PAUL DEMPSEY - The Corner Hotel, Richmond 8/10/2010

Written by Matthew Hallett
Photos by Timothy Casten
                                                        

After spending some time in the US, writing and gigging, Paul Dempsey was welcomed home to an enthusiastic crowd at the Corner Hotel. The show sold out within weeks of going on sale, with patrons clustered together as far and wide as the walls could withhold. Dempsey was greeted by a warm reception upon taking to the stage, a reception that would only get warmer as the night carried on.

The setting was intimate and raw, with Paul using only an acoustic guitar and his captivating voice to showcase his talent and tell stories through song. The atmosphere was almost that of a friend’s party. There was a sense of familiarity and there were no barriers whatsoever between Dempsey on stage and the punters in the audience, with Dempsey regularly making conversation and banter.


There were quite a few hecklers but their comments were either praise or just silly jokes, again making it feel as if it were a mate’s party or something. Dempsey dealt with the hecklers well, often cracking jokes, but then his ability to go from joking and having everybody laughing, to a serious, pensive song within seconds and have the whole crowd captivated so that you could hear a pin drop was sheer brilliance.

Dempsey played all but one song from his solo album ‘Everything is True’, with highlights including Bird in a Basement, Perfectly Numb, Bats and Ramona was a Waitress. It was great to hear these songs in their rawest forms, no doubt bringing the songs back to how they were first conceived – just a guitar and voice. Other highlights included seeing support act Mike Noga (the Drones) play harmonica and sing with Dempsey on Man of the Moment as well as Dempsey doing a cover of MGMT’s Time to Pretend which was well-received by the crowd.

The cheers after each song seemed to become progressively louder as the night went on. Paul played a couple of new songs including We’ll Never Work In This Town Again as well as a brand new track written in the US (could possibly end up on the next SFK album which is a work in progress). Of course there were some Something for Kate songs in the mix such as Kaplan/Thornhill, Asleep at the Wheel, and The Last Minute, and with no setlist Dempsey just played whatever he chose in whatever order.

After one encore Dempsey came back for a second, urging that he is not the ‘former’ Something for Kate frontman and the band is very much still alive and kicking. With this he closed with a stirring rendition of Beautiful Sharks, much to the delight of the crowd who showed Dempsey warmth, love and support throughout the whole night, which Dempsey seemed truly grateful for, and truly grateful to be home.    

  

Saskia Sansom

Mike Noga

SILVERSUN PICKUPS - The Corner Hotel, Melbourne 28/09/2010

Written by Kim Larkin 

Photo by Timothy Casten

                                                

Being far less aquatinted to Silversun Pickups that I should have been, considering I was going to see them play live and everyone hates the fan that doesn’t really know the band, did leave me apprehensive of what I was expecting to see. I knew Lazy eye, and I knew it was at the Corner, (although stereotypical) of my favourite venues, so I thought I knew enough to sufficiently enjoy it. And I was right.

Their first tour in Australia for three years, Silversun Pickups centered the ‘slightly-larger-than-the-other-one’ stage and began their extended set. Kicking off the intimate gig, frontman Brian Aubert lost all timidness after his first reverberating riff, which consumed and bewitched the crowd. The showmanship of Aubert, really the main performer, was an odd mixture of consideration and respect for the crowd, and the ability to walk alongside the stage while strumming like mad, occasionally reaching out for hands to hold and shake. The crowd, already energised from supporting band Papa vs Pretty, were utterly taken by Aubert, the only heckles and shouts being ones of love and admiration (and football finals), to which were not just well received, but were responded to as conversations between band and fan arose.

What can I say? The set was solid. Silversun pickups were professionals and were no suffers of stage fright. It had the same feeling of seeing your friends band play at a gig, expect your mates didn’t have a sold out show and weren't from the US. All those years of the ‘pickups playing in their garage has completely paid off as hearing them live was just like hearing Swoon through super surround sound. The occasional difference being the extended guitar solos, which often led to spontaneous pedal play by Aubert.

