2010 has been a pretty special year for music around these parts. Here are some of my favourite performances I've filmed over the last 12 months. It's worth noting that a lot of the venues that this stuff is from have closed down (The Hangar, Cubby Hole) or are about to close down (Burst City). Keep supporting these bands/venues etc. stupid rant etc.
Grab a six pack of your favourite brew then lets look back on 2010, eh?
Only about 20 people came to this show, and a lot of people seemed to have the attitude of 'meh' towards this depressingly underrated Adelaide band. Not me though, Dud Pills fucking owned.
Not many people came to this show either, and considering it was a fundraiser to help Circle Pit tour the USA, well bloody hell. Circle Pit played an awesome fuck off set.
The RIP Society Records Success Summit was the most epic show I've seen this year. Frontman Shogun was apparently on the tail end of a brutal 3 day bender, and whatever was going through his head at the time definitely added to this performance.
Brisbane absorbs the swinging pendulum of nihilistic glory from inner city Melbourne hypnotists Fabulous Diamonds. That there is the lamest metaphoric sentence you have ever wrote Matt but I will keep it here where no one but you will read it.
NOTV hadn't played in Brisbane since 2006, way too long considering how many people love them here. They had just released their already legendary album 'Heaps of Nothing' and things were good. Damn good.
'Fifteen', the debut album from Super Wild Horses has been a big favourite at my place, it always gets a play when we're all hanging out on the stoop. This video was from their first show in Brisbane, and it was a very decent set. I think I bought a pie from 7/11 on the walk home.
Every time Chrome Dome appear in my life I know a few more years are going to get cut off of my life expectancy but it's always worth it as I would probably waste those years anyway. Chrome Dome + Burst City was a perfect match.
I mostly like bands that have a passionate dedication to getting wasted and live on the edge of death but sometimes you just want one of those other kinds of bands that promote the almost unthinkable idea of optimism. Filming Boomgates at Repressed Records was a great pleasure.
A massive year for Blank Realm, and no doubt they will be filling stadiums by the end of 2011. I was completely trashed at this show and I think they were too, hell I think everybody was. Burst City.
Members of White Cop / cult zine writer form a new band in the shitty outer burbs of Brisbane, lug their shit into a shitty Fortitude Valley venue to play a shitty show on a shitty Sunday afternoon to a bunch of shitty people and the result? total transcendence of said shittiness. Meat Thump's shit is pure and this live debut was nothing short of brilliance.
It's hard to write about Whores, they're a band that just make sense to me. I filmed a few of their sets this year and they were all great but this show was perfect.
Absolute Boys make me wish I actually spent time trying to learn music, at least enough so that I could 'funk it out' or whatever you kids do. Their first time in Brisbane, and the first time I realised my camera had a motion sensor thing that seemed specifically designed to bring the head nods.
Alps put on a guitar and played a solid set of noisy folk tunes on a Newcastle patio. Reminds me that it's sometimes good to get out of Brisbane. Actually it's always good to get out of Brisbane.
Sky Needle sound like a band that prehistoric humans from thousands and thousands of years ago would have created if they had been visited by aliens, harnessed the awesome power of electricity and then invented a foot pump related musical instrument to annoy the moon. This afternoon set at Burst City was great.
A show from the beginning of the year, Science (later they changed their name to Psy Ants and became a 3 piece and still haven't released anything and haven't played in awhile) playing in a lounge room in Paddington, down the road from my house. Cops came and shut the whole party down soon after this set.
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That's it for 2010. Thanks to everyone for taking an interest in this blog. I haven't updated much lately as a large amount of beer was spilt on my laptop a month ago and you'd think that shit would be easy enough to fix but no.
I first saw Scraps (aka Laura Hill) play about 5 years ago. It was in a large, now demolished warehouse in Woolloongabba. She was playing on a grand piano and her un-amplified voice was nothing but a terrified whisper. It was obvious that she wasn't used to playing her music in front of people. What immediately stood out for me though was the individuality of her songs - simple, painfully honest, heartbroken excursions into pop that I found completely unique. Songs that could take over the world if given the chance.
A few months later I saw her again and drunkenly declared my admiration, she offered to give me a CDR of her music and I awkwardly scribbled my address down on the back of a receipt. What arrived in my letterbox a week later was incredible, a burnt CD with no tracklisting, enclosed within a crudely stapled cut up page from a magazine. She had recorded everything alone in her bedroom. I listened to that CD everyday for freaking months.
Crippled by stage fright, Scraps didn't play again for a few years but my obsession with her music never really ceased and every time I saw her out I'd pester her to play live again. I'd show anybody who would listen the CD that she had given me. I was a complete pain in the arse.
