Australian Pride - Sport and Punk

How good is it that we have always PUNCHED ABOVE OUR WEIGHT as a sporting nation?

Australia Rocks at sport Man!
(except in one day international and 20 20 cricket... now)

I'm a sports mad goon. I love soccer and AFL, Cricket and the Tour De France... I've travelled overseas to watch the Socceroos at the world cup in Germany, I signed up for tickets to the next world cup in South Africa and I'm a member of the Melbourne Victory.

However, I feel like Australia has short man syndrome.

Maybe as a collective nation we feel culturally insignificant, or maybe we're not as tough or big or important as other countries so we have to smash weights at the gym, stick our chests out and beat everyone at sport then shout out loud about it.

image from the couch gymnast my new favorite blog

It really annoys me that our sense of national identity and pride is so reliant on our performances in the sporting arena.

Here's some stats from the BEIJING OLYMPICS (from http://simon.forsyth.net/olympicsGDP2008.html):

• Australia came 5th overall on the medals tally - impressive yeah?
  
• Australia came 6th overall in the 'medals per capita' - still pretty impressive hey?
  
• We came 18th overall on the medals per capita tally and 18th in the medals per GDP (Gross Domestic Product) - hmmm... not as impressive
  

But... here's something not very impressive at all.

Government funding for Australia's elite athletes in preparation for the Beijing Olympics was allocated at the ratio of 40 million dollars per Gold Medal

f*ckloads.
waaaaayyyy toooooo much

And now people are in tears because if we don't add another 100 million to our olympic funding, we'll win EVEN LESS MEDALS! http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/18/2339445.htm

I've got an idea.

Let's forgo one Olympic Gold Medal and spend 40 million dollars on independent music...

Let's forgo another gold medal which will fund a fully functioning Victorian College Of The Arts and will allow the Australian National Academy of Music (a selective school for Australia's most talented young classical musicians) to function finally without risking being shut down.

You get my drift.

Maybe we could educate some people that we have things to proud of besides victory

Here's a reason I'm Proud of being an Australian.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring paid $1500 to make Australia's best record of 2008.
It won the Australian Music Prize, was nominated for an ARIA and won an AIR Award.
What other country has a music public, a music media that can recognise and foster brilliant music like this? Values, character, attitude, energy and songwriting.
Can you imagine ECSR winning a mercury music prize in the UK or the Shortlist prize in the USA?
even dicko loves it


(thanks to Stu for showing me the ECSR videos)

Maybe we could spend some of the gold medal money educating people about where some of our greatest musicians fit in the pantheon of worldwide culture.
I'll give one example.

This is also something that everyone of us should be proud of... The Saints are recognised in Australia's National Film and Sound Archive.
They formed the same year as the Ramones and predated the sex pistols, the buzzcocks, the clash... I realise I may be preaching to the converted here. But every time I listen to The Saints I reckon it needs to be said again. and again.

This song isn't what they're most famous for... but it was their biggest hit. It got to number 34 in the UK in 1977. It's my favorite Saints song. I think it's as scintillatingly rad as music gets...

Wata and Boris

Hi guys,
I'd like to introduce you to Wata.
She plays lead guitar a band called Boris.
If you click play on all these videos you can watch her do NOTHING.

Boris

Boris

Boris

Boris

Boris


Those Crazy Japanese Punks"... incorrigible.
weird just watching a video of someone doing nothing hey? I wonder if she's trying to stay still? I wonder if it's a joke... It confuses me... but i just shrug and smile knowingly. I have a sneaking suspicion that BORIS are approaching genius.

I've been listening to Boris a lot in the last coupla months... here's the facts about em.

They're from Japan, they play sludge metal, doom metal, thrashy punk, epic rock and the odd accoustic ballad. They F*cking rock hard but do beautiful sensitive stuff too.

Boris have played the music for a new movie called
"The Limits Of Control"
It's kind of a big deal... big name actors, holywood stars, guns and sex

The trailer looks lame, (if it was rad I would have put it on this blog). Sill, I'd check it out so I can hear Wata and Boris in action.

