News:
· Puff 'n' Stuff
Everything that's happening in Adelaide this fortnight.
· Industry
The latest from the music industry.
· Puffio
Theatre news.
· Dance
Dance and electronica news.
· Metal
Updates from the wide world of metal.
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Puff 'n' Stuff.
The nominations are in - let the voting begin! Yes, get online to www.dbmagazine.com.au and get your votes in for the dB Magazine Reader's Awards and let us know what YOU reckon is Adelaide's best band/solo artist/record/venue/event and more. You've only got a couple of weeks to vote, so get cracking: the winners will be revealed in our last issue of the year (which hits the festive streets on Wed 21 Dec).
Well, Puff assumes that you've either bought your Big Day Out
ticket or are reading this on your way to buying your Big Day
Out ticket, since they're selling like particularly delicious
hot cakes at the moment. And no wonder, since the second and
final announcement has dropped with Mudvayne, The Go! Team,
The Subways, M.I.A, Mylo, DJ James Murphy, The Greenhornes,
Shihad, Wolfmother, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock, Cog, The Beasts
Of Bourbon, Sonicanimation, Sarah Blasko, DJ Ajax, DJ Jason
Midro, Airbourne, The Presets, Afra & The Incredible Beatbox
Band, former Adelaide lads Bit By Bats and, of course, SA's
own masters of the block-rockin' arts, The Hilltop Hoods. They're
joined by one hell of a South Australian contingent: The Hot
Lies get another gurnsey after their performance last year,
while Stolen Youth, Sumi, Mindfield, No Through Road, Wendy
Icon, My Sister The Cop, Little Ice Age and Foreshore make their
BDO debut, as do DJs Brendan and Beckylove. (You can buy your
BDO tix at dB Magazine.)
And when you're thinking about festivals, you might want to consider heading to Byron Bay for the 17th Annual East Coast Blues & Roots Festival - especially since the first announcement is pretty goddamn stellar. Among the thirty-odd names they've sleected with which to tempt us are such double-take inducing acts as Los Lobos, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Bob Geldof, Eddi Reader, Jamie Cullum, Hothouse Flowers, Donovan Frankenreiter, Keb Mo, The Skatalites, Eric Burden & The Animals and, amazingly, Sigur Ros. There's also the festive Australian likes of Pete Murray and The Cat Empire, and the weekend also marks the return of Yothu Yindi. And that's just part of the first announcement: imagine how it's going to look in a couple of months! Early bird tickets are available right this minute and let's not be coy: they'll sell out in weeks. Log on to www.bluesfest.com.au for tickets and all the relevant details.
On to the CD launches, post haste! Poly & The Statics are launching
their debut CD-EP - which is also, conveniently enough, entitled
'Poly & The Statics' - at the Jade Monkey on Sat 3 Dec with
bonus rock from guests The Unspoken Things and Lady Strangelove.
Later That Night's self-titled CD is already out, but they're only just getting around to launching it. Slackers. At least they're doing in style with an all-ages show at the Enigma Bar on Sat 16 Dec, with Double Dragon and Geelong's The Red Shore along for the rock.
Business As Usual are also making with the launch action: their
'Short Circuit, Long Story' disc will be set free at the Rhino
Room on Fri 2 Dec, with MKB and The Mandala Project in full
effect.
And they just keep coming: Those chaps from Lastminute-ville are launching their disc at Jive on Fri 9 Dec, The Levitators set their self-titled effort free at the Crown & Sceptre on Sat 10 Dec, the same night that the Matt Winter Band launch theirs at the Jade Monkey.
And several local sorts are getting the "pre-CD launch", or
"CD" part of the equation sorted. The Molting Vultures are hitting
the studio in early December and plan to get their eight-track
disc out early next year, while Muscle Car tell Puff that they're
beginning work on their debut full-length album shortly.
Speaking of Muscle Car, which Puff totally was, they're supporting Melbourne rock heroes The Hybernators, who are coming our way with their rocktastic 'The Bullwhip Yard' disc in their hands and a gig at the Crown & Anchor on Sat 3 Dec.
And while we're on the subject, Mr Wednesday have finished recording
their album and are planning to launch it early next year (quiz
them about it at the Rocket Bar on Thurs 1 Dec when they play
with Press Eject and Japan's 4 Bonjour's Parties), while anti-Government
bad boys Horraheadd have a brand new CD: it's called 'Number
9' and it's in shops right this second.
