Hannah Montana, Radiohead and the Master Musicians of Tanzania

Hannah Montana scares me, or Miley Cyrus, either way it’s a hideous fusion that I don’t fully understand. It makes me nostalgic for the days where I danced around in my bedroom blissfully listening to Five …wait ... I mean… I didn’t listen to fi… ok well at least they didn’t threaten to “ruin” Radiohead. For those of you who don’t waste their life reading Who Weekly, lil’ Miley made this ever so formidable threat after Radiohead snubbed her at some music bigwig awards show. I presume she would ruin them by singing to them, which of course would induce simultaneous Radiohead suicide, and that little piece of paparazzi encased gold was the most entertaining piece of trash gossip I had read since I found out that Suri Cruise eats only with chopsticks. I mean, if I had those things near me at her age I’m pretty sure they would have entered some sort of orifice where chopsticks are NOT supposed to go. Is that weird?

Anyway in this day and age where miss Mon-Cyrus is dominating the airwaves and Lady Gaga is singing shit like “lets have fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” I advise looking beyond our western shores and some what depressing mainstream music and look to Africa.

Two records that I have been listening to nonstop lately are “Missing You (Mi Yeewnii)” by Baaba Maal and “Mateso” by The Master Musicians of Tanzania. Yes I know these two cds are hardly discs to go flaunting around Oxford Arts Factory to demonstrate your highly educated indie ear, but they are amazing. African culture has a completely different perspective on music, rather than being cerebral (like dear Morrisey's angst) it is much more spiritual and almost trance inducing. The cyclic motions of the polyrhythms are insane; I cannot even understand how they play some of the rhythms they do.

It’s quarter past one in the morning, and I could stay up all night telling you how brilliant African music is, but one must sleep apparently. I highly recommend these two cd’s, they are not for the feint hearted, don’t be expecting too many verse/chorus/verse/chorus, but fuck. They are amazing.

Both of these cds are available on Amazon. Look them up and give in to the hypnotic African grooves

Mateso- Master Musicians of Tanzana:



Missing you- Baaba Maal:

Beautiful Word Clouds

http://www.wordle.net/

My mother put me onto this nifty little site. It gives one a visually stimulating outlet for procrastination, so fittingly I tried it out with an essay of which I have made about the same amount of progress as a morbidly obese sloth trying to walk on two legs up a hill with a steep incline while wearing roller blades. Yeah, not much progress.

Anyway, this site basically takes what ever you type into it and turns it into some sort of word picture as seen below.


And here is another one constructed from some sort of rant.


http://www.wordle.net/

G-H-O-U-L

Last Saturday night a few friends and myself, in midst of ignoring all Uni work, headed off to Spectrum to catch a Ghoul show. Personally I thought it was great, a musical ear could pick a glitch here and there, but who the fuck wants to listen/cares about that? As I said, a marvelous performance. They played the older songs from the EP with prowess and unleashed some new songs on the excitable audience at spectrum. Staying true to their roots, the down fall of the set was it’s length, it seemed as though it had only just started when they announced their last song and I think somewhere in my mind I worked out the ratio of Ghoul time to cover charge cost (it was 50 cents per minute). Anyway it was twenty fifty cent minutes well spent in my book.

Oh and having an extra floor tom is brilliant, if I didn’t already play drums I would take up full time floor tom duties. Pavle was shredding during the set, but I couldn’t shut up that heckler in the back of my head that was constantly yelling “play There There”, God dammit insanity.

Here’s are a few photo’s taken by Emma and I.





So after having finally witnessed their performance, I managed to organize an email interview with Ivan from Ghoul.

Your EP “Mouthful of Gold” was launched at the end of last year, how does it feel looking back on the record now?

There are bits we like and bits we hate. I guess it shouldn't have really been 9 tracks... there are 3 or 4 duds on there. It was good to just get it out and it's great that people are listening to it and getting into it. We've pushed over 1000 units... great for a local release. I'm just happy we have something to call our own.

I’ve read that the EP was recorded in a bedroom, have their been any changes to the recording process this time round? Possibly upgrades?

Yes and no. Drum tracking for the album has been done in a proper studio with more microphones. For Mouthful it was done at home.

A lot of the overdubs are done in my bedroom in front of the computer. I think as long as you've got the right gear and you know what you want from it, you could record anywhere. There's no need to pay someone money to make your record... unless it's Brian Eno or something.