The one fault of the night had to be the overuse of distortion. It was like a boiling kettle right next to your head inbetween songs. At first I presumed it was possibly a failure on the sound man’s part, but that was naive of me. It was very apparent that the band chose to manipulate the distortions, and the ringing of the ears became the main souvenir of the night. Not the t-shirt.

But that can be overlooked, because when the room wasn’t swirling in high-pitched, high-voltage, electric squealing, the music was energetic and together and Silversun Pickups made you forget that prior to Lazy Eye (the obvious crowd favourite) blowing your mind, you head was about to implode.

ALBUM REVIEW: Weezer - Hurley

(released on Epitaph, 2010)

Review by: Michael Bird

                                            

3.5/5

Weezer seem to want to tie themselves to their past, or at least let it be known that they have a perception of themselves as a band over time. There’s a fair amount of self-referential content to most of their albums, and there’s no reason to release more than one self-titled album unless you’re interested calling attention to the shifting shape of your own band. Hurley was going to be self-titled (again), apparently, until Rivers and Co. realised that people would just call it ‘the Hurley album’ anyway in reference to the cover, and it’s clear that this latest offering is still Weezer on Weezer, but thankfully in a more enjoyable form than the last few records the group has put out.

Rivers is a master of the niche Weezer occupies in alternative music, and Hurley showcases his capacity for catchy choruses, lyrics that are humorous but still introspective, and a bizarre knack for throwing about cultural references that might seem immediately dated or opportunistic coming from anyone else. Michael Cera, wearing his Scott Pilgrim pants, guests on ‘Hang On’. Nine out of ten bands would be ridiculed for this move on the grounds that it compromises the album’s artistic integrity, cashes in on a fad, blah blah blah, but Weezer somehow remain the effortlessly cool kids at your house party who are allowed to sing the ‘Fresh Prince’ theme without being dorky or ‘scene’, they’re just above it all.

With this in mind the strange collaborations, Youtube obsession and seriously, SERIOUSLY hip album name/cover shouldn’t have much of a bearing on how the album is received. It’s all just Weezer being Weezer, and no matter how aware the band wants you to be of how aware they are of how you perceive them, in the end it should be (at least mostly) about the music. Hurley does call back to the beloved early Weezer albums a bit more than Raditude or Make Believe, and this is definitely a welcome change. ‘Where’s My Sex’ is as dweebishly rockin’ as anything off Pinkerton, and there are definitely echoes of the offhand sort of irreverence Weezer used to exude throughout Hurley. The guitars are plenty rough, and the hooks (Memories) are about as memorable as they used to be.

It’s probably a mistake to take Cuomo’s lyrics particularly seriously, so to characterise Hurleymeasured album, insofar as fans of the power-pop, party time Weezer should be just as satisfied as fans of the more experimental, grown up Weezer (if there are any). The latter half of the album does venture off into some strange sonic spaces, especially the closing Time Flies, but not at the expense of the power chords and shout-along choruses you know Weezer can deliver. It’s not the Blue Album by any stretch, but it shouldn’t have to be. Hurley is a return to form for Weezer, and a damn good time. as a ‘mature’ album might be unwarranted. It’s definitely a more

ALBUM REVIEW: Philip Selway - Familial

(released on Bella Union, 2010)

Review by Michael Bird

                                              
2/5

It’s hard to approach a solo album from a member of any band without some preconceptions, especially when the band is a capital ‘B’ band like Radiohead. You assume (rightly or wrongly) that the record might be an attempt to either cash in on or distance oneself from the output of the band, and often you simply know too much about the person putting the album out and it unfairly colours your opinions.

Of course, it’s unlikely that Phil Selway would want or need to cash in on anything at this stage in his career, and it seems equally unlikely that he’d want to distance himself from Radiohead’s sound (whatever exactly that is). Being a fairly quiet member of a somewhat private band, it might also be the case that we don’t know enough about him to write the album off completely. Personally, all I know about Phil Selway is that he seems polite and reserved, he can keep time and he plays in a band with Thom Yorke. Having said that, after giving Phil’s debut solo effort Familial several spins, I would sum it up as polite, reserved and partially about Thom Yorke (it is also largely in time, but that’s not so interesting).

