Two Nights At The Bridge Club

Upstairs at the Irish Club. Primitive Motion helped clean up the recording of their set after equipment failure on stage in the first minute screwed up the sequence. Thanks Sandra.

Knee Chin - Live @ The Bridge Club - 2 September 2011

Primitive Motion - Live @ The Bridge Club - 2 September 2011

aheadphonehome - Live @ The Bridge Club - 16 September 2011

First time I have seen Nova Scotia since Nathan left town. Lots more space for the music to shine through.

Nova Scotia - Live @ The Bridge Club - 16 September 2011

The Scrapes - Live @ The Bridge Club - 16 September 2011

Nova Scotia LP Launch

Arbuckle came out of retirement for this and I'm glad I was there to see them. Brisbane was blessed with some world class pop groups in the 90s and early 2000s but I missed them first time round so it's nice to get the chance. The yelps come from the singers wife I believe so she can be forgiven.

Arbuckle - Live @ The Hanger - 26 Feb 2011

Tape Off - Live @ The Hanger - 26 Feb 2011

Been waiting so long for the Nova Scotia album to arrive and it was worth the wait. The older songs are refreshed and the new stuff is up there with the classics from bear smashes photocopier and maritime disasters.
Nova Scotia - Live @ The Hanger - 26 Feb 2011

As a bonus they did an in-store at Tyms Guitars new shop in the Valley on the Sunday after. Tym is now hosting regular in store performances and I missed the second by Monarch from France but will be there tomorrow night for Axxonn and many nmore thereafter.

Nova Scotia - Live In Store @ Tym's Guitars - 27 Feb 2011

Undead Apes Vinyl Launch

The Troubadour should have closed that night. I can't imagine the final night would have been half as good as this one; drunker and longer maybe but if I want to cry in my beer over music I'll watch the X-Factor final again.

OK you're right, I won't ever do that again. And actually I'm just pissed off I wasn't fast enough to get a ticket to the Final Night. But I did see the Final Night of X-Factor and I did cry in my beer. Dear god, the inhumanity.

But on Saturday night a seriously smashing time was had by all. Not as emotional as last weeks Vegas Kings send off which was sad but in a good way. You can't be sad watching Undead Apes. Undead Apes are what happened when a a couple of punks took power-pop out into the carpark and convinced it to harden the fuck up. How could the love child of Sekiden, Dick Nasty, Gazoonga Attack, and every band Adam Scott has ever been in be anything but great.

I bought the T-shirt and the Vinyl. You should too. And they are doing dates in Sydney and Melbourne to support the release so keep an eye out. I videoed Taxes on my new Nokia N8 and it looks good and now it is HD as well.



Also I'm looking forward to the Nova Scotia album in the new year.

Pastel Blaze - Live @ The Troubadour - 20 Nov 2010

Nova Scotia - Live @ The Troubadour - 20 Nov 2010

The Sips - Live @ The Troubadour - 20 Nov 2010

Undead Apes - Live @ The Troubadour - 20 Nov 2010

Sounds Like Brisbane

Sounds Like Brisbane is new venture by a group of Brisbane labels to promote Brisbane music. A launch of sorts occurred last evening in two lanes in the CBD. The sound in each was surprisingly good. I was impressed with the Island Court space when I finally found it. The building on the Island houses a nice coffee shop and someone suggested the spare space on the ground floor was to become a venue.

Most of these bands you have heard here before. They are here again because I like them.

Finally got to see Last Dinosaurs and they are impressive for young kids. Maybe a little slick for someone so young but I suppose it's a necessity if you are being groomed for success. If that sounds like I'm putting them down it isn't meant to. They are an organic band rather than some of the manufactured crap that gets pushed out and their songwriting is promising. I hope they do well.

Halfway I am pretty sure I've seen/heard before but I don't seem to have recorded it. This is usually how I remember unfortunately. I have a soft spot for country rock. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo is one of my all time favourite records. It was the soundtrack to the morning of my wedding. Blondie was to have been the soundtrack to the reception and John Woods a ZZZ presenter put together a really nice mixtape of then current [1979] punk/new wave stuff but after about three songs the guests revolted and made the DJ play something they knew. And we hand't even gotten to Razar.

