It's been something like 22 years since The Clean last played in Australia. (Yet the plane trip over from New Zealand only takes 4 hours, what the hell?!). Anyway I was damn excited, and damn exciting it was.
Epic as always, here's a bangin' new tune from Blank Realm.
DEADNOTES WITH EVERETT TRUE
The Deadnotes were really tight and as Everett True stated during their set, "I'm just glad to here". Definitely one of the best times I've seen them.
Hells yeah. For the first time in it's 19 month history Eternal Soundcheck is in 'Hi-Def' - courtesy of Blank Realmer Luke Spencer who lent me his sweet camera for the day. This show happened under my house and was a follow up to the first Deadshits Motel show in November.
New Years Eve at Woodland with New Zealand's Die! Die! Die! and Brisbane's own Blank Realm. There were even balloons and stuff. I filmed Blank Realm but my video camera is getting pretty run down from years of brutal abuse and I haven't been able to put up that footage yet. Damn technology, the future sucks.
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.
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.
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.
A new hit from Blank Realm and it's a total live favourite. The chorus goes something like 'GROWIN' IT INSIDE YA! GROWIN' IT INSIDE YA!' and it's catchy as hell.
The 4th Label Parties event held in the Fortitude Valley mall, this time the focus is on humble Brisbane label Bedroom Suck Records. It was a lot more laid back than the RIP Society Label Party the month before but still a decent night showcasing some of Brisbane's best bands. There was also a lunar eclipse which made everything a lot more cosmic.
KNEE CHIN
An absolute Brisbane treasure. If you haven't checked out Knee Chin yet then now is the time buddy.
POLYFOX AND THE UNION OF THE MOST GHOSTS
Newcastle's Polyfox and the Union of the Most Ghosts returns to Brisbane and comes as a much more traditional 3-piece rock setup than the solo collaborative experience we saw in September last year. A fun set that mixed revamped versions of the instrumental journey songs he's reknowned for as well as introducing for the first time vocals on a few songs.
BLANK REALM
I've run out of different ways of saying 'Blank Realm are awesome' but despite the fact I've seen them a million times, I never get sick of seeing them play. Blank Realm are awesome.
Brisbane's hardest working and this blog's most filmed band Blank Realm wrote this song the afternoon of the show which is pretty awesome/fresh.
DUD PILLS
Alright listen up anonymous reader of my little blog, I see a lot of bands play, hell that's all I really do. Most bands don't really do anything for me, then there's a small few that make the nightmare of wasting my life bearable and maybe even agreeable. One of these bands is yep, Adelaide's Dud Pills. They're one of the best bands nobody has ever heard and that's why I've put up four songs from their set here, usually my limit is two but these guys are worth your time.
The Hi-Fi Bar. It cost $6.50 for a can of Carlton Draught and I was dumb enough to buy 4. Besides that the show was quite good and it's a shame more people didn't come. I'm looking at YOU.
THE LOST DOMAIN
The Lost Domain formed in 1990 and this show was a 20th anniversary special performance of sorts. I liked it, one long jam that got more eccentric as it went on and by the end it nicely deteriorated into the band coercing the audience to yell 'MOTHERFUCKER' over and over again.
BLANK REALM
The constantly evolving musik machine that is Blank Realm play an epic set of good ol' fashioned stadium rock. It was great to see them play on a really big stage and it was easy to imagine them playing to hundreds of thousands of adoring fans crying from excitement and it's 1981, love is in the air and the world is ours to ruin.
JANDEK
Jandek is hard to describe. It made me feel very lonely, a mind fuck of sounds that lasted a little over an hour which was even more pronounced in the sparsely attended cavernous hi-fi venue. It was a very surreal haunting experience that won't be forgotten, very unique and amazing. Strangely enough I found myself afterwards at a party in his hotel room and we drank beer and ate cheese until 2am and he was a damn nice guy.
Black Widow also played and it was a great collaboration between Joel Stern and Rob MacManus but the footage I filmed decided to jerk me around and don't ya just hate that?
Blank Realm perform at an art opening in Hamilton. They played as an accompaniment to some Brisbane Super 8 short films from the 80's, was cool. Everett True and Matt Earle (xNoBBQx) also performed.
Brisbane shows how dead it can be on a Wednesday night with a poorly attended yet awesome lineup at The Troubadour. I have to apologise to Michael Beach who headlined this show, I ran out of film but he was really good and worth checking out.
Blank Realm are universally regarded as one of the best bands in Australia. For this show their bass player, LUKE SPENCER, was in India for some psychadelic reason so they played as a 3-piece performing mostly new material and yet still came out with the goods.
The lineup was mindblowing, I haven't looked forward to a show as much as this one for a long time. Pink Reason was the best thing I've seen in ages. Great fucking band mate.
I've seen Blank Realm play dozens of times and they're always great but this was greater or something. Guest starred Harriet Hudson (Good God, Downtown) on guitar.
FAMILY JEWELS
Nic struggled with his gear for most of the set but it still worked out.