Laura finally started playing regularly again in 2008, mostly house shows and the like, still under the radar of most. Scraps is one of those special artists that define Brisbane for me (along with Blank Realm, Meat Thump, Sky Needle, sure even bloody Slug Guts) - an amazing musical oddity hidden amongst a landscape of shit.
An afternoon BBQ show that happened at my place the day after the first Deadshits Festival. Everyone drank away their hangovers, hung out on the stoop and ate meat. At the moment I'm making a documentary on the Deadshits Festival so I won't put footage from that up just yet.
And as always, great live recordings of this show and others can be found at Turnitupto10.
BITCH PREFECT
Pat from Bitch Prefect made the first video here from his own footage of the day, mixed with audio recorded by Turnitupto10. Like all his other videos, it's awesome viewing. The second is just ya usual shakey cam footage from me (but the tune is great).
YOUNG ROMANTIX
Melbourne's Young Romantix - awesome crazy guys. Totally gothed out synth punk. Features Pat from Bitch Prefect on drums for this tune.
MEAT THUMP
More quality sounds from Brisbane representatives of the day Meat Thump.
Brews Brothers is a small time Brisbane brewery situated in the almighty inner city suburb of Woolloongabba, a good place to go to drink some cheap yet quality brew while watching some cheap yet quality bands. It's been a little over a month since Meat Thump played their first show to massive indifference and since then they've expanded into a 4-piece, giving some kid the time of his 15 year old life. Meat Thump's musical references range from the tragically underrated Jim Shepard through to GG Allin and the Rolling Stones, played with as much skill as a bunch of fuck ups from the outer burbs of Brisbane can muster. Damn pure funny awesome shit.
This is a promo video I've made for Blank Realm's epic good vibes song 'Full Moon Door'. Made on a $7 budget (1 x bottle of wine), it features footage from shows filmed over the last year in Brisbane, Newcastle and Sydney. The LP the track is on, 'Deja What?' is getting released in November on Bedroom Suck Records. A worthy addition to anybody's record collection.
Deadshits Festival is a new festival series I'm helping put together with Bedroom Suck Records and The Outpost. I don't normally use this blog to plug my shit but hell, I want this to do well. We're getting some of the best damn interstate bands of today to come play Brisbane and depending on how the first Deadshits goes (and the second one which is happening in January - TBA), this could be a long running awesome thing. If you're in Brisbane on November 5th and you're a fan of this stuff, come and support it.
Tickets are only $10 and available online through OZTIX and also at The Outpost, Rockinghorse Records etc.
MEET THE BANDS.
BLANK REALM
Blank Realm are launching a brand new LP 'Deja What?' at the show, it's an awesome record. Mastered by Mikey Young and features hit after hit after bloody hit.
ABSOLUTE BOYS
This video is from the first Absolute Boys Brisbane show in June. I don't dance but they made me come close and considering how dead I am inside, that is an epic feat.
BITCH PREFECT
Adelaide's Bitch Prefect are one of the best pop bands in the country right now, effortlessly summing up life as a twenty-something broke sharehouse idiot (speaking for myself here). They've got the hits (Bad Decisions, Marilyn Monroe) but these two music videos are some of their lesser heard gems.
YOUNG ROMANTIX
YOUNG ROMANTIX is Melbourne icon Shaun South (frontman of CHROME DOME). Shaun also ran the Summer Winds Festivals, which happened every year in Sydney and Melbourne from 2006 through to 2010 and were an inspiration for Deadshits. Young Romantix last played Brisbane in 2007, it was at Ric's and they played for about 3 minutes before being physically removed from the stage by security, thrown out and banned for life. It still holds up as one of the best performances I have ever seen.
TEEN AX
I don't know too much about Teen Ax except that they're 2 guys from Sydney and they play brutal noise. The track on their myspace is pretty awesome.
DEADNOTES WITH EVERETT TRUE
The Deadnotes have been playing together for almost a decade, combining pop simplicity with improvisational approaches to their live performances ETC. ETC. man I hate trying to define bands with words, it's freaking lame. Deadnotes aren't lame though, they're awesome and with Everett True aka The Legend! once again joining them, it's gonna be cool.
CURED PINK
CURED PINK IS A ONE MAN NOISE MACHINE MIXING PRIMORDIAL URGES WITH THE BENEFITS OF ELECTRICITY AND AMPLIFICATION, MAKING AN ATTEMPT TO TRANSCEND THE CONFINES OF SOCIAL RESTRICTION AND RETURN US BACK TO THE NATURALLY UNINHIBITED STATE OF EARLY MAN. CAPS LOCK.