Did I mention they have a rather attractive lead guitarist who's name is WATA?

They've released 17 studio albumsin 13 years !!!!!!
Clearly they're not here to f*ck spiders.

Here's another video of a really beautiful song. called "MY NEIGHBOUR SATAN" It's the reason I wrote this blog. It's going to be my song of the month I think. I just (legally) bought the MP3 of it, but I originally heard it on an absolutely radicool silver embossed limited edition vinyl version...
That I bought in Perth.
for too much money...

They don't move much, but DAMN! It's a great song. It's off their latest album, called SMILE
DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND LISTEN

BORIS 　となりのサターン

Friendly Flying Dillinger Stool

For those LONG TIME READERS AND FANS OF THIS BLOG... (and I checked, I know three of you that have read it) you'll know that i have a new favorite band. They've been around for 21 years, and are masters of lyrical subtlety and building lush textures...

the band?

Anal C*nt.

Anyway, further research into these intellectual giants of the music world told me that one of their biggest hits is called

"Anyone who likes Dillenger Escape Plan Is A F*ggot"

well... damn... Looks like I'm batting for the other side then... Time to bend over!

No seriously, nothing wrong at all with being same gender attracted... I've kissed a guy on the mouth before and it wasn't even a dare!

I don't imagine my entire readership (all 8 of you) love metal. But I wanted to play some dillinger escape plan because I feel like everyone should have just a bit of them in their life! I chose a kind of hardcore song, nothing too heavy. Very listenable... easy on the ears in fact
The video features the band, a hot tattooed girl and a malevolent but ultimately very friendly supersonic flying stool (that you sit on).





wow! how good was the chorus at 2.00 until the end? WICKID

For dillingers next trick...
This is the last track off the last album. It was released a few years ago but i still cant get over it.

I know this will annoy my english friend Daz because he only likes unlistenable Dillinger... but if, in future albums they took it even further in this direction I would officially lose my sh*t. It's awesome... ambient turns into jazz jam/piano improv into epic rock... (sigh) also know that this is not a moving video. it's a sneaky way to stream a song!



In the words of Shane Crawford
That's what I'm talkin BOUT!

Ethnomusicology

When I studied music at 'The Con' in Melbourne. I got an outrageously good mark for this subject we had called "Music Cultures of Asia".
I rocked that sh*t. Ask me anything about Ragas, The Music of the Highland Hmong or Kecak. I can tell you soooo much stuff!

Anyway, I think you should watch this. It's mesmerising.




Now watch this (below).
The video is really bad, (so listen to it, you don't have to watch) but its the only way I could stream the music.
Indonesian KECAK, heavy metal stylee... At 2 minutes 40 into this video. Amazing. Inspirational. Crazy. Ridiculous. I miss Mr. Bungle, but I'm happy that Mike Patton is back playing with his second best band eva. Faith No More.

Goodbye Sober Day



i got sent a letter from the Dean of my university advising that I should specialise in ethnomusicology.
Not much in the way of a career path if you're an ethnomusicologist... There ain't a big demand for them. No-ones paying big money for ethonomusicologists...

But maybe I should have become an ethnomusicologist because I LOVE it when I'm listening to some cool music and I hear a band that have looked in interesting places for their influences. My ears prick up and try and place the heritage of the sounds.

So. Listen to this. It's my favorite song of the last 2 days. It ticks all the boxes for me.





It's cacophonous at times and pulls it's influences from all over the world. So many different sounds that it's kind of created something new...

Dig it!

The other boxes they tick are.

Asian/middle eastern Sounds.
Medievil Choir Chanting Harmonies
Cool Voice, sounds like she's the chick from THE KNIFE
Can't understand the lyrics (i love not understanding lyrics, or not having any at all)
Radicool Synth Bits.
Great Guitar work.
Funny/interesting song structures
it's released on WARP (which makes me go weak at the kneeeze)


GANG GANG DANCE - HOUSE JAM...

I Won't Steal Your Money

Just in case you were wondering... I won't steal your money! Or Your information!

F*CK YOU MCAFEE!!!!



but just to be safe, don't give me your credit card details when I ask.

