only the sad songs

2010-08-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

true friend love

2010-08-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about art but I know I like this project of Coral's...best friend marriage ceremonies are a super-sweet idea

about the Platonic Marriage project

The performance artist minister for the day, Coral Short, believes in monoplatonics and polyplatonics: you can marry all your best friends OR your one and only very special best friend!

Come get married to your favourite friend(s). No holds barred. This is an inclusive marriage ceremony for everyone.

Marriages will be performed until everyone is happily married. A marriage certificate will be available to all the happy couples, triads and friend groupings. Also! if you would like to marry yourself you are free and completely supported to do just that.

Please let me know who you plan on marrying in advance so I know how much cake and confetti is needed. Some preparations you can do for the big event:

1. get down on your knee or propose in any other way you see fit
2. decide on your outfits
3. prepare special vows if you want to

Spontaneous spur of the moment weddings are welcome. The wedding marathon ceremonies will occur one after the other outside of La Centrale in a semi secluded white wedding tent. The relationships must be strictly platonic and non sexual. This is a celebration of the longevity of deep platonic love. There will be a photographer on hand to document this joyous occasion. Please send your future marriages and questions to: coralshort@gmail.com

2010-08-27T02:51:00.000-07:00

we kissed on that bridge that fell down

2010-08-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Age newspaper has a regular feature in its Saturday magazine "Just the Two of Us" that interviews couples and friends and other kinds of special partners. Yesterday there was an interview with the guy from Things of Stone and Wood who wrote "Happy Birthday Helen" circa 1992. Guess what? He's still with Helen. I guess he really did mean it when he said "you're my everything"

I recall a bigger brighter world

2010-07-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

1. Get inspired to re-read this article about Grant McLennan and Robert Forster and the Go-Betweens.

Robert Forster interview

2. Marvel about the fact that this article may result in the waterworks being turned on, but that things printed in the goddamn sodding Courier Mail usually make me cry for another reason.

3. Understand the many layers of Brisbane references in the interview and in their songs, in the way that someone who spent their whole entire life (excluding the last year + five months) living in Brisbane can. And well, hell, the Go-Betweens song "Karen" used to pop into my head when I entered the library at the University of Queenland when I studied there. And plus, I am forever a sucker for hearing the tales of people who have lived long, interesting lives in my town.

3. Watch the Go-Betweens song "Cattle and Cane" several times on Youtube

4. Then watch Grant Mc and Robert F performing it together

5. Feel a little homesick, feel a lot alone, wish for someone to give you a hug, and settle for going back out into the freezing, grey, cold, Melbourne winter day. But tell yourself to stop moping around and pick up the pace a little with the catchiest most summer-sounding substitute-for-serotonin soundtrack:

Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs

2010-07-07T05:07:00.000-07:00

I got a ticket for the Poison City Weekender today...yep, I'll get to see one of my favourite-ever bands Leatherface for the third time in my life this September. And the serendipitous state of things is such that they are playing at the nearest pub to my house.

Frankie, if you're reading this, please play:

Watching You Sleep
Dead Industrial Atmosphere
I Don't Want to be the one to say it
Springtime
Hops and Barley
Not Superstitious
anything from the split with Hot Water Music

and I know it hasn't been announced yet, but if you do happen to get added to the Sunday arvo acoustic show, please play the Ship Song cover. that is all.

close your eyes, i'll be here for awhile

2010-07-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

me, swigging from a bottle of wine, anxiety, my bed, this song (close your eyes, I'll be here in the morning):

I think there's a TVZ film showing in Melbourne sometime soon

young hearts be free tonight

2010-06-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

spent tonight watching Love, Lust and Lies in an almost-empty cinema on my own. it's an Australian version of the 7 Up series. It starts with 3 young teenage girls in Adelaide in the 1970s and follows their lives every 7 years or so, until they're in their late 40s.

Lots of insights into love, relationships, hopes, dreams, hopes and dreams being crushed, lives not turning out like you expected, the Australian suburban landscape...and the whole thing is like an example of the effects of feminism on the ambitions/possibilities available to girls/females. I was a blubbering mess at least 4 times during this film.

also, unlike documentaries like Cunnamulla, it doesn't have an exploitative feel. as in, the documentary-maker is really sweet and sensitive and seems to have a genuine interest in the lives of the 3 women, and they seem to really like and trust her.

I think it's worth mentioning, because sometimes I watch these sort of documentaries and feel like the documentary-maker gained the trust of the "subjects" and then betrayed that trust by highlighting little things about their lives completely out of context. it can come across as really classist, like "can you believe people actually live like this?", and I nearly lose my mind when I witness people in the cinema laughing at parts of other people's lives that were never intended to be humourous.

when I came home I lay in my bed, listening to a combination of the rain outside my window and this song by Little Joy

everybody says they want a million bucks

2010-04-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

but I'd rather have a million days with you

I need you so much closer

2010-04-08T19:31:00.001-07:00

(so come on, come on)

you can't be lonely in this town, the pubs won't let you

2010-04-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

The other night I was at a rollerderby match in Reservoir, got a lift home, got a reminder text message about a very important show, and promptly got on my bike and rode like a person possessed to the Birmingham Hotel to see Like...Alaska play.

I got there just as they were setting up, breathed a sigh of relief and then watched the hell outta my favourite current Australian indie folk-tinged Lucero-loving punk band.

Some of the newer songs actually seem a little reminiscent of another (now defunct - although recently they *did* go on a reunion tour of Australia to launch a never-released CD) Newcastle band CONATION. Which is kinda funny, because Dale from Conation now plays in Like Alaska.

When I witness Like Alaska (on or off stage) they seem like a gang to me. Like a tightly-knit gang of totally good friends who play their hearts out and have the best time doing so. (I could watch their drummer Lauren forever and never ever get tired of it).

And it goes without saying that it seems like a gang I wish I was in. I wish I had a gang of besties who loved stuff like Lucero and the Weakerthans and Samiam as much as I do, and lived in the same town as me, doing something we were crazily passionate about together.

They were on tour to launch their new record "Insufficient Funds" that's out on Poison City Records. I realised that I religiously attend Like Alaska shows whenever they're passing through in my town, but never actually listen to them at home. Apart from 1 song on the second Poison City comp!

Yesterday I was helping my friend Chris do a morning radio-show on 4ZZZ and he played "Drug Runs" off the new record. I remembered this song being one of my favourites from the show at the Birmy, and to make it even better, Chris read me the lyrics too. Pretty sure I will have to urgently take a trip to Poison City to pick up the Like Alaska CD and the new Leatherface record while I'm at it.

like alasksa on myspace

the heat death of the universe

2010-04-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

I told the new me:
"Meet me at the bus station with a sign that reads:
"Today is the first day of the rest of your life"
But the old me met me with a sign that read:
"Welcome back"

hello daddy. hello mom.

2010-02-13T00:24:00.001-08:00

hello world I'm your wild girl.

/desperately seeking a date for the Runaways movie

I really fucked it up this time

2010-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

I like those rare occasions where the masses actually show themselves to have damn good taste in music. Maybe that wasn't supposed to sound quite as elitist as it came out, ahem. Well I'm talking about the #1 song in the JJJ Hot 100. It's so good! There are banjos! Listen!

pretty incredible, huh

am I just wasting my time again?

2010-02-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

I won't sit watching days go by/I don't know what I can try

(monday morning/leatherface bender)

and did the Government call last night

2010-02-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

sometimes the saddest songs come at very unexpected moments and via the most unexpected places. a meeting with my workplace supervisor about some student files where we ended up listening to this song on youtube instead. until I almost couldn't take it any more. I like when songs come from outside my usual spheres of influence. this one is an early-80s australian band called Little Heroes and the song is called "One Perfect Day"

one perfect day I'll get your telegram

the mathematical probability of finding a girlfriend

2010-01-17T16:37:00.000-08:00

at work, planning lessons, shuffling papers, procrastinating (already), and therefore contemplating the statistical probability of true love via This American Life: "Somewhere Out There."

"Of all the 6 and a half billion people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match? Stories from people who know they’ve beat the odds, and the lengths they’ve gone to do it—including an American professor who sings Chinese opera for anyone who'll listen, to get one step closer to his mate, and two kids who travel halfway around the country to find each other and become best friends.

Prologue: NPR reporter David Kestenbaum tells host Ira Glass about the time, when he was doing graduate work in physics, he and his other single friends decided to figure out the mathematical probability that they’d find girlfriends. They wanted to know what the chances were that there was more than one person in the world for them.

And This American Life Producer Alex Blumberg and his wife, Nazanin Rafsanjani, reveal the subject of their first fight: They were in love, walking in the park, when Nazanin asked him if it felt like fate—like she was the only one for him. (Yes Alex, there is a wrong answer to that question.) When you’re in love, it always feels like it was meant to be, whether or not it really, statistically speaking, is."

I love these total romantics/dorks talking about employing the power of mathematics to estimate the likelihood of finding a girlfriend, and replacing "intelligent life" with "girlfriends" in the Drake equation, ha.

this american life

Revival Tour

2010-01-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

holy shit, I'm happy right now. despite the fact that I just woke up feeling distinctly crummy (it really sucks getting a summer-cold while on the last few days of my holidays), I am overjoyed about the Revival Tour coming to Australia, actually totally overjoyed even

it's kinda funny cos just the other week on the 4ZZZ Punk Show we were generally doing our "end-of-2009 Top 5's", and included a Frank Turner song. I was talking to one of our interview guests (who does a podcast radio show from Brisbane), wondering about the possibility of Frank Turner ever touring to Australia. He seemed pretty certain that he would be here sometime in the first half of the year with Tim Barry and possibly the Revival Tour.

I thought that was an hilariously specific hunch to have, but now I think he probably just had some secret insider-information, because I just got the press-release about the Revival Tour stating pretty much exactly what he had predicted

yep, holy hell all the dudes with beards that used to be in melodic punkrock bands playing all the acoustic punk you could ever want: Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Frank Turner, Tim Barry (Avail), Ben Nichols (Lucero)

"Founded by Chuck Ragan, the singer / songwriter / guitarist and Hot Water Music co-frontman-- THE REVIVAL TOUR is set to launch in Australia from April 22 in Brisbane and wrap May 1 in Hobart.

Drawing from a diverse group of established musicians in indie Americana, rock, punk, Irish folk, THE REVIVAL TOUR will take the band of traveling musicians throughout Australia including Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart."

Thu April 22 The Zoo, Brisbane
Fri April 23 Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Sun April 25 Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Wed April 28 Rosemount, Perth
Thu April 29 Enigma, Adelaide
Fri April 30 Corner, Melbourne
Sat May 1 Brisbane Hotel, Hobart

waiting for something to break/left my heart out to bake

2010-01-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

slipped my mind that I could use my brain/I'll stay up all night and crash on the plane

Best friends are ones who fix your sickly ailing Ipod for you, while also reprimanding you for your shoddy Itunes filing system, noting with disapproval that Afghan Whigs appears 4 times in your "Bands" menu, and expressing general disappointment that you are NOWHERE near meeting the "required listening" quota for classic and/or otherwise essential punkrock.

But they quickly enact a crucial Ipod-to-Ipod transfer so that you have every Descendents song ever, In Sepia, Songs:Ohia, Jay Reatard, L7, Light Sleeper, Melvins, more Blueline Medic, more Misfits, more Wipers, Spy Vs. Spy ("Don't Tear It Down", yep the song that the Gifthorse covered), extra Mono...

And they immediately fix situations like the fact that you have NO Poison Idea whatsover ...I could go on..but I should probably be ashamed and just stop there.

I confess I'm not sure how I went for so long without the Lemonheads "Shame About Ray" album. I used to listen to it constantly while driving around in my car, so it's nice to have it back in my life again, thanks to aforementioned best friend.

"Rudderless" is pretty much my favourite track from the album, but closely followed by "Bit Part" (a song that starts with someone all-in-love-and-deranged screaming "I JUST WAAAAANT A BIT PART IN YOUR LIIIIIIFE" will probably never lose its appeal to me).

And "Bit Part" is closely followed by "Alison's Starting to Happen" (which is about Alison from Smudge and has those lines about "Alison's getting her tit pierced/Alison's growing a mohawk/Alison's starting to happen/to me"...there is something really cute and adorable and punkrock romantic about this song that's really reminiscent of stuff like "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault" by Jawbreaker.

so here we go:

(hope in my past)
Evan Dando and Chris Brokaw version

I try everything I know

2010-01-12T03:36:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to make you mine/

(Sky Saxon breaking hearts and howling at the moon)

they say there's a sun in the sky

2009-12-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

"They say there's a sun in the sky
But me, I can't imagine why
There might have been one
Before you were gone
But now all I see is the night"

I found the cutest thing in the world, a blog called "69 Love Songs, Illustrated" - as you can probably imagine, it's quite the Magnetic Fields homage.

The little "about us" blurb tells me that they are a "loose collection of mostly London-based comic-artists, illustrators and writers, who have grown up listening to the Magnetic Fields and got together over a mutual love of the songs. One day, on Twitter, a couple of us decided that illustrating – or writing a comic – or a short story – inspired by all 69 songs was a worthwhile and exciting pursuit."

The illustration to "They Say There's a Sun In The Sky" is heartbreakingly adorable. I'm still to locate the one for "I Don't Want To Get Over You", but I can *almost* imagine.

69 Love Songs, Illustrated

PS. At the last minute in 2009, I just successfully made my first link to another website in a blog-post (disclaimer, well I THINK I did, ha, you may be witnessing otherwise). 2010 is going to be a good year, I just know it.

Fall of Efrafra

2009-12-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was schlepping about North Melbourne Station waiting for my train connection, when the Ipod Shuffle deities decided to deliver me a little blessing by way of "Republic of Heaven" by Fall of Efafra. So effing good.

