Renowned for both their wackiness and their insane consistency (although a friend would disagree after he described their last two records in less than lovely terms) the Super Furry Animals are back with another new record. Another great new record. These guys never get the press/hype of a lot of other bands from the last decade, but they are easily one of Earth’s coolest bands. Maybe even the Universe’s. And they deserve your love.

Hey Venus! combines nearly every element of the Super Furry Arsenal: randomness, clever songwriting, and humour to name but a few. While I don’t think it will be my favourite SFA record I do think it’s got more to love about it than the last couple records. I’ve got my fingers crossed for an Australian tour as these guys are wicked live.

Download:
Super Furry Animals – Run-Away

The worst kept secret in the Australian music industry was confirmed today. Daft Punk are bringing their mind melting tour to Australia this summer as part of the Never Ever Land festival. The robots will play four shows around the country just before Christmas. I gambled when I didn’t see them in Seattle last month (story here) assuming the rumours of an Aussie tour were true. And they are. Of course I may be overseas at the time of the Sydney show. Perfect…

Support for the tour comes from The Presets, Muscles, the Bang Gang DJs, as well as SebastiAn & Kavinsky. Tickets on sale September 13. Everyone that has seen Daft Punk in the last year will tell you that this will be the greatest concert you ever see. And they may be right. These tickets will sell faster than you can say Digital Love. Tour dates below:

Friday December 14: Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
Sunday December 16: Esplanade, Perth
Thursday December 20: Riverstage, Brisbane
Saturday December 22: Homebush Showgrounds Main Arena, Sydney

Insanity below:

There’s a live album on the way too.

Feist performed 1234 on Letterman last night along with…well nearly everybody. From Pitchfork:

joined by a choir comprised of Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Carl “A.C.” Newman of the New Pornographers, Aaron Dessner, Bryan Devendorf, and Scott Devendorf of the National, Nicole Atkins, everybody in Grizzly Bear, and both Mates of State.

Check it out below:

I guess Sally Seltmann was busy (and she wrote the bloody song!).

Totally unrelated…but in the last two months I’ve heard Feist songs in three different commercials. That’s all I got.

The last time Underworld released a record I picked up a (bootleg) copy at some crazy, random, huge market of illegal goods in Warsaw, Poland. I was in Europe a very long time ago, five years ago in fact, so Underworld, it would seem, are long overdue for a record.

In the five years since One Hundred Days Off Underworld have actually kept fairly busy releasing music in rather unique ways. In late 2005/early 2006 Rick Smith and Karl Hyde released three pieces of music (each approaching 30 minutes) in the RiverRun series. The RiverRun series was only available through Underworld’s website so it more or less passed under the radar.

In 2006 Underworld worked on the music for Danny Boyle’s Sunshine although, sadly, there has been no retail release of that soundtrack. Last year they also worked with Gabriel Yared on the score for Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering.

These projects allowed Underworld to experiment with their sound and identity a bit, but later this year Underworld proper return with a brand new record, Oblivion With Bells, which will be released in October. The first single is called Crocodile and you can stream the track at Pitchfork. After all their other projects of the last couple years it seems that the classic Underworld sound is back. I can’t wait for Oblivion.

Other bits and pieces.

The Drones (with support from Snowman!) will take over the Annandale for a pair of shows in October (18th and 19th). That’s two great live bands on one bill…should be a great show. For all the details of this Australian tour check FasterLouder.

Download:
The Drones – This Time (live)

Dappled Cites Fly hosted Rage on Saturday. It was the first time I’d sat down and watched an extended stretch of Rage in ages and the Dappled boys made it worth my while as they busted out some great videos. Then while checking out the Rage site I came across this:

2006 ended with Dappled Cities being voted ‘Australia’s #1 Band’ on a poll that combined voting lists from Australia’s top 25 music blogging sites. 35,000 kids can’t be wrong surely!

That’s me! Not sure what the 35,000 kids refers to though…

It is almost that time of year again!

After the first Ryan Adams show on Thursday I wondered if Ryan wanted to play this song that he’s only ever played once (and probably never will again). And people say he has no sense of humour?

Download:
Ryan Adams – One of Us is the Sucker (And the Other One Gets to Play)

Download the whole show (from 2006) here.

