A-Mac's Half-Arsed Music Blog

6. The Panics - Sleeps Like A Curse In my opinion the best...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:12:12 +1100

6. The Panics - Sleeps Like A Curse

In my opinion the best Australian album this decade. A truly great album by a very special Perth band. Featured track is ‘My Best Mistake’.

OK…I fell off the wagon a little…I better get my act...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:37:52 +1100

OK…I fell off the wagon a little…I better get my act together if I am going to finish this by the end of the year…

8. Radiohead - Kid A

An album that revolutionised music for this decade. A pretty amazing album, but there are a fair few that I think are better. Featured track - the completely amazing ‘The National Anthem’.

9. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible One of the most hyped indie bands...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:09:20 +1100

9. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

One of the most hyped indie bands of this decade unleashed this follow-up to a very hopeful fan base…and really didn’t disappoint. There were almost daily rumours that the band would break up before this album would even see the light of day, but they got it out and made a beautiful album. The featured track is ‘No Cars Go’ - a track which is actually from an earlier EP but also one of their best. It cemented their place as one of the best bands on the planet. They didn’t disappoint live either when they eventually made it to Australia to tour the album.

10. Eddy Current Supression Ring - Primary Colours These guys...

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:41:54 +1100

10. Eddy Current Supression Ring - Primary Colours

These guys came to my attention when Triple J was playing their track ‘Get Up Morning’ off their debut album. It was raw, but catchy as fuck. I didn’t mind the album, but it lacked something.

Their follow up in 2008 was ‘Primary Colours’ and it was excellent. It was a little more polished but sounded nothing like a studio album. They are short, punchy tracks and all are pretty brilliant. It beat some pretty heavy hitters in making the Top 10 (PJ Harvey, Beck, Radiohead) but it is worthy. They are exciting - I haven’t felt like this about an Australian band maybe since the 90’s.

The selected track is called ‘Which Way To Go’ - it was the lead single from the album. I don’t think it is the best track on the album but it is the most accessible.

Top 10 Albums of the Decade

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:31:35 +1100

For another forum I made up my list of Top 10 Albums of the decade. A tough list to formulate. The actual list was of 50 and I’ll post the full list after the countdown, and it was inspired by NME and The AV Club formulating theirs.

The list starts now. MP3’s included where possible…

The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody New stuff from the Muppets....

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:13:05 +1100

The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody New stuff from the Muppets. Awesomeness.

Nirvana - Live at Reading I never did get to see Nirvana live....

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:37:00 +1100

Nirvana - Live at Reading

I never did get to see Nirvana live. It will be a thing I’ll long regret. This is about as close as I’ll get it appears - the DVD is brilliant, the CD is nice to have in addition. They really were a brilliant band - sometimes I look back and think they were a tad overrated however this DVD shows that their songwriting was outstanding, as musicians they were brilliant (in particular Grohl…at times he holds that band together) and live they looked awesome.

Them Crooked Vultures The supergroup of the year has finally...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:01:31 +1100

Them Crooked Vultures

The supergroup of the year has finally (just about) released their self-titled album - Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foos), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss) and John Paul Jones (Zep) make rockin’ music together! Featured track is the lead single ‘New Fang’ - not the best track on the album…but those thumping Grohl beats will suck you in. Great album.

Weezer + Snuggie =… Really Rivers…has it come to...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:08:38 +1100

Weezer + Snuggie =…

Really Rivers…has it come to this?

Clever as all fuck. (Thanks Dave, originally created here)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:54:06 +1100

Clever as all fuck.

(Thanks Dave, originally created here)

Australian Music The other day when I was writing my bit about...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:13:00 +1100

Australian Music

The other day when I was writing my bit about the Hoey (further to this, the other Sydney music institution - The Annandale Hotel - looks like it is in a bit of trouble as well), I was lamenting the lack of quality music coming out of Australia recently. If you listen to Triple J (god bless ‘em) you could be mistaken that all that we are producing is quality Hip Hop - which is fine, however I look for something more.

