What’s Cool and Unusual – 18th June 2013

June 18, 2013August 9, 2021 ~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Wed 19

Beatdisc, 11/181 Church St, Parramatta
6.30pm free ALL AGES

Wil Wagner, Laika

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Thu 20

Cafe Church (37-47 St. Johns Rd, Glebe, 2037)
$10/$20 8pm

Lines of Flight are an improvising ensemble who work within a sometimes alien, sometimes familiar soundworld, built on the ruinous foundations of contemporary jazz, rock and metal, art music, experimental beats, and free improvisation.
This will be the first time we have played in the high-ceilinged ambience of Colbourne Ave. We’re really looking forward to exploring the room’s sonic possibilities- if you’ve never been to Colbourne, it’s a wonderful venue. Admission is $20/$10 adult/concession. BYO food and drink, and there’s plenty of comfy couches to facilitate the listening to of musics.

The band features Joe Cummins on trumpet, Casey Golden on piano, Alex Slater on drums, and Sam Pettigrew on bass. We describe our music as ‘heavy’, ‘intense’, ‘hypnotic’, ‘quite’, ‘lyrical’, ’emotional’, ‘understated’ minimal’. If you like music by Alasnoaxis, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Holy Other, Queens of the Stoneage, and Arve Henriksen, there’s a chance you might think to yourself ‘what the hell, Lines of Flight sound nothing like that’.

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Fri 21

Mu-Meson Archives, Corner Parramatta Rd and Trafalgar St Annandale, at the back of King Furniture Building in Trafalgar st up the steel staircase.
Doors 7.30 for 8pm start $10

Frank Zappa’s Straight and Bizarre
During the late 1960s, Frank Zappa develop the business side of his career by setting up Bizarre Records and Straight Records as ventures to aid the funding of projects and to increase creative control. Zappa produced Captain Beefheart, and releases by Alice Cooper, Wild Man Fischer, and many other influential performers.

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Sat 22

Black Wire Records, 219 Parramatta Rd, Annandale
4.30pm $10 ALL AGES

Black Wire is awesome. Tom is Awesome. Everybody that donates their time and effort to making such a unique and important place for live music is awesome.

Here are some awesome bands that will be performing for your enjoyment, with all proceeds going to directly to the best venue in Sydney.

Brought to you by Monolith Records, Tenzenmen, and the goobers responsible for SoundDave, Draytone Indu$trie$, we present the next in a continuing line of pun-titled music festivals that are significantly better than the ones whose names they appropriate: STEREOTOMIC!

STOCKADES (Melbourne)
The noodliest bunch of heshians you ever did hear. They’ve got a new 10″ out and it’s amazing.
This will make you want to perform anti-capitalist sax solos in your local McDonald’s.
Listen & Pre-order their 10″ here:
http://monolithmonolith.bandcamp.com/album/stockades

SEAHORSE DIVORCE (Brisbane)
Featuring people from every good band ever, Seahorse Divorce have just released their debut LP through Tenzenmen and in doing so proved that XXXX is far from the best thing Queensland has to offer.
Get sad, then dance about it.
http://seahorsedivorce.bandcamp.com/

MAKING
Dude’s guitar is made of metal, metal! I’d wager it was actually constructed from some kind of space-metal that doesn’t actually exist on earth, but that he had obtained from a rare asteroid that landed in rural Russia.
The result is very loud, very awesome music.
http://makingmaking.bandcamp.com/

FIREARMS
People talk about no bullshit rock, they are all full of shit unless they are in Firearms, who actually play no bullshit rock. And it’s pretty party. And the gig is BYO, so you can drink a beer every time Reg does his energizer bunny jumps.
http://wearefirearms.bandcamp.com/

TED DANSON WITH WOLVES
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor, author and producer, well known for his role as lead character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He is currently starring in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Little known fact: Ted Danson is actually a composite human (much like Captain Planet) that only exists when the four members of this band combine their special rings and make headnoddable – but at times difficult to nod your head to – tunes in a live setting. Witness the birth of TD!
http://tdww.wordpress.com/

SUMMER POLICY (Newcastle)
Imagine Bob Nanna punched cones and lived in Newcastle. This will make you wish you had a high school sweetheart that you fucked things up with so that you could be all Perks Of Being A Wallflower introspective while telling your friends that this music should totally be the sound track to the new, harder hitting season of The OC. Because it should. Can you kickflip to the Shins? Get outta here!
http://summerpolicy.bandcamp.com/

OSLOW
Most sybian-friendly band in Sydney. Oslow are like a ballsier Get Up Kids, or a sexier Sunny Day Real Estate. Or something. They are amazing.
http://oslow.bandcamp.com/

PINCH HITTER
If the brothers Kinsella starred in Deliverance, and then forgot how to play ‘Dueling Banjos’ but continued playing banjos and were rapidly running out of funny excuses as to why they can’t play ‘Dueling Banjos’ when heckled to do so you might have something remotely similar to Pinch Hitter.
http://pinchhitter.bandcamp.com/

Doors are at 4:30pm, get down nice and early as there’s a huge line up to get through and this will inevitably hit capacity (we hope, so hesh).

Entry is only 10 bones, and that goes to Black Wire. Who rule.

Poster by Sam McKenzie – http://samsamsamsam.com/

http://blackwiretocommonground.wordpress.com/https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Wire-Records/121882384537959

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Sat 22

Where: Hibernian House (Level 4?)
How much: $10 on the door
8pm till 1am BYO

The Finer Things and 3BS Records Present: LOST FEW 7″ Launch

On the 22nd June we’ll be assisting Melbourne artist LOST FEW in the launch of his brand new 7″ EP, out on Sydney label 3BS. Having taken his unique brand of dubbed out drums and feedback loops, LOST FEW, along with his many collaborators, has managed to pave his own corner of the Australian underground music scene, and will finally be making it up to Sydney for what will surely be a unique live experience.

Joining on the night will be Sydney’s own Scissor Lock – better known as one half of both Collarbones and Black Vanilla – he’ll be performing under his more experimental moniker; as well as a live performance by 3BS head Mannheim rocket, who’ll be debuting his new A/V live show in spectacular fashion.

Our good friends from Sydney collective Anomaly will also be present, Gareth Psaltis performing live and Jordan Peters DJing, along with a special set by Daniel Gottlieb from Spiral Sounds.

Who:
LOST FEW
Scissor Lock
Mannheim Rocket
Gareth Psaltis
Jordan Peters
Daniel Gottlieb

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Sun 23

Mu-Meson Archives, Corner Parramatta Rd and Trafalgar St Annandale, at the back of King Furniture Building in Trafalgar st up the steel staircase.
4pm

Miss Deaths Knitting Group
Do you want to learn how to knit, crochet, or any other craft? Or you just want to come along for a social (there is lot’s to discuss). Boys are welcome as long as they do a craft or something useful. Mu-Meson Archives Doors 4pm with a plate.

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Sun 23

Lamps, Hibernian House, 342 Elizabeth Street
5pm ALL AGES

Alyx Dennison, Evelyn Ida Morris, Sarah Jullienne, Richard Cartwright

Okay, that’s life, that’s what I was told anyway – 24th February 2012

February 24, 2012April 29, 2021 ~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Friday, February 24: Dirty Shirlows, Marrickville – Haunts, Thomas William Vs Scissor Lock, Making, Simo Soo

Dirty Shirlows has struggled along as an alternative venue for a few years now. At times kept quiet by too many visits from the police or council this great space seems to be enjoying some toleration by the authorities, at least for now. Probably best known for many great late night, early morning breakcore dance parties, the 2011 SMAC award winning collective is starting to focus more on band nights and with more regularity – the logistics probably being a lot easier to deal with, with people tending to arrive and leave purely around the band show times and not just partying on until the sun comes up.

Tonight’s show was organised by Greg from Underlapper/Haunts and the line up was inspirationally diverse. He choose Dirty Shirlows for a couple of reasons. Firstly he felt like this was a venue that he actually wanted to organise a show in, the ethos and community spirit of the collective being a draw card. Secondly he knew that this line up would be unlikely to be accepted by a more regular venue due to the diversity factor and the almost necessary requirement for a reasonable number of punters to be buying enough drinks over the bar. This last point being of particular note as it seems that expectations from some venues are becoming higher and higher, with many of them now just refusing to host shows that they don’t think will bring out at least 150 to 200 people.

As a venue, Dirty Shirlows has transformed itself from an often cold and uninviting iron clad warehouse into a fabulously graffitied and artistically decorated lounge with what is regarded, by many who play there, as one of the the better PA systems in Sydney. With the stage area slightly separated from the lounge area fans get the full force of the sound system with a crystal clear sound at reasonable volumes. I’m sure it can be pumped but the levels tonight were perfect. Lighting wise things were quite restrained tonight, just some nice projections purely on the bass amps creating an interesting distraction between sets.

A reasonable crowd of approximately 100 people made it to the show. Some old warehouse hands, others visiting for the first time. Some paying undivided attention to every act and others taking in the atmosphere of the graf-lounge or playing foosball.

First up were Haunts, who were an unknown act for me so I was curious to see how they fit with the rest of the line up. A three-piece featuring the aforementioned Greg from Underlapper, as well as one of his cohorts doing various things electronic and Peter Hollo adding effect laden cello. For only their second show they seemed in total control, with their (still mostly unnamed) songs generating some nice beats mixed with soundscapes, Godspeed-type spoken word passages and occasional vocal lines. I enjoyed this much more than I would’ve expected from that description and perhaps that’s a testament to artists having perfected their craft.

Marcus Whale and I go back a little way to when he was a quiet, shy 16 year old attending and occasionally performing at the legendary Pitz. We agreed that tonight’s line up reminded us of those shows and even more so as Thomas William Vs Scissor Lock (aka Marcus) quickly set up off stage to get up close and personal with their audience. Three long tracks, with the first being a highlight; long droning electronic sounds generated by devices eventually forming into some gentle laid back struggling rhythms that drove the piece forward into heavily treated vocals. Marcus, no longer the shy boy, and obviously quite pleased with himself, experimented further with the effect between the songs. The next two tracks following the same lines but failed to find any rhythm; nice experimental noise that prompted one the Shirlows crew to wonder if they had had a fire alarm installed recently. The audience, quite absorbed were mostly seated by this point, sucking in the vibrations through the floor and up into they backbones.

Chris, guitarist for Making, commented about the commitment of the sound guys to ensuring a grand audio experience for the event and compared this to the sometimes lackadaisical efforts at other venues and spaces. It certainly serves as a good advertisement for your venue if the house engineer is working with the band and not just someone who rocks up and being paid to ‘do their job’. Making certainly benefited from the attention as this was the best I’ve ever heard them, their tight math rock perfectly suiting the sound system. Bass man Peter certainly appreciated the big vibrating booms from his cab, trembling through the floor and blowing his arm hairs forward as the band melted song into song with some glorious feedback. Despite limited lyrics and little interaction they kept the audience rooted to the spot for their entire set and dropped in many nice subtleties in their last two songs.

As with Marcus, I’ve known Simo Soo since the Pitz days when he would perform with Call The Medic, Call The Nurse. Since unrestrained from the confines of those punk parameters Simo challenged himself (and often his long suffering house mates) to making mad electronic music with blindingly funny and self aware lyrics. It had been 4 years since I’d seen him last so I was curious to see how he had developed. I remembered an unconfident, gangly, awkward youth just jumping around like crazy to some crappy rhythms. Fun for a few minutes but nothing of substance. And tonight was a great example of how he has grown, no longer afraid of the awkwardness, and sometimes embracing it as a device, he started tonight by simply playing a remix from his laptop and just bouncing around the stage with a huge smile. Where he really shines though is with his own songs and there’s plenty of opportunity for crowd sing-a-longs. I’ve discussed with Simo previously how I value his contribution to what I consider to be ‘punk’ much more than some of his compadres who sometimes wallow in the mire of that musical genre – this is the aesthetic of ‘punk’ and I champion him for it. Earlier we were discussing the line up for the evening and how whilst we enjoyed it, often audiences would just come for the band they wanted to see and then leave again. Simo thought that perhaps this was changing now as kids seem to be growing without the genre boundaries that we’d somehow imposed on ourselves in our own youth. Let’s hope.

The Shirlows collective, the bands and organisers, all are essentially volunteers, donating their services, their space or their art and tonight showed that in what some naysayers insist is a failing Sydney scene, there is plenty of life left in the underground.

29th Apr 2021 – I’d forgotten I’d written this article! Originally posted at Polaroids of Androids as part of an article entitled A Weekend – see entries for the 25th and 26th of February 2012.