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Wednesday, July 31, 2002
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 For 12 Apostles Sports Fans
Jesus Inspirational Sport Statues are the perfect gift for every young Catholic athlete. These statues portray Jesus actively participating with boys and girls in a variety of sports.
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:58] |
UK Mercury Music Prize – Slag Fest Back
It’s back again and it’ll get them arguing, who’s in,who should be in and why on earth are those lot nominated.
It’s the Mercury Music Prize Here are the nominations for 2002.
ROOTS MANUVA Run Come Save Me
DOVES The Last Broadcast
BEVERLEY KNIGHT Who I Am
GEMMA HAYES Night On My Side
THE STREETS Original Pirate Material
THE CORAL The Coral
JOANNA MACGREGOR Play
ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE Holes In The Wall
THE BEES Sunshine Hit Me
GUY BARKER Soundtrack
DAVID BOWIE Heathen
MS. DYNAMITE A Little Deeper
For what it’s worth this apostle goes for the Bees. It’s the only chance anybody from the Isle of Wight has a chance of winning anything, ever. We know that everybody in the UK detests The Streets so that’s my second choice and third I’ll go for The Coral because they’ve injected some Captain Beefheart back into the music scene. As for Bowie and The Doves… No comment.
Let us know your choices and we’ll run our own poll. The winning entry will receive some 12 apostles promo materials in the post and we’ll forward your comments and a 12 promo pack to our choice of winning artist as chosen by you.
We haven’t decided how we’ll choose a winner yet so make sure you give us your reasons and then we’ll ensure a totally arbitrary choice of winner by non-experts
More Charting Stuff
TV Cream the website that explores the rotting carcass of TV world has decided in its wisdom to create a top 100 singles of all time chart as compiled by its contributors and users.
It’s worth checking out as they really have dug deep to remember some quite appalling chartoppers from the past, including: at no 85 St Elmo’s Fire by John Parr and at 66 The Floral Dance by Terry Wogan (I remember hating this with a passion).
Luckily we also get listings such as the fab, Ace of Spades by Motorhead and Ian Dury’s, Reasons to be Cheerful.
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 00:54] |
Monday, July 29, 2002
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Who’s Top of the Pops With the 12 Apostles
Manhattan Apostle Upper East Side
Albums
DJ Shadow - "A Private Press" Very approachable
Oasis - "Heathen Chemistry" So what, it's a grand record and I can't wait to see them
The Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" For title alone never mind the music
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Yeah Yeah Yeahs" (five-track mini CD)
Doves - "The Last Broadcast" What Radiohead can only aspire to, classic classic album
Songs
Pere Ubu - "Slow Walking Daddy" From new "St Arkansas" album
Jasmine Minks - "Daddy Dog" Token Jock selection
Moby - "In This World" Featuring Jennifer Price
Interpol - "Specialist" New York boys, well liked in UK, heading to higher places
Morcheeba - "Women Lose Weight" Very funny number featuring Slick Rick, from new "Charango" album which has another good collaboration with Kurt Wagner - "What New York Couples Fight About"
F.Lo Manhattan Lower West Side
Sailing - Commodores
Brick House - Commodores
It Was a Night - Elvis
Viva Las Vegas - Elvis
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Bondi Apostle
You Won’t Get to No.1 With Satan – Daggers 7" Our sentiments ..exactly
The Parker Tapes – Cassette Boy LP The ultimate in home sampling. Bill Gates is exposed for what he really is
The Beginning Stages of … The Polyphonic Spree LP The most blissful love rock since Screamadelica
Neapolitan Songs - Beniamino Gigli 10" LP Music for the original gangsta's
What I Remember About You – Freddie Maas 12" We say... My Little Red Car for 2002, all we can tell you is that it's made in nyc
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:19] |
New York Stories
I have to say, given that i'm one of the least hip and trendy people I know. I can't report too well on what the latest 'it' thing is here.
In fact, the only hip and trendy thing that I was directly involved in was the massive black-out that we had in downtown nyc on Saturday. By chance, given that I live in downtown , I spent from around 12 to around 8 on saturday without any electricity, which on a hot summer day is kind of no fun. It's weird how reliant we are on electricity, I live on the 14th flr and I literally felt like repunzelle (or however you spell that chick's name). We had no elevators, no lights in the hallway, no lights in the stairwells, nothing and our only form of communication was our cell phones, which were running out of juice and which we couldn't do anything about. It was
spooky and given that the con ed building had blown up. I, at least, was under the impression that we were under attack again.