Selway opts for largely acoustic, stripped back and muted instrumentation and production, and the album remains staunchly pop throughout (think Finn brothers pop though, not Damien Rice). It’s personal sort of content, I suppose, but personal vague and forgettable terms. It’s easier to characterise Familial in terms of what it isn’t than what it is, and despite the presence of some whispers, sparse acoustic guitars and earnest self-assessment, Bon Iver it ain’t. It ain’t Iron and Wine either, and perhaps where Selway falls down is in sticking too close to a safe formula, refusing to push any boundaries at all in any direction, ultimately making Familial a completely forgettable exercise.

‘By Some Miracle’ and ‘Broken Promises’ are highlights insofar as the album has any highlights, where Selway proves he can do more vocally than contribute the occasional backing to Yorke. Several songs seem to reference Radiohead and Yorke in particular (‘All Eyes on You’ might be introspective or a study of Yorke from behind the kit), and this is where one of the disadvantages of taking a break from a successful band to release a solo album surfaces. The world does not need any more famous people complaining about being famous, not even if they’re mild mannered drummers. The songs themselves are entirely inoffensive musically, but by the time it’s “So frail and small, so scared you’re terrified by all” and “We’ll turn out the lights, we just want a simple life”, the line from earnest to tedious and whiny is crossed and much of the appeal of the album is lost. 

What Selway chooses to do on Familial he does well enough; he has decent control over a decent voice, he can pick his way through some occasionally interesting chords with ease, and the polished production of the album suits a quiet, intimate half hour (most of the songs are quite short) with an able singer/songwriter. The problem however, is that there just isn’t enough of anything to make the album interesting.

CHILDREN COLLIDE - The Corner Hotel, Richmond 02/09/2010

Text by Matthew Hallett

Photos (in-text) by Matthew Hallet

Photos (below article) by Creep Box Photography [link] 

                                                                                                   

Momentum is not always a word associated with live shows these days. So often bands simply play with idle breaks in-between songs peppered throughout a show that refuses to build anywhere or amount to something astounding. The art of achieving a well-structured live show is half the problem.

Children Collide encountered no such problem in just the second show of their ‘Theory of Everything’ national tour. The eager crowd erupted as the curtains parted, and Frontman Johnny Mackay greeted the fanfare with a hushed “Shut up” which was the first glimpse of a sense of humour prevalent throughout the night. The Melbourne lads began playing an instrumental jam, with the opening song being anyone’s guess, before Johnny launched into the surf-rock riff of Chosen Armies followed by Across the Earth and Jellylegs which received a very warm reception from the grateful crowd.

Throughout the night Johnny would crack jokes, and interact with punters showing an amicable side, that isn’t always present in a live show. He was clearly grateful for the crowd’s interaction and enthusiasm joking, “You guys obviously didn’t get the memo about Melbourne audiences standing there with their arms folded”.

The energy from the Children Collide boys was electrifying onstage and they kept the momentum going through little jams and ditties that bridged directly from one song into another, but there was still a healthy amount of banter, jokes, & responses to punters that made it a truly interactive and intimate show.

Skeleton Dance was probably one of the highlights of the show with its infectious groove and the crowd emphatically chanting “hey” during the bridge. Farewell Rocketship­ prompted a mass sing-along from punters, and My Eagle went down a treat. Although the set was only an hour in duration, not a minute was wasted, and by the end nothing was left wanting from a truly satisfying show that felt a lot longer than it really was, due to a well-structured setlist flowing perfectly between old and new material, as well as a healthy dose of Mackay’s warm personality. 

