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Everything that's happening in Adelaide this fortnight.
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Theatre news.
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Puff'n'Stuff
Ah, the air becomes cooler, the skies a little darker and our nation's supermarkets are festooned with egg-bearing rabbits. Yes, as Easter approaches Puff is also a-brimming with the spirit of change and rebirth: or at least Puff's throat is a-brimming, mainly with bacteria. However, it takes more than hideous, virilant contagions to stop Puff from bringing you a metric pooload of information about what's going on in the next little while. Although there will be a little lie down somewhere in the middle. Just so as you understand.
They're good people, those lads from Straight 2 The Ace. When they saw the devastation wrought by the inappropriately avuncular sounding Cyclone Larry they decided that they couldn't sit idly by, and immediately arranged an all-ages fundraising show at Fowler's Live on Sun 23 April with The Matt Winter Band, Swayback and Foreshore. Doors open at 4pm, so be early.
Tonight we're going to party like it's 2001 Part 1: Fear Of Flying have been gearing up with a spate of low-key shows after a couple of years of more-or-less silence, but have just completed work on a new CD-EP 'Handy Hints From The Undertaker' with producer Paul McKercher (yes, the one who's produced everyone from You Am I and Something For Kate to Missy Higgins and Pete Murray). What's more, they're currently gigging like madmen: they're at the Austral on Sun 16 April (with Little Ice Age), the Director's Hotel with Wesley Carr (of Tambalane, of whom more later) on Fri 21 April, and the SPARKS showcase in Light Square on Sat 29 April (with Bit By Bats, Pharaohs and loads more).
A group of defiantly lo-fi and parochial sorts have formed a body which they declare is "Adelaide Music United Against Professionalism" for the first Really Good In Theory festival. It's all about uniting and celebrating Adelaide's bedroom labels, 'zines and bands, and they're holding a day-long market at the Avalon Gallery on Sat 22 April Hindley Street from midday, followed by a gig at 8pm with VŠrs, Artax Mission, Running With Horses and Avant Gardeners, mixed with DJs between sets. As Puff has long declared: professionalism, proshemessionalism.
Of course, there are those who like to show a little professionalism: like Blood Red Renaissance and Day After Sadness, who are doing a joint CD launch at the Governor Hindmarsh on Fri 21 April, along with Black Doves.
And there's quite a lot of CD launch action afoot, including new discs from Spiral Dance (who launch 'The Quickening' at the SA Folk Centre on Fri 28 April), Wintergreen (also launching at the SA Folk Centre, on Sat 29 April) and Mr Wednesday (who launch 'the Garden Where Parties Grow' with a huge, string-assisted show at Fowler's Live on Fri 5 May with Mountains In The Sky, Qua, and DJs Tim Koch and dAUBIST). Meanwhile, the Jock Hobbs League are hard at work on their debut release, which they assure Puff will see the light of day in June.
Tonight we're going to party like it's 2001 Part 2: All of Brer Mouse are going to be in the one spot for the first time since 2004, so they're doing a special one-off reformation show at the Grace Emily on Sat 29 April with Aviator Lane. Here's how they were - apparently back when they were about ten, it would seem...
A new organisation has sprung up calling themselves South Australian Live Arts and Music (which they've given the delicatastic acronym SALAMI) and declaring their mission is "to provide forums for the promotion of music and other artforms". And the first of these fora will be a fundraising show at the new Light Square Live venue (aka Night Train), which is also the new home of the Lizard Lounge (who were recently flooded out of their Hindley Street home). The lineup of King Daddy, Kamikaze, Star 10 Hash, G.G. Alan Bindig, Billion Dollar Bums, Molting Vultures, Counterfeit Traitor, Unknown Truth, Leather Messiah, Pigsteerer, Peterhead, Red Rascal and Fiendish Cavendish will be making with the community spiritedness on Fri 21 April, and it's all-ages until midnight. Isn't that right, Kamikaze?
