#3 Discovery

It was going to happen eventually that I was going to come across an album that I had not yet heard, and indeed an album to whose genre I am not at all particularly endeared. One thing that annoys me about other reviews is when they say something along the lines of “It is good taken in the context of its genre”, they basically mean that is just less shit than other albums that just sound the same. I refuse to buy into that method of labeling.

Having said that, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Discovery. It is not something I would have listened to save for this self imposed project and all I really knew was One More Time from watching Rage when I was younger and, of course, Daft Hands.

Not only is the album catchy as hell, but there is a whole bunch of interesting/cool stuff going on. For example, Aerodynamic and Veridis Quo have the sort of layering I find impossible to dislike or be cynical about in any way. As somewhat of a segue, Michel Gondry once said:

I hate cynicism. I wipe it from me. I don’t like cynical people. I don’t like cynical movies. Cynicism is very easy. You don’t have to justify it. You don’t have to fight for it.

I really like this quote and the reason I bring it up is twofold; one of Michel’s more salient works is a Daft Punk film clip and the other is I don’t think that this album can be approached from the cynicism that was automatic for me at the prospect. (Jay Z’s album is soon on my list so I will have to work really hard to overcome that :/ ) To do so will be to miss out on how lovely Digital Love and Something About Us are. I love that with all of the tools and complexity enabled by electronic music, Daft Punk have been able to keep things simple and beautiful in so many places.

Another thing that surprised me about the album is how inoffensive it is, while there is some distortion of voices, it is all done for effect and never feels out of place. Often the ‘distortion’ is to make them sound pure and sincere. I suspect that my finding it so normal on a listening now speaks to how ubiquitous their distinctive style is.

Now that I have gushed about all the things I loved about it, I have a couple things to mention that were less attractive to me. There are a lot of songs on there and it severely stretched my attention span. I really like the beginning of the album but it really trails off in the mid sections and the end to me. I can’t point to specific songs that I dislike, but neither can I point to many songs that I connect song with title in the second half, it felt like they all bled into each other. All in all, I was really glad I have this a listen and, depending on mood, it may get more plays (or at least some songs).

#2 Funeral

I was introduced to this album by Nick who was working on the set of a film production at the time. He was talking to some people at work about The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me and the circumstances surrounding its creation (lots of people the band knew kept dying) and apparently Funeral has a similar backstory.

The first thing I noticed about it was the cover, because I am lazy, the first thing I judge an album by is its aesthetic and The Arcade Fire had done well on first glance. But this may have been due to its resemblance of the superlative In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. My first listen was a little stilted as I was being shown the album, it is kinda awkward when one person is trying to show another person how awesome an album is by sitting over them listening to it. I try not to do that anymore, I simply hand them a cd and say “Enjoy!”. I didn’t dislike the album at first but I was not as in love with it as I soon would be.

Later that evening I was off to see The National play and while we were waiting for the main act to come on, the venue played Crown Of Love in the background and I was struggling to remember where I had heard this really good song before. I did work it out and resolved to give Funeral a proper listen.

It is really really really really really really good.

Although to be fair, any album with piano, strings and these sort of sounds is going to sit pretty well with me. And it should with you too. I can’t really name a song I don’t love but I do have some favourites! Neighborhood #2, Wake Up, Crown Of Love and Rebellion (Lies). As trite as it sounds, I recommend this album to anyone who likes music.

Also: Trailer!

#1 Kid A

Recently, Pitchfork Media made an ordered list of the top albums of the Naughties. Rather than degenerate into some pretentious diatribe about how band X had a much better album than Y and how criminal it is that The National band Z were not included in the top 20, I’m going to pseudo review the top 20 albums save the ones I really really doubt I will enjoy. And by pseudo review, I will talk about what it means to me.

Because I am elitist, I will start from number 1.

I was a very late convert to Radiohead, mostly because the indie community at large goes gaga over every little thing they do and I am suspicious of that. As it turns out, the indie community was right and Radiohead is just plain awesome. I started off with OK Computer and, on advice, quickly gave The Bends and In Rainbows a decent go. I loved all of them.

Some months later I decided to give the, somewhat maligned, middle albums. I gave them all the once over and decided that the other ones were better and didn’t touch them for a few months. Then some new guys started at work with whom I could have conversations about music. When the topic of Radiohead came up one of them stated confidently that Kid A was their finest album. I doubted him then and still doubt him now. But I gave it some more listens and thought it wasn’t terrible (It was at this time when my love for Amnesiac became pronounced).

