My third consecutive day of shows was also my first Big Day Out experience. The weather behaved…it was cloudy a good chunk of the day which made my body happy and likely the organizers’ minds as well. That said I did emerge with a slight sunburn on my neck, but on the whole not too bad. And you don’t care about that and why should you. Let’s get to music.

The first band of the day for me (did hear a bit of Wolf & Cub but I wasn’t paying attention) was The Grates, a fun band from Brisbane (lead singer pictured above). I had only heard one song of their’s previously but was eager to check them out given their placing on the Top 25 Aussie Band List. I LOVED them. They remind me of a cross between the Unicorns and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a bunch of smiling kids. I cannot wait to see them again, but it seems like I will have to wait as after the BDO tour they head to England to open a tour for The Go! Team (more on them in a sec). So PLEASE check out The Grates.

It killed me but I left The Grates a bit early because I also really wanted to catch a bit of The Presets set. I would have been pretty pissed if they were crap and I left The Grates to see them, but they were pretty damn good too. Even if I do feel a tad old for that type of “dance” music at times, they seemed to have the crowd going extremely well for 12:30 in the afternoon. The Boiler Room was an awesome spot too! Anyone else check it out?

Then things are blurry. I caught parts of Bit By Bats, Red Riders, Sleater-Kinney, The Subways, Youth Group (YAWN), and probably some others. The next band I really paid attention to was The Go! Team. We were right on the rail for them and they were worth it. All smiles, child-like enthusiasm, and noise The Go! Team played everything I wanted to hear (not TOO hard when you’re still touring your debut). It will be interesting to see how the next record sounds after evolving into a live band over the past couple years.

After The Go! Team I made my way inside the main arena to get ready for the Franz Ferdinand, Iggy and the Stooges, and White Stripes finale. Caught The Living End set as well, but they aren’t really my thing. They did have the crowd singing along though. Franz Ferdinand scored points from me for playing two great songs (“Jacqueline” and “Auf Asche”) off their first album they didn’t play the other night when I saw them. It was pretty cool to see thousands and thousands of people pogoing in time to “Take Me Out.”

Iggy and the Stooges…now I’m not a huge Stooges fan though I always get the impression I should be (but I’m also supposed to like Neutral Milk Hotel and I still don’t). While Iggy looked great for an 80 year old, the band seemed like they were phoning it in. But I was pretty far away so I am not really judging. And that’s all I’ll say. Oh, except the stage invasion was damn cool. Points to Iggy for that. Security must have been crapping themselves.

And finally The White Stripes emerged onstage to play a shortish set. However, in that set they played “Black Jack Davey” (one I’d never heard them do before) and “Party of Special Things To Do” which is not played all that often. The riff in that one was monstrous. The crowd, predictably, seemed mostly there to hear “Seven Nation Army” which was greeted with much joy. The band also played a reworked version of “Fell in Love with a Girl” as well as “Black Math” and others. Not their best show, but still a great way to end the night.

I didn’t actually want that to be the end, but my legs were dying after three straight jet-lagged days of shows and the crowd to get into 2ManyDJs was too much for me. So home I went. And to bed I went. For 12 hours.

Again, more photos here if you like.

My second night back in Sydney saw me trek out to the Hordern Pavilion to see one of my favourite bands, the White Stripes. You may have heard of them. Before this show I had seen them five times before and each time I was more blown away than the previous show. That doesn’t necessarily mean they were better with every show I saw…I just continually find myself amazed at how friggin vicious they are live. As such, I had high hopes for this show.

But first, the openers. Once again, The Greenhornes failed to really grab me. They opened the two White Stripes gigs I saw in August so I was hoping maybe this time I would “get it.” I didn’t. Still looking forward to The Raconteurs though! (That single is out next week…finally!) Before the Greenhornes, New Zealand’s The Situations played to a pretty attentive crowd. I wasn’t blown away but they seemed to be alright. Most importantly, they had a bass player who sang but DIDN’T annoy me. If you know me well you know that’s saying something. I hate singing bass players.

Back on topic….While the crowd were a bit obnoxious and great at making me feel old (although I was standing next to a father accompanying his daughter which I thought sweet…although likely horrifying for his teenager) once the White Stripes stepped onstage they amazed me again. Not quite as much as they have in the past, but that probably had more to do with my impossibly high expectations.