Children Collide

Opening for Children Collide were Howl and Teen Archer

An Interview with PAUL DEMPSEY

Interview by Timothy Casten  
                                                    


Paul Dempsey is one of the most well respected songwriters to come out of Australia. His band Something For Kate (in which he is singer, guitarist and principal songwriter) was formed in 1994 with drummer Clint Hyndman on drums and Julian Carroll as the original bass player (Stephanie Ashworth joined the band after Carroll’s departure in 1998). Since their formation the band has gained critical acclaim and commercial success and been nominated for numerous ARIA’s with 5 platinum and gold records. Last year he released his first solo album ‘Everything is True’ to extremely positive reviews. Currently touring in America, Paul took some time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions:

Photo by Daniel Boud

I believe you've been staying in America for the last few months. How's the American tour going? Is it a big difference touring America, or anywhere overseas for that matter, compared to touring back home?

I’ve been living in NYC since June and will be for the forseeable future. It’s very different playing and touring here for the obvious reason that I am not really well known here so I’m playing much smaller rooms and often to people who don’t know anything about me but that is a challenge that I really enjoy and it’s also kind of liberating and exciting to not have any weight of expectation. It’s nice being ‘new’ to people...

"Everything is True" was released almost exactly a year ago and was pretty well received by music critics and fans. It's your first solo record (to be released under your own name). Were you ever intimidated or scared about how it would be received with it being pretty different from things you had done in the past?
I didn’t really think about it too much while I was writing it and recording it... It was only when I walked out of the final mastering session with the completely finished album in my hand that I suddenly got gripped by this fear that maybe no one would like it! I had that anxious feeling for a little while but it’s fairly easy to talk yourself down from those thoughts – You realise that no matter what you do you are never going to please everybody so it’s more important that you please yourself creatively.
But of course it is really nice when the album is released and people say nice things about it. That is definitely a good feeling!

Your solo album sounds quite different from Something for Kate. Is your writing process any different when writing your solo music and when you write for Something For Kate?
I guess it just comes down to the fact that when Something for Kate work on stuff it involves three people in a room with loud drums and amplified guitars and this buzz of electricity and the interaction between the three of us and that informs the way the music comes together... When I write by myself it is usually just me, by myself with an acoustic guitar in a quiet room – a much more personal and introspective atmosphere and I guess that also informs the way songs are formed.

What are your main influences? Bands, or musicians, or anything, what inspires you to write music?
I get inspired by all sorts of things, listening to music, walking around the city, going to galleries or museums or reading books, having conversations etc etc... The smallest little trigger can drag you along and become a snowballing thing that you can’t stop until you see it through and finish it. Sometimes the tiniest germ of an idea can sit in the back of your head for weeks until you find the right words or music to express it and get it out of your system. It’s like an itch or something that doesn’t go away until it’s scratched.


After recording in a home studio environment on "Everything is True", do you think the next SFK album will be recorded in a similar way, rather than going into a conventional studio? Or is it too far down the track to be thinking about this?
I am definitely more into the idea of doing it ourselves in a house or something like that. There just seems to be way less time-pressure than when you’re in a big studio and therefore it frees you up for more experimentation and messing around... So many important parts of a record happen by accident and I think it’s important to create the time and space for accidents.

What kind of gear have you been using lately? Is it similar to what you recorded ‘Everything is true’ with? (ie Maton acoustics, and old Fender guitars and amps?).
Yeah I’m kind of addicted to old Fenders and also Maton acoustics. They just feel and sound right to me. I also have a bunch of old Fender amps that sound really great. Although I came to NYC with nothing but my Maton acoustic guitar so I’ve been doing everything with that.

It's funny, just the other week I was searching everywhere for "An Empty Flight" but couldn't find a copy anywhere. Then just a few days ago I see an announcement on your facebook page about it's re-release. It's been more than a decade since it first came out, why re-release it now after so long of it being almost impossible to find?
We’ve had lots of enquiries about it over the years but frankly I’m always so busy with whatever current project there is that there hasn’t ever been the time to stop and think about it.
Nowadays it really doesn’t take much effort to just upload it and make it available through itunes so why not do it?... It was also attracting inflated sums on ebay so hopefully this will put a stop to that and people can get it if they want to hear it without getting ripped off.
I know some people have issues with mp3 format or with the itunes store or whatever but I guess you can’t please everybody. A physical re-release on CD just wasn’t realistic.

