Andrew Hansen

Last night in Sydney, one of the more under-recognised award ceremonies took place in the City Recital Hall.  The AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers) teamed up with APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) for the fifth year of the APRA-AGSC Awards. 

The awards recognise the art of music composition for the screen.  Unlike the long-winded and boring ARIA Awards, the APRA-AGSC awards went for a little over 2 1/2 hours.  There was a 13 piece orchestra led by award-winning composer Paul Graboswky.  Not only did they play each winner’s piece as they were approaching the stage, but they performed a selection from each film nominated for Feature Film Score of the Year.  It was a great touch and made the music come to life, especially the Nick Cave & Warren Ellis-penned score for The Proposition, easily my fave score.  The night was hosted by Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough, regular guests on the ABC-TV music quiz show Spicks & Specks. 

I scored prime tickets up the front, which was fantastic.  The afterparty was a far more formal affair, with dinner and drinks, but the food was great.  Sadly I didn’t get to meet presenters Decoder Ring, but I did have a chat with legendary rock photographer Tony Mott.  That man has some fantastic stories… anyway, here’s the winners from the night:

2006 International Achievement Award
Peter Best (Crocodile Dundee I & II, Muriel’s Wedding, We of the Never Never)

Feature Film Score of the Year
Francois Tetaz – Wolf Creek

Best Music in a Documentary
Paul Grabowsky – Unfolding Florence – The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst

Best Music for a Short Film
Jonathan Nix – Gustavo

Best Music for a Television Series of Serial
Roger Mason – Peking To Paris

Best Music for an Advertisement
Elliott Wheeler – McDonald’s Inner Child

Best Soundtrack Album
David Bridie, Albert David, Kado & Key Torres Strait Island Composers – R.A.N

Best Music for Children’s Television
Christopher Elves – Faireez (Episode 40)

Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie
Iva Davies – The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant

Best Original Song Composed for the Screen
Michael Yezerski – ‘Thursday’s Fictions’

Best Television Theme
Andrew Hansen – The Chaser’s War on Everything

Most Performed Screen Composer – Australia
Jay Stewart

Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas
Garry McDonald & Laurie Stone

http://www.apra.com.au
http://www.agsc.org.au

photo by underexposed.org.uk

The Grates – ‘Trampoline’

I think my attendance at The Grates’ London gigs might just about be approaching double figures… they seem to have been practically living in the UK over the last few months. Either that or just non-stop touring everywhere, which I expect is the more likely scenario. Apparently, these guys are really popular in Australia, but I’m not convinced they’ve yet made a serious impact on the UK scene. The notorious NME dismissed their album with a disappointing 4/10 and despite the seemingly ubiquitous presence in terms of gigs, other than the occasional interview, I really haven’t seen a great deal of coverage about them. Being on a major label (sharing a roster with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, no less), I can’t help but feel a little anxious about their future here if they don’t start generating more of that all important “buzz”.

The band headlined Kings College last week, and there were plenty of people there, but it was by no means full and who knows how much of the crowd was made up of ex-pats rather than hip young Londoners. But it was another great performance, with Patience strutting her stuff in a magnificent white tutu and breaking out into random dog yelps here and there. Crazy as ever then. Apparently they’d had a load of stuff stolen the night before, but you would never have guessed it. How refreshing to watch a band perform and actually seem to be enjoying it. Certainly a welcome antidote to playing it “cool” and looking miserable. Maybe the UK just needs a little longer to digest such undiluted fun.

Previous post: The Grates

Snowman – ‘You Are A Casino’

Three weeks ago I’ve moved from Sydney to Melbourne for work reasons. It’s quite fun being in a completely new scene with all the unfamiliar faces and new bands to see in venues I’ve never been. There was nothing wrong with my life in Sydney, but I suppose it got a bit too easy and I stayed in my comfort circles most of the time. Here everything is new. I get lost easily, wander around in circles and it’s great. New is good.

