12 Apostles News

Monday, September 30, 2002

Mother In Law Rock .

You�ve heard of Dad Rock� well last night this apostle experienced Mother in Law Rock.

Joe Cocker, the live experience. He played all the hits and if you�ve ever wondered what Up Where We Belong sounds like live � well suffice to say� just like it did on Top of the Pops all those years ago, terrible.

The band did their stuff west coast style, the sax player looked like and I�m sorry Joe but I kept thinking that I was listening to a singing.......

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:16]

Right of Reply

For the regular readers of the 12 news, you'll know that bondi apostle recently praised the much hyped Vines

Attending the same show was friend and miserabalist , moody apostle. Here's a reply to bondi apostle's excited warblings.

Bubble Grunge

The more I think about The Vines the more I think they are a bunch of triehards. So when I saw your comments on 12-A I just had to laugh:
"Here's a singer that has mastered the rock�n�roll scream and can use it to devastating effect in a song, so much so that this apostle found himself wishing he'd get on with a couple of the songs so we�d get to the scream bit at the end. " Bollocks. It didn't get near a primal scream, more like a primal whinge. If he could hold a scream it would be one thing, but most of the time he sounded like a parrot being strangled. This boy works hard to make you believe that he is drawing on years of depression and torment when all likelihood the most traumatic experience in his life was flunking out of first year uni because he smoked too much dope. This boy has had so much smoke blown up his arse that he is actually beginning to believe that the soul of Kurt Cobain passed into his body when a bullet passed through Cobain's head. The reality is that this band has "A&R creation" written all over it. They should spend more time at the coalface of Australian pub music and develop serious drug and mental problems and less time listening to old Nirvana and Beatles records with a notepad and guitar. The giveaway was the look of disgust on the drummer and bassist's faces when Nicholls went into his "unscripted" set demolition at the end of the set. They'd seen it too many times before and thought their lead singer was just an ego-tripping wanker.

Do the terms "Oasis" and "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" mean anything ?

Remember - disagree with the 12? That's fine let us know and we'll publish

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:47]

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Blag it!

Thursday night saw the launch of How to DJ [Properly] by Frank Broughton & Bill Brewster at a fashionable watering hole in London's Old Street, and one of the Apostles crew was in da house to join in the celebrations. Broughton and Brewster are the duo who wrote the well regarded history of contemporary DJ'ing Last Night A DJ Saved My Life a few years ago. The new book covers everything the aspiring turntabalist needs to know about including buying music and equipment, beat matching, scratching, mixing CDs and MP3s as well as tips on how to release the hit record once you have made it.

The book is also well stocked with wise words from some of the current big names, including this pointer from Norman Cook on building a record collection:

"I look for hair styles and beards on a band. If they've got long hair and beards they're likely to make better records. Especially those big seventies bands with eight of them in - half white, half black and they look like they all take acid"

[posted in Bow :: London at 18:04]

Saturday, September 28, 2002

Leg it!

Fans of the whole plunderbootlegging gig should check out this article at C21 magazine. As well as a good overview of the uploadphonix scene there is an accompanying 70 min MP3/Real Audio mix featuring some great examples of the art including the excellent Skeelo vs. Eye of the Tiger Soulwax and the cinematic homage that is Clockwork Orange vs. Taxi Driver.

[posted in Bow :: London at 10:44]

Friday, September 27, 2002

A Week of Mayhem & Angst in Sydney .

It�s been a week of angst and mayhem for middle class anglo boys this week in Sydney.

It all started mid week with the now infamous bondi beach riot where local private schoolboys went on the rampage after a drinking session at one of the local pub/clubs. Cars were trashed, bins hurled through the surf club window and police having to subdue the lads with capsicum spray set the chattering classes all a flutter with the state of society etc etc�. a change from targetting the Lebanese or Vietnamese kids out in the wild west(ern) �burbs.

What better way,then, to round the week off than attend the free Vines show at Fox studios in the heart of Sydney�s smart eastern suburbs.

The Vines have returned from whence they came.

Teenage girls still in their school uniform screaming for Craig and moody boys in jeans, oversized business shirts and skinny ties. Move an inch and you�ll trip over a skateboard.

The gig was all part of local cable TV channel�s show so we all had to suffer a couple of hours of mindless videos by the likes of Rancid, Justin Timberlake and other assorted faux R�n�B stars before arriving at the main course.

In the space of 50 minutes we get the full set with all the hallmarks of a classic rock�n�roll show. The short sharp garage bursts of Highly Evolved and Get Free are pure magic. Here�s a singer that has mastered the rock�n�roll scream and can use it to devastating effect in a song, so much so that this apostle found himself wishing he�d get on with a couple of the songs so we�d get to the scream bit at the end.

