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

1. The Flaming Lips @ Festival Hall, Melbourne, Wednesday 29 July 2009
2. Handsome Furs @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Sunday 30 August 2009
3. Jarvis Cocker @ Metropolis Fremantle, Perth, Tuesday 8 December 2009
4. Jebediah @ Rocket Room, Perth, Thursday 3 December 2009
5. The Stray Cats @ Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Sunday 15 February 2009
6. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals @ Metropolis Fremantle, Perth, Sunday 25 January 2009
7. Shonen Knife @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Sunday 27 September 2009
8. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Friday 25 September 2009
9. Shihad @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Friday 16 October 2009
10. Pearl Jam @ Members Equity, Saturday 14 November 2009
11. 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

1. Handsome Furs – Face Control
2. The Decemberists – Hazards of Love
3. Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
4. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
5. Passion Pit – Manners
6. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For the Plagued Lovers
7. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
8. The Horrors – Primary Colours
9. Julian Plenti – Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper
10. The Dead Weather – Horehound
11. 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

1. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Fix It
2. The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song
3. The Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands
4. Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls
5. Passion Pit – Make Light
6. Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang
7. The xx – Crystalised
8. Jarvis Cocker – You’re In My Eyes – (Discosong)
9. Handsome Furs – Evangeline
10. Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
11. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Revenge (Featuring Wayne Coyne)

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:

Clearly the Smashing Pumpkins (yet again) take out the number one spot and this is for a number of reasons. Obviously my work for them involves listening to multiple interviews, live recording, plus that I enjoy listening to their music and I own a considerably large collection of studio and live material. It will be interesting to see if they take out the number one spot in 2010.

My favourite Canadian boys, Wolf Parade, were easily my most loved track from 2009. Even though I discovered them a few years earlier, it was during the last 12 months that their music started to really become something more to me. Apologies to the Queen Mary was on high rotation for the entire 12 months of ’09, so no surprises that the opening track ‘You Are A Runner and I am my Fathers Son’ took out the number one played track. Was honestly surprised with The Smiths coming in at number two, although there was a few months where that song did get played a lot.

So there you have it, but I’m not not done yet. As for most listened to albums of the year, according to my last.fm stats here is what it ended up being:

Pretty staple albums for my listening diet I guess and it did include two of my favourite releases from 2009. Franz Ferdinand’s – Tonight came out at the start of the year and I honestly beleived that nothing to top this album, even though I new that I was expecting new music from the Flaming Lips, Manic Street Preachers, Them Crooked Vultures – bands I knew that would produce music I would love.

Well Franz held the title for quite a while, until I heard ‘Face Control‘ by Handsome Furs. This album was just the constant ‘go-to’ album for me. When I was confused, when I was happy, when I was down, when I just wanted to dance, when I was walking and wanting to switch off from the world around me … this was my soundtrack. Seeing Handsome Furs in 2009 also cemented this record as my album of the year too … so, to use that old Molly Meldrum cliché “Do yourself a favour and go check it out”

Listen @ MySpace

(Did I just link to a MySpace page? – wow!)

Sub Pop is reissuing and remastering Nirvana’s first album, 1989’s “Bleach,” for its 20th anniversary, and with it will come some previously unreleased material.

“Scoff,” included on the original tracklist, was one of the many songs performed at a concert in February 1990, at Portland’s Pine Street Theatre; that show is included in the extra disc/vinyl record in the forthcoming deluxe edition.

Scoff [Live At Pine Street Theatre]

The original producer of “Bleach,” Jack Endino, had the honors of remastering this expanded, sexy set, due Nov. 3.

A now a fun, fun fact in the world of Nirvana and small, stalwart independent labels: A few years ago, before he announced the label would quit putting out new records this spring, Touch & Go’s beloved founder Corey Rusk, in an interview, described to me how Nirvana could have, should have, been on his label.

“I met Kurt Cobain at a Nirvana show, around the time Bleach came out,” says Rusk. “As I was talking with him, he said, ‘Touch and Go was my favorite label growing up. We sent you a demo but we never heard from you.’ Back in those days, we listened to every demo. We’d still felt like some kid took the trouble to send this to us. I actually kept every demo that ever got sent to us back then, so I got home and dug through every box in the garage. I felt like, ‘Did he really send it?’ But it wasn’t there. ‘Did I throw it out? Maybe it never made it?’ I loved Bleach. It was heartbreaking, because here was a great band that sent us a great demo.”

It is hard to believe this music is now 20 years old.

I’ve uploaded some shots to flickr, plus a few little video’s too … sure they are from my iPhone but it is still good enough. The whole show was just fun from start to finish, one of those rare nights where the band and crowd are having an equally good time.

Setlist (few might be out of order)

Lino / Animal / Yesterday When I Was Brave / NDC / Fall Down / Comet / It’s Over / Please Leave / Feet Touch The Ground / Monument / More Alone / First Time / No Sleep / To Your Door / Leaving Home (Kev screwed up the lyrics, so they had to stop half way through and start again) / Seven Signs of Ageing / Harpoon / Jerks of Attention

Leaving Home (30 sec clip)

View the other photo’s on Flickr: Jebediah – 16.09.09 Mojo’s Fremantle

Last week I updated with my votes, My Hottest 100 of All Time, and below is a mixtape of these songs. Simple. Enjoy. Listen. Dance. Remember.

Smashing Pumpkins – Mayonaise
Foo Fighters – Everlong
You Am I – If We Can’t Get it Together
Pulp – Common People (#81)
The Smiths – There is a Light that Never Goes Out
The Beatles – Oh! Darling
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Cure – Love Song
Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Download: 10 Songs. All Time. Hottest 100.

Well if you haven’t voted … YOU MISSED OUT! Voting ended. But if you were one of the organised, got in early and voted I would love to read your Top 10 list. So as they say in millions of primary school playgrounds ‘I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours’ … here is my list.

My criteria was simple. The bands that mean the most to me, songs that give that “shiver” you should feel when getting kissed by the one you love and the songs that introduced me to the bands that have – saved me, provided the songs to my life and have inspired me to do everything I’ve ever done. Yeah, I made it easy for myself huh?

The Smashing Pumpkins – Mayonaise
Will all the songs from this band to choose, my heart won out. There were votes made for more popular singles through Ozphoria … but I had to vote for this song. This is everything I love about the Smashing Pumpkins, if you EVER need to know why I love this band … listen to this song. The lyrics, the warmth of the guitar, the beauty and anger in Billy’s voice – it is everything about being a teenager discovering music for me.

fool enough to almost be it and cool enough to not quite see it
and old enough to always feel this always old, i’ll always feel this

Oh and yes, the song is meant to be misspelt … all you grammar kings and queens.

Foo Fighters – Everlong
This was a tough choice. I don’t listen to the Foo Fighters that much anymore but I couldn’t look over this song. I’ve often described it as the perfect ‘rock/pop’ song. It just captures your ears with that perfect tempo and lyrical mix. This song just builds perfectly, before climaxing at the right time … yeah I guess this song could be described as like having great sex. 4 mins of great sex.

Pulp – Common People
My introduction to the Brit Pop scene, I remember  falling in love with the lyrics and that sigh Jarvis does. Being amazed this guy could sing and simply tell a story in a song, word for word … it was like a conversation. Since then it has turned into a song I simply adore … and love to dance to. <3 Pulp.

You Am I – If  We Can’t Get it Together
If I had to say in one word why I love this song, it would be because the lyrics. Tim Rogers out did him self with the words in this song, they are so simple yet so powerful. It sums up being in a relationship and just thinking – if we can’t do it now, we’ll never do it. We’ve all been there and this captures it.

To get up the bond for an Inner-West flat - He’d work for anyone if he wasn’t working for Her dad
She’s practicing sayin’ “I’ll do as I will” - ’Cause she don’t know how to tell him that she’s goin’ off the pill
The curtain’s up ’till seven and He’ll talk about her ass - But she clings to his photo like a piece of broken glass
If we can’t get it together today - She looks for his heart while he stares the other way

The Smiths – There is A Light That Never Goes Out
Morrissey you magnificent bastard! This song symbolises everything about being young and wanting to escape your parents house to be with your friends or partner. “Take me anywhere, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care”. Any time I hear this song it takes me back to 2002, driving around with this girl I just met of the internet (that girl I ended up marrying). This will ALWAYS be close to my heart.

