On Sunday night I had the pleasure of seeing The Cat Empire play one of their biggest Aussie headline shows at Sydney’s Hordern, following on from the soulful Mama Kin, and the fun and theatrical Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes.
The guys were on fire, having already toured their latest album Cinema throughout Canada and the US and being half-way through their only Aussie tour this year. The crowd loved it, with hands in the air and hips shaking for all 2 hours. Sometimes I forget what a fun, festive, noisy, and captivated bunch The Cat Empire fans are. When Felix asked everyone to get down on the ground for ‘Fishes’ ,all 5,000 fans did, only to leap up into the air and keep dancing. It was amazing!
There are only a couple of dates left so jump onto thecatempire.com to get tickets, or onto The In Song to buy Cinema.
With a beaming smile, I’m more than happy to welcome Queensland’s Hungry Kids Of Hungary to the EMI Family through the Stop Start label. A very worthy addition to sit alongside Old Man River & Maniac in Australia’s newest indie.
If you’re a Triple J aficionado – you’ll definitely know their tunes. Every single the band have released has had a workout at the station. If you’re new to the name – check them out.
I’ve seen these guys play quite a few times this year in Sydney and that shows how hardworking and great they are for playing around the country all the time. So of course there’s a great tour lined up all around Australia with two other very worthy bands, Big Scary & Ball Park Music.
I’m giving a pre-release copy of their debut album ‘Escapades’ a good crank right now and you’ll be able to join in on the fun when it’s officially released on October 1st.
Robbie and Gary are back together… perhaps in more ways than one??? Check this out!
Shame and another new song will be on Robbie’s definitive greatest hits In And Out Of Consciousness – Greatest Hits 1990-2010 out in Australia on October 8.
We find ourselves cavorting up the stairs to Melbourne’s finest Karaoke bars (some are stumbling due to the infinitely open-bar at The Plaza Ballroom, wherein Katy Perry and her cotton-candy band delivered a deliciously sugared show.)
Before we know it… BAM! We’re locked and loaded into both the bittersweettunes of karaoke and the bittersweet punch that flowed richly throughout the night, until the hard liquor came out. An initially- scheduled appearance from Katy Perry to join us (which was cancelled due to an early morning TV appearance) was replaced with non-other than the illustrious & much loved Papa Vs Pretty boys. Gracing the EMI people with their over enthusiastic karaoke skills & oversized lollipops.
Soon, we exhausted our karaoke abilities (or someone BROKE the machine – you know who you are… ) and exploded into dance to songs such as The Killers’ When You Were Young?? (Eiffel 65’s Blue had the reverse effect)
Note to self – if ever throwing a party, ALWAYS blast some horrendous 90’s POP and HIP HOP; so bad it’s brilliant.
While some danced the night away forgetting all cares (and emails), others took the opportunity to relax and recline through the beaded-doorway of private, low lit rooms. The night marched on and by the early morning the dance floor was too irresistible for even the most conservative. The room became a smorgasbord of crumping, pumping, grinding, ‘the running man’ and… motorboating?? I never expected that explosive dancing, substandard karaoke and conga lines were so conducive to intimate record-company bonding. This truly felt like a record company after-party!!
Despite the sea of sickness that no doubt flooded some of the company the next morning, the Magical Mystery Tour was truly magical and one to be fondly remembered!
The guys released their album Illumination on Friday – buy it on iTunes now and you can get a remix by Ben of the entire album called Lucid Stream - it’s HUGE.
The music world was rocked (or at least gently swayed) over the weekend with the news of the suicide of Charles Haddon – lead singer of UK synthpop group Ou Est Le Swimming Pool.
Apparently he jumped off a 60 foot satellite mast at a Belgian Music Festival after playing his set.
For some reason it feels like suicide and untimely death are disproportionately common occurrences in the music industry. There are arguments suggesting that the amount of suicides within creative communities is a reflection on the link between creativity and mental illness, leading to subsequent drug abuse in an attempt to self-medicate. As horrific as these tragedies can be, these deaths can serve a reluctant creative purpose in that the ensuing publicity can introduce a plethora of people to new styles of music. In the cases of suicide these deaths can also serve as a sombre reminder to the general public of the frequency and severity of mental illness within our society.
So here is a small snapshot of some notable artists whose lives were tragically cut short either accidentally or at their own hand, and whose stars have risen posthumously as a result.
Elliott Smith Memory Lane
Died October 21, 2003 aged 34
The Cat Empire have done a call out to fans around the world to contribute to the creation of a video clip for Call Me Home, from the album Cinema.
They want you to either:
1. shoot the band live playing Call Me Home if you see them in concert before mid Sept (in Aust or Europe), and send us the footage.
2. shoot a 30 sec sequence which says something about you and what it is that calls you Home, or that you call Home, or that you simply love about Home.
