Sympathetic Stupid

The Golden Mine

2007-02-13T17:00:00.000+11:00

In philosophy, the Golden Mean is "the desirable middle between two extremes" - the best place to be in any situation.

In Melbourne music shops, the Golden Mine is similar. (Note: not using its real name so I keep everyone else away from it. But I'm sure you'll all work it out.)

It's a secondhand CD shop which has heaps and heaps of great stuff for low, low prices. Since I discovered it a month or so ago, I've spent quite a deal of cash there. And I've realised that since I don't really like buying local stuff secondhand (where no cash goes to the artist), I've been catching up on lots of the old stuff which I don't really know. As my rateyourmusic.com page seems to suggest.

Don't bother clicking through, I'll summarise it here:

Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
The Replacements - Stink
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School

Turns out some of the old Zevon stuff is just awesome - Excitable Boy is rapidly approaching top few albums ever in my mind. And Remain in Light is pretty damn good as well. It's all fun. I'm glad I'm listening to this stuff, though there's plenty of good new music around.

Like Of Montreal.

Soon after my last post, mentioning the album, I realised that I loved it more than life itself and so began touting its virtues all around town. Elanor was unlucky enough to have to see me while in full proselytizing mode at Andrew Bird (aside: he was very good both times), and so she got both barrels. Thankfully, she also liked it quite a lot so my veneer of taste stands up to fight another day.

I especially love the single Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse with its refrain "Come on chemicals". Makes me smile just to think about it. I'm just a little over the album now, having burned holes in it in my cheap car CD player, but it's a mark of its greatness that I still put it on after a bad day, to cheer me up.

So today's take home points: The Golden Mine, and Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Go forth and multiply!

Oz Day Week

2007-01-24T14:59:00.000+11:00

January 2007's mainly been about catching up on 2006 releases - like I finally got the Return to Cookie Mountain thing only a few weeks to late to make my best-of lists. And some great Melbs stuff as reviewed on Across the Rooftops (plug, plug, plug).

But I did just receive my first 2007 release: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Bought the album on the back of one track, basically, The Past Is a Grotesque Animal as posted on Said the Gramophone last year. That track's a magnificent kraut-rock epic, with ranty vocals and a restless drive that never gets old despite it being twelve minutes long. Don't know exactly what I think of the band, being a newcomer, or the album yet, but let's just say that the rest is a little bit more pop. Could be a good thing, though.

(The packaging and presentation of this album is as bizarre as anything I've seen since Tool's 10,000 Days - the track titles and the packaging have this weird baroque ornate sorta feel, with a quad-fold case. It could be a masterpiece.)

But I'm also enjoying other stuff. I've got a new favourite CD shop - The Goldmine on Nicholson St. No website, sorry, but it's down near San Remo Ballroom. You'll find it. It's great. All second-hand stuff, bought and sold, and since I was getting well sick of Polyester's high prices and lack of range it's just what the doctor ordered. I got a coupla old Warren Zevon albums (what a great man), Gerling's latest album (sadly overlooked), EPs by Warmer and Peabody, last year's Kill Devil Hills album and Guided by Voices' Alien Lanes - total cost $70! Like, awesome!

Everyone should go there and sell stuff really cheap which I can then buy. (I'm looking for a copy of TISM's Great Trucking Songs of the Renaissance, if you please.) I think I'm gonna have to ration my visits.

In other news. Crikey's daily email bulletin is a big part of my weekdays. They've picked up a new editor, Jonathan Green from The Age. I've always appreciated his tetchy, acute observations on the world, so that will hopefully carry through into Crikey, which has something of that character already.

Also, been to some gigs. At many of which, I've seen Elanor - as she says, we have an uncanny knack of turning up at the same time. Obviously we tend to be about as fashionably late as each other. And, aside, Elanor's writing stuff regularly again on Symposiasts! So everyone wins in the reading of her thoughts on net-paper. (Except her blog seems not to let me comment - apparently I'm spam.)

Um, yeah, gigs. Saturday night was great - Because of Ghosts with Ned Collette and JP Shilo. JP Shilo and band were so good I bought the CD, these atmospheric, experimental, beautifully performed sound-pictures. It doesn't come through as well on tape as it did in the perfect sound of the East, unfortunately. Collette was pretty good, covering TV on the Radio's Hours among new tracks and old tracks, and the Ghosts were exactly as good as expected. Which is very much so.

And Friday night was at Revolver, wrong side of the river yes, but crap? No. Deloris played with Tucker Bs (I refuse to put the apostrophe) and The Tigers. All were good, Deloris' power-pop good enough to prompt me to but the album, which I think is very pleasurable, especially Everything Ever and Loup Garou and Xs for Eyes and Birdcatcher Finds a Tail. Seriously, it's really good work and if you like indie guitars you've gotta listen.

Stuff to look forward to:

Andrew Bird tonight at the NSC
a public holiday Friday with a BBQ at Pat's and hopefully a non-crap Hottest 100
Joanna Newsom next week
Neko Case next week (twice)
lunch
dinner
breakfast
sleep

And last, but most:

My honey pie returning from over the sea, Friday evening late.

On that nauseating note, I'm away!

I Remember Him Well

2007-01-08T13:23:00.000+11:00

The Mountain Goats came back to town on Friday night. They were here last April and put on a show and a half. Apparently, this was no fluke, because John Darnielle and small company did it again.

Admittedly, the show wasn't quite as all-fired rousing as the last one. But this year's album, Get Lonely, is a different beast to The Sunset Tree; a contemplative, melancholy affair, as compared to the uplifting vibe and crashing peaks of its predecessor. It's harder to play these tunes to a room of 800 people. As John said, he has to play some rockin' ones to build up goodwill, before convincing people to shut up for a quiet one. Which are always great.

But the close of the (first) encore was even better. Closing with a very, very quiet one (was it Wild Sage? I forget), supported by just Peter Hughes' bass, no guitar. The audience were attentive but a little rowdy - a bit of "marry me, John" banter with everyone a comedian. The song was getting swamped in the general bonhomie. John stepped around the microphone to the front of the stage and continued singing, staring down the crowd, the full force of his will projecting through the fragile, barely-voiced lyrics. The Corner is a notoriously tough venue to shush, there's always that group around the mixing desk chatting amongst themselves.

The room went dead, DEAD silent. All eyes were on his face as the song continued, Hughes completely backgrounded by a consummate performer with hundreds of people wrapped around his little finger. For minutes, until the song reached its inevitable end. And then he was gone, disappearing off the stage in a blink.

There was another encore, The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton. John Vanderslice guested on guitar for a few tunes, adding increased energy but not heaps to the sound. Peter Hughes' bass was more alive than ever, bouncing and jerking him around the stage. It was just another great set from a great man and band.

You missed it? Bugger. Don't miss it next time. They're damn sure not getting worse.

[download the as-yet unreleased Michael Myers Resplendent from The Mountain Goats site]

A New Face for Old Dave

2007-01-03T14:31:00.000+11:00

It turns out that Melbourne really doesn't have enough music blogs.

I mean, look at Sydney, with their surfeit of cool kids. The Sandwich Club, A Reminder, Boudist, Get Big, Little Kid, Who the Bloody Hell Are They?, O Song!, Decomposing Trees. (Disclaimer: Some of the afore-mentioned may not actually be cool.) And many others who I can't be bothered typing in the links for.

Whereas Melbourne has the estimable godfathers at melbs.org and little else of global renown. This was brought to my attention, in fact, when I accused Sean at A Reminder of Sydney listing bias - which he countered by noting that there were few other Melbourne blogs to aggregate. Of course, we've got those wacky tastemaking judgmental funsters at Mess and Noise. But we need more battalions to fight back against the evil Sydney dominance of the hip online sector! (Half tongue-in-cheek. Only half.)

Taking matters into our own hands, here's something:

Across the Rooftops

It's mostly about Melbourne, mostly about music, mostly updated regularly. There's three of us. I'm one of them. Pat and Nick are the other two. Welcome to the jungle. We've got fun. And games.

But never fear, loyal readers, I'm gonna keep writing here. Dunno what it'll be about. Probably just drivel. Whereas on ATR you'll only get quality.

Just One More Thing

2006-12-15T16:39:00.000+11:00

Before I skip off to rainy, croc-infested Darwin, just a couple of little things:

The tuneglue musicmap is an unfeasibly large amount of fun. And, it's an interesting pointer to the future of a site like last.fm - users donate them such an imposing amount of data which they can use for so many tricksy purposes. Both good and deeply evil. How will this change the future of music? Not sure but probably deeply.

I've been listening to Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea. They're great. Yeah, quite similar to all the others in the current explosion of female Oz troubadours - somewhere between Bowditch and Throsby - but nevertheless endearing.

[taken down by request] Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea - The Longing Song
[taken down by request] Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea - Peaks and Valleys

Probably a bit more upbeat and country-esque than either of the two aforementioned; certainly more optimistic than Throsby. The first track here, The Longing Song, reminds me in structure and feel of Bowditch's The Thing About Grief. The second track given, Peaks and Valleys, is more in the country vein, halfway, probably, to Lucinda Williams.

Most enjoyable, and playing a gig on Saturday night. I'll be on a plane, unfortunately.

Also - one last last thing - Julian from Speak 'n' Spell is pushing hard on The Horrors bandwagon. They're releasing an EP, and to coincide with the single off it, FREE BADGES for all! Polyester and Greville St Records have them, as well as Red Eye in Sydney. Apparently no purchase required.

I'm listening to the single, Sheena Is a Parasite, right now. It's enjoyable. Upbeat and fuzzy and punky, straight outta the seventies, very catchy. A little bit like Eddy Current Suppression Ring but more hi-fi, less actual garage. I'm picking up the EP and a free badge on the way home.

[mp3 - 2MB] The Horrors - Sheena Is a Parasite

One Last Push

2006-12-15T15:43:00.000+11:00

Almost at Chrissie now. One last little run. Just gotta get through the last minute shopping and end-of-year parties and over-indulgence and constant, wearying best-of lists. How much more feteing does J Newsom need?

(Not that I'm not impressed and not going to see her in January at the Forum, mind.)

So, went to Meredith, saw some gigs. In order:

Thursday: My Latest Novel and Home Video at the Corner

MLN were really good, played basically everything on Wolves, with Sister Sneaker Sister Soul a real highlight. And such cute Scottish accents. Home Video a little less impressive, their stuff doesn't really do it for me and they seemed a bit underwhelmed. (Possibly it was the crowd, shame it was so poorly attended.)

Firday, Saturday: Meredith:
Augie March great.
Dallas Crane great (except for no Marsanne - bastards!).
Midlake very good.
New Pornos pretty good.
Drones pretty good.
Tapes 'n' Tapes OK.

And that was about all I saw, cause it was so damn hot. Mostly sat up the back and wilted. Or in the tent. But still a great weekend. Imagine if it had've been 10 degrees cooler.

Sunday: Midlake w/ Art of Fighting at the Corner

Art of Fighting are really playing well at the moment, another good set from them. I still love Eastbound, not to mention the old stuff. And some of the other new songs sound like corkers.

Midlake were even better than at Meredith. At the festival they played a short set because setup took forever - legacy of their kilos of keyboards. This set was full-length and included everything good. My highlights were Head Home, Kingfish Pies and We Gathered in Spring, which popped up in the encore. But everything was perfectly played.

(And how emo is the drummer? He looks like he wandered in accidentally from Behind Crimson Eyes.)

Monday: A night off!

Tuesday: The New Pornographers w/ Crayon Fields at the Prince

Missed Crayon Fields but was reliably informed that they weren't that good. Their album's popping up in lots of best-of lists, but I don't love it, though it is pretty accomplished. Plenty of time for them, though.