For the most part the set was tight with a sound that Bobby and the boys seem need an entire orchestra of guitar players to get these days. But be warned, elements of bombastic Silverchair began to creep into a couple of the songs� and as for that Ms Jackson cover� that song has always pissed of this apostle� don�t apologise to the girls� mother apologise to her.

Like any good spunky young band we got the end of set stage trash routine�normally this can be a bit dull but one got the feeling that Craig wasn�t too aware that he was doing it, which we think is pretty cool. Who�d have ever thought it� Cronulla rocks.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 22:10]

DIY Lollapalooza

Thinking of booking a band for that party you're planning but don't know how much it will cost you? Well here is a list of how much various rock n' roll outfits will charge you for the pleasure of their company. Interesting to note that you can put together your own Lollapalooza featuring Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, The Violent Femmes, Run DMC, DJ Shadow, David Holmes, Built to Spill, Bob Mould and The Mouldy Peaches for what it would cost to book Bob Dylan.

Then again if your budget isn't that big it seems that Vanilla Ice is only $5K...

[posted in Bow :: London at 13:09]

My Perfect Reception

In a welcome change from the familiar tale of faded pop stars eking out a existence in the shadows of the spotlight doing tours of sea-side concert halls, former Undertone Feargal Sharkey has been appointed the government's radio regulator for Northern Ireland.

Mr Sharkey will assume responsibility for radio licensing applications, programming regulation and advertising issues apparently put the following under the previous experience section of his application form: "had a few hits, done a few tours".

[posted in Bow :: London at 09:50]

Thursday, September 26, 2002

Labelled with love

Looks like the ICA is going to be a popular location as the London winter nights draw in. During October they will be hosting Labelled - a season of live shows celebrating independent label culture (yee hi!). Featured labels include Domino, Tsk! Tsk!, Too Pure, 4AD, Track and Field, Peace Corps and Moshi Moshi whilst the bands include The Kills, Murcof, Quickspace and Minotaur Shock.

Meanwhile, if you fancy something on the heavy side then San Franciscan sonic champions Oxbow, "featuring the eroticised presence of vocalist Eugene Robinson" are going to be at the ICA this Sunday. Nice to see the ICA putting on some decent gigs for a change - rather than the all to regular appearance of Jarvis Cocker and his mates (who subjected the audience to a crushingly inept and banal support slot at last Sunday's otherwise excellent Lee Hazelwood gig at the South Bank).

[posted in Bow :: London at 21:27]

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Silence Plagiarism Case Settled .

The copyright dispute over two pieces of silence, one by American avant-garde composer John Cage and the other by a composer best known for novelty tunes, has been settled, Cage's publishers said on Monday.

Mike Batt was accused of plagiarism by Edition Peters, publishers of the late Composer's work, after he had put a track called "A Minute's Silence" on his latest album "Classical Graffiti," performed by pop-classics group The Planets. The
piece was credited it to Batt/Cage.

Cage's ground-breaking silent composition, 4'33 " was first performed half a century ago. The piano piece, divided into three movements, consists entirely of silent notes and takes four minutes 33 seconds to perform.

Nicholas Riddle, managing director of Peters, told Reuters Batt had paid an "adequate sum" to the John Cage Trust by way of settlement.
"It's been very gentlemanly. We haven't called each other names or anything like that," Riddle said. "Of course he was a very humorful person and I think he would have seen the funny side of what Batt was doing," Riddle said of Cage, who once famously said: "I have nothing to say and I'm saying it."

"The struggle was one of the most amusing disputes I've ever, er, disputed,"

"I'm sure John Cage had a dry sense of humor, and would have loved the spectacle of The Planets being all over the press protesting that their (my) silence was original silence and not a quotation from his silence," he added.

Earlier this year, the parties attempted to prove their points by each staging a performance of their piece. The result was inconclusive.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 09:10]

Some Great Copyright Infringement Links

Recently on the Cyberia list, (tech issues for lawyers) somebody in the US asked a question about 45�s� it�s good to see that even those with a legal bent, academics and professionals have a love for the vinyl as we do at the 12 and many stories were told of educating the youngsters about the glory of the format.