Well it seems like there’s one at every show
Always got something to say
They spend their hard earned money to come and watch us play
They have a couple of beers and a couple of laughs
And they wait for the silence to come
Then they direct their anger and their bad feelings towards me
And they yell out something dumb
Yeah but I win you fuckin’ asshole, ’cause you pay
And tomorrow’s gonna come and all I gotta do is get up, get up and play

You think these days people with guitars had them loaded up with bullets or something
For all the idiots that we see when we’re around
This ain’t the Renaissance this is the fuckin’ Dark Ages
And you spend your money and come to the show
And you have a couple of drinks and get your nerves up to it
You take all your anger and all your hate and frustration
You look at me and you misdirect it … you need a mirror

Cause you pay, you pay
And tomorrow all I gotta do is get up and play
Yeah you pay, you pay
One of is the sucker and the other one, the other one gets to play
The other one gets to play
The other one gets to play

Lyrics courtesy Answering Bell.

Regular non-Ryan Adams related posts are forthcoming. Promise.

What a difference 24 hours can make.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals walked on stage tonight, Ryan spoke to the crowd, mentioned his “asshole manager” reading him reviews online (from last night presumably) and then the band launched into an absolutely stunning version of Goodnight Hollywood Blvd. Ryan’s vocal (he wasn’t playing guitar) was full of passion and emotion and I think it won over the crowd from the off.

The spectre of last night’s gig was hanging over tonight’s show a bit, but Ryan and the band treated tonight’s (much smaller) audience to a ton of songs we didn’t get at the previous show. Dear Chicago was a gift (thought of you Quinn!) and The End featured some improv’d lyrics referencing last night’s gig. Ryan often gets ALL the attention but The Cardinals are a great band. Jon Graboff’s slide guitar work on Please Do Not Let Me Go added so much atmosphere to the song and the harmonies from all of them were perfect all night.

Midset Ryan dropped a couple Easy Tiger songs back to back, both of them featuring him singing without a guitar, something he actually seems to be pretty comfortable doing. Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. was sung on a secondary mic that was up at the front of the stage which really pleased the crowd as they were able to get a bit closer to Ryan (the main stage setup was really far back on the stage). The set ended with another song off Easy Tiger and a couple songs off Heartbreaker, Shakedown on 9th Street and Bartering Lines. These were both highlights.

When the band came out for an encore they, surprisingly, played When the Stars Go Blue for only the second (?) time this year. Ryan followed it up with some funny comments about Tim McGraw and then ended the night with my favourite song off Easy Tiger, I Taught Myself How To Grow Old. It was a perfect way to end the night and the crowd were left in a much better mood than last night’s rabble. The two shows really complimented each other well if you were lucky enough to go to both.

Setlist
August 24, 2007
Sydney

Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.
Dear Chicago
The End
Beautiful Sorta
I See Monsters
Cold Roses
Please Do Not Let Me Go
The Sun Also Sets
Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
Let It Ride
Mockingbird
Goodnight Rose
Shakedown on 9th Street
Pearls On a String
Bartering Lines
————–
When the Stars Go Blue
I Taught Myself How to Grow Old

Photos here.

If you’re after some of the slightly more unknown songs (not b-sides!) from the first Sydney gig check these songs out from a recent show in Santa Cruz.

Download:
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – What Sin Replaces Love
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Trouble On Wheels
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Arkham Asylum
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Blue Hotel

And one final note. On the way home from the gig tonight I got in a car accident! Someone ran into my car and when I pulled over they took off down King Street. I attempted to get a license plate….it started ATN 7something or other. Thanks a lot asshat. I’ll take solace in the fact that after YOU ran into ME it was YOUR mirror that went flying down the road while my car seems fine.

I’ll update this more fully tomorrow I think. But tonight Ryan and Sydney had a bit of a run in. The crowd never got into it, yelled things at the band, and Ryan cut things short. That said, the music was fantastic (except for the last five minutes of Easy Plateau when Ryan punished the crowd with noise and feedback to end the show).

Update

Alright, I’ll leave the controversy to the comments (please jump in there and contribute!) and just focus on the music from last night’s gig. While the show paled in comparison to the show I saw recently in Vancouver, when you got past the idiotic yelling from the audience and Ryan’s bad mood (is it ironic being told how to behave from an ex-junkie who has gotten himself so screwed up he’s had to cancel entire tours?) the actual set last night was rockin.

He played for 100 minutes over two sets and I really enjoyed hearing a few songs I’d never heard him play before. The first set’s highlight HAD to be Peaceful Valley; I think Ryan channeled all his frustration at the audience into an absolutely ferocious version of that song. Off Broadway, which was a (surprising) highlight for me in Vancouver seemed a bit lost last night. Didn’t help that Ryan got a bit snarky and left (early) for the intermission afterwards.