I don’t really understand why this album is so revered. There are things I really like; the first couple minutes of Everything In Its Right Place and The National Anthem for example, and Morning Bell is just gorgeous (But I prefer the Amnesiac version!) and Idioteque is fantastic. I just find that at times the album seems self indulgent and even boring. Maybe I just don’t get it.

Published?

So I did a google search on me to see if I could find the guy who referred to me as a ‘smug nazi’ in a card tournament. As I recall, I won a game I had no right winning because the guy was terrible at magic and I wasn’t and could barely contain my mirth. Anyway, he must have removed the post which is good because it was quite offensive.

What I did find is that some company has used my thesis as its resource. This amuses me greatly, I would probably not trust this company with my money.

Crawl

My latest effort to appear as productive as I am is to go for runs in the mid-late afternoon. While I am not at my desk for an hour, I am at my desk for an hour later in the evening which is very observable. In fact, by taking my full lunch break and going for a run for an hour or so, I work a normal, proper, day and appear to be working extra hard and when they look at the work I have done, they will think it is because I am super awesome rather than simply super efficient.

This, however, does not solve the problem of what to do when I need a break for a few minutes. Facebook is gone and the newspaper doesn’t update nearly frequently enough. I should/could get more things on my Google Reader but I have found in the past that those things which update most frequently are largely noise. I would prefer to not read crap even if it means that I miss some of the good stuff. (I encourage people to share things they find interesting!). I don’t usually have enough to say to warrant a blog post so I have resorted to my old friend Crawl.

Many years ago, Suresh introduced me to two roguelikes: Crawl and Angband. I became quickly frustrated with both games but felt as though I was getting further with Crawl. Perhaps I should have learned how to cast spells before I tried to play as a Wizard. Regardless, I stopped playing when something shinier came along. A couple years later I came back to it with an attitude of exploration rather than trying to simply beat it. I tried at least one game with each class and at least one game with each class. I really really tried to play a rogue class but never got above level 2. Eventualy I decided to play wizards again and after some fiddling around, decided on an Elvish Ice Elementalistas my character of choice. I chose Sif Muna as my deity and quickly started playing around with different spells, of those that I had, I really only used the offensive ones. Summonings and Enchantments seemd far too weak to me. I played a lot and a lot and was probably save haxing like crazy but I eventually hit the jackpot when I discovered the pure joy of Ozocubu’s Refridgeration in Ice Form and lots of cold resistance. This character had enough wands to kill the undead and some teleport control whilch allowed me to zip through the last big chunk of the game, get the orb and get out without much hassle.

Having beaten the game (despite save cheating like crazy) I felt that the game’s hold over me had been broken and I again didn’t play it for a number of years. Until now. It operates in a window that looks a great deal like one of my unix windows and can easily be used to spend a couple minutes after accomplishing something or when deep in thought as it is fairly mindless much of the time. When I started again, I tried a couple of classes I think would work; Ogre-Mage Crusader was one since the ogre can’t wear armour anyway (and is quite strong) but I didn’t really do well after about level 6 on any of these. I took a different tack and started with some demon spawn because mutations are fun. Apparently it is more fun to have a character that survives. I then went for a Spriggian Venom Mage and found my dream character: early on the venom mage is very powerful as nothing is immune to poison for a while, your spells have an ongoing effect so the guy tends to die as you run away from him. Your starting book is called the Young Poisoner’s Handbook which has infinite cool points associated with it, it has the Mephitic Cloud which shores up your greatest weakness (centaurs on the early levels) and being a Spriggian you are faster than most anything. Sadly you are quite fragile and I had many characters die from traps. I decided that I would try out Vehumet as a god and found the gaining power from killing people to be not as useful as the protection from the side effects of magic that Sif Muna provided but the books from Vehumet were much better.

Eventually I got a character that was doing rather well so I became a lot more careful with it, I decided that I would give earth magic a try. I found that tomb of Dorokhole was amazing in open spaces. I was able to run away and encase myself in rock. This would allow me to heal and when I did dig myself out out, I would only face one enemy at a time. Crystal Speak soon took over from Mystic Blast as my offensive spell of choice as it would kill even orb guardians in one hit much of the time. Sufficed to say I waltzed through the game watching out only for Storm Dragons (I had no lightning resistance). Getting out with the orb was rather difficult though as greater daemons kept appearing near me. A couple crstal spears later and they were dead. NB. Dig and Magic Mapping should be in the aresenal of any spellcaster. I tend to think that Crystal Spear falls under this category too.