Over the last year R.I.P Society Records has achieved a lot for all of the bands and people involved. The Sydney label has maintained a strong sense of quality in everything it releases, from Circle Pit to Lakes to Zond, it all rules. This show celebrated a damn good year for R.I.P, it was a great day and one of my fav shows of the year.
CARBORATOR
Sorry about the sound quality on this one, was standing too close to the PA. R.I.P's description of Carborator is pretty definitive - "Carborator are a band formed by Dead Farmers guitarist David Akerman having recorded a bunch of Velvet Underground inspired demo’s on his trusty four track cassette recorder. He’s enlisted Songs drummer Steve Uren, Royal Headache/Bed Wettin’ Bad Boy member Joe Sukit on guitar and fellow Bad Boy/R.I.P Society CEO Nic Warnock on bass. Although the VU’s presence still remains, live the band has a thrust-worthy, primitive hard rock sound reminiscent of early 70’s Rolling Stones, Small Faces, “proto-punk“ and CCR."
WHORES
Whores are criminally underrated as they are one of the best punk rock bands in the country. Pass the goon, mate.
BLANK REALM
This is Blank Realm performing at their very best. The whole set was amazing to witness but this new song "Full Moon Door" is unreal. One of the best songs I've heard this year (The song is off 'Deja What?' which was released as a CDR by Albert's Basement earlier this year but has since been remastered by Mikey Young and will be re-released on vinyl in November through Bedroom Suck).
WOOLLEN KITS
Melbourne's Woollen Kits are a band I've wanted on this blog for awhile now and here they are - great pop tunes and friendly dudes.
ROYAL HEADACHE
Royal Headache are one of those rare bands where everyone agrees on how great they are. I've never met someone who doesn't like this band. This was their last show for the year as they take a break from performing to focus on finishing their debut album which will be released early next year. Definitely something to look forward to.
The second photo of a cake I've put on this blog in the last month. Hopefully not the last.
"HEY WAIT MAN WHERE'S ZOND?? THEY WERE FUCKING AWESOME, WHY DIDN'T YOU PUT THEM ON YOUR BLOG????" I lost the disc with the seminal Zond footage I shot somewhere on the drive back to Brisbane and I'm as destroyed as you. Pass the goon, mate.
This show was part of the annual This Is Not Art / Sound Summit festival. I've never seen so many people at a show in Newcastle - the place was packed. Memories of this night for me are pretty much a blur, a lack of self restraint wiped me out early on and that's why video cameras rule.
BLANK REALM
Blank Realm playing some serious psych jams in Newcastle - hell yeah.
SONGS
One of the last shows Songs are playing with their current lineup. The first video is 'Something to Believe in' from their self-titled 2009 album and the second video is a brand new song. This footage was filmed by Kieran Lavering.
BARE GRILLZ
I was last in Newcastle in April and I played at Rob from Bare Grillz' house and it was the first time they had ever played in front of people I think, they were really sloppy and cool and hurt my ears but what was even better than that was returning to Newcastle 6 months later and watching them play a brutally confident set to a huge crowd of people going nuts over them. I love that shit.
A sweet afternoon instore show at Repressed Records in Newtown for the release of the new Boomgates 7" (out on RIP Society). I would have loved to stay and video Dead Farmers as well but we had to leave straight after Boomgates and drive up to Newcastle (footage from there up next).
BOOMGATES
Melbourne's Boomgates - Wow. With a lineup consisting of Brendan from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Steph from Dick Diver and a rhythm section of members from Teen Archer and The Twerps, you know right away this band will be great. Their music is rich with good time summer vibes, listening to it makes me wanna get out of the house more during the daytime and generally be less of a shitty person. A band that can inspire that kinda positivity without coming across as lame is definitely awesome.
Tonight was Circle Pit's last Australian show for the year, a fundraiser for an upcoming tour of the USA in support of their excellent 'Bruise Constellation' album. I had spent the whole day in a van driving down from Brisbane, arrived late and wasn't in the right frame of mind to decently film the other bands but this show was really all about Circle Pit anyway and I wish them the best.
Dirty Mattress is a short term band consisting of Luke Walsh (Blank Realm) on bass, Joe Alexander (Loose Grip, Per Purpose, Bedroom Suck) on drums, and myself. This was our first live performance, a midnight set at Woodland. Consisted of beefed up versions of Kitchen's Floor and look!pond songs. Below are two of the look!pond tunes, which haven't been played live since 2007. Filmed by Sally Edwards.