I believe last year was the 15th year of Something For Kate. When SFK started in 1994 you must've only been around 18, which is pretty young. How does it feel to be in a band, and in a career, that's lasted pretty much your whole adult life? Is it still just as enjoyable and exciting?
It feels incredible. I feel extremely lucky to have had the career that I’ve had thus far and I am always excited about what we’ll do next. I feel like our best stuff is still well ahead of us and I look forward to what we might be doing on our 12th record... Music is so vast and there is so much to learn and discover and I just want to keep doing that regardless of others’ notions of success/popularity/coolness etc etc.. After fifteen years it kinda seems like we’ve earned this weird immunity to a whole lot of bullshit and we just get on with our thing... If that makes sense.

I've heard you did some producing with Papa Vs Pretty recently; do you have plans to work with any other artists in the near future?
Yes, I’d love to. Producing is another thing I love doing because you get to be involved in the creative process but you are also able to stand outside and be more objective because it’s not your own material - you are there to basically mid-wife it into being and to try and help a band realise their ideas into a finished thing that they are happy with and proud of. It’s a big responsibility and an enjoyable challenge. I really enjoy that role...

Any news on Something For Kate or new solo material? Any upcoming releases on the horizon?
I’ve been spending whatever quiet time I have working on new ideas and writing... But NYC is not well-known for quiet time...

Paul Dempsey will be playing a number of shows in October around Australia before heading back to America:

October 3  2010 - Mackay Showgrounds (with Powderfinger), Mackay QLD

October 7  2010 - Rockhampton Showgrounds (with Powderfinger), Rockhampton QLD

October 8  2010 - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC --SOLD OUT--

October 10  2010 - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW --SOLD OUT--

October 12  2010 - University of Canberra, Canberra ACT --SOLD OUT--

October 13  2010 - Albury Sports Grounds (with Powderfinger), Albury VIC

October 15  2010 - Bendigo Showgrounds (with Powderfinger), Bendigo VIC --SOLD OUT--

October 13  2010 - North Gardens Ballarat (with Powderfinger), Ballarat VIC --SOLD OUT--

BUY TICKETS AT TICKETEK

An Interview with HOWL

Interview and Photo by: Timothy Casten
                                                                           


HOWL are a bunch of guys from Ballarat who play a mean fucking show. After winning Triple J's Unearthed High competition last year with their brand of high-powered garage/punk, they released their debut EP in February and are now set to release their second EP 'Brothers In Violence' next week.

How has things changed since you guys won the Triple J Unearthed High comp?
We all have wild coke habits and live in mansions.

Were you guys already playing shows when you were still in high school?

Yeah we'd been playing shows for about three years. We never really went out looking for shows, we just waited for them to get offered to us, so we didn't play a lot. 

The new EP comes out next week, has anything changed with the band and with your sound since the first one was released?

Well I guess this release is a lot more musical, as in, there is so much more melody going on and it's a lot more complex without being math rock or anything. The first EP was really simple, which was the aim, but it's been good to expand our sound a bit with the new release.

What's the writing process like with Howl?

Our songs usually stem from one persons original idea then we kind of write and record at the same time so we can spend time creating and perfecting parts, however some songs come about out of no where when we rehearse. The title track of the EP 'Brothers In Violence' was originally just made on the spot, of course we dramatically changed it after demoing it so many times, but a lot of our materiel has come really spontaneously. The 'Liars (I & II)' off the first EP was originally a live intro to 'Anyone But Us' until we released it had potential to be an actual song.

Who/what are you guys influenced by?

I suppose our biggest influence, especially for this EP, is bands we tour with. I definitely always come off tour really inspired to write, and there are so many great bands going around Australia right now, so it makes it pretty easy to learn off each other and still remain original. 