Mad props to locals Bluestone, who've made it to the final five in the blues category of the Musicoz: they'll find out who took the prize on Thurs 1 Dec, and you can celebrate/commiserate with the lads at the Dog'n'Ute on Sun 4 Dec.
Sin City just can't get enough of Adelaide: after playing here
a couple of weeks back, they're... er, playing here again: but
this time it's as part of the Enigma Bar's 'Rock Extravaganza',
alongside The Sailors and a perverted local lineup of Legless,
The Backseat Romeos and the Catholic Altered Boys. Here's the
'City, enjoying a bad-boy day at the beach.
OK, don't say Puff didn't warn you: Crazy Frog is coming to town. Specifically, he's bringing his invisible motorcycle and dangling genitalia to Sanity Music's stores at the enormo-malls of Adelaide's suburbs: catch his dulcet tones and highbrow wit at Elizabeth (noon), Tea Tree Plaza (1.30pm) and Marion (3.30pm). And Puff would just like to add a personal note to the person representing the Frog at these events: those years of drama school are really paying off. Remember: there are no small parts. Aside from the dick you'll presumably be wearing, of course.
The good people at the Fad Bar & Gallery are holding a tribute
night dedicated to the gravel voiced troubadour Tom Waits, with
a host of talented Adelaide types dipping their ladle of song
into Waits' voluminous bubbling cauldron of back catalogue:
The Huckleberry Swedes, The Audreys, Ramonettes, Problem Pony,
Lyndon Grey, Michael Dixon, Steven Leski, Glen from Horrahedd,
Harry Vanvenetti and Mick Bradshaw will all be growling away
on Sat 17 Dec.
Hey, local musician: entries for the Australian Music Prize - or, as it's known, the AMP - are open until Fri 6 Jan. There's $25,000 up for grabs for whatever band or artist has made what the 50-odd judges reckon is the best album of the year, to do with as they will: tour, record, blow on rare Star Wars figures on eBay, anything! There's an article all about it at www.dbmagazine.com.au, or cut to the chase by logging on to www.theamp2005.com.au.
Canadian punkers Chixdiggit! have a brand spanking new album
('Pink Razors') in the marketplace and to celebrate they're
making their first Adelaide visit since last century for a free
show at the Crown & Anchor with The Jerks on Fri 2 Dec.
Mick Hart's had just about enough of Australia - or at least, Puff presumes that's why he's heading off to live in Europe. Anyway, he's doing one last pre-departure lap of the country with his soon-to-be-unemployed band, who you can commiserate with at Jive on Fri 2 Dec with Your Motive For and John Woods.
There are those who eschew the use of pre-recorded backing tapes
- and then there are those who positively endorse the possibilities
they offer. And when Puff says "those" in this context, it clearly
implies "inFrequentSeahorse, Home For The Def, Matt's Little
Brother and Apes of Goddam", all of whom are performing at the
Lizard Lounge's 'Here's One I Prepared Earlier' (or HOIPE) Festival
on Fri 2 Dec. Each and every performer will be backed up to
the nines with pre-recorded goodness. Puff hopes dance moves
will be involved.
Midnight Swim are visiting Adelaide with a box chock-full of their 'The Greatest Phoney' CD-EP, which they'll be hoping to sell many copies of at their Enigma Bar show on Sun 4 Dec. It'll be a bit of a change of pace for frontman Sean Carey, who also happens to be Thirsty Merc's guitarist, as they're joined by Foreshore and Musicoz winner Nathan Leigh Jones.
Stuff from Puff: Like they say, if it's too loud, you're too
old. Or not old enough, in the case of The Rolling Stones: residents
in San Francisco have complained that the band - whose combined
age is a smidge under 250 - were just too darn loud and made
noise complaints to that effect while Puff laughed and laughed
and laughed... To the surprise of no-one, and after months
of furious denials that their marriage is in trouble, those
adorable 'Newlyweds' Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have announced
they're getting a divorce (you might recall Puff reporting back
in July that online gambling site Nine.com cancelled bets on
the couple's split when a suspiciously large amount of wagers
came in from areas that the couple lived in, suggesting they
had some inside dope on the state of the marriage). And Puff
thought those two vacuous career-obsessed airheads were perfect
together... Oh, that Gary Glitter: sure,
he might have been jailed after child pornography was found
on his computer, he might have allegedly been banned for life
from Cambodia among rumours of further child sex offences and
he might have fled from his home in Vietnam after police found
a 15 year old girl in his house: but Puff's sure that his arrest
at Ho Chi Minh airport - where he was allegedly attempting to
get on a flight to Bangkok - will prove to be a hilarious misunderstanding...
