The Butterfly Effect – photo by boudist.com

Daniel Boud is a self trained live music photographer who has done great work capturing the energy and differing moods of live music in Sydney and around the world. Most Sydney gig goers would have seen him walking around armed with his camera taking snaps of bands and punters at the usual traps. His work has been published in big time mags like Spin and he has won multiple awards for his photoblog boudist.com

Rebel Rebel girl – photo by boudist.com

boudist.com serves more than just a personal blog, it’s a combination of the party-shots-website (ie. lastnightsparty.com and thecobrasnake.com) and an ongoing photo essay of live music performances, documenting each artist as they climb into great dizzying heights of success (or not).

Young and Restless – photo by boudist.com

This weekend 11-13 August Dan is having an exhibition 3 Songs. No Flash. at the China Heights Gallery, Surry Hills, and he’s asked along a couple of his mates Matt Bouy and Nic Bezzina to show some of their photos as well. Not to be missed for any music fan living in Sydney.

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Triosk

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about a Sydney band called Pivot. Well, Triosk share a lot in common with Pivot – in fact, Adrian Klumpes and drummer extraordinaire Laurence Pike are in both Triosk and Pivot, and Richard Pike from Pivot co-produced Triosk’s amazing new album, The Headlight Serenade.

The music between the bands differs quite substantially though. While Pivot are a slightly more structured band, encompassing more rock music sensibilities, Triosk’s music is a far more avant-garde jazz affair with a strong emphasis on mood and atmosphere. Triosk are more akin to ambient (dare I say “post rock”) acts like Boards of Canada and Tortoise. The Headlight Serenade is a fantastic aural experience and a must of lovers of left-of-centre music. I hope to catch this trio live very soon. Check out the opening track ‘Visions IV’. Awesome stuff.

Triosk – ‘Visions IV’

http://www.triosk.com
http://www.myspace.com/triosk

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Pomomofo

When Sydney electro-rock trio Pomomofo first appeared on the scene, a friend of mine summarised their efforts with the line: “even Spod thinks they are ridiculous.” Spod is an Australian electro act known for his outlandishly trashy gimmicks, kind of like other character-based artists such as Har Mar Superstar. For a band that includes tennis in their onstage antics and a cites Bret Easton Ellis among their influences, you can see wherein lies the comparison.

But gradually Pomomofo have begun to appear on more radio playlists and are being listed on some high profile live billings. I’m not sure if it’s because people have started to pay more attention to the music or if they’re just more at peace with the gimmicks. For me, the gimmicks no longer jar as an obvious attempt to stand out from the hordes of skinny jeans and the typical new wave influences of so many other bands. Rather, the clowning around seems to be fused with the music and together they encapsulate the best bits of ‘the scene’.

All at once, Pomomfo are sleazy, hilarious, and incredibly self-referential. Their music makes you want to get down and dirty, party party party, have fun, let loose… and a whole lot of other clichés. So it appears their self-referentiality is contagious, but never fear this band doesn’t get too obsessed with itself. They are just obsessed with how freaking fun music can be.

Pomomofo – ‘Been Around Town’

http://www.myspace.com/pomomofomusic

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Kiosk

About late 2004, three teenagers that go by the name of Kiosk started gigging lots in the Sydney scene. Jack Mannix is part of the band, a music photographer who at the age of 15 took photos of Jet backstage at their hotel room and was praised for his ace photo skills. The noise-punk were getting a lot of big profile supports and scored a few internationals. Backlash soon followed and a lot of ‘I hate Kiosk’ type threads floated around the internet that eventually spilled onto the musical weeklies with bands like The Cops publicly declaring their low opinion for these kids. I’ve seen these guys about three times and I still don’t like their music. So why am I blogging them here?

To me Kiosk demonstrates the punkiest attitude a band can have. And rock music, is all about attitude. They relished in the hatestorm that surrounded them in 2005 on the internet and used that to their advantage. They ignored conventional media & alternative radio, booked an entire American tour through myspace, and even quoted hate statements for their press releases. As a result the band scored an appearance at 2006’s Big Day Out, are now putting out their EP on Calvin Johnson’s K-Records in the US, and will be touring the Sixty-Nine EP in August. Here is a 48 second sample of ‘Tourist Attraction’. The full song isn’t much longer, clocking in at 1 minute 33 seconds.

Kiosk – ‘Tourist Attraction’

http://users.livejournal.com/_kiosk_/
http://www.myspace.com/kiosk

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Decoder Ring – photo by Nabil

It’s not often that I’ll buy an album without hearing a track or two first, but that’s exactly what I did with Fractions, the latest release from Decoder Ring. Of course I had heard their previous work, which had been mainly instrumental, but Fractions blew me away. Since writing the film score for the movie Somersault, the band had recruited the beautiful vocalist Lenka, whose voice is amazing and sits so well with Decoder Ring’s music.

The band still, thankfully, retain their penchant for instrumental songs, and regardless of whether their songs contain vocals or not, they’re still beautiful and accessible to any music fan. Decoder Ring are one of my favourite Australian acts, although I’m yet to witness them live though I’m told their shows are spectacular. We’ve got a cut from the Fractions album entitled ‘Out of Range’.

Decoder Ring – ‘Out of Range’

http://www.decoderring.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/decoderringsounds

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The Golden Age

Another band hitting the international touring circuit is The Golden Age. Currently in the United States, their song ‘Dirty Bird’ has an easy groove perfect for an afternoon drive through the city. Formed in 2004, they played their first gig ever with the ‘now’ band Youth Group, and went on to play Homebake by the end of year by way of winning the Hopetoun Hotel Incentive competition, a yearly competition whose prize is to open the Hopetoun stage at Homebake.

When I saw these guys at the Annandale Hotel they have a weird setup of putting the two singers/guitarists on the two sides of the stage and having the girl bassist right up the middle. It was a strange decision to set up this way considering she had almost no presence at all, while the two singers had to sing from the shadows on the wings of the stage. I hope they have fixed this strange set up because it had dampened an otherwise energetic set.

The Golden Age – ‘Dirty Bird’ (mp3)

http://www.thegoldenage.net.au
http://www.myspace.com/thegoldenageband

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