The Drones are rightly considered by critics and fans alike within the Australian music scene as the best band doing business within the boundaries of this nation. For good reason as well, they write awesome songs, they’re great live, and they produce a scintillating amount of noise.
Earlier in the year, the Drones baptised the newly constructed HiFi bar in Brisbane with a set that not only blew the minds of all who attended, but also moved the Indo-Australian tectonic plate by one hundredth of a millimetre, such was a power of the inspired rock unleashed from the instruments of Lilliard and co.
The good news is that the Drones will release a live album tomorrow comprising of tracks from this set. I’ve been lucky enough to score a preview of the album, and I hope to write up a few words about it by the end of the week.
In the meantime, you might want to have a listen to an example from the record – Shark Fin Blues.
Today, the Brisbane City Council announced that the name of the Hale Street link, the next bridge to span the Brisbane River, would be called “The Go Betweens Bridge”. Not only does this seem grammatically incorrect and somewhat confusing to say (inevitably, people will call it the Go Between Bridge*), I believe it is not the greatest choice. And yes, my foot is in the stirrup, and I'm about to mount a tall horse.
At first glance, this position may seem strange considering that a) this is a music blog that occasionally focuses on Brisbane music, the Go Betweens being ultimate representation of all that is good about ‘the scene’, and b) I am a fan of the band’s music.
I could go on at great length as too why I’m not inclined to the name, but to summarise, it primarily comes down to two reasons.
It sounds plain kitschy. Not that I’m one for following rules and conventions, but in the context of ‘Brisbane Bridges’ it sounds strange. What are we going to build next? ‘The Beegees Bridge” or the “Savage Garden Motorway”. With a few exceptions, it looks out of place within the context of existing infrastructure.
A better name could have been chosen. For example, I believe the ‘Grant McClennan Bridge’, a name that was originally put forward as the alternative to the Eleanor Schonell Bridge that spans the river between Dutton Park and St. Lucia, would a more fitting tribute. Might piss off Robert Forster (who knows?), but then again, McClennan always was the better songwriter! The reasons for this, I expand upon in my second point.
The name fundamentally lacks cultural force, or risks confusing the populace as to the motivation behind naming the bridge after such a niche band. In general, most Brisbane people do not know who the Go-Betweens even were. They inevitably will assume that the name is in reference to connecting Milton and West End in a spatial sense i.e. people will ‘go between’ these two points. Thus, the cultural reference will be lost on most locals as well as most interstate and international visitors.
If the name had been ‘The Forster and McClennan Bridge”, more cultural force could be attributed to the structure. One would assume that people will be motivated into finding out who these individuals are, and why they are so important. Who now remembers what the ‘Goodwill’ part of the ‘Goodwill Bridge’ refers too? (Before you ask, it was named in conjunction with the Goodwill Games being held in Brisbane around the time of construction).
My essential point is that the motivation behind the name will lost amongst contending assumptions about that meaning, or through simple misunderstanding.
This may seem that I’m simply being a deliberate grouch. I accept it was a popular public vote, however that doesn’t mean I personally have to agree with it. Perhaps I will be proved wrong.
* This seems to be a point of confusion. I’ve seen it listed in the media both with and without the plural ‘s’ . The band was ‘The Go-Betweens”. If the bridge is the “Go Between Bridge”, then really it is not named after the band, is it?
Chad VanGaalen released a great record last year called Soft Airplane of which I was a big fan. He now has offered the b-sides from this record as a free download from his website. A quick listen through indicates that it is 'ok' ('Corvette' sounds great!). Nevertheless, it is worth a look at, and its free! So why not? Thanks to I Guess I'm Floating for the tipoff!
The Zebras used to live and play around Brisbane a few years back. For a time it seemed like they were the only band that practiced pop music in this town, back when it seemed people stupidly assumed it was wrong to like jangly guitars.
“Worry a Lot” is The Zebras second long-player and featured a more assured direction than the self released debut. Layers upon layers of guitars dominate the album, but most songs are absolute gems. ‘Worry a Lot’, ‘Science Competition’, Fine Lines’ and’ Doong Doong’ are all fine songs and worthy of prolonged attention. Almost as if the band took the best features from their self titled debut – specifically the two first songs from that record ‘Forces of Light’ and ‘Look Confident’ – and employed this formula across the entire follow up. That is not to say that “Worry a Lot” is formulaic, though ‘Fine Lines’ and ‘Science Competition’ sound curiously melodically similar, and even if one did find a certain similarity evident, this doesn’t really mean that much at all; if it works, bloody well use it.
They’ve been doing the rounds in Melbourne, a town that seems curiously more attracted to jangly pop music than the likes of Brisbane, which I’m somewhat annoyed about considering my own fondness for this stuff. It seems Lost and Lonesome have signed up all these bands, and ‘encouraged’ them to move to Melbourne. Not that anyone would need encouragement – it’s a great city. Though, it is a shame they're not here, plying their wares, there is not enough of this in this town.
The Bell Divers have been somewhat reclusive of late. One may speculate as to why this has occurred, but speculate no longer! The band are back and set to indulge the Brisbane public with their delicious brand of poetic pop to Rics Café this Saturday night, the twelfth of September, in an intimate set that promises to be tighter than the pants Tina Turner donned in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
I’m told by their skin-beating percussionist Donaldio that they have been tinkering about in old Queenslanders constructing new tales of whimsy and intrigue. I asked Donaldio what we could expect from the band in their post-member-reshuffle era, to which he replied:
“Clinton's vocals are heading north, scaling the snow-capped peaks and plunging into the fjords, Matt's bass has an edgy Southern rock vibe while Mel and I head west and east respectively with honky-tonk piano playing off against my ritualistic drumming.”
