Live Music: Cafe Blog

New friends / Musical collegues in Melbourne

2011-11-27T16:38:00.001+11:00

I have more than a few issues about how Australia works that I battle on a daily basis ...
Like... How is is it that a society with so small a population can have such divisions between the artificial factions that we let separate us?
Or ...
With so many entertainment venues why are they so often only half full?
Just recently I have discovered a bank of talent that for some reason has gone unnoticed... at least by me.
Ex pat Americans that have for a multitude of reasons found themselves living in Melbourne but for so many reasons have never really connected, I will explore some of these reasons in one of my other blogs but for this post I'd like to explore why certain talents lay disconnected & unused?

Wylie J Miller & Lawrence Ricks

Now for my part I must admit that for at least some part of my adventure down under, I have been either a moving target while trying to find a place for myself here or at the very least socially aloof
that aloofness in some part made possible by certain groups meant to bring expats together.
Just shortly on that note ... I find it amazing how many Americans find it necessary to bring some our troubles here... Nuff said.
So now I have connected with a few humans that while truly connected with the truth of being American are equally acknowledging the reality of being in and contributing to Australia.
While it sounds a simple thing, given we share a language and more, I assure you that living here takes a certain amount of ... let's say finesse.
Anyway now through the exceptional network of Mr. Ricks I have found connections where there were none and now look forward to making music where there was none.
The two gentlemen pictured here it should be noted are exceptional Bass players and singers and I think will figure in the coming events that I am planning in the short & long term.
So here's to connections, music & making the best of where you are.

Hammond organ night at the 303 Bar

2011-10-09T18:27:00.001+11:00

I really will never understand why a venue would not go to the greatest lengths possible to make a series of shows successful.
I have made a post or two about the 303 Bar in Northcote, the place where I was lucky enough to catch a set or two from the 12 tone Diamonds a while back.

This little storefront venue on High Street is a place that seems to stay operating with just the minimal amount of publicity, and quite frankly I don't know how. Yes... I know it's been there for a very long time, so have many trees I drive by in the Grampians.

The space is, to use a popular Australian phrase "rough as guts" when I walk in it never fails to remind me of many small venues of it's type back in NY, the 55 club comes to mind, of course without the decades old nicotine stalagtites.

The 303 is fitted out with a mix up of 70's era kitchen tables & chairs, bar stools & lounges and a stage set up in what was once a shop window.
It has better than usual curtains & stage dressings but still falls into the the same groove as many other venues in Melbourne (some of them world renown) of never adding the finer touches of a performance.
Why not hang a sign that says something about the act?
or better yet have someone introduce the band & announce the members of the group?

As I sat and enjoyed the trio I couldn't help but notice the humans (read possible patrons) outside passing by the quite large window in front of me and wonder how many might have come in if there had been some sort of direction (the afore mentioned sign or band name) to lead them in.

The Band and a great idea.

The idea is a sound one, somehow the 303 has gotten their hands on a fully functional Hammond B3 organ complete with a Leslie speaker box. For those that might not know a Leslie speaker box is a delightful bit of kit that employs a rotating speaker mechanism invented in the 1940's to create a unique sound that has a long history in recorded and live music history, so if you have only just heard it name it is more than likely that you have heard the sound.
It only takes a small bit of anyone's available grey matter to comprehend the wisdom of constructing a series of concerts around that magnificent piece of equipment, so on Thursday nights (for how long ?... don't know really)
there will be a different band & player at the keys.
Like I said ... great idea!
Letting the masses know... better idea!

The trio on This Thursday night was very good and I'd like to tell you their names but...

Drums, Guitar & Hammond B3 and a tight trio they were, pushing through a set of Standards like "The days of wine & roses", "Softly" and the like while the group surely did not colour outside the lines they were very musical and enjoyable so I'll show my face next week to see whats next for sure.
Maybe I'll get a friend of mine to knock up a sign.