Now I am going to try playing a warrior. Suresh tells me that Hill Orc Gladiators are the way to go while Rachael has a preference for beserkers. I have had more luck with beserkers so far, as a simple orc priest kills my gladiator. Or should I play a hunter?

The climb can kill you long before the fall.

So I’ve been without facebook at work since last Friday. Without going into a diatribe about the hypocrisy of banning it while smoking breaks and endless ebaying are seemingly encouraged, it means that my downtime where I gather my thoughts will have to be spent in different areas. Like this one perhaps. I read through my stated plans for the new year and have the following to say in response.

Last Sunday I bought myself the debut Manchester Orchestra album, I’m like a virgin losing a child. I got a couple other things, but I haven’t even bothered listening to any of them yet because this album is that good. Part of what motivated getting this was that they have a new album just released this week. I haven’t gotten around to getting it yet, but will when I find myself in need of new music. I find that I don’t want new music as much as I used to, and most of what I get is new albums from bands I already like. I’ve bought Thursday‘s new album which was very very good. The Appleseed Cast also had an excellent offering. I still need to get some Kevin Devine albums. As far as new (for me) bands I really like, Minus the Bear, Arcade Fire, This Town Needs Guns and Manchester Orchestra are about it for the last 3 years. My musical adventures have decreased similarly; I went to see one of Rachael’s friend’s band play the other week and hopefully will see something later this week but all in all, I’ve become the old person set in their ways. Most things I hear just sound generic and derivative and I fear that I would attribute the same damning adjectives to much the music I like now had I heard it for the first time now. Having said that, I’m like a virgin losing a child is the best thing I have heard in years, or at least I think so right now.

The last couple months I have been trying to learn a new system with one of my bridge partners. Loosely speaking, a system is an agreement between a partnership of what certain bids mean. For example, Standard American (of all flavours) is characterised by 5 card majors, which means that to open the bidding in Hearts or Spades, you need to have 5 of them. Your partner and opponents can then play accordingly. This new system, Precision, is characterised by a strong club and weaker opening bids in the other suits. I like this system for many reasons:

• The first one being that you can open the bidding with fewer points which both blocks the opponents’ bidding and also conveys to your partner almost exactly what potential you have with your hand.
• The second one being that the strong 1C bid is, despite what people say, pretty immune to disruption as you have already given your partner an indication of how good your hand is, no matter what the opposition says.
• The third being that the opening 2 bids have a variety of useful meanings; multi 2D for long majors allows for those lovely 5-5 hands to be highly disruptive and the 2NT showing minors elicits internal cackling every time.

Our results have been very good with it but I (we) need to learn the system better to capture its full potential.

My plans to train more were initially thwarted by my old club moving its training days to bridge days. Bridge won out. However, I recently started running with some guys mostly from work and have been getting stronger. I recently sold my magic collection, hopefully I will be told an amount soon. It was quite freeing doing so, it was a lot of what I thought about for quite a while but not really much at all recently. I look forward to putting that money away for a house deposit.

Life is still pretty good, very busy which is good else I teeter into dangerous territory where I start to think about Things. I haven’t had as much time to see some people and not enough motivation to see others but I suppose that could always be said.

Mix Tape II

AP.net, the source of my music news (RSS’d of course) and occasional lulz has been doing this thing recently where they feature a band form a few years ago. In part to remind the long time members of this amazing music but also to show the new kids some music that they should get into before they start, you know, posting all the time. (It beggars belief that someone would make a post about Radiohead and then later admit to never having heard anything other than Creep.) It turns out that I own LPs from a couple of the recently featured bands and have not listened to most of them enough in the last few years.

So naturally I have spent much of the last week listening to music I really like but have not heard enough recently. Adding to this was my experience at Soundwave a couple weeks back where I saw a whole bunch of awesome bands, finishing off with a Saves The Day singalong – a most perfect way to finish. Now add the release of Watchmen to the mix and it seemed appropriate that I make a mix tape called “Nostalgia by Veidt” so without further ado, here is the mix:

1. A Mind of Metal and Wheels – Gatsbys American Dream
2. Control – Name Taken
3. Between Horns and Halos – Northstar
4. Checkmarks – The Academy Is…
5. Paperthin Hymn – Anberlin
6. The Truth About Heaven – Armor For Sleep
7. The Sound – Further Seems Forever
8. Mass Pike – The Get-Up Kids
9. Priceless – Copeland
10. It’s For The Best – Straylight Run
11. Freakish – Saves The Day
12. Be Here Now – As Tall As Lions
13. Several Ways To Die Trying – Dashboard Confessional

And an explanation…

• A Mind of Metal and Wheels – Gatsbys American Dream

Some time ago I realised that Gatsbys American Dream were my favourite band in the history of ever. Then they kinda went on indefinite hiatus and listened to them somewhat less. Although their play counts on both itunes and last.fm still indicate they are still my favourite. A Mind of Metal and Wheels epitomises what I like about their music; literary references, time signature changes, no repetition, bass-as-percussion.