WOODLAND is a great new venue in the valley, a desperately needed fresh alternative to the long running valley staples (ric's, troubadour, step inn etc.), it's hopefully going to be the best place to see decent bands play in Fortitude Valley from here on in. The opening night the week before was massive, with Blank Realm and Slug Guts putting on awesome performances. I filmed it but the audio is farked, if anyone has an audio recording of the night get in touch.
Meat Thump are a new band, all members are originally from WHITE COP (which includes Brendon Annesley, chief writer of cult fanzine Negative Guest List). Besides playing a short unannounced set at a Bardon houseshow a few months back, this was their first show (Alloneword is a weird place next to the Step inn, they describe their venue as a "boutique nightspot swathed in style and intimacy' - I didn't really know it existed, different crowd etc.) and it's hella rough around the edges as you'd expect but in a good way. These guys aren't out to impress you, they're just doing their thing.
This was an afternoon show at my house to celebrate Bedroom Suck Records moving in (we even have an office! legit biz yo). Anonymeye played a great early set but the 10 minutes I filmed of it ended up fucking up (sorry tutts).
All of these bands should be pretty familiar to you by now, they're all amazing in their own ways but I'll let the videos do the talking instead of rambling on again. Enjoy.
Wow what a cool night, thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed this. Definitely a highlight of my year.
KNEE CHIN
Over the course of this year Knee Chin have come from being a loose houseshow band into an incredibly great weirdo pop band that can take on the world. Brisbane's finest.
GERALD KEANEY & THE GERALD KEANEYS
Gerald Keaney plays a set featuring both lineups of his band ("Through the ages"), ending the night in great poetic party style.
A shit night for me in retrospect, the new camera I've been using lately ended up getting smashed into the ground during Teargas' first song (more money I don't have) but whatever, I was still able to retrieve this footage from it, the bands were decent enough and it's Burst City.
PASTEL BLAZE
I'm tired, I like this band but I'm going to be lazy. Pastel Blaze are an "All girl garage glitter punk extravaganza from Brisbane, Australia" - from their tumblr.
Melbourne's Useless Children were here to launch a new 7", 'Skin'. They have a record with a mind blowing 3D cover (comes with a pair of 3D glasses), my friend bought a copy and we were both pretty wasted and just stared at it in awe for the entire bus ride home and it was awesome. I appreciated that.
TEARGAS
Brisbane's TEARGAS, bloody brutal brisbane hardcore etc. etc. this footage is basically just me filming right up front like an idiot then getting knocked to the floor and the camera gets fucked up forever. The end, man, the end.
Here ya go, an Eternal Soundcheck EXCLUSIVE. Brisbane's Sky Needle are one of the best experimental noise pop bands in Australia right now. They create a completely unique take on pop convention where the instruments involved are invented and constructed by the band themselves. What results is pure alien space noise from the cosmic junkyard. Here is a music video they made for Side A of their excellent 7" TIME HAMMER. It features real footage of Sky Needle travelling to the moon.
Still feeling messed up from the night before, I stagger through Brisbane's public transport system half dead trying to make it to the Brisbane Powerhouse in time to see Fabulous Diamonds play at 1:30pm SHARP (this is a very professional event). I arrive just as they start and someone remarks to me about the cold atmosphere of the place. The sound is clean, inoffensive and at a ridiculously safe volume. The stage and lighting give off a vibe of distant sterility and I wonder how any band could make a lasting impression with their audience in an environment like this. Putting my personal thoughts aside though this was definitely a fun afternoon out of the house and for the casual gig-goer it would have been fantastic.
FABULOUS DIAMONDS
Melbourne's Fabulous Diamonds play a nicely contrasted set to their one the night previous, playing today to a laid back afternoon crowd of beverage sippers compared to the self destructively brutal yet downright glorious hedonism of Burst City. A truly great band will easily put on a good performance in both of these scenarios, and Fabulous Diamonds do just that.
GUY BLACKMAN
Melbourne legend Guy Blackman, known mostly for his great record label Chapter Music. Breezy lyric driven pop.
SURF CITY
I don't get to see nearly enough NZ bands which sucks because they rule at music. Auckland's Surf City were an enjoyable highlight for me.
CRAYON FIELDS
Another Melbourne based band, Crayon Fields played technically proficient pop at it's most thoughtfully adept.
HIGH PLACES
Somebody a few years ago gave me a burnt CDR of High Places (hailin' all the way from LA) and I remember putting it on my mp3 player and listening to it on the bus a few times etc. so I was fairly interested to see them live and yeah, it was pretty alright. There's another american band that's kind of similar called Reading Rainbow, I like them heaps, check 'em out.