If you're a Jack White fan, have grabbed a record by The Raconteurs (his new band with Brendan Benson) and thought "hang about, this sounds jazzier and less old-school rock'n'roll than I was expecting," it's probably because you have the wrong band: therefore, to alleviate confusion with the already-existent jazz band of the same name, the White/Benson combo will be giving themselves that exclusive Australia-only name of Handsome Jack White +3! Oh alright, they're calling themselves The Saboteurs: but only in Australia, meaning that those discs are going to go for crazy overseas collectors prices when you stick them on eBay. In any case, Puff reckons that HJW+3 is a far better name.
As intimated above Tambalane's Wesley Carr is doing a slew of shows in Adelaide in support of his debut solo CD-EP 'Rhythm To Fly': he's at the Jade Monkey on Thurs 13 April with Special Patrol and The City Riots, the Gov's front bar on Sat 15 April (with Darkhorse), and then he's at the aforementioned Director's Hotel gig with Fear Of Flying on Fri 21 April, then he races across town to play another set that same night with The City Riots (again) at the Grace Emily. He'll burn himself out if he's not careful, mark Puff's words.
In surprise news from The Hot Lies' camp comes word that guitarist Josh Delsar has left the band. "Big thanks go out to Josh for his efforts and input into The Hot Lies since the band was formed in Dec 2004 and best wishes to him for the future," says the not-giving-anything-away press release, adding that the band are working on new material in country Victoria and are hoping to find a new axeperson shortly. Here's how they were:
Stuff from Puff: another fortnight, another spate of band reformations: East 17 have confirmed that they'll be performing a one-off reunion show in London at the end of May, while Henry Rollins has reformed the superior, 1997-era version of The Rollins Band with guitarist Chris Haskett, drummer Sim Cain and bassist Melvin Gibbs. They're currently rehearsing together, but no word on a record or tour as yet... Similarly, The James Gang (the non-Eagles band of guitarist Joe Walsh) are reuniting after 35 years for a US tour in August... The Replacements have reconvened after 16 years to record a couple of new songs for an upcoming retrospective. Surviving members Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars laid down Message To The Boys and Pool & Dive for 'Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements', due out in June, although there are currently no plans for the band to reactivate permanently... And in one of the most unexpected reformation rumours ever, it seems that The Glove - the one-off side project of Steve Severin of Siouxie & The Banshees and The Cure's Robert Smith - may be considering doing a second album after a 23 year silence. "I'm thinking more prequel than sequel," Severin told billboard.com, "you know, what led to The Glove being so disturbed"... Puff's delighted to see that a UK cabbie was alert but not alarmed when he was taking a passenger to Durham Tees Valley Airport on Thurs 30 March to catch a London-bound flight. His suspicions were roused when said passenger, Harraj Mann, asked to play some music through the cab's stereo, and promptly started playing such rabble-rousing terrorist anthems as Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale, The Beatles' Nowhere Man and Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song - but the eagle-eared cabbie knew he had a jihadist in his cab when he played The Clash's London Calling. Mann was subsequently pulled off the flight by police acting on the driver's information and questioned under the UK's Terrorism Act. However, by the time they'd established that Mann was, in fact, not a terrorist, his plane had left. "I was laughing about it, but all my mates are absolutely furious," Mann told the Hartlepool Mail, but Puff applauds the cabbie for his community spiritedness - although, if this driver is so trustworthy, what was he doing driving such a person to an airport? Were they in cahoots? Sounds a little suspicious to Puff. After all, only when everyone is under detention will we be truly safe... Grebo grief corner: Martin Gilks died on Mon 3 April from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident the day before. Gilks was drummer in The Wonder Stuff from their inception to their 1994 split, at which point he got into band management. He rejoined the band for a successful 2000 reunion tour, but didn't join the reactivated 2004 band. He was 41 and leaves behind a son and daughter. Rest well, groove machinist... Legendary singer Gene Pitney (24 Hours From Tulsa, I'm Gonna Be Strong, Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart) has also shuffled off this mortal coil: his fully dressed body was found on his hotel bed on Wed 5 April after playing a show in Cardiff the night before. Police don't consider the death to be suspicious, although Pitney's health was thought to be excellent. Vale, sir...