Also went to Shakespeare in the park. Good,.. but the it girl who was in it, whose name has temporarily slipped my mind, sucked.
I am looking for an apt, a very it thing to do in ny, but I hate it. I want one to materialize and i've spent a lot of time at train stations and airports, for delayed transportation vehicles. that's not that it
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| [posted in Manhattan 2:: New York at 06:58] |
Friday, July 26, 2002
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What Is Music Festival - Sydney
On Tuesday night Bondi apostle and companion attended one of the What Is Music festival events at the Pact theatre in Erskinville, Sydney.
Musicians associated with the imp-ermanent audio collective played a series of short sets showcasing their electronic styles for 2002.
First up, we’ll admit we only stayed for the first part of the show and only caught the first three acts. So, apologies to tetuzi akiyama, toshimaru nakamura and gunter muller.
First up, mac user and obvious orb fan, Ai Yamamoto from Melbourne. She played a number of dreamy computer generated pieces, inspired we suggest by the likes of FSOL, the Orb and Mixmaster Morris accompanied by flash inspired visuals. The odd mobile phone sample and internet junk sounds added to the mix. Interesting, yet it didn’t really take us aywhere.
Next was ex Sydneysider, now based in London, Anthony Guerra. A guitar, various samplers and some other accoutrements hidden behind a table combined to create a piece that sounded not too disimilar to The End. Instead of a crooning Morisson at the start we got a slow build up of snaps, crackles and sampled pieces and then slowly distorted guitar parts began to add to the pattern. Around 15 minutes in I expected Mr Guerra to jump up, all leather clad, and declare what horrible things he had in store for his parents, but instead the piece suddenly came to a grinding halt.
Finally, Melbourne duo Snawklor who can only be described as the perfect bedroom rockers, or in this case electronickers . They performed three pieces, using old skool computers. The third not as shit as the first two, their words not mine. Here the influences ranged from Ninja Tune & Mo Wax to elements of The Boards of Canada. At the end of the second piece performed, I found myself clapping and I didn’t know why…
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:32] |
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
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Winamp.com Staff Review 12 Apostles Skin
Winamp.com staff have reviewed the 12 apostles skin. They've written, this really kicks the LLama'a ass. The 12 aren't sure but we think it might be valley speak for... it's pretty good
See for your self here and add your comments.
We believe that the only way to mix your music online is with the help of the man and his 12 on the decks. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 00:10] |
Monday, July 22, 2002
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Sunday Worship
Bondi apostle spent Sunday worshipping at the altar of music and found the evening service sadly lacking.
First up it was off to the Brett Whitely studio for an afternoon of experimentation at the What is Music festival which has been making its way around Australia with local and international musicians creating something new for their listening audience.
Firstly we got a pair of twentysomethings who’d just walked out of a bis rehersal but sadly gave us a rather ponderous piece which set in this apostle’s mind, the cities of Warsaw or Vilnius circa 1978-82. After 10 minutes all I could picture was the colour grey and appalling architecture… maybe that was the idea.
Second up was the wonderful Sue Harding, from that cultural centre of Australia, Wagga Wagga, with her piece, Dot Matrix. In which the combined sounds of 5 dot matrix printers all amplified and printing out different messages wove togther to create a coherent piece of music. It was obvious that more than five minutes had been spent creating this piece and the listener was taken through a number of small movements all pieced together with a very lo-fi 4/4 beat to shift us from one section to another. I take my hat off to someone who can in the first instance get 5 printers to actually work for half an hour and then at the same time create a music that actually engages the listener.
Evening service was to be the highlight of the day, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Metro. Repeatedly the media in the first few months of this year have sung the praises of this band. Real Rock ‘n’ Roll re-discovered by three young men from San Francisco. What a load of garbage, fellow attendees agreed at the end of the performance that this was the lamest band we’d seen in the last two to three years. Yes, they have that song, and yes it’s a great song but the rest of it was rubbish. The Budweiser version of rock, lots of it but however much you have it doesn’t do a thing. Things that annoyed us about BRMC were: they had to try and look like the first incarnation of JAMC with a floppy haired Bobby on drums, no passion and they even do the Sisters of Mercy a disservice with their take on underground eighties rock. They sing about Jesus and Rock’n’Roll but they are only Judas to us.