New Pornos were good. Everyone was there except Bejar, and Kathryn Calder is really cute, and they played Jackie when I screamed out for it. In fact, they actively solicited requests, something you can do when all your songs are great, but it turned out that they couldn't play most of the things requested. (The New Face of Zero and One, The Bones of an Idol and The Mary Martin Show most notably.) It's fun to hear people do Bejar impressions, though.

But they weren't great. The sound was a bit muddy, with the vocals buried, and Neko's voice especially often overwhelmed by the guitars. And, we decided later, it seemed like they weren't really playing as a band, more as a collection of individuals. There was some part of the vibe missing, and the actual playing itself was a little sloppy, though maybe not sloppy enough. Or something. I think it was mainly the sound.

Here's the setlist from that, anyway:

Sing Me Spanish Techno [TC]
The Laws Have Changed [EV]
Jackie, Dressed in Cobras [TC]
The Bleeding Heart Show [TC]
Mass Romantic [MR]
Testament to Youth in Verse [EV]
Miss Teen Wordpower [EV]
These Are the Fables [TC]
Streets of Fire [TC]
Jackie [MR]
The Jessica Numbers [TC]
All for Swinging You Around [EV]
Twin Cinema [TC]
From Blown Speakers [EV]
It's Only Divine Right [EV]
Use It [TC]
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism [MR]

ENCORE
Execution Day [MR]
Letter From an Occupant [MR]

The Scottish Belle and Sebastian

2006-12-06T13:57:00.000+11:00

To be fair, "The Scottish Arcade Fire" is a hard-to-refuse tagline, even though it is a little stupid. That's what My Latest Novel are being called, and it's working, too. Every good indie-kid who hears the phrase wants to give them a chance. Hey, I bought a ticket to their gig purely on that recommendation.

Is it true? Judge for yourself. This is the standout centerpiece of their debut album Wolves.

[mp3 - ysi - 8MB] My Latest Novel - Sister Sneaker Sister Soul

That's right. It starts out as a pretty indie-pop number, then fades out - but not all the way. And then it's building to a big fat post-rock explosion, complete with a storming drum line, before falling back to basics, with only the strings still visible.

It's Arcade Fire-ish in the basic plan, to make interesting, eclectic indie-rock. But in the specifics, it's less muscular and bombastic, rarely touching that straight ahead anthemic indie-rock that dominates Funeral. The feel, despite the obvious noise leanings, is less jubilant and more thoughtful, more like Une Année Sans Lumière, to which The Hope Edition compares pretty favourably.

The obvious touchstones, then, are much closer to their Glasgow home. The noisy rock builds are Mogwai's type of post-rock. And there's plenty of mid-period Belle and Sebastian and Arab Strap, if only in The Job Mr Kurtz Done. But that's probably just Glaswegian accent bigotry on my part. My other favourite track on the album, though, is Learning Lego, which has a first section straight out of Low's slow-core playbook. It builds, though, into a clever tempo change and mass choral ending.

They keep changing it up throughout, keeping things moving, thought the post-rock builds are pretty common. But there's a good feel to the whole enterprise, it's produced well, and there isn't a truly dud track.

[visit their website]
[buy the album from Speak 'n' Spell]

ADDENDUM: And I forgot to mention that My Latest Novel are playing tonight - that's Thursday 7th - at the Corner. I'll be there. It'll be fun. Double billing with indie-electronic kids Home Video.

Dappled Buzz

2006-12-01T15:55:00.000+11:00

So Dappled Cities Fly are certified as the Next Big Thing with a whole post on the taste-making behemoth stereogum. Here's what's next: posted on YANP and IGIF, Pitchfork review, track on the OC soundtrack, intensive touring, track on indie movie soundtrack, follow-up album rushed out, backlash, drugs, backlash, marry Delta Goodrem, backlash, dissolution.

Nah, seriously, they have had a lot of buzz, and this isn't going away any time soon, with a signing to Dangerbird Records, the home of now ex-buzz band Silversun Pickups. They played at New York's ridiculous industry fest, CMJ. More importantly, though, they released an album, their second, Granddance.

There's no doubt these guys can be big; I kinda thought it was just Sydney blogger buzz (you know how those guys are) which pushed them to Number 1 on Sean's 2006 chart (a noble and well-executed endeavour, incidentally). But then I decided the wheel had turned back to indie-rock, and I went out and bought Granddance (along with Return to Cookie Mountain and the My Latest Novel album).

I've only listened to the whole thing a coupla times but this track, the opener, is over-represented in my last.fm stats:

[mp3 - ysi - 6MB] Dappled Cities Fly - Holy Chord

I'm a serious sucker for a slow build, and this one takes half the song for the drums to really kick in. It has yer indie quota of quirky cadence and pitch on the vocals and sea-shanty da-da-daing in the words. But it's the descending major chords in the last third of the song, with the euphoric vocals soaring over the top, that make it anthemic. Just can't go past an indie-rock anthem.

[visit their website]
[visit their myspace]
[buy the album from Redeye]

Vale Candle Records

2006-11-17T11:19:00.000+11:00

The news of the day is that it's all over for Candle Records.

('scuse the formatting after I pulled it out of the frame on the Candle site.)

Candle have been a mainstay of the Melbourne scene for, apparently, 12 years now, with that intrinsic sorta Candle sound - acoustic, intelligent, lyrical. Think of The Lucksmiths or Darren Hanlon or Ruck Rover; all coming together in supergroup The Guild League.

But Chris Crouch, the man behind the label, says "time for change", and who can argue? It can't have been easy or particularly profitable; independent labels seem more often than not fuelled by love of music, beer sucked from sticky carpet and late-night souvlaki.

I'm sure all the bands will find new homes without trouble. I just hope, from a selfish point of view, that Polyester Records has the cash to continue, as they've shared premises for many years in what seems a pretty handy symbiotic relationship. Independent record stores are only marginally less important that independent record labels.

They Have Not Forsaken Us - Art of Fighting Return

2006-11-16T10:24:00.000+11:00

So it's that time again; the now-standard three-year wait is almost over and that means we're about to get a new Art of Fighting album.

When they go away I always forget how much I love these guys. It happened between Wires and Second Storey, until the Along the Run single hit me between the eyes. And the same with the new Eastbound single. Only now do I realise that I badly need their blend of beautifully recorded shoe-gazey guitar pop.

[mp3 - ysi - 6MB] Art of Fighting - Eastbound

Though they're not as noodly as previously. This song has an understated but unmistakable purpose about it, mainly thanks to the sixteenth feel drums of (the almost unspeakably magnificent) Marty Brown, who fills the bottom end with exquisite touch, never resting in one particular groove for too long. This frees Peggy to dance her bass lines around and through Ollie and Miles's guitars. And, of course, the production is spot on - if this is what takes them three years between releases, more power to them.

Strangely, the song I'm most reminded of is The Go-Betweens' Five Words, probably because Five Words has a similar restless percussion underlying the song, constantly feeling as if it's built to the edge of a precipice, but continually managing to climb higher, finding brief respite but still with more to come, and more.

The single comes with an album track more in the vein of old stuff, Night on Night, and a pretty good live cover of All Night Long by Lionel Richie. So get that from Polyester or your other local independent record store.

So everyone should see AoF at the Corner on Saturday night (yep Nick, I'm talkin' to you) - that's the 18th of November for those of you a touch date-challenged. Go here and buy tickets right now.

Here's some great old stuff (hey, it's all great, but I had to choose something):

[mp3 - ysi - 7MB] Art of Fighting - Break for Me (from Second Storey)
[mp3 - ysi - 8MB] Art of Fighting - Just Say I'm Right (from Wires)

You can stream the single and other tracks on their myspace as well. Buy the single online from Red Eye Records. Buy albums from Trifekta. Buy EPs from Half a Cow.

Rock Me Dallas

2006-11-08T12:30:00.000+11:00

It took exactly one song for me to be converted to the religion of Dallas Crane:

[mp3 - ysi - 5MB] Dallas Crane - Marsanne (Love Awaits You)

And here I thought Boys and Girls in America was going to be my four-four guitar drums album of the year:

[mp3 - ysi - 4MB] Dallas Crane - Two Can Play at This Game

But for straight balls-to-the-wall rock this is unbeatable. Admittedly, The Hold Steady are closer to Springsteen, while Dallas do some Led Zep and AC/DC and T-Rex - little bit glam, little bit hooky, little bit of a scream, utterly bangin'.

Marsanne is the track if you urgently need conversion. The guitars and bass intertwining in the start riff. The lung-tearing vocals. The backing vocals in chorus - Marsanne rhymes with Roxanne. And, most of all, the breakdown at about 1:50 - dropping until the drums slam you POW back into the guitar solo. I didn't feel silly at all playing air guitar to this at about 4:30 this morning in an empty radio studio. They're not ashamed of being so rock, and neither was I.

[from the Dallas Crane album Factory Girls]
[buy from sanity]

J-Mo

2006-11-03T17:31:00.000+11:00

Jason Molina's playing in about two weeks at the Northcote Social Club.

[mp3 - ysi - 10MB] Songs:Ohia - Farewell Transmission (from The Magnolia Electric Co.)

I haven't heard much of his stuff before but recently bought The Magnolia Electric Co. on a recommendation. This track, the opener, is a cracker. It's got that Neil Young country-rock sound from maybe Greendale-era. Really good songs all through the album.

I'm taking it into the weekend.

Proliferation

2006-10-27T15:34:00.000+10:00

This is little and enjoyable:

This Blog Is a Stone

And this is always funny:

Gerard vs. Bear

But this one remains my favourite, I think:

Said the Gramophone

It's the Vibe

2006-10-26T11:01:00.000+10:00

So Sean at A Reminder's doing his second annual Top 25 Australian Artists list. Got me thinking, anyway. Fair bet my list will be from:

Art of Fighting
Augie March
Because of Ghosts
The Drones (my hot tip for number 1 overall)
Faux Pas
Grand Salvo
Khancoban
My Disco
Sodastream
Holly Throsby

But the process of listing all the Oz bands on my mp3 player brought up four variously old-school names - The Go-Betweens, Smudge, The Someloves and The Triffids.

None of these are going concerns so they're not eligible for Sean's big list - it's not an all-time list. But all have had reissues this year and I've been listening to them more than many of the artists which will finally make my list. And, also, they're great. So here's some tracks:

[mp3 - ysi - 6MB] The Go-Betweens - Five Words [from Spring Hill Fair]

Well, OK, so no Go-Betweens albums were actually reissued but I hadn't heard much at all before the last couple of months. This album's a corker, containing not only the classic Bachelor Kisses but also at least another four or five really good tracks. Five Words is one of them.

[mp3 - ysi - 2MB] Smudge - Scary Cassettes [from Manilow]

Smudge are fun. This album not only has two fully-formed four second power-pop tracks but also a cover of Charles in Charge. Don't just write it off as novelty because it's better than ninety percent of the "alternative" stuff of the mid-90s, and still stands up on its own through the low-fi-ness. This track's an ode to Lou Barlow.

[mp3 - ysi - 8MB] The Someloves - Melt [from Something or Other - reissued in Don't Talk About Us]

This album, though, is one of the power-pop releases Manilow is not better than. Neat production, great tunes, hooks galore. I can't believe I'd never heard of this album or The Someloves themselves.

[mp3 - ysi - 6MB] The Triffids - Chicken Killer [from Born Sandy Devotional]

Lastly but not leastly, The Triffids finally being reissued. Everyone knows Wide Open Road but there is plenty of other good work on this album - not to mention the title track which sits amongst the extras after missing the original cut. But I like Chicken Killer best - the anthemic chorus foreshadowing Nick Cave's last album, but about twenty years earlier.

[buy Don't Talk About Us and Manilow from Half a Cow Records]
[buy Born Sandy Devotional from Liberation Music]
[buy Spring Hill Fair from amazon]

Rocksteady and Bebop

2006-10-19T10:31:00.000+10:00

(Rocksteady was the rhino, Bebop was the warthog.)

Rocktober belongs to The Hold Steady. The new album, Boys and Girls in America hasn't got a local release yet but Polyester Records have it on import, of course. Cause they're great, that's why.

Last year's album, Separation Sunday was pretty damn good. Craig Finn's lyrics were parts religious - "I guess I heard about original sin/I heard the dude blamed the chick/I heard the chick blamed the snake" - and parts profane - "I ain't never been with your little hoodrat friend" - half-spoken, half-sung on top of big riffs and rocking full-bore rhythms. This was a logical progression from their patchy debut, Almost Killed Me, recently re-released here.

No seismic changes, then, for Boys and Girls in America, but this is the album where it all ties together. The twine, as pinpointed in pitchfork's panegyric (9.4!) is the keyboard. Stevie Nix, the best track on the last album, had that weird slow piano break in the middle; initially incongruous but eventually glorious. Every track on the new album, though, has piano/organ/keys all over it, in turns through the back and at the front, but fitting in everywhere. And in general the arrangments just have more of everything, guitars, backing vocals.

So here's a track. Southtown Girls is the anthemic closer, ticking all the boxes - big hooky chorus, solos for everyone, epic length (well, the longest on the album at 5:10). I'd love to see this live.

[MP3 - 7MB] The Hold Steady - Southtown Girls

Telstra Swims With the Fishes

2006-10-13T16:41:00.000+10:00

Has Al Gore gained some special power that allows him to capture the corporate world's imagination? Or is he just riding the green wave as it surges over the fabled tipping point?

Yesterday it was Intrepid Travel, today it's Telstra. Or at least their Sensis subsidiary. It's been trying (and largely failing) to grab a piece of the search engine market. Yeah, competing against the Google steamroller sounds like a horrible idea to me, too.

So they're looking to sweeten the deal by appealing to your conscience - you can now search for clearer air. Every time you use the site they'll give Greening Australia some money so trees can be planted and the air improved. And they'll even do the same when you forward around the promotional email! Greening the world by polluting the internet.

Little more, really, than a bit of green-washing for the company. Good on them for trying; as I said, it's good to see it entering the corporate mindset. Doubtless it won't work though, because it's still a crap search engine. My one-second test involves searching for this blog. Google finds it number one. Sensis doesn't find it at all. Thank you and avagudweeken.

I Think It's His Lung

2006-10-12T13:52:00.000+10:00

Oh God, I just found Rate Your Music - this can only be a bad thing. No human contact until I've finished rating every piece of music I own. Or have ever heard.

Intrepid Travel really really want people to see the Gore movie. No, I don't fully understand the connection either, but they'll pay your full ticket price. It's a bit token because there's a six week turnaround on getting the cash back, and because it'll be mostly the converted who hear about it. But an interesting piece of corporate activism nonetheless. (from nownow)

Saw some Fringing last night. First The Bedroom Philosopher, who was great. He sings, plays guitar, dances, tells us about his childhood; ok, nothing ground-breaking, but it's all in the execution. He's full of sharp, self-deprecating wit, and the songs are catchy and easy to grab onto even at the first listen. I'm So Over Girls even gets down deep into the heart-strings; not overly melodramatic though. A fun, engaging hour or so.

And then The Town Bikes. I guess this is almost burlesque (isn't everything round here?) but without the gratuitous sex and nudity. It's pantomime, then, but without any speaking or even much singing. So maybe it's dance, but with elaborate costume changes and spurting breasts. Performance, I guess. It's certainly an interesting show though a bit opaque, with no obvious narrative or meaning behind anything. But the performance is so high-energy and wacky that you'll get sucked in, even if you're a bit confused at the end.

You've got a couple more nights to see them so get there.

And here's an extraordinarily low-quality Ween:

[MP3- 2.7M] Ween - Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?

[buy from Amazon]
[official site]

Summer Days

2006-10-09T14:19:00.000+10:00

I wrote a review for Halo-17, it's about the Khancoban mini-album. I liked it. Go to the site and read things there.

I've been listening to Crayon Fields. As Pat said, the name doesn't pull any punches - cute they sound and nauseatingly twee they are. Clean and pretty production, breathy falsetto harmonies, jangly guitars, ringing xylophones. Handclaps. Bells. Triangles. It adds up to the Beach Boys/Architecture in Helsinki/The Byrds thing you'd expect. The lyrics are closer to It'5 than God Only Knows - the most ridiculous bit is in Lovely Time where we get it mispronounced as "Wuvley Time".

But it's good. A bit wearing on the ears, with all the sound up in the bat realms and very little bass to balance it out. But they're hooky enough to sustain the candy pop feel, while the sensitively produced layers of instruments give them a bit of stayability. The track I've got here, Choir of Tiny Boys, opens the album with a 1:23 mission statement. If you don't like this, it's safe to say the album's not for you. And Living So Well is the standout track, a breezy, summery, poppy gem.

[MP3 - 1.3MB] Crayon Fields - Choir of Tiny Boys
[MP3 - myspace] Crayon Fields - Living So Well

[buy at good ol' Trifekta]
[the website] (watch out for the excessively cute small child)
[the myspace]

Just Another Manic

2006-10-02T10:44:00.000+10:00

Not much on today inside my brain but I did surprisingly buy some CDs. I'm especially excited about the new LP from Because of Ghosts. Also got the new full-length from My Disco - "full-length" used liberally as it's eight tracks and less than twenty-five minutes.

On Friday night, did some Fringey stuff, saw Lawrence Leung first up and he was excellent as always. I highly recommend Puzzle Boy on the next two Fridays.

Then, at the Fringe Club in the midst of the North Melbourne Town Hall, saw Keating - The Musical. Vic and I were happy since neither of us saw it when it was cool at the Comedy Festival last year, and since then it's been around Australia - this was the last one ever! It's hilarious, I remembered most of the stuff they went on about, from Keating and Hawkey, through Gareth Gareth Evans and Doctor John Hewson all the way to Howard. The bit in the middle of the show with the Fightback Rap into I Wanna Do You Slowly was the highlight, followed closely by Ruler of the Land. But the whole thing was great, despite the fact that it basically just massaged the audience's prejudices, skewing way left.

Also, Sean at A Reminder not only plugged this blog but continues to pump out quality material. The Drones cover of Cortez the Killer that he links to is pretty good, considering the high quality of the original epic. And while he does live in Sydney, he's from Canada originally, and most of the Oz bands he links to are from Melbourne, so I can forgive that.

All the Sparkly Horses

2006-09-29T14:27:00.000+10:00

I never got into Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) yet, but apparently now is the time. He just released Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain and I just got a spiffy new pair of cans (the Sennheiser HD595 as recommended by James and HeadRoom).

Good timing, too, cause this album's about simple tones played well, carried by slow tempos and sweet sound pictures rather than hooky riffs and big soft-loud builds. The tempos and full landscape are similar to what I've heard of Okay, though the vocals are less rattling - Mountains especially is similar to Marty's layered, slightly messy production. Or like an Eels album from the great period before E got happy, but without the guitar driven crowd-pleasers. It's Not So Hard approaches this, but Steven Drozd's in-your-face drums and Dave Fridmann's feedback blanket bury the Beatle-esque refrain "come on/come on/come on/it's not so hard", and the guitar part lacks the mass consumption hooks.

The album has plenty of guests. Drozd, of The Flaming Lips, does some drumming. His colleague Fridmann plays some bass. Producer of the year Dangermouse works some knobs. Joan (as Policewoman) Wasser and Tom Waits apparently give violin and piano to Morning Hollow. But they're unobtrusive contributions rather than "Drum Solo!" guest spots.

My favourite track, at this point, is Shade and Honey, a Linkous piece from top to toe. It's the first point on the album where we hear his voice unadorned by effects, gently singing us into a sunny country landscape over a couple of simple guitars, before just a taste of bittersweet snare-driven intensity under the held "honey", disappearing quickly into the blue sky. Eventually, he's unobtrusively joined by strings, a keyboard twist, tiny xylophoney highlights. It's the balance of the track which is most impressive; the melding of the elements into a seamless whole, reward multiplying on each listen. It's an anthem that no-one needs to shout out.

[MP3 - 5.3MB] Sparklehorse - Shade and Honey

[buy from amazon]

It's More Than Alright

2006-09-27T13:12:00.000+10:00

Can I just say, I'm not sure about the album Ground Components - An Eye for a Brow, A Tooth for a Pick; I've only been all the way through twice and it strikes me as schizophrenic and hard to grab onto.

But the 10:39 long cover of Dylan's It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding) which closes the album is scorching. I don't remember the original with any clarity but this stands up all on its own. The vocal delivery is more hipster than Dylan but we get his passion all the same. The raw guitar is understated so doesn't dominate. The bass line rocks the house. Tempo and instrumentation changes keep it rolling, culminating in the band heading off in four different directions, before dropping into a fervent vocal break.

Here it is:

[MP3 - 14.1MB] Ground Components - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

[record available in stores only]
Ground Components website, myspace, at Shock

Sodastream Stackhat

2006-09-25T10:14:00.000+10:00

By an unimaginable coincidence, I need to write about two things both named after icons of the 80s.

Stackhattery is a notable new blog. He's not only posted four times in six weeks, but thrice in the past week! So if anyone wants to read an actively maintained blog, adjust your links now.

Otherwise, stay here and I'm gonna talk about Sodastream.

I've seen their name on gig listings since eternity, it seems, and they're in great company, friends with bands I love like Khancoban, Art of Fighting and Grand Salvo. But I only actually saw them a week or so ago, on Pat's advice. Like a good kid, I studied up in the two days beforehand by purchasing Reservations, their latest album from earlier this year. By the time I got to the gig on Saturday night, I'd listened enough to be impressed.

By the time I walked out I was truly hooked. So much so that I picked up the previous CD and EP at the show. And then played them 63 times last week, according to last.fm. Which doesn't include on my iRiver and at home on the CD player.

The music's sumptuous, full-bodied and warm and dark, so much so that it belies their size as a two/three-piece. The core is Karl Smith on guitar and vocals, maybe keys, and Pete Cohen on upright bass, backing vocals, maybe musical saw. They're joined more often than not by Marty Brown, royalty of Art of Fighting and Clare Bowditch, on drums. And various tracks on the album have muted horns sitting in behind, or a single violin, or multi-tracked vocals for extra body and bounce.

The two immediate standouts on the album are the big singalong choruses of Twin Lakes and Reservations, upbeat despite their black subject matter. There's the Simon & Garfunkel picked guitar and soaring vocals of Tickets to the Fight, again pleasant though the refrain is "because I'm starting to hate, girl". But the album generally is a picture of melancholy, creeping along quietly through mental landscapes of sadness and longing. The keystones of this feeling are then Warm July and Firelines. Heated titles, rich music which fills every corner of your eardrums, and constrasts the bleak, lonely subject matter. "Bury me with the things I wouldn't share." "It's already too late to bring you flowers."

And contrast, perfectly melded opposition, is the band's schtick. Karl's pure voice soaring above Pete's subterranean baritone. The light picking guitar part over the pushing bowed bass. The space in the middle filled alternately with strings, horns, keys or so-sensitive touches of brushed kit drums.

All this and a magnificent live show. The boys chat comfortably on stage, then are into the tunes, Pete subsumed into the music with his hair cascading over half his body, it seems, while Karl's penetrating gaze wanders the audience as his heart leaps into space. Marty's there up the back, but despite the lack of any other instruments, they fill the space in all but the quietest songs. Which are unsurprisingly spoiled a little by the usual pay-fifteen-bucks-then-chat-up-the-back crowd. It's a good show when I'm more impressed by the tracks I don't know (the majority of the set) than those I do - Horses, Keith and Tina and Charity Board all great. The build on Horses is amazing live.

These guys are great. Shame they're in Europe till next year.

[MP3 - 3.9MB] Sodastream - Firelines

[buy from the band's site]

Aside: I don't know if this was written immediately after some sort of breakup, but it's an interesting comparison with another recent purchase of mine, Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats, which definitely was. Get Lonely has a stark, empty aesthetic reflecting maybe the unbearable void inside John Darnielle at that time, intensified by the soul-black lyrics. Reservations is different - pain in the words but balm in the music.

Start Spreading The News

2006-09-22T14:42:00.000+10:00

So, I'm back in town after a European odyssey not yet fully documented in the blog linked below. To celebrate my return I've spent large amounts of money on CDs, with mixed results. There is one I really want to mention, right now:

Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

I'd downloaded bits of the album, notably Roscoe and Head Home. Both of which I still think are good tracks. The album as a whole is whimsical and smooth with a wide variety of styles, mostly pretty competent though getting a bit MOR in places. (Just learnt that acronym so I'm probably using it in the wrong.) It's almost the definition of a solid indie pop album, a little bit interesting but not too challenging for the masses.

But this minute I'm listening, on repeat, to We Gathered in Spring and It Covers the Hillsides. It's the upfront synth which makes these. Key moment 1: 23 seconds into We Gathered in Spring - "I think they were giants" with the simple synth chords. Key moment 2: 1:51 in when we're gifted with a transcendental climbing keyboard solo. Key moment 3: 6 seconds into It Covers the Hillsides when the noodling synth and piano are given purpose by the top-string bass riff, and the best driving beat on the album. Key moment 4: 1:06 in, after "head out towards the ocean", when we get into the bridge, with dueling guitar and synth solos all underpinned by that single-malt rhythm section.

An honourable mention to Head Home 2:21: "There's someone I like to see/She never mentions a word to me/She reads Leviathan", and the room-filling layered guitars temporarily pull back to reveal the piano line hidden underneath.

It's a pretty fun album, possibly a great one, definitely better than Bamnan and Slivercork. I'm way looking forward to seeing these guys at Meredith.

Somewhere Else

2006-07-13T23:32:00.000+10:00

OK, I'm a long way away and doing touristy things. To read about some of them, go to The Old Countries. Otherwise, your scheduled services will resume in September.

Here's Johnny

2006-06-15T14:22:00.000+10:00

I really like this cartoon from today's Crikey newsletter. It's by Mark Cornwall, their regular cartoon-drawing guy. There's some of his work on the Crikey website, and some older stuff (worse-quality images) up on On Line Opinion.

Cornwall's not quite in the Tandberg league but I quite like his work.

ECHO eCHO eCHo eCho echo...

2006-05-22T15:13:00.000+10:00

In my defence, I've been kinda busy. Impending overseas travel does that. Been on the radio a few times too. And there's this work deadline, a bit like those moving rock walls in Temple of Doom. Which makes me Han Solo...

Um, yeah, but Nick's got a point when he complains of lack of posting. Dead air is verboten, after all. So here's what I've been enjoying:

+/- are very savoury in a more-interesting-Death-Cab kinda indie way - especially Let's Build a Fire. I think the Sunset Rubdown and Beirut albums might be as good as the hype, at least from the samples I've heard. At the other end of the indie spectrum in every way, Marquee Moon by Television is a spectacular album. Yeah, I know everyone else already knew that but I had to eventually work it out myself. Still fresh at only 29 years old!

World Cup fever is about to hit the rest of Australia (it already hit me). In a less prominent code, St Kilda might have remembered how to win again, and I'm glad Leigh Fisher can still play despite two years on the sidelines with chronic hamstrings.

And here's a couple of tracks. The first combines two of my favourite artists, the endearingly awkward New Buffalo (Sally Seltmann) and Canadian juggernaught Broken Social Scene. Sally supported BSS in the Australian tour and is signed to their label, Arts and Crafts, so I suppose that's the genesis of this mix. Many seem to dislike Seltmann, but I'm forever in her debt, as her touching yet optimistic tunes helped me through a hard time. And her uncomfortable stage presence opens my heart to her - I'll forever remember her guesting with BSS on Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, and looking distinctly out-of-place next to the rock gods.

This remix gets the Newfeld basket-of-sound treatment and works really well, not losing the poignant feel of the original. It's from the US version of the New Buffalo EP - us Aussies missed out on it. But the other remix is possibly even better, and that's on both version of the EP.

[MP3 - 4.0MB] New Buffalo - I've Got You and You've Got Me (Broken Social Scene remix)

Then one from the band of the moment, Augie March. I love their new album, Moo, You Bloody Choir, and one of my favourite tracks on it is the late-Radiohead shoe-gazer undergrowth of Clockwork. On the album, it's a great track, but you kinda lose the song amidst the subterranean guitar riff and haunted house strings. This version, from the One Crowded Hour single, is about as far from that as it gets - and reveals the serene bleached bones of the song. Whispered harmonies over sparse acoustic guitar and piano make the epic into a gorgeous ballad.

[MP3 - 4.7MB] Augie March - Clockwork (acoustic version)

Ha Fucking Ha: Dylan Moran, Lawrence Leung, Andrew McClelland

2006-04-27T09:39:00.000+10:00

More funnies! And the money's rapidly running out...

(Aside: At the Festival Club on Saturday night, saw the sharp-like-spring-morning-air Kitson as MC - he's a very funny fellow. I've got a feeling he's sold out for the rest of eternity though. He introduced Michael Chamberlin who was very competent though not hilarious, and Demetri Martin who was good. I was a little turned off by the deadpan American accent, however. Everything's funnier in British. It's possible I'm a bigot.)

Tuesday night, Dylan Moran (from the frequently hilarious Black Books) at Hamer Hall. Big venue, sold out. So what did all those people get?

Well, he was pretty funny, but not side-splitting. Last show of a gruelling tour? Possibly. But it wasn't so much his solid delivery and timing, or his appealing rumpled persona, but the material itself. A lot of it seemed to be worked up during the tour; quite a few Oz and NZ specific gags which would paradoxically probably be funnier back in the UK. Amy (who's a fan of his old stuff) said that the jokes just weren't as good as the bits on DVD - one time he started one she knew, but slipped off into less funny territory.

Still, quite pleasant. A large part of the crowd seemed determined to laugh no matter what; a lady near us started cacking herself as soon as he walked on stage and barely stopped throughout. But anyway, he's not on any more so it's all moot.

For about half the price, much funnier was Lawrence Leung last night. You really should see him. Lawrence is a good performer, but a great writer - the show has a really good true narrative structure about his life's journey through puzzles. The segues between bits are seamless, with none of those jarring, stretched transitions that are so common. Add the faultless production and it makes for an easy watching experience.

So he draws you comfortably into his endearingly geeky world of puzzles, with the promise of solving a Rubik's cube (as shuffled by the audience, mind); but the puzzles are just the hook to get you into a more personal tale of love and relationships. There's plenty of gags and not too many flat spots - of course, not everything works, but the show moves quickly enough that if you miss one, there's another along in a minute. It helped that he had a responsive full house to play with, I guess. And there's a really nice sense of resolution at the end.

That's the best show I've seen so far.

Also last night, Andy McClelland, doing a show all about mix tapes. Andy's musical knowledge is obviously encyclopedic, and he's an enthusiastic, madcap, more-than-competent performer. But despite the subject being close to my heart, it didn't quite work for me. (Maybe because it's close to my heart, I had very high expectations.) Partly it was because of the room, a cavernous space at the bottom of Duckboard House, with a spot shining directly and uncomfortably into the performer's eyes, and the audience ringed around the stage. These combine to make it more impersonal than I'd like, especially when sitting, as we were, to the side of the stage. And it seemed an off night; a few empty seats, and a room full of drunk college kids made for a funny crowd vibe.

But these are most likely transient problems, and much of the show is good. Once again, it's a journey through his life with music merely as an excuse, though he cares deeply about it. My main concern is that non-music geeks, indeed, non-Melbourne music geeks, may miss much of it. A section on specifics of The Smiths may pass some by; a section on The Lucksmiths even more so. The safer gags are where he sticks to genres and feelings, like the hilarious hip-hop section, the bit about metal, or the "deep" monologue over Explosions in the Sky.

Certainly worth a look.

Faux Pas: Entropy Begins at Home

2006-04-24T15:31:00.000+10:00

I reckon a lot of electronic music falls into the trap of doing too much. Every sample is honed and polished until it's gleaming and pointy like a new Lamborghini. But music has a purpose beyond superficially exciting safety and that's why Entropy Begins at Home is a great album.

Instead of chrome and steel, Faux Pas has built you a wooden table and stacked it with homemade tapas, slightly blurry through multiple pre-dinner jugs of sangria but with glorious smells heading straight for your tastebuds. Another review speaks of "organic instruments" and while I can't picture a flute tree or piano bush, I take his point - it's music created electronically but with a wholly natural feel. Take The New Underground for a start; while it begins with a sparse, mechanical beat with an 80s reverb snare, the track stops feeling in any way electronic when a violin leads us sneakily into an enormous, big-band brass sting, warming the ears like a good single-malt in the gullet.

Faux Pas has a great sense of how much is enough, never over-complicating the tracks or going too hard for too long. The opener, Tema de Cristina builds tantalisingly, beginning by playing with four elements of an interesting beat, adding assorted samples and dropping away to nothing; then in the last third of the track, when it's all but too late, he dishes a sawed double bass and the killer flute line that was, obviously now, foreshadowed from the start.

But before long enough it's gone again, and he leaves us wanting more, as throughout the album. Hermann's Hermans is a weightless meander through the clouds, guided by a strong yet capricious beat until joined by the smoothest soprano sax, in one of Coltrane's free moods. But again, it's gone all too soon. And Apra, which follows, functions as little more than an extended intro, despite its percussive strummed guitar and warm, crackly production seeming to deserve more. Just as it's building, the count takes us into Water into Wine, the longest track at close to seven minutes.

This is one of two tracks on the album that have yet to grab me - it's not a coincidence that the other is the second longest track, Dorothy's Finger. While the rest of the album seems to make its point and move on, these hang around a bit long for me (a forgivable sin also perpetrated by Handsomeboy Technique). Possibly it's also significant that both these tracks use underwhelming vocal samples where the other tracks prefer sublime instruments.

Like my current favourite track, Tim as a Brim, which reminds me of why I love Faux Pas's sample library. This time it's the raw beat breaking down into a funky as heck organ, and then, out of the blue, an almost Iberian horn section wanders in to close it off. This is another example of the itinerant Spanish feel that's the closest thing this album has to a theme, though it tends to appear only when you least expect it. This is the true big beat section of the album, as following is the bouncy For the Trees, combining a percussive strummed guitar with an enormous stomp beat.

I liked Faux Feels, the EP preceding this album, but Entropy Begins at Home is a step above and beyond the enjoyably kitschy Jethro Tull cover that was my pick of the EP. It's getting a lot of buzz around town, picked as album of the week on RRR and popping up on blogs all over the shop. Get it before you hear it coming out of car windows on Chapel St.

EDIT: And, just received, permission from Faux Pas himself to post a coupla samples! The first is from the website, the second is exclusive to me. Unless someone else posted it. But, once again, you gotta buy this album. Thanks Faux Pas!

[MP3] Faux Pas - Hermann's Hermans
[MP3 - 3.1MB] Faux Pas - Tim as a Brim

[BUY] Faux Pas Website

Ha Fucking Ha: Tim Minchin, Sam Simmons

2006-04-19T09:53:00.000+10:00

It's indubitably comedic festivating time in ole Melbourne town.

Saw Tim Minchin first last night. He sold out, and with good reason, cause he's a very very competent cabaret performer. He's a great pianist and a decent singer, writing clever songs which mix intricate puns with irreverent taboo-busting punchlines. And he's got a good patter. Musical comedy is a dime-a-dozen at the moment but Minchin's one of the best performers out there.

But there is a bit of a caveat - I reckon this show's a little underdone. He's spent a lot of time overseas doing last year's show, a tour de force that picked up a few awards and lots of praise. So it's not surprising if he's got a bit of the Difficult Second Show syndrome. A couple of the songs fall a bit flat, some of the banter is a bit earnest or pointless and the rhythm of the whole thing is just a little off. But I'm being too harsh; don't write it off, as some of it is great - the "Fuck Off" song, while being pretty similar to TISM's BFW, is very funny, and I liked the Canvas Bag bit as well. And "If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out" (?) is side-splitting.

At $18 on a Tuesday you can't go too far wrong. But keep in mind that the kids like him so he will sell out consistently.

From the 400 (?) seat Hi-Fi to the Regent Room up in the Town Hall, holding not more than 50, for Sam Simmons.

Tales from the Erotic Cat is impossible to accurately describe, bouncing as it does from operatic tales of Sam's life to subliminal cats to talking ficuses to electric seagulls. It's a trip through Sam's brain without too much self-censorship, logic or causality. But it's done well; Sam has a good sense of timing and a solid feel for the ridiculous and absurd, and an endearingly goofy, energetic stage presence.

A really enjoyable show, for less than $20 every night of the week - don't go expecting anything too cerebral and you'll laugh your bum off.

PS: Also saw Ridiculusmus in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Malthouse on Saturday. Elanor liked it and so did I. Keywords: witty, smutty, polished.

Sigur Rós + The Mountain Goats

2006-04-18T15:41:00.000+10:00

A big gig week last week. Not so much in the Harmer/Kitson/Nicholas/DAAS sense of The Big Gig. Maybe that's more appropriate for this week, since it's Comedy Festival time and Lucy, Morgan, Jimeoin, Fleet, Lano & Woodley and Scared Weird Little Guys all have shows.

Tuesday night was Sigur Rós at the Palais. I dislike the Palais for rock gigs, mainly since Belle & Sebastian last year. It's cavernous and gives you the unpalatable choice of sitting up the top, with decent sound but a long way from the stage, or down the bottom, with questionable sound and possibly restricted view, though closer to the stage.

That said, it wasn't too bad for Sigur Rós. There's unlikely to be much dancing regardless, and my seat in the middle at the top was pretty good for sitting back and letting the music wash over you. Sound was fair though relatively quiet, and the light show was impressive from that distance, especially the opaque backlit curtain, which gave monstrous frantic silhouettes for a portion of the evening.

I like the band but am not their biggest fan; having loved Takk but not heard much before except bits of Ágætis Byrjun. I suspect I lacked enough context to really appreciate the intricate, deep and unconventional pieces, and those I did know were vaguely disappointing in the live setting. While pleased to hear my three highlights of the album, Glósóli, Hoppípolla and Sæglópur, they all seemed to lack a bit of power in the vast hall, with only (!) a string quartet backing the band. Yeah, I got goosebumps when the distortion hit in Glósóli, but they faded rapidly. And the backing string riff that carries Hoppípolla was thin without brass to garnish it. (Yeah, OK, maybe I did wish they were Broken Social Scene just for an instant.) And the big drums in Sæglópur seemed a pale imitation of the record.

So, yeah, they were good, but not wonderful. But that's for me. Sean at A Reminder gives a better review of the Sydney show (or two) from a true fan perspective. (Like him, I agree that the support were excellent.)

The other disappointing thing about Sigur Rós was the lack of audience connection. By Pat's reckoning, Jonsi spoke one word for the entire show - 'Takk' after the track of the same name. This always disappoints me. The Mountain Goats, at The Corner the next night, showed why.

I'm a bit of a Mountain Goats fan but, again, not a huge one. I've listened to The Sunset Tree and found it very good. I've listened to We Shall All be Healed and found it patchy. So while waiting through the always pleasant Mike Noga, and the manic, promising, yet ultimately unrefined Tucker Bs in support, I wasn't sure what to expect. Then the stage was cleared, leaving just two mikes. And for some reason I was prepared to be disappointed.

Design Your Own Container Garden (SAR?)
Dance Music (ST)
You or Your Memory (ST)
Ox Baker Triumphant (EP)
Alibi (EP)
Love Love Love (ST)
Tallahassee (T)
Up the Wolves (ST)
Jenny (AHWT)
Color in Your Cheeks (AHWT)
Dilaudid (ST) [guitar tacet]
I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone (S) (Billie Holiday) [a cappella, unamplified]
Song for Dennis Brown (ST)
Wait For You (EP)
Lion's Teeth (ST)
Shadow Song (CG)
This Year (ST)
ENCORE
See America Right (T)
Lonesome Surprise (NBP) [singalong]

I don't know that I've ever seen a musician so enthusiastic on stage as John Darnielle. With just him, on guitar and vocals, and Peter Hughes, on bass and backing vocals, there's a heap of stage to fill. He smiles infectiously and dances goofily and chats comfortably; despite the relative obscurity of the first track, the audience feel ready to go with him. Then, when the packed crowd choruses the opening line of Dance Music, his gobsmacked, heartfelt "you guys rock!" sucks us all in.

Stories, stories, stories. Ox Baker was an old-school US wrestler, Dennis Brown was the greatest reggae singer, Alibi is about a girl he once knew. Sure, he's told them a thousand times, but that just helps them work. The setlist is malleable - Up the Wolves comes from an audience request, and only after a minute or two working out the chords with Hughes (who actually seems to know the songs better than Darnielle). He mucks up Dilaudid a couple of times, then ignores the guitar and sings over Hughes' semi-improvised bass line. Then, having broken a string, we get a chat while Hughes changes it, then an unmiked a cappella version of the only song know to be written by Billie Holiday. Versatility.

Apparently we're the biggest audience he's ever played to, which I find kinda hard to believe since he's been around fifteen years. But certainly this was one of the most receptive crowds I've been in for a while. Well, OK, only since Broken Social Scene at the same venue; but it was a while before that. Good-natured and everyone seemed to leave the venue smiling. Yeah, they didn't play Pale Green Things, or anything from We Shall All be Healed (which probably required keys or drums), but everything we heard was excellent; almost spot on the record, but not mechanically so. And the all-in singalong in Lonesome Surprise was the cream on the cake.

I'd go to this gig again in a second, and will be chasing up some of the old albums I haven't heard. This was a real highlight.

Compendium Conundrum

2006-04-10T16:27:00.000+10:00

I'm posting because Nick said I had to. I always do what Nick says.

He's got his Roskilde ticket which is very good. We're gonna see the likes of Animal Collective, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Sigur Ros, Morissey. Tool! (Looking forward to that album; ah, metal.) Who Made Who, Franz, Arctic Monkeys. Deftones, Coheed & Cambria, Lady Sovereign, Placebo, The Streets, Rufus Wainwright. Kanye. Dylan, Roger Waters.

Not to mention Guns 'n' Roses! Well, Axl, but possibly with Brain from Primus (a really good rock drummer), Finck from NIN, Tommy Stinson from The Replacements, Chris Pitman who played with Tool on Aenima.

Closer to home, seeing Sigur Ros Tuesday and the Mountain Goats on Wednesday. Which explains the surfeit of Mountain Goats tracks on (fanfare please) my last.fm playlist applet. Eyes right. That's it. I know it looks bad now but I might redesign and it might get better. Or not.

Yes, I know I have been and continue to be lazy. That's just the way it is right now. There's a girl. These things happen.

Not that I haven't been spending large proportions of my disposable income on CDs. One highlight has been the Because of Ghosts compilation "No More Reason, No More Doubt" (see half-finished post - oh, that's right, it was only half-finished). I've heard a bit of these guys on Delivery thanks to the erudite Owen McKern, but never seen them.

They're somewhere in the same galaxy as Sigur Ros, or the Dirty Three, or Godspeed You! Black Emperor; playing layered, adventurous music which completely avoids sounding pretentious despite its experimental tendencies. There's plenty of groove sense, with guitar lines alternately weaving through and soaring above some mercurial four-armed percussion and contrastingly solid bass. It reminds more than a little of fellow Melbourne band (the sadly defunct) Little General, though the production is more spiky; at least on this reissue of old stuff. They have a new album out real soon now, and they're playing with the respected Xiu Xiu next week. All fun.

Other recent stuff:
- At War with the Mystics: The Flaming Lips; no opinion at this point.
- Gravity Won't Get You High: The Grates; initial impression fun.
- Late Night Tales: Belle and Sebastian; impressively catholic as is the metier of the series.
- Skip to the End: Futureheads; I really like it.
- Drums and Wire: XTC; How did it take me so long to get to these guys? Helicopter's a classic. Nigel, Scissor Man, great. Ten Feet Tall, Chain of Command, Life Begins at the Hop - very little misses on this album. Magic.
- Between Last Night and Us: The Audreys; haven't listened heaps yet, but there's a lot to like in them.
- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood: Neko Case; not as impressive as Blacklisted at this point, too similar maybe?

On the list for the immediate future:
- 4: Gerling; I've loved them in the past so why shouldn't I still?
- Born Again in the USA: Loose Fur; I like most things Tweedy or Kotche.

Been on the radio a little bit as well. If you're doing nothing 2am Good Friday night, tune to RRR. Be drunk. We sound better that way.

Lastly, my bicycle and I are in love with an iRiver. Until the overlooked bus hits me right in the middle of Glosoli.

Helmet Plea

2006-03-22T15:10:00.000+11:00

Rosie Fantail is doing her level best to save hipsters from themselves.

Ever worried about looking uncool in your helmet? Or left the helmet at home because it'll wreck your hair? Do you even own a helmet? Please allow Rosie to convince you, through this link:

Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir

2006-03-14T17:18:00.000+11:00

Inevitably, after a nigh-on four-year gap between albums, Moo, You Bloody Choir has been hit with the monster truck that is a major label publicity apparatus.

Apparently, it's their "most accomplished record to date - the amazing record they have always threatened to deliver." And "unquestionably one of the greatest song writers of our time" says the full press release, going on to tout the not-insignificant virtues of producer Eric Drew Feldman, who's worked with PJ Harvey, Captain Beefheart, The Polyphonic Spree, The Pixies - even our own Custard.

But they have a bit to live up to. Sunset Studies was an accomplished, earnest debut; ranging from made-for-JJJ Buckley-esque single Asleep in Perfection through Angels of the Bowling Green whimsy to, my favourite, the extended jam The Hole In Your Roof. And then circuitously to Strange Bird; the album that keeps on giving - almost every track on here's been a favourite of mine. Acclaimed by critics across the world, it wasn't an immediately easy album, but it had wonderful scholarly lyrics and a surfeit of musical ideas.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'm an Augie March apologist; from the moment I heard One Crowded Hour (thanks to Tim) I knew this album was a masterpiece. It was just a question of degree.

Well, Moo, You Bloody Choir is excellent. The previous two albums were regularly dense, but occasionally crowded, muffled, over-elaborate. MYBC is polished. Fear not, there's plenty of nuance there, but sensible production means it's focused; maybe contrast the acres between the notes of One Crowded Hour to the chaotic abandon of Song in the Key of Chance. Or, for a feel of the improved writing and arranging, compare the relentlessly wearing drive of This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers to the better balance of Just Passing Through, especially in the "like a gall stone" bridge, as Dave's drums pull back from the edge and the backing vocals throw oil on troubled waters.

But that's just a taste of an album with many highlights. It goes without saying that Glenn is a great lyricist, but four years brings out the best in him - "if love is a bolt from the blue/then what is a bolt but a glorified screw/and that doesn't hold nothing together" is possibly my favourite lyric ever. There's a bit of Dylan homage in opaque lyrics like "'I see' said a blind builder to his deaf daughter/As he picked up his hammer and saw/'If blood is thicker than water/why'd you dress in the dress that you wore?'". But he's singing now better than ever before - listen as he rolls out "that purple June" in One Crowded Hour; or keens "a heinous, heinous law" in the earnest, fragile Bottle Baby; or the big tacet lift "rise, rise, rise and tune your pianos" in Mother Greer.

What have I missed? The most interesting track on the album may just be Clockwork, an epic in the tradition of The Hole in Your Roof or Brundisium, but tending toward the best of late Radiohead; all ominous guitar soup with buried vocals, a subterranean, swelling riff and spectral string highlights coming from the next suburb. This tone is continued in the practically prog Vernoona, complete with about seven time signatures. There's a glorious major-key bridge before it reverts to its descending minor-key, unconventional glory - another epic, despite not having the running time to justify that tag.

Then, contrasting the genre-breakers, there's the alt-country bar ballad Baron of Sentiment. This plays mostly straight down-the-line country, until the middle eight, when a Neil Young riff wanders in and mugs the song - before Kiernan's piano breaks free, back to wild west saloon style. And the distinctly unsubtle Victoria's Secrets, a heart-on-sleeve ballad, complete with heavy drum fills and plaintive close-harmony in the chorus. And I haven't even mentioned another highlight, The Cold Acre, classic Augie March in the tradition of Addle Brains - but again, with cleaner production and a great build through the song.

All this and the usual tome included in the CD case, to fit all of Glenn's lyrics. Another candidate for album of the year. There may have been some vague disappointments in 006, but Augie March are avowedly not one of them.

Grave Digging

2006-03-13T16:07:00.000+11:00

I think the people who run this radio show are pretty cool:

Creative Licence Pending

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

2006-03-03T12:59:00.000+11:00

I mean, to Australia.

Michael Coppel is bringing the immortal Belle & Sebastian back to our shores in early June. Woo! Perfect timing for me, since I'm going away in late June.

My opinion of The Life Pursuit was unequivocally positive a few weeks ago, and has only improved since then. Not sure what the configuration of the Forum will be for this gig but hopefully it'll be all dancin' room, cause I can't listen to The Blues Are Still Blue while sitting down.

Tickets on sale next Friday morning; that'll be browsers-akimbo madness. Capacity 1500? I'm tipping a sell-out inside half an hour, but my judgement could be out on this one.

Map props to A Reminder for the news.

Broken Social Scene @ Corner

2006-03-01T11:54:00.000+11:00

I preface this post with a picture of Charles Spearin (or, as I call him, the Funky Moustache - Funk-Mo) of Montreal band Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Please keep Charles in your mind's eye as you read the rest of this post.

So, Broken Social Scene, eh? Well, after seeing them just a couple of days ago and being comprehensively blown away, my expectations were sky-high going into last night's show. In fact, the task of my day (apart from attempting to identify each member) was moderating my expectations somewhat. For much of the day, they could have wheeled out Lennon, and Johnny Cash and Hendrix without satisfying my mental image. But by gig time I'd managed to dial it down a little.

So first up New Buffalo. Sally's always pretty decent, by no means a natural stage presence, but I love her voice. And her songs evoke a particular mood in me - not one immediately appropriate for a rock show, but this also helped in modulating my fever pitch. Her music's very studio-based, which leads to the use of a lot of pre-recorded stuff in concert, but it's handled pretty well. That said, the highlight of the set was when John Crossingham (from BSS) wandered out to play some pretty sensitive drums on the closer, No Party.

Then Broken Social Scene. Arriving early, we were well and truly at the front but, despite an apparent sell-out, the room was strangely not packed. Throughout the set there was heaps of room just metres from the stage. Not a complaint, just strange. Maybe the wall of guitars pushed the crowd back...

What was the set like? Well, to get it out of the way, they still rocked just as hard, and managed to get pretty close to my expectations. It's a very impressive live show. This was more well-rounded than Sunday; better sound and a longer set allowed more slow songs, and more sensitive treatment of them. We heard Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl, the slow version of Major Label Debut (with Sally Seltmann joining Lisa Lobsinger on vocals), a very partial version of Windsurfing Nation after a request from the crowd, and some older tracks which I don't know. Though no I'm Still Your Fag or (I don't think) Looks Just Like The Sun.

And as for the stompers, the highlight had to be the enormous It's All Gonna Break. Told they had just four minutes left, the band eschewed the traditional "go off stage and make them cheer for five minutes", wandering off briefly before coming back to play the ten minutes or so. This was even bigger and louder than the other night because, when Charles put down his guitar to go cornet, the guitar was taken up by Spiral Stairs, indie legend Scott Kannberg from Pavement and Preston School Of Industry. This wasn't a suprise only because we'd seen Spiral already, joining the band on guitar for Ibi Dreams Of Pavement. I must admit, he didn't noticeably add to the sound (hey, what's twenty percent more guitar?) but his presence definitely added to the energy in the room.

Incidentally, I worked out most of the lineup for this tour. Cornerstone members Brendan Canning (mostly bass) and Kevin Drew (guitar and vocals, despite food poisoning yesterday) are there. The infinitely impressive Justin Peroff plays drums, regularly joined on the second kit by John Crossingham (also some guitar and backing vocals). Andrew Whiteman plays most of the big guitar solos with panache and a shedload of skill. Charles Spearin is the coolest man on stage plays guitar and cornet. His bandmate (from Do Make Say Think) Ohad Benchetrit plays guitar and alto sax. Violin (and some vocals) is Julie Penner. Lisa Lobsinger does most of the female vocals. That just leaves the trumpet player, whose intro I missed (it's not Jimmy Shaw), and the trombonist, who for the Melbourne leg is the trombonist from Architecture In Helsinki. Is it Tara Shackell? Maybe.

So that brings me to the highlight of the concert. The last track in the main set was "this one's for the lovers": Lover's Spit. Great track, a big anthem with a really mellow middle eight. Though in this case that was stretched a bit, as Kevin Drew and Charles Spearin descended the stage and began to hug a significant fraction of the entire audience. Apparently this is customary, but it was a surprise to me - especially when I found myself wrapped in the arms of Charles Spearin; the Divine Moustache himself! Refer back to the picture. He is truly the man.

I didn't shower this morning, and I may not shower ever again.

Laneway Festival

2006-02-27T10:33:00.000+11:00

Broken Social Scene. Broken Social Scene. Broken Social Scene.

That's all I've got. I'm still buzzing (and my ears are, in fact, still ringing) after seeing these guys yesterday. They played the best festival set I've seen, hands down, bar none. Not that there's a heap of contenders as festivals are regularly disappointing.

But this was objectively great. They're touring with just the bare ten members - one or two drummers, bass, two to four guitars, four wind (cornet, trumpet, trombone, sax), one violin, one to four vocalists, one knob-twiddler. Which adds up to much more than ten because, de rigueur, they regularly swap instruments. People appear and disappear in the middle of songs, wandering off for a beer or smoke then wandering back to hit the backing vocals or, especially, those huge, ecstatic brass lines.

It was obvious from KC Accidental, the opener, that their live sound completely kills anything you've heard on record. To start, they squashed seven people onto the tiny stage; drums, bass, three guitars, violin and knobs. Amid a sea of intense concentration, solid musicianship and flamboyant showmanship they started hitting those big stop-start chords - competing to see who could hit the biggest cock-rock guitar move without destroying the equipment strewn around. And then, as would become customary, towards the end the brass wandered out and (when they found a mike) blew the song through the sound barrier.

It's a simple formula, brilliantly executed. They all look like they're having such fun up there - well, except Kevin Drew hiding behind aviator sunnies, and Justin Peroff looking kinda sweaty on the drums. They're having fun, hitting most of the right notes with such infectious rock energy. Fast forward to the end of the concert - closing with It's All Gonna Break and the same dynamic's going on. We've just had the quiet bit and then the brass are massing at the side of the stage, and coming on and it's the enormous semi-classical end and the goosebumps are everywhere.

Once it's over, there's only the consolation of waiting for Tuesday night... Because they couldn't play Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl, and they didn't play Lover's Spit or Superconnected or even Major Label Debut. So there's much more where that came from. If you aren't going, yeah you, with the lukewarm coffee and slippers, get a ticket for Wednesday however you can.

Phew.

The rest of the day? Yeah, pretty good, thanks for asking. Got there halfway through Pretty Girls Make Graves and heard a little while exploring the venue. Sounded fine, quite fun, your standard bass, drums, two guitar, piano accordion lineup. But it was obvious already that more than about twenty metres from the stage was too far.

Next up Wolf and Cub who I haven't heard before, and who didn't impress me in that setting. Very metal, with decent sense of groove, but not what I was up for. So that was Pho Mekong lunch time. (Incidentally, their back door led right out into side stage - I wonder if I can get a job there for next year?) Then back for some Faker. These guys are the quintessential festival act; no prior knowledge necessary for full enjoyment. Hooky riffs, solid tunes and ridiculous lead singer antics (though hold that thought until Les Savy Fav) involving climbing the jury-rigged stage scaffolding make for fun times.

Then squeezing forward in anticipation of Augie March. If they were at the top of their powers when I saw them Wednesday, then they'd done a pretty quick u-turn in the intervening days. As Glenn said, they'd only had a couple of hours sleep after returning from Perth and it showed. The sound, especially, was awful - muddy, bottom-heavy and unbalanced; a shame after the crystal-clear sounds of last week. And the playing lacked spark. We got the current A-set: This Train Will Not Be Taking Any Passengers, One Crowded Hour, The Cold Acre, The Baron Of Sentiment, The Keepa, The Night Is A Blackbird, Song In The Key Of Chance and finally Just Passing Through. But this wasn't a vintage performance - in fact, this bottle may have been corked.

But, conveniently, this left us right up the front for Broken Social Scene. Did I talk about them already? Highlights: Ibi, Shoreline, KC, It's All Gonna Break... Most of the set. The only lowlight was the feedback problems which caused Anthems to be pulled halfway through.

Then inside, and while waiting, caught Les Savy Fav on the screen. The fat guy with the beard is seriously deranged, and leaves you with the sneaking suspicion that the band is little more musically than a backdrop for his antics. Thanks to the wonders of radio mikes, he quickly became embedded in the crowd, wearing a cape, spraying water and spittle over a large fraction of the audience.

The Hold Steady also have a slightly mad lead singer, but Craig Finn is nuts in a good way. He smiles constantly and infectiously; dancing in an endearingly geeky, hyperactive fashion while rattling out his rapid-fire lyrics. It's true that they're not substantially more than a pub band, but they do it with such unself-conscious enjoyment that it's hard not to get sucked into their agricultural riffs and straightforward rocking.

And that was it. I'm sure The Avalanches were good, as always, but at that time in the evening you have to be either well out of it or, well, out of it. Since I wasn't sufficiently drunk, and the crush was only increasing, it was home time.

Augie March @ POW

2006-02-23T10:50:00.000+11:00

The Prince is a great venue despite being on the wrong side of the river; lighting is consistently the best in Melbourne, it sounds pretty decent and despite being sold out, there was no shortage of great vantage points. (Unlike at the partially seated Joanna Newsom gig last year. Damn tall people.)

This gig was supposed to be a media launch/single launch which, as Glenn said, means they play for 45 minutes then go away then come back a bit later and play some more. (Also means they start at the work-friendly time of 8:45! In bed by 11pm! Rock!) So we got two sets, one of new stuff then one of old stuff.

The new stuff was all from the album:

Bottle Baby
One Crowded Hour
The Cold Acre
The Baron Of Sentiment
Mother Greer
Stranger Strange
Victoria's Secrets
Just Passing Through

Mostly Glenn on Bottle Baby, with Adam doing the vocal highlights in the chorus. Then everyone troops on and we get One Crowded Hour, to the delight of much of the crowd. I think I might have dulled the impact of this by listening to the single so much, but it's still a great track. The Baron Of Sentiment is a little bit country (it was written near where I grew up, at Nagambie!), plenty of slide and a keyboard riff stolen from Neil Young's Harvest Moon, according to Glenn. The newest ones were Stranger Strange and Victoria's Secrets, both having just the first or second run-out. Victoria's Secrets is, as Glenn said, a "metal ballad"; plenty of big crash drum fills and driving guitar chords. The whole set (after Bottle Baby) was quite uptempo and rocky, culminating of course in the utterly unsubtle Just Passing Through. Of course, there are six other tracks on the album so that shouldn't necessarily be taken as a guide to the whole thing.

Then a ten minute break, and into some old stuff:

The Keepa
Addle Brains
Rich Girl
Song In The Key Of Chance
This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers
ENCORE
No Such Place

Song in the Key of Chance was faster than usual, thanks to Dave - Glenn said "Dave, nice creative idea, but give us some warning". Nothing amazing about any of the tracks but played well, as always (with only a couple of mistakes in Rich Girl) and Glenn's usual dry banter between tracks. About an hour and a half all up, so very satisfying.

Sunday at the Laneway Festival will be a, um, different show, I'm betting. I'm unsure about the venue, but bring it on!

A Useful Invention!

2006-02-21T14:41:00.000+11:00

Australians probably only remember the Segway from those funny-for-five-seconds Friday Night Games on Big Brother last year. It's the ultimate nerd product, effectively a self-balancing two-wheel scooter. Apple billionaire Steve Jobs said that "cities will be built with these in mind". Probably important to note that he had some skin in the game.

The inventor is genius/nutbox Dean Kamen. He's got a record full of impressive inventions, his own island and a lot of important phone numbers. And he fits the geek archetype to a T - you just know he dances like Napoleon Dynamite.

Whether the Segway ever really catches on or not, he's got cred no-one can touch. So that's why it's so good that his new thing is power and clean drinking water for developing countries, especially in small rural villages. This could provide a great example of leapfrogging.

(Thanks to Dave at Gristmill for the link.)

There's two machines. The Stirling uses anything burnable to produce about one kilowatt of power - cow dung is the obvious one. The Slingshot takes dirty water and separates it into clean water and sludge. Simple as that. Good especially because this allows developing countries to skip the monolithic infrastructure we take for granted, and go with a more failure-tolerant decentralised system. (The power requirements of the Slingshot aren't documented here. Hopefully these are modest, or the purpose is defeated.)

The more interesting part, though, is the proposed funding model. Cause these machines, in an absolute best case, will cost thousands of dollars. It's based on the way Grameen Phone sells mobiles in Bangladesh: "(V)illage entrepreneurs (mostly women) are given micro-loans to purchase a cell phone and service. The women, in turn, charge other villagers to make calls." This creates small-scale rural entrepreneurs (with possibly the added benefit of empowering women in traditionally repressive developing countries). The same method is planned for these machines, though broken up into smaller portions.

There are plenty of risks before this becomes reality - manufacturing and cash most notably - but it sounds like it could be a transforming idea.

Handsomeboy Technique: Adelie Land

2006-02-17T12:30:00.000+11:00

Drowning in a sea of indie-rock, swallowing great gulps of pointy guitar distortion, rough drum sounds and buried vocals; Broken Social Scene this, Sigur Ros this, Tool here, Augie March there, Arctic Monkeys everywhere.

It's Friday of a beautiful summer weekend - maybe the last of the season. Not really the time to be listening to psych-folk or prog or the strangely underwhelming tastes of At War With The Mystics. I didn't realise how little my mp3 player knew me until today.

But then the master plan kicked in. First it hit me with the tinny brass and chaotic rap of Bottle Rocket by The Go! Team. For the first time today, I'm tapping my foot.

And then the beat-boxing pulled into Interstellar Discodrive, and staring out the window at the blue sky I realised I'd meant to write about this ages ago. An apposite transition by the player, because Handsomeboy Technique share certain flavours with The Go! Team. But despite the light, sugar-hit impression they give, for mine they're actually more satisfying.

The Go! Team are aggressively lo-fi. It's happy and not a little nuts, but ultimately I have to be in a particular mood to pump the fuzzy, messy sounds through my cans. (That's radio-speak, by the way. For cred.) Conversely, Handsomeboy Technique have diamond-sharp production which reminds me of The Avalanches; everyone's touchstone in this genre. Sharp, and yet sunny like a summer's day in Melbourne.

Adelie Land has big beats galore, and plenty of hooks to top it off. Best track remains Season Of Young Mouss despite its flaws. One of those is the cheesily embarassing vocal at the start; a rare misplaced sample on a polished album. The other is that it hangs around too long; a common if forgivable failure on this release. The last two minutes of the track, after the middle-eight, is a reprise of the first (nominal) verse and then the chorus, over and over again. The jazz flute sample may be hooky in the extreme, and the hyperactive bass line and light beat may be infectious, but it's stretched a little too far.

This criticism also applies to Quiet Place despite the wonderful piano sample, and to the slower 8000 Laurels despite the funky beat-boxing - but these three are such good tracks that it's hard to hold that against the band.

The album has two distinct moods. There's the dancefloor anthem mode notable in Season Of Young Mouss, as well as Interstellar Discodrive, A Walk Across The Rooftops and most of the album. Then there's the quieter, slower, more melodic Since I Left You mood of, especially, Quiet Place, Adelie Coast Waltz and Affections. Both work like a charm in lifting the darkest of moods - they're just so relentlessly bright and summery.

Adelie Land just makes me dance and smile.

Unfortunately it's only available import from Japan; here it is on Amazon and Tower Records. Both in Japanese. Hey, you might get something else good! That said, I have a copy, so maybe we can come to some arrangement...

Deerhoof @ Northcote Social Club

2006-02-11T14:21:00.000+11:00

My Disco, the support, were really quite good. Three-piece, guitar, bass and drums, with more energy than their stage gear could stand up to. The kit fell apart multiple times - not surprising with the way the drummer was hitting it. He's basically a human drum machine, but more flexible, playing really interesting rock-disco beats at breakneck pace. Interesting because there's very little 4, some 3, some 5, even a couple of bars of 11, I think, without faltering. While I'm not a huge fan of the monotonal, shouted vocal thing, it works when you've got the vitality of these guys.

Then, the Canadians. Well, let me get the disappointment out of the way first - they didn't play O'Reilly, Former Underdog.

That said, however, it was a pretty amazing show. Deerhoof don't so much play their songs as play near their songs. It feels something like driving with an expert rally driver around a snowy, narrow track. At first it's scary and new, always threatening to careen out-of-control headlong into a tree, as Greg's drums disappear over the hill with no sign of coming back, or John takes his guitar into dark places you don't recognise and can't see a way out of.

But, after a while, the scary feeling becomes exhilarating. You learn to trust that they know what they're doing and that everything's going to be fine, and settle in to enjoy the rush.

They played bits of the last three albums, as far as I could tell, possibly with some new stuff. It was all different to the recorded versions, but not unrecognisably so, and in fact gives a better idea of what they're going for. There's always someone keeping the train on the tracks, whether it's Greg's down-the-line drumming, Chris or Satomi on bass or rhythm, or John playing an uncharacteristically steady guitar part. And most of all, it always stays musical (something the support missed on a couple of occasions).

And, wow, Satomi's tiny!

Belle and Sebastian: The Life Pursuit

2006-02-11T13:02:00.000+11:00

This is a great album.

Dear Catastophe Waitress was old-school narratives mixed with big pop arrangements - yes, B&S were happy now, and playing on the big stages, but they'd lost none of their charm. In hindsight, though, the mix wasn't entirely comfortable. The pop gems were there - Step Into My Office, Baby, Dear Catastophe Waitress - but with lyrics verging on the punny simplicity of Legal Man. On the other hand, the literate narratives of Piazza New York Catcher and, especially, Lord Anthony evoked a strong sense of nostalgia for the old stuff without hitting the pop notes. It made for a fun album, but the fusion wasn't quite cooked.

I say this with the perspective you get from a higher peak.

The Life Pursuit is the album DCW wanted to be. They obviously know their 70s pop far better than I ever will, so I'm going to jettison the de rigueur T-Rex and Sly and the Family Stone references. But the songs are strong even without context. The first one which got me was the ridiculously catchy White Collar Boy - a big funky bassline, Stuart's exuberant vocals with the best call-and-response they've done yet. "You were chained to a girl that would kill you with a look"; reply "It's a nice way to die she's so easy on the eye". This is the witty, self-deprecating feel that I love about B&S - "She said 'You ain't ugly, you can kiss me if you like'".

In fact, this track leads off the irresistible seven-track soul of the album. The puntastic, catchy Blues Are Still Blue follows with, stomping along with another killer bassline, synthy highlights and a great heavily syncopated chorus. Then Nice Day For A Sulk, sorry, I'll read that again, it's Dress Up In You. This feels like a Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant outtake, but with the vocals and trumpet closer to the front of the mix and generally more interesting production. And I do love the line "If I could have a second skin/I'd probably dress up in you".

Sukie In The Graveyard is the big one. Sukie is a typical B&S character from as far back as She's Losing It, but the track itself is a long way from Tigermilk. The funky bass makes another appearance, joining Richard's foot-tapping groove in the solid rhythm section which drives the whole thing. But Chris dancing around the organ behind Stuart's fast-paced, acerbic vocals - "Sukie was the kid, she liked to hang out at the art school/She didn't enrol, but she wiped the floor with all the arseholes" - is what turns the track into a masterpiece. When the organ rolls jubilantly into that last verse, the roof comes off the building.

We Are The Sleepyheads is Stuart in an upper register with Sarah right there, fast-paced and with a bit of Bible study for good measure. Song For Sunshine contrasts a brazen organ line with a cheesy synth chorus; though "Sunshine, we all see the same sky" is a little saccharine for me. Then the putative single Funny Little Frog, which is probably the most Dear Catastrophe Waitress of anything on this album, the spiritual successor to Stay Loose - it's fun but doesn't hit the catchy heights of other tracks.

And there's plenty more besides. Old-school jangle on Another Sunny Day; variations on the classic simple narrative plus muted accompaniment on Act Of The Apostle II and Mornington Crescent. Isolated bits are less than convincing, but overall the record really gets to that toe-tapping place inside, without losing Stuart's smart lyrics - the essence of the band.

I don't know exactly where B&S are going but I'm more than happy to be riding with them.

Are You?

2006-02-10T10:19:00.000+11:00

Ever complained about how your politicians don't represent your views? Who votes for them anyway? They're all duplicitous, power-hungry, incompetent dropkicks?

Well, on the rare occasion that a conscience vote comes up, you kinda owe the country some participation.

And this is an important issue - that of RU486, a drug which amongst other things can be used to perform a non-surgical abortion. (Which is only a slightly less unpleasant process, as detailed by Sean.) The bill, which just passed the Senate, removes the "special" status of RU486, so that the TGA can approve it like any other drug, instead of allowing our Health Minister, the Mad Monk, to block it.

