She is one third of feminist punkers Le Tigre, half of subversive remixers Men, a DJ in her own right and even a calendar girl. RAVE talks to ultra-chameleon JD SAMSON about her hectic schedule, coming out in a small town and her rebellious tendencies.

Be first to comment on this article

• Garage2V returns for V Festival ’09, with bands and artists urged to enter the heats now for a chance to play the local date (Mar 29 at Avica Resort, Gold Coast) and possibly even all national dates for the ultimate winner. Interested acts should hit up www.garage2v.com.au soon!
• The Tim Steward Band have had a name change! The Brisbane-based pop-rock five-piece featuring Screamfeeder’s Steward are now known as We All Want To, and plan to release some new tracks in January. Check out the new look and sound at www.myspace.com/weallwantto
• Intelligent Brisbane popsters The Boat People are making quite a splash overseas, with their ’08 release Chandeliers receiving excellent reviews in both the UK and US music press. March ’09 sees them hit Austin, Texas, for SxSW, where they’re sure to pick up even more fans. Looks like next year could be an even bigger one for The Boaties.
• Aussies who got lucky in 2008: The Presets were everywhere — on the charts, helping BMW sell cars, pissing off Billy Corgan by not finishing before Smashing Pumpkins at V Fest, even causing Delta Goodrem grief when Channel [V] got her to sing My People, which ended up on MySpace. Gurrumul Yunupingu became a household name and became NT’s person of 2008. Gabriella Cilmi won six ARIAs from one hit single.
• Which reminds us – homegrown acts continued to excite consumers in ‘08, with releases by Australian acts making up one-third of all sales. Aside from Gabriella, Gurrumul and The Presets, we had Cut Copy, Gyroscope, The Potbelleez, Angus And Julia Stone, Axel Whitehead and Carl Riseley making an impact on the mainstream charts, while the indie sectors produced more exciting stars of the future.
• Warner Music has ordered YouTube to remove all music videos featuring Warner artists from its site after revenue-sharing negotiations broke down. It’s another blow to YouTube’s intention to host every music video produced, a feat that MTV online is now closer to achieving.
• Brian Eno will score Peter Jackson’s next movie and no, it will not feature Hobbits. The Lovely Bones, adapted from the novel, is about a murder victim watching over her grieving family and friends from the afterlife. Eno’s spooky music for waiting rooms sounds like a perfect fit.
• Last year, after footage of troubled rapper Akon hurling a fan offstage during a New York concert surfaced, he claimed the action was a stunt to promote his album. That was apparently not entirely true, as the fan in question has charged him with harassment and Akon has to pay a $350 fine and perform 65 hours of community service.

Be first to comment on this article

Summer Tones hits The Zoo on Friday Mar 6, 2009 featuring a five-band cavalcade of musical goodness – starring Baltimore’s Dan Deacon (pictured), Brooklyn’s High Places, New Zealand via California’s The Ruby Suns, London via New Zealand’s Lawrence Arabia and straight outta Melbourne in their first Brisbane show, all girl psych rock quintet Beaches (who’ll be launching their debut album). Tickets are $32+bf through OzTix.

Be first to comment on this article

Fans of Melbourne scuzz-punks Reptiles (pictured) won’t want to miss the launch of their long awaited debut EP, Smell My Skin. Held at Ric’s Bar in Brisbane on Saturday Jan 10, 2009, and supported by local outfit DZ, entry is free of course and it all starts at 11pm. Check out www.myspace.com/reptilesau for more info.

Be first to comment on this article

Lofly Hangar - Fri Dec 19

In line with the title of tonight’s event, there’s something very dystopic about the Hangar’s interior, as the former tyre factory has lost none of its industrial feel after being converted into a live venue. The heat inside the bandroom could melt tarmac; I’m showering myself as I watch the wooden horse-wielding Scraps perform her twee songs over tinkling mininal backing. Employing some cute swearing, the diminutive blonde has both novelty and fun factors down to a tee.

Death by Nintendo anyone? Obliterating the room with an unholy torrent of re-circuited Gameboy pings, Dot.Ay is Revenge Of The Nerds personified. With the volume set to stun, the chiptune master cuts a massively entertaining figure, even though the 8-bit mélange occasionally gets repetitive.

If the energy level generated by the gizmotronics whiz wasn’t high enough, Talkshow Boy ups it even further by launching into a machine-gun microphone assault. The dancefloor instantly gets filled, the sweaty mass of people writhing to relentless electro-punk/grime beats as the shirtless adrenalin kid roams the room atop willing shoulders.

Representing the Melbourne avant-synth scene, Brissy expat Mark Barrage treats us to his contagious, sub bass-heavy cuts. The excellent latest album Delays is prominently showcased, Mark’s vocals on Just Desserts sounding ghostlier than ever. An unexpected hip hop sequence (involving three MCs) is incongruous but doesn’t ruin the fun; radioactivity is in the air for you and me.

DENIS SEMCHENKO

Be first to comment on this article

(Ninja Tune/Inertia)

Disturbingly old-fashioned MDMA-drenched dancefloor misery and premium quality videoclips from the rave age

Over the last two decades or so, Hexstatic have been responsible for injecting electronic music with some well-remembered innovations, most importantly the addition of quirky visuals to electronic live performances. With their background in graphic design, Stuart Hill and Robin Brunson have rarely been able to resist giving away eye-catching bonuses with their music releases. Unsurprisingly therefore, Videos Remixes Rarities includes both a CD and a DVD. A painful listen to the audio part of the album, which features unknown works from the past, makes you wonder why these old ravers couldn’t just be content with their memories of the good times they had on early nineties’ dance floors. The tracks on the album are without any exception, painfully out of date. We’re talking a carton of milk that’s been out in the December sun for a week. Tiresome one-dimensional breakbeats distastefully decorated with likewise acid bleeps, cheesy vocal electro-cuts and Chemical Brothers-like b-side housetunes, the misery doesn’t seem to come to an end. A failed attempt to liven things up with embarrassing sound effects, previously heard only on psy-trance gatherings, doesn’t help making things look rosier. Even Funkstörung’s Michael Fakesh, generally able to transform the greatest rubbish into a bombastic twisted funk anthem, happens to be incapable of saving the ass of these Ninja Tune superstars. Equally prehistoric, yet much more enjoyable, are the bits of everyday (animal, human and robot) life which are synchronized with Hexstatic’s music on the DVD. Vibrating carnivorous plants, kangaroos and frogs: they are all slaves to the rhythm. It seems to be the way Hill and Brunson fulfil their simultaneously rural and metropolitan desires.  Apart from a few boring moments where nervous hands go over Roland drum machines, the DVD showcases mostly hilarious motion pictures in a style that’s well known to clubbers who are long settled down with kids and all. The highlight is the video of Coldcut’s Timber, which, as you may have guessed, explains how to extract and process the precious material. Musically, the DVD is of much higher quality than the songs on the CD, which were previously rare or unreleased for a reason. That may well be the greatest bonus in the package.

***

CHRISTIAAN DE WIT

Be first to comment on this article