Andy Baylor - Marrickville Bowlo By Amanda on May 31, 2010 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
You know what to do.
Recently in 'Strayan Category
The One Reason I am Watching Underbelly 3: By Amanda on April 20, 2010 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
In the hope they use "Macleay Street in Sydney" by Tom T. Hall on the soundtrack.
Steel City Sound By Amanda on March 26, 2010 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Warren from Three Chords & The Truth has a new project, documenting the history of the music scene of Wollongong.
Do check it out and contribute if you can.
Mary Gauthier By Amanda on February 5, 2010 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Good news for our friends west of the Blue Mountains, when she tours in March Mary Gauthier will be doing a gig in Bathurst. I'll be getting along to the show at Notes Alive in Newtown, a newish joint I've not been to before.
Marianne Faithfull -- Opera House By Amanda on February 5, 2010 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Marianne Faithfull at the Opera House the other night was a very satisfying affair in front of an engaged and appreciative audience. She went through most of Easy Come, Easy Go plus the old stand-bys "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", "Broken English", "As Tears Go By" and "Why'd You Do It."
The band mostly stayed out of the way and were good without being dazzling; they were a little heavy handed at times but I was in a box on the side so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that that was a function of the always loose acoustics in that room. There was a low musical point (for me) during "Sing Me Back Home" featuring a musical saw. We can finally answer the question, most robustly in the negative, whether a musical saw is any replacement for a pedal or lap steel. It's a party piece, comrades, not a musical instrument.
There's a fragment of "Broken English" here, questionable phone recording quality but evidence the old trooper is still in fine, passionate voice.
Coming Up By Amanda on January 23, 2010 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
As any Australian music fan (our kind of music, anyhoo) knows late March and April is always a busy time as we enjoy the spillover of acts brought out for Byron Bay. Sometimes you have to make the choice of two rarely seen (on our shores) highly regarded acts whose only local shows clash with each other.
Not Byron-related but kicking off the season in style is Marianne Faithfull only the week after next. Playing the Concert Hall at the Opera House -- ugh, I have a prejudice against it for popular music -- and I only have a seat at the back of one of the mezzanine boxes but still I can't wait.
"Solitude"
Then, Dan Sultan at the Factory on February 27th -- for a measly $20. For realsm his recent album of late 2009 -- Get Out While You Can -- is a gem of soul, rock and country. For twenty bucks you can't afford not to go.
The above dodgy but illustrative video of Dan was taken by me at the Blue Mountains Music Fest the year before last and that will be my next port of call, in March. As well as seeing two of the Bluesfest drawcards for me Chris Smither and Nanci Griffith, the rest of the line-up is superb. My posts from my previous visit. I'm sure there will be a number of new discoveries but I'm also looking forward to revisiting with the boys from Genticorum, who do fabulous traditional Quebec music.
As for the rest of the Byron folk, well The Flatlanders top the list but they haven't announced any sideshows yet. I'll be there when they do (they have to, right?) I've lined up to see Dr John and the Lower 911 at the Basement; seen him a few times before (but not for yonks) and I might have wavered but the opportunity for a show at a joint that size (real small) cannot be passed up. And ... that might be me tapped out for another year ...
My Favourite Albums -- 2009 By Amanda on December 18, 2009 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Best Dylan Album -- Equal winners: Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart (I'm with Tom Russell on this gem)
Best Non-Dylan Albums:
I think if you looked at my most played album released in 2009 it would be Leonard Cohen: Live in London but I'm gonna exclude live recordings, reissues and compilations from this ...
1. Easy Come Easy Go - Marianne Faithfull. I got this back in January and here it still is, top of the list.
2. Blood and Candle Smoke - Tom Russell. Typically full-bore TR effort of weaving biography and myth, now with mariachi horns
3. The Bright Mississippi - Allen Toussaint. Refreshing, transfixing, dreamy masterclass
4. Midnight at the Movies - Justin Townes Earle. No sophomore nerves here, proving the first album was not a fluke.
5. Hills and Valleys - The Flatlanders. Slipped a little in list over time but still an album of a grade Americana song to song
6. Traditions in Transition - Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. Genre tinkering with respect and passion, Latin on the wild side
7. One to the Head, One to the Heart - Gretchen Peters. What I said at the time
8. A Friend of a Friend - David Rawlings Machine. Should be higher really, but couldn't drop anything.
9. Mountain Soul II - Patty Loveless. Infectious bluegrassy country, highly polished but full of affection
10. Get Out While You Can - Dan Sultan. Well now, I only got this yesterday so given a few more days it could have really shot up the charts. Brilliant collection of soul, country and blues and heaps more soul. Dan is a star, no doubt.
