Busy hands means less blogging.  So apologies on behalf of the team for the lack of updates.  We’ve all been stupidly busy lately which means that blogging has slowed quite a bit, but I’ll do some updating over the weekend.  To tide you over ’til then, and to reward those of you who constantly check our site for updates (and a biiiiiiiiiiig thankyou to you!), I thought I’d put up a video that’s not necessarily Australian, or about new Aussie music, but that’s just a good laugh.  Here’s Mike Patton telling us all what he really thinks of Wolfmother.  Ahhh, the wonders of YouTube.

Read Post →

Jumping into the time machine, this is the filmclip for the Inga Liljeström song ‘Phoenix’ from her album Elk which came out in 2005.  Yeah, it’s a bit of a slow blogging day…

Previous post: Inga Liljeström

Read Post →

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

Read Post →

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

Read Post →

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

Read Post →

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

Read Post →

Wolfmother on the red carpet

Last night saw the 20th anniversary of Australia’s premier music awards, The ARIA Awards, held at the Acer Arena in Sydney (on the site of the 2000 Olympic Games).  The ARIA Awards are the Australian equivalent of the Grammys in the States of the Brit’s in the UK.  The awards ceremony was a fairly boring affair – as per most awards ceremonies – but there were excellent performances by Silverchair (who covered Midnight Oil) and Bernard Fanning who performed with Clare Bowditch and Kasey Chambers. Hopefully there will be some footage from the night up on YouTube soon.  The afterparty was a fairly uneventful affair as well, but with free alcohol I’m never going to complain.

There were some pointless guest appearances from Johnny Knoxville, Jesse McCartney and John Mayer.  Most of the award recipients were predictable and as usual those who deserved the awards didn’t receive them.  Though thankfully both Bob Evans and Clare Bowditch picked up deserved ARIA Awards. Below is a list of all the winners.

Best Breakthrough Album
Wolfmother – Wolfmother

Best Breakthrough Single
Youth Group – ‘Forever Young’

Best Ubran Release
Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road

Best Pop Release
The Veronicas – The Secret Life Of…

Best Country Release
Troy Cassar-Daly – Brighter Day

Best Independent Release
Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road

Best Rock Album
Wolfmother – Wolfmother

Best Adult Contemporary Album
Bob Evans – Suburban Songbook

Best Music DVD
Eskimo Joe – Eskimo Joe – The DVD

Best Dance Release
TV Rock feat. Seany B – ‘Flaunt It’

Highest Selling Album
Human Nature – Reach Out: The Motown Record

Highest Selling Single
TV Rock feat. Seany B – ‘Flaunt It’

Best Group
Wolfmother

Best Cover Art 
Debaser (Bernard Fanning – Tea and Sympathy)

Best Video 
Head Pictures (Bernard Fanning – ‘Wish You Well’)

Engineer of the Year
Matt Lovell (Eskimo Joe – Black Fingernails, Red Wine)

Producer of the Year
Eskimo Joe (Eskimo Joe – Black Fingernails, Red Wine)

Best Classical Album
Richard Tognetti – Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

Best Jazz Album
The Necks – Chemist      

Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album
Paul Kelly, Dan Luscombe Featuring Soteria Bell – Jindabyne

Best World Music Album
The Cat Empire – Cities: The Cat Empire Project

Best Children’s Album
The Wiggles – Running to the Rainbow

Best Comedy Release
Lano & Woodley – Lano & Woodley Sing Songs

Best Blues & Roots Album
The Audreys – Between Last Night & Us

Best Female Artist
Clare Bowditch

Best Male Artist
Bernard Fanning

Hall of Fame Inductees
Midnight Oil

Single of the Year
Eskimo Joe – ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’

Album of the Year
Bernard Fanning – Tea & Sympathy

http://www.aria.com.au
http://www.ariaawards.com.au

Read Post →