‘Grow The Music’ Instrument-Raiser At Polish Club, Bringing Music To Remote Communities
Column: News
| Date Published: Monday, 25 June 12
| Author: Ashley Thomson
| 10 months, 4 weeks ago
Four Canberra women, Em, Jano, Cara and Lizzy, have come together to bring a pet project to life: Grow The Music. The aim: to bring instruments and everything that goes with them to outlying communities in the Kimberleys. Right here in Canberra they’ll aim to collect second-hand instruments, funding and resources to take with them to remote communities when they depart.
As they write, they are “a small group of passionate teachers and musicians. We believe the purpose of making music is to generate meaningful moments in our lives. This is why we are so passionate about taking music education into the remote communities of the East Kimberley.” They even offer classes for under 12s in their ‘Seedling’ program. Adorable.
To get their project off the ground, they’re putting on an amnesty gig to inspire people to donate their old instruments. The instrument-raiser will be taking place Sunday July 1, 2pm-10pm at the White Eagle Polish Club, O'Connor, and the ladies have promised a BBQ and bands galore. Bring kids, they say! You can get more details at their website, http://www.growthemusic.org/, or like the project on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grow-the-Music/193246754136389 or even follow their progress on Twitter at @growthemusic. So head along and take that battered old nylon-string acoustic with you.
This spring The Amity Affliction will embark on their biggest run of Australian dates yet, in support of the highly anticipated release of Roadrunner Records debut Chasing Ghosts. The tour features a massive international undercard that ticks all the right boxes. Featuring California's metallic hardcore kings The Ghost Inside, Brighton's modern metal lords Architects and capped off with local juggernauts Buried In Verona, every date on the Chasing Ghosts tour will start hard from the first beat and not relent.
No strangers to our shores, The Ghost Inside return with their Epitaph debut Get What You Give. Coupling their deeply personal vocals, urgent riffing and pile-driving breakdowns with a renewed energy and determination, expect a crushing live delivery when the Cali quintet steps on stage come September.
Architects have never been ones to rest on their laurels either, packing in an extensive international touring schedule tightly around writing and recording. They return for the Chasing Ghosts tour with a brand new offering, Daybreaker.
Buried In Verona released their third album Notorious via UNFD in June to an overwhelming response, debuting at #20 on the ARIA Charts and winning over fans country-wide.
The Chasing Ghosts tour will come to Canberra for an all ages show at the UC Refectory. Tickets go on sale Friday July 6, 9am, through Oztix and Ticketek.
For a healthy dose of good times and fresh music, look no further! Local music collective/blog/label Blahnket is launching Method-B, a brand new monthly night of beats ‘n’ pieces kicking off this Thursday May 24 at Hippo Bar. The first instalment will feature Kuré (half of local prodigies Onetalk) and Blahnket’s head honcho Deaf Cat, who will be filling out the intimate setting with some sweet vibes to warm your cockles and get you grooving. If that isn’t enough to entice you- there will be delish $10 cocktails and $5 beers, champagne and shots from the lovely Hippo staff. $5 entry.
The star of ABC's Black Books and genius behind the stand-up epics Tinselworm and Part Troll returns to the ACT this September with his new show: Qualmpeddler.
British comic, actor and musician Bill Bailey will embark on his eighth Australian tour with all the trademark Bailey elements: musical mash-ups, twisted logic, political ranting, brilliant visuals and animation, a clear-eyed yet surreal view of the modern world and some explorations of language inspired by a trip to China.
In 2007 he embarked on a sold out tour with his audio-visual comedic extravaganza Tinselworm. In 2009 he enjoyed a successful tour of Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra. Performing alongside some of the UK’s finest orchestras, the show provided fans with the opportunity to see Bill’s surreal comic and musical imagination at its best. And he recently performed one of the biggest comedy gigs in the world to some 60,000 fans at Knebworth when he headlined the Sonisphere Rock festival alongside rock gods Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. Add to this in December 2010 Bailey starred in and co-wrote and directed his own short film, Carpark Babylon. If his bizarre conversations with a car park ticket machine don't make you laugh, it’s unlikely anything will.
But maybe you don’t care about any of that rubbish. Maybe all you want to know is that Bill Bailey’s Qualmpeddler comes to the Royal Theatre, Saturday September 1 and that tickets to the show go on sale Friday June 8 through Ticketek.
UrbanTramper is a three-piece electricUTOPIA band from Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. The band features Lake (vocals, bass, keys, etc), Andy Hoy (drums, midi triggers), and Phil Jones (keys, backing vocals, bass, etc) and the boys are coming to Canberra touring their new album, Internet Freedom is Love, an album dedicated to the sharing of sentiment and ideas across vast distance. It is UrbanTramper's homage to the new poetics of wifi, email, and online chat.
The band has undergone various incarnations since their inception. Their current line-up sees them leaving the acoustic guitar behind and embracing the future we forgot. UrbanTramper still holds a hope for that future. Following the release of Rise & Ride Toward in 2010 UrbanTramper toured extensively, performing at festivals and venues in Australia, UK, Europe, Japan and the US. Lake, lead singer and song-writer, then returned from a songwriting sojourn in France to re-unite the band and record the new album.
