OK so it’s not really payola when you’re promoting your own product… but you can hear the $$$ light up in The 12th Man AKA Billy Birmingham’s (playing Richie Benaud) eyes when he realises he gets paid for the job!

As Richie says… The 12th Man’s marvellous new CD box set collection. All 7 of The 12th Man’s ARIA #1 albums, all undigitally unremastered, in a deluxe 25th anniversary box set collection.

On Thursday January 21 MAX will screen a very special 40th show with Ben Harper and Relentless7 like you’ve never seen them before. Filmed at the Opera House in an intimate setting they nearly blew the heads of the front row with their spectacular performance.

Along with amazing renditions of their album tracks including Fly One Time, Shimmer & Shine and Number With No Name, Ben expressed what an honour it was to stand on stage with MAX Sessions host Jon Farriss, they then went on to play a spine tingling version of the INXS classic Never Tear Us Apart.

A thrilling surprise to the awe struck audience, Harper closed the set with acoustic renditions of Another Lonely Day and Morning Yearning. The guests were left with the unmistakable echo of the Ben Harper sound… it was really special.

No… before you get excited, no date yet, but we do have an update from the desk of Benjamin, the man who bought you such awesome tracks as Sometimes (currently #9 on the club charts) and Don’t Be On With Her and will be seeing us in at midnight at the Falls in Lorne! Also voting for Sometimes in the Triple J Hottest could win you stacks of prizes www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100. Just send proof of you vote to miamihorror@emimusic.com like a screenshot.

Anyway here’s Ben’s update:

Hey All,

The album isn’t far now… We have about 11/12 tracks that are very closed to finished. I’ve decided to head back into the studio to push it a little bit further and tighten the production.

We’ve taken many different turns in direction for the album as times have changed and we guarantee it will be somewhat of a surprise for many people… expect a partially live-r sound that pay homage to everything from disco to 70’s prog and touches on a dreamier psychedlic sound. For us it is a huge step up from previous works and contains many tracks we’ve been holding back from long before the Bravdo EP was even released.

I’m excited to announce many guest collaborators that we’ve also worked with for vocals on the album. Alan Palomo from Neon Indian/Vega flew over to Australia and spent several weeks with me helping write both vocals and lay down ideas for some final tracks. The Golden Filter has lent us some lovely vocals along with the wonderful ‘MAI’. We are really excited about all these tracks.

It is planned for release early next year. In the meantime ‘Sometimes’ and its remix packages are available on itunes if you haven’t checked them out and a few more mixes are to come soon including one by ’shazam’.

Please Illuminate.
Yours truly,
Benjamin

• Kara – Top 10 albums
• Ben – Top 5 albums
• Asha – Eugene & The Lizards – Glue
• Fez – Top 10 albums
• Trent – Top 10 albums
• Mark – Top 10 albums
• Anna – Mos Def – The Ecstatic
• Tara – Top 10 albums
• Justin – Top 10 albums
• Pri – Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Kara

	Them Crooked Vultures – self titled Don’t question The Homme. Turn up your stereo, wait for the drums to kick in on Nobody Loves Me And Neither Do I, and engage in some SERIOUS air-drumming.
	Temper Trap Somehow manages to balance being utterly beautiful & haunting with pop sensibilities.
	Royksopp – Junior I’m a sucker for a string section. Royksopp Forever is incredible. Read the rest of this entry »

We take Christmas pretty seriously in this ‘hood… Very few of us escaped the camera whilst celebrating the Festive Season.

So here’s our gift to you (apart from a year PACKED with incredible music, really what else could you ask for!?)… a good Chrissy chuckle at our expense.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT THE IN SOUND FROM WAY OUT AND EMI!