The band opened with “Dead Leaves” much to the excitement of the crowd. I was pleased to hear a version of Dylan’s “Lovesick” as well as “The Big Three Killed My Baby;” two of my favourite live songs they don’t always play. “Black Math” shone in all its punky glory with a slightly different ending than I have heard in the past. The main set ended with my favourite track off …Satan, “Red Rain”. The encore featured the crowd singing along very enthusiastically to “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself” before the traditional show closer, “Boll Weevil.”

As always I didn’t want the White Stripes to leave the stage, but after bows and thank yous, they did just that. But I still had Big Day Out to look forward to the next day.

Now, to the jackass behind me screaming “Meeeggggggggggg” during quiet bits for the first half of the show in an attempt to get her to look in your direction: get a life. She doesn’t care about you or your hormones.

Setlist:

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
The Hardest Button to Button
When I Hear My Name
My Doorbell
Wasting My Time
Lovesick
I Think I Smell A Rat
Forever For Her Is Over For Me
Lord, I Just Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes
Death Letter
Do
Cannon
Passive Manipulation
The Denial Twist
Hotel Yorba
Apple Blossom
Black Math
In The Cold, Cold Night
The Nurse
The Big Three Killed My Baby
Ball & Biscuit (quickly abandoned)
Red Rain
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Blue Orchid
I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
We’re Going To Be Friends
Seven Nation Army
Boll Weevil

More photos here. (You may need to scroll back a page or two). I was actually pretty happy with these photos.

Having stepped off a long flight from Vancouver earlier that day, I was not expecting to be all that up for Franz Ferdinand‘s BDO sideshow at the Enmore on the 24th. Despite the lack of sleep I had a great time. It took four songs for the band to really get going, but once they started “Tell Her Tonight” from their debut album the show just took off. I found this odd as “Tell Her Tonight” was always my least favourite live song from the debut. Anyway, throughout the 90 minute set the band played most of their first album, the best of the new one, as well as “Love and Destroy” and a now rarely played “Van Tango.” “Take Me Out” was great as always but I had higher hopes “Do You Want To” would be better…perhaps I was expecting more from the crowd actually. This was my fourth Franz Ferdinand gig and while it didn’t match the intensity of the first time I saw them in early 2004, the band still ensure their crowds leave sweaty and tired.

Cut Copy opened the show who I had yet to see. I wondered how they do their stuff live and was pretty impressed. The band played some new stuff in addition to their older material with “Time Stands Still” and “Future” being my favourites on the night. They even mixed in Daft Punk’s “Around the World” into their set. While just a tease, but it was still a nice nod to an obvious influence on their own music.

More photos of both bands here (if you’re reading this after the White Stripes and BDO posts, then you will need to scroll a couple pages…or click the Sydney Concerts set)

Hey all. I’m back in Sydney after spending the holidays with my family. I stepped off the plane on the 24th, my birthday, and despite jet-lag made it out to Franz Ferdinand at the Enmore that night. Apparently I did, in fact, want to. The following night (last night) I braved the kiddies at the Hordern and saw the White Stripes slay Sydney. Then today I got up, thanked the weather gods for the lack of serious sun (I did still manage a sunburn) and had a Big Day Out. The Grates were great, the Presets even made me dance a lil bit, The Go! Team had me smiling for 45 minutes, while Franz, Jack, and Meg got me again. Iggy was there too amongst many others. Anyways, all this is a way of me saying I will give each of these three separate shows proper posts with photos tomorrow. Whenever I drag my ass out of bed and the ringing in my head stops.

Hope all you Sydney people had a great few days and have a few more coming up.

Colin Meloy of the Decemberists kicked off his short solo tour of the US last night at the Showbox in Seattle. Having seen Meloy on his own back in August, I was once again very excited to see the singer/songwriter of one of my favourite bands take the stage on his own. The show featured a couple songs from the upcoming Tarkio release (Meloy’s college band before he started the Decemberists), three new Decemberists songs, a version of the traditional “Barbara Allen” (a version of which appears on his tour EP, which features versions of Shirley Collins songs), as well as a nice selection of Decemberists tracks, including the b-side “Everything I Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right.”