• Control – Name Taken

This was one of the featured bands on AP.net. I don’t often listen to these guys, and Control is the first and best song on the album. Looking back, the tightness and guitar work is hidden by the roughness of the vocals which perhaps explains why Name Taken are and probably will be forever lumped in with a bunch of bands with less talent that kinda have the same vocals.

• Between Horns and Halos – Northstar

Again these guys were featured last week and to be honest, I never really stopped listening to Pollyanna, their last (and in my opinion, best) album. They had the pop-punk-pock vocals going on that characterises much of the music I like, especially back then, but there is a smoothness to the vocals even at its most frenetic. The whole album is a masterpeice but this was the song that fit best into the mix.

• Checkmarks – The Academy Is…
• Paperthin Hymn – Anberlin
• The Truth About Heaven – Armor For Sleep

This nostalgia is more for me than anything else. Before I went to the US in ’05 I made a point to ask Georgia what new good stuff there was, she gave me a sampler CD with these songs on it. Of the three bands, I would say that I quite like Armor For Sleep but find the other ones less than stellar. These songs are awesome, however. I love the way Checkmarks opens and find the way it flows so honest and natural. An excellent offering from a mediocre album. For a while I thought that I liked Anberlin but after thinking about it for a while, I realised that I liked Never Take Friendship Personal (album) and even then found Paperthin Hymn to be far and beyond anything else on that album or that they have done since. I find Armor For Sleep pleasant, inoffensive and enjoy their sound when I hear it. This song is more urgent than most of their stuff but it follows from Paperthin Hymn so well I felt it should be included.

• The Sound – Further Seems Forever

This band is/was amazing. Each of their three albums to date has a different singer. The one from this album (How To Start a Fire) is my favourite. I rate all of their work, but that album is one of the finest examples of its genre. I have been blown away every time I have listened to it and it is all sorts of superlative.

• Mass Pike – The Get-Up Kids

The first concert I ever went to was a Get-Up Kids/Saves The Day show. I bought Something To Write Home About and then the Red Letter Day EP. I liked the version of Red Letter Day on the EP more and so got to know the surrounding songs on that, Mass Pike is one of those. I adore the percussion intro, the way percussion was meant to be: piano with a hint of drums. Listening to this song was the first time I ‘got’ off key vocals.

• Priceless – Copeland

I was exposed to a Copeland song long before I went off and got an album, and when I did get Beneath Medicine Tree I was overwhelmed by how gorgeously sad it was. The song is so well constructed and well written, no instrument seems to dominate more than is appropriate and the falsetto does not bother me as it often does. There is a gentleness to this song which seemed very out of place in with most of the music I was listening to when I purchased the album.

• It’s For The Best – Straylight Run

Okay so I listen to Straylight Run all the time, try to play their stuff on piano and saw them twice in two days a couple weeks ago. It’s For The Best is a song I had to discover was brilliant rather than have it thrown at me. For a start it sits between what many consider to be the the weakest songs on the album so has a geographic disadvantage. It starts off well and gets brilliant later; the lyrics have become more relevant as I have become older and I appreciate that my appreciation has appreciated. They play it live and it is awesome too.

• Freakish – Saves The Day

I mentioned before that my first gig was Saves The Day, I didn’t actually know any of their music before the show (or The Get-Up Kids either for that matter). By the end of the show I knew this song. I loved this song and it continues to own me every time I hear it.

• Be Here Now – As Tall As Lions

I don’t listen to As Tall As Lions as much as their talent suggests I should. Following up gut-wrenching with Freakish I decided more gut-wrenching was in order, but a softer, more reflective sort of gut-wrench. I think I have already used beautiful to describe a song in this already so I will refrain from gushing more about music I obviously like. (And you should too!)

• Several Ways To Die Trying – Dashboard Confessional

This was a really good way to end an album that I didn’t really like that much. (A Mark. A Mission. A Brand. A Scar) I was a fan of the acoustic guitar Dashboard whining about girls doing him wrong. This song is great despite not having that incarnation of the band.

