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!

What have the guys been up to? Well if you are part of their fanbase (which you can register for at www.thecatempire.com) you would have received their Christmas note which went like this:

Hello friends of our Empire.

This is an end of 2009 wrap-up, and a bit of Christmas cheer from all of us at THE CAT EMPIRE. It has been another great year for us, and we hope for you too.

We have just completed our tour of Canada, which saw thousands of people brave the cold to come out to our shows right across the country, and also in LA and NYC. We love you guys and thank you for your support.

Europe this year was also incredible; we trebled our crowds from the previous visit, released our live album and had a huge tour. We are humbled by the way Europeans have embraced our band.

Read the rest of this entry »

In March 2010 Angus & Julia Stone will be heading off on their 4th ever national tour in March 2010, taking in lots of regional venues as well as cities but unfortunately this is an over 18’s tour… BUT before all you young’uns get too worried, they are putting on a special under 18s very intimate “soundcheck performance” at Sydney’s Metro Theatre on March 27. Go to the Metro Theatre website to grab your ticket.

We can pretty much guarantee Angus & Julia will perform their exquisite new single And The Boys – which is available now.

Snoop Dogg has come along way indeed and the benchmark for the hip-hop elite has just been set with Snoop baking special green brownies with Martha Stewart.

Martha and Snoop rhyme and whisk their way through the segment, with Snoop confused by the colour of vanilla, taking about baking Egg Mcmuffins and encouraging Martha throughout to drop the special green ingredient that make the brownie so much better. Perfect day time TV moment with Martha wearing her Christmas card jumper special rapping “especially if it’s green, especially if it’s green“.

Nuffin like taking his album Malice ‘N Wonderland to the masses. Oh hail Snoop.

Who knew our fellow EMI-ers were so talented!? Check out EMI Germany’s Ode To Christmas, Great Music, and of course… Joy.

Plattenfirmen gab’s gestern… Frohe Weihnachten
Record companies are SO yesterday… Merry Christmas from The Music Company.

Beats the hell out of Beaker’s rendition below…

Take40 have been running a competition that has resulted in some funny moments where people have had to lip sync to their fave Robbie song to win the chance to see him in Europe. Here are my faves:

Go to www.take40.com/competitions/1556 and vote for your favourite and you could win $1,000 + other Robbie prizes.