Then last night I discovered that Simulacrum by Fall of Efrafra is perfect companion-listening with Mono (which my friend Luke had only JUST recommended, and then I found out they played in Melbourne/Australia just the other week).

heartwarming shit

2009-12-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

on the way to work, driving through Maribyrnong towards Sunshine, I saw the cutest thing I may have ever seen in my short life...all traffic screeching to a halt to make way for mother duck crossing the busy road, with little ducklings following behind. it was touch-and-go for a few anxious minutes, but they slowly, eventually waddled all the way to the other side of the intersection, and safely made it on to the footpath and then into the sanctuary of the nearest park.

it looked a little something like this, but in real life the ducklings formed more of an orderly queue and looked to be on more of a mission

I thought that she wanted me. But she was thinking something else

2009-12-17T01:58:00.000-08:00

I miss you when you're gone.Please don't stay gone too long

The conditions outside my bedroom are awfully blustery right now, so I'm occupied with reading through (and listening, too) a list of the 25 saddest songs in the whole world. I'm up to Iron and Wine, coming in at a respectable #13. Also I love that Roy Orbison is described as "the master of pop-opera misery".

Can someone check on me later and see if I'm okay, or if I've been reduced to a blubbering mess in a crumbling heap floating in a river of salty tears on my bedroom floor

It's at www.spinner.com

UPDATE: I've become quite a fan of Sunday afternoons in pubs seeing sad-country bands, and oh dear, number 6 is killing me "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones.

No no wait. I've now worked my way through to #2 which is Billie Holiday and "Gloomy Sunday"...I've got it on repeat, please save me from myself

I don't know what I'll do

2009-12-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

"Eisler on the Go" is one of my favourite songs to listen to on Sunday morning..breakfast and this song on repeat, and suddenly things don't look so bleak. I couldn't find a good live version of this song, so I like that this one is "presented by Anarcho Grow: Pure Vida in Costa Rica. This Press Kills Fascists"

Coco Rosie

2009-12-12T00:42:00.000-08:00

I forgot! How much I love this song. Also a random person gave me a rose on the street in Brunswick today. That's all.

the fever

2009-12-08T03:20:00.000-08:00

And this summer, you'll call-maybe

waking up next to nothing after dreaming of you and me

2009-12-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

Taking your own life with boredom. I'm taking my own life with wine
It helps you to rule out the sorrow. It helps me to empty my mind
Making the most of a bad time. I'm smoking the brains from my head

plugged in.and ready to fall.

put your hand on your heart and tell me that we're through

2009-12-05T04:09:00.000-08:00

They like to talk about forever. But most people never get the chance

sunset tree

2009-12-05T04:01:00.000-08:00

"Personal Daily Horoscope of Saturday, 5 December 2009

Deeper understanding: This quality of time will help you to develop a deeper understanding of those psychological areas that are connected with the experience of pain, suffering and rejection.

This influence is especially well suited to so deepening the understanding of these interrelations that the first inklings of how to carry out a healing can be perceived.

During this phase it is important to talk to other people who are interested in this theme.

This time is well suited to penetrating the complicated connections and dependencies between human behavior, the psyche and early injuries - to differentiate between cause and effect -, whether for yourself or for someone who has confided in you.

The interpretation above is for your transit selected for today:
Mercury Trine Chiron, , exact at 15:54
activity period from 4 December 2009 to 6 December 2009
[turn off]Show the love horoscope for this transit (L)"

Lonely? Maybe

2009-12-03T19:48:00.001-08:00

Or maybe not. It all depends

And I never thought this life was possible

2009-12-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for

I'm looking for salt in a snow globe

2009-11-29T03:50:00.000-08:00

I just want back in your head

some hope, some despair

2009-11-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

Beyond all reason, I am attached to the idea of true love and the idea that there is someone in the world that you are meant to be with. You know, “the one”. Maybe you already know that person, or maybe you have a connection waiting to be discovered, whatever, that person is somewhere in this world.

It's a kinda crazy and overwhelming prospect. What are the chances that while you're going about your daily life and normal routine, you will find someone who totally gives you THAT feeling?

It's not something that just happens all the time, so when it does, it totally sets your world on fire and makes your heart feel alive. All of a sudden, it's hard to imagine a life worth living without that person in it. You feel absolutely convinced that those feelings will never die, in fact, they will keep growing deeper and deeper with time.

But. What happens when you think you've found that person, but the timing and circumstances are all wrong?

Like, for starters, what are the chances you that the other person will immediately get the same feeling from you? And that you, or they, won't have just ended some messy relationship and be all fucked-up and heartbroken? And that you, or they, despite your best intentions, won't be all hurt and bitter from general past heartbreaks?

And that neither of you will be just about to leave town or move away? And that you, and they, actually feel ready for some sort of “all-consuming thing”?

What if the circumstances simply don't allow for you to be together? What if the timing is just all wrong?

Do you accept the idea that there may never be a chance to ever be together? Do you just keep moving forward, with a heart that has some bitter regrets about missed opportunities and stupid timing?

Even if that other person finds someone else, do you let it go?

Or do you remain ever hopeful and eternally delusional? In love with the idea that everything will work out and be perfect in the end. I mean, you don't want to settle for your second choice, right?

I always kinda wrote off the Descendents as being a bunch of adolescent suburban punk boys, teeming with juvenile sentiments and, I suspected, probably renowned for charmingly dumb teenage antics.

But in the last few years, Chris has almost always played them on the 4ZZZ Punk Show, and finally, I get it. I get them. And shit, I gotta give some play to a band that is considered to be somewhat pioneering in the pop punk genre. And if I was to put them in a further sub-genre it would be “eternally-heartsick-but-forever-hopeful-if-not-somewhat-naive-about-matters-of-the-heart pop-punk”.

I mean, that song “I'm The One”...woah. Who doesn't wish that they wrote that? And of course, “Hope”. Which is the reason why we're here today:

My day will come/
I know someday/
I'll be the only one

PS. Do you like how I tried to make this sound all objective and generalised and universal? I mean, you don't -heaven forfend- think I'm talking about ME and my own experiences, do you?

Why I was the one worth leaving

2009-10-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

Frank Turner covering "The District Sleeps Alone" and breaking my heart over-and-over again.

I texted my best-friend Lucy to tell her I'd just listened to this song on repeat *at least 10 times* and she instructed me to stop it immediately. She is one of the people who understands how I subject myself to melancholy heartbreaking music like this and potentially wallow in it forever. I almost make myself feel worse, but it also makes me feel so much better too. So I might just sneak in one more listen today.

There's something about Frank Turner that is an affirmation for me. Even if he doesn't always explicitly spell-it-out lyrically, his songs give me this feeling that is hard to describe, but important for me to try and understand. Something about unfinished lives still in progress, people that haven't got it all sorted out yet and are still fucking-up and starting from scratch and trying again and again and again. Like you could let your painful failures and heartbreaks crush you, but you can also remember that the world is full of people starting over their lives from scratch every day.

I'm in good company (or at least, lots of it) even when I think I'm struggling alone with all this stuff.

Also, aforementioned best-friend Lucy is responsible for this sentiment, some words that I thoroughly endorse:

"I don't believe in staying in touch, it's for boring people who are dead inside. for people like us we just fall right back into things when we see each other."

And I'll add to that a few more things, like that I don't care about romanticising the old-days or school-days as the best time of my life, and I don't want to "catch up" or look back and reminisce, I really am more interested in moving on and more interested in now.

Royal Headache

2009-10-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight it would appear to be the case that every single person in Melbourne has gone to see Melt Banana, but I'm home alone, working on my zine and updating my blog and eating Tofutti Cuties. Which has its own charm, I guess. And listening to Royal Headache, which definitely has a whole bunch of charm about it.

They are pretty awesome. My friend Dave recommended them to me and said he was sure I would love them. Which is totally the case. I can't believe they played in Melbourne not long ago and I didn't even go see them. Fail. But I will fix this sad state-of-affairs, and hopefully see them somewhere soon.

This band!

Confused (to shift the focus)

2009-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Age is a band that is totally significant and special for me and it reminds me of a lot of different things, starting in the summer of 1999 and up to 2003 when I was in Berlin.

(In the summer of 1999) While I was on the train going across town from my hostel near Warsauer Strasse to a sorta ex-squatted art venue called Tacheles I was intriguedly (is that a word?) looking at the guy opposite me reading a zine, who was wearing a Muff Potter shirt and had a Spitboy tattoo on his leg. We kept exchanging glances but I felt too shy to talk and that was without the whole language barrier inhibition thing.

That night I met up with my one internet punk contact in Berlin, Thomas, out the front of the Converge show at Tommy Weisbecker Haus. He said I couldn’t stay at his place cos it was tiny and he had someone else staying, but he’d arranged for me to stay with some friends of his and said he’d introduce me to...to the guy from the subway! Whose name was Phillipe!!!

The next couple of weeks involved staying at Phillipe’s house with a constant soundtrack of Ivich, Jasemine, Vanilla, Age, Muff Potter, all that dreamy euro emo stuff. And that slightly-famous-in-an-underground-way anarchist pop band from Luxembourg that Phillipe’s other houseguest was the "manager" for, but I cannot ever remember their name.

I always meant to get an Age record, but never actually did, apart from having some songs on a tape (with other bands like Headache and Zorn) from my pal Donat in Berlin.

Cut to early 2003 in Brisbane when my friend Sanne's boyfriend in Germany sent a mixtape with Age on it, so I finally got to hear them again. A couple of months later, I was leaving to go to Europe and I made a mixtape for my travels that included my favourite Age song of all time “Confused (to shift the focus)” as well as “Wolf” and maybe one other song of theirs, and a bunch of Billy Bragg and Hot Water Music and Le Tigre and Epoxies and Rumbleseat and whatever.

Skip to July 2003, me and Sophie hitching just before nightfall on the edge of Dresden holding a sign to get to the Czech Republic. We'd gotten dropped off there by a nice guy who had just finished working on a film-set, he was one of those great “down for the count” kinda people and I was totally enjoying talking to him and felt a little sad when we had to get out of the car.

But on the upside, he assured us he was dropping us at an amazing hitching spot. As cars whizzed by and nightfall started approaching, I started to have some doubts though, and was getting panicked visions of sleeping in the nearby bushes or an abandoned haunted church or something.

Finally a car stopped and as we ran up to it, I noticed there was a "Dance Tonight, Revolution Tomorrow” sticker on the back window. It was two guys, Tristan and Ramon, who said hi and checked where we were going and then we fell into separate conversations cos it was kinda hard to hear from the backseat, and well also sometimes it's just a little awkward when you get into a stranger's car, not to mention the language barrier.

Then Tristan asked if there we had any music we wanted to play, so I passed over what I’d just been listening to in my walkman and the track-listings. He put on the music and then read the track-listings and said incredulously “you know Age?!?!?!?!” In complete disbelief. Because the guy driving the car was the bassplayer in Age.

They were laughing because they said that me and Sophie didn’t look like punks (I think we were looking particularly clean-cut and normal to help our hitching efforts nicely along), so they didn’t expect us to be on a similar page at all.

In fact, they thought we were going to a rave because we had said we were going to a festival, which amused us no end. It turned out we were all going to the same emo/hardcore/punk/straightedge/indie fest starting in Plzen (yep, I bet you know the one).

Holy shit, I almost can’t comprehend the random individual situations across hemispheres and years that lead to this particular moment. Of all the cars that could stop by the side of the road, it was that one. With those people! Who asked me that question at that moment and we discovered that connection. Makes me smile at how sometimes life can be like that, and it reminds me that there are secret beautiful coincidental worlds still hidden within this mundane boring routine one.

http://www.myspace.com/ageuberalles

Dance Song 97

2009-10-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Whenever I listen to Sleater Kinney “Dance Song 97” I am instantly transported back to London in 1999. Me and Tex, inseparable and intertwined partners-in-crime forever or until we are separated by forces external to us.

It’s breakfast and we’re dancing on the table in the kitchen and we’re ecstatic because this is our song and it is the soundtrack for our life (which hasn’t really been an easy one lately), cos we can never imagine what it would be like not to know each other and it feels like we have always known each other anyway.

But actually we've only known each other for a couple of months, it just was a case of accelerated friendship time. And it’s also special because it’s just about the only music we both like and can share with each other

Now I hear "Dance Song" and I look back on that time as one of those rare moments where I was totally in the present and totally appreciated it, and could look back on it so fondly after Tex died a couple of months later. We used to share a room and fall asleep almost every night listening to Portishead (I still can't really listen to anything by them because it makes my heart ache too much)

At the start of 2009, I started getting rid of old letters and bits-and-pieces and ditching the artefacts of my past ready to move from Brisbane to Melbourne. I found all my old Tex letters and reading over them made me miss having someone in my life who I adored and looked up to and admired so much.

Admired, as in, I respected the shit out of the way he lived his everyday life, his ability to transform a room within seconds, the way he could totally change and uplift the mood, his total loving kindness in everyday moments. The kind of person I would always want to have by my side in life

The total honour it was for me to be sharing daily life with someone like him, not to mention someone with a true I-don’t-give-a-fuck-what-people-think attitude, seeing him sob and weep and laugh and live his life out in full plain view of anyone who was around.

I never knew anyone like him before. It was also the first time I remember having a friend who loved me so fiercely and intensely and constantly told me so. This is a reminder for when all those letters are thrown away and gone forever

Republic of Heaven

2009-07-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

can't write too much as I'm VERY busy researching vegan desserts at the moment. I am committed to making vegan white chocolate mousse for my dear pal Fiyona's birthday on Friday, but am still searching for the perfect recipe.

so this is a whirlwind post to say that you should listen to Fall of Efafra, Hank Williams, Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows, Chamberlain, Heartless Bastards, Battle of Wolf 359...

...and of course Melbourne/Ireland's crustlord-superstar band THE MOOR (they played a couple of awesome shows, they recorded, and then Eric -of Easpa Measa fame- left Melbourne and went back to Ireland so they are kaput/finito/over/etc. but yeah, they did definitely record and will have a release pretty quicksmart, according to my sources).

but my greatest love is SEDATIVES. SEDATIVES SEDATIVES SEDATIVES, why are you so good? and how did I not discover you until very recently?

I don't even have any of their records yet (yeah I'm a poser like that), all I can do is go to their myspace page and play "Slip Away", "Cannot Calm Down" or "Same Mistakes" over-and-over again, and dream that I was seeing them at a houseshow somewhere in Canada. also in the dream, it would be summer. just saying.

I heard there's gonna be a new Mission of Burma album, so I'm excited but in that slightly nervous way, I'm crossing my fingers that they haven't, you know, jumped the shark.

And Samiam are touring here in September, so I have an impending revolution summer to look forward to. Actually scratch that, more like teenage melodramatic melodic pop-punk summer to look forward to. Glory days hopefully await.

