Pavement, only a few weeks till the dream comes true.
“You’ve been humming and I think it’s forever, praying for Pavement to get back together”
It does feel like that huh? That is a line from the song ‘So Far Round the Bend‘ by The National from the Dark Was The Night complication released in 2009, it would ironically be the year that Pavement actually announced they were getting back together. If you don’t know who Pavement are and their importance in 90’s music than the rest of this post won’t mean anything to you, feel free to keep reading though. So why use that lyric? Well I was one of those kids that always prayed for Pavement to get back together and I think that with all the indie kids doing it, it finally happened.
In a few weeks Pavement will be playing their first show back, at this stage it seems that New Zealand will be the first show, but rumours are spreading the band will play a small gig somewhere in the US to dust off those cobwebs first. The countdown is on for myself and Pants as we’ll be not only catching the guys in Perth, but also making the trip over to Melbourne to catch a few shows too. Pavement are ‘one of those’ bands for us, one of those bands that have a song for every mood you’re in, one of those bands that make you dance and smile but also give you a hug when you’re feeling blue, one of those bands that will always hold a special connection since we met. If you know me and I say “This is practically as big as when the Smashing Pumpkins toured Australia in 2008 for us” then you know this tour is extremely important.
So while talking about those Pumpkins, it makes a perfect segue to explain how I got into Pavement. So I knew of Pavement in the mid 90’s, I’m sure I’d seen a clip or two on rage and I’m sure I would have liked them but there was one thing I just couldn’t ignore. They dissed my band, they dissed The Smashing Pumpkins. In Pavement’s song ‘Range Life‘ from their ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain‘ album the Malkmus sings the line ” … Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins / Nature kids / I, they don’t have no function I don’t understand what they mean and I could really give a fuck … ” and to me these were fighting words. That was it, I would never count myself as a Pavement fan. Fast forward to 2002 to when I met, and started dating, Pants (both an equally big Smashing Pumpkins and Pavement fan) and she explained the meaning behind the lyrics and pointed me towards this interview with NY ROCK and Stephen Malkmus from 1999.
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NY ROCK: There are a lot of speculations about the relationship between Pavement and the Smashing Pumkins…
STEPHEN: A lot of people claim we dissed them. We never did. I only laughed about the band name, because it does sound kinda silly… Smashing Pumpkins…. And well, their status, that they were the indie darlings, the heroes of the indie scene. I never really dissed their music. I like their songs – well, most of their songs anyway. Especially “1979,” that’s a cool song. As I said, I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status. I never really cared for the rock’n'roll lifestyle or being.
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Ohhhhhh, so it seems that I was kind of wrong and it seems my naive view of the band caused me to miss out on years of enjoying their work. I mean other bands I love always cited them as huge influences, I should like them too. So with Pants now in my life she made me a Pavement mixtape (cd) for my 21st birthday [pictured below]
So the mixtape obviously worked, I became hooked hearing Cut Your Hair, Spit on a Stranger and their cover of The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen. From then on Pavement went from being just Pants’ band to being ‘our’ band. The car trips out and about would be filled with sing-a-longs and taking turns in singing their duo parts of “… A Carrot Rope”. So as the weeks become less until we see this band, catch up with equally excited friends in both Perth and Melbourne the excitement level in Chateau Brunky is just going to get higher and higher. To help with this and to help other Pavement fans out there I’m going to open up my live recording vault again and start sharing some live recordings again. YAY! So let me introduce to you …
Pavement: Live at the BBC Session 24th of May 1999
Tracklisting:
1. The Hexx
2. You Are The Light
3. Here
4. Cream of Gold
5. Ann Don’t Cry
6. Stereo
7. Father to a Sister of Thought
8. …And Carrot Rope
9. Cut Your Hair
10. Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17
11. Shady Lane
Sure it may look short and sweet, but the audio quality is perfect, a nice selection of songs from mainly Terror Twilight and the band are hilarious … just listen to the crazy lyrics added to Stereo and the backing vocals on Carrot Rope. Enjoy and I hope to see you at a few Pavement shows.
Download – Pavement: Live at the BBC Sessions 24th of May 1999
Keeping track with Mousepath
Between home and work I spend on average over 12 hours a day on a computer, so when I was reminded of this little javascript application called Mousepath by Door Sixteen I thought it would be interesting to keep track of my movements while on the computer.