On average I go to 3-4 gigs a week, more if there’s touring bands in town. On Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing such a touring band in Snowman live again at the East Brunswick Club, this was their last stop of their album tour before heading back to Perth. It wasn’t sold out like their Sydney gig days before, but nearing capacity. Vocalist Andy Citawarman is extremely animated on stage and really is the central figure of the band. ‘You Are A Casino’ is their next single out to radio, grooving in the same surf rock horror movie vein as the rest of the album. Play it in the car and you’ll start dreaming you’re in a car chase sequence.

Previous posts: Snowman, Snowman: ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ clip, Snowman Q&A

http://www.thesnowmanempire.com/
www.myspace.com/thesnowmanempire

Transport – ‘Stone Hearted’

Here’s the power of a good song at work.  I know nothing about Brisbane’s Transport (aside from the fact that they’re from Brisbane) but when I heard their brand new single ‘Stone Hearted’ I felt compelled to blog.  It’s just so damn catchy! It’s 3 minutes of power pop/rock glory.

OK,here’s what I actually know (well, actually just researched in the past 5 minutes) – there’s three guys who make up Transport.  They formed in 2002 and in 2003 won the Australian National Campus Band Competition (basically, all the universities in Australia have band comps, the winners go to the next stage and so on and so forth until there’s the big national competition… you get the idea, like a rock pyramid scheme really…)  They’ve been kicking around the live scene, getting trashed on radio and yeah… that’s about all I know.  They’ve just finished the tour in support of the release of ‘Stone Hearted’ and they’ve got over 30 000 hits on their MySpace.  Check it out!

http://www.yetanotherband.com
http://www.myspace.com/transportmusic

Along with performances at the 2006 ARIA Awards event from Silverchair, The Veronicas, Wolfmother, Youth Group, HIlltop Hoods and Human Nature – and possibly even more – Bernard Fanning, of Powderfinger fame, performed ‘Watch Over Me’, a song from his debut solo album Tea & Sympathy, which won Album of the Year at the ARIA Awards on Sunday night.

I said I’d post something from the awards, and here it is, performed with a pregnant Clare Bowditch and country star Kasey Chambers.

Previous posts: ARIA Awards 2006 Wrap-up, Clare Bowditch

The Cops – ‘Call Me Anytime’

Ahh, the trials and tribulations of being in a band. The Cops hit the scene in late 2003, capitalising on the burgeoning success of the Sydney indie scene, as well as the resurgence of the old-school rock sound, and contemporaries such as Jet and Wolfmother were also being to grow. Whilst The Cops had a lot of success on the live circuit, playing most major festivals in Australia, the band never reeached the heights of some of the other bands in the scene. They got some fairly positive reviews of their debut LP Stomp on Tripwires, which got plenty of airplay on Triple J, but soon the band was gone, and disappeared from people’s minds.

It was only a few months ago that the band resurfaced sans 3 original members. Only vocalist/guitarist Simon Carter and bassist Rebecca Darwon remain from The Cops’ original incarnation, and they’ve returned with the rather infectious tune, ‘Call Me Anytime’. The lyrics are fairly poor but it’s still catchy as hell. I was never a fan of The Cops’ previous material, and there’s a good chance I won’t be a fan of their new stuff either, but I gotta hand it to them for writing this ditty. It’s available on a brand new EP entitled 80 In The Shade which will be out this week in Australia. You’ll be singing this one for hours!

http://www.thecops.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/copsaustralia

Die! Die! Die! – ‘155’

‘155’ is Die! Die! Die!’s first single of their new EP Locust Nights. It was recorded during their stay in New York at The Walkmen’s studio Macata with producer Kevin McMahon. The boys will be back in Australia and New Zealand doing a few shows including a stop at Homebake, before heading to Japan early in the new year and possibly to Europe again. This is the first release from their new label Etch n Sketch. An album is in the plans after promo for this EP is done.

www.diediedie.net
www.myspace.com/diediedienz