While many artists can’t pull off filling a room with just an acoustic guitar (I’m looking at you Laura Veirs – who opened the show), Meloy’s affable personality, poise, and strong voice pleased the crowd right from the second he stepped onstage. The crowd responded by giving Colin cake, singing along, and being very quiet and polite. All in all a great night.

Setlist:

Devil’s Elbow
We Both Go Down Together
The Gymnast, High Above the Ground
Shiny
Barbara Allen
Tristan and Iseult
Valencia
Shankill Butchers
Weird and Wonderful (Baby song)*
California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade
Leslie Anne Levine
The Engine Driver
Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right
Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect/Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
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Red Right Ankle
The Bandit Queen

And yes, that is a skull onstage! I was hoping for a Hamlet reference, but alas it did not come. More photos up at Flickr.

If you are interested in Meloy’s Tarkio work here’s a download of a track from the upcoming CD:

Download: Tarkio – Tristan and Iseult

In addition, earlier in the day yesterday Colin did a solo set on one of my favourite radio stations, KEXP. The setlist ran:

01 Intro
02 Devil’s Elbow
03 Engine Driver
04 Interview
05 Barbara Allen (Shirley Collins)
06 Interview 2
07 Everything I try to do, nothin’ seems to turn out right
08 Clementine
09 Outro

LINK REMOVED

And finally here’s the newest Decemberist song Colin debuted last night, and yes, it’s about the imminent birth of his first child.

Download: Wonder (The Baby Song)

Up at 6:30am, on Blackcomb mountain by 10am, home at 5:30pm, Constantines on at 11pm. It was one hell of a long day and it is a testament to the intensity of the Constantines live show that they made me completely forget about the pain in my right leg (snowboarding injury it seems) for the entire length of their show. It was about 30 seconds into the opener “Draw Us Lines” that I began to regret not seeing them on their numerous previous Vancouver appearances over the past couple years. The song set the tone for a very loud, raucus set that spanned all three of the Cons’ albums.

The university crowd wasn’t super huge, but those that were there seemed to worship the stage the band was playing on. Sing-alongs, requests (ignored), and the highest pitch shrieking I have ever heard (and I teach teenagers) all greeted the Cons throughout their hour-plus set. I had heard much about how great the Constantines are live and I was told I would be converted by then end of the set. I wasn’t in need of conversion anyway, but it only took two songs for me to be sold on this band. Other than the opening “Draw Us Lines” other highlights for me were “Shine a Light” and the huge, stomping “Lizaveta.” The Cons are perhaps the most criminally underrated band in Canada. If they come your way make sure you check them out as I highly doubt you will be disappointed.

Thanks to Shea for putting on the show and getting me a setlist. Speaking of which, here is Quinn displaying his setlist which was spit-free, unlike mine. Make sure you check out Quinn’s thoughts on the show. It was great to see you both again.

More photos up at Flickr

And here are some Constantines downloads for you (not from the show last night):

Download: Soon Enough (from Tournament of Hearts)
Download: Love in Fear (from Tournament of Hearts)
Download: On To You (from Shine a Light)
Download: Arizona (from The Constantines)

It has rained everyday in Vancouver since we got here to spend Christmas with my family on December 22. We’re about to break the record! While it may be getting biblical here that doesn’t mean I haven’t kept an eye on news from Sydney and Australia.

The best thing about doing this blog has been all the new music I’ve been exposed to, especially Australian music. People actually email me and tell me new bands to check out, which, being a pretty lazy person, is great. One band I’ve recently checked out is Faux Pas. Based out of Melbourne, Tim (who is Faux Pas) records fun instrumental music and has a pretty cool little website (although, due to it’s Flashiness, it doesn’t cooperate with my Firefox but it’s fine in Safari). If you check out his site you can download some of the tracks off the debut EP Faux Feels. In his own words, “at the moment, there’s the disco-meets-R2D2 Jethro Tull remix “Cup of Wonder” and the koto jazz freakout “White Light” available for your listening pleasure. I particularly like “Cup of Wonder” as it at times reminds me of music that could have been soundtracking Uma Thurman’s ass kicking in Kill Bill.