PS. you should listen to these bands while eating Soyatoo vegan whipped creme from the Radical Grocery in Brunswick and $3 Vietnamese tofu sandwiches purchased in Melbourne's western suburbs eg. Sunshine or St Albans or Footscray.

PSS. Vegan Brunch is now at the top of my vegan cookbook must-get list. And it's an Isa book, so you know it's gonna be good. Word on the street (or the vegan blog-world, more accurately), however, is that the Babycakes cookbook comes not so recommended.

PSS. Watch this youtube video and weep about the fact that you weren't raised in Portland by parents who were probably in the Wipers or Poison Idea, and aunties and uncles who were probably in Tragedy or Red Dons or Harum Scarum or something equally punkrock cool

trash talk

2009-04-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

A little int with Sam Bosson from Trash Talk. Gavin from Dead Nation Records is putting on their Australian tour and it's about to start any day now...I don't want to alarm you, but if the idea of seeing Trash Talk aaaand Extortion isn't appealing, yr probs close to death. If you're not close to death, read on.

Well um actually if you're like me, you probably don't get excited about much in the realm of "hardcore", but if you do like stuff like Ceremony and Have Heart (I can see some record-store dude hand-writing it on the recommendation label on their CD now "if you like Ceremony and Have Heart, give Trash Talk a listen").

Oh yeah and all the up-to-date tour details are at the Dead Nation myspace: www.myspace.com/deadnationrecords, check it

also take a peek at: www.trashtalkhc.com

Only The Sad Songs: Who are the members of Trash Talk? For those people in Australia who haven't heard you yet, how would you describe your sound (you know, some useful buzzwords)?

Sam: Hey there. My name is Sam Bosson and I play drums, Garrett Stevenson plays guitar. Lee Spielman yells and Spencer Pollard plays bass and also yells. I guess I could describe Trash Talk as a hardcore punk band that has some powerviolence and grind influences. We just like to play really hard and really fast I guess. hah.

Only The Sad Songs: From what I can tell, Trash Talk seems to self-release a lot of records and be out on a pretty endless tour. Would you say that at this point, Trash Talk is "what you do"? I mean, I'm guessing there's not much room for day-jobs and other kinds of everyday things like apartments/houses?

Sam: You pretty much hit the nail on the head. We have all pretty much dropped our previous lives and made Trash Talk our life, but we wouldnt have it any other way. We feel like if we are going to do this, we have to do it 100%. Trash Talk is definately all we do. Some of us hold down side jobs when we are home for whatever amount of time, but none of us have "real" jobs. Trash Talk is our job.

Only The Sad Songs: So you guys are out on tour with The Bronx right now, yeah? What are some of the highlights of the tour so far? I'm also interested in what are the little things that are the "highlights" for you right now? Like, little daily routines that you have while you're on tour that give you some structure and keep you kinda sane?

Sam: There are a few things that have happened on this tour that I'm not sure I should be repeating here, but I will tell you that The Bronx are the best dudes and we are so siked to be spending this time with them. Especially since they kill it every night.

There are some things I personally like to do while I'm on the road.. like, I have gotten into the habit of obsessively washing my hands on this tour. I don't know why, I'm definitely not the world's cleanest guy but I've turned into a real germ freak on this tour.

I also like to make sure my Ipod is charged for whatever drive we are doing, listening to music allows me to just close my eyes and escape the van for a little bit. It's very important to have your personal space.

Only The Sad Songs: You're about to head to Australia on tour...Are you in the loop with many current bands from Australia and/or are you familiar with any Australian bands from the semi-recent hardcore/punkrock past?

Sam: Personally I am beyond stoked to be heading out with Extortion. That band is fucking amazing. Hopefully I run into some of my friends in Miles Away and Carpathian while I'm there!

Only The Sad Songs: Whether it is the individualised self-liberation approach with a focus on straight-edge, veganism and other personal choices.. Or whether it's just a general awareness of what's wrong with the world..hardcore is a pretty angry and "political" kind of music, usually for a good reason. In terms of the "political" side of hardcore, what personally have you taken the most influence from?

Sam: I guess punk music has for sure shaped my political view of the world. I am vegan and I identify with the politics of bands like Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Infest and Napalm Death. So I guess its safe to say that punk has definitely shaped my view of the world and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Only The Sad Songs: Lastly can I get a Top 5 music list from you - it could be top 5 heartbreak songs, top 5 roadtrip songs, top 5 songs of today, top 5 classic hardcore songs, top 5 non-hardcore-related songs...totally up to you!

Sam: Here's five random songs that come up when I put my Itunes on shuffle:

1. The Lurker - Yaphet Kotto
2. Poison Corporations - Aus Rotten
3. Fool - Swans
4. Fight To Live - Blitz
5. Circus Man - Daniel Johnston

Thanks! See you soon. Sam

TRASH TALK AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2009

April 27th - Nightlife, Gold Coast (All-ages)
W/Ghost Town, Die Go Die

April 30th - The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney (Lic.All-ages)
W/Extortion, A.V.O, Homewrecker

May 1st - Majura Community Centre, Canberra (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Slowburn, Eye Gouge & Silverback

May 2nd - The Arthouse, Melbourne (18+)
W/Extortion, Cut Sick, Ire & Rort

May 3rd - The Crib, Melbourne (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Iron Mind & Collapsed

May 5th - The Transmission Room, Auckland (Lic.All-ages)
W/Brick Vs. Face, Bad Medicine, Entrails, Buzzkill

May 7th - Enigma Bar, Adelaide (18+)
W/Craterface, Infection, Thrush

May 8th - Hyde Park Hotel, Perth (18+)
W/Extortion, Battletruk, Blkout, Suffer, No Shelter

May 9th - YMCA HQ, Perth (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Miles Away, Blkout, Bridge the Gap

(Tickets for all shows avaliable on the door)

WWCJD?

2009-04-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

What Would CJ Do? That is the question I often ask myself...and here's a wee little interview with my favourite vegan punkrock dreamboat from 4ZZZ FM (Brisbane's community radio station) to find out. And of course to tell us about the CD compilation of punk bands he is helping to put together as a benefit for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Kylie: CJ could you tell us a little bit yourself and your involvement with 4ZZZ. Also can you give us a run-down on the Sea Shepherd punkrock benefit compilation CD you're involved with...how did this project come to be?

CJ: I have been involved at 4ZZZ for a while. I rule Saturdays (a show called "Kids With Class Kicking Ass") with my sister Danika and bro Chris Converse from 10am to midday and I'm currently serving a stretch of the late-night edition of the Punk Show with my other bro Chris Hunter.

To listen, you can stream it here: www.4zzzfm.org.au (click on the link at the top of the page that says "streaming radio")

As for the Sea Shepherd compilation... I was sort of asked to put one together and went hell for (fake)leather at it. It took around 2 weeks in total to put together, including originally getting a massive company to throw a lot of cash it!

Needless to say, that company were employed just to look after the "green interests" of other shitty companies... they represented businesses that owned sweatshops, palm oil factories and one company even implemented an illegal shark-fin fishing operation.

The artwork was put together by a dude from Melbourne named PHilsy/PHilfy/PH...

(the 2008 streetpress polls are in...yep CJ's radio show is officially the 2nd best radio show in the world, or at least in Australia..whatever, beat that posers! click on the image to read the poll results in non-microscopic format. taken from: Time Off magazine)

Kylie: While reading through the biographies of the crew on the Sea Shepherd, I was surprised and delighted to notice more than a few references to punk culture.

Again, while reading the website for the SHAC 7 (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) case, I noticed a lot of the defendants made references to the punk community and the straight-edge hardcore scene.

And in the case of Peter Young (imprisoned animal rights activist), a lot of punk/hardcore bands donated their songs to a benefit CD for the defence of his case.

And obviously, there's also PETA 2, which from my understanding, is basically an off-shoot of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals which targets an “emo/hardcore"(!) kinda audience.

In your opinion, does "punk" play a vital role as an inspiration for (young?) people to care about animal rights? Was it punk that led you on a path towards veganism?

CJ: I think so! I don't I would ever of even heard of veganism without Propagandhi or some band like that...I would imagine that punk bands would be responsible for more social concern than they would ever get credit for.

Amy Winehouse doesn't have vegan stalls in the smack pit for people check out before they rack lines up in the toilet...

(Wheat Paste Poets playing at the Sea Shepherd benefit show in the 4ZZZ carpark. photo: Chris Converse)

Kylie: It seems that the Sea Shepherd is pretty much *the* only organisation to be doing marine-based radical direct action on a large scale (as I guess Greenpeace are more of a mainstream organisation at this point) - and they've gotten a hell of a lot of media coverage and exposure in the last few years..

So how did you first become aware of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society?

CJ: I forget! I remember I applied to go on the ship when I was about 19 and couldn't go cause I couldn't get a U.S. visa! Maybe I found out through an old dood I knew who went on the ship and came back and told stories of sea-sickness, pipebombs and Paul Watson...

(Protest! playing at the Sea Shepherd benefit show in the 4ZZZ Radio Station carpark - April 2009. photo: Chris Converse)

Kylie: Okay now it's time to give me your top 5 lists:

Top 5 vegan punk bands (or songs)?
Top 5 vegan food places in Brisbane?
Top 5 “accidentally vegan” products?

CJ: Top 5 vegan punk bands (or songs)? Propagandhi, Bad Day Down, Protest!, Damn the Empire and Against Me! I guess (it is really late and at a pinch).

Top 5 vegan food places in Brisbane? Loving Hut, The Forest, Kuan Yin, My Heart Garden, Alibi Room pizza and Tian Ran(on the Gold Coast).

Top 5 “accidentally vegan” products? Vegemite, tabouleh, bananas, chocolate crackles, other vegan people!

(anonymous vegan dreamboat myspace photo haha. aka he'll probably kill me for using this)

Kylie: How can someone buy a copy of the CD?

CJ: If you would like to pre-order a CD, here's how: go to www.paypal.com.au and send money to brisbane@seashepherd.org. $13 + include $3 for postage.

As CJ mentioned, they need money to press the CD, because they were originally offered money from a company who turned out to be a shitty faux-eco company involved in all sorts of nasty stuff.

The 4ZZZ Punk Show recently held a benefit show in the radio station carpark (you can see the photos of Wheat Paste Poets and Protest! playing at it above) to help raise funds.

You can pre-order a copy via Paypal, and you will soon find the CD in all the lovely usual-suspect places

(Rockinghorse Records & Kill The Music in Brisbane, Missing Link Records & Poison City Records in Melbourne, Resist Records & Paint It Black in Sydney, and of course directly via the Sea Shepherd website etc).

Oh BTW the CD includes tracks from: Mutiny, Damn The Empire, Wheat Paste Poets, Lungs, Dick Nasty, Ringpull, Protest!, A Death In the Family, Army of Champions, Yidcore, Kill Whitey, Bad Day Down, Dead Like Geneva, Roshambo, Tyre Swans, The Black Market, Daysworth Fighting, The Gifthorse, and One Shot Salute.

Keep yr eyes peeled on the Sea Shepherd website for updates and details:

http://www.seashepherd.org/

you look like you've been losing sleep (said a stranger on a train)

2009-03-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Living in a new city is magical and wonderful for the most part, but it also means attending a lot more shows on my own, which is a not so magical experience, but it kinda rules in a strange way. I really don't have that many friends who like the exact same sub-genres of punk and indie music as me, and being as obsessed with music as I am, I can't bear to miss shows just cos I have to attend by myself. It's not even that I have to attend myself, it's that when I'm there, I'll literally not even run into anyone I vaguely know, like I would in Brisbane

So I go alone, but the last few shows I've attended solo/alone/"just the one" style in Melbourne have made me realise that attending shows in such a way is, for the most part, pretty "unfun"(always like to make a Jawbreaker reference where I can). Like, when you're literally JUST there for the music, it's musically good and amazing, but socially, it's completely unfun and there's no-one to share your observations and excitement with. But it is also pretty "character-building" and kinda nothing beats the feeling of having to stand alone like a dork and pretend to text someone between bands. Etcetera.

But I did go to see Dave Roche...and I *even* had a friend to go with haha. There were actually 3 different Dave Roche zinester spoken-word events in Melbourne and I had determined my preference for which particular event I would attend based on how delicious the vegan food selection sounded. Not just a pretty face, I know. There was Dave Roche + Food Not Bombs at Loophole, Dave Roche + vegan pizza at some warehouse, and Dave Roche + vegan muffins at the Sticky zineshop in the Flinders Street Station subway.

Dave Roche + vegan pizza was my first choice, but due to being supercrazy over-worked
(back in the hazy "working 7 days/nights a week on the internal union campaign of late February/early March 09" days. yes I am a walking Bruce Springsteen song), I actually could only attend the Loophole reading.

But it was good cos Fiyona and I went together and she lent me a bike from her house stash (my first bikeride since being in Melbourne, being new-in-town and bikeless and all) and we rode to Loophole which I think is in Thornbury, but most of the time I don't have a clue where I am unless it's Brunswick or Fitzroy haha

We arrived a little late (late enough to miss the "opening act", what a bunch of jerks. and what a typical "reviewer" cliche: "apologies to the first band" etc!! and it was Luke who does the letter to "You" zines and I've never seen him read before, and obviously I still haven't, sucks to be me).

We were talking about how we always fear walking in late to any kind of "performance", in case the room is set up so that you actually need to walk in BEHIND the performer with the entire audience being able to witness yr entrance. Luckily, the Dave Roche event was NOT set up that way and we could just sneak into the back and all we had to do was try to keep Fiyona's hound quiet for the duration of the reading.

Dave Roche....well if you're not familiar with him, I guess you could say that he just reads straight out of his zines in a kind of unassuming down-to-earth way and he talks about working as a special education teacher and he also talks a lot about having Crohn's disease, and there's a liberal dash of general punkrockness thrown into the mix.

As you can imagine talking about Crohn's disease necessitated a certain amount of regaling us with tales of shit/piss/vomit, thus somewhat disrupting the earnest bikes/crushes/coffee zinester cliche. Which is of course a very welcome disruption, and a pretty hilarious one too...I found myself laughing like a crazy person for most of the time.

