Wish, the magazine that gets tucked inside my copy of The Australian on the first Friday of each month, included a "High Five" (as they called it) of all-time favourite albums from some musicians and industry-folk. Some of them also nominated a guilty pleasure—a CD to which they were sheepishly attracted.
It didn't take much of a leap to figure that this should step up as Cacophony's next Top 5. Before we get there though, some Top 5's from some folk you may know:
Tex Perkins
1. Sticky Fingers: The Rolling Stones
2. Loaded: The Velvet Underground
3. Tonight's the Night: Neil Young
4. Raw Power: Iggy & the Stooges
5. Clear Spot: Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band
Guilty Pleasure
Jesus Christ Superstar (Soundtrack)
Marcia Hines
1. Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Beatles
2. Tutu: Miles Davis
3. Face Value: Phil Collins
4. Talking Book: Stevie Wonder
5. Luther Vandross: any album
Arnold Frollows
1. Kind of Blue: Miles Davis
2. What's going on: Marvin Gaye
3. Astral Weeks: Van Morrison
4. Hejira: Joni Mitchell
5. The Harder they Come: (Soundtrack)
Guilty Pleasure
Hotel California: The Eagles
Sarah Blasko
1. Debut: Bjork
2. To Bring you my love: PJ Harvey
3. Amnesiac: Radiohead
4. Dirty: Sonic Youth
5. Talking Heads: 77 Talking Heads
Guilty Pleasure
Neither Fish nor Flesh Terence Trent d'Arby
Simon Elliott
1. U2: The Joshua Tree
2. Making Movies: Dire Straits
3. Gossip: Paul Kelly
3a: Rumours: Fleetwood Mac (just following on the with the loose lips)
4. Enlightenment: Van Morrison
5. The Bends: Radiohead
Guilty Pleasure (not really, just one more)
Brood: My Friend the Chocolate
So: Peter Gabriel
Simon's twin
1. David Grey: White Ladder
2. Oh, Mercy: Bob Dylan
3. Mercury Falling: Sting
4. Woodface: Crowded House
5. Glo: Delirious?
Guilty Pleasure
Difficult Loves: Weddings, Parties, Anything
So—step right up and swing hard. No wrong answers (other than those listed above).
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Top 5: All-time favourite albums
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Top 5: Sad Songs Say So Much
Life can leave you feeling very sad sometimes. I'm a fan of the melancholy, I have been known to embrace a bit of misery from time to time.
And there's nothing to help you along your way with your eyes to the pavement than a good sad song. Songs are sad because of the words, the idea or concept, the melody, the production, the sounds, the chord progression, and sometimes little delicate details that invoke emotion.
Here's my Top 5 for an emotional rainy day:
1. Stable Song - Deathcab for Cutie
2. Somersault Score - Decoder Ring
3. Into The Sunset - Neil Finn
4. Drugs Don't Work - The Verve
5. Say Hello Wave Goodbye - David Gray
Friday, June 22, 2007
Scratching lyrical (A communal Top 5)
There are moments of magnificence and beauty when the breath of our creator God seems to infuse the mind of the created in a sublime way. Through the crafting of words, a song lyric can capture or recall experiences, people, emotions and time in a way that cuts through the clutter with alarming simplicity. Sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes the reverse happens. Alas, some lyrics become memorable because of their abuse of our curious language.
That's what this Top 5 is all about. The one-liners within songs that make us start searching for sharp objects. They're either cheap rhymes, banal notions or just plain English. A few decades back, a band called Supertramp wrote a song called 'It's raining again'. The sad thing is, it often gets played on some commercial FM radio stations - usually when it's raining again. Brilliant. The song houses the heartfelt cry 'Come on you little fighter, no need to get uptight-er'.
Among other things, this Top 5 is likely to demonstrate that we're equally capable of recalling the dross as we are gold.
So, bring it on. A communal Top 5 or 55 of chalkboard-scratchy one-liners where the writer should have really gone into a room for all of mirrors before saying, 'I think I'll pick up a royalty cheque for this'.
PS. It's more than possible to still like a song that contains a hideous lyric. Tough but possible. Perhaps redemption has stories to tell.