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Well not quite live music

2011-09-07T17:01:00.001+10:00

I love it when I listen to music I know pretty well and hear something new it happens just about every time i listen to Mingus or Monk.
Today while making the rounds Strange Blessing by Vernon Reid & Masque
came on my handy IPOD and I heard the intent... what I mean by that is the intent of the players that thing that they infused in the music that was meant to move the listener, me in this case , this listen transported me to another realm of colour and sensation that made me instantly think of of all things Thor , Asgard, and nordic myths that were so large that they hardly fit in my head.
Jeez ... I love Guitars!

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The Clash & Black America (well at least a small slice of it)

2011-08-29T22:43:00.001+10:00

For as long as I can remember I have wondered just what effect the punk wave has had on Black America, in my own mind the effect has been enormous but what of the larger community of my "Peeps" the average Brotha' & Sista' on the street?

Now hold on dear reader cause I am fresh out of 'Peeps' for testing here in the multicultural-ish environs of Melbourne Australia, so my testing will have to take place in the past.
Away, quickly to the past!

To my testing lab in Lincoln Ave, Mount Vernon NY.
In 1970 Punks were thin on the ground in the leafy suburban towns of NY but if you looked a little harder we were there punks & freaks, of every distinction, Jet boys, Jet girls, Duppy conquerers, Rebels & the odd cretin no it weren't no paradise but neither was it the South Bronx or Brixton.

In my own informal testing as a "Freak in Da hood" I have found that there was a welcoming of many punk sounds among thoses I could infect with...
I mean expose to, the new sounds I was hearing.
Sure the iconography appeals to everyone, the rebels, the activists, the troublemakers and nowadays just about everyone knows "Rock the casbah" but what of the other aspects of the Clash?
Truth be told I don't think that anyone i exposed back then ever really knew who owned the voices on any of the Clash Albums I played for them but the consensus was... "well sure they may white but there're not our white people!"
WHAT THE!??!

Police & thieves

This was something that the hood could understand because as we all know it comes from Jamacian culture, although for a few the riff was familiar but not enough to really associate it with the reggae skank that spawned it.
The feeling was undeniable, and infectious even if quite removed from Junior Mervin's falsetto, this may be one of the few examples of two wildly different versions of the same tune where none of the feeling & intensity is lost.

Tommy gun & (White man) in Hammersmith Palais were big favorites in the punk tinged corner of the hood I had created... and it wasn't long before I could hear my mates humming a few of the melodies that I had been blasting from my window. I knew the message got through when I heard the line "turnin rebellion into money" from a friends big beat blaster one Saturday afternooon.

Soon quiet requests for this or that one filtered back to me during neighborhood gatherings, (read that "Block Parties") of course when played they were met with curiosity by the general crowd but I could feel the interest was there.
After a few parties ( some of them my own ) I began to take wagers on how far into a track I could get before someone yelled out " turn that shit off " when that happened at one of my parties I always complied and replaced the disc with "People who died" or something of an equal tone... sometimes it cleared the room and other times Slamin' begun, worked either way.

Teenage kicks

The Clash made up a big part of the soundtrack of my teen years but there were many other sounds that I would try to share with my contemporaries, The Undertones, The Ramones, Sonic youth, & the soundtrack to a film I'd never seen called "That summer" no, I'd never seen the film but it had music by Ian dury & the blockheads , Elvis Costello, Mink Deville, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Nick Lowe and more, so much great music, it still makes weep when I think of the loss of it.
So my testing proved it, informal though it was that ...
"Yes, Virginia there are Black Punks!"
And why not?
Disinfranchised youth with few options and little hope we were born out of the same fire!

I'll leave you with this last exchange ...
Later probably about late 1979 while engaging in a "bull session" the type which was so popular in those days... you know the ones that usually started with a bunch of "Yo Mama" jokes I tabled a theory, "surely Prince must have listened to The Clash?"
The replies I won't repeat here because they contained many disparaging remarks about my Mama, but the concesus was, they thought not...

