Posts By Sophie Benjamin

Cardboard Tube Fighting League

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I have fond memories of playing sword-fighting games with my little brother, winning and making him cry. Then there were the times where I beat him with a hollow cardboard tube. *badoom-tssh*

Seriously though, this has to be the best piece of Facebook event invite spam I’ve ever received.
On Saturday July 10 at 2pm, a  bunch of people are going to meet up at the park behind the Milton State School in Brisbane (cardboard suit of armor is optional) and fight each other with cardboard tubes. I’ve just moved house, so I’m going to make myself some badass protective gear with my leftover moving boxes.

The Facebook event invite is here.

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Birds of Tokyo – ‘Plans’ video

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YouTube Preview Image

Dear Matt Hickey,

I know your position on Birds of Tokyo and this blog. Ordinarily I would respect your wishes. However, the ousting of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by his ranga deputy has indicated that this is no ordinary day.  So, in the spirit of things that are a bit distasteful, but make me feel proud to be an Aussie, here is the new Birds of Tokyo video.

Your pal,

Sophie Benjamin.

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Edward Guglielmino – 50 ways to get people to care about your band in Australia.

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There are a few things I like about singer-songwriter Edward Guglielmino –  unfortunately, his music is not one of those things.
What I am a fan of are his occasional witticisms and bouts of trolling on the the internet. His list of 50 Ways To Get People to Care About Your Band In Australia is full of tips for aspiring musicians or alternatively, jokes for snide hipsters. Read on and pass judgment.

1. Pick your favorite overseas act and copy them exactly, give yourself a similar name, about put in your bio “Australia’s answer to”
2. Tell people you are all under 18.
3. Use “tokyo, russia, euro,” in your band name, make sure on paper your band name means nothing.
4. Sign to the first label that shows interest, hand over any chance you have of making any money to the company for a minimum of 25 years.
5. Use “Fresh, cool, straight out of, bluesy, roots” in your band bio.
6. Be an Aussie Hip Hop group.
7. Openly endorse a soft drink.
8. After two years tell everyone you’re quitting for good, only to reveal a new project which is identical, only with a very slightly different name.
9. Hire a young manager who will sign anything put in front of him or her.
10. Talk purely about music you really like, how awesome everything is, and never ever criticize anything openly.
11. After gigs in the backstage area openly bitch about every other act in Australia.
12. Find someone famous and start sleeping with them, pretend it is a secret to the public but tell every single person you can in private.
13. Listen to commercial radio for 48 straight and then write a song immediately.
14. Use awesome and wicked to describe everything.
15. Accept your aria and make a joke about how you are still the underdog and still have have no money in your bank account.
16. Have no cultural awareness, have no idea of music history.
17. Live in a share house with more than 10 other people in Northcote.
18. Live in your parents multi-million dollar house and have them bankroll you for 20 years.
19. Live in a share house in Newtown with 40 people, and 10 junkies.
20. Live in the Gap in Brisbane, be seen shopping at Gap Coles, tell people how much you hate fortitude valley, play acoustic guitar.
21. Make lists that people will pretend to like, but secretly they are infuriated.
22. Go to 1971 and copy.
23. Go to 1983 and copy.
24. Go to 1992 and copy.
25. Sound like “Television” (the band see rule 16).
26. Write negative things on forums about your band “Tokyo Russian Underground” Australia’s answer to Fleet Foxes.
27. Turn up to gigs after the band has finished and bitch about the bands performance.
28. Grow dreadlocks, play roots.
29. Be easy to pigeonhole, complain about being pigeonholed.
30. Use pigeonhole in every interview to describe your band, for example “I don’t want to be pigeonholed as Australia’s answer to Animal Collective but…”
31. Be ugly and write joke songs.
32. Continually act surprised that your are successful.
33. Move overseas, and play a couple of gigs, come back and claim that your famous in London, New York, Berlin ect. (note won’t work for 3rd world countries)
34. Go OP shopping before every photo shoot.
35. When being interviewed make ironic jokes that acknowledge that your currently famous.
36. If you are a woman, play up the girl next door thing until you are 45.
37. Talk about your fans as if you know them, if one approaches you in front of a camera act like you know him or her.
38. If a fan approaches you in Australia off camera, tell it to fuck off.
39. If a fan approaches you outside of Australia try not to act surprised.
40. Be from Melbourne.
41. Be from Brisbane
42. Be from Melbourne or Brisbane but play gigs in Sydney every other weekend.
43. Sleep with someone on the radio.
44. Put “despite only being around for 6 months” in your bio, even if you have been around for 10 years.
45. Never change a single thing about your band accept the the name.
46. Call any tour, the final tour ever.
47. After you turn 30 write a book.
48. After you turn 40 write another book.
49. After you turn 50 enter politics.
50. If a fan approaches you overseas, and they aren’t Australian, discount all rules above.

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Ironhide, Abraxis, Shock Values @ Burst City

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Burst City is one of many “underground” venues springing up across Brisbane, possible in response to the Valley becoming overrun by football jocks and their sluzzas. It’s an RSL located directly across from the Museum in South Brisbane and pretty damn cool.
I was granted overnight leave after two weeks in hospital and was keen to check the place out. I piked before the headliners, but got some ok shots of Ironhide, Shock Values and Abraxis.

For more, see my Flickr page.

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UnConvention Brisbane

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If you’re in Brisbane this long weekend, come and check out UnConvention. From the presser:

UnConvention is a not-for-profit grassroots led music conference for D.I.Y. and independent promoters, labels, entrepreneurs, writers, technologists, innovators and artists. UnConvention Brisbane will bring together some of independent music’s most innovative thinkers to discuss the future of the music industry and strategies for building up our local scene.

Held 12-13 June 2010 at The Edge in Brisbane’s South Bank precinct, the weekend event will be comprised of panel discussions and networking events focused around creating sustainable careers within the music industry.

Over 30 key participants from the local independent music scene will appear as guest speakers, including Andrew Stafford (author of Pig City), Paul Curtis (Regurgitator manager / Valve Records founder), Graham Ashton (BIGSOUND executive programmer) and Kellie Lloyd
(Screamfeeder bassist and vocalist / Q Music project officer).

The goal of UnConvention is to bring together like-minded individuals to discuss the future of Independent music and how it will develop and flourish in the technological age. UnConvention isn’t concerned with discovering rock-stars, but instead building and enabling a community of practitioners who want to work in and around music.
UnConvention doesn’t believe in ‘do it yourself’. We believe in ‘do it together’.
I’ll be speaking on the Music and Media panel on Sunday if you want to give me a personalised punch in the face.

http://www.unconventionbrisbane.com/

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Tusk Tusk – ‘Crazy Little Birthmarks’

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Tusk Tusk – ‘Crazy Little Birthmarks’ (mp3)

Listen to

Dominic Fagan used to live in Brisbane and play keys for Screamfeeder singer Tim Steward’s solo project. Like so much Brisbane talent,  he up and moved to Melbourne and has been writing sweet pop songs like this ever since.
Rollicking finger-picked guitar and choral backing vocals support Fagan’s plaintive, unsteady voice as he repeats the song’s refrain – somebody help to hold this poor girl down. ‘Crazy Little Birthmarks’ isn’t an angsty whine though – it’s more a suggestion than a panicked cry for help.

www.myspace.com/tusktuskband

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