Sweat

Big Day Out

BEASTIE BOYS, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, CHEMICAL BROTHERS, THE MUSIC, THE STREETS, SLIPKNOT, CARL COX, POWDERFINGER
GRINSPOON, JOHN BUTLER TRIO, CONCORD DAWN, THE DONNAS, THE D4, JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION, REGURGITATOR
SCRIBE and P MONEY, FREESTYLERS, LE TIGRE, KID 606, DECEPTIKONZ, ATMOSPHERE, HATEBREED

Limited tour Artists appearing at selected shows

THE HIVES (NZ and East Coast Only), POLYPHONIC SPREE (NZ and East Coast Only), SPIDERBAIT (AUS Only)
HILLTOP HOODS (Aus Only), ESKIMO JOE (Aus Only), INFUSION (Aus only), BUTTERFINGERS (Aus Only)
LITTLE BIRDY (Aus only), DALLAS CRANE (Aus Only), WOLFMOTHER (AUS Only), DECODER RING (Aus Only)
BEXTA (Aus Only)

Hmmm. I wanna see the Chems, Beasties, The world's widest DJ, The Donnas, The D4, The Hives, The wild colours and sounds of the Southern Calli hippies, Dallas Crane, Wolfmother (bugged if i know but that namee is brilliant!)

I wonder how many i will get to? The tickets arrived yesterday and boy are they shiny.

Dance:

Good Vibrations

Scissor Sisters, Arrested Development, Mylo, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Amp Fiddler, Bent, Dirty Vegas, DJ Format, Abdominal MC, Lyrics Born, Layo & Bushwacka, Ben Watt, Patife & Cleveland Watkiss, Bugz in the Attic, Jazzanova, Rob Da Bank, Lazy Boy Sound System, Tayo, plus more to be announced.

Dates:

Victoria Park, Brisbane - Sat Feb 12th
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne - Sun Feb 13th
Centennial Park, Sydney - Sat Feb 19th
Belvoir Amphitheatre & Parklands, Perth - Sun Feb 20th

32 Songs - Track 14

Gorecki – Lamb

wanna stay right here
'til the end of time, 'til the earth stops turning
gonna love you 'til the seas run dry
i've found the one i've waited for
the one i've waited for

This is where I get pretentious. Gorecki is the most beautiful song in the world. People can take their Jeff Buckley, their Carmen, their Andreas Bocelli, their Kiri Te Kanewa, their Sarah Maclachlan and shove it.

You can see right above that the song says “I’ve found the one I’ve waited for”. And they got it right. It must be the best love song ever written. Sure the lyrics written out might seem just as pretentious as my statement at the start but Louis Rhodes' voice sells it so completely that I just don’t care. And at the point where it might get cloying the drums and the bass kick in and the celebration starts.

Fuck everything let’s rejoice the bloody happiness we have!

Every other song on this list has a story to it and so I should stick to form and attach one here. Gorecki happens to be a favourite song of a chap called David Seaman, when he isn’t saving goals for England or Premier League sides he pretends to be a short, bald bloke who spins records and, as Brothers in Rhythm, produce the odd Kylie album. One Anzac weekend a couple of years ago Sean, Nick, Katrina and myself ventured to Melbourne to see said individual launch his new CD. While Sean formed an attachment to the furniture and enjoyed the miracles of his respiratory system he tried to tell me that Dave would not finish his set with Gorecki no matter how strongly I believed it. This continued until just before 6am when Dave dropped a Bill Hamel remix of the track and the emergency services were called in to find the QBH roof.

God I love that moment.

God I love this song.

32 Songs - Track 13

Hold On – Crisp

Before you go and give it away
just hold on for one more day

I am, at heart, an Adelaide boy. From the tree lined streets of Parkside to the hot footpaths of Semaphore, the hill at the Oval to the balcony at the Ex. Adelaide has enough memories to keep that stick poking for a long long time.

Late one night in the early 90s I wandered into the Synagogue nightclub off Rundle St to see a band. After making my way past the door I entered just in time to see the act I had arrived to see and as they wandered onto the stage, even though I was prepared, I was quite astounded to see Ben, my oldest friend in the world, get up there with them. It was the first time I had seen a friend of mine in a real working band. And I’ve never forgotten that moment.

This was the early nineties when acid jazz was making waves in the music scene. Bands like Corduroy, The Kyoto Jazz Massive, The Brand New Heavies and DIG were the names to watch and in Adelaide just starting out was a band called Crisp.

Formed by Ben and some of his friends from Uni and around town Crisp was just starting out and were gaining attention with their unique combination of a female vocalist, male rapper and a talented brass section, of which Ben was a defining part.

A couple of days after the gig I caught up with Ben again and I asked him if they had got around to producing a tape yet. He gave me his copy of the demo they had produced only the week before asking me to promise I would get it back to him.

