Don't Forget About Me

Dear Internet.

Apologies for the lack of updates. This blog has often come secondary to my tertiary studies, and unfortunately, these studies will be kicking my arse until at least June 5th. I'm still alive and yes I will still be updating. Please come back after June 5th when I promise I'll be doing some more constructive writing. And I have a little surprise in the works for July.....

Until then, please don't forget about me.



Regards

Darragh

Effin Tune: Georgie James - Need Your Needs

I'm in study land. I've almost completed my MA in International Relations. I'm on the home stretch. Post essays will mean more music blogging, but until then, expect not much. Apologies to the various groups who've sent me music over the past few weeks - I'm flat out.

Anyway, I was sitting back, relaxing the other day, recalling with some sadness the fact that the vast bulk of my pre-2005 music collection died due to a hard drive failure (lucky I have much of it on CD), when I remember a little group from Washington DC in the states who put out a really funky indie pop song. The group was Georgie James and the song was 'Need Your Needs'. The band featured a guy who resembled Phillip Seymour Hoffman and a girl who was/is extremely attractive. They are John Davis and Laura Burhenn.

While it may be showing its age a bit here, it still a pretty cool little song. Have a listen for yourself.

Georgie James - Need Your Needs

Hopefully, I'll get time to put up some more stuff in the coming two weeks, but don't expect much. Come June 5th though, watchout!

Lands & Peoples

Trends don't lie. This is the year of dream-pop. My pal Alaina put me on to this little number which has made my day of essay writing all so much more bearable. 'In Living Colour' is a song by Baltimore trio Lands & Peoples which you can download for free from their website or from the box below. Weird that an American band chose to spell 'colour' in such a fashion, isn't it?

The Frustration With Splendour: Sideshows and Alcohol-Free Camping

Yes, we all are crying into our pillows because we all missed out on Splendour in the Grass tickets. Did all the ‘true’ music fans miss out or did they all simply dodge a bullet? You may recall my first effort in the wake of missing out on tickets to the festival in which I fruitlessly blamed a website for my misfortune. Well, here is my second tourney at beating the living crap out of a dead horse.

Regardless of how the splendour debacle played out for you, the fact remains that some very capable artists will be docking at our shores at the end of July. A few of them will engage in the sideshow extravaganza that Splendour organisers have helped promote. While this happens every year, one may speculate that promoting the sideshows is even more important considering the ebb tides of bleeding hearts that washed up dead on the shores of the moshtix website. A cursory glance at tweeted headlines promoting ‘sideshows galore’ prompts heart palpitations. After all, Grizzly Bear, Surfer Blood and Broken Social Scene don’t often make the journey to Australia on a regular basis. However, on closer examination of the various press releases floating around the interwebs reveals a not so subtle sucker punch, one that comes with a message that reads ‘$%!^ YOU BRISBANE’*.

Ok, so we’re not “New York of the Southern Hemisphere” Sydney or “Art and Cultural Centre of New Holland” Melbourne, but you know, we’re sad that we’re not considered important enough to warrant even a drop by for a quick visit before or after the greatest camping festival in prohibition history occurs.

Well, I’m annoyed and empowered by the fact that I have this blogging platform in which to complain loudly. I feel for the many locals who missed out on tickets to the festival due to the demand, but I feel even more royally screwed by the fact that seemingly none of these great international bands are playing anywhere near Brisbane. Unless you’re wealthy enough to spend as much as the cost of one Splendour camping ticket to travel to Sydney or Melbourne, you’ve got zip all chance of seeing the likes of Grizzly Bear come July.

Now, I’m going to engage in some reasoned speculation. While I'm aware that this has not always been the case, it seems that come Splendour and Big Day Out times, many bands curiously skip Brisbane. While geographically, Brisbane is close to both Byron, Woodford and Big Day Out, I often feel frustrated that this assumption seems to inform decisions not to play Brisbane, particularly when such festivals sell out in nanoseconds.

In the case of Splendour in the Grass, one suspects that the contracts between the festival organisers and the individual artists may contain contract terms stipulating that certain bands cannot play Brisbane. Naturally, such a clause would make sense in some situations, particularly to smaller more regional music festivals. You don’t want pesky sideshows in major cities luring your market away. But in the age of Splendour such a clause seems ridiculous since a) it sells out every year and b) many people attending splendour come from all over the country.

So why are there no shows scheduled for Brisbane? If the above speculation is incorrect, and barring band’s having touring commitments which prevent sideshows (hard to swallow considering that no band has Brisbane down as a date), what is the real reason? My point is here that any contractual arrangement that renders the chance of Brisbane sideshows during festival seasons seems very harsh considering the fact that these festivals sell out so quickly.