Well, you can't win em' all.

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A Strawberry Letter

2011-06-07T01:24:00.000+10:00

So guitar, music, punk, soul & funk
From time to time I think about how all these things came to be inside me I can think back to my early days and listening to the sounds coming from the velvet poster, & black light saturated cavern better known as my brother John's room.

Hendrix, The Isley brothers, Brothers Johnson & Curtis Mayfield all things overheard from that room sounds that informed what was to come next
so...
whats next for me?
can I add to it ?
Sure I can...
The reality of my surroundings are not a deficit but a asset since they are ever changing

These words from Henry V may sustain me...
"when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood"

There is an act of war in any action of will...

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more"

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J.A.Y are the letters in his name!

2011-05-23T17:05:00.001+10:00

It's amazing how far an idea can travel.
25 or 30 years ago somewhere on the streets of Queens NY the seeds of Run DMC were being sewn.
Now after all those years on a wall, in the backstreets of Fitzroy, Australia

A tribute to a talent of the late great Jam Master Jay!

The world is very small indeed.

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Keith Richards outside Tower records on B'way and E 4th st

2011-05-11T00:40:00.001+10:00

Funny the things, and memories goggle maps can bring forward ..
Just a while ago I looked up the old Tower Records on B'way & 4th st I and millions of others used, to buy CD's , videos, concert tickets and the rest back in the day ( just so you know that day was late 80's / early 90's )
As I was saying I looked up the place and found that it was listed permanently closed ...
Jeez ... I don't even know how long its been closed
spent a lot of time in and around that place..
It was an easy place to meet friends
the sunday market was in a lot next door.
Hell...
once...
me and my buddy "Peace" set up a table near there and sold a bunch of mini, character figurines he'd made, like we were in some bit from a Abbott & Costello Film.
As i remember we had some funny times with the crowd & cops.
I remember dating some girl that was working there.
Sometimes when I was at loose ends
waiting for the village Voice offices to start giving out free tickets to this or that I'd go in and look through the racks, found that great disc by Taj Mahal.
I even once ran into Keith Richards outside
Really you'd think a guy like that would stay well clear of a place like that ...
Anyway I have much sadness over its closing ...
whenever it was.

Something a little more personal

2011-05-08T21:58:00.001+10:00

Ok so very few people know that I have been a bit under the weather for a while now .... quite a while now.
Lucky for me I have now received a bit of positive treatment and my hand is less a painful claw and more of the independently operating set of digits that it should be.
Maybe ... in time I will be playing properly again.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:St Kilda East,Australia

The hip hop doctrine & The Mount Vernon Boys & Girls Club

2011-03-04T18:35:00.001+11:00

The good old days...
That phrase means something different to whoever hears it and still it means the same thing.
In this case for me it means a large, dark hall on the south side of Mount Vernon New York, a boys club hall to be exact, during the daylight hours it was sometimes a gymnasium, sometimes refuge but on Saturday nights it was ground zero of a weekly detonation of an awesome funk bomb.
Bass reflex speaker bins, Technics turntables, NuMark mixers yards & yards of cable & crate after crate of wax, these were the fuel that launched the weekend.
The lights were off and what light there was provided by a ruby colored 3 light spinner on the ceiling that was so high that it was almost in the upper stratosphere, that spinner was just bright enough to bathe the room in a faint red glow.
Red was the color of those nights, Red light, red hot, red red ready to dance, to sweat, to rub our libidos up against one another, the friction and movement of all that youth making the floors bounce the walls sweat, all to the soundtrack of beats cut expertly by Dj Nurock or the Collins Brothers. Snippets of Bongo rock & Rockin' bells or Dance to the drummers beat urging the crowd on.
At the entrance you could feel... smell the state of the crowd. If the room was just starting to move you could smell the hardwood of the basketball court and that funky pine that the spectator stands were made from but if it was in full swing you'd smell that musk, sweat, and hear the thumping beat muffled by all those bodies and you could hardly wait to get through the doors!
When we finally did get in the glass doors, paid our entry and submitted to a minor search it was on to the big red swinging doors, the portal to heaven!
I was always surprised by the provocative dance moves we got away with ..."The Freak" & "Freestylin'" were just horizontal fucking, rubbing pelvises hoping a uncontrollable fire would brake out... and a fire often did beak out.
I am sure that more than one child was conceived in the dark corners of the Southside boys club.
Relationships could last as briefly as a tune or as long as a weekend, it was simple,primal...beautiful!
and at the end 3 slow jams... almost always "Reasons" by Earth wind & fire, "Float on" by the Floaters & "Always & forever" by Heatwave.
I don't imagine that there would be any parents these days that would allow their teens out, across town or cities to to dance and hump with other teens in an unsupervised disco barn... hmmm? I don't think I would either.
Oh well raise your glass to days gone past in hopes that they should never come again!