So I had a great time, but oh we totally missed the food, so made a mish to get Indian food + all the fixings for what is known as the "pmt special" in some circles (an elaborate ice-cream/chocolate/cherry combination used to boost spirits when days are dark and/or to be administered when otherwise required), so all was not lost. We also bitched generally about the hierarchy of zinesters (and this is NOT about Dave Roche btw!!), where if yr from America and make a zine about bikes/crushes/coffee and/or any kind of specialised niche topic, you'll probably soon leave the cut-and-pasted photocopied format behind and get a book published through Microcosm etc.

Though I did marvel that in my opinion, only an American zinester would even contemplate doing a spokenword/zine tour in another country. Does that sound bitter, cos it's not supposed to. Like it's just that I would never even dream of, or even consider, going to some other country/hemisphere and think I could also turn it into some kind of zine tour. And I'm guessing that most other zinesters I know (here in Australia) wouldn't think so either.

Though I guess if you want to visit another town/country/etc anyway, you may as well make it a tour of sorts, it's actually a really nice idea, and there SHOULD be more zine events in my humble opinion. Maybe I'm just jealous cos I'll probably never get to go on a zine tour in another country or have a zinebook on Microcosm:)

apart from that, I've been working at a union and teaching English (yes I have effectively replicated my Brisbane life), and walking my dog on all these blueskied sunshiney autumn days, marvelling at all the rosegardens in my neighbourhood, listening to my Ipod and singing out loud as I wander the streets. one of my new favourite things to do in Melbourne?

and what else? well, today I've been listening to "All Aboard: A Tribute to Johnny Cash" that has Chuck Ragan ("Wreck of the Old 97"), the Gaslight Anthem, Ben Nichols (Lucero!Lucero!Lucero!), you know everyone "good" on it. I'm not shitting you, EVERYONE good is on here, in my subjective opinion that is. actually there's also some really terrible bands, but you can just ignore those ones, cos the good stuff is REALLY good.

also listening to: the Ergs!, Loved Ones, Arcade Fire, Swervedriver, the Dicks, At The Drive In (I forgot! "Pattern Against User" great great song), Sinking Ships, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Broccoli, Year of No Light, Malcolm Middleton (thanks to Kara for getting me onto him), Shook Ones, Samiam "Regret" (oh so dreamy and almost shoegaze-ish, really)

I also have a feeling I'm gonna be spending all my spare time here: http://goodnoisycore.blogspot.com/

Or watching Freaks and Geeks on youtube

ps. the zine is still in progress, but I'm hoping I'll finish it soon (moving cities really did slow things down), and oh no I'm using that favourite zinester cliche of giving false timelines for the finished product!!!!

the best thing that happened today

2009-02-25T05:14:00.000-08:00

i love the idea of recording the best thing that happened to you each day so i'm totally stealing this idea from (you guessed it) "the best thing that happened today" blog.

my favourite music-related moment of today was that I got a tram to my job at the union while listening to Millencolin. put me in the best mood.

and on my way home I listened to "Hate and Jealousy" by Lucero on repeat. beat that!

and despite my good intentions, I didn't go to see Monarch play tonight, maybe on the weekend....doomy sludgey blackmetal from France, according to semi-reliable sources

38 year old men dressed like 14 year olds

2009-02-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

they played it, they played it, oh my god they played it! they played "Bringer Of Greater Things", so now I can die happy, or at least I can say I fell asleep happy last night.

the foolish crowd antics were still an hilarious romp, but the Melbourne version had a slightly different feel to the Brisbane version. How shall I put it? Let's see if this captures it just a little: "crowd heckling duties taken care of by vaguely-libertarian drunkenly-moronic shirtless pop-punk yobbos".

exhibit A: people hooting and hollering when the singer of Propagandhi (well I think it was the singer) mentioned it was Charles Darwin's birthday soon

exhibit B: old-mate beside me yelling out "marijuana is awesome!" when a Prop member member regaled the audience with a pot-related ancedote

but some things never change, despite standing to the side of the stage, I still got caught in a mosh (ha), got beer poured over me and got punched hard in the stomach by someone trying to start a circle pit. and I still thought it was an awesome show!

Punkrock Record Stores part ii: Poison City Records

2009-02-19T21:57:00.001-08:00

Can you tell I'm no longer procrastinating about packing up my worldly possessions in preparation for moving to Melbourne? Now that I'm actually here (or there, depending on how you look at it), I'm procrastinating about all manner of practical things. I could go look for a bed and some furniture, but instead I go looking for vegan breakfast delights, go see Values Here at Next and spend some QT with my laptop haha.

Only 2 more sleeps til Propagandhi! I saw them in Brisbane and I get to see them again on Sunday! seriously, SUCH a good band, apart from the fact that they are quite the munter-magnet. As my friend Alex put it in a text message from the Sydney show "Sydney show is approximately 60% sports munters. Etiquette seems to be if you like the band, throw your beercan. And if you don't, throw two."

Yep pretty much sums it up better than I could put it. But that said, I had SUCH a great time watching them in Brisbane, surrounded by my good pals watching Prop totally kill it, and having an hilarious time watching foolish crowd antics.

I am praying and hoping and crossing my fingers (whatever it takes) that they play "Bringer of Greater Things" from Potemkin City Limits on Sunday night. In a way, I hope they play "Ska Sucks" just cos it would be so hilarious.

So now I bring you Part II from the little series we did on the 4ZZZ Punk Show featuring interviews with people who run punkrock record stores in Australia. The first interview was with Graham who runs Resist Records in Sydney. This one is with Andy who runs Poison City Records in Melbourne.

So like c+p this link into yr browser and then put it in yr ipod and listen to it on yr headphones when yr stuck on a bus/train/tram sometime. Listen carefully, you may even hear your favourite A Death In The Family song

http://onlythesadsongs.podbean.com/2009/02/20/interview-with-andy-from-poison-city-records-melbourne/

um like totally / go to hell 2008

2009-02-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

3 days in a row? Heck yes! So I was thinking that I should, like totally, post the playlist from our radioshow from 30 December. The reason being of course that it was the night that we did our Top 5's of 2008.

We usually invite *the punks* into the studio to be guest presenters for our Top 5 segment, so on this particular show, it was our turn to present our top 5 shows/bands/records/songs/punkrock happenings of this year.

[naturally, no-one ever sticks to 5 though, all the cool people sneak in all manner of "honourable mentions" and sub-sub-lists. as did we, like the good punkrock geeks that we are]

"This week's 4ZZZ Punk Show was the last show for 2008, so we (Christian Danger, CJ, Kylie) thought it would be the perfect time to bring you our ultimate 2008 Top 5 lists:

First we played:

BLACK FLAG: My War
HYMIES: Corpse Grinder
INSURGENTS: Firing Squad
JFA: Skateboard
JAWBREAKER: Do You Still Hate Me? (tonight there was a breakthrough with Jawbreaker appreciation...Christian Danger is FINALLY learning to love this Jawbreaker song for more than just its lyrics, ha)
JAWS: Elitist Uptight Asshole

CJ's TOP 5 of 2008:

1. DAMN THE EMPIRE: Riot, Reset, Riot
2. THE HERD: Toorali
3. STREET DOGS: Into the Valley
4. TIM BARRY: Trash Inspiration
5. ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES: Only The Good Die Young
6. BLACK MARKET: All is Gold

KYLIE's TOP 5 of 2008 + HONOURABLE MENTIONS!!

My top 5 was in no particular hierarchical order, but it was pretty fitting that first up was the Gaslight Anthem, a much-loved/much-played band on the Punk Show and by me in general

GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Wooderson

(from Sink or Swim, not technically released in 2008 but that's when I discovered them, plus live at Rosies in July...best show of the year for reals, also I've JUST started listening to their newer release 'the 59 Sounds', which also rules)

THE SPITZ: Tell Me Something True

(the Spitz are, or should I say WERE, a Sydney band who are by no means from 2008, but they did play a reunion show at Maggotville in Sydney in January with The Thaw, Fear Like Us & Defiance Ohio...such an amazing show, and such a special, beautiful beyond-punk band)

THE DIAMOND SEA: Restless

(from the 'Slow Signal' ep, and live at LIVE AND LET DIY FEST in February, and house-show at the Petrie Terrace house in August)

THE GIFTHORSE: Cold Turkey Isn't as Delicious as it Sounds

(again, not technically from 2008 cos it's from a CD marked 'Demo 07', but I only got it in January so it's in MY 2008 list)...although they have since put out an actual album, I love this song a whole lot)

BRIDGE AND TUNNEL: Call to the Comptroller's Office

(soundtrack to my posi days of spring/summer 2008)

Kylie's honourable mentions (who could easily be snuck into the top 5 list):

FEAR LIKE US (live at the Brisbane show on the Defiance Ohio tour - ahem that I put on, but who cares, it ruled! and the CD, of course)

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY (Brisbane shows and all recorded stuff)

CEREMONY (live at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane and Byron Bay High School in...Byron Bay!...it's not that often I get stoked on 'hardcore')

WALRORA at Live and Let DIY Fest

and 'Mother' by DANZIG (reminds me of sweet times driving at night to the radio station with my Punk Show co-hosts/pals singing along like dorks)

LIKE...ALASKA show at Fat Louies the other week (and getting drunk with Dale afterwards!!)

DEXTER Series 1 and 2 ha!

then we snuck in a little top 3 'the 4ZZZ PUNK SHOW COLLECTIVE TOP 3 SONGS FOR DRIVING TO THE RADIO STATION AND SINGING ALONG LIKE DORKS'.

these are dedicated to Bridget:

DANZIG: Mother
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: My Pal (God cover)
ONE INCH PUNCH: Down Syndrome

CHRISTIAN DANGER'S TOP 5 and HONOURABLE MENTIONS LIST of 2008:

CEREMONY: Dead Moon California (Midnight in Solitude) / The Difference Between Looking and Seeing

(Amazing show and amazing album 'Still Nothing Moves You'. Saw them in Brisbane and it inspired us to drive to Byron to see them again a few days later.)

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Meet Me By the River's Edge

(Awesome feel-good show at Rosie's and great album, 'The '59 Sound'. Awesome songs about girls and driving around listening to the radio and smoking cigarettes, etc. i.e. LIFE.)

EXTORTION: Medication

(...from the concept album, 'SICK', which rules and so did their INTENSE show upstairs at Rosie's earlier this year.)

JAY REATARD: See/Saw

(This is from the 'Matador '08 Singles' compilation LP that came out this year, although it was the 'Blood Visions' album and the show at Rosie's that blew me away. It was one of those shows that had me grinning like a fool from start to finish.)

THE GIFTHORSE: Passed The Break

(a total killer of a song from this Brisbane band's debut and self-titled album. The launch was also one of the best shows I saw this year (and ever).)

Christian Danger's Honourable mentions for 2008...

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

(shows and releases, especially that they covered My Pal by GOD)

LIVE AND LET D.I.Y. FEST

(awesome weekend of bands and workshops, and something that brought people from all over Australia in the name of DIY and punk rock)

JET SET READY

(as a band and as dudes)

FEAR LIKE US

(so punk rock, even with acoustic guitars!)

LIKE...ALASKA

(awesome show at Fat Louie's about a month ago)

...and a dishonorable mention to SPITFIRE LIAR, for being a disgrace... ha ha!

(Mouldy phoned up and said that although he couldn't configure his Jack Daniel's addled brain cells to form a top 5, the Bronx show was definitely a highlight of 2008)

Word on the streets is that The Bronx and Gorilla Biscuits rate a mention as awesome shows in 2008 as well!

PERTH TOP 2 NEW BANDS OF 2008
(thanks to Ben of Perth band Project Mayhem for sending this to Chris)

THE CRAW: Kings Park After Dark
BATTLETRUK: 6am

That was it for 2008! Thanks for listening!
over and out,
love,
The 4ZZZ Punk Show
xx

Punkrock Record Stores Part i: Resist Records

2009-02-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2 updates in less than 24 hours. Can you tell I'm procrastinating about packing up my worldly possessions in preparation for moving to Melbourne? Lots of big questions to consider: should I take the owl salt-and-pepper shakers? My collection of vintage guardian angel wall pictures? My records even though I don't own a record player? oh my!

So well, luckily I am now distracted from such dilemmas by having podcasts to upload.

On the Punk Show on 4ZZZ FM, we did a little series featuring interviews with people who run punkrock record stores in Australia. The first interview was with Graham who runs Resist Records in Sydney.

Question: What do you get if you cross Resist Records with Mission of Burma ("What We Really Were")?

Answer: This podcast!

http://onlythesadsongs.podbean.com/2009/02/07/interview-with-graham-nixon-from-resist-records-sydney

hmmmm blogger isn't being very kind to me with posting that link, fix it later!

alone in a crowd

2009-02-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

I just dug up something from my personal punkrock archives that I'd totally forgotten even existed!!!

But first! Let me explain a little. So, I'm moving to Melbourne in approximately one week (last minute regrets ahoy) and I'm living at my parents house while I'm in that "in-between" stage. Hilariously, my mum ordered me out into the garage to *finally* sort through some boxes of stuff I've had stored there for at least a few years now.

But it was ultimately a good thing, cos I found a transcript of an interview I did with Tibor from Kafe Kult in Munich, Germany. holy shit!! oh yeah, in case you've never heard of it, Kafe Kult is a really cool independent music venue, run by the coolest kids in Bavaria.

Sometime in early 2004, I was in Europe with a dictaphone and a half-baked (haha) idea to do a series of interviews with people about how they overcome social awkwardness at punkrock shows.

I was travelling with some of my best pals during the summer, but then suddenly all my fellow wanderers went in different directions, and I found myself alone and very much not liking it.

Well, kinda liking it in the "ultimate character-building" sense, but definitely not liking it in the immediate sense and especially in terms of how UNFUN shows in strange cities had suddenly become.

My idea was to do a bunch of interviews with people about how they deal with being alone in a crowd, or how they get/got past feelings of social ineptitude in punkrock settings.

Then I would collate all the interviews in a zine and leave them at show venues, so that other socially-awkward people sitting in the corner on their own between bands could read it and feel less alone. Or something like that.

Cos at least in my case, whenever I've been travelling and find myself alone at show, I always end up reading every single flyer/poster/zine/etc in the venue to pass the time between bands!!!!!

I only ever did one interview and it was with Tibor. Well it's not so much an interview as a "chat" really...I'm pretty sure we were hanging out in the Kafe Kult "office" late at night, after a Tragedy show, and I hit the "record" button.

