ENCOUNTER GROUP (under this bridge) Live Brisbane 14/09/14

A couple of weeks ago Bearded Iris and Encounter Group flew up to the sunny city of Brisbane to play a couple of shows, the final show was powered by a two-stroke generator under a bridge near Goma art gallery in South Bank. Thanks Gerald of Gerald Keaney and the Gerald Keaneys who also performed and provided the generator.
Apparently cops are a problem in this part of the country and fortunately none paid us a visit, we did get some curious park goers and three wasted mates from the homeless shelter check out the happening. They seemed to have the best time!

The recording is drum and vocal heavy with the bass and guitar being murked out via the resonant echo that dominated the space. It gives this document a kinda rap style vibe with beats and singing to the fore (alongside profuse use of the "f" word!)...The last track called "Rock Keep Rolling" features special guest Matt Earle from xNOBBQx on extra guitar. Clocking in at over twelve minutes I manage to squeeze the lyrics out right at the end.
Marek took the photo of us (thanks!), also thanks to Mark Spinks and Sleepy for helping transport the borrowed equipment.
All in all a nice day in the sun spent defiantly molesting a bottle of stone's ginger wine. I may post some of the other performances after getting permission in the near future....
UNDER THIS BRIDGE

Ragtime Frank Plays Melbourne, Slopes Gallery(19/07/14), Public Bar(20/07/14)

 I'd been hankering to see this guy play since I purchased his "Live At St Georges" LP put out by Negative Guest List last year. I don't normally gravitate towards contempory guys playing old timey "blues holler" but this guy does it with a certain abandoned conviction that has me sold.    He has a new album out on Little Big Chief Records which you can read about here...
 Ragtime Frank played two shows in Melbourne last weekend of which I recorded both; the first one was at Slopes Gallery in the trendy slumming neighbourhood of Fitzroy. The show was some kind of art school thing of which I normally don't frequent as they usually seem populated by mediocre yet fragile young socialites trying to converse their way up the (f)art ladder...One of the "performances" involved a staggered group dance of constantly collapsing props with movements which made me laugh at how bad it was! The very cheap three dollar Hollander beers helped immensely and I'm sure there's a mountainous screed of shite that backs up this stuff with wordy hieroglyphs....Here is the short ten minute set that Frank did with only a harmonica, foot, and voice. A funny event, perhaps I'm too close-minded but I prefer to watch good old fashioned rock "n" roll and think about the clever stuff later!

 The second show was the following day at a giant fisherman's basket known as the Public Bar. Quite a restrained or tired audience(myself included) so on the recording I added some swanky delay effects to the audience applause to jazz things up a bit.....Frank played his electric guitar and did a staggering version of bad man "Stagger Lee" which jumped above the stage somewhere! Both shows had the feeling of transcendance with Frank going off into some kinda blues catharthis.....Here's the show.
 I didn't edit either show into separate tracks as I felt they both work best as extended pieces. I do hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Encounter Group (@ Grace Darling 13/07/14)

I felt good about this show, we were supporting Dusty's band Dag; Boiled Dwarf, Mad Nanna also played. They were all good by me. No monkey bullshit!
 Last time I played at this venue I felt somewhat ajar but this time the door was open....
 Despite a little bit of a cold and tuning problems I think we put on a spirited show, this download has two tunes missing which I reckon sounded like total shit and I only want to put my best foot forwards.....I decided a while back that we'd do the Sacred Product LP set thus making room to move on to the future. I'm much more interested in the future these days.
 This is a good record of our sound so I hope you enjoy it, I did!
 Weirdo with a dictaphone was there on the night so no doubt he will impecably document the entire night for keen ears in the not too distant future...
P.S. Thanks Eira for taking the band photo!

HAMMERING THE CRAMPS (@ Dane Certificate's Magic Shop,Melbourne 28/06/14)

 Hammering the Cramps consists of Karl Von Bamberger(keyboards), Reggie Norris(guitar), Simon Krause(vocals/guitar) and Jesse Clark(drums). I'm told that they only had one rehearsal before this concert and hadn't played for seven years. This was their first show in Melbourne too....

 Musical parallels could be made with N.Z. bands such as the Terminals, Pin Group, Dadamah or any number of Xpressway independent minded sound summoners. At times the music sounded quite fragile and disparate, almost collapsing but would suddenly hit harmonic booms which made me see a big field of cathartic blue. I don't have much to say as I was very blown away by the power of this group and felt I'd seen something quite special, maybe it was the drugs. I can still hear some of these moments...

 Anyway, I fucked up big time with my zoom H2n's batteries dying mid set thus I missed a couple of songs. So I only have four tunes which may give you an idea of this group's beauty, one of these tracks is missing the beginning but I put it on anyhow as it sounded good. 

 A definite reminder of why I like music! Check out the Tasmanian label Wormwood Grasshopper's catalogue for other gems...