The Beatles – Oh! Darling
I had to include a Beatles song – right? It was hard to choose 1 out of the 100′s … but Oh! Darling made it. I just have always loved the powerful performance of this song, it really captures what I love about the entire Abbey Road record. Like I said, this spot could have gone to Don’t Let Me Down, Two of Us, Helter Skelter, Julia, A Day in the Life … shit I could keep going.

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1
I knew these guys as that one hit wonder ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ band. That was it. Then when Yoshimi started to get played on Triple J my ears pricked up … and they fell in love. This song, this album opened me up to so many new sounds and new bands. It is hard to describe, but I owe this song a lot. At the time I had just met Bree, so while I was falling in love I was also falling in love with new music. I was tempted to vote for Pt.2 also … just got the fun of it.

Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
The story behind this song always captured my attention when I was younger. I always felt sadden by the news that Ian never knew the success of this song, never knew how many people it would inspire. It is one of those songs that I could just listen to, again, an again … without ever being sick of it. I have many memories dancing to this at Amplifier back in 2000-2003 … you know, before the place went to shit.

The Cure – Lovesong
This was for me, the first of many “our” songs I had with my wife. When I would hear it, I would think of her instantly. The lyrics are simple romantic words, combined with a fantastic bass line that just forces you to dance to. Much like the Beatles it was hard to choose one single The Cure song, but due to the personal connection – Lovesong won, mainly due to the album it is from too.

Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Writing this list, with my reasons Im realising that lyrical content seems to play an important part in what songs I picked. I can definitely say that is one of the main reasons I first got into the Manics through this song and is still one of the main reasons I love the band. Their ability to combine complex, powerful lyrics with beautiful / raw music. With opening lines like this, how could you not love this song.

The future teaches you to be alone – The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits – Then I can shoot fascists

The songs that *just* didn’t make it.

There were a few songs that just didn’t make it into the list, they were in, they were out … they all got shook about. For whatever reason I needed to picked 10, this was the 10. These were some that missed out:

Ash – Kung Fu, Smashing Pumpkins – 1979, Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty-Three,  Smashing Pumpkins – Here Is No Why … ok there were a shitload of Smashing Pumpkins songs. Also I couldn’t pick a single David Bowie song, I just couldn’t. Same goes for Ryan Adams – I just couldn’t. Jesus and the Marychain – Just Like Honey, TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me, Radiohead – Fake Plastic Tree’s, The Stone Roses – She Bangs The Drums, Jeff Buckley – Lover, You Should’ve Come Over, James Brown – Sex Machine, Pearl Jam – Rearviewmirror, Crowded House – Don’t Dream It’s Over, Split Enz – Message to My Girl, Bon Iver – Skinny Love, Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen in Love, The Church – Reptile, Beach Boys – God Only Knows, Violent Femmes – Add It Up, Pixies – Debaser … ok I should stop yeah?

Will we see artists “create” a new sound, new move, new style, new act that single handily captures the entire world?

Growing up no matter your age, most people liked or at least respected Jackson’s talent. I was born the year Thriller came out, I know my parents played that record so no doubt my infant ears were exposed to its sounds. In my household growing up I remember the days of everybody in the car from me (the youngest at 6) to my Dad (the oldest of 36 at the time) wanting to listen to Bad – it was the first CD my family purchased – the future was then! My brother and I would mimic the dance moves, shout SHAMON! on the top of our lungs. It was pure fun pop music and will always be the clearest form of that genre.

It was yesterday while listening through my iTunes at work I began to question ‘who is left in this elite group of artists’. Im not just talking about your big name acts of now, Im referring to those artists like The Beatles, Elvis, Madonna, David Bowie, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, u2 and Michael Jackson to name a few. These acts changed music, created new sounds, spawned millions of “copy cats” and are still as popular today. To look at this list it is pretty clear to see though, they are all getting older. In decades to come these artists (that are still alive) will stop touring, stop recording and while they’ll still be in the eyes of popular culture – it will never be the same.

The generation below me won’t know what is is like to grow up and have an artist like Michael Jackson part of your childhood, creating that soundtrack that you remember that everybody listened too. An artist who appears in movies you watch, TV shows you love and even the great computer games like Moonwalker. If any artist did that now they would be deemed a SELL OUT! Why would anybody bother taking that risk, just to kill their career. There are those artists that try to do this now, but never with the same impact as the previously mentions acts.

The naive love of pop culture has changed, we have become more judgmental about new artists or even elder acts too. If anybody takes a risk, change their look and changes their sound – every man and his blog is updated with an opinion. (Yes, I see the irony of posting this on my blog). I remember an interview with David Bowie few years ago where he said that ‘if the internet was around when he was starting out, he wouldn’t have taken half the risks he did’. I always felt that was an interesting statement.

No matter what our industry we always want to know what others think of us and if you’re a skinny white guy in the 70′s who might drop a hint on his blog that he is saying goodbye to the folk music sound of his earlier work in favour of recording a disco album … you’d expect a public out cry. Just stop and think if Coldplay came out and said their next album was going to be a complete reggae album. Viva La Steel Drums!

Yet all of this is about something bigger, with this critical nature within society we will never let an artist blossom to their full potential. The money makers will take their cut, the artist will be cautious about taking risks that might end their career and most importantly you’ll find it hard to find an artist that is going to be popular and loved by people of all walks of life. Im not saying we’ll never hear good music again, there will always be new and exciting sounds coming out. Yet, they will never be as widely accepted or loved as the music from Jackson, The Beatles or Elvis.

I sat yesterday with some of my wife (@_pants_) and tried to think of a list of ‘current’ artists who eventually could make into the ‘elite’ lifetime list. While we had a few, we realised they’ve done nothing but continue on the path of their predecessors. An artist like Pink or Britney who has stayed popular for many years now, is just following the path of Madonna in the late 80′s/early 90′s. Radiohead and Coldplay are following along the lines of u2, they are popular to a certain level but they don’t transcend genres or generations. Even the “music visionaries” of Kayne West will never make the same impact, personally I don’t see the mass appeal with him anyway. Close friends of mine will expect me to say that artists like the Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam or Nirvana would be in this list, but when you look at the comparison to some of these main acts – they’ve hardly made a dent into the wider popular culture. While these ‘new’ acts have influenced, have sold million, have provided the soundtrack for a generation … they’ll never reach that same mass appeal level.

Yesterday the news of Michael Jackson’s passing reminded me we should take life, or our icons, for granted. It is sad to look back at the public scrutiny he was put under for the past 15 years, you can’t help but think that perhaps the timing was right. Leave now, just before the upcoming 50 concert tour and be remembered for the amazing work he created in the music world.

So to typically finish this off with a song, I’ll sign off with Michael Jackson and Michael Jordon with Jam. Song was pure awesome, my love of music and love of basketball came together as a kid.

-Sunky

The inner n3rd in me couldn’t let this milestone go without a blog update. After being on last.fm for nearly 4 years I’ve finally hit the 1337 number of artists in my collection. w00t?

That’s really it, so now lets make it more exciting with some more ‘numbers’ with some Wolfram Alpha action:

So that (just under) 4 years works out to be ’1451 days’ meaning that for majority of this time I’ve been discovering a new artist nearly every few days or nearly every day. To take this a step further too, since signing up I’ve been working as a web developer/graphic designer working at my machine, headphones on lost in the sound of music while I create away.

Lets just look at working days and we have 1036 weekdays, meaning I’ve discovered at least ONE new artist every working day for the last 4 years. Now I know these aren’t all “new” artists, as I listen to a range of older/newer music, but its definately showing my “range” of listening habits … and I honestly didn’t think I have listened to such a great variety.

Anyway, the milestone was met … who was the lucky artist?

*drum roll*

Blackout Beach

I discovered their album ‘Skin of Evil’ via last.fm (oh the irony), through my love of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Handsome Furs etc … from a few listens so far I’m in love with the record. I found a review that sums it up perfectly:

“Skin of Evil is hardened, seamless, and totally unrelenting, everything full-bodied and visceral about Frog Eyes squeezed until it sublimates. This is scary, ethereal shit. It’s also a gorgeously captivating half hour of bedroom pop pushed screaming out of bed. “

Purchase: Blackout Beach – Skin of Evil on iTunes

PS: Add me on last.fm … last.fm/user/sunky_ … yeah I’ve got an underscore at the end because “somebody” had my username already.