The Communal Top 5:
1. Come on you little fighter, no need to get uptight-er
(Supertramp, 'It's Raining Again')
2. Excuse me forgetting, but these things I do. You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue. Anyway the thing is, what I really mean: those are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen
(Elton John, 'Your Song')
3. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em. Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, Don't do much good, but good Lord, he could roll 'em.
(Neil Diamond, "High Rolling Man")
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Too easily moved?
It could have been the gravity of Riverview's Big Weekend, or the recording and all that gear, but when I saw these two clips late on Sunday night I was sobbing like a banshee. Yeah, ok, you might label them schmaltzy, saccharine and commercialised. All I'm saying is give peace a chance. Open up your heart and let the sun shine in.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Speaking of Jimi Hendrix...
For a hypnotic experience of a transcendent musician and a live clip that fades from picture to white then white to picture, rather than the reverse (how clichéd) enjoy some Little Wing, circa 1969. Then for good measure, a vocal version by some other guy (circa...I'm guessing 1980-something). By the way, Garrick might be interested in the other guy's bass player. Just saying.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Cacophony Interviews: June 2007
Darren Hanlon, Singer/Songwriter
A few weeks back, on a retreat at New Norcia, I woke on a Saturday morning to some animated voices not far from my door. A few blokes were talking about the Australian music industry. One of those blokes seemed to have a pretty good idea what he was talking about. In my semi-conscious state I remember taking some guesses as to who that was. It was obviously a recording artist who toured a fair bit, but beyond that I didn't have much to go by.
Later in the day, I discovered Darren Hanlon was the guy who had been doing the talking. Curiously, Abbot Placid was the one who told me that Darren was staying in the Monastery Guesthouse and further, he would be giving a short 'performance' to the parishioners after mass on Sunday morning.
For those who are strangers to Darren's work, here's a couple of clips to get you on the page:
And this link will get you to his MySpace.
Genres can be uncomfortable pigeon-holes, but there's plenty that's acoustic and folk-rock about Darren and you can fill in your own categories beyond that. If I was adding a pigeon-hole for Darren, it might be the 'quirky' hole. There's a intricate humour and rich tapestry to many of the word-pictures and stories that find there way in Darren's songs that are both endearing and self-deprecating (interesting how often one of those attributes triggers the other).
To give you some idea where Darren fits into the Australian music pantheon...the answer is: somewhere. Each of his 14 albums/EPs have racked up around 10,000 sales.
After dinner on Saturday night, Darren and I caught up for a two-and something hour conversation about a bunch of stuff that become the guts of this June edition of The Cacophony Interviews. Darren was happy to step up to the Cacophony plate and I was happy to do some pitching.
C: Right off the bat, what brings you to New Norcia?
DH: A bit of a whim really. I've been up to my ears in music administration gear for the last few months and I wanted to move from an admin head space to a writing head space. A change of location helps.
(complete with some dodgy details, here's how the Courier Mail reported it)
C: Sure, but New Norcia? You're from Gympie in Queensland aren't you?
DH: I grew up in Gympie, but I've been living in Sydney for a few years now. And New Norcia? Well, it's a bit of a story. My first choice was Prague but the money wasn't there to get that far away. A year or two back I was touring Australia with my band. When we got to Perth a friend gave me a call from Meekatharra. She's a teacher up there and she was hoping we might be able to come and sing for the kids. We obliged and headed for Meeka. On the way we drove through New Norcia. I remember thinking as we drove through that we'd just barged in on some movie set with all these Spanish buildings in the middle of the countryside. It stuck in my memory as a great place to come back to. And here I am...slightly more affordable than Prague.
C: Is there a spiritual context for you to be paying a visit to a Monastery?
DH: I grew up in Gympie as an altar boy. I was in church Saturday and Sunday morning. I don't go to church these days, but I love the tradition of it all. It brings back a whole lot of memories for me.
C: What stopped you?