Mousepath, (download link), tracks and visualizes your mouse clicks and movements. Simply turn it on, minimize the window, and you’ll get a snapshot of your mouse activity after a few hours. The lines are movement, and the dots are periods of inactivity. (The bigger the dot, the longer the rest.) Follow?
The snap below reveals an entire days worth of work. I tried this yesterday while at work and this is my day from 8am till 5pm. (click to reveal larger images)
And this is my brief description of the major spots “active” areas. Was very interesting to see how little I personally use the lower left corner of my screen, in over 8 hours of being on the computer my mouse hardly heads there.
Twenty Thousand Smashing Pumpkins Songs
The beauty of last.fm is that it can show the range of music you listen to, it can also show what a large influence one single band can have on your listening habits. For me that band is, and will always be, The Smashing Pumpkins.
It is hard to describe the spot the Pumpkins have within my musical heart, indirectly they’ve played a big part of where I am and who I am today. Getting into their music when I was a teenager lead me into an interest in visual design, I was blown away by the artwork that was created for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Later on when I finally started to use the Internet in the late 1990’s I discovered a large Smashing Pumpkins online community, a place where I met life long friends and even my wife. I would eventually start up the Australian fan community, Ozphoria and this lead me further into the rabbit hole of my career. This really spark my interest in interaction with people online, web design and everything else that comes along with running a community. From organising concerts, collecting live recordings (300+ at last count), collecting official releases, to publishing artwork and to even following the band on Australian tour and much more they’ve given me some great memories. I also landed the dream job of working for the Smashing Pumpkins as a writer for their website too. So I guess what I’m trying to get across is … I am and always will be a Smashing Pumpkins fan.
So this now brings me to the topic of the post, Twenty Thousand Smashing Pumpkins Songs. As a member for last.fm for nearly 5 years this year I’ve listen to a few tracks over the time, as Im listening to music now my count is at 141854 songs since 9th June 2005. Within that list I hit 20,000 Smashing Pumpkins songs today, the 20,000 track (by pure chance) ended up being Here is No Why. Ironically one of the most important songs to me growing up and even now, I couldn’t not post perhaps my favourite live recording of this song.
“the useless drag of another day
the endless drags of a death rock boy
mascara sure and lipstick lost
glitter burned by restless thoughts
of being forgotten …”
Taken at the height of Mellon Collie’s success this was the band as most of you would know them, live at the Brixton Academy in the UK. Enjoy, watch and wait for the Corgan snarl and scream towards the end. His voice sounds like it could break at any minute, but the power of the band and energy is something amazing to watch.
The Smashing Pumpkins Live at Brixton Academy, London 15/05/96 04 – Here Is No Why
So lets talk stats.
9th June 2005 to 6th February 2010 = 4 years, 7 months and 28 days | 1703 days in total
So with my poor maths skills, on a daily average I listen to approx 12 (11.7) Smashing Pumpkins songs per day. That would be me listening to one disc of Mellon Collie everyday of my life, it doesn’t sound like a lot but when you think every day for this long … it is quite a bit. Now of course this is a bit more than just the 7 studio albums and singles released from the band, the demos, live recordings, interviews that make up the 32 gigabytes that make up my digital Smashing Pumpkins collection does help.
Now the scary thing is, this only count songs played via my various computer or digital music players over the years. This does not count pre-computer listening (scrobbling) days from 1994 to 2005, the hours of listening to vinyl, CD’s or cassettes over the years. To include that would be extremely scary I think.
Finally, the magic moment:
Aim to fill the bus, Turnstyle are back.
They are back for another show, my all-time favourite Perth band ‘Turnstyle’ are dusting off the Casios and performing a special one-off reunion show at Amplifier on Saturday March 6th.
To me Turnstyle were the band I connected with growing up in Perth. I grew up as a teenager in a very lucky time in the history of Perth music, it was the explosion of the Perth Power Pop scene. Bands like Jebediah, Eskimo Joe, Red Jezebel, Effigy, Beaverloop, Love Camp 7, The Flanders, Fourth Floor Collapse, Nathan Guant, Turnstyle and so many more were showing the rest of the country and the world the sounds from this sleepy little town.
