Despite the drama of Rob fracturing his toe yesterday morning, we managed to get up to Sydney last night to catch a gig at the Opera House that I’d been looking forward to for ages. Afro Celt Sound System, one of my absolute most favourite bands, played one night only and somehow I managed to score seats 2 rows from the stage, dead centre. Theirs is a fusion of Celtic and West African styles featuring 3 drummers, one of whom, despite being Indian, is a dead ringer for Nick Stathopoulos! One of the singers looks like a younger version of Lance Hendrickson, and between them all they managed to play a bunch of instruments I’ve never caught sight of before. The show was pure magic, probably because we were so darn close that it felt like we were actually part of the musical and spectacle rather than just watching it.I…
gold!
Last night we went up to Sydney to see Spandau Ballet, supported by Tears for Fears at the Entertainment centre, courtesy of our friend Angie who had managed to score a bunch of freebies from a relative in the music industry. We went because we like Angie and the tickets were free and it was Friday night, goddamn it and we spend way too many of those parked on the couch infront of our bigarse plasma TV. I expected to be amused. The amusement actually started that morning when I went to get my nails done. When I told my beautician our plans for the evening she said ‘ooh! that sounds good — I’ve never been to the ballet’. She’s 30, meaning New Romanticism, with all its coiffed hair and frilly shirts was way before her time.I liked both these bands when I was younger, but I’d never have called…
RIP Alex Chilton
Another dead rock star, this time Alex Chilton at age 59. Big Star’s Radio City remains a favourite album of mine. Check out the classic ‘September Gurls’.Another Chilton favourite is his classic for entirely different reasons album ‘Like Flies on Sherbert’, reputed to have been recorded while he was drunk. Sure sounded like it.
love this one
magic hour
Last October, just as I was racing out the door for my World Fantasy Convention adventure, my friend Ian sent me an advance copy of his new CD, Magic Hour. I loaded it onto my ipod in the car en route to the airport. Listened to it on the way to California (ironicly, as my favourite song on the CD turned out to be the one all about going to California!)I fell totally and utterly in love with this CD. It’s moody, mellow, sad, emotive… fuck knows what words are actually suitable for these songs. Perhaps this quote from another reviewer: “Its a dreamy, pop fest, spiked through with surreal moments of indy rock joy. Julee Cruise meets Feist or as one fan put it, “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls meets Portishead,”Click here and have a sample listen for yourselves. Magic Hour became my personal soundtrack for 2009.For interested…
the hip operation
Went with some friends to see my boss’s band – The Hip Operation – play at the Wombarra bowling club this arvoThe bowlo interiorLyn & JustinLauraJustin and MattLourdesCatSarahKirk & MattRob stayed home to finish some writing. he and I used to live in a tiny block of flats behind the bowling club.