If you've ever been in a DIY/punkrock band that's toured Europe, then you've pretty certainly met Tibor on the Munich stop of your tour. Here's a photo of him spazzing in his old band Schickeria Dropouts at a houseshow in Glasgow in 2004 (the night before the Tragedy club show).

PS. I don't know if Tibor is still involved in Kafe Kult, I haven't been in touch with him probably since that show in Glasgow, so Tibor, if you're reading this, hope it's still okay to use the interview after all this time!!xx

Kylie: Hey, what’s your name and what do you do?

Tibor: My name’s Tibor Kantor, I’m 26 years old. I’m setting up shows at Kafe Kult, singing in a band called Schickeria Dropouts, I have a small distro with no name yet. I’m planning to release my first zine maybe at the end of the year. And I smoke way too much weed..

Kylie: Oh yeah I heard something about you breaking the edge after one year…

Tibor: I just stopped drinking alcohol for one year and I’ve wanted to take a pause, to get rid of it for one year and I’ve wanted to see if I can make it. I made it pretty easily at the end, so I’m more confident about drinking again right now.

Kylie: This is something I’m really interested in asking you about…like, a lot of times when you first start going to shows, or when you travel to new cities and go to shows where you don’t know anybody there, you’re like basically standing in the corner like a dork.

My question is a pretty simple one: what do you DO when you go to a show on your own, when you don’t know anybody there?

In your case, even if you went to a show on your own in Munich, you would basically know everyone there, because you’ve been involved in the scene here for a long time. But say you went to a show in another town, what would you do then?

Tibor: So, speaking of hardcore shows or punk shows?

Kylie: Yeah

Tibor: Probably the easiest approach is to talk about bands and stuff like that, maybe talking about patches or shirts that other people are wearing. I try to approach people who are selling zines, not just like a merchandise stall, but single persons who are just selling one zine, their own zine. I try to approach these people because I think, as they creating some form of expression, they are more likely to communicate with me.

Because if this person is doing a zine, I suppose that this person will communicate with other people. But that doesn’t happen at every show, so I also just ask people stupid questions about bands or so, or maybe ask if anyone knows some cool places around town, stuff like that. And you see pretty quick if the person is interested in communicating or not.

Kylie: And if they just give you a basic answer, well that’s cool, and you just know that you’re not really gonna connect any further with them. But if there’s more, well that’s cool too, there is the possiblility to have a bigger connection.

So, did you ever go to shows in Munich, maybe before you knew many people, where you felt awkward or alienated or socially inept or kinda like sitting in the corner reading a zine and smoking too many cigarettes?

Tibor: (laughing)…Yeah there was a time…I don’t know, I’m doing shows now for 6 or 7 years, so it’s hard to remember the time when I didn’t know anybody. But there was a lot of shows before that time, where I tried to connect with people maybe from the club itself. And then I tried to reach other people when I saw they were regularly going to the same shows as me. So it was just a question of time until I started to ask “hey, how’s your night?”

Kylie: Staring to recognise people and seem them round and make some kinda connection…

Tibor: Yeah, in the beginning I felt too “young” to approach some people or so, but after several times, you see that the same people are basically always at the same shows. So why not just ask them about their name and what they do. And then finally my special experience now of doing shows at Kafe Kult where you know everybody!

Kylie: Yeah I guess now you’re at this stage where you’re pretty involved with shows in Munich, and the whole scene around Kafe Kult, that maybe the situation can be “the other way round” now.

As in, I’m guessing that sometimes you would see people that are maybe 15 or 16 and you recognise that they are really awkward and make an effort to at least say hi and make them feel welcome at Kafe Kult. Like, in a way, I guess you have a special responsibility to do that…

Tibor: Yeah totally. I totally try to approach those people and ask…it’s always kinda stupid questions at first like “How did you find out about the show?” or “How did you get here?”, stuff like that. And today, 3 people like that are here at this show. 3 really young kinds from the suburbs who are around 16. They were really shy at their first two shows or so, and then we approached them and it came out that because they are from the suburbs, they can’t stay til the end of the shows…

Kylie: oh right, because they can’t get the last bus or whatever?

Tibor: Yeah, so we arranged that they can sleep here and go back home the next day. So ever since, they come to shows and sleep here. It’s something that I still try to care about, to not keep people alienated.

Kylie: So like these kids that you helped out with a place to stay, were they quite new to punk and quite amazed that someone offered them a place to stay…you know, that would never happen to you at a bigger rock show, right?

Tibor: Well the kinda amazing thing was they were already here at shows with “Doom” patches all over their clothes, so they were totally into “it”, but they probably just knew it from some zines and from some local bands at their local youth centres maybe. So now they’ve reached the age where they can go to shows by themselves and well we feel it’s kinda like a duty for us…

Kylie: yeah totally

Tibor: Because we have the space to do what we wanna do, or to set up something that we want to do, and we want to show others what is possible. It’s not like it’s our space, it’s everybody’s space, we just try to “watch over it” to make sure new kids know it’s their space as much as ours.

So if we can sleep here, why can’t they sleep here? As long as they don’t break anything. This sort of situation is a special thing because it’s really something that comes from the DIY punk culture.

At Kafe Kult there is not only DIY punk shows, there’s also like more “poppy” shows, where the audience has almost nothing to do with DIY. But even then, we try to approach people and try to show them we’re just a bunch of kids like them, who happen to help run a concert venue..

Kylie: like showing by example, that anyone can put on a show, that anyone can make things happen in the DIY punk scene, that you don’t have to be extra-special or magical or a “professional” or an “entrepreneur” or anything gross like that…

Tibor: it’s like if you want to talk to the bands, go talk to the bands, they’re just normal people. A lot of people, especially in Munich, because it’s such a coke-sniffing yuppie city, are totally unfamiliar with this kind of “privacy”, ie. the band is hanging out with the audience at the bar and so on.

Kylie: Right, exactly, people aren’t familiar with the bands being normal people..

Tibor: A lot of people feel alienated and think that the bands are a total clique that they cannot belong to. We try to show those people, it’s not like we are some kind of cigar club and you’re not allowed to come in here. It’s like, we can make a really big cigar club if you want, just join us, or start your own cigar club or whatever.

[and I pressed "stop" right after that. here's a photo of Kafe Kult to warm your heart. also *some* people say that on the super-sanitised streets of Munich, this is probably the only graffiti you'll see in that town, so this picture is doubly-awesome]

tyre swans show

2008-12-06T19:00:00.001-08:00

hmmm what's up with this image not posting properly...I'm computer-stupid so I cannae claim to know. so here's the crucial details: Tyre Swans, the Temperamental) Pocket (Newcastle) and Dan Rogan (Brisbane)

Saturday 10 January 2009. Cafe Chechocho (the chess cafe!), West End/Brisbane. All-ages, BYO, vegan snaxx included in the doorprice!

driving home

2008-11-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

it's grey and rainy outside and I'm feeling melancholy today and Hot Water Music is in my head "driving home"

I know the sink and the rot got feeling
"is this happening to me"
and i know what it's like to want to end it all
driving home between the lines in the road
I swear that I've been through this
before when nothing makes much sense except for
doing yourself in razor blades are hard to hold
when we're hit in the heart with problems that

won't shift it's hard to admit that we're afraid
when we're hit in the head with unanswered questions
that repeat "how could i ever live after
this day"
we can take the hits and grow tougher
collect ourselves to live longer
and find there is no need to be afraid
because we all have more to offer when we struggle to cope with whatever it
takes to make the says we all have what it takes
to make it home

ex members of

2008-11-22T01:05:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post about the happiest music-related news I've had in a long time. Blake (I don't think I have to bother with surnames, I think you *know* which Blake I'm talking about) and that zinester dreamboat Aaron Cometbus in *one new amazing band* called Thorns of Life.

Maybe it's the crazy tropical heatwave here in Brisbane, because I can't think straight let alone write something "sensical" (is that a word, probs not?) so I'm stealing from Jamie/Objection:

"Ladies and gentlemen,particularly those of you who like myself had your life enriched and heart broken by Jawbreaker, it's with no amount of excitement and glee that I give you these here videos of THORNS OF LIFE, the new Blake Schwarzenbach/Aaron Cometbus/Daniela Sea band.

Maybe it's the booze still in my system from last night, but excuse me while I weep tears of joy."

http://whosearetheobjections.blogspot.com/2008/11/this-just-insecond-coming-arrives.html

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm sure you've already watched the youtube houseshow videos, but if not, hit it up with the quickness

Fear Like Us interview

2008-10-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Here's an interview I did with Jamie from folk-punk acoustic band FEAR LIKE US. They are kinda from Newie and kinda from Melbourne, and I first saw them when they played in Brisbane while they were on tour with DEFIANCE, OHIO.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: A friend and I were recently looking at an old-ish demo-tape marked "JAMIE HAY - ACOUSTIC" (that I found in my bedroom) and we were wondering about whether that was basically the starting point for Fear Like Us.

Was your solo-acoustic stuff an early incarnation of Fear Like Us, or was it a starting point for moving in that direction musically?

At any rate, Fear Like Us was originally a very small band with 2 members. What were the various line-up changes and developments that happened?

It's also hard to mention the Fear Like Us line-up without asking about logistics...so, how DOES it work having a long-distance band with members living in different cities?

JAMIE: What’s on that tape? I’m curious! Well, I had played some shows here and there as a “CONATION” set but this was only once or twice. I never had any intention of going “solo” but have always loved solo artists like BILLY BRAGG and ERIC BOGLE.

Fear Like Us started with just Kim and I around mid-2004, but didn’t take off til the end of that year. Babs joined Kim and I just after we finished our demo. Murray helped with drums on the demo but was never in the band, then maybe six months later Joel joined us on drums.

It’s funny to us because Kim and I initially wanted to keep it just “us” so it was easy to organize being two people. Our attitude shifted slowly into adding more members and even recently adding more instruments with the recording of the record!

To add to this half of us decide to move to Melbourne, so much for being easy to organise. Ha!

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: As a record label, I think POISON CITY RECORDS do a really good job of documenting a certain musical scene in Australia, a really good mix of melodic punk and pop-punk and folk-inspired punk...I guess a bit like an Australian "No Idea Records".

How did your association with Poison City come about?

JAMIE: I agree, Andy does a great job with the label and chooses wisely which bands to release. We ended up on PCR from the show we played with AGAINST ME! and A DEATH IN THE FAMILY in Sydney.

Andy said that PCR was going to get serious (at the time he was releasing records every now and then) and that he wanted to do a Fear Like Us record.

At the time we had been asked by a few labels but Andy felt like the right person to go with. One of Andy’s nicknames is “Done It”, because before you think about it, he’s done it! The label has got some of Australia’s best bands, LIKE…ALASKA are definitely my favorite.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: Obviously you used to play in CONATION and now you also play in A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - both of which are basically "punk" bands. Do you find that being in Fear Like Us, playing music that is much less "abrasive", there are noticeable differences in terms of audiences?

JAMIE: I wouldn’t say that there has been a noticeable difference in the places but I have noticed that a lot of “kids” like the band, or I am just getting older! Over the last year we have played some “big” punk shows which have been awesome but all that has done for me is makes me realise that we suit small, intimate spaces.

Ultimately, I don’t care where we play as long as it’s with bands we love and respect. That’s what we have been lucky doing since we started.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: I was reading an interview with Thurston Moore where he was talking about his search for sustainable ways of avoiding shitty soul-destroying jobs in order to concentrate on playing music, not just as a leisure-activity or weekend hobby, but as "what you do".

The model that he had found most inspiring was old jazz musicians, these total workhorses, who played their hearts out constantly and put out records almost every month!

Does it seem like the ultimate to play music without having to have a "daytime" job, or would it scare you to turn something you love so much into a job?

JAMIE: Honestly, I would love to play music for a living but definitely on my terms. I can’t see how it would become like a “regular job” at all.

I mean, if you get to earn a living doing something that you are incredibly passionate about then it couldn’t get any better.

The good thing about it is that you can be constantly creative and also if you get bored doing the same old stuff you can try something new.

I have never been entirely interested in traditional success but I have always dreamed of being able to survive off playing music.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: Jamie, I know you lived in Newcastle for a long time, and now you live in Melbourne. I'm really interested in the differences between these cities in terms of musical communities.

Newcastle, perhaps a little bit like Brisbane where I live, is a small close-knit kinda place, and there can be a certain amount of isolation that goes along with that.

Melbourne is known as a city that you move TO and can immerse yourself in the huge independent music/art/etc scene.

A lot of people say Melbourne is such an amazing, inspiring, supportive place to be a musician, and are struck by how seriously people take their musical projects. Does this resonate with you at all?

I'm pretty interested in your thoughts on Newie vs Melbourne or maybe smaller "uncool" towns vs. bigger "supercool" cities, in terms of being in bands..

JAMIE: I think Newcastle has a really amazing scene and support for bands but there is definitely a lot of isolation there. There are a bunch of really important, great people there who keep it all together. I definitely still love Newcastle and will play there any chance I get.

The one benefit Newcastle and Brisbane have from being smaller is that shows are more mixed. It’s not always entirely a “hardcore” show etc.

Fear Like Us was lucky in that respect because we started playing shows with hardcore and punk bands etc.

In regards to Melbourne I did notice the vast difference in professionalism here and I don’t mean for that term to be taken negatively.

People are a lot more motivated for touring etc here and it is a huge motivation for me. It’s just like living with people who are always up for doing exciting stuff!

It is a drive that is shared by nearly every band be it punk, metal, crust or folk.

It’s one of the most inspirational aspects of the Melbourne music scene.

ONLY THE SAD SONGS: What are the future plans for FEAR LIKE US?

JAMIE: Well Kim and Babs are over in Europe at the moment and all of us won’t be in the same room until about March 2009!

We do have plans on doing a new record and going on tour as much as we can next year.

Thanks a mill to Jamie/Fear Like Us for the interview. And uh, like, PS. I suppose I should confess that all photos/images used in these interview were unceremoniously/shamelessly *yanked* from the Fear Like Us myspace page

www.myspace.com/fearlikeus

only the sad songs cut-and-paste zine lovelovelove

2008-09-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

so I'm working on my zine "Only The Sad Songs"

it will have have interviews (with bands and vegan dreamboats), photos, crucial lists (inspired by Amor/Odio zine), "way-too-personal" (ha!) writing about everything that's been happening for me this year (remember, I did used to make a zine called "Personality Liberation Front" after all, gotta keep up the per-zine tradition), oh yeah and cut-and-paste layout taken care of by Letraset-a-rama!!!(I found a bunch for free!!!)