The most compelling footage will be edited by The Cat Empire headquarters, into a video clip. Anyone who contributes footage which ends up in the final video will be credited on the video.
The guys have started their near sold out tour with some tickets still left in Sydney, Canberra, Perisher – log on here to buy them thecatempire.com/Tour-dates or for you copy of Cinema go to JB Hi-Fi.
And so it turned out our next Mystery Stop was the Plaza Ballroom for the exclusive Katy Perry Mastercard Show. The spectacular venue was packed with punters of all ages, shapes, & sizes – far more so than we expected!
After drinking some intensely coloured cocktails in electrified martini glasses and finding the best vantage spot, Katy burst out onto stage amid The Strangeloves’ I Want Candy – highly appropriate for the iconic Candy Girl.
Post-show, we had the great pleasure of meeting Katy and presenting her with a double platinum plaque for California Gurls. Pictures are below, but here is our newest EMI resident Bianca’s take on the evening’s events.
Bianca is also a talented music journalist and heads up the blog Writers Anonymous – How To Be An Unsuccessful Writer And Annoy People.
So you thought you didn’t like Katy Perry huh? You thought you had it all figured out – she’s super pop, she isn’t a “muso”, she’s just for 14 year old girls who want blue hair too etc, etc. Well do I have news for you: KP is cool.Before I go into my own opinion, I want you to read a review on The Vine. Yep, the uber-hipster, way too cool for school website The Vine. The ones who recently panned both Richard Ashcroft’s latest effort AND Broken Social Scene. Right, get it? Now read this...
Add to that the amount of requests I have been getting for a copy of Katy’s album with the words “Shhh don’t tell anyone” following it, and you have a down right and dirty closet case of pop hipster-hysteria. They even ask for posters, and are really excited about the fact the album is going to smell like cotton candy (no, it actually is). I’ll keep my promise and not divulge names.
So the scene is set for a ‘phenomenon’. Not even Gaga has reached out to editors of hipster blogs and electro obsessors alike… And what an unlikely hero: Katy Perry, complete with cupcake bra and sugary sweet refrains.
But here’s the catch: the beauty is in the cross over. Those who remember UR So Gay, one of Katy’s first singles, knew she had it in her – but flash forward a few years and who would’ve thought she would be screaming “Cock, Cock, Cock!” to 14 year olds in the front row. Sure, it’s in the context of her song Peacock in which she sings “I wanna see your Peacock, Cock, Cock, Cock”, but there’s no doubting that those little kids know exactly what they’re mimicking. Especially when you add to that the fact that KP is thrusting in time with each ‘Cock’. Wow.
But then again, the last word in UR So Gay IS “penis”. There seems to be some kind of pattern here…
It’s this kind of brazen live act which screams out ‘try-hard’ on the surface, but for some reason in person, there is absolutely no irony. It seems entirely in line with her character. This angel with a dirty mouth schtick isn’t so much a schtick as entirely genuine. It’s who she really is.
Add to that the fact that the second she picked up a guitar, every music journo and blogger in the room immediately focus on those fingers to tear her apart. They were writing the sentences in their head, laughing internally; what a try hard! She can’t play guitar! But… she can.
Her vocals are flawless, her manner is sweet and funny, and no matter how hard you try, you are swept into a sad ocean of personal lameness – finding yourself singing along to every word you never knew you knew, and dancing like a tool to Teenage Dream. Putting your hands in the air like you just don’t care with strangers you just met at the bar. Bonding over California Girls with your workmates.
Here’s my advice people: Give in. It’s great in here in the pop closet… plus, it smells like cotton candy.
Thursday morning:
Somehow I didn’t feel too rock’n'roll loading in amplifiers and setting up gear at 8am at The Toff In Town after only heading to bed a mere 2 hours beforehand. The after, after, after party from completing the bus trip seemed to be the greatest idea at the time.
The whole EMI team drifted indoors at the ungodly hour of 9:30am and there were some great keynote speakers, discussions and all round team bonding. We were extremely well looked after at The Curtin House complex being treated to some of the loveliest food from Cookie. Certainly hit the spot and wiped over any thought of a hangover whatsoever… leading it back into beer o’clock and time to watch some live music!
First off, very recent signee to the Peace & Riot label Papa Vs Pretty humbled us all and it was amazing to see how much the band have further developed their sound. After national tours with Paul Dempsey & Surfer Blood their live chops are now through the roof (if not higher) and they delighted us with tracks off their recently released Heavy Harm EP and a bunch of new songs for their debut album looking to be released early 2011.
Once singer Thomas Rawle yelped “I don’t know if it’s right or it’s wrong, I just know that it’s heavy” – you could see and feel that the music was really taking the people somewhere else. Frightfully good.
After some heavily needed R&R time (ie a nanna nap back at the hotel), we assembled in the hotel foyer for what was to be a spectacular (and very long) night. First stop, nourishment on Lygon Street, followed by a mystery stop…
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