HORSE MANIA @Tape Projects, ALbert's Fest Sunday 8th June 2014

Albert's Fest post number two; Horse Mania.
 'Twas the end of the night, time for a cup of hot milo and a bedtime story. This band of kindly mothering lads consists of Tasmanians Simon Hanselmann and Karl von Bamberger, this may be their first Uncle Melby show and maybe it will be their only Uncle Melby show. Who knows-I certainly don't but I'll be asking questions later.
 Unfortunately I missed the first five or so minutes of this performance so the recording is only one hour and thirteen minutes long. It doesn't matter!
 Center stage sitting at a table with lamp the duo rustled casiotone keyboards, bits of paper, microphones, perhaps a dictaphone and audience suggestions(or occasional insults). I had a great time and had a few things to say of which I have no recollection of as I was a bit "sleepy". No worries, these Tasmanians come from a rich heritage of not giving a fuck and allowing the audience to be fully ackwnowledged within their performance. I like their vibe!
 Horse Mania's conversationalist approach reminded me of many a night spent drinking wine and smoking rosemary laced rollies in Karl's almost windowless den of a flat in Northcote. He had a nickname for his house of which I am not sure if many people will find funny(his "r__pe den") and I thought it smelled of some deathly drug overdose and who knows what the bottle of olive oil was doing in his bedroom.
  Musically I don't remember much but banter with seemingly spontaneous casiotone driven downsided pop. I may be totally off course with this memory but I do positively remember seeing Karl take a photo or two. When I listen back to this recording I suppose it'll all come flooding back and I'll probabably regret what I thought at the time were witty heckles....
 Give a root and give it a toot!

AESTHETICS:@ Northcote Social Club,Melby, 9th June 2014

If this was in New Zealand you could possibly call it "Sickness Benefit Wave". The wave isn't very big 'cos there's not much money in it because that asset stripper forex genie arsehole John Key is going about dismantling as much social welfare as he can stick his eagle beaked nose into.....anyhow I'm just some baldy man intellectual with a penchant for rock and a venue to vent...BLAH,blat,blomb....it's probably best not to be a dick and try to categorise this music then I 'spose; 'twas just trying to be witty!
  I missed most of the other bands unfortunately and also on purpose-I really can't stand post-hardcore art jam music(what's the point in screaming and playing high energy punk beats when the message doesn't cut through-seemed like Dick Angst Rock to me). The Dinosaur Jr sounding group sounded ok though but it's way too backwards looking for an old fuck...
 Well, the Aesthetics have had a few line-ups over the years and have an underground following throughout the Land of the Long White (c)Loud. I even filled in for a while on drums here in friendly uncle Melby Town, I helped pay the rent on a Brunswick talent quest rehearsal space for a few months and it was generally a tense kind of fun. Rock has gotta keep rolling and I was rolled out!
Anyhow these ex-sheepfuckers provide what Uncle Melby needs-something to get fucked-up on and spill wine on the carpet to. Edie plays a solid bass groove and supports Matt on his sonic outings via her feedback drone potent and new member Jeremy's drums keep consistent throughout.
I must say I wasn't blown away by most of this set as I have heard it many times before and am not surprised by these old rock moves but the last track entitled "Better Dead Than Red" blew my fist into the air a couple of times and moved me from sarcastic bird flipping into spine-tingling swilling euphoria!
I didn't separate the tracks so it is ONE LONG EXPERIENCE!

Crude (Live @ Albert's Fest 8th June 2014 @ Tape Projects, Melby)

Albert's Fest on a Sundy, not a normal Sundy mind you but one preceeding Queen Elizabeth's birthday. Not the Lord's day of rest-we'll leave the resting for the rest of the week and pay the price later.....
So there was a whole lot of other stuff happening( of which I shall post later provided I am given the kind permission of  Tasmanian ex-pats Horse Mania....). I am not going to give any sort of run down on the night except that I bought a very nice Mad Nanna tee shirt for only ten bucks and that Michael's distro(Albert's Basement) is worth checking out. I am quite excited about some of the recently issued old N.Z. underock that he is peddling which mega-Label Siltbreeze have put out this year-namely the Spies and Shoes This High.....get them!!-it's easy to preview this stuff before you buy elsewhere on the net so do the finger work if you dare...).
Well, Matt Middleton is an ex-sheepfucker world famous in Dunedin who has a unique sound signature which sits in  it's own world resilient to the de-knobbing effects of New Zealand's overindulgence in "Flying Nun" pride. He has an angular conversation style and might get back to you later on a question raised a long time ago-he's a data processor caged in flesh. His sound is like this and I never quite know what to expect which is why I like it....I remember one gig he did months after the "99 Percent Occupation" on Swanston Street where he ranted down the microphone about not going to the protest and buying Levis jeans instead. I couldn't make the protest either as I had to go to work at a glorified taco stand in order to pay the rent. This was just one moment of the performance and if you caught what he was on about you got the goods....
 This show tonight didn't seem as angularly sci-fi as usual but started off slowly with vocal loops and had his trademark sax against the world honky burpin'....I was a bit blurry at the time and haven't even listened to the recording yet but I do remember towards the end spinning my zoom recorder around to create some sort of stereo effect. Sometimes good things take time to enjoy or understand, it's here so why not give it a toot!

Scrabbled(Live at Northcote Social Club 20/04/14)

Scrabbled are a Brisbane band consisting of Bek Moore(vocals), Mark Spinks(bass), Dusty Anastassiou(guitar/backing vocals), Emily Wade(drums) and guest for the afternoon Dan Lewis(on   shimmery vibe guitar). I really liked this band and I thought they sounded pretty good through Northcote Social Club's warm p.a. This recording was done on my new zoom portable digital recorder from the back of the room. I don't know who took this photo of them which I downloaded from fakebook(fill me in if you want...) and I'll let the music describe itself....