Download: Cup of Wonder

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In other news…

Sigur Ros has been added to The Great Escape festival lineup in Sydney. I guess I will have to look into that seeing as the very talented Miss Leslie Feist is playing as well. Hopefully she’ll do some sideshows, but I’ve seen no other dates as of yet.

Expatriate hit the Hopetoun for two shows in February. On Thursday the 16th The Valentinos and The Mercy Arms support while on Friday the 17th Van She and The Glass Age will open up. Based on the opening acts I think I’ll hit the Thursday show.

Bluebottle Kiss play the Annandale on February 24.

Dinosaur Jr. (what the hell?) are playing two shows in Sydney in March. On the 9th they play the Annandale and the next night they rock the Metro. The Drones are listed to support the Friday show at the Metro. That night promises to be really amazing.

Jens Lekman will be playing on a boat on March 4 in Sydney Harbour! A BOAT! Thank the awesome people at PopFrenzy for organzing that party. Unfortunately for me I already have tickets to the mighty Broken Social Scene that night. More info on Lekman’s Australian tour can be found here.

However, to cheer me up Jens Lekman has also been added to the Laneway Festival lineup in Sydney which already includes Broken Social Scene, The Avalanches, Decoder Ring, Les Savy Fav, The Hold Steady, and Pretty Girls Make Graves among many others.

Speaking of PGMG, Matador has a new song up for you:

Download: The Nocturnal House

OK, I think that’s it for now. Seeing the Constantines tomorrow, so I will upload some photos after that.

Photo of Feist courtesy of Amanda

I think my favourite musical discovery of 2005 was Swedish singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez. Yes, Swedish. I first came across him via Quinn’s blog and quickly realized what all the fuss (in the blog world) was about. Gonzalez’s record Veneer is a wonderful collection of gentle vocals and acoustic guitar. And like everyone else, I think that some moments on the album are reminiscent of Nick Drake (not to say he is the next Nick Drake…which he’s not) who I also adore. I was surprised to hear that Gonzalez doesn’t really enjoy songwriting as his songs are really quite beautiful.

Download: Stay in the Shade
Stream other songs (including “Heartbeats”) here.

However, his issues with songwriting might explain why his versions of other people’s songs are damn good too (he does a wicked Kylie cover as well):

Download: Born in the USA (live)
Download: Love Will Tear Us Apart (live)
Download: Teardrop (live)
Download: The Ghost of Tom Joad (live – actually with his band Junip)

(I can’t remember which blogs I got those from in the first place, but thank you to all those that I did.)

Brooklyn Vegan read my mind this morning and posted a link to Micke Orgel’s blog who posted an entire Jose Gonzalez show for you to download.

Gonzalez toured Australia a couple months ago which led to my gravest musical error of 2005: not getting tickets in time to the Sydney show at @ Newtown. Much kicking and screaming ensued. Regardless, Gonzalez was never far away with his cover of The Knife‘s “Heartbeats” soundtracking a rather gorgeous little Sony ad on TV. While his album and his Australian Tour EP are readily available all over Australia I was surprised that I cannot seem to find any of his stuff out here in Vancouver yet. He’s been on The O.C. dammit, why can’t we get his album here?!

Well hopefully all that is going to change. He has signed to Mute which means we should all be hearing more from him in 2006. And considering his record was actually originally released in Sweden in 2003 (which meant I left it off my 2005 list), perhaps a new album will see the light of day before the end of 2006? Tinymixtapes has more info, including some North American tour dates for March 2006 (highlighted by an appearance at SXSW, date yet to be confirmed). Actually, here are the dates. Still read the TMT article though. It’s short.

Dates:

03.20.06 – Los Angeles, CA – The Hotel Cafe
03.21.06 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
03.22.06 – New York, NY – Joe’s Pub
03.23.06 – Boston, MA – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
03.24.06 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03.25.06 – Philadelphia, PA – International House

If you have the chance I recommend you check him out live. Not speaking from experience of course.