Weekends would be spent seeing cheap (even sometimes free) gigs at 78 Records, City Farm, Amplifier Bar, UWA Refractory, The Ozone Bar and at so many other venues that are no longer available to the youth of Perth. I could catch the train into the city, visit House of Wax before heading to Dada’s for get the latest EP from one of the aforementioned bands and then for less than $5 head off to a gig. It was simple, fun and safe.
With this huge music smorgasbord to choose from my ears were drawn to the beepy sounds of Turnstyle. The lo-fi beats and fun geek rock vibe brought a smile to my face each time I saw them play. I honestly can’t remember how many times I saw the guys live or how many times I did “the bus dance” at shows or in my bedroom.
As a young fan I was so excited when Adem K, PJ and Dean received national attention with the release of the ‘hit’ song ‘Spray Water on the Stereo‘ off Turnstyle Country that reached into the top 20 on the ARIA charts. Following this success the band released a few more albums before calling it a day back in 2002.
The story of the final shows in 2002.
The final gig was a full day for me with two Turnstyle gigs (supported by Sekiden) and a Tool concert. So even though I was over 18 at the time I caught the all ages gig. That was an experience to day the least. I had forgotten young kids sat down at gigs to watch the band, it was like it was being at a school assembly. After the gig finished, I picked up my copy of the Rambo EP that was released as a ‘farewell’ for fans and then headed to do some shopping at Damn Toys (RIP) to buy some NES games and the Perth CD Library (RIP). I miss those shops as much as I miss this band.
So quickly between the all ages Turnstyle gig I caught that big international metal band, Tool at the Perth Entertainment Centre (my final show at that venue before it was shut down). Tool was amazing but lets just say the crowd was a vast comparison to that at Turnstyle.
So after Tool, I ran (literally) from Perth Entertainment Centre to Amplifier to make it into the venue just as the band were starting. Now this crowd was happy, smiling, dancing (not sitting) and everybody had beers in hand ready for a fun night. This was the way to say farewell to the band I loved, 400+ people singing along to every word. It was a simple, fun night that 8 years later I still hold up as one of my favourite shows.
Turnstyle – Cologne (Live) @ Amplifier Bar 2002
Now it is 2010 and the band is back, granted they have done two smaller Turnstyle-lite (not the full line up) shows since 2002, but out of bad luck on both occasions I have been in Melbourne. Once in 2005 and the other was in June of last year. Not this time!
So if you’re heading the show in March, I look forward to joining in the fun. It should be a great night, not only are we going to see this great Perth band they will also be supported by Seja Vogel (from Sekiden/Regurgitator), Boys!Boys!Boys! and Burgers of Beef. So drop the $15 and have a great night of fun.
Buy tickets now for $15 at Moshtix
Three lists for 2009
I couldn’t start a new year without the obligatory countdown lists of music and concerts from 2009.
Honestly I was going to avoid it, hence why this update is nearly towards the end of the first month of 2010, mainly just because it is a stressful experience . However voting in this years Triple J – Hottest 100 forced me to look back the year that was. I’ll keep the lists brief, no explanations and no particular order just a list. Now as friends will know I also don’t just countdown 10 items, that is boring. I use Spinal Taps method of always turn it up to 11.
The Flaming Lips – Festival Hall, Melbourne
11 concerts of 2009
- The Flaming Lips @ Festival Hall, Melbourne, Wednesday 29 July 2009
- Handsome Furs @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Sunday 30 August 2009
- Jarvis Cocker @ Metropolis Fremantle, Perth, Tuesday 8 December 2009
- Jebediah @ Rocket Room, Perth, Thursday 3 December 2009
- The Stray Cats @ Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Sunday 15 February 2009
- Ryan Adams & The Cardinals @ Metropolis Fremantle, Perth, Sunday 25 January 2009
- Shonen Knife @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Sunday 27 September 2009
- Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Friday 25 September 2009
- Shihad @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Friday 16 October 2009
- Pearl Jam @ Members Equity, Saturday 14 November 2009
- The Who @ Members Equity Stadium, Perth, Saturday 4 April 2009
Handsome Furs – I’m Confused (from the album Face Control)
Video clip contains Zombies – A++
11 Albums of 2009
- Handsome Furs – Face Control
- The Decemberists – Hazards of Love
- Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
- Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
- Passion Pit – Manners
- Manic Street Preachers – Journal For the Plagued Lovers
- The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
- The Horrors – Primary Colours
- Julian Plenti – Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper
- The Dead Weather – Horehound
- Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Soul
Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
11 Songs of the Year for Triple J’s Hottest 100
- Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Fix It
- The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song
- The Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands
- Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls
- Passion Pit – Make Light
- Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang
- The xx – Crystalised
- Jarvis Cocker – You’re In My Eyes – (Discosong)
- Handsome Furs – Evangeline
- Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
- Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Revenge (Featuring Wayne Coyne)
The Greenhouse in Perth
In the middle of the heart of the city of Perth, amongst the cold grey landscape is a new tiny building – covered in green tiny little plants. It is the simply known as The Greenhouse.