Your songs seem to be driven by an idea, drum pattern or riff, rather than a traditional song structure. How do you go about song writing?

The EP wasn't very democratic. Something would be composed on the computer and people would record bits over the top of it. Then we culled it back or change it completely. Now, we get an idea from a demo or a jam in rehearsal. We record it straightaway, just to get something down into the computer we can work with. Then we try to figure out how we're going to play it live... which is usually where things get fleshed out even further. Then back to recording. Back and forth, constantly.

We're really into repeat patterns, syncopation... stuff like that. I don't think we really 'get' how to write a chorus... just counterpoints. The EP is like one counterpoint for each track... that's why they are so short. Have you consciously tried to go in a different direction with your new songs?

Yes. They're a little warmer, a little more developed...

You’re playing with an MPC in your live shows now; do you think this has changed the performance? Is it hard to get used to playing with it live?

It's giving us the opportunity to play things through, properly. Up until now we just transposed everything to guitar and it wasn't working. With the MPC we have another set of hands... it's not that we're playing along to a backing track or anything. All the samples have to be triggered at the right second or the whole thing goes to shit.

I noticed there was a distinctly different feel in the songs when played live. What is your approach to live gigs?

Yeah less dream synth pop and more liars... ahaha. We're still working on our live show, it's pretty dogs balls. Some things we had to change, like Swimming Pool, just to make it sound bigger. Serbian and Jakob are pretty close to the recording. Loon was figured out post-recording, but I think if we recorded it again it would sound like that. Scary.

And the 20-minute thing... yeah, sets are really short... by accident. I mean, we play 7 or 8 songs but they're all around 2 minutes. Ohana used to play 20 minutes.... we're working on that too.

I guess we're not as twee as we make out to be on the EP. We're just trying to do better things... a little more serious? hahaa I'm not sure.

I saw a Ludwig kit on stage at spectrum, channeling some Ringo?

Hanno got it the other week. It's perfect. Loud as.

Any plans in the near future for touring?

We want to go to Melbourne this year, but we really need to get our live show on par before. No point in disappointing people.

Do you have a favorite venue to play at?

I like main stage on Oxford Art Factory because the foldback isn't shit. The worst is when you can't hear yourself singing.... I just miss everything. Sounds terrible.

The floor in the other room is cool too. Love playing in the midst of people.

What are your favorite bands at the moment?

Better yet, records we are listening to:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85 - 92
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
This Heat - Out of Cold Storage

They've got a few gigs coming up, some to fundraise for FBI, so get yo asses theya!
http://www.myspace.com/ghoulsydney

Questionable yet imppressive and sometimes edible food

Will Anderson, Todd Sampson and Co from Gruen Transfer please stand down, partly because the Chaser is back- YES! but also because with out all the fancy degrees and highflying businesses Asian novelty groceries no how to do it SO much better, and it is rather simple.

• Packaging must be bright
• Must use words such as- happy, super, good and friend (note: they must be used out of context)
• Must have questionable cartoon characters on the package spruking the product
• And as a general rule just sell weird shit






Oh I totally want to eat that! Half the chocolate DOUBLE THE CALORIES! All for a $1.30
Now that’s marketing.









The words "instant", "jellyfish" and "natural" should never be used in the same sentence.









Small children and flowers in a field- where is the link to biscuits I hear you ask? There is none- HA
But fuck I want those buiscuits.








The title of the product is “Oh! Ricey”
There is an exclamation point in the title of the product and they use the word Ricey- I’m sold









Birds Nest Drink – It’s nutritious








And here is a beautiful fusion- Birds nest mixed with white fungus. Does coke own that?

Rice Wine vs Holly

So I was drinking this rice wine when I was in Vietnam thinking it was normal.
Turns out it is actually cooking wine.
Thank you Marrickville Grocer for informing me that my liver is dead.





Cue- irrelevant anecdote about rice wine:
In the freezing Vietnamese mountains there is a town called Sapa.
A seven kilometer walk out of Sapa takes you to a village with an equally as cool name but; an eighth of the population, double the amount of dogs, triple the amount of chickens and no real roads.

This village is where rice wine punched me in the stomach.