On the demo tape were four songs, Rising and Falling, Hold On, Get it Together and The Word and the Deal. All were good but Hold On and Get it Together were the standouts and to me Hold On is far and away the best thing they ever did. The breathy vocals, the soft horns and the tinge of melancholy combine to make perfection. To this day it remains one of my favourite songs and when I close my eyes I can still see the view of the stage from the balcony just as if it was over 10 years ago, and this is the one I remember even though I saw the band play at least a dozen more times over the following years.

Crisp disbanded after releasing two EPs and recording a full length album that was never released by the label that caused their demise, Creative Vibes.

To my eternal shame and delight I never gave that demo tape back to Ben and due to his hungover state when he gave it to me I don’t think he ever remembered. The tape still sits in a box, a little piece of music and personal history.

As a footnote while Ben gave me the band, the band gave a couple of people to the greater music world. The rapper Sam went on to The Baggsmen and the breathy vocals belonged to Sia Furler who went on to record two successful solo albums and sing for Zero 7 and Jamiroquai.

Look:

Maybe this is the t-shirt Euan would like to wear to work?

Look:

The perfect view?



What am i thinking! Of course it isn't, the bottle is mostly empty.

Look:

The coolest ute in the world.

Look:

So one day we are sitting around at the O'Connor house of old eating Pizza Shapes for some reason (maybe because they are tasty) and the Owen pulls this monster out of the box.



Now that's a whole lot of flavour.

Look:

A while back i took a trip to Melbourne.

Today i finally got a bluetooth module for my computer.

Now i finally can put all those photos i took with my phonecam on the blog.


One of the holy places of Australia "The G"


Kiddie footy at the G!


You see weird stuff on walls in Fitzroy


And weird stuff in alleyways in the city


And it rains

And sometimes you see something really cool

32 Songs - Track 12

Round Here - Counting Crows

"Step out the front door
like a ghost into the fog
where no one notices the contrast
of white on white"

Music is something we share. We take it in then pass it on.

When I picked up a copy of Counting Crows’ first album, August and Everything After, I think I played the first track Round Here several times before I got to the second. The opening lines, which are listed above, are almost Walt Whitman-ish and the lyrics continue to be a poetic combination of contradiction and allegory while telling the story of someone who feels that they are falling through the cracks. The whole song is full of lines I just love.

While I can wax lyrically about the words for ages I should also mention the music itself. The song starts with a single, simple guitar then the lyrics commence and the whole song continues to build. Just when it seems to have fallen into a pattern it gets broken up before settling down again and finishing off with Adam Duritz’s voice.

But neither lyrics, nor music are why this song makes the list. It does so because my interest in the Counting Crows rubbed off onto my sister Choni. I remember sending her a copy of the CD on tape when I had moved out of home. I wrote a letter to her telling her to listen to it at night with the lights off. 10 years later I don’t think a week goes by when she doesn’t play the album. Giving her the Counting Crows was the most big-brotherly thing I have ever done for her.

And let's face it, when it comes to music the thing that we get the most joy out of isn't listening to it in a dark room and destructuring the chords and lyrics. It is playing it to someone else. Which is why i wanted to do this whole list in the first place. (And i could go on and on about sharing music right now but i think i will leave it to slowly unfold over the next twenty tracks)

Our appreciation of Counting Crows eventually, and inevitably, rubbed off on Mella, the third Wilkins sibling. I gave up on the Counting Crows after their third album This Desert Life. It has a fantastic Dave McKean cover and my favourite Counting Crows song Colorblind, a short, simple song that explains confusion and indecision to a tee. However, after This Desert Life they went on to record a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” which was the bullet to the head for the band as far as I was concerned. Yes I am a brutal critic and my love is fickle …….but I am often right.


(Update: A quick check on the band’s website tells me they are now pimping themselves with a schmaltzy piece of crap they recorded for the Shrek 2 soundtrack. See I told you I was right!)

Think:

There is an academic paper somewhere that is a disection of voting habits. It uncovers a trend that people vote depending on how they view their life, the fortune of their sporting team, what mood they are in and the weather! If things are good then the incumbent gets a boost on polling day that never appears in the pre-polls.

Could the Republicans be getting a massive boost in Kerry's home state thanks to the Red Sox's first World Series win?

Maybe.

Will the latest Osama tape renew in the public a fear of home security and lead to a boost for the Republican's?

Probably.

Will Florida run a transparent, fair election?

No way.

Will the American people prove themselves to be smarter than us and vote out a conservative government that is callously stripmining social programs and flogging an economy that is nearly deserving the white screen and shotgun to be brought out to the middle of the track?

Probably not.

But then again i'd be kinda worried about the electoral college votes if i was either candidate.

Predictions?

Bush to get another four.

Makybe Diva for the Cup.

Someone to win Australian Idol