Monk & Resignators

2011-01-23T02:03:00.000+11:00

There I am in the left corner

I don't think that I am a shrinking violet but lately I seem to be putting myself off to one side or in the background

You stole my record... You Bastard!!

2011-01-09T15:22:00.005+11:00

Here's a post dedicated to the many Records, tape, CD's and videos that have left my life through the unconscionable act of music thievery!
We've all had it happen and weather through design or accident the sting is still as sharp, now I'm not too worried about that "Weird Al" disc somebody gave me as a joke one birthday or the highly suspect, bootleg "Hyndrix" tape (and yeah that's the way it was spelled on the cover) given to me when I was a kid... No I'm talking about the good stuff!

These foul, senseless crimes have made me repurchase many recordings in the days before hard drives and a few after, I mean I've bought Dylan's Blonde on Blonde 8 times, Corey Glover's Hymns 6 times ( you really should have this one absolutely fantastic), The Go-Go's, We got the beat, twice (granted that was a long time ago, and if I had to I don't know if I could justify this one) Sadder are the ones that I have no chance of getting again like once I was shopping in a "Close-out" shop called Global imports on 5th avenue somewhere near 19th st. ( I loved that place) and I stumbled across a copy of "Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed" man that was some profoundly Hip shit on that one! ... Available at Target?!?! well if that's true I'll buy another copy. On the subject of discs that might be hard to get ... What ever happened to my copy of Smash & Scatteration?!?? Don't know what happened to that one ... I've played it for lots of people but most just stared at me with a confused, blank look... so who took it?
You Bastard!!
Listen we're all adults here, we all know there are ways to "Get" music but I'm not down with that and still it doesn't remove the sting of the crime by committing another.
This has been about music but I feel I should mention my copy of Robin William's - "Reality... What a concept" ( as I think of it that album may also be at the root of my conspicuous use of the ellipsis ) that was connected with the disappearance of a high school football buddy named "Elroy" and speaking of rare things... he remains the only African American... hell the only man full stop I've ever met with the name Elroy.
So listen If you find that you have a disc that has my name on it or is in some way connected to me send it on home to me! ... and what did happen to my Sam Cooke album!

Signs of Summer

2010-12-08T22:42:00.001+11:00

A sure sign that summer is here!

Henry Rollins Band & the after concert fugue state

2010-12-06T19:44:00.002+11:00

I cannot think of a good reason that I haven't written anything about Henry Rollins & The Rollins Band, except that, like Living Colour, The Ramones, Fishbone, The Resignators and some other bands I have seen so many times, one excellent show melds into another leaving me with a warm amalgam of concerty goodness.

