these should keep you happy for a while

This song is awesome.

You can get it off iTunes as it’s this week’s ‘Single of The Week’

Highly recommended.

They’re playing at Oxford Art Factory tomorrow night with good jungle cats Jinja Safari

These bros are good. These bros are different. Jinja Safari are essentially a two piece, joined by more members live, and they play really nice tunes in a sort of dreamy, tribal kind of way. It puts you in a good mood which is what we all need on an overcast, cold day.

Currently their track ‘Peter Pan‘ is getting a good spin on Triple J & they’ve recently been announced as the Triple J unearthed winner earning themselves a place on the Splendour in the Grass bill. They’ll also be touring the country supporting Art Vs Science.

They’re well worth checking out. You can download their track ‘Peter Pan’ from their Unearthed page (link above). There’s also a great video to watch as well:  CLICK HERE

I said I’d do this more regularly and Clay Davis echoes my sentiments perfectly. I’ve again been lax. In my defence though I have been turbo busy in doing stuff. Most of it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things. In between keeping up to date with The Wire on ABC2 and the new season of Entourage and working on my Vuvuzela remix of Nikki Webster’s classic Strawberry Kisses there’s been a glut of great Australian music releases, Brian McFadden’s ‘Wall of Soundz’ excluded.

I’m going to keep this brief and short.

I can highly recommend the following local releases:

Cloud Control – Bliss Release

Parades – Foreign Tapes

Cabins – Bright Victory

British India – Avalanche

Children Collide – Jellylegs (single)

Ernest Ellis – Hunting

Belles Will Ring – Come to the Village EP

Boy & Bear – With Emperor Antarctica EP

You should also check out these new bands. They’ll all be ones to watch in the next 6 months if you aren’t across them already

Jinja Safari

Pluto Jonze

Aeons – For a Free EP Click HERE

Goodnight Owl

Big Scary

Cameras

The Salvadors

Guineafowl

Gypsy & The Cat

The Upskirts – for free single click here

For unlimited free music…. click HERE

Big overseas recommended listening from the big easy consists of the recent Foals record. Spot on. Spanish Sahara is an alltime tune. And Janelle Monae & The Roots new albums dominate on the more funky hip-hop side of things. And also Kylie Minogues new song ‘All The Lovers’ really makes me want to dance for some reason.

Take some time to check out the above bands myspace pages as a few of them have some free downloads to get do you can expand your mp3 library legally, for free and add some diverse quality & taste. If you don’t you’ll end up like this bloke. He’s your mate:

Check it out below:

Playing their instruments together, as a collective, in time, in the right key and playing something resembling a tune or melody wouldn’t have gone astray either. Instead, I was subject to half an hour of shite. Half an hour of self-indulgent, ego-pandering, ‘experimental‘ musicianship, reach-around wankery. I’d liken them to the musical equivalent of a dutch rudder. The type of display that gives jazz an elitist, too hard to understand vibe. I would have rather watched Ke$ha for half an hour. The guitarist made light banter about how it was their biggest ever gig. I’m surprised they’d been allowed to gig before.

After almost leaving the Opera House early, my night made a turn for the better when piano legend Ahmad Jamal came on to a raucous response from a crowd that had already had it’s patience tested. I’ve never seen so many old people wearing brand new leather jackets, tight jeans & rose tinted glasses in the one place!

Ahmad Jamal would have been the Mick Jagger/Justin Bieber of his day alongside his peers such as Miles Davis & Thelonious Monk. A rock star in the true sense of the word. He was energetic, enigmatic, his presence commanded attention & respect and he had the audience eating out of his palms. Even though he’s about 80 he still rocked. He thoroughly entertained and played some great music as well. Jazz isn’t usually my kettle of fish but it was a chance to see a Hall of Fame musician and it would probably be the closest thing to experiencing that Miles Davis era as I’ll ever get. His backing band was superb & everyone left in a good mood. Thankfully it put the horrible memory of The Drips (to be avoided at all costs) to bed and I gave my jazz hands a good work out in the process.

If you’re wondering who Miles Davis is and why would I go to the Opera House to see some old cat then you need to go and buy Kind of Blue. It’s a must have album and an integral part of any record/mp3 collection worth it’s salt. It was also #12 in Rolling Stone’s list of best albums ever.

For those of you who don’t want to do that, well fine. You’re probably all fans of The Drips or Final Placement.

You’d enjoy these videos instead:

Drink Magners as well. Next week I’ll put up some more thoughts & ramblings. Let’s hope I don’t see another really awful band which triggers another really awful rant

It will probably let you down. ‘I liked your old stuff better’ & ‘You’ve changed’ are taunts I have to deal with daily. Being a washed up blogger after 2, maybe 3 posts is something I have to endure daily. The suffering of knowing your better stuff is long behind you is a harsh reality to deal with. And I’m trying to deal with it and move on.

On the ‘washed up’ theme, is it better to be washed-up than a never-was? I have argued this point before as being washed up implies that you were once something or somebody. Being labelled washed up, I believe is a backhanded complement toasting your previous success. U2 I believe are washed up. By saying that I am acknowledging that their earlier albums were brilliant and successful but now they aren’t too good and aren’t relevant in today’s musical landscape. Green Day could fall under this umbrella but both bands still pack arenas and shift a lot of albums. Is it due to fans wanting to hear old classics, or live in hope that the newest album will have some of the brilliance of days gone by? Black Eyed Peas? Anyone think ‘Boom Boom Pow’ or ‘I Gotta Feeling’ are as good as ‘Weekends’ or ‘Let’s Get Retarded’?

Someone told me the other day that Kings of Leon were washed up. If they are, then I’m pretty sure I am a never-was.

On the not so washed up side of things I highly recommend these following songs which I’ve been damaging my earlobes with lately:

• Lupe Fiasco – Shining Down
• Hockey – Too Fake
• Metric – Help I’m Alive
• La Roux – Bulletproof
• Paul Dempsey – Ramona Was A Waitress
• Lisa Mitchell – So Jealous
• The Avett Brothers – The Perfect Space
• Jamie T – Sticks & Stones

If you want to get some fresh new electro tracks and news you should pay my pals over at Electrorash a visit. They probably have far cooler music and know a whole heap more about it.

After you’ve finished reading this (if you made it this far) I recommend that you enjoy a Magners Cider.

Slap it in a glass with some ice and watch the worlds problems disappear. It’s probably on a par with Resch’s as the Cheesemakers drink of choice. I entered this promo once before and never heard back about me bike.

I’m getting addicted to it very quickly, almost as much as I’m addicted to the new 5 Pulse gum. This stuff could get dangerous for me as it’s so damn tasty. If you see it around, try it.

Till next time the cheese rears his head, listen to music, drink Magners, chew gum and get on the Resch.

All the best…