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:35] |
Friday, July 19, 2002
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Rip it up
Its always pleasing when someone has a good idea, executes it with style and aplomb and gets some recognition - which is exactly the score at apt. in NYC, where they are pioneering the art of the live i-Pod mix. Read all about it over at Wired News. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 10:00] |
Pope Accepts Gift From 12 Apostles Emissary
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has recently been in Europe, and on behalf of the 12 Apostles he presented his holiness the Pope a 12 Apostles promo pack which included amongst other things: a t-shirt, the DJ Fuckwit CD, Preaching The Crucial Beats and some holy water from Bondi beach.
It is understood the Pope was pleased to accept the gifts and couldn't wait to get back to the privacy of his chambers to try on the t-shirt.
Vatican officials informed the Australian Prime Minister that they 'd like to be on the mailing list for DJ Fuckwit's new CD God Told Me and receive promo copies to bless before the official release date.
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 03:02] |
Thursday, July 18, 2002
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Christian Idiocy Exposed Online
We haven't exposed our readership to any religious dogma recently. Here's a place that dedicates its online existence to the stupidity of some of our Christian bretheren, The Jesus Museum . They've decided to invesitigate and collate some of the more bizarre antics of our saved friends.
They may well want to add Crazy For Christ to the list. Here at the apostles we found out about them because the Saudi's have used internet filtering to keep these infidels as far away from Mecca as possible. Here at the 12 we reckon their appalling fashion sense and scary smiles are cause enough for censorship. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:52] |
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
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"Oh, how beautiful it is to live - and live a thousand times over!" -LvB
News reaches The Apostles of a re-working of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that is now available for all to enjoy on line courtesy of the Norwegian Network for Technology, Acoustics and Music (notam). The original piece has been stretched to occupy 24 hours and the resulting whole broken down into handy 80 minute chunks. This Apostle has been steadily working through it for the last couple of days and has got to report that it is eminently listenable to and has on more than one occasion bought the pioneering guitar symphonies of New York's Glen Branca to mind.
Here at The 12 Apostles we salute this kind of creative deconstruction of the classics and look forward to someone somewhere staging the 9BeetStretch live.
Interesting fact: It is often cited that the 74 minute maximum length of CDs is because this is the time needed to hold all of a (non-stretched) recording of Beethoven's 9th. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 13:55] |
Highly Evolved - Aussie Music TV
In the UK it's Top of the Pop's and pure bubblegum, year in year out. In the US it's MTV, except they never play music. Instead we get to follow the fortunes of spoilt rich kids on botox and prozac in endless mindless reality tv shows which usually involve vans and people talking about their feelings.
For some strange reason, maybe it's the distance, we get great music tv in Aus.
Rage is, and has been the best place to watch music on the TV anywhere in the world, for over 20 years. Every Friday and Saturday night the late hours are dedicated to music and it's on Rage that this apostle saw Madonna for the first time, it's the only music TV that's shown me The Standells or given me over an hour of Sonic Youth videos .
For all aspiring musicians, video makers and A&R types, you can get a pretty even chance of having your video shown on national Australian tv by sending your artistry to them.
John Safran of SBS show music jamboree recently proved this point by attaching a video camera to his dog's head, sending the poor mutt around for a few hours and then adding some sub electro funk as a soundtrack to the result, and yes, rage showed the video.
Safran's half hour show on a Monday night, takes the music industry and gives it a good whupping. A master of the set up, this apostles' favourite so far is his destruction of the credibility of a trendy Melbourne nightclub. He sends some nice boys around to a club well known for not letting in the riff raff. Not suprisingly the boys don't get past the velvet rope .
The following day he rings the club up and tells them that he's A&R for Slipknot and can he bring them down this evening. The lads all dressed up in "Knot" style saunter in and the hidden camera follows them into the club which they then proceed to trash. Great voyeuristic TV .