Today I was listening to ThatFNguide and they brought up Rollins which set me thinking about all the Rollins gigs & all the preparation it took for me to survive a Rollins Band gig! You may say "Uh... But you were just a spectator... So what the F**k are you talkin' bout Monk!"
Well ... my reply to that is this ...
From the early days, I think mostly at the old Ritz in NY (RIP) when "Slam" was the go and aggression was everywhere picture me, dreadlocks, shaved back & sides, buttons, T-shirt or winter leathers with "Come Get Some" written on it or later at a gig in Fremantle Australia at the Fly by Night club, a different me, in hemp clothing, sandals, much longer dreadlocks, no buttons, no slogans and very little outward aggression left... and all the Rollins gigs between, the one constant was that it took a hell of a lot of energy to remain upright against the sonic onslaught of any of the Rollins bands, I had to be in shape... Not as much as Rollins but prepared in my own fashion.

After every one of those gigs, I remember leaving, bathed in sweat, and feeling spent, walking in a fugue state that I didn't come out of until respectively Washington Square or Gino's on the cappuccino strip came into view of my squinty little peepers.
Maybe that's a sign of a great gig... the length of the after concert blackout...
I mean, I once saw Curtis Mayfield on a Wednesday and woke up 5 days later at Teterboro airport! He was just that awesome!
Then there was the time I saw Jimmy Smith & The Mingus Big Band on the Tuesday & Wednesday before my birthday and I still come up a year short when I think about how old I am.

At The Ritz, I can remember the the floor bouncing & waving in a most unnatural manner under the weight of all those punk/freaks, and the guys opposite me in the slam circle sizing me up for a take-down and in Freo I remember totally losing it when the band launched into "Low Self Opinion" and it left all the people that knew me only as a Jazz playing, Ex-Pat Yank scratching their heads.

Anyway... I remember the after feeling connected with those gigs and feeling that the stars were a little bit brighter, the streets a little bit cleaner and my fellow men / women were not ALL total arse****S and of course the silent vow to get to the gym more often.

WLIR / WDRE: Dare to be different!

2010-12-04T01:47:00.000+11:00

Just recently I have been having slap-back memories of my teen years. In 1977 I was a 15 year old knucklehead trying to make some sense of what I was feeling, doing and wanting to do, like anyone at that age, I needed a bit of help or at least a pointer or two.
I don't know exactly when they started broadcasting but at some point, like a beacon of hope from somewhere in Long Island I found WLIR / WDRE. This radio station had two sets of call letters in the time I was listening
( they changed them in mid flight, this may have been the one and only time I was upset about anything an organization did) & one extraordinary slogan... "Dare to be different!" This station brought Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Pretenders, Fishbone, Ian Dury, Iggy and all the rest right into my head & my bedroom. I've heard some people say, when reflecting on their teen years " Wow this or that thing made me feel like less of a freak" 'DRE' did more than that it let me know there were more freaks out there and I had to find them ... My people! Thanks guys!

St Kilda Festival 2010

2010-02-16T22:21:00.008+11:00

Another year and another St Kilda festival.
Why is it in the past few years I have been missing more and more of this usually great little festival?
This year I completely missed the "Live & Local" part of the festival!
I did catch Urth Boy and he was good ( Is it a he or a they? )

anyway I missed the start of their set that must have been when they explained the outfits.
Stiil ... very nice set... not very ambitious but good.
As usual there were the very noticeable irregulars... Listen... I don't want to be in a world where a boy can't take his best mate out to a concert!

and then one of my favorites You Am I

Their set seemed a bit short and a little " drag out the hits" and all that still... I'd go just about anywhere to hear "Berlin Chair"

I tried to wait around for the bamboos but there just was not anything there to kill a good 1/2 hour between sets and before I knew it I was down Carlisle street and on my way home

The return of the Resignators

2009-05-27T20:37:00.004+10:00

Well you know that I love these guys.
After weeks touring the North American Continent they have returned to Melbourne!
There was much energy and excitement at the John Curtain Hotel.
Welcome back guys!

At the festival

2009-05-20T21:41:00.006+10:00

The thing about music festivals is ... you never know what type of freaks you'll find there.
It starts out with a couple of guys a dog & a can of spray paint ... and the next thing you know we gotta explain it all to the RSPCA!