The assorted lawyers and academics also let us into some great copyright and music infringement links � read and enjoy

CD manufacturer refuses to process Negativeland�s CD

James Boyle and his piece the relations of reproduction in the TLS in 1997
Extract This is not exclusively an information-age issue and the law of intellectual property is not the only answer to the question. Renaissance guilds guarded the secrets of their technology behind apprenticeships, restrictive contracts and arcane initiation ceremonies. Elizabethan theatres hired bouncers to eject those found copying down the words of a play. (A less dangerous method of filching a new script was to get an actor drunk and then just wait for the inevitable recitation of his lines. It does one's heart good to think that, four hundred years later, worthy scholars would be scratching their heads over sack-induced variations in competing versions of Marlowe or Shakespeare.

Or how about When you pirate mp3�s you are downloading communism

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 02:45]

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Trading place

News reaches the Apostle's Bow HQ of a new Yahoo!Group dedicated to anyone out there who is interested in collecting or trading sounds. SoundTraderz is looking for people who are interested in swapping and acquiring the following:-
ø CDs, CDRs, vinyl, minidisc, cassettes (original or copy)
ø Raw sounds (field recordings etc.)
ø Interesting websites where MP3 files can be downloaded.
If you want to subscribe send a blank email to:soundtraderz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and if you want a daily digest, or to view all messages online, then go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soundtraderz/.

[posted in Bow :: London at 20:26]

Sunday, September 22, 2002

Tales from the city

The recent In The City symposium in Manchester gave the music industry heavyweights yet another opportunity for a bit of navel gazing on the vexing issue of how to reconcile sincerity with greed. In addition to producing a new symbol to grace CD packaging that indicates the disk is copy protected they are also keen to embark on a programme to combat perceptions among young people that music should be free. This is a tricky issue for the marketing folks at these companies who spend a vast amount of time and effort thinking of new ways to use free music to support the promotion of whichever manufactured outfit they are currently trying to push. Its no wonder the kids are confused about the value of music�

On the subject of copy-protected format whatever happened to the much vaunted SDMI (secure digital music initiative) that was all the rage a few years ago. Seems it is currently in limbo.

[posted in Bow :: London at 15:54]

Thrill seeking

Amongst the fun on offer at last Sunday's celebrations of ten years of Thrill Jockey records at Ocean were some highly entertaining short films featuring various people waxing lyrical about thrilling musical moments that had played a part in their own creative development. A particular favourite of this apostle was Thurston Moore recounting his trip to CBGBs where he ended up hiding under a table as Suicide's Alan Vega terrorised the crowd. I don't know if Thrill Jockey have any plans to do anything further with the films but if you get the chance to see them - its well worth it.

[posted in Bow :: London at 15:47]

Saturday, September 21, 2002

Audio tools

Anyone interested in making electronic music or creating audio art should add databaseaudio to their browser favourites. The site lists and provides links to a mass of freeware applications, plug-ins and online instruments for Mac, Windows and Linux users. An excellent resource and well worth supporting.

[posted in Bow :: London at 13:03]

Friday, September 20, 2002

Look Out UK �Rocket Science Are Coming

Your Bondi apostle just popped down to Channel V studios in the Sydney showgrounds to check out Melbourne�s latest rockers, Rocket Science.
They only played a couple of tunes, but we learnt pretty quickly that these guys can rock.
They are off to the UK in a few weeks to support Supergrass on their upcoming tour. Watch out the Vines� the NME may soon forget you for these guys, they aint so clean and haven�t been tarnished by LA or New York� they still have that Melbourne thing about them and their singer / farsifa player could be the 21st century incarnation of Chris Bailey.
Next week's free gig is the Vines.. so we'll check back and compare for you

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:37]

Thursday, September 19, 2002

No sleep 'till breakfast

Initially started by widely acclaimed composer Terry Riley (composer of the seminal 'In C' and all-round head - don't believe us? just check out his web site) as "as a daily practice to, in a small way, contribute to world peace," Awakening has now blossomed into an all-night vigil for peace between 10pm on October 2nd and 10am on October 3rd happening simultaneously at iEAR New York and Nevada City, California. The event will feature "a wide variety of music, performance, dance, spoken word, and much more".

To quote Utah Phillips (one of the organizers of the Nevada City vigil along with Terry Riley and Mikail Graham) in reference to those that would promote war: "Yes, 12 hours is a long sit. But remember, they fight with money and we fight with time. And they're going to run out of money before we run out of time... We can do it if we work together and STAY AWAKE."

[posted in Bow :: London at 21:30]

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Sydney DJ�s Embroiled In Remix & SMS Fiasco With Record Companies

This is great stuff, unhappy record companies, DJ�s SMS�ing threats to record company staff and of course lawyers---ah those heady days of rock�n�roll are back.

