Arcade Fire - Suburban War

This band are doing it like no other at the moment. This song is off their latest album - Suburbs. Listen to the light in that guitar riff. And then try not to bob your head when those drums come in. Arcade Fire. They be smashin it.

Silver Cinder in Triple J's Unearthed Competition

Title says it all really. Go visit us on their website and vote "yay! now let them become famous":

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=40302

Feist - I feel it all

GAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Takes me back to 2007, Canada and Rue St André.

L'ossature d'une feuille

New beginnings in the last of the melting snow

Well, a bit of stuff has been going down recently. I find myself listening to this song on repeat.

Slow. But crushing.

"In no doubt
As I leave this town
I will not return
For I haven't got the room in my head
For these things"

Thanks again to Guy Garvey for the heads up.

The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517

GAAAAAAR!!!

Have NOT been able to get this song out of my head... and luvin' it.

The Whitest Boy Alive started as an electronic dance music project in 2003 based around Norweigen DJ and Kings of Convenience member Erlend Øye (also of DJ Kicks fame!). Check out their website... great design.

Turn it up.

Whales

I spent the weekend down with my sister in Berry. Whilst on a bushwalk in Booderee National Park, we were fortunate enough to witness a pod of whales playing off the coast. I managed to get a couple of snaps (which don't really do the experience justice). Such magnificent beasts.

Silver Cinder on Myspace!

Tam and I have been in the studio over the last couple of weekends, trying to get a bunch of tracks together to send out to venues, radio stations etc. Well, the tracks are now finished, mastered and ready for listening.

Check them out on our myspace page:

www.myspace.com/silvercinder

Holy Cash

I went to see Griffin Theatre's Quack last night, an Australian play which is on at the moment at The Stables Theatre in Darlinghurst. It was an amazing ride. Zombies, blood, onstage surgery and more. Captivating performances and a beautifully crafted script. One part of the play included one of the characters singing a section of the below song. It was spellbinding.

Originally a Nine Inch Nails song (newfound respect!), it was then covered by the late and great Johnny Cash. Lights down, red wine in hand, music turned up. Go for it.

Frederick Beuchner and Beyond Time

I have been listening to a series of lectures called "Beyond Time" given by American author/theologian Frederick Beuchner in 1981. My Dad has it on cd. In the lectures, Beuchner talks about his own lifelong quest to "understand it all" and his growing awareness, albeit unconscious, of some greater plot. In particular, he scrutinizes the changing moments in his life, most of them random, moments when, as he puts it, "from beyond time, something too precious to tell has glintered in the dust, always just out of reach, like fireflies."

Beuchner was one of my Dad's theological mentors, a teacher, writer and raconteur first, and a minister second. In fact, the lectures aren't theological, even though he touches on his own beliefs and the journey it took to come to them. His exposition of the passing of time, his celebration of mystery, of ambiguity and of contradiction resonated with me strongly. Beuchner says he was once told, 'you have a way with words'. He has an ability to craft words into beautiful, telling, deep and thoughtful images. It's a very powerful gift. Some of his observations are, to borrow one of his own expressions,"like going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go".

While nothing can substitute listening to the lectures in full, the following passages are ones that spoke to me most directly:

"Listen. Listen. Your life is happening, You are happening... A journey years long has brought each of you through thick and thin to this moment in time... think back on that journey. Listen back to the sounds and sweet airs of your journey that give delight and hurt not, and to those that give no delight and hurt like hell: Be not afeared. The music of your life is subtle and illusive, and like no other, not a song with words, but a song without words, a singing chattering, hammering music, to gladden the heart or bring tears to the eyes, to haunt you perhaps with echoes of a vaster farther music of which it is part... Sometimes you avoid listening for fear of what you may hear, sometimes for fear that you may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of your feet on the pavement. But be not afeared... Be not afraid."

Beuchner ends the lecture with the following paragraph:

"The way we have to go is full of perils from without and from within. And who can say for sure what we will find at the end of our journey... Faith, Hope and Love, those three, our going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go...
Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders... In the long run, nothing, not even a world, not even ourselves, can separate us from that last, and deepest love that glimmers in our dark... like a pearl... like a face."

Spectacular insights. The skillful delivery of a brutal truth that raps at the shell of our existence, threatening to break in and cause havoc.

Nothing quite like crying whilst reading your four-year-old niece a bed-time story.

There's nothing like crying whilst reading your niece a bed-time story. I came home from work the other day - a day full of urgent tasks, immutable deadlines and pressure situations. My niece was staying over, and when I got home, she was already in bed awaiting a bedtime story. I read her one about a baby rabbit that wanted to run away from his mother. "I will become a boat and I will sail away from you on the sea" he said. To which the mother replied, "well I will become the wind, and I will blow you back to me". *Insert unsuccessful attempt not to cry in front of a four year old* Goddammit!

I have no idea what the below book is about, but if it's half as good as the cover, I can't wait to read it. Deadset best facial expression on a dinosaur ever? Probably. I don't think the dinosaur was actually aware of what the book was going to be about when he agreed to do the cover.

Publisher: So, we'd love you to be on the cover of one of our books.
Dinosaur: Really? That's great.
Publisher: Yeah, we really love your work.
Dinosaur: Oh really?
Publisher: Yeah, huge fans.
Dinosaur: Well, thank you very much. You know, I do take my work seriously.
Publisher: Well, it shows. You should be very proud.
Dinosaur: So what's the book going to be called?
Publisher: The book is going to be called, "All my friends are dead."