There's one more piece of genius music tv on Channel V, the fabulous Room 208 where the producers get a bunch of excited boys and girls in their late teens and get them to dance to bad house music in a very small room with the opportunity to win $1000. Hosted by a pretty boy a pretty girl and Claire de Lune, a transvesite with a french accent to be believed.There's always some cooking scene going on, this week it was crepes. It's totally Sydney and not to be missed if you're in town. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:23] |
Monday, July 15, 2002
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Super. Furry animals
Last Wednesday night saw a full house down at The Astoria for the welcome return to London of both Bob Mould and The Flaming Lips. First up was our man Mould who having seemingly dispensed with the notion of playing as part of a band set about axing and singing his way across a series of backing tracks at a steady pace. The resulting sound was sharp and engaging and seemed to be a swing back towards the purity and precision of Husker Du and away from the more laboured Sugar style output of his more recent incarnations. The lack of accompanying musicians on stage gave Bob plenty of opportunity for pacing the boards while ringing the neck of his guitar in true bedroom guitarist manner. The songs were accompanied by some great visuals - that for a change actually seemed to bear more than a passing relationship to what was happening on stage - including one which relied on word perfect synchronisation between vocals and text based projections.
The Flaming Lips are a band who ooze self-confidence, a clear vision of what they want to achieve and an innate appreciation of how to please their crowd. Their avant-art credentials are never in doubt from the moment that two thirds of the band emerge on stage clad in giant rabbit costumes, accompanied by an equally plush frog and bear who are on giant glitter filled balloon dispensing duty. They waste no time in embarking on a succession of choice tracks from The Soft Bulletin and it soon becomes clear that any cuts from the newly released Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots album are going to be carefully spaced between known and loved crowd pleasers. Whilst being slightly disappointed by this retro-focus to the show it does provide ample opportunities to marvel again at the pop sensibility and polish of tracks like Spark that bled and Feeling yourself Disintegrate. What does get played from the new album sounds great - the same swirling dynamic and lyrical sweep that pervaded the Soft Bulletin is out in force in tracks like Do You Realize. The band's ability to surprise is effortlessly proved by the inclusion of a superb version of Kylie's monster hit 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' gets re-configured to a funeral march pace whilst a blurry video of a naked woman throwing a frisbee loops round, given the whole thing a elegiac quality that was, one suspects, never intended in the hi-energy original.
Go by the album, go see the show. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 16:12] |
Saturday, July 13, 2002
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XFM Album of the Week - Yet Again Apostles First to Call
The Apostles would just like to bring to your attention this week's XFM Album to top their playlist, and remind you that as always, we were there first....see our archive for further information.
XFM album of the week
The Polyphonic Spree - the beginning stages of...the polyphonic spree - Big pop music for today. The symphonic 25 piece pop band known as The Polyphonic Spree delivers their huge sound and lush arrangements on this 10 section debut album.think the eloborate pop of penny lane, and pet sounds.this album is the next big thing.believe us |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 03:12] |
Recording Biz Gets Nasty Online
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the music industry has a couple of contractors flooding mp3 file servers KaZaa, Morpheus and others file with bogus files .
It appears that the trick is to dump files full of static and noise or have Perry Como labeled as U2, etc. The Wall St Journal reporter downloaded 20 random copies of Creed's "My Sacrifice" who's listening to that! and 14 of them, including copies labeled "Not Fake," played , "pops, cracks and other clatter," while only 6 were real. Some of the downloads are also redirecting individual browsers to an authorized online retailer.
12 Apostles says.. terrorist activity only works if you are fighting against the system.
We envisage some programmers will soon turn the game back on the record companies and their contractors and we look forward to it happening. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 03:03] |
Friday, July 12, 2002
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The Sold Out sell out
Time for a moan. No, we're not adding fuel to the Ticketmaster fire (although we bloody well could as those bastards make as much ill-gotten profit in New York as they do in London), but it is time to highlight another ticketing scam highly prevalent in Manhattan: gigs that "sell out" without going on sale. The latest example of this highly irritating and ultimately costly scheme arose a few weeks ago when The Vines (yes, yes them again, but we told you so) announced they were returning to the Big Apple. Their debut here last year took the form of an "industry night" at the intimate Mercury Lounge and the word was good.