While I’m on the Splendour bashing parade, I might as well mention my other grievance. A multi-day camping festival in this day and age where punters are not trusted enough to be allowed to bring alcohol into the campsite? Are you having a laugh? This is outrageous.

I don’t condone extreme binge drinking but I suspect other motivations lie at the heart of such a decision. Key question at the Splendour Annual Board meeting on how we can make more money out of people who have already spent $450 to attend a music festival?**

I know! Ban alcohol and charge overinflated prices for a paper cup of midstrength.

Give that wo/man a promotion.

As far as I’m aware, such issues have slipped under the radar. We should be thankful that the Splendour organisers have arranged to bring a significant international line-up, complemented with capable local talent, to Australia. But, as consumers, I think we’re entitled to be upset at the way the organisation of the event has played out (c’mon, ballot system anyone?). I know I am. Now excuse me as I return to writing an essay on mediation and conflict resolution.

If you haven't got your fill, check out another interesting article on the subject by Marieke Hardy on the ABC website.


* Two things. Firstly, in making such a statement, I have to apologise to the wealth of regions that never get to see international bands. It seems a bit petulant for me to make such complaints considering Brisbane generally gets to see more international acts than say Hobart or Darwin and probably Adelaide or Perth. Secondly, I cannot confirm there are absolutely no sideshows for Brisbane, however looking at various websites including Triple J and the Splendour website, at this stage, there seems to be no gigs scheduled for Brisbane by any international band who is gracing the stages at Woodfordia.

** Glastonbury Festival in the UK cost around $300 Australian dollars and permits people to bring their own food and drink into the festival grounds.

Splendour, My Ass

Sweet bleeding Jesus. What a frustrating morning. Like about a billion other people, I attempted to buy Splendour in the Grass camping tickets from moshtix this morning. Despite getting to work early, logging into the site around 8am, from 8.30am onward I experienced constant drop outs. I’m jealous of the people that actually got to the ‘buy tickets’ screen – cause I never even got that far. Several times I got to about position 1,000 in the queue before receiving a server time out and booted back to the end of the queue. The above graphic was the screen I got greeted with time after time after time.

This is the first time I’ve attempted to buy Splendour tickets since about 2005. I think it’s the nail in the coffin for me. I don’t care about the line-up anymore, the whole setup is rancid. I realise that lots of people want to go, and systems are under great stress, but why are these problems consistent. It’s not exactly like the massive server load was unexpected? I’m annoyed that the queuing system seems fundamentally flawed. No wonder the moshtix facebook ‘fan’ page is filled with streams of abuse (though, I note strangely enough a lot of the abuse is 'disappearing') (*edit* they won't be able to sensor the Courier Mail's comment section though).



From now on, I'm sticking with worthwhile festivals like Golden Plains.

Effin Tune: Arbuckle - It's Going to Happen

I've been reminiscing this week. Brisbane music in the late 1990s/early 2000s was quite fun really. Has much changed? Well I’ll leave you to judge. But back in the good ol’ days, Dave McCormack of Custard produced the debut record of a great local band: Arbuckle, Custard 'of the Gold Coast'.



Perhaps that comparison is not entirely accurate, but there are similarities. To the best of my knowledge, Arbuckle put out a handful of EPs and one record “No Heroics”. I feature the record's first tune ‘It’s Going to Happen’ here for your enjoyment (see link below).

Arbuckle - It's Going to Happen

Sadly, Arbuckle are no more (one member is now making music with The Bell Divers). I’m not sure if you can actually get any Arbuckle records anywhere anymore (perhaps iTunes?). If anyone has any that they’re willing to perhaps sell to me, please get in contact. I know Seja covered one of their songs at her Troubadour gig a few weeks back which rekindled my interest in the band. Don’t know the name of the song covered (its not on "No Heroics") but if anyone who was there knows its title, again, please get in contact.

Ps. Unrelated link, but James Pusey has written an interesting article on his thoughts as to why Mumford and Sons is so popular. Check it out here.

Local gig of the week: Deadriot at the Zoo

I'm emerging briefly from my essay hell* to provide my moral support to local rockabilly-punk act Dead Riot. You may recall me mentioning Dead Riot before - I saw them play a mainly acoustic set at Browning Street Studios late last year.

My good pal Harry plays bass for them and they're playing their first headline show at the Zoo on Thursday night (6th of May). I'll be going along, despite having been at Spoon the night before. But hey, if I can do that, surely you can make it to the Zoo, right?

The cost is $10 on the door ($8 pre-sale, but don't ask me where to buy them). You can check out Dead Riot's stuff by clicking here. Supports are The Arachnids, Skarlett Blue (Melbourne), Levic, and Isaac Graham (Sydney).

*I've been writing on the most interesting subject known to man: decentralisation and local government. It's the type of subject area that gives me a rock-hard metaphorical boner.