However there are four artists that are currently floating my boat:

Kid Sam - the track above is ‘Down to the Cemetary’ off their debut release ‘Kid Sam’. This is STUNNING. For a band that was unsigned 12 months ago this album reeks of maturity. I’ve just been blown away by how good this album is - I think it is easily the best Australian album this year. Reminds me a lot of The Panics, Radiohead, Bluebottle Kiss. The track that has got the most airplay on Triple J is ‘We’re Mostly Made of Water’ - reminds me a lot of how I first felt about Something For Kate when I first heard ‘Captain’. The album has been nominated for a J Award for Album of the Year. Go buy it - these guys deserve to be massive. (iTunes, Myspace, Free Track on Triple J)

The Temper Trap - these guys got a bunch of hype from their appearance at SXSW this year and it is most deserved. Their album ‘Conditions’ is a really solid release. Standout tracks are ‘Sweet Disposition’ (currently Top 10 in the UK) and ‘Down River’. Worth getting as well. (web, Download)

Tom Ugly - smartly changed their name from [is] after winning the Triple J Unearthed Schools competition last year (would be a nightmare to search in Google for), just released their EP (Self-Titled). Triple J have given them a fair kick along, however I reckon it has been earned by their strong songwriting skills - these kids are only just out of school. Really quite impressed. (Myspace, Unearthed, iTunes, web)

Clare Bowditch - moved to the States, stumbled upon the guy who recently produced for Cat Power and Feist, made some music and came back with this single. It is catchy - damn catchy, but it has the guys production written all over it. Very much in the Feist sound. Worth getting though. (Web)

So there you go…all is not lost for Australian music at the moment. Oz Music month is coming up - get out there and see/hear/buy some!

Pearl Jam As mentioned previously I am a huge Pearl Jam fan....

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:26:05 +1100

Pearl Jam

As mentioned previously I am a huge Pearl Jam fan. This will be the first tour I’ve missed - ever (no desire to jam inside the Football Stadium with 50,000 people - I’ve seen him play live on acoustic guitar to 200 people…plus I have a wedding to pay for). Ed is a bit of a hero of mine - he’s done things his own way, bucked the system and fought the good fight.

So…the above video disturbs me a little. It is an ad for Target in the States for the new album Backspacer. It is essentially a 30 second clip from the film clip for the first single The Fixer, however it has the Target logo EVERYWHERE. For those not in the know, Pearl Jam self-released this album, but struck a deal with Target to be the sole department/discount store in the US to stock it. The deal was done on the basis that independent music stores were able to stock it, as well as iTunes exclusively selling it on a download basis. This cut the big players (Wal-Mart, Costco) out of the sale process.

But…seriously…this is the band that did not make a video clip for any of their songs for close to a decade to protest against MTV’s influence on the music industry. This is the band that fought against Ticketmaster and refused to tour Ticketmaster venues for years. This is one of the most famously anti-corporate music acts and…I know that they did not have major label backing for this album, but seriously…it has come to this?

Is this a sellout? On the face of it…probably not. They did a deal to assist with distribution which protected the little guy but did not completely sell their souls to the big end of town. It certainly worked - Number 1 debut in the US (first Number 1 debut in more than a decade) and Australia, Top 10 in the UK. None of that cut to a label, more profit to the Band. This bit I support.

But the ad…it just doesn’t sit right with me. They could have done all this without that Target logo being literally everywhere…it makes me sad.

However to those who haven’t seen them live - go see them this tour. Great live band.

Big Day Out - A Follow Up

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:08:20 +1100

I thought I would add a few other thoughts to my Big Day Out post. There doesn’t seem to be any massive outcry about the way that the sale of the Sydney tickets was handled. Everybody seems to be appeased by the second show which is exactly how they would have wanted it. I still believe that they have concocted this whole thing perfectly to ensure two sellouts.

Now…in second thoughts they would not have had to quickly arrange a second show. They would have had options on everything for a second show - let’s not forget that they did this for the Metallica headline in 2004 and this was widely promoted as a one off, and in future years they suggested as such by stating there would be no second show and as such the ballot process for the last tickets. Perhaps they have had enough of this? Perhaps they have thought “stuff this, we’ll have two shows and everyone can come”?

This is not the issue. I am glad they have put on a second show in Sydney. They should have been doing this for years. My issue is how the effected the sale of the festival, and how this seems to me to being a massive money grab by ensuring both shows sell out.

They have mislead the punter by letting them think there would only be one show, on a Friday, and that this was their only opportunity to get tickets. The “error” of selling tickets early helped the hype of promoting a second show - they gave the ones on the ball a head start on everyone else, they no doubt gave the scalpers who would have thought they were going to make easy money on this a chance to get as many tickets as they wanted. All of this created the demand for a second show

Lets not forget that this should be an incredible year any way for Lees and West profit wise. Most overseas acts want to be paid in USD, GBP or EUR. All currencies which have tanked against the Australian Dollar over the last 12 months. All the contracts that they would have been locking down at USD$0.80 will be around USD$0.95 by the time the festival finishes. That equates to around AUD$20,000 extra profit for every USD$100,000 in appearance contracts. Easy money (lets hope they didn’t lock any of the rates in of course…). Of course it should be said in previous years this would have worked against them (where the currency moves the other way).