Meanwhile back in 2010 here are some top pop combos for your listening pleasure.

Nova Scotia - Live @ Burnett Lane - 18 Jun 2010
Butcher Birds - Live @ Burnett Lane - 18 Jun 2010
Last Dinosaurs - Live @ Burnett Lane - 18 Jun 2010
The Rational Academy - Live @ Island Ct Lane - 18 June 2010
Halfway - Live @ Island Ct Lane - 18 June 2010

Wiley Reed is not a top pop combo. He's a blues man. I first heard Wiley Reed playing after dinner at a restaurant The Cork & Fork up on Petrie Terrace in the early 70's. I waited there for a year or so so I heard him a lot. I had trouble finding the Island Court stage so I only got the last few songs.
Wiley Reed - Live @ Island Ct Lane - 18 June 2010

Vivian Girls etc

So The Vivian Girls hit the Step Inn. A good crowd came and generally enjoyed it. Personally I was overwhelmed by the reverb in the vocals to the extent that it made it difficult to understand some banter.

Supports were local bands Feathers, Nova Scotia, and The Deadnotes feat. The Legend!. I have heard better sets by all of the local bands but an enjoyable night nonetheless.

Feathers - Live @ The Step Inn - 02 Oct 2009

Nova Scotia - Live @ The Step Inn - 02 Oct 2009

Deadnote feat The Legend!- Live @ The Step Inn - 02 Oct 2009

Vivian Girls - Live @ The Step Inn - 02 Oct 2009

Catchup Day

Some older stuff I missed first time around for various reasons including i r disorganized.

From the Meridith trip, the Beaches performances at Northcote supporting Ten East and on their own at the festival.

Beaches - Live @ The Northcote Social Club - 11 Dec 2008 [48.26 MB]

Beaches - Live @ Merideth Music Festival - 12 Dec 2008 [55.85 MB]

A lovely quiet set from McKisco at the Hanger

McKisco - Live @ The Hanger - 21 Feb 2009 [43.71 MB]

The ever popular Nova Scotia at Ric's

Nova Scotia - Live @ Ric's - 05 Mar 2009 [57 MB]

Spiral Stairs

Spiral Stairs for those who don't know is Scott Kannberg one time member of Pavement. Heavy shit to carry round or what. Last night he and Darryl, a guitarist from Melbourne [who i swear I have seen in some other band] did a show here supported by Nova Scotia. He will appear tomorrow with his band at Laneway Festival.

I liked his music and look forward to seeing him tomorrow.
Spiral Stairs - Live @ The Troubadour - 29 Jan 2009.mp3 (84.98 MB)


Nova Scotia supported and the crowd was quiet. They work better to a more lively audience I think but I haven't seen a bad show from them.
Nova Scotia - Live @ The Troubadour - 29 Jan 2009.mp3 (54.72 MB)


These are soundboard recordings. Soundboard recordings can be brutal.

Arrrrgh etc

International Talk Like A Pirate Day Boat Cruise

was way undermanned which was a pity because The Gin Club, New Jack Rubys, and Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade were all fabulous and the Children With Cancer charity miss out on many monies. Some great costumes. I don't dress like that though. I mean when I go out to waylay ships on the high seas, steal the cargo, and slaughter all the crew and passengers I try to dress down so they aren't tipped off. Rule 1. No parrots. Though the raffle's third prize of a life size inflatable pirate, palm tree and monkey sounded pretty good.

The Gin Club started proceedings and, my bad, somehow I managed to turn the machine off after a few songs. My private collection that one.

New Jack Rubys rocked.

Haven't seen them for a while but they still do it for me. Steve and Paul are two excellent guitarists who complement each other very well.

New Jack Rubys - Live on The Island - 19 Sept 2008

Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade have the second best front girl in Brisbane. And Brisbane has at the moment some great girls out front.

That admittedly is not her best photo but sometinmes red eye just works I think.

Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade - Live on The Island - 19 Sept 2008

Off the Boat, Drive Very Fast to Valley. Into Club; The Tabu. I miss The Narwhals who many people tell me were good. Many of these people play in bands I consider very good so I better look out for them. Meanwhile here's Nova Scotia. "Bear Smashes Photocopier" is still one of the top three pieces of musical plastic I have purchased in the past two years. I am buying Havilah tomorrow so it may slip to No 4. but it's not a bad spot still. I love these guys. Nathan on guitar gets better every show.

Nova Scotia - Live @ The Tabu - 19 Sept 2008

Stranded CD Launch at The Zoo

If you don't know what this was about then you aren't taking any notice of the list of other blogs on the right there. You should be visiting Before Hollywood regularly and you would know about their fantastic 3 CD compilation "Stranded" that features 42 tracks by some [not all at all] of Brisbane's finest rock bands. And if you consider it doesn't contains anything other than indie, indie-folk, and garage flavoured bands [with a couple of others thrown in for good measure] but no metal, no hip hop,no jazz, no blues, no reggae; then you get an idea of how broad the music scene is in this small [2 mil people] out of the way city on the edge of the empire. And there's a whole nuther 3 CD compilation waiting to be made by Brisbane metal alone if someone in that scene was interested.

Rumour has it that Gav and Cam's method of finding content was to list their 100 favourite brisbands and email them asking if they would like to be on the compilation. The first batch of emails went out to 40 bands and they got 42 "Yes Please" emails in reply. So they stopped there before it had to be a magazines series with a free cd in each issue. Even if this is not true, it should be.

What is pleasantly surprising is that you could actually have a list of favorite local rock bands that went past the end of one hand. I don't want to sound old but seriously when I was growing up and the Punk scene in Brisbane had bands like The Saints, The Leftovers, The Survivors, The Go-Betweens, Razar, V2 & The Hilton Bombers playing round the traps you could count on 4 limbs the number of actual non-covers bands playing let alone your favorites.

So if you haven't yet, then click now and have a good look before you buy anyway. Buy now, Limited Edition, All proceeds to a good cause etc. But the bottom line is that it's just a great collection of fine songs and if you can't find at least 1 CD's worth of stuff you love then I feel sorry for your children who must be growing up in a house full of crap music.

/end of rant section.

And for those who missed the Launch party, here is most of it. I missed most of the Monster Monster set [sorry Dan] and the start of the Rational Academy set but what I did hear was top stuff.

Ambitious Lovers
The problem with big rooms and small bands is levels. From a whisper to a scream sounds fine if the crowd noise is not at greater than whisper levels to start with. Don't get me started again on people having conversations. Anyway, I've compressed this set so it can be heard more easily. I think it sounds OK but if anyone has a problem let me know.

Ambitious Lovers - Live @ The Zoo - 15 Aug 2008.mp3 (50.45 MB)

Nova Scotia
A set now being referred to by people who heard it as 'one of the best ever' by one of Brisbane's favourite bands. The first song is a little uneven but after that it is pretty much what everyone says.

Nova Scotia - Live @ The Zoo - 15 Aug 2008.mp3 (46.61 MB)

Tragic/Athletic
I hadn't heard these guys before [though I recognized everyone in the band] and overall I was impressed. Some equipment problems on stage with periods of no music, sorry, but persist and you will be rewarded. At the end there is a one song appearance by Yeow Meow which is easily accomplished because the two bands share many members.

Tragic_Athletic - Live @ The Zoo - 15 Aug 2008.mp3 (42.06 MB)

The Rational Academy
Speaking of which, Yeow Meow and The Rational Academy also share many [2 of 3] members so the changeover between bands was about 45 sec. I did not know this was to happen and I had to return to my car to get a new tape so I missed most of the first song. But I'm happy with the rest. Don't know if it's just my memory but the band seems to be shortening their songs and adding more vocal tracks than when I first heard them a couple of years ago. I like the way they are sounding these days in any case.

The Rational Academy - Live @ The Zoo - 15 Aug 2008.mp3 (61.08 MB)

Thank you once again to Gav and Cam for Before Hollywood and their hard work on this project.