Movies wot I seen

As I worked stupid hours last Monday, I had the day off work today. I planned to take a monday off so that I could take full advantage of cheap Nova Monday. I was chagrined to learn that the inflation monster had gotten to the cinema and so instead of being $5.50/$7.50 (morning/evening) the price had skyrocketed to an almost unmanagable $6/$8.

Any sane person would recognise that I am about to starting talking about these films so anyone sensitive to spoilers should probably come back later. I mean who reads reviews and doesn’t expect anything given away.

I got up early, and went for a run, just for something completely different. I did this so I could spend the whole day at the cinema guilt free and also to make sure I was at the cinema in time for the first session of the day. On a whim, this turned out to be Slumdog Millionaire. The structure and the story were superb. At the end of the movie I discovered that Danny Boyle had directed it and so the exceptional aspects of it were therefore unsurprising. At no point did I feel the story contrived which, going in, I thought was a danger. I like that the happy ending comes only after everyone is so damaged because I am sick like that. I can’t see anything I disliked about it either, which is odd seeing as I am so often a hater.

Next on the bill was Milk. First off, it was very very good. I liked that they showed a gay relationship that wasn’t dripping with stereotypes (even though the other ones seemed to). Now that that is out of the way, I would like to go into the aspect which irritated me a little bit. It was too much ‘gay person good, straight person bad’. This was partially mollified at the end when you see Harvey becoming an egomaniac a bit but other than that, I felt the director leaned too much on caricature for what is essentially a character driven piece. Also it is good to see Diego Luna kissing boys again and James Franco is a welcome addition to that club too.

After that was Frost/Nixon. I was very wary of this film, partly because people were raving about it and partly because it is about someone universally hated by those who make movies. The last thing I want to see is smug gloating by lazy filmmakers and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not the case here. Sure there was a lot of implicit vitriol directed at him but it did play to his actual acheivments and showed him as a human rather than the right wing monster he is normally portrayed as. The dialogue was clever (which is what you want from a movie based on a play I suppose). But not having seen the play, I cannot judge the film further.

Last on the bill was supposed to be The Class but it was sold out. So I went to see Gran Torino instead. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be but suffered from extreme pacing issues. There was far too much exposition of Clint Eastwood being grumpy, old and racist when there could have been plot movement. There was repetition in other things too (yes we get it, the gangs are bad. yes we get it, sassy girl is sassy) which I felt was unnecessary. Having said that, it did not get to the level as to bore me but on the same token, I could not connect with Eastwood (character) enough to feel sorry for him. I teared up during both Slumdog Millionaire and Milk because the injustice was so great, but Eastwood (director) had a similarly moving story but couldn’t elicit the same sort of emotion.

Still so many movies I want to see!

The Taming of the Shrew

Two weeks into the year and I have not yet reneged on my ‘culture Thursday’ idea borne of last week’s adventure. Last night I went to the botanical gardens with just a friend (sigh) to see some twilight Shakespeare (not that this is not Twilight Shakespeare, ewww@that_thought). Accompanying us was a bbq chicken, some bread, some cheese and some dip. (Apparently my eating well in the new year thing is going not-terribly also).

As the title would suggest, we were there to see The Taming of the Shrew, which incidentally is my favourite Shakespeare comedy, but I have never seen it performed, only read it and seen the movie. I don’t usually like the comedies all that much. For a start they have that whole happy ending thing going on which doesn’t sit well with me, but I find the slapstick way the comedy is portrayed on stage infinitely annoying. Lastly, the actors needn’t be as good for the comedies as they need be for the tragedies as they are essentially performing caricatures. For the last reason, I think that comedies are well suited to amateur productions while I would much rather see a meaty tragedy should the actors be professional.

The reason I love this particular play so much is this exchange:

KATHARINA:
Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband’s foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

PETRUCHIO:
Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

Whether I was going to enjoy the play largely depended on how well they did this scene. Luckily for me is was done rather well and I went home happy. I love the not-so-latent misogyny in the message that women should be milder to please their husbands and how everyone is so pleased that Kate has become so pliable. But it also means that there needs to be at least one really good actor in the play to pull off her character convincingly.

Things I didn’t like about the show:

• Bianca’s character: because any attractive and desirable woman has to be blonde and ditzy and wear short dresses and sqeual with delight and have her voice an octave too high and oh-my-god-the-giggles.
• The actors trying to be funny with the extremely unsubtle references to modern pop culture. “Simone Warne, she’s available.. Amy Winehouse, ugh no”.

