My friend Tim & I went to see the Cameron Crowe documentary Pearl Jam Twenty tonight, and I am all awash with nostalgia. I grew up in a regional area of my country, with AM radio for the majority of my childhood, and then with commercial FM radio following that up. In the mid-90s the national alternative radio station, Triple J, finally started broadcasting in my area of New South Wales and the world of music burst open for me. For a girl who counted being able to sing along with multiple Mariah Carey albums in her repertoire, this was a pretty big thing. I started hearing all this great stuff i'd never have known about, especially great Australian indie bands.
Triple J did a lot of live broadcasts of big concerts, and in 1995 they broadcast the Melbourne show of Pearl Jam's first Australian tour. I remember sitting rapt in front of my stereo listening to it, and taping it to be able to play it over and over again. Man, I hope I kept that tape somewhere packed up in my stuff at home. So when it came time for them to tour Australia again, it was 1998 and they were promoting Yield. That's really the last album I properly listened to more than a few times - the follow-up, Binaural, was one I purchased and listened to and left it to sit on the shelf. Either i'd grown out of the music, or the band had changed enough, or a little of both, but I wasn't into it from that point on.
That doesn't mean that the band still don't obviously have a huge affect on me even now, and walking out of the documentary tonight I really felt like a dolt for not having taken the opportunity to go and see them when they played here in Toronto recently.
The documentary is pretty good - a solid piece of rock journalism, essentially; Crowe going back to his roots, and back to a time and the people he was a part of. It focuses heavily on the first 10 years of the band and how they came to be and their rise to fame, and sort of wraps up the rest in the last 1/3 or so of the film. It's a mix of archival interviews and concert footage in addition to present-day interviews with the band to wrap up the narrative nicely. It's pretty crazy flash back and forth between what the guys looked like 20 years ago and what they look like now. I think having loved the band so hard I felt like I might've got more out of it than a casual fan or just someone interested in seeing a doco by Crowe - but it's not enough of a flaw to fault the film as a whole. Let's face it, it's got a niche crowd - albeit a big niche! - and they're gonna get what they want out of it.
I'm listening my way through Vitalogy now, missing my PJ CDs packed up at home and still crushing on Eddie Vedder, myself. Sigh!
It's Monday! It's August! Have a mixtape! I recommend finding a nice spot somewhere cool with a little dappled sunshine, reclining back and relaxing with a drink in your hand, ice cubes tinkling. If you are currently in the Southern Hemisphere, please disregard. I know summer's not over yet, but I suppose we should all get while the gettin's good. Tracks are from Said the Whale, Feist, Sloan, the Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, Seaplane, Turnpike & Giant Drag. Enjoy!
Many many years ago I lived in Armidale, NSW. I wasn't there very long (i'd moved there to study, but ended up heading to Brisbane for that instead), but while I was there I kept myself entertained a lot of the time by juggling a bunch of radio shows at the University community/student radio station 2UNE (now known as 'Tune FM'). When I first started broadcasting I was too nervous to even announce songs, so I was doing slots at quieter times of the day where it didn't really matter that all that was playing was a big chunk of music.
Eventually, come the University holidays, there were a lot of empty slots as students went home & the like. I ended up at one point doing 5 or so 1 - 2 hour programs each week; I remember having a science news show, & a vegetarian info/news show among other things. My Sunday program was called "Double Take" and the premise was a simple one - I would play any sort of music I liked, but I had to play two songs from each artist I featured, back to back.
Thus the theme of my most recent 8tracks mix is a 'double take' one - and I kept it all antipodean & independant as well. Starts off with stalwarts You Am I (Melbourne), goes on into the now defunct Iron On (Brisbane), then to a band I wish I had more of - Peabody (Sydney), and back up north to my favourites the Giants of Science (Brisbane), capped off with a couple of guitarish dreams from noisy Turnpike (Brisbane). Enjoy!
[Direct link to 8tracks mix for those who can't listen to the embedded playlist.]
It's been a while since I put a mix together (you can go here to listen if the embed doesn't work below). I fully intended to relax this evening, and I didn't expect to be flopped on my bed poking around making a mix to do it, but there you go. I hope if you listen it takes you nicely to the end of your weekend. Onward into the week ahead, I suppose..