After dinner in the village our host brought out some home brewed rice wine. After a glass that I gladly accepted my stomach began to feel a little, shall we say- erratic
It was at this point I began to question the nature of the strange liquid that was keeping my freezing body oh so warm- yet- erm- my mouth slightly numb. Despite the shit load of wine I drink I haven’t experienced much diversity out side of the “juice box” range, and even though I am not likely to be able to detect the “delicate oak vanilla red” from crushed grapes I do believe that I can pick when there is something funky going on in a bottle of wine. Funk should not be in wine bottles.
Note to self: there isn’t supposed to be suspicious specs of brown organic matter in “rice wine” and “wine” isn’t supposed to be coming out of a Pepsi bottle- and why isn’t the guy who brewed the “wine” drinking it. Hmmm
Fuck

Anyway- to cut a long story short. I am very poor at cards. Was made to consume too many shots of “rice wine” for my poor form at blackjack and subsequently had a riot squirming around in “my bed” with the worst stomach pains known to man.

And the moral of the story is one of the following:
a) Don’t drink rice wine
b) Go to Vietnam
c) 65% of the human body is made out of water. Woah!

op shop scores numero due

Super Ted $2, Looney Tunes: Daffy Duck $2, Annie Hall $4 and Manhattan $4 - I cannot believe I found these Woody films in Vinnies. I squealed a little.

Peter Alexander sweater. So what someone has probably been sleeping in it and its too big. Its fucking comfy. and piiiiiiiiink. $3

oversized shirts are awesome in any shape, form, colour, pattern, etc. $3

I am so in love with this. another squeal inducer. $3

how cool is the religious sticker. I wonder what its for.

pink Glo Mesh wallet $2

Op Shopping can make one a little hungries. perfect hometime snack. coconut cookies, chinese bread, seasme candy

yay for the things I found today. go to - Marrickville Vinnes on Marrickville Rd and U Turn Recycled Fashion also on Mville Rd.

grindhouse.

I have a big thing for Tarantino. Perhaps the sexiest creeper ever.

I also have a big thing for Death Proof. Perhaps one of the sexiest films ever.

I also have a big thing for the soundtrack to this film and consuming pepperoni pizza and tequila whilst dancing around to it.

Oh to be a Death Proof girl.

google images

Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden

Wendy Whiteley is most often noted for being the wife and muse of great Australian artist Brett Whiteley. While she was the inspiration and often the driving force behind much of Brett’s work, often her great creative talent goes ignored. On numerous occasions Brett proclaimed that she was in fact the better artist with superior technique and skill, however, Wendy’s creative pursuits were not restricted to conventional forms.

After the death of Brett Whitely in 1992 she transformed a derelict piece of land in Lavender bay into what might me described as a little piece of utopia.

Photos from
http://shiratdevorah.blogspot.com

op shop scores numero uno

unfathomably shit photograph that corresponds with the below post. this is our booty of vinnies sourced VHS thus far. more to come baby, more to come.

The Animals of Farthing Wood

There is only one word to describe The Animals of Farthing Wood, and that is EPIC. Emma and I have been taking advantage of old school videos being out of fashion at the moment and have taking to picking up some pure VHS gold from Vinnies on the way home from uni of a Tuesday afternoon.

What I have noticed is just how heavy this show was for a children's program. The snake is constantly trying to eat the mouse's babies, the fox totally gets his shmooze on with the pretty lady fox, the small animals demand "self determination" and talk of overthrowing the reigning badger and the owl has said things like “You’ll have to accept that fox and rabbit are dead”.
What the? No wonder I thought it was intense as a youngster.

tea + flowers = oh my god my brain just exploded from awesomeness

Want to sit in an English garden? Want to watch the curls of Lord Henry’s cigarette unfold? Want to watch Doherty poorly strumming guitar in a grassy field?

Well too bad, you live in Australia.

But what better way to transport your self into the Moors of Wuthering Heights than with a cup of tea, a certain sort of tea in particular. Practically the only liquid I have been consuming lately is an infusion that is made up of white tea (a tea traditionally sipped by Chinese royalty- win!), lavender blossoms, and rose petals (in equal proportions), and if you have the benefit of having a flower shaped tea cup you can really drink the nectar from the blossom.

So make a cup, read something of along the lines of The Happy Prince and for a moment pretend that you’re sitting under a tree with Wordsworth.