Things I did like about the show:

• Everything Else

So overall I liked the show and was glad I went. A-

Impromptu Resolutions

A friend, after stumbling upon Hey Rosetta! at a music festival, informed me that:

1. They have a ‘cello.
2. They were very very good.
3. They were playing in Melbourne on the 8th of Jan.

Now I am a little old fashioned in the way I treat my concert going. When I am first introduced to a band’s music, I am shy and a little apprehensive. It takes some time to get used to the music’s quirks and to get to know where it is right now and and where it has come from. I was going to go on with this metaphor but I got bored, so I will skip to the punchline: I think going to see a band without knowing the music is the equivalent of a one night stand. Sure it might be fun for all involved, but a concert of a band with whom you have a long standing rapport is so satisfying.

After last night’s mindblowing sets, I may have to rethink my outdated concertgoing ways. I had a listen to one song on the dreaded site beforehand  so I had a vague idea of the sound I was to expect but that was the extent of my prerparation. At the gig was an Elise, an Alisa, Ingrid, Lucien and piker-Steve (who was uncharacteristically present).

Hey Rosetta!

After the opening act, whom I can’t remember all that well, the velvet curtain at the Northcote Social Club fell while the band-with-a-‘cello set up. As we stood (a better choice would have been to sit on the carpet of questionable stickiness) we talked but could hear instrument type noises. One noise I did not notice was the ‘cello sound. Piker-Steve started taunting me as the curtain was drawn back that the ‘cello was not there. He was wrong as he often is. There were both a ‘cello and a cellist!

Every instrument has their little idiosyncrisies, trombonists have swimming pools of ‘condensation’ (read saliva) in front of them etc etc. The two things that sting players have are rosin deposits on the instrument and broken hairs on the bow. Most people wipe the instrument regularly getting rid of the rosin from the body (but not the string) and remove the whole hair when one of them breaks. This cellist was not with the ‘most people’ when it came to hair maintenance and it soon became apparent why; he played in an extremely wild manner flailing his body and punishing the instrument. If he had removed all of the hairs as they broke, he would have been doing little else and also it added to the effect of he band.

The music was amazing, there was certainly a formula-type thing going on with each song but it was so pleasant that I did not care; it would start off with the lead singer (who was shaven, unlike the rest of the band) playing either guitar or piano by himself and then the whole band would kick in and then there would be a string bridge trailing off to the end of the song. What I was most impressed with was the musicianship displayed. Often I find that the drums play a driving role in the music I see live, as though they ground the rest of the band’s undiciplined impulses. In Hey Rosetta!, every member was amazingly talented in their own right while still recognising that they are playing with other people. It would appear that whichever instrument(s) was featured would take control and then give it up unquestioningly when they were no longer as featured. The rhythm seemed to come from everywhere except the drums and this made the effect the drums added all the more pleasant.

A+ would do again.

Dead Letter Chorus

The band that was headlining but not the one we were there to see (doing that makes me feel so indie-as-genre) were called Dead Letter Chorus and they all the way from Sydney. It seemed odd to me that a band from Canada was supporting a band from Sydney in Melbourne but I did not question, it just meant that if I didn’t like them, I could just leave without any ill effect. Luckily for me, I really really liked them. They have 3 quite tall guys who were all dressed in black shirts and a not tall girl who was in what all the ladies present described as “an awesome dress”. So even just the visual asthetic was pleasing to me.

They had a permanent bass player and a permanent guitarist but the vocals, other guitar and piano were shared between the awesome dress and one of the tall people. I don’t really like defining bands that I like as a certain genre, I reseve that honour for bands I don’t like (for the record, my favourite genres are now “generic” and “derivative”).  They described themselves as indie rock so I guess that will suffice. At times, all 4 band members were singing harmony while playing their instruments, in football terms, the band played bigger than they were and it was awesome.

After the Hey Rosetta! set, Elise and I got chatting to the cellist about various things when some girl came along and started talking about herself a lot. It amused me. Waiting outside after the show had finished we were talking to Dead Letter Chorus‘s bass player and we were having a laugh when some drunk guy asked for a light. When the bass player cheerfully produced a lighter with scantily clad women on it (A++ If you are going to smoke, at least be tacky about it) the drunk guy said something to the effect of “I don’t feel comfortable using that because it objectifies women”. The lessons here:

1. People who talk to band members, as a rule, are lame. Me and mine are clearly different.
2. I should do band one night stands more, they are fun.