(Ramona included because of a rewatch of Scott Pilgrim recently, and the mix is capped off by the Beta Band because everyone needs to be lulled into thinking about John Cusack before bedtime, right? Sigh.)
I fancied some riffs this morning, so here's a new mix! Threw a few pretty unknown/defunt Australian bands in there because it's amazing what I can find on my hard drive - I finished the mix up with an epic track from the Grey Daturas, in fact. Lots of delicious riffs and distortion - enjoy!
Here's another mixtape. The sunny winter's day made me do it. If you can't see it embedded below, visit the playlist page here (includes Beasts of Bourbon, Rowland S Howard, Dear Nora, Sebadoh and others!)
I can't remember where I saw it surface in the last day or two, but I was reminded about the existence of 8 Tracks and thought it'd be a good thing to make a mix and post here on a regular basis. Seeing as i'm having a nice quiet night at home and heading for a nice old lady bed time, have this one: Dreamy Night Time Mix - includes Great Lake Swimmers, Stars, 2 Litre Dolby, the Dirty Three, Black Heart Procession, Morphine & Do Make Say Think. Have a dreamy evening. (And if it's not evening for you, then give it a whirl when it is!)
Some people are surprised when I tell them that i'm not actually from Brisbane, that I grew up in northern NSW - but I feel more of a connection to Brisbane, my adopted home for much of the 2000s. I'm really sad to see what's happening there (and throughout Southeast QLD). I knew the wet season had got a bit out of control and that areas of the state were flooding already - but then everything just hit some sort of tipping point and it's gotten worse before getting better. If you'd like to help, the QLD government has set up a donation page here.
I've heard from most of my friends in Brisbane that they're alright - even though Brisbane's a river city with a lot of low ground near the banks, a lot of the city is also on high ground which is lucky. The suburb I lived in (Fairfield) before moving is on low ground and a lot of streets there are underwater now. Where my best friend used to live (in West End) before moving away is quite well underwater as well. The rain seems to be getting worse closer to my childhood home in Grafton too - my mum emailed and said the river's risen a couple of metres overnight, and it sounds like the rain's not going to stop. I remember a few bad floods from when I was a kid - the waters never reached our house, but came up very close to where we were at the edge of town. The Pacific Highway out of town (both north and south) would always get cut off, and the only way to get from the south of town to the north was by a special passenger train they'd put in service when much of the town went under. It's such a weird thing, living through flooding like that (and multiple times). It never flooded the whole time I lived in Brisbane though, so I can't wrap my head around the city I know being underwater.
Stay safe, Brisbane and everywhere else that's being deluged. Oh yes, summer's just so lovely in Australia except for when the wet season goes rogue. Now, have a video about the kind of storms that are worth singing about, not these rubbishy neverending wet ones.
Tonight I started listening to a live set from the Meredith festival in December 2010 which Custard played. Which then led me to YouTube, which led me into this spiral of doom. This is what happens when I have a lot of coffee, I suppose. Enjoy!
Custard Pack Yr Suitcases (1994):
Snout Cro-Magnon (1996):
The Fauves Dogs Are The Best People (1996):
Ohhhh my gosh I love this clip & song - Screamfeeder Hi Cs (1997):
Sonic Animation Theophilus Thistler (1999) - this is dangerously earwormy:
The Avalanches Frontier Psychiatrist (2000):
Frenzal Rhomb, one of Australia's finest crusty bands, Russel Crowe's Band (2003):
I love how many lyrics I remember, and how many of these clips are lifted from Rage. I'm still going in this spiral (You Am I, The Mavis's, Something for Kate, Spiderbait, TISM, Even, Jebediah.. it goes on), i'll probably be here for days.. sometimes I miss the late 90s/early 00s. (Sometimes.)
Oh, this is rather interesting. Last.fm thinks i'm a dude-lady who's much younger than I actually am. This also tells me that hardcore gives me testosterone, and more menfolk need to listen to Bratmobile. A fine suggestion, really. What a lark. You there! Have a go your own self!