Three music companies have launched court action to stop what they claim is the theft of their dance music by some of Sydney's leading DJs and an independent record label. Central Station Records, Sony Music and Universal Music allege that DJs Pee Wee Ferris Captain Kirk and Nik Fish and an independent record label have improperly used tracks to which they hold the rights.

In the Australian Federal Court on Friday the record companies sought an interim order from Justice Peter Jacobson stopping the production and distribution of seven CDs featuring 12 allegedly unauthorised tracks.

Documents tendered to the court said the discs - which feature Ferris, Fish, Kirk and other DJs remixing other artists' songs -made unlicensed use of tracks by international performers including Kai Tracid and Reloop�. Who the hell are they?

The Lawyers for the record companies alleged that while the tracks had been treated by a DJ - sped up, slowed down and repeated in parts and therefore their presence on the CD represented a breach of copyright.

And this is where it gets good�the lawyers also produced evidence of alleged intimidation by one of the DJs involved.

Copies of short message service (SMS) messages allegedly sent by Tower Records director and DJ Christopher Fraser Smith were tendered.

In one message to an employee of one of the music companies behind the Federal Court action, Smith allegedly wrote: "Don't hide u fat ---- im coming 2day and what a drama there is going 2b [name of alleged victim] u will learn the rules of aus".

Another SMS read: "Also i got ur home addres from the public records [rental bond board] maybe easier 2 come in the night as ur busy by day cant wait 2 meet the mrs".

Adam Houda, who is counsel for Smith and Fish - whose real name is Nik Vatoff - said his clients would consent to an interlocutory order stopping them distributing and producing the CDs involved.

A similar order was issued to Pee Wee Ferris - real name Peter Ferris - in his absence. This apostle can tell you that this guy used to be a pretty impressive prog house DJ although we gather that he hasn�t really mastered the doof doof mentality needed by most inner city Sydney DJ�s these days.

Our favourite though has to be the following, No order was issued for Captain Kirk, whose real name is not known. This is what we found out about the mysterious Captain Kirk

The matter will come before the court again later this month and we look forward to updating you.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:36]

Monday, September 16, 2002

Empty Arms Broken Hearts

Dan Brodie & The Broken Arrows are out of Melbourne and have just released their second album Empty Arms Broken Hearts.
This apostle has already fallen in love with the album if only for its entry track Jesus Try & Save Me and also Take A Bullet,.. with the immortal line " Some May Say I�m Crazy� Some May Say I�m Dumb�. But There�s Something Kinda Sexy �bout a Woman With a Gun."
Helped by the likes of Tim Rogers from You am I and Spencer P Jones a once Beast of Bourbon, this album is the best alt country rock we�ve heard since Tex Don & Charlie. Forget any lazy comparisons to Ryan Adams we think the bastard son of Nashville Skyline and Blonde on Blonde may have eventually turned up in our CD player. There�s even a song called Sara(h) .

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:28]

Sunday, September 15, 2002

Between Rock and a Hard Place

Following our recent foray into the world of the music of the faithful we have come across a bizarre discourse on 'What's Wrong with Christian Rock Music' which we thought our readers should be aware of. Amongst other things exercising the author is deadly nature of the rhythm of rock:

"Rock beat causes 'switching' to occur in the brain as it loses symmetry between left and right sides. This causes stress and it is as if a person's body can no longer distinguish what is beneficial and what is harmful. The body actually chooses that which is destructive over that which is therapeutic. Turning down the volume won't help."

and this insight into the role that backmasking played in the fate of one of the �fab four�:

Scary stuff indeed�

[posted in Bow :: London at 10:46]

Saturday, September 14, 2002

Monkey Business

Digital toiler and friend of the Apostles Tagmonkey now has his latest project online, so go take a look. INANE is one in an ongoing series of works based round the use and importance of numbers. We kinda like it - in fact so much we even splashed out on a few banner ads...

[posted in Bow :: London at 17:44]

Loop Guru?

Randomsalt are looking for submissions for the 2002 Boston Loopfest which is to be held November on 23rd and 24th. Looping artists of all genres and mediums are invited to submit their contact and setup information. Deadline for submissions is 30 September 2002.

[posted in Bow :: London at 17:35]

Friday, September 13, 2002

Private Dancer?

Spanish-based porn company Private Media, yesterday made a $US 2.5m (in shares not cash) offer to acquire the Napster brand name and accompanying domain name so that it could set up a P2P (peer to peer) network for swapping 'adult content'. A truly sorry end to a fascinating episode in the democratisation of popular music...