I know most of the shows I've filmed over the last couple of months have been from Burst City and it might seem a little repetitive but that's because it feels like the cosmic centre of Brisbane music right now. A show with a great lineup like this was going to be awesome no matter what venue it was in, but this was something else entirely. Feathers, Deadnotes and Slug Guts also played amazing sets that I wasn't able to film due to the dark lighting. Audio recordings of the whole night should be available at Turnitupto10 pretty soon I reckon.
BLANK REALM
Wow. There was something otherworldly about Blank Realm's set, a complete transcendental bliss that only this band can achieve. I was pretty out of it and can't really remember filming this but watching it back made me realise how much I fucking love this band.
FABULOUS DIAMONDS
Fabulous Diamonds are one of my favourite bands. This is the soundtrack to get wasted to and forget about your shitty life. They last played Brisbane a year ago supporting Pink Reason and were unfortunately mostly overlooked, but here they return and this time play a much deserved headline set.
Back to Burst City... definitely the best place to spend a Sunday afternoon in Brisbane. $5 entry, 4 bands, what a good deal. For this show I tried something new and used a better video camera (courtesy Adam Rogers of Heart Flew fame), featuring widescreen, night mode etc. It's bloody nice is what it is, enjoy the difference.
CURED PINK
Opening with nothing more than a few heartfelt screams which then developed into tape machine perversions and some brutal floor thrusting, Cured Pink shows us why he's one of the best solo experimental noise performance artists in Australia.
PSY ANTS
Once again, here is the ALMIGHTY Psy Ants. Reliable as ever, they battle through technical problems and deliver the brutal.
FANGS OF...
Melbourne's Fangs Of... A TV Evangelist were very decent. Brutal post punk with enough imagination in the songs and structures to keep it engaging for the whole set, something a lot of similar bands don't do (for me anyway). Awesome.
DIE ON PLANES
I love it when I see a band I haven't seen before and they take me by complete surprise. Die On Planes came across as total dumbarse stoner doom and I mean that in the best possible way. I could watch/listen to this shit for days on end.
So... not many updates this month. I've been busy putting together the Eternal Soundcheck screening night (Get ya tickets here!) but I've been meaning to post these awesome Clag videos for a little while now.
Clag were a Brisbane band from the early 90's - really great and pure lo-fi pop music. Members of Clag went on to play in heaps of bands - Beaches, Minimum Chips, Panel of Judges, Custard etc.
CLAG
This video was filmed in 1993 at their house in Red Hill (the suburb over from mine, lovin' the local history). This song is an ode/anthem to that very sharehouse (I think).
Also here's footage of Clag performing at the 1992 4ZZZ Market Day:
You can download some of their recorded work here.
A Benefit show to help raise funds for Burst City to keep going, a damn good cause. Only 3 bands, Slug Guts played last and it was the best set I've witnessed from them, I was completely lost in that blurry moment and was unable to film it.
LOOSE GRIP
The first time Loose Grip have played in months (featuring weirdly enough, me on bass). Coast punk with pride saving their last beers from descending flesh.
Filmed by Esther Lilley.
GRAVEL SAMWIDGE
I turned 3 in 1989 and I guess I wasn't paying much attention because I cannot remember Gravel Samwidge forming that very year. It's now 2010 and just like my mental capacity is much the same as it was back then (eat, cry, sleep, repeat) Gravel Samwidge 21 years later on are still playing their own brand of dignified weirdo outsider rock. They played a long, uncompromising set of Gravel Samwidge hits old and new.
"Over the past 12 months the Eternal Soundcheck blog has emerged as a key source of video documentation for the Brisbane and Australian musical underground. Conceived and operated by Kitchen's Floor member Matt Kennedy, Eternal Soundcheck celebrates the energy, anarchy, creativity and community of contemporary DIY music. In celebration of it's 1st birthday, Eternal Soundcheck will present a special 'best of' screening featuring the most memorable performances and footage by a host of incredible groups including Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Royal Headache, Sky Needle, Blank Realm, Everett True, Scraps, Slug Guts and many more ... " - Joel Stern, OtherFilm
ALSO FEATURING - CHROME DOME / DRUNK ELK / BITCH PREFECT / PER PURPOSE / ABSOLUTE BOYS / NAKED ON THE VAGUE / TURNPIKE / BATRIDER / THE STABS / WASTED TRUTH / ASSASSINS 88 / WHITE COP / DUD PILLS AND MORE.
Short notice house show in Spring Hill and NOTV's second show in Brisbane following Burst City. Weather was cloudly with some rain, kind of cold but not freezing. XXXX Gold. Harry's Fine Foods. Goodbye July.
NAKED ON THE VAGUE
Apparently this is a new NOTV song!! Unrecorded as of yet so check it out.