Sad news for lovers of Love: word has it that mercurial frontman/crackpot/genius/egomaniac Arthur Lee is suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. There are currently plans afoot to stage benefit concerts to cover the uninsured Lee's extraordinary medical bills (said to already top the US$100,000 mark)... But soft, gentle readers: let us trip lightly down the high-ceilinged, wood-pannelled corridors of the mighty dispensary of rock'n'roll justice that we call Puff's Legal Corner: You'd think that Victor Willis, the original police officer from The Village People, would be better acquainted with how the legal system works: he was arrested on Sun 26 March. A warrant was issued last October when he reneged on a plea bargain deal after police found a gun and crack cocaine in his car. Willis is looking at four years and four months on the original charges, with a bonus eight months on new drugs charges. Still, he had left before 'Can't Stop The Music' so on balance he's still better off than most of his former bandmates... One of Babyshambles has been jailed in the UK - but, for once, it's not Pete Doherty! Occasional guitarist Patrick Walden is on remand after pleading not guilty to assaulting his girlfriend Nadia Patane... Ian McCulloch, frontperson of Echo & The Bunnymen, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault after allegedly kicking a toilet door open into the face of a fan and pushing a second fan after a gig in Glasgow... Oh, spare a thought for poor Kevin Federline. He's been so hurt by accusations in the media that he's a talentless golddigger who managed to claw his way onto the gravy train by impregnating Britney Spears that he poured his little heart out on an entire-world diss track called America's Most Hated, but now he's facing a copyright infringement suit from Thomas Dolby just because his poignant cry from the heart is based around a completely unauthorised sample of She Blinded Me With Science (well, technically it's an unauthorised sample of Mobb Deep's Got It Twisted, which used an authorised sample of ...Science, but legally it makes no difference). "If anybody's going to sing nasty lyrics over my music, it's going to be me," Mr Dolby drily commented to mtv.com... Hank Williams Jr, meanwhile, has surrendered to police after a warrant was issued for assault against a hotel waitress in March. Williams' lawyer reckons it's an extortion attempt and that the charges were only filed when Hank Jr failed to respond to a demand for money... And finally, Puff's fancy lightly turns to... Love! It's a capricious thing. It comes and it goes, flittering like a moth betwixt multiple light sources. So it proves with Eminem and ex/current/future-ex wife Kim Mathers, who married in January a little under five years after their bitter 2001 divorce following their original - or "classic" - 1999 wedding. It seems that this whole reunion thing was something of a faux pas, since they're now divorcing again having reached the all-important 82-day mark. Expect some more Kim-in-a-trunk tunesmanship in the future, then.
Time for that lie down. Mmmmm. That's better. What, you need more? Alright.
Sky City Adelaide are getting their comedy on at the moment with their free comedy nights, and their Thurs 20 April lineup will be headed by Chris Franklin, aka The Bloke, along with Big Al, Rohan Harry, Wai Sing and Shaun Mansell. Sky City's also hosting the SA heats of the 2006 Australian Air Guitar Championships on Fri 21 April and Fri 28 April, with the state final on Sat 6 May; so if you reckon you can spank your imaginary plank like no-one else, give Randall Burns a call on 8212 2811.
Melbourne's Dane Certificate is coming our way for a show at the Crown & Anchor on Sat 15 April with locals Sugercoated (who's also recording her debut disc at the moment) and Belittle League.
Everyone loves the hardcore, so everyone should be delighted at the imminent arrival of The Amity Affliction and The Getaway Plan, who are doing a huge national tour which will see them being all-ages at Fowler's Live on Thurs 13 April (with Wendy Icon, In Fiction and Nazarite Vow) and the Loxton Hotel on Sat 15 April. Here's the 'Plan, in all their planny glory.
Puff hopes you're feeling suitably Eastery and ANZACian, and that you use your feelings of renewal/patriotism to help you...
Get Out Of The House!
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