Aussie/ Kiwi Hip Hop:

2009-04-08T16:53:00.002+10:00

Aussie/ Kiwi Hip Hop:

These days the music travels very quickly, when a new musical wave pops up in New York, L.A. or London it doesn’t take long before the ripples reach every port around the world.

We are all familiar with the path a new sound takes.

When some new thing pops up it is first seen as a threat, then it grabs our collective attention as an underground sensation, it’s popularity grows and before we know it it’s being hailed as the next big thing and then in due course it is cleaned up, packaged and sent out to the masses for consumption, after all the sharp edges have been removed of course.

I’m sure it was the same in 1492 when some guy left home to pick up some cinnamon, we all know how many unexpected results came from that little excursion.

That’s the way I see the movement of Hip-Hop & it’s culture around the planet.

It’s been over three decades ago since the days when Hip-hop was vilified & far from the worldwide phenomenon it is today.

Anyone old enough can remember when most people, including the music industry said that Rap, Hip-Hop, B-Boys & Fly girls would be the end of us all.

It wasn’t!

Now as unbelievable as it sounds we are entering an age when all the early waves Hip–Hop has made are now returning as ripples to our shores from all the far-flung places that the music has touched.

Cuban, South American even Chinese & Japanese Hip-Hop not even language is a stumbling block for this music.

That being said there are still a few small blind spots left on the world map, one such spot is Australia, but not only Hip Hop has stumbled in the antipodes, for a very long time the Australian music scene has existed in relative obscurity.

With a few notable exceptions like ACDC, INXS, Split enz, Midnight Oil & more recently Keith Urban & Jet the majority of Australian act have failed to make a mark on the overseas market.

The reason for this has always been a mystery to me, because to my mind so many Australian acts have had worldwide appeal written all over them.

In many ways Australian music can be almost indistinguishable from the sounds coming from the U.S. or U.K. markets, partly because so many Aussie artists have modified their accents in hope of larger overseas appeal, but the Australian sound is so much more than an accent.

Back in the days when Hip-hop still had that new beat smell, the meeting place was a community centre, block party or the local boys club.

A couple of turntables, a microphone and a few bass reflex speakers was all that were needed to get a party started.

Hip-hop history began in New York and spread quickly across America but now Hip Hop culture is finding it’s way around the planet and now even the most remote cultures are beginning to feel it’s influence. Not even the traditional barriers of language or geography can stop its progress.

We all know that Hip-Hop, like Jazz & Rock it resonates through many groups that feel disenfranchised, or feel the sting of poverty, it may be this ever-growing number of “economic minorities” that has in part made Hip Hop the worldwide phenomenon it is today.

The evolution of Hip-Hop culture in America is being well documented as it becomes big business and as it was at the beginning of Rock & Roll, what was once a sub culture is now being adopted by the mainstream, but it is not so in the case of foreign based hip-hop.

Hip-Hop’s Latin, French, Russian & Australian/ New Zealand cousins are growing stronger and are building there own their own styles.

In the beginning and still to this day Hip-Hop, like jazz has a split down it’s middle that divides it into two distinct disciplines East coast & West coast.

Once Hip Hop could only be found in African American communities and as it was with Jazz & Rock it’s beginnings were rooted in political activism. In those early days, the Hip-Hop & Rap fan base was found among the so-called minority groups and was a produced mainly by black artists.

Although we didn’t know it then, the 80’s were giving birth to a new breed of American entrepreneur that would lead to the inception of the many companies that produce Hip Hop fashion and cultural icons such as FUBU, Sean john & Rocawear.

Back then it would have been impossible to see the shape hip-hop has taken from the time when Vanilla Ice was the great white hope for crossover hip-hop.

I’m sure that not one person could have seen that the market would “crossover” to hip-hop or that we would live in a time when virtually every country would have a thriving hip-hop community.

