Pixies coming to town!

If you do not know who the Pixies are we cannot be friends. This band has influenced so many other bands, including Nirvana, Radiohead and the Dandy Warhols just to name a few. When I first heard them in early highschool they opened up a whole new world of music for me.
Hurry, look them up (see www.ilovepixies.com), listen to their albums (at very least hear Doolittle) and then we can talk again. Til you have done this, sorry no dice!


I love Pixies, aka Joey Santiago (guitar), Black Francis (lead vocals and guitar), Kim Deal (one of the coolest indie rock women ever to grace this planet) on bass ,and David Lovering on drums. They are heading to Melbourne this weekend to play 4 shows at Festival Hall (3 of the 4 are sold out, but you could still get a ticket to Tuesday night.)
They had an 11 year breakup that broke many hearts, but they have reformed and this is their second tour to Aus since reforming.
This tour is to celebrate 20 years since the release of Doolittle, an amazing album featuring two of my top 100 songs ever (this may seem like a big deal but it is not just any song that makes my top 100!) 'Hey' and 'Wave of Mutilation'.
'Hey' would definitely make the top 50!


So here they are, enjoy:

'Hey', live in London 1988. The footage is not amazingly clear but is not too bad, and at least you will hear this intense, fantastic song.

"Hey, Where have you been? If you go, I will surely die...."


'Wave of Mutilation', just put to shots of a beach... but again, don't worry about the clip. I just want you to hear this song and appreciate its greatness!

This week....

Everyone is talking, and laughing about the return of The Bedroom Philosopher (aka Justin Heazlewood) to our radio stations...with a song 'Northcote (So hungover)' taking the piss out of Melbourne try-hard indie cats hanging at Pony pretending to be Kings Of Leon...bahahaahaha!
Check out his website: http://www.bedroomphilosopher.com/


I am also loving Big Scary's beautiful track 'Falling Away'

Snaps from Jeffrey Lewis and The Junkyard

Northcote Social Club, Tuesday 9/3/10

Fresh sushi oops I mean music from Japan!!

I was just in Japan so thought I would share some of what is currently pretty huge in over in the land of Hello Kitty:

The cute Kimura Kaela and her new album 5 Years :
This clip is the ad for it:

This is her live, with a previous big hit called 'Tree Climbers':



A bit more on the indie side, but popular within the indie scene is Texas Pandaa! They are a cool, quirky four-piece I checked out at Tokyo's indie spot O-West in Shibuya!
This is their track 'Days'




More soon, but have to dash- taking photos of American cool cats Jeffrey Lewis and The Junkyard tonight (Tuesday 9th)! Support act is Aussie band Dick Diver, I cant wait! If you're free come down!!
http://northcotesocialclub.com/

Songs for him

Haven't blogged in awhile, have been in Japan sorry! Will put up some new music from Japan in the next few days... but for now I am putting up a few musicians my dear mate Byron liked.

So this is a complete mixed bag but I dont really care, he was completely open to all music and genres so I will be too:

He was a fan of Seal and saw him last time he was in Aus:


He loved a bit of Seether:



We went and saw Kings Of Leon together, it was so much fun:


Thanks for the memories man x

A chat I had with Clare Bowditch back in December!

Some people claim to be Winter people and are dreading the Australian Summer heat, but the lovely ARIA award-winning singer/songwriter Clare Bowditch is looking forward to a Melbourne Summer and bringing her unique folk-pop goodness to some of our best music festivals.



Not only is she looking forward to returning to play at Pyramid this year, but also checking out fellow artists, Cat Power, Architecture In Helsinki, The Drones and Kram, who “is always fun”. When discussing these artists she joked “the line-up’s pretty good. I’ll be going!”
Bowditch’s ideal Summer day would be “waking up early and seeing that it’s hot outside but being in the cool… near a beach, eating good food, seeing music, definitely being somewhere in the shade.”
Bowditch will be busy this Summer, not only is she playing Pyramid, but has been chosen to be a judge of the next AMP (Australian Music Prize) awards, so who which fellow-Aussie bands is Bowditch listening to right now? Kid Sam, Bertie Blackman, Sarah Blasko’s new album, Whitley, Roland.S.Howard and her back-up singer Aluka’s new E.P, which Bowditch describes as “gorgeous”.

Something gorgeous Bowditch has created is the impressive new single ‘Start Of War’, it is perhaps a bit more poppy sounding compared to some of her previous more folk-sounding hits. Bowditch agrees there is a new sound and that the ‘Start of War’ sound “is indicative of the new album…it was written more on the Casio instead of on guitar.” This brilliant new single is stripped back with just Casio keyboard, bass guitar and drums so is a different, more electro sound. She said she found it hard to decide on format for the song, as it has such “heavy content”. She explained that this new sound comes after “a lot of water under the bridge (since the last album)”. For this new album she was given a year and a half to work on it, which is the longest she’s ever had to create an album. Another factor attributing to the new sound is the new producers involved. Previous albums were self-produced, by Bowditch and the members of the Feeding Set. This time they had famous Canadian producer, Mocky onboard, known for his work with Feist. As well as Mick Harvey from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds fame, whom Bowditch describes as “a hero of ours”.

Another hero of Bowditch’s is Australian singer, Paul Kelly whom she describes as a “legend”. Bowditch recently performed at a tribute show for him ‘Before Too Long’ in Melbourne, she explained “I love his storytelling style”, and is someone who definitely had an influence on her song-writing style over the years.
A major influence for Bowditch is also the gigs she has attended. She recalled seeing Jeff Buckley, one of the first gigs she ever went to when she was a teenager. She feels Buckley “transformed (her) idea of music and what a live show can do…that is a benchmark.” This was definitely her most memorable gig she has attended, and saw him another 3 times after that! (I'm pretty jealous of this fact!) The most memorable gig she has performed was “supporting Cat Power a couple of years ago, playing with someone I really admired. I was fascinated. (That was) definitely one to remember.”
As a Melbourne girl, Bowditch loves and knows all the best place for memorable live gigs, she suggests “Northcote Social Club, Retreat Hotel, The Corner, the gorgeous little Toff in Town and 303 High Street which is very diverse, you never know what’s going on there.”



Get more info on Clare Bowditch at http://www.myspace.com/clarebowditch

This inerview took place for X and Y magazine... www.xandymagazine.com.au

Melbourne loves Jimmy Hawk

Melbourne musician and artist, Jimmy Hawk is about to release his long-awaited debut album Echo Park.
After the success of his e.p last year there is no doubt this album will be loved, it seems Beat magazine and triple R are already fans!... I see big things in Jimmy's future and I cannot wait to hear it after enjoying the e.p and interviewing the man last year!

You can get a taste of his folky goodness by checking out his ‘Born On A Mountain’ clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKrYEFrWG0s
Keep your ear out!