The second set started off beautifully with Blue Hotel, a song Ryan wrote for Willie Nelson’s last album. I was optimistic at this point that Ryan and the crowd had settled as it seemed a somewhat odd choice to play (as it’s relatively unknown) but it was politely received by the crowd. What Sin Replaces Love was absolutely immense (channeling that anger again?) and the Dear Chicago tease (before Trouble On Wheels) would have killed Quinn. I really enjoyed Arkham Asylum as well. It’s a newish song that will hopefully see the light of day sometime. The show ended with Ryan sarcastically thanking the crowd and then launching into Easy Plateau. The song ended with Ryan creating noise and feedback for about five minutes while the rest of the Cardinals looked a bit lost.

If you took away the toxic vibe in the Enmore it was a great show. Perhaps not as long as other Ryan shows but who says he has to play three hour shows every night? Here’s hoping tonight goes a bit better.

Setlist:

Goodnight Rose
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Mockingbird
Wild Flowers
Cold Roses
Dear John
Peaceful Valley
Off Broadway
—————-
Blue Hotel
Magnolia Mountain
What Sin Replaces Love
Trouble On Wheels
Arkham Asylum
A Kiss Before I Go
Easy Plateau

A couple blurry/dark photos here if you want to check out what everyone’s bitching about. FasterLouder wasn’t impressed while the Sydney Morning Herald found moments of brilliance.

If you read this blog regularly you might know that I think The Paper Scissors are one of my favourite Sydney bands. The band blend so many styles and influences into their music and they make it seem incredibly easy. It helps that a lot of these influences SEEM to be bands I love. They’ve just released their debut album Less Talk More Paper Scissors and are touring all over the place (check their MySpace for dates). Right now, you should…

Download:
The Paper Scissors – Yamanote Line

Or watch the Yamanote Line video.

I rode the Yamanote Line once…

One of the oddest musicians kicking around these days is Devendra Banhart. But he’s also one of the more talented songwriters around and if you need convincing of that then check out the first released track from his upcoming album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain (told you he was insane).

Download:
Devendra Banhart – Seahorse

That is eight minutes of genius right there. I love it. Devendra’s been calling his music Space Reggae lately; I’m not quite sure what Space Reggae sounds like, but if it’s all as good as Seahorse then I’m down. If you head over to Devendra’sSpace you can stream another two songs from the upcoming record. Smokey will be released by XL at the end of September.

And just to put Bob Dylan’s recent Sydney show to bed…if you’re torrent savvy and have a Dime account you can download Bob’s August 15 show at the Entertainment Centre here. Score.

It’s been AGES since I last dedicated a post to Melbourne’s Faux Pas but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been enjoying his most recent album, Entropy Begins At Home. The record, which has been available from the Faux Pas website for about a year, is just now finally available in stores. It’s a pretty cool record too…there’s a track in the middle called Water Into Wine which has this vocal sample that kills me every time it drops. Great stuff. Anyway, to coincide with the retail release of Entropy, Faux Pas has released a brand new video for Tim as a Brim which you can watch and download below:

Download:
Faux Pas – Tim as a Brim
Gotye – Coming Back (Faux Pas Bellheadless remix)

Faux Pas, which is the project of Tim Shiel, is also nearly ready to release a new record in the not too distant future. You can keep up with all things Faux Pas at Tim’s blog.

Sydney’s Dappled Cities Fly continue to make friends as they spend the last half of 2007 in North America. They’ve recently recorded a four song set for Daytrotter which you should download if you’re craving some live Dappled.

And attention to all my Vancouver friends: Go see Dappled Cities when they hit Vancouver (supporting Figurines) on October 12 at the Media Club.

This week the Falls Festival announced its first batch of bands that will be gracing Australian shores this New Year’s. The lineup includes Kings Of Leon, Groove Armada, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Paul Kelly, Gotye, Built To Spill, Jose Gonzalez, The Go! Team, Blackalicious, The Mess Hall, Girl Talk, Kev Carmody, Whiskey Go Go’s and the Neville Staple’s Specials. That’s a pretty cool lineup actually. And apparently this is Built to Spill’s first trip to Australia? Nuts. There is a pretty intense method of ticket distribution for Falls this year so be sure you get all the details from the website if you’re keen to get tickets.

And it was announced a while back but I wasn’t really paying attention…Homebake has revealed it’s preliminary lineup and it’s a big yawn. With the exception of a couple bands (Gotye!) there is no one in the lineup that will have me buying tickets tomorrow. Plus it was a disaster getting in the festival last year and I hold a grudge.

I guess this means the Big Day Out rumours will now start coming fast and furious (Interpol! Bjork!).