I'm hoping it's gonna be finished in a few months time, like December/January

If you want one, holla (and I'll hook you up when it's done)

A Death In the Family interview

2008-08-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

Here's an interview I did with Jamie from A Death In the Family, first played on the 4ZZZ Punk Show in July.

you should note that I was a lil sleep-deprived and a LOT over-caffeinated when I did this interview, oh and of course I still get super nervous doing phone-interviews so you know how it goes...alright, okay disclaimer over, here it is: A Death In the Family podcast

oh yeah, throughout the interview you will hear snippets of 3 different ADITF songs in this order: Shackled, Let's Lose and My Pal (cover of the GOD song). such good songs, SUCH a good band...for more ADITF apreesh, go here: ADITF myspace

PS. If you listen to the GASLIGHT ANTHEM interview, it ends at a slightly random point after Brian declares his absolute love for Jamie from ADITF!! I like how this ADITF interview also ends at a slightly random point with Jamie declaring his love for The Gifthorse

The Gaslight Anthem

2008-07-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

here's an interview I did with Brian from THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, i first played it on the 4ZZZ Punk Show on Thursday 24 July. you can listen to it here:

TGA podcast

ps. i edited out the chit-chat at the end of the interview, so the version you'll hear on the podcast ends at a slightly random point after Brian declares his absolute love for Jamie from ADITF!!

also this is fairly hilarious:

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM TO TOUR AS BACKING BAND FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

NJ-based The Gaslight Anthem will be touring with fellow New Jersey musician and icon Bruce Springsteen. The band will be taking the place of Springsteen's long standing backing band the E-Street Band for a string of select dates along the east coast. The tour kicks off on January 5, 2009 at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.

Though the planned shows will consist almost entirely of Springsteen's classic catalog, we've received word that the Boss himself has been working with Brian Fallon in an effort to incorporate a few of the Gaslight Anthem's tracks into the set, mainly those referring to the act of dancing, or females named Maria. We'll keep you updated on more specific details and dates as they become available.

This isn't the first time The Boss has worked with bands. Arcade Fire joined him on stage at a number of shows in 2007. Meanwhile, hip hop star Nelly has also expressed a desire to work with Springsteen.

The Gaslight Anthem is currently holed-up in a studio in Los Angeles, working on their SideOneDummy debut, and follow-up to this year's Sabot Productions EP, Señor and the Queen. Bruce Sprinsteen continues to tour in support of last year's LP, Magic.

(punknews.org april 1!!)

Margaret Thrasher

2008-06-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

I was in Vancouver/Canada last year and the day I arrived was filled with crazy reunions, indian vegetarian all-you-can-eat restaurants, sleep deprivation aaaaand a house-show at the Library House by Trout Lake where I saw my dear friends Scum System Kill (from Sydney) and Margaret Thrasher. I'd heard a lot about Margaret Thrasher from reliable sources so was stoked on the coincedence of seeing them on my very first night in town. Good times.

So then my zine-pal Alex of Ratcharge Zine (from France) was staying with me here in Brisbane and mentioned he'd done an interview with Margaret Thrasher and wanted to spread the good word a little further. Here it is. Oh just re-reading it makes me more than a little nostalgic for criss-crossing the hemisphere and Vancouver and summer and friends and awesome shows! hells yeah.

Oh yeah, Alex also reliably informs me that Margaret Thrasher (not to be confused with the OTHER Margaret Thrasher from the UK) have two 7"s out on Clarence Thomas Records (get them at bistrodistro.com), and they've also just finished recording a new 12" that will be out very soon. They're heading out on a euro-tour in September/October 2008.

Alex Ratcharge: Hey Margaret Thrasher! First the basics, how and when did the band start, did you have any goals back then, and how did you find that stupid name?

Juls Margaret Thrasher: I wanted to be in kind of a yelly band with other girls. The name was thought of by a friend and former roommate Sylvie le Sylvie when we planned on starting a band in spring 2003 that never panned out. I kept it in the back of my head and especially wanted to use it when I started a band with Gabriela which I knew would eventually happen. I'm completely aware the band name is really stupid, but every band name is stupid, really. To make it stupider for myself, I have issues with how bands with women in them or female singers at least often have like "feminine" names. I've been in Ireland and the UK lately and everyone here thinks the name is deadly, so I feel a little more alright about it now.

Alex: How and when did you first discover punk-rock?

Juls: Green Day's Dookie came out when I was 11 and changed my life. I pretty much knew I'd be a punk from then on. When I discovered there were local bands that were punk and I could go see them for five bucks, I was blown away.

Alex: What are you doing beside the band? Any punk-related activities? Do you work and if so, why don't you quit?

Juls: In Vancouver, I until recently put on all-ages shows in the basement of my house, the Alf House, where I don't live anymore. I write a lot and put out a zine, although I haven't put one out in over a year. I work part-time doing bike deliveries for a small business and sometimes teach middle and high school kids how to make zines. I also work as a copy-editor and indexer, although I very, very rarely get paid for that.

I don't quit my jobs because I like them and they're really easy and somewhat fufilling. They're things I would sort of do for free (riding my bike? showing a kid how to put a zine together?). Plus, it's really hard to be on welfare there and not worth it because you're forced to attend resume-making classes 40 hours a week and one can make twice as much money working part-time at a more tolerable job.

Alex: Who writes the lyrics in the band? Do you have discussions about it? Do all the band members have to agree and like the lyrics for it to be integrated to a song, or is it only the singer's role?

Juls: I write the lyrics. Sometimes Brant (our hypeman) gives me advice.

Alex: What is the song "The Next Best Thing" about? I get the lyrics but not sure about the general meaning...

Juls: "The Next Best Thing" is about trying not to have periodic mental breakdowns over fucked up situations in your life or past that you feel powerless about. I wrote it when I was facing the possibility of seeing a childhood sexual assaulter who is closely related to me at a funeral that I didn't wanted to be bullied out of attending. The reality is that no matter how angry I am, I'll never be able to make that perpetrator feel how I did and I don't even neccessarily believe in that sort of revenge mentality, but ending the cycle of emotional control is probably a good first step.

Alex: Can you explain in details what you mean when you say (in the song "dead to me") "I know second-wave feminism had its faults / that binary view of partiarchy is racist and classist and weak"?

Juls: There are a lot of really valid criticisms about second-wave feminism, which is what came about in the 60s and created a political analysis of the power structure that occurs kind of domestically between men and women. An important criticism is that it developed a really singular view of feminism that ignored the experience of women outside of being white and middle-class. It was a really binary view of the world that was kind of all about how all men were oppressive to all women and really had no analysis of the ways in which white middle-class women could be oppressive to different races and classes.

That being said, I'm a white, middle-class women and the old motto "the personal is political" is really applies to me and I'm a firm believer in the idea that the fucked up power structure that keeps men above women is really affirmed within families, relationships, and individual relationships. It's very much within the people immediately around me that I feel really affected by patriarchy. However, I try to not to be really ideologically rigid about anything and I know that I need to be aware of the privilege I have and how that plays out within the dynamics I have with people of other races and classes.

Alex: The song "Hell No" is about refusing to support pro-life/anti-choice bands, is there lots of punk bands of this kind in Vancouver? Are they often confronted about it?

Juls: Christianity kind of trickles into a certain genre of hardcore in North America although not neccessarily in Vancouver.

Alex: It seems that most bands with feminist lyrics are women bands, or bands with female members... Why do you think is that? I remember this discussion I had with a friend of mine who thought that men couldn't be feminist, that they could only "support feminism", because she said that men couldn't understand what it's like to be a woman and therefore couldn't be true feminist. What's your opinion about that?

Juls: I don't think that feminism lyrics are solely sung by women bands. Two local examples I can think of off the top of my head are "Go Eat Shit" by Skidge's other band, Chuck Norris, which I think is about their friends making assumptions about girls based on the way they dress, and Manner Farm's pro-choice song. I think that any song challenging any pressure one feels based on their gender is feminist.

I think tongue-in-cheek Black Flag songs about acting in stereotypical "manly" ways are, in a way, feminist. I'm right now all about early 80s American Hardcore which was all about young kids from the suburbs (which is such a weird self-delusional and empty existence) being like "what the fuck is this? disneyland sucks."

I also think Disneyland blows but I'm also really frustrated by things that we've all been ingrained with and raised with that hinder my participation in expressing how I feel about Disneyland with other kids who feel the same way and how gender roles play out within the "Disneyland sucks" community.

Alex: I read that in Vancouver people who do zines can get paid by the state to do so, even people doing punk zines, is that true?? Does it apply to foreign people who come to live in Vancouver as well? Don't you think there's a contradiction in doing, let's say, an anarcho-punk zine that is financed by the state?

Juls: There's a definitely a contradiction in doing an anarcho-punk zine financed by the state, but it's in the same way that some anarcho-kids are financing their lives being on the dole. There's absolutely no restriction on what your personal zine is about. The program entails doing a bunch of other shit, though, like making a magazine within the employed group and learning computer design skills. It's basically a welfare-to-work program that was organized by some local radical-types.

But yeah, state-sponsored anything is kind of fucked up. And spending eight months with boss-enforced deadlines and minimum wage doing your zine is kind of a hinderance. A really big irony of the program is that I barely know anyone since completing the program who has put out a zine since, even if they were avid zine-makers prior to the program. An exception is Nathan Maxfield, who puts out the zine SHOES, so props to him and his endurance. You definately have to be a Canadian to do the program, unless you rig up a scam in which you use a Canadian's Social Insurance Card and have them cash your cheques for you.

Alex: What are the songs on your upcoming records about?

Juls: One song is about childhood sexual assault affecting my current relationships, one is about the recurring theme of creeps within the scene being kind of weeded out of communities who blame their alienation on our "snobbery", and the other is about the irony of using male aggression to deal with rape.

Alex: What are the top 5 records and zines/ books you've been listening / reading lately?

Juls: 1. book: The Malcolm X autobiography 2. book: James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" 3. movie: "I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed" 4. My new powerviolence band in Dublin called "Totally Stoked" 5. independent Dublin hip-hop shows (funny accents, not-contrived, blatant localism)

Autistic Youth - Landmine Beach LP

2008-06-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

from my dear friend Michl (of Taken by Surprise Records, Munich)

Autistic Youth - Landmine Beach LP is out now

Hailing from Portland, Oregon these 4 youngsters are influenced heavily by classic 80's bands like the WIPERS or ADOLESCENTS but also more recent outfits like THE OBSERVERS or THE EXPLODING HEARTS. On this LP they deliver 11 songs of anthemic and heartfelt punkrock that will make you dance dance dance! Comes in a silkscreened cover. In cooperation with the cool cat from SABOTAGE RECORDS

More infos at http://www.myspace.com/takenbysurpriserecords

Ordering info: After lots of delays and postal drama the repress of the AUTISTIC YOUTH - Landmine Beach LP is finally out! Below is the info. The wholesale price is 6.50 EURO. If you reside in the USA or Canada get in touch, we have a bunch of records in NYC so the postage will be much cheaper. If you ordered already i saved your copy, but please get in touch with me and send me the shipping addresses.

Thanks and good buy...michl

Le Tigre interview

2008-06-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

Le Tigre (JD Samson and Kathleen Hanna) interviewed by Kylie, Lucy, Melamoo

Melamoo: I thought I’d ask about the Big Day Out first and how you’re finding it, I mean it’s a big gig compared to other stuff you might have done in America, bigger and different types of acts.

JD: Yeah we’ve done festivals before. We did a festival called Coachella last summer, that was really awesome. It was really huge, it was like 40,000 people or something like that. Bands like the Cure and Radiohead, The Pixies. It was really fun, cos we don’t often play festivals. We did play the Michigan Women’s Music Festival, which is like 8000 women, so that’s really fun to do because it’s only women and we camp out and we have a really good time there.

I’ve had a really good time at the Big Day Out. I was worried about it being outdoors and playing without our video. It was actually fun without the video. But at the second show, the crowd were responding really differently and we were wondering how much of it had to do with not having the video.

Melamoo: Did you catch other bands, like local acts, while you’ve been at the Big Day Out so far?

Kathleen: We saw The Spazzys

JD: Oh yeah they were good. Oh we watched Slipknot. (much laughter from everyone)

Melamoo: yeah their crazy mask things

JD: It’s hard cos you get there and you have to prepare for your set and then as soon as you’re done, you have to go eat and you kinda miss a bunch of bands

Kylie: The first question that I have…well, you know the revised edition of the Cunt book?

Kathleen: The Inga Muscio book?

Kylie: Yeah. Like, in the revised one, I like how she was writing about how the book originally focussed on a really explicit woman-centred feminist politics and then since then in a kinda post-September 11 world with increasingly more terrible things happening, she declared: "We’re all in it together now." To me, that seems to mean making strategic alliances and capitalising on the inter-connectedness of all of us who struggle for a better world.

And I kinda thought that the earliest Le Tigre records had a really explicit feminist queer identity politics, stuff like Hot Topic. And I thought "This Island" is less obvious in a way, like less self-referential to our, or perhaps your, community, if that makes sense. And I’m kinda curious as to whether this arose out of a similar context to "we’re all in it together now", trying to make something that speaks a little more generally to our allies outside of the immediate feminist and queer communities.

[although I do have to admit that I don’t have my own copy of This Island yet, so this analysis or observation is based on my initial few somewhat cursory scans of the lyric sheet of Lucy’s copy –k]

Kathleen: It’s a good question…

JD: It’s funny that you say that, because actually a lot of people think the opposite way, and I think more so just because we’re not naming names on "This Island", but we’re making it like an open-ended invitation for people to say the names of people that they’re talking about. And for us, "After Dark" was written as –well Kathleen wrote it- but (to Kathleen) you were writing it about a specific person, but also just like the idea of becoming friends with another feminist artist. It’s interesting with "This Island", because I guess we didn’t name names, but there is still so much blatant feminism and queer-positive stuff. Like I mean, "Vis" is something that we’ve never done before.