“The Greenhouse is about designing and operating better places for people. Places that let us touch natural materials, understand where everyday things come from and taste fresh food straight from the garden.
Designers, engineers, builders, scientists, farmers, chefs and others are among those whose knowledge and advice have gone into every aspect of creating the Greenhouse, from the lighting, to the menu, to the fresh baked bread and the worm farm. The Greenhouse aims to harness the growing understanding of the human footprint to offer alternative solutions that tread a fine balance between functionality, sustainability and beauty.”
In the summer of ‘08/’09 The Greenhouse was set up as an instillation in Melbourne’s Federation Square, now no longer in Melbourne the only Greenhouse restaurant is here in Perth, WA. The good news is, this is no installation, this is hopefully going to be in Perth for a long time to come. Opening up in mid-December the Greenhouse offers a wonderful small night spot with a mix of good food, wine, beer, cocktails and environmental design.
Now that the doors are open, the garden has grown and is ready to be eaten I made sure to head into this garden wonderland to see what is was like. Only being open for a few weeks, it is easy to expect a few teething issues with any new restaurant but everything was smooth sailing as far as I’m concerned.
The menu contains a great selection of fresh WA produce, with majority of the ingredients coming from the rooftop garden. Being a strict vegetarian I can’t talk about the majority of the food on the menu, however there is a great selection of dishes for both vegetarian and vegan dietary needs and the friendly staff was more the willing to adjust some of the dishes to be vegetarian and also adjusting the cost of the dishes too.
(To slightly jump topic, this is usually a pet hate of mine when a restaurant will be more than happy to change a standard main meal into a vegetarian dish, yet they still charge you the same as a dish containing meat. I didn’t have to even need to ask this time, this gave the Greenhouse a thumbs up from me)
Back to the food, Bree (my wife) and I ordered a vegetarian version of the ‘Bits and Pieces from the Greenhouse Garden’ (pictured above), the ‘Wood roasted baby carrots, saffron & coriander’ (which I sadly forgot to take a picture of) and some simple – sweet lemonade. Since I’m not a food critic I won’t go into bite by bite detail, I’ll just say that these simple dishes with great presentation were extremely enjoyable as a meal to sit, share and talk about the days events.
The industrial design of the Greenhouse is extremely impressive. From the furniture to the environmentally friendly bathrooms and right to the wall art, the entire restaurant is extremely impressive. With all the natural material surrounding you, it is easy to forget that you’re in the middle of the Perth CBD on St Georges Tce. Finally a little word to the wise, if you’re looking to go on a Friday night for dinner, I’d suggest making a booking before hand.
You can read more about the history, menu and future of The Greenhouse at their website: greenhouseperth.com
Suede are back, one show only.
So we are hearing it again, another band from the 90’s reforming for ‘one show only’ … shall we see how long that lasts?
Over the past few years we’ve heard it from Rage Against the Machine, Blur, Pavement and even Jarvis Cocker has hinted at the reformation of Pulp too. In no way am I complaining about these acts getting back together, who wouldn’t want to see their favourite band live from their youth, but lets not kid ourselves that this will be a ‘one off only’ show.
So who is next, well it is one of the other great ‘Britpop’ bands of the 90’s – Suede. Prior to the Oasis and Blur feud that helped define Britpop, Damon Albarn and his band had a notable rivalry with Suede (also known as the London Suede). Justine Frischmann from Elastica was the fulcrum around which the feud turned, as both Albarn and Suede singer Brett Anderson had dated her. The 90’s where band feuds were like daytime drama scripts, not like bands these days.
