News:
· Puff 'n' Stuff
Everything that's happenin in Adelaide this fortnight.
· Industry
The latest from the music industry.
· Dance
Dance and electronica news.
· Metal
Updates from the wide world of metal.
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Puff 'n' Stuff.
Adelaide's still pouring its heart out for the victims of the Asian tsunami: the Jade Monkey hosted a full house for their fundraising gig last week and now those in the hills are opening their hearts with 'Get Out There' featuring Chris Finnen, E-Type Jazz, Spirit Of Alondray, Hydrophonics, Powersurge, Solvol and more in the Soldiers Memorial Park at Strathalbyn on Sat 29 Jan from 10am.
Speaking of funds and the raising of them,
the Wilderness Society are holding a fundraising gig at Jive
on Sun 13 Feb, with Two Feet Tall, Orangutang, DJ Rah, comedian
Guru Vindilu Ratfriend Yumi and childrens entertainment legend
Peter Combe. All the funds raised will go toward developing
materials for the Society's campaigns.
The Ramonettes are determined to bring back the spirit of the community singalong. Either that, or they've forgotten the words to the Ramones' songs, which seems unlikely. In any case, they're rocking the karaoke tip at the Exeter on Sat 29 Jan with a bunch of guest vocalists, including Leigh Stardust, former Exploding White Mice frontman Paul Gilchrist and members of Kamikaze, NFI, Horrahedd, The Brats, the Cosmonauts, Muscle Car, Backseat Romeos, Raglan Road and more.
Speaking of Leigh Stardust, as we indubitably
were, she enjoyed singing with The Zero Kelvins at her packed-out
CD launch last week so much that she's reliving the glory in
radio form by guesting with them for a couple of songs on Radio
Adelaide's Student Radio on Tues 1 Feb. The 'Kelvins, meanwhile,
will be getting themselves match fit for their slot at the Big
Day Out on Fri 4 Feb. And speaking of which...
...If you haven't gotten your Big Day Out ticket by now, you may have already missed out: Sydney's sold out, Melbourne's sold out and Adelaide is heading towards its first ever sell out on pre-sales: if there are still tickets available when you read this, Puff recommends that you grab them and don't let go.
Then again, you could always enjoy a touch
of pre-BDO rock by seeing The D4 at Enigma on Thurs 3 Feb, the
day before they rock the Showgrounds. Puff's sure they'd appreciate
it.
Launch time! First cab off the rank is Mr Stefan Laszczuk,
who should be well known to avid dB Magazine readers for his
years of rock service with the likes of Krystapinzch and Simpleman.
However, his launch is of a more literary type: his pretty-damn-brilliant
debut novel 'The Goddam Bus Of Happiness' is getting a launch
at the Jade Monkey on Thurs 27 Jan.
The Trafalgars, meanwhile, are kicking off
2005 with a new double A side single: Sit With Me and Sunnyside
Drive. Such a release can't go without a launch, and as it happens
said launch will naturally be at Jive on Sat 12 Feb with Russian
Teammate and Melbourne buddies The Hovercrafts.
Time for some from-past-blasting: first up, Goldentone. It's been a while since we've seen them around town, what with main 'Tone Tim Hudspith moving to rural NSW and all, but he's popping back for a bit and has rounded up the old gang for a couple of shows. You can catch up with them at the Grace Emily on Wed 2 Feb (along with Brillig), the Rhino Room on Thurs 3 Feb (with Peter Wilson) and the Crown & Sceptre on Sun 13 Feb.
Then there's Hoot McKloot. They were playing
around Adelaide back when Puff was but a youth, and they've
reformed in order to... split up forever. Hmmm. See them for
the first time in over a decade and the last time ever at the
Crown & Anchor on Fri 28 Jan, with the Backseat Romeos.
Puff's always heartened to see new venues pop up - we might have lost Traffic (get the details in this issue's Dance News), but the city has been bolstered with the Duke Of York and the Lizard Lounge presenting live music, and now Glenelg has a regular live music spot with the Glenelg Beach Hostel & Bar deciding to refurbish and reorient themselves somewhat, starting with a Sunday night residency for The Rest. Welcome aboard, Puff says.
Ronnie Taheney is making her annual pilgrimage
back to her old stomping ground with a show at the Gov on Sat
5 Feb.
Stuff from Puff: the year's barely begin and already bands are
dropping like flies: Welsh trio McLusky announced their split
in the first week of January (and dB Magazine's music editor
Andrew P Street cried like a little girl) although there's word
of a possible posthumous two-disc compilation of singles, b-sides
and live material down the track. Then came word that Canada's
The Unicorns have also parted ways mere weeks after their Adelaide
visit, while UK pop-punkers Busted and indie-guitar types Ikara
Colt have also called it a day... Matchbox Twenty, meanwhile,
have sacked longtime guitarist Adam Gaynor (or, according to
a statement at billboard.com, they've decided "not to renew
his services," which doesn't even begin to make sense). The
band are on hiatus at the moment while frontman Rob Thomas gets
his solo record out of his system... On the other hand, The
Black Crowes are reuniting for five New York shows in March
and the Olivia Tremor Control are reuniting to play at the UK's
All Tomorrow's Parties festival (curated by good actor/awful
musician Vincent Gallo and also featuring sometime paramour
PJ Harvey, along with Magazine, Black Dice, Peaches and Yoko
Ono, along with many others) ... Long-awaited new albums are
on their way from Beck ('Guero', due in March), ...Trail Of
Dead ('Worlds Apart', landing any second now), Oasis (tentatively
titled 'Don't Believe The Truth' and due in May, Incidentally,
Noel Gallagher told nme.com that they were considering making
it a double album, but "we don't want to give Sony too much
because it's our last one [with the the label], so fuck 'em."),
Garbage ('Bleed Like Me' in April), Weezer (also untitled, also
due in May, with single Beverley Hills in March) and New Order
('Waiting For The Siren's Call' in March), while Trent Reznor
has revealed that the new Nine Inch Nails disc will be entitled
'With Teeth', but still has no firm release date beyond before-the-middle-of-the-year
- much like The Flaming Lips, who've revealed that 'At War With
The Mystics' will be out mid-year. Meanwhile, Morrissey is set
to release a live CD ('Live From Earl's Court') and DVD ('Who
Put The M In Manchester') in autumn and Portishead are apparently
at work on album #3 which is due around the end of the year
- after all, it's only been eight years since the last one...
Congratulations to Pixies frontman Frank Black/Black Francis/Charles
Thompson: he's just become a father, thanks to the arrival of
Jack Errol Thompson on Fri 7 Jan... Speaking of new bubs, congrats
are also due to Primal Scream's frontman Bobby Gillespie, who
began the new year with the birth of his second son Lux... The
much-mooted Jimi Hendrix biopic starring Outkast's Andre3000
as the man himself has been put on hold - the Hendrix estate
has refused permission for Jimi's likeness or music to be used
across the board... Speaking of classic rock heritage and the
like, the Salvation Army's Liverpool orphanage Strawberry Fields
(yes, the one that John Lennon grew up near to and referenced
in Strawberry Fields Forever) is to be shut down - the organisation
now prefer to place children with foster families or group homes
rather than "large residential institutions," according to a
statement from the Salvation Army... Rumours that Bob Marley
is to be exhumed and reburied in Ethiopia as per his Rastafarian
faith have been quashed: his remains are to stay undisturbed
in Jamaica...
Potty language: it's not big and it's not
clever, Brett Scallions of Fuel. You, like Puff, might have
assumed that Fuel had disappeared off the face of the earth
but President George W Bush evidently knew better, which is
why they played the "youth-oriented" inauguration gig at Washington's
DC Armory on Tues 18 Jan alongside other politically savvy sorts
like Hilary Duff, Ruben Studdard and 3 Doors Down. However,
everyone managed to perform their sets without dropping the
f-bomb except Scallions, who opened Fuel's set by bellowing
"Welcome to the greatest fucking country in the world!" to the
less-than-full auditorium, shocking several but finally putting
an end to speculation about what country in the world Fuel considered
as being the fucking greatest. Bush, who made a flying visit
to the event (well, he'd had a big day), subsequently gave 3
Doors Down the greatest praise of their entire career by describing
them as "pretty cool" - proving that insipid country-tinged
middle-of-the-road rock will impress a president more than gutter
language. Scallions' mother couldn't be reached for comment
but Puff assumes she's not angry, just very disappointed. Here's
Fuel, quite possibly thinking about how much they love freedom.
Hit The Jackpot are also in a launching mood: they're setting their new disc free at the Jade Monkey on Sat 12 Feb, along with Sydney's Kiosk, Queensland's Death: Wolf and locals Sweet Raxxx and Brutal Snake.
If you hear explosions in the sky on Sat
29 Jan, remain alert but don't necessarily be alarmed: it's
just Skyshow in Bonython Park. Of course, that might just be
what they want you to think...
Got your tickets for The Shins yet? Oh come on, you'd better grab them soon since they're getting a bit scarce - and not only will they be dishing up some sweet, sweet guitar pop, they'll be joined by Even and the hotly-tipped Pharoahs at Fowlers Live on Fri 11 Feb.
Puff's legal/accountancy corner: Oh, those
rock stars: they're always getting themselves into pickles!
