2008 Favourites - Part 1

Fashionably late, in no particular order, and just in time to beat the rush... here's some of our favourite records from 2008.

'2008 Favs - Pt.1' mixed by Adam Askew (direct link)

TRACK LIST:
Tame Impala - 'Skeleton Tiger (Retamed by Canyons)' (H.I.T.S.)
Fuck Buttons - 'Ribs Out' (ATP Recordings)
Santogold feat Spank Rock - 'Shove It' (Downtown)
Wight Light Orchestra - 'Chaos & Conciousness (Pt.1)' (C.I.T.C.)
Fluorescent - 'I Heart Italo' (Refectory5)
IBM - 'A Music Box Reflection' (Creme Jak)
Sons And Daughters - 'Killer' (Domino)
The Breeders - 'Bang On' (4AD)
Robots In Disguise - 'I'm Hit' (President Records)
Laughing Light Of Plenty - 'The Rose' (Whatever We Want Records)

All Tomorrow's Parties - Mt Buller Pt 2

ATP was ace!

Great location, not crowded, and hardly any dickheads.

highlights:
The "light show" during Spiritualized's set; Primitive Calculators singing about 'Nothing'; Afrirampo's inter-song poetry and Nick Cave face mask; crowd participation during The Reels' rendition of 'This Guys In Love With You'; pogoing to The Saints; Harmonia in the Amphitheatre; mooning friends from the chairlift.

lowlights:
Back-2-back hangovers; missing the Louis Wain exhibition; sunburn; friends having to catch the last bus off the mountain @ 12:30am; the random fire alarm at our hotel; cockatoo roadkill.

(hover your mouse over the pics for details)

All Tomorrow's Parties - Mt Buller Pt 1

Australia's first All Tomorrow's Parties festival happened on the weekend at Victorian alpine region Mt Buller. Curated by Nick Cave, it was an orgy of chin-stroking music, film and art. Despite causing near-heart attacks for many of the oldies who are more used to bar-crawls than mountain climbing, there was a breath-taking selection of sounds on display. Highlights included reformed Oz icons The Saints, Primitive Calculators, The Reels and Laughing Clowns. Internationals who impressed were UK post-nu rave rock duo Fuck Buttons and German noodlers Harmonia. Great moments: Primitive Calculators internal heckling; Reels' Dave Mason's audience heckling; Fuck Buttons demented drum bashing; Bad Seed/Dirty Three member Warren Ellis skipping up to the front of stage to dance to The Reels' 'Bad Moon Rising'; Grinderman 'suprise' set; Bad Seeds live rendition of 'We Call Upon The Author'; the chair lift view of Robert Forster's bald spot; Cave shopping with his kids; seeing hipsters Drones on a chair lift ride; the views. Lowlights: walking the hills...

Cave's thumbs up to fans on Mt Buller's main thoroughfare:

Adam Askew - Death Mix

The lucky last Death Mix of 2008!.

Brought to you by the letters W (wisdom), T (teeth), S (surgery) and P (painkillers). A big shout-out to all the maxillofacial surgeons in the house!

'Death Mix' by Adam Askew (direct link)

TRACKLIST:
The Big Pink - 'Crystal Visions' (House Anxiety)
Deadline - 'Gammatron' (Celluloid)
Red Krayola - 'Say Hello To Jamie Jones' (International Artists)
Fujiya & Miyagi - 'Uh' (Regal)
Koto - 'Japanese War Game (Mega Track)' (ZYX Records)
Jamie Lidell - 'Little Bit Of Feel Good (Mr Oizo mix)' (Warp)
Nocturnal Emissions - 'No Separation' (Concrete Productions)
Mahjongg - 'Problems' (K)
Mekon - 'Blood On The Moon (In Flagranti rmx)' (Wall Of Sound)

Death Of A Disco Dancer - Eartha R.I.P.

I first clocked sight of US performer Eartha Kitt watching reruns of '60s action comedy Batman. Kitt was Catwoman, of course. And, with apologies to Julie Newmar, Michelle Pfieffer and Halle Berry, she always remained Catwoman to me. The political significance of a black woman taking over a role originally cast as white was lost on me at the time, nor did I know then that the reason I'd not heard much of Kitt until that point was that she had been quietly blacklisted in the late '60s due to her anti-Vietnam War stance. However, in the '80s the woman who had already conquered Broadway, films and mainstream music success, went clubbing. She scored big with hi-NRG cut 'Where Is My Man' ("with a big big big... yacht!") and then replaced the late Divine as guest vocalist on post-Jimmy Somerville Bronski Beat's 'Cha Cha Heels' (a tribute to John Waters' film Female Trouble). Kitt toured Australia on the heat of her career revival and the concerts were a cut above - reclining on a chez lounge attended by a strapping waiter who kept her champagne topped up on stage - she purred through classics such as 'I Want To Be Evil', 'C'est Ci Bon', 'Let's Do It' and 'Santa Baby'. Coincidentally, the woman who gave us the Xmas classic 'Santa Baby' passed away on Xmas Day, age 81.

Eartha Kitt merchandise

Eartha Kitt & Bronski Beat - 'Cha Cha Heels':

Neighbourhood Watch - French Rockets, WA

As the inevitable backlash unfairly sets in for Perth psych export Tame Impala, the industry part of the local 'music industry' knows that means crossover success is just around the corner (when early adopters turn on they adopted early it means the suburbs are buzzing so the EAs need to find a new obscurity to celebrate until the cycle starts moving round again... and, so on). So, of course, we return to Perth for the Next-Could-Be-Big-Thing. Enter: French Rockets. With just enough psych-influence to be tarred with a brush that can have us screaming, "Perth's the new San Fran," this trio actually lean a little (okay, A LOT) toward the post-nu gaze scene (take note of their influences as listed on MySpace) and, in a darkened room with a handful of Qaaludes, can at times remind us of classic Mebz old gazers Ripe.

So, folks are sniffing around and soon another west coast trio should be hip to a hipster label. But because there won't be any new material just yet, familiarise yourself with the kinda tuneage that got 'em noticed in the first place.

French Rockets - 'Scopin' The Radar'

Neighbourhood Watch - Reptiles, Vic (08 Edition)

There are Reptiles loose in Melburn'z backyard again. It's happened before. Back in the late '80s a Nick Barker-led group of Reptiles crawled out from under the swamp blues rock that the town's underground scene was built on back then. Barker was a one-time member of recently-reformed The Wreckery (with Hugo Race of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fame). At one stage, I'm fairly certain the band were known as Reptile Smile as they slowly mutated from the proto-grunge mud slingers into chart-dwelling bipeds with a keen ear for a good cover (they found their biggest success de-glamming, but not defiling, Cockney Rebel's 'Come Up And See Me Make Me Smile').

The latest bottom-of-the-garden dwellers dig from the same mire Barker's critters initially wallowed in - loose, dark, intense, noisy splashes of musical mud. That stains. They pick up where the Gun Club and other ye olde Slash Records' bands left off - hopefully they won't derail like that US alt.band scene and turn into arena-embracing REMs. Having built a reputation as a live powerhouse (or should that be powersquatters, their's is so the soundtrack of every '80s squat party), the '00 Reptiles have allowed a six-track EP to slither out on its own (close-to-the-ground) legs. It's worth grabbing by the tail, even it's just to admire their scaly song titles: 'Chainsaw Sally', 'Drank Bleach', etc.

Reptiles - 'Smell My Skin'