DH: Well, I think I just stopped getting much out of it. I still go to church now and then. Often when I'm touring I'll go along to the church of the country town where I am. A while back the church I grew up in made some renovations to make it more modern. I didn't like that much. I thought that was missing the point thinking that a better building would draw a bigger crowd. I think I got a bit disenchanted with it all. I find I'm more spiritual away from the church then inside it.
Having said all that, I love liturgy. I find it quite hypnotic. I have to confess, I've got some great ideas for songs while being transported by the hypnotic effect of the liturgy!
C: How does Jesus fit into the picture?
DH: I think I regard him as more of a feeling than a person. There's often a spiritual theme or element within a lot of my songs, but I'm not hammering it at all.
C: What are the dominant stomping grounds for your lyrics?
DH: The usual stuff I guess. Girls...personal politics...Australiana and country towns, friends and incidents, tributes and encouragements.
C: Do you follow a rigorous process in your songwriting or is it more organic?
DH: It's not really a formula or necessarily a natural progression. I'll often develop a groove and work from there. I often write in multiples and can have a few songs going at any one time. Often, as I'm working on one, the framework, basis, or chorus for another can fall out. I think you the act of giving attention to the process of songwriting puts you in the path of more songs.
C: You seem to have a great affinity with country Australia. Fair call?
DH: For sure. I love escaping to towns and cities. There's a richness in the character of country towns and the folks that live in them that is often missed in the larger cities. A lot of my friends are envious that I come back from touring with such interesting stories or people I've met along the way. I think it's more that I tour in places where there are a whole lot of interesting people.
(Hanlon's most recent album, Fingertips and Mountaintops, features pianist and trumpeter Cory Gray as well as Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval. It was recorded almost entirely at the charming old Majestic Theatre in Pomona in rural Queensland.)
C: You don't just visit country towns either...you get around don't you?
DH: Yeah, we've played in lots of Eastern European countries. Estonia, Latvia...and some of your more traditional European cities.
C: Estonia? What do they think they're coming to?
DH: They're just mad keen Australian pop-music fans. To an extent they're coming because I'm from Australia but, over time, you get a following as well.
C: Are there many at the shows?
DH: We regularly play to 500+ in places around Estonia and Latvia so it's a fair crowd. There's a bunch of Aussie musos who now tour that circuit. We'll probably crowd out the market soon, but there's been a neat little niche for us all because of how many of us have toured around there.
C: Do you get recognised much around the place?
DH: Nah - a couple of times in places like Paris and London or New York, an Australian might recognise me but I'm really not that much of a big deal.
C: Are you ambitious?
DH: Yeah. Not in that I want to be famous and earn millions, but in that I love the exciting life of adventure that is touring, traveling and playing around the place.
C: Is there a dream?
DH: This is it really. The whole moving from town to town and city to city playing my music. You can keep the whole music admin thing - that's not part of the dream - but the regular rhythm of playing gigs and interesting places, that's more like it.
C: I read somewhere that you're a fellow fan of the Moleskine...
DH: A huge fan. I'm a notebook geek. I just like carrying them around. Sometimes I find them too sacred to write in so I use Spirex notebooks for lyrics and lists and stuff. But Moleskines, they're beautiful.
(What proceeded was a homage to the Moleskine Notebook...but you've heard it all before on this site so I'll spare you.)
C: I heard you talking this morning about your friend who has sold a bunch of records and her experiences in the music industry.
DH: We were talking about staying independent or going to the big label. From my point of view, being independent is a great way to go. I live with a girl called Sarah Blasko who's on a major label, so it's good to see the differences. She's doing amazingly well - she's got a really good deal. But I'm friends with a lot of people on other labels and basically they're not seeing any money and it's very hard to make a living because, from what I've heard, the record company will charge you for everything and it's a difficult road to take. Then again, you become famous instantly. Whereas if you're independent, you own everything and one of the great things is that you don't owe anyone any money. So even though I don't have the money to make a $30,000 video clip or spend a lot of money on recording, at the end of the day if I sell cds, the money's mine and I don't owe any big label. The other good thing about Australia is that a lot of our big bands are independent. John Butler, The Whitlams and The Waifs are all independent and have all got where they are from hard work.
I've just got all my stuff up on iTunes too.