[posted in Bow :: London at 16:31]

Thursday, September 12, 2002

The Landover Baptist Church

The Landover Baptist Church�s online shocking bible store is a novel concept to try to make money.

Search the bible�s unseemliest passages and then print them on t-shirts mugs et al. So, if you have a desire to walk around with "Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces." or "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." on your t-shirt this is the place for you.

These people are proof that Americans do actually understand irony, well we hope they do� in their film review section........... Scooby Doo: Is Hollywood Using A Saturday Morning Cartoon Series As Bait To Lure Christian Children Into Signing a Contract With Satan? Quite simply, The Answer is Yes.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 23:46]

Dutch Delight

One of our Dutch correspondents sends news of the imminent visit of the UK's own DISKONO ('a seditious multi-media cabal masquerading as a Scottish record label') at Eindhoven's De Overslag for a day-long event running under the title of I make out it's poetry that's why I'm screamin' at ya'.

The day of 'cloud busting metacollage' features installation and performance by DISKONO and Meeuw along with films by the likes of Bonnie Camplin, Lucky Dragons, Ksawery Kaliski & Wojt3k Kucharczyk and Katy Dove. Also on the bill for the evening stint are The Hideous Replicas (who style themselves as a tribute to The Fall circa '77 to '82) and The Bongoleeros. All this for the princely sum of 6 Euros. If you make it along then let us know what you think and we'll publish it.

[posted in Bow :: London at 21:24]

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Ian Astbury Joins The Doors

How weird is this... Billboard reports today that Ian Astbury .. for those of you who don't remember the eighties he was the Cherokee Indian lookalike in the Cult - previously Southern Death Cult is doing Jim Morrison's singing parts in a new doors line up that also includes Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
Ray Manzarek told Billboard.com, "Stewart is drumming from here on out. Ian is singing from here on out. We're not doing a TV show. We're playing live music. This is the new Doors lineup for the 21st century."
We always knew that Ray loved his acid .... but he's in serious fantasy land now.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 21:52]

A Memorial in Sound

Amongst the plethora of 9/11 memorabilia smothering the media today our attention has been drawn to The Twin Towers: A Memorial in Sound on BBC Radio 4 and available on-line here (Real Audio format). Collaborators Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson (aka the Kitchen Sisters) who are responsible for the long-running 'Lost and Found Sound' segment on NPR (national public radio), set up a dial-in number where people could leave audio clips, recollections or messages relating to the World Trade Centre. The resulting calls have been melded together to form a compelling record of the building, its occupants and those that interacted with it as part of their daily routines. This collective memory of a physical presence includes sources as diverse as the sound of the revolving doors, the rattle of silverware and porcelain reverberating off the buildings, a recollection of a performance of Glenn Branca's Hallucination City on the plaza and the sound of competing Mexico radio stations as the janitors cleaned.

[posted in Bow :: London at 17:20]

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Splitting hairs

Amongst other things clearly exercising the faithful these days is the vexing question of whether or not Jesus had long hair. Dr Jack Hyles (clearly a man with plenty of free time) has even managed to roll the question up into a discourse on the nature of revolutionary apparel, the Nazarite (or otherwise) origins of JC and the satanical origins of the peace symbol (which apparently represents a broken cross). Dr Hyles is even down on the humble flower:-

The hippie movement also makes much use of the symbol of the flower. This flower is sold as decals and stickers and can be found regularly on American cars, mailboxes, book covers, etc. This flower is a symbol of the hippie movement. Hippies speak readily of "flower power," as many of them get their "power" from the flower. It is tragic, but true, that oftentimes this flower power is marijuana and heroin. Many Americans do not realize what they are doing when they display this emblem on their car, clothing, etc.

Readers will, no doubt, be relieved to hear that here at The Apostles we have no hair issues and are happy to welcome all into the fold regardless of length, colour or style...

[posted in Bow :: London at 12:53]

Southern Hemisphere Festival Time

Annual Aussie pre christmas event Livid is coming to these cities on the following dates. Brisbane Saturday 12 October, Melbourne - Saturday 19 October and Sydney - Sunday 20 October.

Who�s playing? We�ve got the following out rocking on the main stage.

Powderfinger � The Australian rock band of the past few years, loved here unknown everywhere else.

Oasis � They�ll plod along I suppose. From excitement to dirge in a decade.

George � Brisbane�s latest indie darlings. Not quite the Go-Betweeens but getting there..Went top 10 in Australia with their debut album.