Music to Wake Up To

I get a childish delight from swearwords... still. F*ck, Sh*t, Cunce.
I don't know why I love them, but I do. It also extends to well drawn cock and balls.

So it stands to reason that I'd be pretty excited by the well documented trend of 'F*ck' bands
There's stax of them! Here' a small list... F*ck, The F*ck F*cks, Holy F*uck, F*cked Up, F*ck The Facts, Total F*ucking Destruction.

I haven't had time to check em all out yet though.

While I'm at it. There's American Grind/Noisecore band Anal C*nt... which has " earned the reputation for basically being anti-everything." - Thanks wikipedia. Wiki also tells us that "The band's very first performance was in 1988 at Putnam's (lead singer's) mother's house in front of some family members, namely his mother, his two little brothers and his grandmother, as well as some of his mother's friends"
I read more about that band. They actually make me feel a lil' sick.
Do you reckon Putnam's Granny would have liked Anal C*nt?

Sorry I'm getting sidetracked

This is a serious post.
Earlier this year one of the f*ck bands toured Australia. They got enough press to pique my interest so I bought their album.

The F*ck Buttons...
I'm not sure where to start. I'm kind of disappointed they are a f*ck band, because frankly the band is brilliant and i think the name detracts from their goodness.
Basically it's 2 dudes making some very harsh noise that is treated in a way that flows over you like warm water and is actually some of the most relaxing and mesmerizing music I've ever heard.

Sweet Love For Planet Earth - F*ck Buttons

I was almost in a trance listening to the album on the tram to work this morning.

Anyway, I've finally arrived at my point. I LOVE it when this song plays as my alarm on a weekend morning. For some reason, it nearly always puts me into that beautiful state of lucid dreaming. Where you can consciously control the outcome of an unconscious dream.

The music drains all muscle tension from my body. I can barely move. It's so relaxing. It's the best music in the world to wake up to (as long as you're not in a rush)...

Listen to the tinkling bells at the start, as it segues into distortion... then come 5 mins 40 seconds into the song the incomprehensible screaming starts and then the bells return without you even noticing. It takes almost 10 minutes...

Maybe I'm weird. Maybe this music isn't meant for beautiful zen like relaxation, or maybe The F*ck buttons are contradictory genius.

Does Sad Music Make You Sad?

I've been thinking recently about 'sad' music. Not the first time, I heard someone say recently that when they stopped listening to 'sad' music their worldview become more positive. They become happier people.

I've never really agreed with this. What is 'sad' music anyway?
I listen to some pretty dire music sometimes, and I've got a positive outlook on life. Last week, i was feeling a little down and walking to work. I was listening to some droning-distortion-filled-bleak-as-f*ck-music when I realised that it was bringing me down. I felt for the first time that I needed some positive music to feel better.

droning distortion filled bleak as f*ck music (just watch 20 seconds if ya want, you'll get the picture)



yeah, it aint exactly a laugh a minute is it?

I didn't want music that was ridiculously and overtly positive either... I wanted something a little more affirming. Something that could punch me in the chest and guts and say "buck up soldier!" So I switched this



Thanks Bronx!!! you always cheer me up!
I got the 7" vinyl of this song a couple of weeks ago. "young bloods" it's effing magificient.

Anyway I got online and searched what other people reckon about sad music. Seriously, there are some genius' out there.

"Trance music makes me think and in a way makes me feel kinda sad and happy?!? weird lol.
I guess its how your feeling at the time. i mean you could listen to a really sad song at a happy time in ur life and it wouldnt affect u but just break up with someone n it makes u wanna slit ur wrists lol! i couldnt live without music! lol."

Laugh Out Loud? What's the f*ck is funny about that?

There's a myriad of different statements on the matter but I think the most profound statement said:

"Do You Realise? - Flaming Lips"

This song is life affirming and tragic at the same time. It makes me happy, but reflective. It's brilliant. THE FLAMING LIPS ARE ABOUT TO TOUR AUSTRALIA Get tickets.
Theyll make you very very happy and only a little bit sad. But sad in a good way.

Check the key change and choir entry at 2:00. LOL