So not to be outdone by the recent Blur reunion in 2009, Anderson has reformed Suede for one last moment, claiming they are only going to play one show as part of a benefit concert. The question for me is when a band goes through all this effort to reform and rehearse, why do it all for one show. It will so easy to just keep touring, if this ends up being being soley a one show only deal, then all extra respect to Suede.
Bernard Butler won’t feature in the lineup—instead this is the Coming Up era formation (ie. Brett Anderson, Richard Oakes, Matt Osman, Simon Gilbert and Neil Codling). The show will take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on an as-yet unspecified date, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research.
Chances of them touring Australia, slim to none. Chances of me therefore seeing Suede live, definitely slim to none. How excited am I about this news? Extremely.
Suede – Beautiful Ones
While my guitar gently weeps after Prince is done with it
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of stuff on YouTube as I’m sure we all have. However, there are those few clips that you find yourself watching over and over again, for me this is one of those clips.
Below is a clip I vividly remember watching with an old work mate – @coreyj – back in 2005. I won’t spoil the magic for you, I will say this though – it isn’t funny, it isn’t stupid, it does start off slow but it is amazing. If you’re a Prince or Beatles fan please take the time watch this clip, just watch what Prince does with his guitar, with this song and I ask you – where does the guitar go?
The big Apple in Perth
When you live in Perth you expect to wait for things, the old joke of WA stands for ‘Wait Awhile’ has been true for many years.
However something is in the air and changes are starting to happen in this sleepy old town lately, one change being Apple are finally coming to town. Back in July of 2009 Australia’s leading Apple community, Mactalk, discovered that Perth would be next in line for the 6th Australian Apple store, but where would the store be?
With stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane scattered between CBD and outer suburb shopping centre locations, the rumours of where the Perth outlet would open where flying around the internet fairly fast.
A few possibilities rumoured were – The high fashion district of King St? The new complex that is being built above the Underground Station? Outer suburb shopping centre of Garden City? … and many others.
A few weeks ago it was finally announced by a City of Perth spokesman and they confirmed it had approved a $2.5 million planning application and building licence for refurbishment of an existing retail site on Hay Street. The chosen outlet is the the former site of the Joynt Venture “lifestyle” store and this is how the store currently looks:
While the building itself isn’t looking that special (yet), the location itself is perfect and right near a new lot of new high end developments happening in Perth. It will be two shops down from Boffins (the designers favourite bookshop), around the corner from the café/fashion strip of King St and such brands as Burberry/Louis Vuitton outlets close by it is clear why Apple has chosen such a spot.
Yesterday on my way home I walked past the location to see what was happening and at this stage it is a whole lot of nothing. The boards are up and the workers were going home. From peering behind the boards it looks like they’ve just spent time clearing out the old stores and combining them all into one large floor space. The building itself extends the full way back onto Wolf Lane and from memory contains high art deco ceilings, so this store has the potential to become a great showcase store for Apple.
As the typical Apple fan, I’ll occasionally walk past and see what is happening and of course keep an update on here.
Project 365 – Year 2
Last year I set myself the goal to take a single photograph each day, what is commonly referred to as ‘365′ on those social media channels.
I’m pleased to say that this simple task of remembering to do one thing each day for the entire year was achieved. It was rewarding within itself just to be able to look back at the end of 2009 and see within a blink of an eye moments of my life from the past 12 months. The good, the bad, the sick, the healthy, the concerts, the friends, the new job, the old job, the days in, the nights out, Perth, Melbourne … everything summed up in 365 images.
I now couldn’t imagine not doing this project, it has become a part of my daily routine – always looking for that ‘photo of the day’. So I’ve started it all up again for 2010, but going to try and make it a little more interesting for myself and for people following the progress. One goal is to try and make some of the images a little more interesting than just me sitting on the couch or in the office, it will be a good creative outlet and show more elements that are part of my life. Another objective I have is to include a small description of the days events, just a footnote to look back on without a need for a lengthy journal type update.
That is it really. Expect some fun. Expect many filters and photoshopping for colour correcting too. Feel free to follow this pictorial journal, here is image 001 for 2010:
