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Stephen Malkmus – London – 9 December 2009

By |March 13th, 2010|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , |

Stephen Malkmus has been ‘jicking’ for as long now as he was leading the charge in Pavement, releasing as many albums, yet never reaching the same heights. His solo career seemed to be in constant war of expectation over delivery. It's not Pavement. It's not a bunch of twenty-year-olds fighting their generation. But the louche stage prescence, that hazy cynical drawl, the greying hair framing the eyes in a semi-slacker curl, little has changed over the years.

Jonneine Zapata – Brisbane – 7 October 2010

By |November 18th, 2010|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , |

Jonneine Zapata's Cast the Demons Out came out of nowhere and managed to do what it said on the tin. And all indications were that live was where she excelled. Comparisons were bandied around from PJ Harvey and Patti Smith for there strong vocal ranges to Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger for their bold sexual stage presence. Apart from the smoldering mic stand gripping, her onstage persona also alternates between standing still with an ice cold stare, holding her arms aloft swaying like an eagle, and my favourite, lurching around the stage like a drunken marionette. Unsettling? Maybe but never boring.

Cloud Control – Interview (Static, 2010)

By |June 24th, 2010|Categories: Interviews|Tags: , , , , , |

A Tale of Two Cities? Not bloody likely. While both appear on the forthcoming Laneway bill Cloud Control and Rat vs Possum are worlds apart and aren't harbingers of any Sydney or Melbourne scene. Although there are groups of like-minded musical acts in all Australian cities and towns they're is no discernible Sydney sound or Melbourne sound. Cloud Control's indie-folk rubs shoulders with Parades' and Jonathan Boulet's dense polyglot pop while Rat vs Possum's tribal skewed pop sounds share the same general geography as Love Connection's murky shoegaze and Super Wild Horses girl fronted garage. It's not where you come from, it's where you're at.

Way Out West Festival – Gothenburg – 2008

By |August 25th, 2008|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Gothenburg's 2008 Way Out West Festival - Buzzcocks, The Sonics, Okkervil River, Sonic Youth, The National, Grinderman, Broder Daniel, Silverbullit, Caesars, Neil Young,.

School of Seven Bells – Australian Interview (Static, 2009)

By |May 5th, 2009|Categories: Interviews|Tags: , , , , |

A collaboration between Benjamin Curtis of Secret Machines and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of On-Air Library, the School of Seven Bells (founded in name from a mythical South American pickpocket academy) that surprised

Destroyer – London – 28 June 2011

By |July 7th, 2011|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , |

How strange to be more than fifteen years into a career and to finally achieve growing, and now glowing, recognition for the music you make. Bands today, the inverse applies, they learn to walk before they can crawl, record a debut they'll never repeat and disappear as if they never existed. Real artists will maintain and nurture their craft regardless of an audience, which more or less, is the story of Dan Bejar. Better known as the wild-card songwriter in Canadian power-pop supergroup The New Pornographers, Bejar's work as Destroyer is like mainlining into Bejar's psyche, which prior to you only got the briefest taste of.

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