On October 2, Domino will release Lou Barlow’s new album, Goodnight Unknown. For those of us who need an intro, Lou is one of the weird but talented genii behind Sebadoh and Dinosaur Junior, plus his own career-redefining mostly acoustic record Emoh from four years back.
But as the brilliant new Goodnight Unknown shows, he’s not exactly burdened by history. Borrowing the live-band energy of Dinosaur Jr. and the stylistic reach of Sebadoh, Barlow has built on Emoh’s full production and written a set of immediate, melodic pop songs that Lou describes as, “a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh to my ears, anyway.”
While we’re waiting for the October album to drop however, hit up www.loobiecore.com for, as he puts it: “xpect Long downloads (and mysterious links)” (his typos, ot ours) And indeed the tunes are long and mysteroius also.
For many, the name ‘Slim Dusty’ automatically conjures up the Oz classics Pub with No Beer or Duncan.
But ask a truckie and their first response would probably be Lights on the Hill, Australia’s #1 most celebrated trucking song. Written by Slim’s wife, Joy McKean, this classic is featured twice on Sittin on 80, a new collection of 80 Slim Dusty’s trucking songs. Fans can enjoy the rare, original 1972 single version plus Slim’s duet with his mate Keith Urban, recorded in 1992.
In 2004 the year after Slim passed away, Keith Urban pre-recorded this great little stripped back gem for a tribute concert in Tamworth
Sometimes in my day to day job I find myself thinking “wow, never would’ve guessed this would happen to me today!”. One such time was on a run-of-the-mill promo day with Ben Harper and his rockin band Relentless7 (who, by the way, have one of the craziest drummers since The Muppets’ Animal. Check out the drumfill at the beginning of this track!).
Sorry, I digress! So we were filming a rage Guest Programming special, the holy grail for any wannabe DJ. The coveted honour of a rage Guest Programming involves selecting 50 of your favourite music videos from a red bible the size of a telephone book and taking over one of the longest running Australian video shows for an evening – I mean, who wouldn’t give their first born for this opportunity? The artist then records intros to their favourite of these 50 songs. So we were filming this in a hotel suite (as you do, more often than not) with Ben and R7 when one of the band members discovered the fluffy white bathrobes in the wardrobe. All of a sudden I’m ordering another 2 bathrobes up from concierge and things start to look more like a cigar lounge than a film set…
On Wednesday July 22 at 1PM Australian Eastern Standard Time, Empire of the Sun blew our mids (and our servers!) with their Eclipse broadcast. The 6 min 39 sec broadcast went live with the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century, which just grazed north-eastern Australia (so we didn’t see it unfortunately, but why would we want to when we were glued to the computer screen!?).
The eclipse was a total eclipse and won’t be surpassed until the year 2132. I am not expecting to witness that one personally unless Empire of the Sun discover the elixir for eternal life. That wouldn’t be entirely surprising to be honest…
Thanks to our mate Nick there is a bit of an internal battle going on to see who can get the most reaction to their blog posts.
So in the interest of healthy competition and healthy bodies (although not necessarily “all real”) I give you the She’s A Genius Hometown Hottie Search brought to us care of lads magazine Maxim.
However, last night Fitzroy’s Workers Club was a hotbed for fans eager to be at Paul Dempsey’s secret ‘rehearsal’ show before he hits Byron Bay for Splendour In The Grass this weekend.
We trotted off to the club early only to discover the room was already full… we even heard reports of some keen folk lining up for 3 hours just to make sure they got a front-row possy!
Kicking off with an acoustic version of Out The Airlock before introducing his extremely talented and might I add, very tall new band whom he referred to as “The All-Seeing Eye Dogs” (let’s see if that sticks!), Paul treated us to a sneak preview of songs from his forthcoming album, and well-known covers including Bette Davis Eyes and crowd-pleaser Billie Jean.
Despite my appalling photography skills, I managed to get one slightly blurry shot of Paul in action…
Michaella has already waxed lyrical about the Supergroup To End All Supergroups: the Monsters of Folk. The lineup comprises Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), M Ward, and Mike Mogis – which quite frankly has a few of us around the office a little flustered in Spunk folk heaven.
The self-titled album is out in September, but you can download the track Say Please from MonstersOfFolk.com. All you have to do is say…
Paul Dempsey recently alluded to donning size 13 dancing shoes for the ‘Ramona Was A Waitress’ video, and he wasn’t kidding.
The limited edition CD single is out Saturday, July 24. You can pre-order it from our friends at JB Hi Fi. The ‘Smokin’ on the Fire Escape Remix’ by The Panda Band is streaming for your try-it-before-you-buy-it pleasure below.
I LOVE SHYNOLA… Really really really. The incredibly talented London-based creative enclave been a little obsession of mine for years and are responsible IMHO for some of the most inspired motion-graphics music videos ever made…
So upon discovering Shynola were responsible for the new Coldplay Strawberry Swing video, it was exciting to say the least. It’s an epic (and chalky) rescue / romance story featuring an evil squirrel, a magic umbrella, and a big-lion-shark-nasty-looking-beastie you wouldn’t wish to encounter in your backyard pool. The trailer is below, but you can watch the full version at Babelgum
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