C: How does that work?
DH: I'm still working it out really. I used to be with an indie label called Candle Records but they've recently folded - hence all the admin. Apple just have the normal royalty deal - it's simply another avenue for getting your music out there. I've got a whole heap of papers I need to sign and stuff. Admin...
C: Has coming New Norcia helped you get away from all that?
DH: Pretty much. The internet connection in the Guesthouse Library has been a Godsend. With a tour coming up, there's a constant need for communication for locking in dates and gigs around the place. I actually got an email tonight from a mate who's touring around Europe when I'll be there and wants me to do some supports with him. It's been good to have that internet lifeline here to keep the ball rolling.
C: Out of interest, how do you go with vocal health?
DH: Hmmm...not too bad. I got pretty sick - actually, really sick just before my last tour and had to cancel the whole tour.
C: What happened?
DH: I started getting these fevers and pains in the chest. I just wrote it off to start with, but they got worse and worse. One night, while I was at home with my folks in Gympie, it just started to get worse. I'm not one to make much of a deal but I said to parents that I thought I'd better get to a hospital—the pain was unbearable. We went to the hospital in Lismore and they sent me on to Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. I still remember being wheeled in to the hospital and the nurses seeming more interested in whether I was the Darren Hanlon who sung 'Punk's not dead' than whether or not I was staying alive. It was a blessing that Prince Charles is one of the foremost coronary care hospitals in the country because the doctors said that I was not long off a serious/fatal heart attack.
C: What was it?
DH: They did a bunch of tests without finding out too much. It's some form of auto-immune disease and it absolutely wiped me out. It wiped out a tour and it delayed the recording of the album in a big way. I remember in May 06 I was back into Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney because I had fluid on my lungs as a result of the condition. I'd been pretty lousy and had been in a hospital bed for 3-4 days. Problem was, I was supporting Lior at the Enmore Theatre and I couldn't cancel - I really needed the money from that gig to survive. It was a good paying gig. I told the doctors I had to do the gig. They thought I was crazy but said if I left for the soundcheck/gig and came straight back to my bed, they'd look the other way. When I got there I told them to turn off the smoke machines because I couldn't breathe with them on. I survived the soundcheck but just before I was about to go on some friends came out the back where I was struggling to get up to tell me that there was heaps of smoke machine action. I went ballistic at them and told them (not so gently) they'd be get them off or they were going to have a dead guy on their hands. I survived the gig (just), got back to hospital and got paid.
C: How is it now?
DH: Well, after a while they tried steroids which had some pretty bizarre side effects. I was awake for about three days and had one of my most prolific stretches of songwriting ever, but I wanted to get off them as soon as I could. They certainly helped though. Along the way, a natropath told me going of pretty much all sugar would be a big help as well. They were right, so it's no beer for me anymore (which is a bugger, 'cause I love beer). Laura Imbruglia told me around the same time that Daniel Johns had got a lot of benefit for his reactive arthritis condition by getting heaps of Omega-3 from fish. I now eat plenty of tuna and different fish and it seems to be keeping it under control. It's an ongoing thing though...
C: So, with the health pretty much under control a cliché question: where do you see yourself five years from now?
DH: Hopefully making records of integrity or doing something creative. Most likely doing what I'm doing today.
C: Thanks for talking mate. You've got a big gig tomorrow. Better get a good night's sleep.
DH: Yeah - it's a bit weird. It's certainly my first gig in a monastery. I'm a bit nervous. What do I play?
C: Whatever you want!
DH: Do you even know where I'm playing?
C: No, but I'm sure it'll be fun
(Darren played to a packed room of about 30 people; curious on-lookers, bewildered monks and a couple of people who occasionally tapped their feet. It was fun for sure.)
Darren's Touching Elbows Tour comes to Mojos (237 Queen Victoria St, North Fremantle) this Saturday, June 16. You can buy your tickets right here.
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A footnote: I read in the music press over the weekend that Darren plans to record his next album at New Norcia based on his experience at the monastery.