11. Potato Hole - Booker T From the show in April
12. What Have You Done My Brother? - Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Preach it, sister
13. Dirt Town City Limits - Mat d and the Profane Saints. See Jim's great review.
14 Today, Tomorrow and Forever - Pete Molinari feat. The Jordanaires. Only an EP, but a perfectly formed one.
15. For the Mission Baby -- Malcolm Holcombe.
16. Ready for the Flood - Gary Louris and Mark Olsen. Was rather "meh" on it for eight of the last nine months but sort of started to grow on me ....
17. Animals in the Dark - William Elliott Whitmore. Should be higher also, what can you do? Lists are stupid. Hat tip Phineas, some very cathartic tracks on here believe me.
18. Cotton - Sam Baker. Also needs more time but exceptional story songs and that kind of creaky Texas voice I love.
19. Lucky One - Raul Malo A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening.
20. The Soul of Black John - John Black
Update: Bah I forgot about Shemekia Copeland's Never Going Back. Bah! Should be in the top 10, if the top ten could have 15 places.
Bluesfest By Amanda on October 29, 2009 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
First Byron announcement. Here's who I'm excited about:
The Flatlanders -- YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr John & the Lower 911
Lyle Lovett
Béla Fleck and Oumou Sangaré
Buddy Guy
Jeff Beck
Robert Gordon
Peter Green & friends
Justin Townes Earle
I'll keep an eye out for the Sydney show/s of Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club
JTE Time By Amanda on October 1, 2009 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Update: JTE at Basement Discs in Melbourne today. LOVE that pic, Anne!!
Still time to get yer tickets for Justin Townes Earle at the Annandale next Thurs (and the Clarendon in Katoomba for the mountainfolk.)
Roadtest: bandit.fm By Amanda on August 28, 2009 7:57 AM | Permalink
Despite Sony Music Australia being on my Enemies List for wrecking eMusic, I've been trying out their download service bandit.fm. Only because they offer special promos each month that make it a good deal. Before I went to America they had a "buy your first album, get $20" deal so I exploited that with a couple of accounts.
Got some nice stuff, the Blind Faith record, some Ray Charles, a Flying Burrito Brothers set and cherry picked the new K'Naan (Somali-Canadian rapper) which is very good and a few other singles. In August they are having "buy an album and get $20 credit." So I bought Marianne Faithfull's Broken English for $10. With that, I got a Nine Simone box set which is thirty some dollars but the $20 made a nice discount.
Without these deals however and all other things being equal, I would stick to iTunes for the occasional purchases I normally make this way. The bandit.fm site is pretty and shiny but sometimes a pain to use. iTunes is not without its annoyances but at least the info is presented in a no frills style that makes scanning and picking easier. The artist pages at bandit.fm have too many giant graphics and too little easily accessiable information. You can click one extra time and get to a list of albums available, but that stuff should be right up front. There are also some technical issues. When you click on an album, a box pops up to listen to it and the rest of the screeen whites out until you close the box. Fine, except I sometimes get the whited out screen with no box and can't get out of it without shutting the tab and reopening the site entirely. The downloads are at 320kpb so audiophiles may applaud the quality but it also makes your average album a huge size in MBs. If you only have, say, a 1 or 2GB MP3 player who wants one album to take up 500MB. Don't need it, and would like a choice of formats.
So in short, the price is almost always the same as iTunes and there is no other reason to use it over iTunes - except for the special discounts each month, which is presumably why they offer them.
Ain't No Place for A Poor Girl Like Me By Amanda on July 7, 2009 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
VERSUS
I think, historically speaking, this was written about Los Angeles but whatever it's such a ripper performance ...
More eMusic By Amanda on June 17, 2009 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Tim is doing a series of eMusic posts at Johnny's. He's even speaking to eMusic reps.
Part Three to come.
I'm mostly done on the issue (even if I could bloody log in to Crikey to comment, which I can't), unless something very new happens. I'm trying to focus on the music and let the rest fall where it may.
Moshcam and Justin Townes Earle By Amanda on June 14, 2009 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)
I stumbled on Moshcam a while back, been meaning to post about it. They film gigs around Sydney -- the Metro, Enmore, Factory, Annandale etc -- and make them available for streaming.
A lot of yer hipster indie types, but they just added Seasick Steve (who doesn't excite me in the least but is all the rage) and some other of interest. The quality is great, with multiple angles. I was close to the front at the JTE and if I noticed the cameras (?) they didn't distract me.
I have been revisiting that brilliant Justin Townes Earle gig.
NB, I assume these are available for viewing outside the Commonwealth, I can't find anything in the FAQ to say otherwise but you never know the way such things go. Perhaps one of my foreigners can let me know.
Here's an embed of one of the tracks to give you a taste. I haven't said anything about his new record Midnight at the Movies not because it isn't excellent because it is. The first album hit me full square in the side of head at a million mph, partly because I wasn't expecting anything from it but you don't get that rush from second albums, no matter how excellent. So here's "Mama's Eyes" from it (misnamed "My Father's Son" although that's understandable since it wasn't released at that time.) And after that, one of my faves from the first record, "Far Away in Another Town." But if your bandwidth can spare it, watch the whole thing.
PS, I also took an interest in their Public Enemy gig at the Metro since I actually had a ticket to it but lost my wallet the day before so didn't have any photo ID (and forgot to bring my passport) so the stupid bouncers would let me in!!!!!!!11111!!!! True story. I had a mournful cocktail at that pub across from the Metro and went home to bed, early. It takes a nation of one to hold me back.
Compulsory By Amanda on June 11, 2009 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
I heart Andy Baylor. Be there for sure.
eMusic Sony Australia Oh My By Amanda on June 7, 2009 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
So after the intial bafflement I got over the eMusic plan changes and was going to hang around, and make a conscious effort to channel the higher per track payments to labels/artists I wanted to support. But then a bigger problem came down the pipe: "in the near future" access to eMusic will be blocked entirely for users outside the USA. Canada, UK and EU. Entirely! Certain labels/albums are already unavailable on a country by country basis. This is a familiar message:
But this change would exclude us entirely.
And so eMusic joins Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Napster, Lala, Spotify and countless other digital download and streaming services off-limits to us. Now, eMusic do say that exisiting customers will be "grandfathered in" (see FAQ) although of course that's what they said about my current subscription plan, which they just changed. And the grandfathering actually annoys me more, because it suggests the geographic restrictions are not enforceable law, but a voluntary policy decision in deference to their new BFFs at Sony, and future majors they hope to land. If you are doing something illegal and are a company, you don't say "oh well, "in the near future" we will stop doing illegal stuff but people already doing illegal stuff can keep on doing it."
I can go to Amazon.com right now and buy any CD I want and ship it here. But I cannot buy the same album in digital form from the Amazon MP3 Store. How does this make any sort of sense?
I have questions about it logged with customer service, i doubt I'll get a decent answer. Googling the issue of geographic distribution doesn't bring much helpful up.
So now I'm thinking I will just quit eMusic altogether because of it even though I would be grandfathered in, the whole thing leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth. It is no different than DRM to me, right now. What was the point of being so visionary and courageous over DRM for so long, only to capitualte in 2009 with rubbish like this? Should've slapped DRM on the tracks back in '02 and you could've had Sony then.
I see that Sony Australia has its own digital download store, called with a rather hilarious lack of irony bandit.fm. There are some positives about it at first glance, I can actually use it on a Mac, no-DRM MP3s and 320kps (although I'm fine with lower bitrates.) The content appears to be more than Sony stuff, the Blue Note label is there and that's owned by EMI. The artist and genre pages are attractively presented and easy to navigate.
However. I put in the last 10 or so albums I dl'd from eMusic and they had none of them. They had a few of the artists, but not the same albums. I conclude they have no independent labels at all. If someone did an album for Chess it's there because the Chess catalogue is now owned by Universal, but later, say, Alligator recordings by same artist are absent. They are more expensive than iTunes on some albums, and iTunes has a much bigger selection. And for a couple of them I know for a fact I can go to JB Hi Fi today and buy the hard copy cheaper.
Is this where Sony is hoping to channel my money by excluding me from eMusic? Tell 'em they're dreaming.
Because it's about sex? By Amanda on June 5, 2009 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
Over at Johnny's in the Basement, Tim directs a question to the blokes about the appeal of "Throw Your Arms Around Me." If I may crash the dudelicious party with some thoughts.
Continue reading Because it's about sex?.
... Mixing Up The Medicine By Amanda on June 2, 2009 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
This has been a Bad News Day in my personal music world, which I may rant about after I've processed it a bit.
BUT WAIT!! When Bob slams a window, he swings wide open a door so I am most thrilled to see Tim Dunlop's new music blog at Crikey has gone live. Yay, Tim! Apart from being (or because of being??) one of the world's stand up blokes, his taste in music is impeccable.*
We are not very well served by professional, MSM or semi-MSM music blogs in Oz, so this is red hot orsumness all 'round.
*with the exception of his woeful Randy Newman blind spot.
And they call bloggers self-indulgent By Amanda on March 10, 2009 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
Shorter Bloke Who Prob Got His Ticket For Free: Eric Clapton should tailor his show much more to people who don't really like him much.
Props to my Twitter peep who suggests George just stick to Blueshammer.
February eMusic Downloads By Amanda on March 4, 2009 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
All of thee are good some of them are really great but I'm not in the groove right now so I'll come back later with notes.
Country/Folk/Blues/Rock/Dylanalia/Cohenalia
Nancy & Lee 3 by Nancy Sinatra And Lee Hazlewood
Down In The Boondocks & Other Favorites by Billy Joe Royal
Comes In Twos by The Webb Sisters
Roger The Engineer / Over Under Sideways Down by The Yardbirds
Delta Blues by Son House
Live On Breeze Hill by Rick Danko
Broadside Ballads, Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion by Various Artists - Smithsonian Folkways
Live From Austin, TX by Eliza Gilkyson
Havilah by The Drones
Gala Mill by The Drones
Custom Made by The Drones
South Austin Sessions by Jesse Dayton
Country Soul Brother by Jesse Dayton
Boxer by The National
Never Going Back by Shemekia Copeland
Teasin' You by Snooks Eaglin
Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips by Various Artists - Righteous Babe Records
Jazz
Notes From The Underground by Medeski Martin & Wood
The Dial Masters - Original Choice Takes by Charlie Parker
Soul Pools by Babatunde Lea
A Night At The Jazz Rooms - Compiled by Russ Dewbury by Various Artists
Dig by Miles Davis Featuring Sonny Rollins
Nothin' But Soul by Gene Ammons
Reincarnation Of A Love Bird by Charles Mingus
Chet Baker & The Boto Brasilian Quartet by Chet Baker
West Coast - A Nice Day by Various Artists
Duet by Chick Corea & Hiromi
These three records were Grammy winners
Song For Chico by Arturo O'farrill & The Afro-latin Jazz Orchestra
Monday Night Live At The Village Vanguard by Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Randy in Brasil by Randy Brecker
RnB/Funk/"World"
Rise Up! by Lonnie Smith
Texas Funk by Various Artists
A Promise by Myriam Makeba
The World's Rarest Funk 45s by Various
Senegal 70 - Musical Effervescence by Various Artists
People Sure Act Funny by Lee Dorsey
The Hard Way by James Hunter
Afro-Jaws by Eddie Lockjaw Davis
The Webb Sisters -- Comes in Twos By Amanda on February 18, 2009 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
This EP from the Webb Sisters dropped on eMusic today so I had to get it immediately. They are part of Leonard Cohen's current touring ensemble. It includes a live version of "If It Be Your Will" including the intro and recitation at the beginning LC has been doing in concert. Me like much.
I haven't had much chance to listen to the rest and am running out the door again now but "In Your Father's Eyes" surprised/pleased me by being a Dixie Chick-esque banjo-lead number. So I'm looking forward to hearing that again properly and the other songs.
"If It Be Your Will" was recored at one of the O2 concerts in London, and a CD and DVD from those gigs are being released in March. I had ordered copies on Amazon, but then read Australian editions are being released at the same time. Woot. The "Suzanne" part of the DVD is on Amazon for your edification.
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