Back in 1992 when I first came to Sydney, Australia I had no idea how much African-American music and culture had insinuated itself into these people and their culture. Once as I walked Sydney’s streets trying to familiarise myself with the laneways, precincts and general city plan, among all that new and foreign information I began to hear something very familiar, the sound of basketballs on asphalt.

The sound captured my interest, I followed it down one street, around a corner and then boom tat, boom boom tat, yes that familiar kick & snare drum rhythm. I turned the final corner and there I saw the same scene I’d seen on the court at the 4^th street playground… the clothes, shoes, hats all the same with one notable difference.

There was not a single black face among them, or American for that matter and the way they reacted to me, these young Australians with Hip Hop dreams.

As if my turning that corner was the strangest thing… an actual “Black American”!

As I spent more time in Australia I began to realise just how much advance press African-American culture has received and how overwhelmingly positive it is and how it is effecting their culture.

In the 12 years since then, I have watched Australian Hip-Hop grow from mimicry of Afro American styles to the present day when there are many groups making original Australian/ New Zealand Hip-Hop.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for this hip-hop branch office

Ernest Ranglin Live @ The Espy!

2007-12-09T17:58:00.000+11:00

This town amazes me!

I'm online pretty much... well a lot of the time. seeing what's goin on and things to do and all that.

I go out for a while on wed night to find that on Thursday the incredible guitarist , Ska Legend Ernest Ranglin is doing a show on Thursday!

Well lucky I ventured out into the real world , or I would never have gotten there.

The man was on! old tunes new ones all done with that trademark Ranglin style. He was joined on stage by

"The Trojan Horns" and boy did they look like they were havin' fun! Lucky bastards.

Open note to Melbourne's event community.... ADVERTISING get to know it!

Wanna see more pics.

click this link

Just about a week ago I went Down to a club in the City to check out my old Friends The Resignators.

2007-10-08T00:16:00.001+10:00

The Resignators have a new Drummer, to replace the lovely Cinta, and it was Big Fran's Birthday so I felt I should make my way there.
The club oxide is an odd one. four Rooms on for Floors in a 4 story walk up "I'm too old for this shit!
Any way I was a good night. King City 7 Played Then tie guys got up send did their Punk- ska thing, as you can See it went down a treat!

Tonight its Oxide in the Melbourne CBD

2007-09-29T12:47:00.001+10:00

Really this post is to test a new posting system but I will be out at Oxide tonight for real stay tuned

12 Tone Diamonds

2007-09-17T13:24:00.000+10:00

Every once in a while in this crazy ol' town I like to call Melbourne ( I like to call it that ... cause that's what they told me it was named ) you find a group of musicians that seem to have ... something, that something while it can be hard to pin down... can be very pleasant.

In the case of th "12 Tone Diamonds" that something is an easy and well meaning alliance with atonality & a deep groove.
If you look closely at the pics you may notice that the saxman also features in the "Bennett's Lane Big Band" from the post that precedes this one .
The "12 Tone Diamonds" Are however ... a much different group.

Ploughing the same field as Larry Coryell (in the 70's) they manage to keep their interpolations crisp and to the point, without endless repetition.

That is high praise because as I'm sure you know a large chunk of today's improvisers ... well... one can become tired quite quickly.

For at least a couple of weeks they will be doing their thing at The 303 (303 High street, Northcote)
so don't come bitchin to me that there is nothing going on in Melbourne on Wednesday night!

Bennett's Lane Big Band

2007-09-12T16:31:00.000+10:00

If you know me (and of course you don't) You know that there is only one modern day Big Band for me... That's the Mingus big band!
However... It's been quite a while since that band bumped into ol' Melbourne town.
So I heard about a band playing out of Bennett's Lane on Monday nights and down I went Camera in hand and with my ears on!
And boy am I glad
...Cause they were damn good

A bit of Monk-Esque interpolation, Mingus - like swing, some tasty horn solos, unison lines
And for the most part original!