Internet Freedom Is Love has been downloadable from www.urbantramper.bandcamp.com and www.amplifier.co.nz from Thursday May 10 but if you’re aching for the real thing then get down to The Front Gallery and Café on Wednesday June 20. Supported by locals Readable Graffiti and Cracked Actor. 8pm.
Sydney indie-art pop-rock powerhouse Dappled Cities will return this Friday August 3 with their fourth album, Lake Air. The record constitutes the first release on HUB The Label: the new partnership between HUB Artist Services and Inertia.
Conceived while living in London and three years in the making, Lake Air is wild, breezy, thrilling, lofty and anything but ordinary. Shedding the imposing and complex sonic layers of their 2009 breakthrough Zounds, the new album apparently showcases a sublime clarity with a sparser, loftier sound than ever before.
If Zounds was the sound of Dappled Cities growing up, Lake Air is the rediscovery of their youth, the reordering of their ambitions and their subsequent reflections on life, death and family. Or that’s what their press release says. It could be lying.
Forming in their teens, Dappled Cities have experienced a meteoric rise over the past decade. That part’s true. Amongst countless accolades, the latter two gathered rave write-ups from critical institutions Pitchfork and Stereogum. Also fact. At home, the band have toured with the likes of TV On The Radio, Death Cab For Cutie and LCD Soundsystem, and played countless festivals including Harvest, Laneway, Big Day Out and Splendour In The Grass. That all happened too. I saw them with TV On The Radio. They were amazing.
Lake Air was recorded in various sessions across Paris, Los Angeles and Sydney and is the first album co-produced by the band themselves with young US producer Jarrad Kritzstein. “It's everything we've ever been,” says Derricourt. “It’s got experimentation, wildness and melody. It gives me the sense that I get every now and again that we could keep doing this for another 20 years – or more.”
That last bit seems excessive but who knows? It could happen. Either way I’m looking forward to the new album. Maybe you are too. Maybe not. God is dead.
As many of you know, The Front is turning seven this month. To kick off their festivities they’ll be launching The Front Gallery and Cafe Community Exhibition on Saturday June 30.
As they write, “We invite anyone who is a patron, customer, exhibitor, musician, staff member, past or present, or anyone else that has some association with The Front to be part of this salon style exhibition.
“We are going to cram the walls with as much art as we can from The Front Community to celebrate seven years of art, music and good times. Even if you have a photo of good times at The Front, a story to write down or a poem to pay tribute, bring it along and we will find a spot for it (even if it's on the back of the toilet door).
“We are accepting works from Monday June 18 to be brought into the gallery. We ask that the works be kept on the smaller side if possible so we can fit as much in as we can. [Talk to Paul if you] need to arrange a plinth or something.
“Works need to have a label with your name, contact, title of work, medium, price (if you want to sell it) and your association with The Front. We will begin to hang the show during the week, so get yours in early!
“Remember The Front takes 30% commission from the sale of works, so keep this in mind when pricing. The exhibition will run for the whole month of July with works to be collected over the weekend of Sat/Sun July 28/29.
“The show will be opening on Saturday June 30, 3pm. There will be a free sausage sizzle, special live music performances throughout the afternoon and evening and other Frontesque happenings!
“This event is also the launch of The Front's long awaited website! Have a sneak peek at frontgallerycafe.com.au.”
So there you have it. Go and fill that little gallery with all the love it deserves.
In 1987 Rick Astley was the biggest and brightest thing happening in pop music.
It was a time of ceaseless copulation and good will.
Rick's first eight singles made the UK top ten and his smash hit Never Gonna Give You Up was number one in 25 countries across the globe.
The globe was united in ecstasy and blinding euphoria.
In 1993, Rick returned with the album Body & Soul. Not wanting to compromise his family life, the album didn’t get the promotion it could have had. Rick felt it was time to ‘hang up his boots’ and retire from the business as a performer.
We cried as one. Many children were stillborn.
Though he continued to write and record music throughout the ‘90s and into the new millennium it was the power of the internet that brought Rick back into the global spotlight. The phenomenon of 'Rickrolling' saw his biggest ever single Never Gonna Give You Up viewed by millions upon millions of people, reigniting public interest.
Hope was born anew and many children were conceived and were strong.
The prank became something of a craze with the story hitting major TV and paper news all around the world making Never Gonna Give You Up one of the most viewed videos on YouTube and Rick one of the world’s best known and loved pop stars as a result.
The time has come to express that love.
Rick will perform at Canberra Theatre on Wednesday November 21. Tickets are available from Monday July 9 (pre-sale Monday July 2) through Canberra Ticketing.
Ahead of a return tour to France where they will share the stage with the likes of Ty Segall and Kid Congo Powers, Bluebottle Kiss frontman Jamie Hutchings and his recently christened backing band The Goldfish Memories (featuring bassist Reuben Wills and drummer Scott Hutchings) will make a rare live appearance over a small run of shows through Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Running through past present and future material including his recently critically acclaimed album Avalon Cassettes as well as giving a hefty nod towards more noise rock-influenced material both from his Bluebottle Kiss days and a forthcoming album this will be one of the rare chances to catch Jamie locally this year.