I’m glad there is a second show. I’m glad that everyone gets to see their favourite acts. It’s just the way that it seems to have been done which kinda offends me. It just feels like these days the festival is a bit more Rumba than it is indie…

Big Day Out - A Lesson in Marketing

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:52:31 +1100

Today was supposed to be the day that tickets to the Sydney leg of the Big Day Out went on sale. Demand was huge, the lineup was ~~annoyingly mainstream~~ popular - we were going to see a sell out on the day for sure.

So if you were Vivien Lees and Ken West, what would you do? You could go through the motions, sell out the Sydney leg of the festival in predictably typical fashion and lose the hype of the festival for the next few months. Second and third lineup announcements don’t mean an awful lot because - well…if you wanted to see these artists you couldn’t any way.

Some would announce a second day of the festival straight up - but there is a danger of both days being a tad slower to sell, or even worse both days not selling out at all and not making the huge profits that could potentially be made. If they are to go down this path, they have to plan it and execute it perfectly.

So what did they do? They put tickets on sale early through Ticketmaster. Tickets went on sale at 9pm last night instead of 9am today. No doubt this was leaked to Twitter and Facebook and as such they sold a heap of tickets well before the official time, and of course at 9am the festival was sold out. The outcry was huge - headlines in all of the major online news services, outcry on all the social networking sites. There was hell to pay.

Of course Lees and West blamed Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster said it was a mistake.

But was it?

Lees and West came out awfully quickly to announce a second day of the festival to appease the masses. A Saturday, so everyone who wants to go can. They become the heroes - slaying the nasty scalpers in their wake.

So why do I feel so offended by it all? It’s genius marketing, but it is all based on a lie. I find it incredibly hard to believe that Ticketmaster stuffed up the sale. They do this ALL THE TIME and have never stuffed anything up so big, on such a scale, and for so long (tickets were selling for up to 6 hours). It doesn’t make any sense that this as a mistake.

This was a calculated marketing exercise to ensure that they had 2 sold out shows in Sydney, and most importantly they had the more difficult day of Friday being a sell out. They sold out Friday based on a lie that there would only be one show - that people would clamour on tickets to a show where they would have to take a day off work to go to not knowing that there could be a show the next day where they did not necessarily have to use a days leave to go to. They know very well that if they promoted it on the basis that there were 2 shows, but they had to sell out the first before launching the second…they wouldn’t have done it in record time.

And in saying this, if the second show was a grand gesture to the punters to make things right, how well have they done to get permission from the council to conduct this show, ask all of the bands to perform a second show and have all agree to do so, to book all of the infrastructure for a second show in the 3 hours they had between the Friday show and the midday announcement of the second show.

There are heaps of signs that this was always going to be 2 shows in Sydney. There was not the hold back of 10,000 tickets that are then sold at a ballot like there have been in previous years. They sold the 55,000 tickets to the first show straight up. The headline act is rumoured to be the most expensive act they have had and they needed more sellouts than they usually have to make it worthwhile (usually Sydney and Gold Coast are guaranteed sellouts, Melbourne rarely sells out).

They have got their 2 sold out shows in Sydney. Tickets go on sale Monday for the second show and there is no doubt that a Saturday BDO in Sydney will sell out. It is genius marketing - just a shame they had to blatantly mislead the consumer to get it done.

I think the hardest thing to stomach is that these are the same people that brought bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, Sonic Youth et al back in the day to put on a show of bands that they wanted to see, the guys who took a year off and were non-committal about having it again because it had outgrown their vision, that these guys have been so blatant about shifting tickets and making money. They have changed. The soul of the festival is dead. No longer is it about the music.

Chainsaw - Daniel Merriweather I’ve heard this guy from...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:08:36 +1100

Chainsaw - Daniel Merriweather

I’ve heard this guy from time to time on Triple J. This is pretty cool - it’s like our very own indie Michael Buble that doesn’t sing nothing but covers. You can hear the Mark Ronson influence in the tracks. Like it a lot.

The Perfect Romantic Pop Song Those who know me know that I am...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:14:14 +1000

The Perfect Romantic Pop Song

Those who know me know that I am getting married in March. Because of this I’ve been looking for romantic music to use during the day. This is just perfect. Says everything, straight to the point.