Kathleen: I mean, we’ve always considered anti-racism and anti-classism and you know, all the isms, a part of our feminist agenda. On our EP, which is the second thing we ever put out, we had a song about police brutality which was very much in our faces at the time and still is. At that time, there had been several killings in a row in New York, and it was really upsetting. So we have always felt like that, but I think this record does read more like that, I totally understand where you’re coming from. I think to us, we can’t tell how it reads, because it’s coming from this sort of like internal place…

Kylie: An integrated, synthesised kind of politics?

Kathleen: Yeah

JD: Like, "New Kicks" being anti-war and being anti-Bush is just as much blatantly feminist to us, and also any mention of the war or any of the stuff related to 9/11 and stuff like that that we’ve been dealing with for the past couple of years.

Kathleen: Yeah. And like "Hot Topic" came about at a time when, at least in our community in the States, Riot Grrrl was sort of on the decline and there was all this weird in-fighting going on, and it was really kind of depressing. Instead of being like "Oh I disagree with your point of view, let’s figure out a way that we can still work together. Or maybe we can’t work together, and you know what, that’s okay, just because we’re feminists doesn’t mean we have to agree on absolutely everything."

Instead of doing that, a lot of the small little music scenes that a lot of us entered-and-left-and-then-entered-and-left were collapsing in on themselves because people couldn’t agree to disagree on band politics. So it was really this negative kind of time and we wrote Hot Topic out of more of a personal thing, or even an identity-politics thing of like "We wanna celebrate all the joyous things"

Kylie: A kind of affirmation?

Kathleen: Yeah, instead of giving into the negativity and being like "Here are ALL of the things that are wrong", we were like "Here are ONE HUNDRED things that are right". And in that song there’s like all different kinds of writers and activists and artists, they’re not all women. And even with that, it was more about stuff we like, it wasn’t about saying it has to be a list of women who are in our scene or something. And yeah, I do understand what you mean about how "This Island" reads like that, to us it’s all just a kind of part of who we are, part of Le Tigre.

Kylie: Yeah, I mean most progressive feminist politics see the inter-connectedness of different types of oppression and it’s hardly like they treat feminism as a single-issue kind of politics. And yeah I guess with the anti-war and anti-oppression stuff you mentioned…well, I was reading that you have collaborated with people as varying in their left-wing or counter-cultural agendas as Gloria Steinem and Green Day…Is that part of building community and building alliances with people with slightly different agendas but still within a broad-left context? Or is it just fun to reach new audiences?

Kathleen: Well I just sung on Green Day’s record because they asked me to, and because I’m always interested in singing with different kinds of music and just different experiences as a singer. And I find that because I’m a feminist singer a lot of people won’t ask me to do things because they think I won’t do it.

Kylie: Yeah I can imagine.

Kathleen: Yeah so like, when I get asked, I just wanna do it! And also, in addition to being a feminist activist, I’m a singer and I care about singing. And Gloria, she was running for Kerry..

JD: Yeah she actually asked to be a part of our show and she came and gave a speech before we started our shows, that was probably the height of our collaboration with her. But you know, it was a surprise to our crowd too, and I think it was just a really good meeting of different minds.

Lucy: You mentioned "Vis" before, and I wanted to ask you a question about that. I’m asking you JD, because I mean, did you write the lyrics?

JD: Yeah

Lucy: It’s one of my favourite songs on the album. Because my interpretation of the song –before I actually read Diva magazine and read what you said about it, so you’ve ruined my question!- was that it was kinda about the dyke scene and the fact that, despite all its flaws, the stereotyping, like the line "hey, you’re not a dyke!" and stuff like that, like despite all that, it ends up celebratory kind of thing.
JD: Yep

Lucy: And I really love that bit. And it kind of resonates with my experiences of the queer scene, in that I know it’s flawed and I dis it all the time, like I moan on about how shit all the gay clubs here in Brisbane are. But I would be the first to jump to their defence if someone tried to take them away.

JD: For sure.

Lucy: Yeah I would be like "I love The Beat! It’s my favourite club!" So I was kinda wondering if that’s what you were kinda putting across, that it’s both negative and positive?

JD: Yeah definitely. The song is like, actually about going to a straight club and feeling really weird and like "I don’t really belong here", the idea of just being visible in that kind of setting feels like I’m being an activist just by existing in that space, you know? So that’s kinda why I wrote the song, because I ended up at this weird party by myself and I felt really uncomfortable at first, but then I felt really excited that I’d found another lesbian, butch lesbian, and we connected, and we had a few drinks you know. (laughs)

That’s kinda more like what I was thinking about when I wrote the song, but I definitely agree with you in terms of like, the flaws and the brilliant genius of our communities everywhere. Like in New York, we had Meow Mix, this bar I’d been going to since I was like 17 and everybody was dogging it all the time and I was like "No! It’s our home!" and it just got closed like 2 months ago and it’s a sports bar now. So it’s really depressing. But I’m like all for gay pride and power and all that stuff, I will never give that up, you know.

[this last bit makes me wish this was an audio-zine, so you could hear exactly how amazing it was when JD said it]

Lucy: I think it’s really important not to forget that we still need that kind of…like yeah it’s cool to talk about being post-gender but like we still need those spaces and those kinds of clubs to make ourselves feel GOOD in the world because it is such a fucking horrible world out there. Like, we need to feel like we belong sometimes, in some places.

Melamoo: The L Bar!

Kylie: I’m asking this question to you Kathleen, if I may. I was re-reading an old Punk Planet, the "Life after Bikini Kill" interview…

Kathleen: Oh yeah

Kylie: ..Where you were talking about image and aesthetics and how at one point you were like "it’s ok to wear lipstick and be a feminist", but in the interview you said "I take a little bit of that back now", that you thought it was more subversive to create your own definitions of beauty in a way. And I’m kind of curious as to where you’re currently at with that because Le Tigre seem to have some really fun stuff going on with image. And if we take our cue from Judith Butler, if we perform our gender…like, is the use of image and aesthetics in Le Tigre part of fucking with fashion and fucking with gender and trying to shake things up at a very visual level, at a very immediate level, and in a very fun way?

Kathleen: I think part of it is, sort of like what you guys were talking about with clubs, where all you have is the gay male clubs you go to. I feel like a lot of times in performance, we’ll be the one all-female band or the one queer band in the town. And to me, even more than dealing with gender in terms of like costume or makeup or hair, it’s more just about like putting on this big show and instead of being given this little tiny slot, giving back this full really huge thing.

Cos we don’t want to just be another band that’s staring at the floor and it looks like we’re just wearing our clothes that we were wearing on the street that day. Like, we want to give our scene and our community something that we really worked hard on in our apartments, and worked our asses off to make. We didn’t come all the way to Brisbane to stare at the ground, do you know what I mean, we came here to like put on as a big as a show as we can with what limited stuff we have.

Kylie: Yeah I guess it can rub off on the audience, this really fun, exciting kind of feeling that helps you to transcend...

Kathleen: Yeah, it’s more about that, and it’s more about a new aesthetic of music and what you can do with like mixing performance art with music. For me at least, I don’t even really think about the whole "Beauty Myth" kinda stuff anymore, it’s not like "I’m past that", it’s just like I’m pretty comfortable with the stuff that I want to do.

And I’m kinda like a professional entertainer at this point and I have the mask that I wear that makes me feel like I can actually be vulnerable. I like to wear a lot of makeup on stage because having that mask there prepares me to open my heart. I know that sounds really weird, but I’ve been doing it for a long time. It gets me ready to be Le Tigre, you know.

Kylie: I mean, we often talk about when we go out, it’s much more fun for us to put on like costumes and crazy clothes. It just takes you out immediate reality, it’s just a really easy way to transcend boring, mundane reality, and also to take on the persona you need to take on to negotiate the outside world..

JD: You guys should try dressing up all the same and then going out!

Kathleen: Like ALL DAY

JD: Yeah whoa it’s really fun.

Kathleen: Yeah we wear exactly matching costumes when we run errands and stuff and like everybody was freaks out. We did it today actually at the koala park.

Kylie: Aside from your image and costume stuff, what is the role of your performance and projection stuff.. like is that part of mixing performance with music, incorporating different visual elements and having something really fun and exciting that works on several very immediate levels?

JD: Yeah, I mean we wanna create a show that’s on a different level, or a bunch of different planes. And the audience can pick what they really wanna do, you know. We just want to give a lot of energy to the crowd, and we find that when we do, we get a lot in return, so we have matching outfits and videos projected behind us and we have choreographed dancing, you know. As much as you’re willing to put into it, that’s what you get back, and we wanna have a community moment where everybody is having a really good time.

Melamoo: I like what you said in an interview about how you’ve kind of moved out of the ghetto now and you’re kind of more anonymous in New York as well, and how that’s made you really focus on your music now as well, less of being the kinda spokesperson for riot grrrl, that kind of thing.

Kathleen: Yeah I think the 3 of us have for a long time been artists in our own right, do you know what I mean, and being in New York I think, it made me at least less like conscious of what everyone else thought of me, the community, wondering "Is this the right thing or is the wrong thing?", more conscious of other people. But we’re putting a lot of love and time and energy into everything we make, making what we really want to, instead of what we think everybody else wants. I mean, there IS a lot of conscious thought about our audience, because in a way we ARE our audience.

I think we, both JD & I, a lot of the time want to write lyrics for ourselves, at times in our lives when we didn’t have anybody. And when no-one in our scene was saying the things we wanted to say. In a way it’s selfish. Like people say you’re doing this out of altruism (for your community), and it’s not. It’s definitely really good feeling to be able to do that, it’s just like "Oh wow, I made it to this point where I have enough love and support around me that I can sort of reach out of the boat and pull someone else out of the water and that feels really satisfying.

Kylie: When you said that you write lyrics that relate to you guys, stuff that you really wanna say or hear, or stuff that you really wanna see, like is "Keep On Livin" and the Keep on Livin’ website part of that?

JD: Yeah

Kathleen: Yeah exactly.

Kylie: I mean, because you put something "out there" that is about your very personal individual experience, people tend to relate to it a lot.. Maybe because it's not trying to pretend to speak generally for everyone, but just to speak about yr specific experience that certain other people might be able to share w/you...I was reading this old interview with Kim Gordon in Rolling Stone and she was talking about how this teenage girl didn’t write in her diary, she basically wrote everything in a diary-style confessional way to Kim Gordon. Stuff about high-school and alienation and angst and crushes.. And I guess I was wondering if alienated young queer/tranz/feminist/punk kids, because of stuff like "Keep on Livin", write to you guys in that way?

JD: Yeah they totally do. That’s part of the reason why we put that on our website because we were getting flooded by letters asking questions.

Kylie: So "Keep on Livin" was your way of writing back to all of those people together, like a letter to the community?

JD: Yeah, at first we printed out that stuff and we started sending it to the people who had written to us, but then you know, it got crazy, so we just put it up on the website and now we’ve gotten like so many less letters asking those questions, and people DO go to our website and use it.

Kathleen: The song and the website was a big response to a lot of the letters we got. It was before we figured out the whole website thing! And we really WANTED to respond to a lot of things that people had written, but we had gotten so much mail…I’d gotten so much mail from the Bikini Kill times and I’d written back every single person for like ten years. And I just wanted to have a personal life, you know. And I decided, you know what, I just can’t answer my mail anymore, cos I’m so wrapped up in all these 13- and 14-year-old girls talking about cutting on themselves…I mean I could function, I got really good at functioning, but I had so much shit in my head and I really wanted to be able to separate myself from it.

Kylie: I guess I if you are putting so much energy into responding to mail, you simply don’t have as much energy for creativity..it makes sense to make art that will also express what you need to say to yr community..

Kathleen: Yeah, I mean, we started putting it into the songs and I think that’s really smart. And I mean, I think it’s funny that it took so long for us to do that, even if as a band we were saying, you know what, actually, we deserve to have a separation between our band and our personal life. We don’t need to wake up every morning and just answer letters and respond to stuff all the way until we go to bed. And after a couple of years, I was starting to be like "Hey, wait, we make art about this stuff. We don’t need to respond at the level of giving people rides to our show and writing to every single person."

Melamoo: Is there going to be another calendar?

JD: Yeah, actually, I was gonna make it soon but I can’t because I’m on tour, so I think it will be in the next year. It’s really hard to do the calendar on tour, because it takes a long time to prepare and you have to be done with it 3 months before you want to sell it.

Melamoo: And you’ve got another side project…are you currently working on that as well?

JD: Yeah, I’m in a side-project band. I don’t know if we’ll do a release, cos it’s just a really small side-project band. It’s called New English Rose

Kylie: Oh yeah, Melamoo was looking at an online messageboard, I forget which one, and she witnessed frenzied discussion about what any future possible covers could be, like after the Pointer Sisters one

Kathleen: Oh, oh, I actually started working on one at home!

Melamoo: Really? Yeah I love 80s covers

Kathleen: Like, it will probably be Yazz

Melamoo: The Only Way is Up, or…?

Kathleen: I don’t know that one!

Melamoo: (singing) the only way is up

Kylie: baby

Melamoo: for you and me now

Melamoo: It’s a really uplifting song that would totally work being politicised, like what you did with the Julie Ruin project using the song 'I wanna know what love is"

Kathleen: See, that wasn’t the big song in America. We had "Didn’t bring your Love Down" and "Situation" was her biggest hit [JD and Kathleen sing "Situation"]…You guys didn’t get that one?
Lucy: No! We have no fucking idea about that

JD: The album "Upstairs at Erics" is like the one that was big in the States

Kathleen: Yeah, it will probably be something by Yazz. We’re gonna have to do it in a totally different way, because there is no way that we can sing anywhere like her.

[this is basically the end...it was all very hyper-excitable and hard to transcribe after here]

The 15 Fame-Filled Minutes of the Fanzine Writer

2008-06-09T05:15:00.000-07:00

[billy bragg interview part ii]

[the interview time is almost up]

Kylie: I have another question I want to ask you...

Billy Bragg: Go baby....

K: I think that songs like "Valentines Day is Over" take an approach to love that go beyond the simplistic Top 40 romantic lovesong formula...as a man, is it important for you to write about love and relationships and responsibility in a way that other men can relate to?