Also
Despite my love for T2, it is a MASSIVE rip off. For all you tea fanatics, instead of buying the ridiculously expensive lotus balls or jasmine tea from there, go to one of the little Asian grocers on Illawarra road Marrickville. You can get a glass jar full of lotus balls for $12 and a bag of Green Jasmine tea the size of a pillow for $4 . It’s worth the trip.

iheartpenguin.

Holly and I stared at these lustily in Books on King today. Want. Want. Want. All of it.

shop.until.com, artmeetsmatter.com

pretty pretty yum yum

I have a confession.
I don't just have a france obsession, as it were. I also am somewhat of a (Japanofile?) as well. I am just now discovering a plethora of Japanese inspired blogs and cannot stop from clicking link after link. Two sites I am drawn to immediatley are Hello Sandwich and Pretty Pretty Yum Yum. I am adding them to the blogroll right away. Perhaps I may sqeeze an interview out of one of the creators in the near future. I am postponing everything untill my holidays, I know, but I actually will do it. Seven weeks is an eternity. In the meantime meander over to these sites and be cuted the fuck out.

prettyprettyyumyum

MarioMario, Where for art thou etc.

Mario Testino is a Peruvian fashion photographer.

That statement and these photographs speak for themselves, no?

Claudia Schiffer for German Vogue - tfs

francophile.

I am kinda one of them. A francophile: A person who has a strong interest in, or admiration for, French culture. Alas, I am a cliche. I wear a wee gold eiffel tower about my neck, amelie is one of my favourite movies, I am a valentine fillol cordier feind and am going to there to study for one year in 2012. Anyway, whenever I am in Melbourne (which seems to be almost exactly every six months) I go to mag nation, possibly one of the most amazing establishments ever and buy JALOUSE magazine.

no, I cannot read french. that part of my degree doesnt start till next year. but at least I know I have plenty to practice on when that time comes, yes? oh and I also have a soft spot for Mary Kate. Fuck off, I like her.

tfs

When I younger, so much younger than today, hours and hours could pass by I would just sit out in my back yard on my flimsy swing set trying to fly. My favorite memories were when the Jacaranda tree was in full bloom. I would sit on the swing with my home made wings under this magnificent tree and the carpet of purple blossoms that it left lying dormant on the grass after bloom, and rock to and fro until I reached that point on the swing where I thought I would do a full loop around it’s frame. Once I reached this point where I could feel myself lifting off the chair with the natural force of velocity I would let go and take flight. Well that is hardly the way to describe it, nor was it “falling with style” as Woody from Toy Story once proclaimed. I came crashing to the ground with all too frequently and got winded more times than I can remember (jacaranda flowers look darn pretty but they don’t provide as much padding as my five year old self was so sure they would). However, swings and pain is not the point I am trying to convey here.

The joys of a swing set and fairy wings are very underrated and should not be restricted to childhood (despite the broken bones). I have an abundance of fond memories revolving around a swing set (literally), glitter, and some coat hangers and old pairs of stockings that had been converted into a pair, of you guessed it, fairy wings. A wise man once said that “It's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho.", ok well, Vince Noir said that which makes him neither wise or real, and he’s talking about a poncho not fairy wings, BUT, the same idea applies. It’s impossible to be unhappy when you’re wearing fairy wings and I think more people should wear them on a regular basis.

You’re laughing at the idea? Well think again my cynical friends.

You may come across as an overly seized five year old or a crazy person floats around in the inner west but, god damned it’s fun and I think that steel structured wings should be adopted for all occasions not just birthday parties with swing sets, birthday cake and sprinkles (although if you have these things accessible go crazy). So if you do feel like a bit of nostalgia or just plain craziness this is how to make some fairy wings.

1. Start with two hangers. Cut the hook off down to the point where the wire spiral starts. Then bend the spiral part on one hanger to the right and on the other hanger to the left.
2. Take the two twisted parts and overlap them. Wrap them tightly with duct tape.
3. Bend the hangers into your desired wing shape.
4. Take a pair of stockings. Stretch one over each wing. Pull it tight to the center and then twist the entire set of wings as you hold the end of the nylon. Usually you can then hook it on one of the ends of the wire hanging out.
5. Make the arm bands. To put the elastic loops on, first tie a knot in the elastic so it's a loop, then put it around both top and bottom wing on the right side, and bring the loop through itself between the wings. This is an easy way to put them on without having to sew them.
6. Paint them and voila, now you can fall off swing sets and look mentally insane with style.