RIP - The Hopetoun Hotel?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:02:00 +1000

Some sad news for the Sydney music scene came through yesterday. The iconic Hopetoun Hotel in Surry Hills - a pub which literally every musician everywhere has played or nailed a groupie of a mate who’s playing there (heck - even a mate of mine who’s greatest claim to fame is to drum for Human Nature has played there!) - has closed quite abruptly. So abrupt that the staff and bands booked to play there over the next few weeks didn’t even know it was happening.

Owners are blaming licensing laws and noise restrictions for the closure, however there have been some rumours that they may have been trading insolvent and that they had little choice. There is no doubt that the hotel industry in New South Wales has been struggling over the last year, but this is more than a pub. It is an institution.

If it was down to noise restrictions then the City of Sydney Council needs to look at it’s ridiculous laws. The pub is in the heart of Surry Hills. If you buy a residence in the heart of the city near a pub, then you need to expect you will hear a bit of noise. If you don’t like the noise, then don’t live near a pub. The pub has been there forever playing live music - it isn’t as though we are talking about a pub opening in a residential area.

There has also been talk that licensing laws have essentially resulted in its closure. The State Government has definitely toughened up on pubs and unruly behaviour, but to me there is a difference between alcohol-related violence (say for the average pub where patrons go for the sole purpose to drink and gamble), and security for a live music venue. I read a suggestion that licensing laws state that a pub would need a security guard in place per 70 average patrons on a night. So if a place like the Hoey - which charges next to nothing for live bands - has 400 punters for a gig, they have to hire 6 security guards which is pure overkill. It should also be said that these restrictions do not apply to a venue like the Hordern, or the Enmore, or the Metro which would have much larger crowds, which all sell alcohol.

The sad thing in all of this is that up-and-coming bands now have one less venue that will take a punt on hosting them for the night. Bands like Dappled Cities have joined the cause. Members of bands like Bluejuice worked (up until yesterday) behind the bar at the pub. It is more than a venue - it is an opportunity, it is a lifeline.

Join the cause, take a stand. Go to Twitter, Facebook, send emails. Fight to save the Hoey (and more importantly other venues at risk).

1. Crazy In Love - Antony & the Johnsons (B-Side) Some...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:18:00 +1000

1. Crazy In Love - Antony & the Johnsons (B-Side)

Some people will just find this track plain weird. Some people just wont get it. I understand that. His voice is an acquired taste. Personally I find the guy brilliant, and I find this cover kinda amazing. I didn’t really see the genius in the track when Beyonce first sung it, however the cover is just sung with such passion. It’s intense. It’s worthy.

2. Lenin - Arcade Fire (Dark Was The Night) It wouldn’t...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:09:09 +1000

2. Lenin - Arcade Fire (Dark Was The Night)

It wouldn’t be a music blog without some reference to reigning indie darlings the Arcade Fire. This band is AMAZING. All of the hype that has come their way is all deserved. Their debut ‘Funeral’ (yes there was an EP previous, debut long player) is sensational and many didn’t think they could back it up, however ‘Neon Bible’ was a clear standout for album of the year in 2007.

And then comes this track which was part of an album compiled by the good people at Red Hot who raise money to support AIDS/HIV organisations worldwide. The compilation incidentally is outstanding (features Yo La Tengo, Sufjan Stevens, Spoon, New Pornographers, The National, Iron & Wine, Feist, Decemberists…basically every indie phenomenon of the last few years) but the Arcade Fire track highlights one thing - if this track isn’t good enough for the next album, how good is the next album going to be!

Next time they tour, be sure to go see them. Amazing.

3. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam (Backspacer) It is no secret among...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:45:35 +1000

3. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam (Backspacer)

It is no secret among my friends that I am a Pearl Jam fan. I’m even one of those annoying ones that insists that their best work comes from their albums after Ten and Versus (Vitalogy and Yield are by far their best) and live there are few bands that can compare. They have been around for a long time now - they got me through Year 12 and my love for their music continues to grow.

Backspacer is an interesting album - they seem to have dropped the causes that they have fought against so passionately for years and that won them such respect. I’ll discuss this a little later, but this is by far the best track on the album. It seems like a sweet little track but then turns on its head in the middle. A little more reminiscent of Ed’s solo work (Into The Wild Soundtrack) rather than the rest of the album. One of the best Pearl Jam songs since All Those Yesterdays off Yield (all the way back in 1998).