At which point the Dinosaur made the below face, they took the picture, and put it on the cover.

Big ups to Chris Toole for sending me the image.

Building a Wall

Heard this song on Triple J this afternoon and could not get it out of my head for the rest of the day. Love it. Building a Wall is the second single of the debut album of Melbourne band Hello Satellites. Check it. (Reminiscent of St Vincent? Anyone?)


Love these lyrics:


"Cause we're building a wall, we're building a wall, to keep your love in and the storms outside. But it's here in your heart, here in your heart, and you can't stop it from rising out... but you'll have to get hurt if you want to get out, you'll have to break something if you want to get out. I was building a wall, building a wall, to keep my job safe and my lover by my side." 

Heaven at Once

This is what happens when you smoke a fat jay and then walk into a music studio. Someone has finally put this track up on the internet. It was pretty much the soundtrack of my time in Paris. This one goes out to The Djé and his record collection of Soul. I'll always remember those sessions in the apartment at 2 Rue des Couronnes fondly. ("Jamze. T'es avocat, t'es rugbyman, t'es deuxieme ligne...")

Allez. En fumez un, et ecoutez bien Kool and the Gang pendant qu'ils vous amenent au "ciel tout de suite".

Seattle to New York: Dan Ilic

An old Ronnie Johns mate of mine, Dan Ilic, has been on a voyage across the USA, hitchiking across 13 states from Seattle to New York in 7 days. This video is shot, produced and edited by Dan. He wouldn't have it any other way. Dan is someone who makes life happen around him. He always has been. If he has an idea for a sketch, he goes out and records it himself. He doesn't wait for a TV producer to turn up on his door step. I remember when we did our first show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival together in 2003. The show had very poor audiences in the first week and the producer sat us all down and said, "If we cut and run now we won't lose money. Do you want to leave?" Dan piped up and offered to finance the remaining week of the show with his own money if it meant we could stay to finish the festival. "This is what I want to do with my life", he said. I can still remember the steel in Dan's eyes. I remember being amazed by (perhaps even jealous of?) his certainty and belief. At the moment, Dan's trying to fulfil his dream of getting a position as a writer on one of the Tonight shows in NYC.

Anyway, this video is a great testament to Dan's faith. It's also an amazing soundtrack. Go Australian Music. And Go Dan!

Kashmir - Petite Machine

Love this song by Danish Band Kashmir. Love the drums, the melancholic guitar and the build at the end. Yummy.

Did you know that Kashmir were originally called Nirvana (this was way back in 1991), but then changed their name to Kashmir, after the Led Zeppelin song, as the Seattle version gained notoriety? Yeah. That's right. Checkout more Kashmir by following the above link to their myspace.

The Jezabels - Easy to Love

Holy Crapola! Seeing these guys on Saturday night at the Factory in Newtown. I recently came across them while trawling through the Triple J Unearthed website (yes I know, they have been around for a year or so now!). Love the sound. Love the drumming. Love the opening lyrics.

Well I was the one who showed you the sky
But you brought it down to my thighs
I sadly believed every word i didn't mean
About loving darkness.

Beautiful.

Love this filmclip. They actually look like they are having fun! What a relief from the usual morose-a-thon. Love the time exposure clip of the lights of Sydney through the window. Yay for getting Australian sights into your film clips. Apparently one of The Jezabels' other singles "Disco Biscuit Love" went massive in the US college community. The future looks bright.

Exciting stuff coming out of Australia at the moment. Check out The Jezabels' myspace: www.myspace.com/jezabelsband

I encourage you to take the time to read their bio. They sound like a great band to get excited about.

Also check out the new video for Melbourne duo Gypsy and the Cat's song Time to Wander. Love the bit where the man just stands back and gestures towards the sound coming out of the speakers with his hands. Simple but poignant.

Go Australian music Go!

Sydney Debut of THE FALL!

It's an exciting time! After years and years of playing in my own bedroom, I'm finally playing in public. Tamara and I met in 2006 but only just started playing together again upon my return home from France. We're called THE FALL and we had our Sydney debut last night at the Excelsior. It couldn't have gone better. We've been asked back to play again on 29 July 2010. Stay tuned, I'm sure there'll be more to come. Thanks to Luke Easey for these iphone snaps taken during a rehearsal at Sound Level.

Volcano Choir - Still

Exhibit A of why Guy Garvey's Finest Hour is good (see previous post). This is a cracker version of Bon Iver's song Into the Woods which I just heard on Guy's program. Turn it up, turn down the lights and have yourself a bottle of red.

Guy Garvey's Finest Hour

I get most of my new music by listening to Guy Garvey's Finest Hour. It's actually a 2 hour podcast (he gets two cracks at it each show) hosted by the lead singer of UK band Elbow. The type of music featured on the programme ranges from Rufus Wainwright to The National to Chet Baker to Esther Phillips. It's an eclectic mix, which I find is a refreshing change from some of the stations in Australia.

The BBC are planning to close BBC 6 Music, the station on which Guy Garvey's Finest Hour is broadcasted, at the end of 2011. A public outcry in the UK received widespread coverage, however it has failed to save the station from closure. I believe the BBC's cultural capital will be poorer for it.

Check out Guy Garvey's Finest Hour here.

Ronnie Johns Tour