And then some more rock stuff � ho hum this apostle says�
Trail of Dead
Bad Religion
Unwritten Law
Sum 41
Mogwai

Not to be missed are the Dirty Three � One day they�ll be seen for the national icons they are

The Aussie pub rock crowd.
Machine Gun Fellatio - Sounding more & more like Oasis when they were good...
Motor Ace
Body Jar

The Internationals
Morrissey
Mercury Rev

John Butler Trio Perth�s Answer to Ben Harper. You�d never buy the record but he�s cool live and has some nice white boy dreads. You can bet he won't want to invade Iraq

The D4 The latest rock darlings from NZ, written up in the Face but not quite as hip as the Datsuns � well this week anyway.

Dan Brodie & B A Only seen him on the TV� good in a 21st century Tony Joe White way

And following in the footsteps of the famous Boiler Room from the Big Day Out comes Livid�s Dance stage, the Annexe, featuring some pretty cool stuff this year, again it�s good to see the local acts taking centre stage as well as the imports.

Unkle Deck and Effects from MoWax tear it apart. Warp records stalwarts Nightmares on Wax have been the dopest dealers in skunk-fuelled skeletal hip hop for almost ten years.
Gerling are the whiz-kids of Aussie house, the masters of 70s disco, the originators of edgy combinations of hip-hop, ambient, melodic downbeat and upbeat, punk rock and electro crossovers! Be sure to check out these masters of diversity, living on the bleeding edge.
Brisbane�s contribution to Australia�s burgeoning hip hop scene cannot be underestimated. In particular, the increase in recognition and credibility can be directly attributed to two individuals of the hip hop scene: DJ Katch and Dave Dog otherwise known as 2 DOGS.

Ashley Anderson is Katalyst, the Apostles told you about him a couple of months ago, a Sydney-sider turned international hip hop producer - now putting out his own tunes on self-managed label, Invada, partnered by Portishead's Geoff Barrow. His funky and seductive tunes are laden with heaps of fleshy and leisurely beats, drawing influences from such diverse musical forms as hip hop, funk and soul.
And fianlly Zephyr Timbre , This apostle doesn�t know anything about these guys , we�rte told this Brisbane-based sound system don't know about artistic boundaries and have mastered the difficult mix between the live and organic performance and the sampled/sequenced methods to create their own brand of superfly tunes..

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 08:14]

Sunday, September 08, 2002

How's my drinking?

Guided by Voices have the distinction of being the only American band signed to Creation Records - or so Bob Pollard tells us. Shame indeed that their take on the contemporary rock muse wasn't what made it big with the kids. Instead Mr McGee foisted dullard bed-wetters Oasis on a all-too willing world. Shame on the kids. Meanwhile GbV (as the crowd affectionately knows them) are still writing great songs and packing them in down at The Garage (or 'gaayraaage' as we are told it should be pronounced). To pigeon-hole them as a hard-living, hard-drinking, hard-smoking rawk band misses the crucial point - they keep on delivering the essence of the perfect pop song time after time. Go see 'em sometime soon.

[posted in Bow :: London at 23:02]

Saturday, September 07, 2002

Digidome

Attention visualists - the guys at Paved are looking for submissions for digidome ('a festival of contemporary electronic sound, music, digital video, glitch-pop drama, and spatial overload') due to be held in Saskatoon (Canada) at the end of September. The two-day event will be held at the Odeon Niteclub (sic) on September 27th, and the Ramada Golf Dome (???) on September 28th. Submissions should be silent videos (Quicktime, Flash/Shockwave, VHS shot digital, lo-rez)of 6 to 15 minutes in length and the suggested themes are B-Movies or The Visual Glitch.

Artist fees will be paid and all artists who submit a video will receive one complimentary weekend pass to the festival, but the deadline for submissions is September 10th, so get in touch now if you wanna send them something.

[posted in Bow :: London at 21:02]