Liverpool combo The Stands have split up... Reformation
corner! Anthrax have announced they're reforming for three US
shows in January, while The Cure have confirmed that former
guitarist Porl Thompson is back in the band and that they're
currently recording a new album in the UK (by Puff's reckoning
this is the third time Thompson has been in the band, beating
bassist Simon Gallup and former keyboardist Roger O'Donnell,
who are relatively stable at two each)... What's more,
Take That have announced that they're reforming (minus Robbie
Williams, or "the member for which anyone cares a whit", who
left a year before the group finally split in 1996)...
The Finn Brothers are surrounding themselves with old pals for
their Homebake appearance: aside from top-flight drummer-for-hire
Joey Waronker (sticksman for REM and Beck, among others) they'll
be joined by former Crowded House bandmate Nick Seymour on bass
and Split Enz alumnus Eddie Rayner on keys... But the
weirdest reformation of all is that of The Cars. Of course,
they won't feature bassist/singer Ben Orr, since he died of
cancer in 2000. Nor will they feature leathery, cadaverous frontman
Ric Ocasek, who's passed on the offer to play Best Friend's
Girl for the billionth time (although he is involved in
the making of a forthcoming doco DVD about the band, tentatively
- and adorably! - entitled 'The Cars Unlocked'). No, the band
will feature Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and (ahem) vocalist
Todd Rundgren. Rundgren, meanwhile, is taking the opportunity
to not reform his old band Utopia... It's
been a great couple of weeks for death: first up, Tarus Jackson,
hypeman with Californian rappers The Coup, lost his life on
Tues 15 Nov when he was gunned down during a robbery attempt
at his home... Guitar legend Link Wray has also passed
away: the man credited with inventing the power chord died aged
76 in his Copenhagen home on Sat 5 Nov . He is survived by his
wife/manager/drummer Olive and son Olivier...
And it keeps coming: blues/rock maestro Chris Whitley succumbed
to lung cancer on Sun 20 Nov at the age of 45... And
finally three-d radio are sad to announce that Tuxedo Moon,
the station's cat, passed away on Thurs 24 Nov. She'd been one
of the longest-standing characters at the 'D, having been snoozing
on the minidisk player or curled up on the steps for the last
fourteen years.
The monthly Daggerz Sound System show at the Crown & Anchor
will be typically fast and loud on Thurs 1 Dec, since Group
Seizure (until recently known as Rent Boys) will be a-rockin'
along with Apes Of Goddam and Wyld Stallions.
The date for the third annual Scorcher Fest has been announced, along with a new location. The Glenelg Football Club will host the 2006 event on Sun 3 March, and the new, larger home means that they want 40 local bands to play: hence, if you think your band would be perfect for 2.5% of the lineup, give Andrew Cooper a call on 0402 049 742 or drop him a line at riffind@senet.com.au.
Lovers of the rock will surely be aware that Motley Crue will
be kick-starting whatever hearts might be in need of such start-kicking
at the EntCent no Thurs 8 Dec, with the equally rocktacular
Motorhead and The Casanovas.
Feel like learning the card-handling arts? Then you'll want to get along to Sky City of a Monday evening for two hours of poker school with their helpful staff from 7pm. It's only $20 a class; drop in and get the low down. Roulette's more Puff's speed, to be honest.
Assuming there are still tickets to get - and Puff wouldn't
bet on it, frankly - you should be aware that the likes of Pete
Murray and The Whitlams will be Day On The Greening it up at
Peter Lehmann Wines on Sat 3 Dec.
Jamiroquai will be sassing like a sassy thing at Memorial Drive on Fri 9 Dec, with The Beat Smugglers on support duties.
Ah, The Hot Lies. No sooner do they sell out one university
show than they get ready to sell out another: this time at Flinders
Uni Tavern on Sat 10 Dec, with Mere Theory and Wendy Icon.
Look at all that - no, really, look at it. All this going on in your city, and all you have to do is...
Get Out Of The House!
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