Unfortunately there was not a large crowd to support these local heroes.
Perhaps if the club told someone about the gigs ... well this is the issue in Oz a reluctance to advertise.
don't say you haven't heard ... Monday nights , Melbourne, Bennett's Lane.

The World I Know (Hip Hop Views)

2007-08-22T15:18:00.000+10:00

The following post is not endorsed by my brain, in fact I strongly suggest that you find a way to turn yours off while reading, this being a type of stream of consciousness post designed to illustrate some of the strange things that have happened to Hip Hop / Rap culture throughout it's long history.
The book by Jeff Chang tells one story of the founding days of Hip Hop but as they say "There are 8 million stories in the naked city..."

Being a man of a certain age from New York, I remember quite vividly the beginnings of hip hop (Yes that's right Virginia... hip hop began on the east coast of America) this should be a well known point of fact but alas it is not common knowledge to the world at large ... before Hip hop shook the world, before DJ's became rock stars, before the culture took hold in the suburbs even before Red Alert, Afrika Bambaattaa or DJ flash hit the stage at the T-Connection, B-Boys and B-Girls were cutting it wild on the parquet floors of their local Boys & Girls clubs, in local parks and even on the grounds of urban minded High Schools. This was back in the day when cutting beats and floor moves were all there was for most inner and just outer city kids. When MC Dre, Anton and so many others channelled Cab Callaway, Miles, Mingus and James Baldwin through their microphones & W-Bins out into the crowd of hungry minded youth.
Now I would never try to exclude anyone from expressing their love for any music but I do have to at least mention that on my travels I have heard some crazy theories on the origins of this genre such as hip hop culture came from LA, the Midwest, Chicago, Manchester, Africa... the list goes on & on.
Now as the 3rd generation of hip hoppers grows I live in a daily fear that one day some punk will come up to me and explain how it all started in a small club in Perth circa 1995!

Now it may surprise you to know that once I myself was a young PUNK making my way through New York, living my Punk directive daily and on my frequent punk-less weekends I would attend parties at the Mount V boys club or a Brooklyn warehouse where friends DJ Nu-rock, or his contemporaries were spinning wax (do you remember wax?) and during the bull sessions afterward we would talk about the far-flung future where some predicted that there would be a time when the world's masses would be groovin to the hip hop beat...
This was always followed by hearty laughter! We might have laughed even harder if we could have foreseen the rise of Vanilla Ice and his ilk.

The rise of Hip Hop was hard to deny but I have to admit that my rebellious young heart was drawn in many directions so while The Ramones, Bad Brains, Xray Specs, The Stooges, Death & Pure Hell Stripped away my preconceptions I underrated how Rap & Hip Hop was directly connected to the Punk DIY mantra.
My opinion was that hip hop would be lucky to last through the summer!

...I was obviously wrong...

That's ok... I've been wrong before but I don't believe that any would have envisioned the crazy, topsy turvy world we now live in where American Hip Hop is now relegated to the sub genre called "Gangsta" where fraud and gold grills abound while the mainstream bears the weight of musical gentrification.

So what is it I'm trying to say?

That hip hop is only for those that are part of the brown American heritage... uh... NO cause that would be STUPID.

No what I want to say is that it only works if EVERYBODY is welcome EVERYWHERE!

White blues players, black country players, Asian hip hop artists, New York throat singers &... well you get my drift...

That being said we have to always remember the source... the roots.
So if in 30 years or so some Canadian throat singer tries to deny that it all started in Mongolia ... Tell em to go get stuffed!

Nuff said

Every now and then ....

2007-07-16T12:12:00.000+10:00

Every now and then I see something advertised that is such a great idea that I just have to pass it on!
This gig bag form Incase
may be known by a lot of you but it's the first time I've heard of it ... And damn it looks like just what every guitar/bass player should have.
give it a look!