Friday, September 06, 2002

Moulty

For those of you who own a copy of Nuggets, either the original double album or the expanded CD box set you�ll know that Moulty by the Barbarians is hard to beat as one of the great narrative garage rock songs of all time.
It�s a simple story of man loses his hand in a car accident, joins a band as a drummer and now all the girls and boys love him. The song encapsulates perfectly what it is to be in a band and is just waiting in the wings to be covered by any number of today�s pop stars.
Here at the Apostles we thought you should know more about this song and the strange story of the Barbarians.
The Barbarians, (Eliot Greenberg/Douglas Morris/Barbara Baer/Robert Schwartz) were formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1963 and got their big break in 1964, when they scored a slot on The T.A.M.I. Show.
The band's barbaric, non-conformist image was a big part of their appeal. They grew their hair longer than most of their contemporaries and wore leather sandals instead of Beatle boots. And then there was their drummer, Moulty, who had a metal hook for a left hand. They'd churn out all the favourites: Bo Diddley, House of the Rising Sun; Susy Q & Memphis Tennessse in a hard R&B style wowing the kids with their take-it-or-leave-it attitude.
Then it's time to record the single and this is where the story gets stranger �"Moulty" wasn�t actually performed by the Barbarians at all. The Hawks (precursers to The Band) did all the work on the record while Moulty - yes that�s his real name - sing/speaks over the rhythm track telling us how drumming saved his life, yet he doesn't actually drum on the track - no, that's Levon Helm of The Band.
When the single was released and became a local hit and then worked its way into the billboard national charts, the group were embarrassed by it. It is said that Moulty was so furious when he found out that the track had been released that he flew straight to New York and chased the president of Laurie Records around his office, breaking copies of the single over his head. Not surprisingly, the band parted company with the label soon afterwards.

Moulty: Play it at home

I remember the days when things were real bad for me
Fmaj7 G9
It was right after my accident, when I lost my hand
Fmaj7
It seemed like I was all alone, with nobody to help me

Em F
You know, I almost gave up all my hopes and dreams
G
But then - then - then something inside me kept tellin' me
G7
Way down inside of me - over and over again
G9
To keep goin' on - yeah, on!

Chorus 1:

C F G F [bass: bend D to Eb]
Moulty!
C F G F
Don't turn away (you're gonna make it, baby)
C F G F
Don't turn away (ah, try to make it, baby)
C F/A /F Eb G
Don't turn away

Verse 2:

Things are better for me now 'cause I found that I love music
So I learned to play the drums and got myself a band, and now
we're startin' to make it
And if you can make it at somethin' you love - wow, you got it all!

So I'm sayin' this to all of you
All of you who think you'll never make it
All of you guys and girls 'cause you think you're so bad off
Or maybe you think you're a little different or strange
So listen to me, now, 'cause I've lived through it all

Chorus:

Moulty!
Don't turn away (you gotta keep on tryin')
Don't turn away (well, don't you give up, baby)
Don't turn away

Verse 3 (first three lines only):

Now there's just one thing that I need - not sympathy, and I don't
need no pity -
But a girl - a real girl - one who really loves me - and then I'll
be the complete man.
So I'm gonna tell you - right now - listen!

Coda [repeat to fade]:

C F G F
Don't turn away (you gotta baby)
C F G F
Don't turn away (you gotta keep on tryin')

Moulty : Recording Credits
Personnel/VICTOR "MOULTY" MOULTON: vocals, drums * BRUCE BENSON & JEFF MORRIS: guitar, vocals * JERRY CAUSI: bass, vocals [Note: It's widely believed that this recording featured session musicians: ROBBIE ROBERTSON: guitar * RICHARD MANUEL: piano * GARTH HUDSON: organ * RICK DANKO: bass * LEVON HELM: drums]
Produced by DOUG MORRIS
Recorded in New York,

1995 and Moulty�s back on stage read the full story and how he really lost his hand
Finally we couldn't leave you without the sleevenotes to the Barbarians' one and only LP which, amongst all the standards, also features the fab, Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl

Sleevenotes

One of the most colourful groups ever to appear on the American record scene. Even before their first hit, they were electrifying their public on TV and in personal appearances. They play and sing an exciting brand of music. To hear them is to want to swing. We don't think it is possible to listen to this LP and keep your feet still

Right On !!!

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:13]

Thursday, September 05, 2002

Britney moves house

The EU has announced that it will not be raising any objections to the US$3 billion buyout of Zomba Music Group - the world's largest 'independent' record label and home to Britney Spears, 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys by German monster media machine Bertelsmann. The deal means that Zomba will end up as part of Bertelsmann's music subsidiary BMG, which already owns more than 200 record labels, including Arista Records, RCA Records and Ariola Music.

Previously the EU has taken a more bullish stance to such consolidation and its antipathy to the deal effectively stopped the EMI/Time Warner merger a couple of years ago.

The deal � the terms of which were agreed in 1996 � is not as sweet as it originally looked with Bertelsmann admitting that Zomba may now be worth a cool 1bn euros less than when they fixed the price. Bertelsmann also learned on Tuesday that despite having sunk US$80 million odd into the now totally dead Napster its bid to buy it was blocked.

Here at the Apostles we're at a loss to understand why anyone would buy a record by Britney, 'N Sync or the Backstreet Boys, let alone the label that inflicted them on the planet but I guess that's why we aren't an all-powerful media conglomerate...