Monday, May 21, 2007
In praise of mediated texts
There are plenty of reasons why Simon and Fi’s ‘One Day in July’ holds the top spot on my Weddings-O-Friends Leaderboard and one of them is a cd. Seventeen songs attended my way on the drive to New Norcia last year, and they’ve attended most of the social events held at the Bessell Vessel since then too. As a cd, it’s a perfect mix of sweet songs and true songs and songs by Michael Jackson and it plays beautifully when driving or drinking coffee. But I don’t love it for the songs; I love it for what it tells me about Simon and Fi and the plans they had for that day.
A High Fidelity friend put together some cds for my birthday, and by the third time through, I realized that I actually have a thing for mixes. When I buy a cd, it takes ages to get beyond the assessment stage – do I like it, should I have spent the money, am I going to end up stashing the darn thing with the other embarrassing mistakes, Gwen…? But the HFF has pretty reliable (if firm) views on the tunes, so I came to it expecting good stuff – and there it was. Sure, there were surprises. And some stuff I can only shake my head at. Still, the whole thing feels like a meandering, generous, disputative conversation, and I like it.
It got me thinking: there are actually lots of things that I like better when they’re mediated through someone with a point of view. Thus: Nick Hornby published a collection of columns he wrote about books he’d bought and books he’d read, and it was officially the best thing that happened to me last summer. It helps that Nick can reliably elicit a chuckle and a half per page, but I felt like I’d read all the good bits, and skated lightly over the stodgy bits of the things he’d read. It was like getting dessert without having to eat my veggies, and given that the proportion of carrots to carrot cake in my reading diet is getting really out of hand, that was a Very Good Thing.
I haven’t had a tv for a while now, and I don’t miss it, mostly because I experience secondhand programming through televisionwithoutpity.com; it’s a case of secondhand being very definitely not second best. So, for example, I don’t care at all about American Idol – I don’t even care about Australian Idol – but host-of Ryan Seacrest as a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and Dorian Gray? Heh… Who’da thought a karaoke competition habitually won by outfits rather than singers could work better without sound or visuals?
Oh yeah. Remember the slow bits in Spiderman 3? (Which ones, you say? All of ‘em.) Now imagine sitting through them with the phrase ‘Evil Space Licorice’ running through your head. Way better, right? OK, I rarely go into a movie without being able to give a pretty good précis of the major plot points. But I’m happy to give up being surprised in favour of being able to greet Spidey’s nemesis like an old friend. Dana and David come to the movies with me and they're good people to hang with.
It would be nice to have a point to make here. Maybe something about experiencing God through other people? The importance of both creation and interpretation? How 'bout: I'll bake for mixtapes!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Icebergs, Araldite and Dessicated Coconut
Paul Keating made a caustic and clever return to form in a recent political interview with ABC Radio. Then Red Symons got involved. The bi-partisan folk at Cacophony present it for your mirth and pleasure.
For those overseas visitors unaware of the characters being mentioned, Keating (the one doing the talking) is a former Australian Prime Minister, Howard is the current Australian Prime Minister, Costello and Rudd are PM wannabes and Burke...um, he's a guy who wears a hat.
Enjoy!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
U2-ophiles...tripping through the wires
It seems clichéd to even mention U2 on Cacophony (although I did about 6 and 8 days ago). That's probably because it's expected and predictable but, what the heck, I've been riding the wagon for so long enough I may as well come clean: 'My name is Simon, and I'm a U2-ophile'.
The truth is, I reckon they're great on a bunch of levels: musical, spiritual and social. But I'm not here to do a 'You're Tops' on U2. I just spotted an essay by a Perth-ite, Peter, who has written about the spirituality within the luminous times of Zooropa and Achtung Baby. If you're keen, knock yourself out!
Friday, April 6, 2007
Bono, 40 and the streets...of grace and jubilee
EnjoyWhat can I give back to God
for the blessings he's poured out on me?
I'll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God!
I'll pray in the name of God;
I'll complete what I promised God I'd do,
and I'll do it together with his people.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Early morning, April 4
Free at last.One man come in the name of love
- Bono
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach.
One man betrayed with a kiss
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
(nobody like you...)
Early morning, april 4
Shot rings out in the memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love...