That word increased awareness of the young Aussie upstarts and so the announcement of next week's Bowery Ballroom gig produced a buzz of interest. But the word rapidly turned bad when it turned out not one of the 800 tickets went on sale to the public. Even Ticketweb, the slightly less sinister peer of Ticketmaster which handles the Bowery, had none. Where did they go? Straight into the hands of those industry insiders and from there on to eBay.
The Apostles like to be in attendance for important events, and The Vines bravely bringing their guitars into the lair of The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Television ........ The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, qualifies as such. So we paid our $55 for a $15 ticket, a bargain no doubt to what will be exchanged on July 17.
Lets not be too hard on eBay though as it provides a highly valuable service where tickets can invariably be purchased for most shows at short notice. Our gripe is with the greedy promoters and their record company/journalist friends who pass on tickets to elements more interested in making a fast buck than the music. |
| [posted in Manhattan :: New York at 03:42] |
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
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The Vines - So Where Did They Cut Their Teeth?
You'll all be reading about The Vines now. According to the musicaratti we are now being delivered the missing link between the Beatles and Nirvana. Yes,... the first single is pretty good and at the 12 we hope the album is enjoyable.
This is as a good an excuse as any for your bondi apostle to sing the praises of the Sydney pub scene where the Vines played a few gigs before being whisked of to LA.
Unlike London or NY, we are lucky, as we have plenty of grungy little pubs where you can see good, bad or indifferent acts for next to nothing. The glory days, as any middle aged Sydneysider will tell you were the late 70's and early 80's when you could see INXS along with another 30 or so pissed idiots. By the late 80's, early 90's pubs were closing all over the place and as the likes of your correspondent disapeared into Alexandria's disused warehouses for dance parties as they are called here. In Sydney we concentrate on dancing rather than raving, posing or as you see in most london clubs, just standing. The pubs stuttered on during this period with diehards like the cultish Beasts of Bourbon, carrying on the scene.
Now the pub venue seems to be back with a vengeance.
The Hopetoun in Surrey Hills returned to what it does best a couple of years ago with bands 6 nights a week and on Sundays the all day Frigid which mixes it up weird like, all day, with local dj's Sub Bass Snarl and Sir Robbo doing their thing as they have for the past 18 months. Coming up soon is Mick Hart and The Lucksmiths, they're big in Spain we've heard.
Another pub for that real Sydney experience, is the Annandale. They've just upgraded the sound system, so we can actually hear Ed Kuepper and the Sick Puppies over the next week.
In Erskinville not too far away we have, The Rose of Australia, latest base for Jackie Orszaczky & Friends who have been gigging around Sydney for over a quarter of a century. Or how about popping back to the Excelsior in Surry Hills which seems to put a lot of shouty types and rockabilly's on their stage. At the Vic on the Park, Bladder Control and The Villains are playing. On the northside its Machine Gun Fellatio at Fisho's in Manly and back in the city just down from King's Cross on William St is Club77. In its latest reincarnation its become a band venue four nights a week. For NY A&R types you should be checking the Fauves there in August.
All we need is the Sando in Newtown to start with decent bands again... and the glory days will be back. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:54] |
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
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John Cale & the Boredoms Double Bill At The Royal Festival Hall
This Saturday 13 July at 8.00pm at Royal Festival Hall south bank, Japanese thrash stars the Boredoms roll into town for one night only. Experimental rock/punk/tribal shamanism tinged with more than a hint of surrealism, The Boredoms beautifully crafted chaos has been admired for the past two decades, with John Zorn, Julian Cope and Sonic Youth amongst their many fans. Few artists display such head-first propulsive madness. And also visionaryJohn Cale headlines the evening . The dark star of the Velvet Underground, the producer of the Stooges, Squeeze, the Modern Lovers and Patti Smith, Cale also has an unparalleled reputation as a songwriter and experimentalist.
This Apostle won't be able to make it, but hopes others can. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:35] |
Monday, July 08, 2002
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Jacko Feels 12 Apostles Vibe
The king of pop Michael Jackson is at loggerheads with the music industry and has discovered civil rights appearing with Al Sharpton yesterday. Is this anything to do with his proximity to one of the 12 apostles only a few weeks ago.