Take Everclear's fontman/songwriter/only remaning member Art
Alexakis, who has just filed for bankruptcy in the face of debts
of around $US 3 million to state and federal tax departments
and several credit card companies... Courtney Love, meanwhile,
is enjoying a rare moment where the law is on her side: she's
just been granted custody of her daughter Frances Bean Cobain
once again, after authorities deemed Love unfit in the wake
of a drug overdose (in which Frances called paramedics for her
mother)... Dave Ellefson, meanwhile, had his lawsuit against
Megadeth and Dave Mustaine dismissed - the former bassist mistakenly
reckoned that his agreed amount for settlement was "unenforceable"
right up until the judge enforced it... That erudite and charming
gentleman Gene Simmons is on the receiving end of a slander
suit from ex-girlfriend Georgeann Walsh Ward, who claims that
Simmons portrayed her as a "sex-addicted nymphomaniac", "wild"
and "unchaste" in the US-screened 2004 VH1 documentary 'When
Kiss Ruled The World'. Who'd have thought?... Meanwhile, a Detroit
judge has ordered that records concerning the mental health
of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks be released - it's claimed
that the 91 year old Parks, who is currently suing BMG for the
perfectly sane amount of $US 5 billion for for the use of her
name in Outkast's Rosa Parks, is suffering from senile dementia
(the original suit also named the band, but due to a technical
misfiling the case against them was dismissed). Members of her
family insist that Parks would never do such a thing in her
right mind... Then there's Afroman, who has served a cease-and-desist
on an impersonator named Dol Re, who has been booking performances
as Afroman for the last few weeks (although the notion that
there's money to be made pretending to be Afroman has Puff scared
and confused). Perhaps realising that people often forget who
one-hit-wonders are, Afroman released a statement claiming that
he would have taken action against Re earlier but hadn't "because
he got high"... But no talk of rock stars and the law would
be complete without turning to the upcoming Michael Jackson
trial: never mind the talk of plying young boys with "Jesus
Juice" or whose fingerprints have been found on what pornography:
in a gloriously tasteful partnership that can only enhance the
dignity of the judicial process, networks in the US and UK (E!
Entertainment TV and BSB, specifically) have come up with a
can-do method of getting around the fact that cameras are banned
from courtrooms: they're teaming up to produce daily half-hour
re-enactments of the trial, with actors performing verbatim
court transcripts of the day's highlights. Who says there are
no great roles left?
Everything's coming up Hoodoo Gurus at the moment. First
up, they're the subject of an in-depth documentarty 'Be My Guru',
which is coming out as part of a two DVD 'Tunnel Vision' set
in early February. Secondly, the entire Gurus back catalogue
is getting the repackage treament, complete with new artwork,
bonus tracks and posters. And thirdly, Channel 10 will be screening
a slimmed down one hour version of 'Be My Guru' on Wed 2 Feb.
The lineup for the East Coast Blues & Roots
Music Festival just keeps getting better and better: joining
the already announced likes of George Clinton, Solomon Burke,
Bebel Gilberto, Bo Diddley, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Kasey
Chambers, Janis Ian and George Thorogood (to name but a few)
comes a second announcement that's just as impressive: Jack
Johnson, the Dave Matthews Band, Angelique Kidjo, Sarah McLachlan,
the John Butler Trio, The Wailers, The Beautiful Girls, The
Waifs, G. Love & Special Sauce, the Violent Femmes, Missy Higgins,
Gomez, Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges, Jeff Lang, Bomba, Bright Eyes,
Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, Sonia Dada and our very own Fruit are
among the many, many, many talented types who'll be strutting
their stuff at Byron Bay over the Easter long weekend; and there's
still more to come! It's heading for a sell out, so if you're
planning on going you might want to log on to www.bluesfest.com.au
right about now. Isn't that right, Ms Chambers?
The Grace Emily is holding another of its occasional Celluloid Temple nights as part of their regular Tuesday night films: on Tues 1 Feb you'll be able to enjoy footage of Black Sabbath's first ever Australian performance (at the Myponga Music Festival in 1971, no less) along with the Rolling Stones 'Stones In The Park' film. You know you want it.
Former White Lion lungsperson Mike Tramp
will be giving it his lusty-vocalled best at Jive on Sat 29
Jan, supported by the ever-rockin' Stand.
Just in case you're feeling good about all the bands coming
to town, let Puff pop your happiness balloon with the searing
pin of jealousy: people no better than yourself will be enjoying
gigs by The Delgados (everywhere but here in February), Lambchop
(east coast in March) and The Dwarves (east coast, February)
for no other reason than that they live somewhere different
to you. Does that seem fair? No, it doesn't.
Look, Puff's had just about enough of you
just mooching around indoors on such a lovely day: if you're
not going to do anything useful - and that bedroom is a disgrace,
for one thing - then you can just put something clean on and...
Get Out Of The House!
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