BB: Yes, I mean "Valentines Day is Over" is a very good example of that, because when I first wrote it some feminists came up to me at a festival and they said "Look, you've written a song from a female perspective, how do you know? How can you write this as a man? You don't know what it feels like to be the victim of male violence."

And I said "Yeah, you're completely right but you know, there are many great songs about this subject written by women, but I am trying to write a song about this for other men and say as a man, to other men "this is not acceptable." And the best way I feel I can say that is from a female perspective, to be brave enough to write and sing "as a female" so I can say to these men "Look, as another man, it's just not acceptable that this happens."

And so I also like "Valentines Day is Over" because it's both personal and political, it talks specificially about how brutality and the economy are related, how I understand that the pressure of trying to live in a capitalist society does put stress on relationships, that's not to make an excuse but...I think the best songs are not either personal or political but for me the best Billy Bragg songs are the ones in which...

K: the two are definitely not separate but are interrelated, in the way that our lives are not either simply personal or simply political...?

BB: The world is like that, the world is not only political or only personal, all of these things are interrelated. Sometimes I can write a highly political song like "There's Power in a Union" and another time I might write a purely personal song like - what did I play tonight? "The Fourteenth of February", something like that or "Saturday Boy".

But to me, the real good ones are where I can manifest the way the two fit together, which doesn't always kinda come off, but I do try, particularly with the ones with regard to violence to women. "Levi Stubbs Tears" tries to get into that position as well.

K: Actually at the end of the set when you held up your cup of tea to the audience...well, we were just talking on the way here about George Orwell's essay about how to make the perfect cup of tea...and it's interesting because he's kinda known for being so purely "political"...you know that essay?

B: Yeah, of course! I'm a huge Orwell fan. We were just in America last November doing a tour against media consolidation against Clear Channel. They own a lot of radio stations in America, like 2000 radio stations, and they have one playlist, so the Americans were concerned.
I was on a tour bus with Jill [Jill Sobule, who played the show tonight -k], Steve Earle, Tom Morello, Boots Riley from The Coup and Mike Mills from R.E.M and we were travelling on this tour bus and the most amazingly weird thing happened.

It turned out that Steve Earle, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Mike Mills were all huge Lord of the Rings fans! So they got into this argument about Lord of the Rings and then Earle went out and bought the Two Towers 4 CDs on the bus, and it was just driving me fuckin' mad!

And they're saying to me that this is the greatest novel from the 20th century and I'm saying "Listen, guys have you ever heard of George Orwell???" Okay, the greatest novel of the 20th century is 1984, it says more about the 20th century than any bunch of fuckin' hairy-toed hobbit bastards running around.

So I am a huge fan of George Orwell. I'm very interested in Englishness because my last album England-Half English is trying to address that and of course Orwell is the kinda king of all that shit, if you know your Orwell. Maybe I should get a kinda George Orwell tshirt together with the explanation of how to make the perfect cup of tea on it, I wonder if I could get away with that, or maybe I should set it to music..?

P: Boots Riley would have known Orwell though...

BB: Yeah Boots and me...Boots wasn't interested in Lord of the Rings, we had another video of Parliament "Funkadelic" and that was put on instead of Lord of the Rings, if we could get on the bus first.

M: Okay another question we came up with on the way here: how the fuck does one dance to your music?!
K: How does one dance to Billy Bragg?!

BB: Well firstly, when I'm solo it's not dance music. When I play with a band it's more dance music and people do dance then. The toughest thing is the audience themselves are not prepared to dance, but they're much less prepared to see me dance! And when I have the band with me I sometimes dance and it really freaks them out because I can only dance one way -- and that is like somebody's dad because I am somebody's dad!

Before you have children your dancing is different and once you have children you spend five years dancing to make someone laugh. You dance with your kids making them laugh, so when you go back to dancing in a disco, there's nothing you can do man, you're fucked. That's the way I dance cause I'm someone's father, it's more like ska, I can do an awful lot of ska!

M: thanks for your time..

and then! the tape-recorder was turned off and we kept talking.. about zines and independent media. and BB said one more thing, which for the purposes of documenting, went a little something like this:

"George Orwell said if there's any hope, it lies in the proles, and if there's any hope for punk, it lies in the fanzines."

(and then we continued to loot the backstage buffet, like any good self-respecting punks would)

Billy Bragg Interview Part i

2008-06-09T05:05:00.000-07:00

originally in cut-and-paste handwritten zine format, now on *the internet* omg..probs a bit harder to read all that text on a computer screen, so maybe make a cup of tea before you start reading and defo get comfortable first xx

Billy Bragg interview, backstage at Rohre, Stuttgart
interview: Kylie + Michl + Possum

Kylie: Can you tell us a little bit about the way or ways that you were politicised or became politically aware, and was punk a part of that for you?

Billy Bragg: YES

K: But then I saw you play and you mentioned the Miners Strike...

BB: Yeah well it was before the Miners because punk, punk where I lived was 1977, and the Miners was 1984, and what the Miners did, it took my politics that I already had and it made me express them in an ideological way...you know, more focused on ideology rather than just general politics. I didn't have any politics when I was growing up, my parents were not political. When I first had the opportunity to vote, I was 19 in 1979, and I didn't vote. And that was the year that Margaret Thatcher won, so I felt really stupid about not voting.

The very first political thing I ever did was 1978, I went to see The Clash, and they were going on the first big Rock Against Racism march, which was through London to a park in Hackney in East London. And I went on the march with the Anti-Nazi-League and Rock Against Racism. There were about 20,000 people on this march and I saw The Clash play in the park, but also on that day was a guy called Tom Robinson.

And Tom Robinson had a song that was called "Sing If You're Glad to be Gay" and when he played this song, the men standing where we were in the crowd began to kiss each other. And you know I grew up in a working class area, and I'd never seen or met any gay men who were out - well I mean I'd probably met gay men - but never gays who were out. I'd never seen gays before. And they had a big banner which said "Sing If You're Glad to be Gay" and my first feeling was "Why are these people at an anti-racism march? This has nothing to do with being gay, this is about black people."

But I realised quite quickly that the fascists hated anybody who was different in any way, and so I promised from that day to be as different as I could be, and to ask as many awkward questions as I could. So the lesson from that is not just that I'm politicised, but that music, although it cannot change the world, it can change your perspective of the world. Because I came away from that concert with a different perspective about politics. And so that was the first political experience for me, thank you to Joe Strummer for bringing me there and to Tom Robinson for showing me that song, and to those gay guys and to the whole moment to make me political - it still inspires me.

Possum: Can you think of, off the top of your head - like sometimes you see something and you just have such a clear image of it in your head, and it stays with you for the rest of your life...can you think of anything?

BB: Yeah, I mean that day in the park, seeing those gay men, stays with me. When Joe Strummer died, that's the first thing I thought, you know, Joe had been my great inspiration, in that sense he'd been the most political person in punk, he made The Clash political. So there are these moments for me... a moment where you see something in perhaps a clearer way and you find a way to articulate that in a way that people can understand. That's the real art, I think, of a songwriter.

If you're gonna write stuff that challenges people, ya gotta be able to articulate it in a way that engages their interest. If you just bang them over the head with it all the time, it's like a fanzine without pictures, you know, it's tough, ya gotta draw people into it. So you're always looking for ways to say things that are entertaining, ways to attack capitalism in a smarter way than just saying "capitalism is shit" is approaching it through Farenheit 451.

P: Like in the way you approach a larger audience, a festival audience, compared to a smaller audience, like in small pubs...?

BB: Well, a festival audience is different, you can't talk so much to a festival audience. Because in a festival, a lot of people are there just to see whoever's on, they're not really there to see you. But with an audience like this (at a small-ish rock venue -kylie) where you can talk very early on. After playing 3 or 4 songs, I was able to talk a little bit and people were listening, it's that kind of audience. So you find in your first few songs what the audience is like, some nights you can't talk and the audience are sometimes more enthusiastic than you. Like suddenly you realise "Fucking hell! It's Saturday night", everyone wants to have a beer and is up for singing the songs, and you just go for it and you just maybe at the end talk a bit.

K: Speaking of audiences, what do you hope happens in terms of audience participation at your shows? Like, if music cannot change the world, but it can change your perspective of the world, what would you like people to do with the information you give them at a show? What would you like to see happen at a show, or perhaps more importantly, what do you hope that people take away with them from a Billy Bragg show?

BB: Well, I hope that they take away that information about what's happening in Holland (he's talking about the Dutch government's approach to refugee issues -k) and that they find out something about that. I mean you can't follow the audience home and make sure that they do what you were talking about, it doesn't work like that, ya know. You have them for that hour or two hours, and you have the opportunity to put some ideas in their heads. First, to make them relax and make them smile, make them think about love songs. And then after you've done that, to just focus on the one thing you want them to take away with them, the Dutch thing, you know at the beginning of that rap, they laughed, at the end of that rap they weren't laughing.

I was talking about all that stuff about reunification and that's one of the most important things that has happened in our lifetimes, the result of very difficult situations that have been resolved positively. I think reunification is important because the East Germans managed to do it without having a Vaclav Havel or a Lech Walensa, they managed to somehow do-it-themselves. I think that's a very good encouraging thing...it's a shame it turned out the way it did, but there's something very encouraging in the way it happened. It was genuinely people putting pressure on the SED in Germany that actually made that change.

You know I've just been up to Berlin, and I've seen a lot of my old friends from those days and I still find it very positive that they managed to achieve that in Germany for all of Europe, you know, for all of us...that the Russian soldiers went home, the British soldiers went home, the French soldiers went home - and maybe one day the American soldiers will go home, probably not for awhile, but maybe they will.

I know I can't change the world from singing songs, but I can challenge the perceptions of people. You know, like tonight when I say to the people "I want you to aim your anger at the Dutch", everyone laughs, but I'm not joking, I'm serious about that. And I want them to go away and think about that. It would be easy for me to attack the Americans, everybody in the audience already has those negative feelings or else they wouldn't be here. I wanna push them further and bring 'em another perspective and talk about that shit that's going down on their continent which is important. When I'm in Australia, I wanna talk about Christmas Island and all that shit, you know.

So that's my job to challenge the perception of the audience, not just to be the person they think I am, and when they come to my gig, I don't wish them to just have their political view confirmed. I wish to challenge them as well. I do wish to entertain first, but I also wish to challenge people, which I hope is what you try to do with this, and what you try to do with your fanzine as well.

Michl: Coming to the business aspect of it all, how much influence do you as a person have on the whole "Billy Bragg" thing, in terms of prices of shows and choices of venues...obviously this was not your favourite place to play...

BB: No, I wouldn't say that, no...I do like these kinds of venues, I play a lot of venues like this..

K: stand-up deathmetal clubs...

BB: We haven't played in Stuttgart for probably 15 years and we really wanted to play. So if we have to put up with Nosferatu's fucking dressing room...! You know, I'm sure a lot of that audience doesn't come on deathmetal night, but you know, I like these kind of nights, I like these kind of audiences.

I was very fortunate to be on stage on Saturday night in Hamburg at the Grosse Freiheit, which was a fucking great night. And you know, I had to play a festival set there because the audience was so fucking rowdy, so up for it, they were singing louder than me. It was just brilliant and I came away with twice as much adrenaline as I put in. You just have to judge the audience, some nights you have to ramp it up, you have to close up the gaps. You don't have the long slow songs, you can't play a song like "The Wolf Covers its Tracks", it's a song people are not familiar with. Some nights you can't play those songs because people really want to sing "New England" and that's cool, I don't mind that.

So yeah...I do have some control, but in the end I've got to make a living doing this, so it's trying to balance that. Plus you don't want to be away from home a lot, or as much as I used to be. When I was younger I didn't give a shit because I didn't have a home life, you know, this was how I lived and it was great. And now I have a son and a wife and like everybody else I try to make a balance between my work and my home.

So you try and make sure you play the places where you know for sure you can pack them out, like Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, but also you have a chance to play Stuttgart or Munich. And well fuck, we went to Munich last time, but when was the last time we went to Stuttgart? It might be 20 years, it might be that long, certainly 15 years, so you want to try occasionally to come on tour...

M: Back to that business aspect, you have a professional management that organises stuff for you, but are you yourself involved in the business side of "Billy Bragg"?

BB: No no no...I have no interest in all that shit and I have a manager, the same manager I've always had. Before he managed me, he managed Ian Drury and the Blockheads, the Clash and he managed Pink Floyd back in the 1960s and he's the last of the old style managers. He's not a rich man, but he's very political. Everybody else I've ever worked with, the bands are very political but the manager is always not very political and says "We shouldn't do this, this is bad for our career." But my manager is the opposite, he finds more interesting things for me to do and I think without my manager I wouldn't have been been able to do things like Red Wedge because he could understand why I would want to do that.

Instead of saying to me "Are you sure you want to do this?" he would take the idea and he would run with it, so my relationship with him has been like a collaborator. He's a very very important person to what "Billy Bragg" is, he's really helped me to be true to myself, to make it possible for me to be true in that sense, and because he managed The Clash as well for awhile, he understands where I'm coming from.

P: What is Red Wedge, what did you say about that...

BB: Red Wedge...in the 1980s, after the Miners Strike ended, those of us who'd been doing gigs together to support the miners and other issues like Nicaragua and anti-apartheid and Rock Against Racism, after the Miners Strike we sat around together and said "Well, what the fuck are we going to do now? You know we feel very strongly about this, we found each other, and we do have a power here, so what can we do?" So we decided that the best opportunity to get rid of Margaret Thatcher was the 1987 election and that the best vehicle to do this would be the Labour Party, the British Labour Party.

At the time the BLP were unilaterist anti-nuclear anti-racist, they were much more left-wing than they are now. So we went to the BLP and said "We would like to do some gigs with you, where we bring young people in and say to them 'Look, you know, you must participate in the election, you must think about this, here's the Labour Party, let's have a debate about whether or not they're a good idea." In the music press at the time, there were 3 big weekly music papers in England so we ended up doing a tour which was me, Style Council, Jimmy Sommerville and other bands came and joined in, Madness came, Lloyd Cole came, the Smiths (gratuitous use of bold font, ha!) came, Prefab Sprout came and we had an incredible tour, it was just brilliant. And the 1987 election happened, and Thatcher won again. And after that, it was very difficult to get people's energy up, but it was trying to make sense of that whole thing of making a difference with your music.

[the interview time is almost up]