This is an incredibly lazy post, but this is one of my favorite opening sequences for a film (by contrast, another is Full Metal Jacket) and the world should know of it's brilliance. If you have seen the movie before, sit back and watch the first scene again youtube style. If you haven't seen it, go hire it or steal it from a friend NOW.

whats a girl to do?

if you're the kind of person who is into dreams, nightmares, poetry, glitter, fur, face paint, animals, feathers, melancholy, halloween, dress ups, mythology, dreamcatchers, patchouli, radiohead, broken hearts, UFOs, pine trees or love making the the dark, chances are you think bat for lashes (natasha khan) is pretty incredible. for those of you who don't know yet, do yourself a favour and buy two suns. the album is a pastiche of everything i have mentioned above. khan sounds delicatley broken, almost desperate in this record, a little different from 2007's fur and gold, but employs the same style and instruments that won so many fans (thom yorke included) at the time of her debut. i think this album will inspire in more ways that imaginable.

i am so buying face paint.

myspace

Ghoul- This Saturday - 23/5

On the note of music…

This Saturday I highly recommend coming to Spectrum and witnessing a Ghoul show. It is rarely that I get so excited about a local band, and basically, I cannot put it any clearer than this, Ghoul are the crème de la crème of what Sydney has to offer on the music scene. You will probably enjoy them if you’re into Thom Yorke’s “The Eraser” and Buckley, but really it is the originality of this band that makes them great.

I am still yet to see the band in full swing live so I am very much looking forward to it. If you have ten dollars to spare, come down and do some hair dancing with Emmie and I.

http://www.myspace.com/ghoulsydney

Primary Colours- The Horrors

I’m not even going to try to “review” this album as such, rather, I’ll just tell you to GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS RECORD.

I was thinking, and I’m sure many others were too, what would The Horrors do next? Neatly shelved as another novelty scenester band with all their fantastic gore, fuzz, organs, skinny legs and hair. Oh so much hair. Could this concept stretch another album? Would they try to do just that? Would they disappear into the abyss of bands that the NME threw in the scrap heap when they realized that Noel Fielding didn’t dig them anymore?

Thankfully Faris Rotter, Spider Webb, Coffin Joe, Tomethy Furse and Joshua Third did none of the above. With Webb and Furse swapping synth and bass duties The Horrors have managed to craft themselves a knew completely sound with out losing what made me fall in love with the first album.

If you would like a neatly packaged box to put them in, here it is:
The old horrors + new order + 90’s shoe gaze then listen to them through a kaleidoscope and you will have something along the lines of “Primary Colours”.

I have not been so pleasantly surprised since I found out that... Well I can’t remember, which either means I have a rather depressing life or that this is a brilliant album. I’ll leave that for you to decide.

My Favourites:
Mirror’s Image
Who Can Say
Scarlet Fields
Sea Within A Sea

imsorry,butihavetospeakattheardvarkassembly.bitch.

I have to admit that this made me laugh out loud in a garish, embarrasing tone. but fuck, it is hillarious. this was intended to be a post on how amazing the show babar is. I totally have re-indulged thanks to vinnies. Royal French elephants just being generally crazy motherfuckers shouting out lines like "im sorry flora, but I have to speak at the ardvark assembly", "hey look! a flock of turtles." and "babar, its as obvious as the fork sticking out of your face." so yeah, hit up babar on youtube. its pure class.

on an unrelated note: has anyone noticed how intense blinky bill's voice is? jesus. calm the fuck down.

rejectedjokes.com

like warm milk to a kitten.

red wine is oxygen. boxed red wine is uni student oxygen. the concept of mulled wine seemed to me something slightly out of reach, reserved only for those bundled up like kittens in the heart of europe. but oh contraire, oh contraire. Gluhwein is an inexpensive, warm and fuzzy alcoholic beverage.

Gluhwein.

'a sophisticated hot tea cocktail' - ha.

Ingredients:
250 ml strong tea
75 ml sugar
500 ml red wine
5 ml ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick - we used ground cinnamon
Rind of 1 lemon - and lemon juice

Boil the tea, lemon rind, sugar, cinnamon and cloves together until the sugar dissolves.

Add the red wine and bring to a boil.

Strain out cinnamon stick and the rind.

it has been a long time since consuming anything with the words 'sophisticated' or 'cocktail' in its description.