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 09:30] |
We Love 2many DJ's
Belgium Rocks !
2manydj's do the bootleg thing with the most humour and although we gather from the music mafia that bootlegs are on the way out, we'll stick with their CD and website because they make us rock and laugh at the same time.
Take a quick look at their site to see who refused them permission on samples and even better, who they decided not to include.
For those of you who haven't come across the CD yet, all they've done is take a bit of everything and mashed it up into one long danceathon. From todays darlings, Peaches to original hi-energy queen Bobby Orlando and then how about The Cramps, or The Residents and always with enough 4/4 to the floor to keep you moving.
The early Big Beat scene were thinking along the same lines back in '95 but somehow the PoP was lost and all we ended up with was too many mashed up beats competing with one another so the effect wasn't unlike listening to a building site.
Here's the latest top ten tunes at the 2manydjs website.. we'll carry on tuning in.
dahlback and krome - dk sex (vaginal mix)
lcd soundsysytem - losing my edge
queens of the stoneage - first it giveth
alec empire - addicted to you
blackstrobe - me+madonna
adam & the ants - deutscher girls
aphrohead - kazoo (glitz mix)
res- golden boys
elvis costello - 45
adam green - apples, i'm home |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 08:24] |
Sunday, July 07, 2002
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For those about to mock...
Worrying sounds have been emerging from the Pet Shop Boys (for want of a better word) camp. The erstwhile anti-stadia rock militants and full-time godfathers of the electro-clash movement - beloved of the secret order of the Apostles - have been seen with guitars! For those who came to mourn the passing of the Fairlight's and Moog's it was a case of their demise being greatly exaggerated.
After the relative failure of the West End musical project and gay-disco-stompers by numbers approach of Nightlife the Boys have reinvented themselves as 'Behaviour' period Pet Shop Boys. An interesting choice as that long-player was often seen as commercial suicide but did spawn one of the greatest songs of their catalogue, 'Being Boring'. Tonight - in front of a packed, sweaty and enthusiastic Brixton gathering - 'Being Boring' gets thrown in two songs into the set. It's as if Michelangelo had offered the Sistine Chapel up to his employers as a 'buy one, get one free' deal.
Despite the new stuff sounding better live than it did on the recent 'Release' the gig really kicked off when the disco classics get rolled out. Domino Dancing sounding like a sun drenched Ibiza rapidly followed by the camp japery of U2's 'Where the Streets have No Name'. Then it strikes you how remarkable the Pet Shop Boys are when we are reunited with ‘West End Girls’. A number one hit 'in all territories' that refers to Lenin's return to pre-revolutionary Russia. Can you ever imagine this from the world of Pop Idols/Stars? No, of course you can't. The Pet Shop Boys have always exuded such recherché charms. And if they are to be the godfathers of any movement let's hope this is the element that is embraced. You get the feeling that Fischerspooner would sell their sequined jock-strap (though maybe not their socks) just for one song as complete as 'Rent'.
The Boys departed the stage after a storming 'Go West' and the prowling white-boy rap of 'Left to My Own Devices'. It had been a thrilling affair and a reminder of how life-affirming the humble gig can be. I left thinking of a quote from Chris Lowe on the demise of Steps.
"When Steps split up, they went, 'Oh, we wanted to end while we were on top.' I think, what's that got to do with it? Do you like doing it or do you not like doing it? This whole 'We wanted to end at our peak' thing - it's bollocks. Either you enjoy making music or you don't; it's not something you can opt out of. They just regard it as some bloody stupid career."
Take them to your hearts.
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| [posted in Lancashire :: UK at 15:33] |
God Made Me Hardcore
There's a new label in town, God Made Me Hardcore. Behind it, we are led to believe, is former Grid man, Richard Norris.
12 Apostles are aware of 2 releases, both 7" .
The style is.... take an eighties favourite and apply new electro pop sensibilities. The 12 note that many music journo's around the world decry this new musical movement as though there is nothing positive to take from the eighties.
These people are the successors of the many music journalists we had to read in 1989/90 who told us that dance music was mindless repetitive crap and that House would never last beyond Christmas 1990. All we say to these miserable people is "get used to it" and while you're at it enjoy yourselves and smile.... stop being so goth like.