Expect some tracks from their glorious debut record “June July” that was released last year (which you can purchase/download on their website) along with a few new tracks. If you haven’t heard the Bell Divers before, have a listen at their myspace page.
This is a great local band and I encourage you all to get your rear-ends along to Rics Café this Saturday. Supports from Bliss, and a bunch of Djs with very postmodern names.
Oh yeah, so me and my budding literary overlord friend, Mister JM Donellan, were lucky enough to catch the first of Blame Ringo’s laundromat gigs which I talked about last week. The gig was in West Ashgrove, a short walk from my place, though despite that fact, we still drove – our bad.
The band played a few numbers from their ‘Lucky Number 9’ LP which was released earlier in the year, as well as some newer songs – which I must say, sounded very good. Actually, this happened to be the first time I’ve ever seen the band live, something that I had been meaning to tick off my long ‘things to do before my death and eventual reincarnation as a puma’ list. I’m pleased to say that this has now been achieved.
Despite its short nature, no doubt due to logistical issues of attempting to play three laundromats within three hours, there was much to like about Blame Ringo’s gig. Newer songs like 'One Way Driver' and 'The Sunshine Song' sounded particularly good, the boys employing vocal harmonies and other techniques that have the power to make teenage girls soil their undergarments to great effect. I guess it was lucky they were performing in a laundromat then. The setlist (and some other photos from the laundromat tour) are available for perusal on their myspace blog. I managed to take a small video of the band performing ‘Garble Arch’ which you can see below. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out about a minute in...but you get the gist, right?
Anyway, Pete from the band, being the nice guy that he is, did me the courtesy of answering a few of my meandering and somewhat random questions about the band, the tour, and forthcoming plans.
Hi Blame Ringo, that certainly was a flattering photo of the band that I saw in the Sunday Mail a few weeks back. Some would say arousing. In the spirit of your moniker, can we also blame Ringo Starr for the inclusion of such racy material in our local rag?
We blame ringo for pretty much everything. I'm not sure whose idea it was to strip for that photo shoot though. In fact, I think it was Tony, and he ended up covering up with a Rave Magazine! Cheeky bugger.
A very interesting video clip of people attempting to re-inact the famous Abbey Road record cover accompanies the song 'Garble Arch'. Can you tell us the story behind how this came about?
We all love the Beatles and I'd always heard these stories about how Abbey Road is still as popular for tourists as it's ever been. It seemed like a no-brainer really. Granted, we had no idea that it was going to take off the way it did, but we always knew it was going to be very popular.
This laundromat tour is certainly a very interesting idea. You guys have a history of quirky live performances, I recall your former band “The Little Heavies” performing from a back of ute, parked on Waterworks Road in Ashgrove. How are you going to possibly one-up the laudromat idea? Playing on rooftops in New York a la U2? Gigs on a space shuttle en route to Mars?
To be honest, it's now time for us to cut the crap and put out a killer new record. We've got some wacky plans for the new year, but for now it's all about the music. We're demoing later in the month and feel confident that we're onto something special.
So these gigs at the various laundromats around Australia, did you manage to do any ‘covers’ (ho ho ho)?
Not much washing was done in the end. I booked the schedule far too tightly. We literally pulled up outside a laundromat, ran in, played our tunes, said our goodbyes and got the hell out of there, speeding off onto the next show. It was a riot though.
Your recent record “Lucky Number 9” is a great little local release. What are you intending to do next?
As I mentioned before, we're currently demoing for a release early in the New Year. The tunes are taking a slightly more pop-rock direction, but our Kinksian stylings will be as strong as ever. We'll keep everyone up to date as best we can over the next few months!
Indeed. ‘Cash in Jackson’ from “Lucky Number 9” features some killer guitar chops and a somewhat epic solo. Can we expect this tune on any future evolutions of the Guitar Hero franchise?
Believe it or not, I've thought about Guitar Hero. I got "World Tour" and played it to death. And I will be getting the Beatles one when it comes out in a week's time. Not sure how it all works though. The new record is going to have equally gnarly axe wielding though, don't worry about that. We have a few gigs coming up before the end of the year, and will keep you posted on them for sure.
Blame Ringo are playing a few more gigs in the next few months, the details of which you can discover for yourself on their myspace page.
Well, welcome to spring. Glorious time of year in this hemisphere, isn't it?
News just to hand. The band everybody loves to claim as an influence are coming to Brisbane in March 2010. No, not Radiohead, but, yes, the Pixies (though I'm sure you guessed what I was talking about from the baby-faced picture of Frank Black above).
They're celebrating the 20th anniversary of their epic record 'Doolittle', an album that is probably responsible for the employment of at least three Rics Cafe disc jockeys. Yeah, it has that excellent song 'Debaser' on it and the song that Kurt Cobain said he ripped off when he wrote 'Smells like Teen Spirit'. 'Gouge Away' I believe.
Anyway, be prepared to hammer ticketek or wherever/whenever the tickets come on sale - this one will sell out in two seconds. Probably less. Keep your ears and eyes out, eh?