[posted in Bow :: London at 08:30]

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Interpol seek overseas attention

New York foursome Interpol will no doubt hit their hometown Bowery Ballroom stage tonight to an adoring crowd but quite how these Joy Division clones will be received in Britain next month is another matter. To be fair though they do at times a pretty decent job of sounding like the doomed Mancunian outfit and their debut long player release Turn on the Bright Lights has its highlights, including the sort of Ian Curtis sings the Smiths sounding "Say hello to Angels".

Success could depend on whether the British music press is ready to adopt another NYC band and give them the Strokes treatment as Interpol don't appear to be getting much attention in their homeland. But that's not surprising given the appalling MTV Music Video Awards last week which provided a damning insight into American popular culture. At least being part of the vibrant and diverse New York scene gives Interpol a chance.

[posted in Manhattan :: New York at 03:34]

Monday, September 02, 2002

Australian Hip Hop Goes To the Desert

Australian Hip Hop is getting better year by year.

Sometime the rhymes aren't quite there and in the past - as with everywhere else in the world - there's been too much apeing of the US scene.

But out in the suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane there is the beginning of an Australian Hip Hop culture that is paying less lip service to the US. As in the UK, sometimes the accents and the rhymes don't mix - but so what... it's all a learning process.

The bigger names in the scene at the moment are 1200 Techniques and The Resin Dogs but our favourite is Morganics ex of meta bass n breath from Sydney's west and then Bondi.

He's been taking the message out to places like Alice Springs and the desert communities to workshop an Australian hip hop ethic and get people to talk about what's happening in the communities. No cash money here...

Desert Hip Hop and Aboriginal rhymes... if that's not cool compared to the latest "yawn" guitar band from Merseyside or Palo Alto, I don't know what is.

[posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:41]

Sunday, September 01, 2002

The Polyphonic Spree � An Apology

To the thousands visitors to the 12 Apostles news service we would like to offer a sincere apology with regards to the Polyphonic Spree.

It has been brought to our attention today by Sean O�Hagan, of The Observer newspaper (first for all your rock and pop news), that the aforementioned ensemble and their lackeys [that�s us � we think] have been misleading you.

�If you believe the hype propagated by the music media, so obsessed with discovering the Next Big Thing that they have long since surrendered any vestige of critical acumen in favour of a kind of continuous low-level hysteria, the Polyphonic Spree are the greatest��

We would like to apologise to our readership firstly for falling for this ruse and secondly for propagating it.

�The trouble with the Polyphonic Spree, as with any novelty act, is what exactly are you left with when the novelty wears off. Here it could simply be the bitter lingering taste of yet another post-modern, ironic joke, more wacko than Waco.�

Apart from asking if Mr O�Hagan is aware when a question mark should be used? Or to wonder what post-modernism actually means in this context and maybe to suggest it has just been casually deployed safe in the knowledge that no one else will know what it means? What alarms us most is our newly acquired knowledge that pop music is no longer a chaotic, ephemeral fancy with all the longevity of a Liz Taylor marriage that we always believed it to be. We will change our views accordingly.

�After an hour of the ensemble's hectic hand-waving, swaying and beaming, I began to wonder who exactly was being patronised: the band, or the trendy London audience who have come along to join in, as much as London trendies can ever join in, while simultaneously distancing themselves in a knowing, ironic way from the antics of the oddballs on stage. �

Our final apology is to Mr. O� Hagan. Sadly we are as yet unaware of how to �join in and simultaneously distance ourselves� at present. But, once we have perfected this new skill we look forward to deploying it at the drop of a black polo neck jumper.

[posted in Lancashire :: UK at 18:44]

List life

Here is a round up of some of the news groups and mailing lists that the 12 Apostles have recently been keeping an eye on and could be just the place for you to have your say.
The indiegrrl list is one of the best sources of information and advice for women involved with the independent music industry.
Technocult is a sounding board for those with something to say about the implications of new media and information technologies in relation to musical experience.
Sane2 is a "club for explorers of all types of noise, experimental, sound art, electronica, improv, drones, field recs, ambient, post-rock, tape music, electroacoustic, musique concr�te, avant-garde, glitch, lo-fi, industrial, sound poetry, microrhythms, etc" and is by and large interesting and even occasionally entertaining.
Meanwhile Fallnet deals with all things Fall and Mark E Smith related plus a whole load of divergent stuff of varying quality - strictly for the dilettante...

[posted in Bow :: London at 18:36]

[news archives]