The two releases are:
Moon Unit Whip It / Drop The Bomb
The Droyds Take Me I'm Yours / Girls on Pills
Our only complaint about these releasesis the cover art... women in Bikini's and busty tops with nipples showing... really, it's not ironic anymore. All it is, is ghetto rap imagery with Wallpaper sensibility.
If you can't find these items anywhere email them at info@iamhardcore or tel +44 (0)207 265 9595 |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 00:11] |
Thursday, July 04, 2002
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Here We Go Again
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Music Industry May Sue People Abetting Internet Song Swapping
We all know what the article goes on to say but here's a few excerpts to give you a taste
Major music companies are preparing to mount a broad new attack on unauthorized online song-swapping. The campaign would include suits against individuals who are offering the largest troves of songs on peer-to-peer services.
The big recording companies, working through their trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America, are moving toward filing copyright lawsuits that would target the highest volume song providers within the services, which allow people to grab songs without paying artists or labels, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The suits would be part of a broader effort, including a public campaign that may feature prominent artists urging music fans to respect copyright rules......
Top record-label executives agreed in a trade association meeting a few weeks ago that they would move toward preparing suits that would focus on individuals who supply the biggest amounts of music, as well as so-called "supernodes," or people who provide the centralized directories that enable online music-sharing. According to people with knowledge of the matter, two of the strongest backers of the tough tactics have been the biggest music companies, the recording units of Vivendi Universal SA and Sony Corp.
Blah ... Blah ... Blah..
Firstly, let's not worry too much about Vivendi, looks as though they are about to enter Worldcom territory and the lawyers..., they probably all download anyway.
Secondly, why do they bother trying to kill all new developments. If they knock down a few companies or individuals some more will pop up with increasingly clever software and newer concepts than the previous group of file sharers. It's the way the world operates, if people can get something for nothing, they will.
Overpriced CD's in stores less exciting than Walmart or Marks & Spencer, come on people... work it out.
As for Quisling artists... who are they going to roll out...? puff diddy daddy, Celine on her comeback and Sir Mick of wherever.
Guess what. I could have written this last year and somebody will be writing the same thing in 2003,04,05 ad infinitum .
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 05:01] |
Deep Dish Live In New York
Our Sometimes Correspondent .F. Reports On Her Experience
I'm not sure if i'd call standing in the middle of a packed warehouse space with a bunch of x-'d out 20 year olds cool. It was an experience. Not sure if it will be repeated any time soon. The music was as one would imagine. Good, but in the thumping sort of way, with a lot of fancy mixing.
Coffee beforehand was good. That was enjoyable.
Let's face it, i'm just a geek. and this point was driven home, repeatedly.
Gone are the days of all night raves. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 00:07] |
Monday, July 01, 2002
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Reports From Around The World - Part 1
Bondi Apostle has returned to the beach after a few weeks of tripping around the world. Over the next week or so this member of the 12 will report on some of the highlights and the lowlights of his journey into temptation.
A definite highlight was a free concert Saturday before last at the Royal Festival Hall by Texas collective The Polyphonic Spree.
Already name checked by those in the know at Rough Trade records plus mentions in the Guardian and the New York Times indicate that the latest future of rock'n'roll is already with us. As much as some of us at the 12 adore the new pop electro and the Jeff Koons cabaret act of Fischerspooner or the new pop rock of the Hives; here are a bunch of people who are doing something a little different.
Those of us who loved Screamadelica and the ongoing works of Jason Pierce will fall in love with these guys. Take one part Come Together by The Scream, two parts Cool Waves by Spiritualized and then add Mercury Rev voice and Godspell choirs and you're halfway there.
For the hippies amongst us there are plenty of songs about sunshine, love and assorted happy and good things.
This sort of thing always tends to upset "serious" music lovers, people who describe themselves as "mentallist" and boring trainspotter types into post rock and / or endless derivations of house.
Not only do they sound good they look good. There's dozens of them up there, playing guitars, drums, violins, a Hammond and a flugelhorn and then there's the choir all dressed up in Heaven's Gate chic.
I haven't even heard any recorded stuff yet and I love 'em. You should too
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| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 08:06] |
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