i’ve been listening to a lot of Kate Bush lately, after reading an article in Uncut magazine – “25 Years On – the inside story of Hounds of Love. And how it haunts the music of 2010.” Many many songwriters say the album had a huge impact on their musical creativity. For example, John Lydon (!) says, “Hounds of Love is beyond an album – it’s an opera”.
And Lee Scratch Perry says, “i no longer smoke weed, but you don’t need to if you have Kate Bush. Her music is all the high you need.”
Had a great musical evening with Jen and David lately, where we attempted to bash out Wuthering Heights on the keyboard. Got a bit trapped with some of the chords.. trying to work out the exact sequence of Ebm F# Ab C# during the chorus.
One of my highlights from the Falls Festival at New Year was this cover of Wuthering Heights by Wolfmother.. and here it is on TripleJ Like a Version. Nice one. i was really underwhelmed by the Wolfmother show until he launched into this song, which made up for the lacklustre quality of everything before it.
You can see from my latest ‘Loved Tracks’ from Last.fm, that Kate Bush has 3 in the most recent 10 right now*.
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*Right now, meaning when i write this. Not when you’re reading it.
And my most loved tracks of all time at Last.fm – a lot of B(if)tek in the Top Ten! Because they are one of the best musical collaborations of the last 30 years and i love them.
What a gorgeous surprise!
We’re about 5 metres back from the festival hall stage, soaking up the funky glam rock disco..
When the crowd starts to go wild over a song I haven’t heard before.
Must be a good one, I guess.
Then I notice a third singer on stage between Jake and Ana.
No way!
It’s Kylie.
Home town crowd, at a disco gig, you would expect some excitement, but this was hysteria.
..and for such a super-daggy song!
i tried to take a photo on the phone, but my phone’s camera is not great at night.
PS oh whoops, i just discovered that ‘super daggy song’ is Kylie’s latest release. *Not* a lame cover of some country and western number. That was the encore – she sang harmony on one of their songs during the show.
Zoe comes into work the other day and starts raving about a party in Newport where she saw Lindsay Pollak playing, and his partner leading the whole crowd through a silly bum dance. i’ve never heard of him, so Zoe says, “Look him up”.
Turns out he’s been uploaded all over youtube, and featured on Boing Boing and everything. This is hilarious: watch Lindsay drill some holes in a carrot and then start playing a series of loops.
Maybe i’ll start collecting videos of fruit and vegetable instruments.. are there any more to be found?
Oh yes, there’s a whole vegetable orchestra:
..and a watering can clarinet too:
Lindsay Pollock again with a rubber glove bagpipe:
Links: Lindsay on carrot clarinet watering can clarinet on youtube Rubber glove bagpipe The vegie orchestra
Wealth of Nations – the fringe festival experience – is all over, but i managed to grab some photos and videos. Lachlan’s uploaded them to places like youtube and flickr.. and there they are.
Pete and the Tar Gang were one of my favourite performances from the season. Pete is such a bold character on stage, with his old sea shanties.
They played the following week at the Fringe Club in North Melbourne, and followed up with the Tar Pit Men’s Choir. One of the guys sang a truly amazing solo piece which got the whole crowd turning their heads (at the Fringe CLub). Talk about upstaging!
Mamushka were hilarious and jazzie. Aviva is so stunning up front, and when she pulls out that bass clarinet, you know you’re in for some rollicking.
(i saw them again last week at Open Studio.. without all the costumes. They leap from their circus jazz into a bit of rock thrash every now and then.. and back again. What a blast.. but why was nobody dancing?)
The Kurtletts of course were thoroughly gorgeous.. Kirri and Sofiya play so beautifully together.
Links:
Oh, and the photo slideshow, which has some of my photos mixed in with other people’s too.
Ah this could make you smile.. the Spontaneous Tram Choir on the Lygon St Tram.
i hope we’ll see more from this bunch:
from You tube of course.
Ha ha. Thanks Logan for this video.
It was windy, raining and cold.. but the show must go on, isn’t it!
Emma Bathgate opened this extraordinary gig at the Fairfield Amphitheatre
An astonishing evening of the musical kind. A program including 2 world premiere performances.
First Chorus is part of the Melbourne fringe festival, this time featuring in
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Plus, from the Victoria hotel event in August:
The choir i’ve been singing with had our big big night.. seven original songs by the songwriters in the choir. Songs in genres including folk, pop, jazz, operatic and gothic-epic, the arrangements all worked by Virginia Bott the amaazing musical director.
i wish i could put up the video right now, but it’ll take ages to be ready. i’ve heard the bootleg recording came out well.
The first show was electric and intense.. while the second was more sedate, laidback, and somehow harder work. Probably because we were already exhausted. As Lou said, it was as though we had a whole season, from opening to closing night .. in the same evening.
The Victoria Hotel has really picked up its game, reshaping into a kitschie Melbourne style classic. Upside-down lampshades hanging from the ceiling.. which any self-respecting Melbourne bar must have.. since the Night Cat started the tradition back in ooh 1990-something.
Really great to be involved in such a dynamic and powerful performance, eh!
Lovely people.
Totally feeling the vibe of the 2009 High Vibes festival.
Of course i must kick off with the very wonderful Flying Scribble, my favourite band in the whole world. Mal Webb at 303 was hilarious, doing mad things with his beat-boxing, a loop pedal and several trombones.
Then i bumped into some extremely glamorous and funky dancers from the first chorus band of singers, who’d created an impromptu dance floor outside Subterrain. Good venue!
Now i really feel part of Brunswick. Invited to a special performance by the one-and-only Gasoline Stew and the Dump. Lou and Anto put on their magic rubbish dump costumes and transform themselves into the essential oil of Grunge Itself. Where else but Andy’s Laundromat. Killer gig. Loved every minute.
Big thanks to the Stew and the Dump.
Plus, special treat .. Anto hands me their brand new freakishly amazing camera and says would i mind taking some shots. So i pretend to be a rock photographer. Yes this was back in late october 2008, but i’ve just tracked down the video:
and here’s their mad backyard video clip for “put that thing on”:
