to manipulate their genre and experiment with more innovative sounds. Superb Lyrebird start with a solid approach to hard rock and take it that bit further with layered soundscapes that blend each song into an all-encompassing performance.

For more info (including upcoming gigs) check out their myspace page @ http://www.myspace.com/superblyrebird

Friday 1st August saw electro-rockers Hyrule Mafia tear it up at Kings Cross, Sydney venue Candy’s Apartment, sharing the stage with another local band The Mischief (stay tuned for a review of them soon.)

I was urged by a friend to check these guys out, and I was well impressed by their solid, unrelenting performance. There’s a lot more I want to find out about the band before I take a closer look, so for now here’s a short clip of one of their songs from the night. Enjoy!

(Hyrule Mafia have another gig this Saturday night, details of which can be found on their myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/hyrulemafia)