Brisbane music-scene do-gooders Brisbane Sounds and Starving Kids have teamed up to run a monthly licenced all ages club night in the Valley, with very young bands on the line-up. The result is Young Bloods, held at the Legions Club – a hole-in-the-wall RSL with a war museum in the basement and incredibly cheap bar prices. Of the four bands on the line-up, I caught sets by Bixby Canyon and Dirty Bird. Both bands were solid, but Dirty Bird were really something else – they brought the biggest crowd and said crowd was up and fight-dancing throughout the band’s entire excellent but weird set.

All in all, good times were had. There are a few hush-hush all-ages BYO venues in Brissy, but ideally it would be easier for venues to get a liquor licence so they didn’t have to sneak around risking fines. Thank goodness for RSLs and their loophole-strewn section in Queensland’s liquor licencing legislation.

Bixby Canyon

Dirty Bird

The venue had a war museum in the basement and a sizable library of first-edition Mills and Boon romance novels near the bar.

For more photos, see my Flickr profile.

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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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Here is a little sneak peak of Melbourne outfit The Frowning Clouds’ music video for ‘Purple Heart’.

The video was shot at the historic Montsalvat Castle in Eltham, Victoria. Quite a fitting location for this troupe of beatniks, as Montsalvat was also where the Rolling Stones conducted interviews on their Australian tour in 1973. The ornate backdrop of this castle/artists’ colony seems to provide an appropriate stylistic vibe for the jangle tripping R&B sounds of the track.  It will be interesting to see the final product.

(all photos from Tim Pierce)

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Dick Diver is a catchy name to be sure. A Melbourne four-piece that plays a relaxed show and it’s rare to hear a bad word about. Alistair McKay and Rupert Edwards on guitars and alternating vocals, Al Montfort on bass and Steph Hughes on drums and backing vocals. Steph’s harmonies actually give the band a similar feel to Smudge, light country alt pop that sticks in your head or at it’s heaviest, the guitars drive closer to Neil Young. These guys have a 7″ titled ‘Arks Up’. Released late last year on Chapter music, as part of a series that pairs a vinyl single and a CD with bonus tracks. I have the Twerps release in this series and Dick Diver, will make a nice addition.

Spin a couple of tracks on their myspace here – http://www.myspace.com/dickdiverband

More pictures after the hop (more…)

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