You guys have played a lot of shows around Australia, where's your favourite place to play?

That's definitely a tough one. A lot of our friends and their bands live in Brisbane so it's always good to catch up with them and play shows to a lot of familiar faces, Adelaide's always a huge party and I guess it's always great to come home and play at Karova in Ballarat. It's always just dependent on the vibe of the show, it's a lottery.

Any news on a full LP release any time soon?

It's on the cards but will be a while off, maybe a year or so. However there's already a mini library of tracks floating round which will most likely make an appearance on the album, it's definitely going to be different.

'Brothers In Violence' EP comes out September 3 2010 through SHOCK/I OH YOU.

ALBUM REVIEW: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

(released on EMI, 2010) 

Review by Michael Bird

                                               

2.5/5

Whatever the Arcade Fire have done, live or in the studio, they’ve done it big. The mass chant on ‘Wake Up’ is BIG, as is the string-driven crescendo of ‘No Cars Go’ on the groups’ second album Neon Bible. The Arcade Fire have never pulled punches musically, and there was always a palpable sense of urgency about the band, as though all guns blazing was the only way they knew how to do things. Sadly, this isn’t the case with the freshly released (or leaked, if you got in early enough) third album from the Canadian outfit, The Suburbs.

The same basic elements are still presented well enough, and The Suburbs isn’t a bad record by any stretch: there’s still that ever-present ache in Win Butler’s voice, soaring strings over pounding drums and the right mix of songs pulled around by interesting chord changes and songs that just drag one progression through the mud for five minutes. The sum of all these parts is less than satisfying though, and there’s definitely something missing that was present on earlier albums. ‘Half Light I’ recalls the musical tension of ‘Laika’, but without the sincerity or insistence, and opening track ‘The Suburbs’ comes across as an anaemic version of the uplifting march of ‘Rebellion (Lies)’. The group might be striving for a more accessible, measured sound for their third album, but the result simply seems half-hearted and somehow less Arcade Fire-ey than one might hope.

There’s an unpleasant metallic sheen to the production of the album, something that had begun to creep into Neon Bible after the cheapish indie sound of Funeral. With more money to be spent production values are bound to rise, but some of the warmth and hope of earlier Arcade Fire releases came from their less than perfect quality. In addition to (or maybe because of) this, Win Butler’s delivery ends up sounding more whiny than impassioned, and at sixteen same-ish tracks the album well and truly wears out its welcome by the end. To the bands credit they have a clear focus, something that was absent from sophomore album Neon Bible. They have a certain sound they’re going for and certain content to get across lyrically, and they accomplish both of these things. The problem is just that the sound is somewhat middling and the lyrical content is tired and uninspiring. 

As the title suggests, The Suburbs is nostalgic and reflective. However, we’ve already heard Win Butler harp on about ghost towns and neighbourhood children, there’s nothing new here that Bruce Springsteen hasn’t said already (‘Born to Run’ would have fit into this album just fine). More than anything else, Butler just seems pissed off about something, and it’s not pleasant. Maybe it’s how he sees the suburbs now as compared to in his youth, the character of the youths themselves or perhaps the same kind of quasi-political beef that riddled Neon Bible. Whatever the case, Butler eschews joy and hope for white middle class PMS on The Suburbs, and it feels like maybe someone should just give the guy a hug.

Some brighter moments are the bouncy ‘Rococo’ and the apparently Depeche Mode inspired ‘Half Light II’, and The Suburbs isn’t without some charm. You get the feeling the album will come to life on stage, and some of the livelier tracks are bound to be crowd pleasers. It might be unfair to view The Suburbs in this light, but it might have been a great release from a band other than Arcade Fire. I could dance to ‘Month of May’, and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ is a fantastic excursion into 80’s electro, but the price you pay for putting out Funeral (…And Justice for All, OK Computer, Oracular Spectacular) is fighting heightened expectation and frustration when you release something so-so like The Suburbs (St. Anger, Amnesiac, Congratulations). Sad but true.