Photo courtesy Parasol Records

While I have been kept busy with the Danny the Dog soundtrack and the Bullet Boy score thing, I am still longing for a new Massive Attack album (proper). So I was thrilled when I saw various articles today reporting on “new album details” from one of my favourite bands. Because it’s Massive Attack the record isn’t scheduled for release until next February (that’s 2007 not 2006), but it seems as though they have seven tracks completed and have been working in London and New York. Why New York? Well it seems that the TV on the Radio are working on the album as well, which could be very, very cool. Neil Davidge is once again producing, so expect another thick, dense album full of paranoiaic beauty. There were also reports a while back of Leslie Feist contributing some vocals to the album, but I’m not sure how true that is/was.

To tide us all over there will be a two disc greatest hits collection due this March (2006!) entitled “Collected.” The first disc will contain all those smash hits while the second disc will feature “rare and reworked” tracks as well as all their videos (and they make some amazing videos). The ubiquitous new greatest hits single, “Live With Me” featuring Terry Callier will precede the album.

Back in February 2005 Massive Attack played a benefit gig with Portishead (where the hell is THAT album?) and I’ve uploaded a track from that for you. If you are interested in the whole gig let me know and I can try and upload the whole thing.

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Brooklyn Vegan has a video up of the Arcade Fire covering “Bizarre Love Triangle” in Union Square, New York City. I can’t get the damn thing to work, but I’m sure you can.

Happy New Year everyone! I am still back here in rainy Vancouver spending the holidays with friends and family. Updates will continue to be somewhat sporadic while I’m here, although I will be seeing the Constantines and Colin Meloy in the next few weeks and I will post after those shows.

For now I just wanted to make some further comments about the Top 25 Aussie Bands List that I posted a few weeks ago now. First off, thank you for all the comments and suggestions. When I do this again later this year I now have more people to contact for lists already so it should be interesting to see how different/similar it will be.

Secondly, I told some people I would post a list of every band that received a vote. As I said, 118 bands/artists received votes from about 20 people…this made for very diverse lists. So, here are the others:

Midnight Juggernauts, TISM, Clue to Kalo, The Living End, Bird Blobs, The Holy Soul, Hermitude, Something for Kate, theredsunband, Mountains in the Sky, Riff Random, The Valentinos, Not from There, Youth Group, The Devastations, Dsico, Iron On, The Panics, Adam Said Galore, Canon, iOTA, Screamfeeder, Sparkadia, Spiderbait, Holly Throsby, The Go Betweens, Jack Ladder (seen him twice already), Machine Translations, The Pharaohs, Triosk, Gelbison, Inga Lijlestrom, Morning After Girls, Faker, The Mares, My Disco, Pasobionic, The Pictures, Red Riders, Turnpike, Underlapper, Giants of Science, Princess One Point Five, Xavier Rudd (practically a Canadian now), The Crayon Fields, Josh Pyke, The Beautiful Girls, Darling Downs, Gin Club, Hamish, Love of Diagrams, Because of Ghosts, The Herd, Mercy Arms, Tex Perkins, Sleepy Jackson, The Emergency, Alchemist, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union, Snowman, Cordrazine, Altona, Coda, Clare Bowditch, Deloris (I like these guys!), Eskimo Joe, Love Outside Andromeda, Shuriken, Macromantics, The Null Set, Jason Walker and the Last Drinks, Pnau, Sounds Like Sunset, Gotye, The New Pollutants, Digger and the Pussycats, Gauche, Magic Dirt, Qua, Spod, Wallspace, Guy Blackman, Gota Cola, Meili, The Zillions, Karl Broadie, Dallas Crane, Darth Vegas, Fourth Floor Collapse, Hilltop Hoods, Nightcrash, Teenagers in Tokyo, and finally, The Scare.

So there you go, the Honourable Mentions. No Ben Lee: Is that the way you like it? Please comment to add more.

In somewhat related news, this Italian blog has come up with some Italian bands for the rest of the world to check out.

And finally today, my friend Adam, who being an actual Australian has far more credibility than I, has started an mp3 blog with an Aussie focus. Go check it out here.

And FINALLY finally today I have this to offer: The Virgin Suicides is a perfect movie to watch when you are hungover/tired. It washes over you like liquid velvet. Or something. Back to more New Years Day movie watching.