But now it's down to the House Of Reps to consider the bill; and in order for it to be truly a Representative House, they need to know your views on the issue. GetUp has made it as easy as boiling water, just fill in this form with your postcode and email message and it'll be delivered straight to your MP. Whatever your view, you should really help these pollies make their decision. (Thanks to Amy for the link.)

Just don't get bogged down in left-right crap; the bill's sponsored by Lyn Allison (Democrat), Judith Troeth (Liberal), Fiona Nash (National) and Claire Moore (Labor). So there's a poster-girl there for any of us. (Well, when you include another supporter, Kerry Nettle from the Greens.)

And maybe consider that no other drug has this "special" status. And that abortion is actually legal in Australia. It's simply a matter of logic. If you don't believe abortion should be legal, fair enough, but that's a different debate.

Bubble Bobble

2006-02-08T15:43:00.000+11:00

More clean energy!

Sonofusion (or Bubble fusion) promises "almost limitless cheap energy" from "table-top fusion". Yeah, it reads like Hans Christian Andersen, but one of these will turn out to be feasible. Although this currently "produces energy about seven orders of magnitude lower than that which went into it", which is almost as wasteful as a Hummer. But there are reasons to be optimistic.

So what's the deal? Let's start with the dogmatic, enthusiastic proponent, Rusi Taleyarkhan. He grew up in India before moving to the US, establishing his semi-crackpot credentials by inventing "variable velocity bullets" for use in a futuristic stun gun - that's right, it's "set phasers to stun"! But despite this wacky sci-fi innovation, he has impressive titles from Purdue and Oak Ridge Labs and appears competent and respected.

That is, until the subject of sonofusion comes up. Here's how it works. You can use sound to pop bubbles in liquid - and this can give you temperatures and pressures similar to the inside of the sun! This load of energy causes visible flashes of light through sonoluminescence, and, just occasionally, it apparently causes nuclear fusion. Which is a good thing. Fusion is the ultimate goal; it throws neutrons which give us energy without the nasty radiation problems of nuclear fission (like in A-bombs and nuke power plants). This is where the "table-top fusion" catchphrase comes in.

The argument is about whether fusion actually occurs. Taleyarkhan's method uses a burst of neutrons to create bubbles, ripe for the bursting. Critics say that the neutrons he's detecting on the way out are the same ones he sent in. Changes in the experiment haven't proved conclusive in either direction, but there's a distinct lack of success when other teams attempt the experiment. But despite this, and a big gaggle of detractors in the physics community, reputable peer-reviewed journals like Science and Physical Review E have published pro-sonofusion articles.

It's not yet the holy grail, but add it to the long list of potential innovations to change the world. And, just in case, also to the list of potential ridiculous hoaxes.

Die! Die! Die!: Die! Die! Die!

2006-02-06T16:00:00.000+11:00

Die! Die! Die! have got a lot of street cred for three kids from New Zealand. This album, following and expanding upon last year's EP, was recorded with Steve Albini in Chicago. Yeah, the guy who recorded the second-best albums of both The Pixies and Nirvana, as well as great albums by Low (Things We Lost In The Fire), McLusky (The Difference Between You And Me Is That I'm Not On Fire) and The Breeders (Title TK). He's been to all the best parties.

The EP was fuzzy lo-fi, an energetic, pissed-off six songs packed into about 14 minutes. The LP, post-Albini, is little longer at 22 minutes, with ten tracks including the best three from the EP. The real differences, unsurprisingly, are in recording quality, extra clarity in the guitar crunch and drum sounds, but most of all in the angry, half-shouted vocals.

The tradeoff is that it lacks some of the appealing crudity of the EP - noticeable in the direct comparisons. The big "I don't trust you" in Shyness Will Get You Nowhere, for instance, was a cracked-voice scream, and is now just a controlled shout. And then there's the bouncy Franz-esque disco breakdown at the end of Auckland Is Burning. The tom-driven rocker is still a highlight, but this outro does seem a bit incongruous.

But it's all their great anger-driven speed rock; more than a touch of punk sentiment without setting foot near the emo cliff.

Big Day Hot

2006-02-01T18:10:00.000+11:00

A very funky BDO (possibly the 112 percent humidity contributed to that...). Not-so-brief rundown of the day:

Saw the very end of Airbourne and they were everything I'd expected - lots of energy for the opening slot ("Melbourne Rock 'N' Roll!"). They won't be playing that early next time. A little bit of The Greenhornes; kinda mediocre, nothing special about their standard three-piece rock. Plenty of local bands with a fraction of the profile could wipe the floor with them. Introduced to the - mercifully under cover - RRR stage where I'd be spending most of the day.

But first to the pit at the main stage, where I caught the end of Faker, good energy, JJJ-friendly guitar pop-rock, not bad. (And incidentally felt very, very old, as is the standard refrain.) Straight into festival regulars Gerling, who I still like though they haven't come close to the the brilliant melodic post-punk/dance-rock of Children Of Telepathic Experiences. I shouted for Ghost Patrol but to no avail; still, a good high-energy show which got my exercise out of the way early.

Back to the RRR stage to listen to Cut Copy (tres funk as always) while jostling right up the front for the day's highlight: Sleater-Kinney. Kicking a very, very large amount of backside, they launched straight into the crunch of The Fox played pretty much everything off The Woods. Most impressive was Janet's high-energy, rock-solid drumming (when she slumped over her drums during Modern Girl I thought she was down for the count). Notable also was the watching Jack White at side stage - fully outfitted six hours before his show. Everything flawless. (Except Corin stomping on the end of Janet's solo in, I think, Let's Call It Love.)

Onwards and ever upwards. The Go! Team do a pretty great live show and you've gotta love Ninja, but ultimately left me a little cold - it just sounds a bit empty on stage when compared to the many-layered sounds of the album. Then out into the sun for my other highlight, Augie March on the tiny local stage. One Crowded Hour, the new single, is a corker (Tim still has it up at O Song! if you're interested) and they played Song In The Key Of Chance which is another of my favourites. A good show from the guys despite the small stage and hair-metal drifting across from the main stage - especially during The Night Is A Blackbird. Can't wait for the album in March.

And then to that time when it starts getting really crowded and slightly less pleasant. Caught the end of Hank Rollins, doing some populist gear about how Howard and Bush suck, and how good the Melbourne music scene is, and how nuts Iggy is, and how good the Ramones were. Someone said last night "that's not spoken word" and I have to agree. But he's still Mr Charisma. A bit of Living End (turns out they haven't got any new material), a bit of Franz (from eight kilometres away they seemed OK). A lot of The Mars Volta - it's quite amazing what they can do with metal, playing most (all?) of the epics from Frances The Mute. A bit of Iggy And The Stooges who are all old and grey except Iggy, who's just nuts. But again, Mr Charisma. And finally a bit of The White Stripes, though not much, before pulling up stumps and trudging wearily back through Carlton.

Good venue, and not just cause it's close to my house. Plenty of grass makes for a much more forgiving environment, and it's a huge area. Let's hope they're making sufficient cash to keep it there. But the take-home message: Sleater-Kinney = WOW.

Three Gigs And A Politics

2006-01-27T10:08:00.000+11:00

Last week's list of interesting and remarkable voices (Oliver Mann, Jimmy Clinkerfield, CocoRosie) was finished off with Antony and the Johnsons at Hamer Hall. I'm told he's Elton John for the new millennium, and as the charismatic, lyrical entertainer dominating the room from behind the piano the similarities are obvious. (A nice surprise to find that Antony's talkative and likeable on stage.) But where Elton's performances are bombastic, theatrical and hook-driven, Antony's are a subdued sea of emotion. He and his gang of six never strayed too far from the record, but despite being at the end of a year of touring, gave a good, professional performance, to a full house of about 2400.

As for CocoRosie, Elanor's the one to listen to on that.

Khancoban have taken off again for 006, with a pair of gigs last week. First up was a double set at The Retreat, with a fairly disinterested audience fixated mostly on their parmas and important conversations about a three-bedroom in the Brickworks compared to a two-bedroom in Collingwood. So it was a tough room not especially conducive to the Khancoban brand of quiet alt-folk. They played everything, as expected in a long two sets, even throwing in a couple of covers - of Echo and the Bunnymen and Tom Waits (with Andrew and Jason doing some pretty impressive backing vocals). But, honestly, there aren't quite enough killers in the catalogue at this point to sustain interest for two whole sets. But a little more variety and a little more 'bop', to replace a couple of the more anonymous tracks, is all that's required.

The next night was Australia Day Eve at the Old Bar, with Clinkerfield. This was better for being shorter and more refined, and there was a more respectful atmosphere (also more drunk people), despite the uniformly poor sound quality. My highlight, unsurprisingly, was the epic crescendo of Such A Big Sky, but the whole set worked well.

Then a monster set from Clinkerfield, complete with cello. Almost two hours, containing all your favourites, including a block of (I think) three covers in the middle, the best of which was Matty's rendition of Daydream Believer with the whole venue singing along. It was fucking hot, though.

The politics? Elanor (again) said it better than I could, so this should be read.

The End Of Civilisation As We Know It

2006-01-24T16:45:00.000+11:00

Big mistake.

They gone and cancelled The West Wing.

OK, yeah, they were up against it. Eventually Bartlett hit his two term limit and was forced to leave office; for some reason the producers didn't take to my suggestion of "Despot Bartlett". So the choice was between Alan Alda (seemingly a John McCain-type reasonable Republican) and Jimmy Smits (a Catholic Democrat with military background) for the next one up - but losing Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing could only hurt, not to mention any other characters who needed to follow (is it even possible to choose between Donna, Charlie and Will, let alone also Josh, Toby and CJ?).

And John Spencer (Leo McGarry) died in December at only 58. Ex-chief of staff, Leo was now running for VP under Santos (Smits), and Spencer was an imposing actor as they all are. Assuming a Santos victory, he was a very important plank of the show, now sadly gone.

Of course, inevitably, the ratings were suffering. As the linked article says, it "remains the most upscale series on prime-time broadcast TV". Which I think means it's the best show not made by HBO. It had recently moved timeslots - always dangerous - and lost a third of its viewers. (Down to about 8m a week, like, more than a third of the population of Australia...)

So, as K Rogers once drawled, you've got to know when to fold 'em. Though I'm still smarting from the cancellation of This Life - which, goddamn, was almost nine years ago! - one thing that taught us was how to go out on top. The West Wing's gone after the inauguration, a fairly natural end.

But it will be missed.

(PS: This Life on DVD released on the 26th of Feb in Britain - Amazon are preordering now. So some of my grief will be assuaged in early March...)

Clinkerfield + Oliver Mann @ Old Bar

2006-01-19T15:16:00.000+11:00

Oliver Mann is an unassuming figure; lacking the imposing beard of his brother, Paddy (Grand Salvo). Unassuming, at least, until he opens his mouth to sing. He effortlessly took command of the small room at the Old Bar, despite its dubious acoustic qualities, without any accompaniment or even a microphone. The range and power of his voice are much-storied and even more impressive in person - I got the feeling he was holding back in the lower register to avoid hurting people.

We heard a range of tracks from the album as well as some new stuff. Shoe Of Leather was impressive, but the highlight of the set was a magical Herringbone Blues. Matty from Clinkerfield has been studying up, cause he was pitch-perfect on the serene harmonies in the chorus; impromptu from the back of the room, mind.

So then to a completely different set from Clinkerfield. The last couple of times I'd seen them, especially at the Rob Roy, it'd been underwhelming, perfunctory performances, full of all the old favourites but not at their best. Last night, as an indication of the strength of the performance, we got Gravel Road as a sound-check (I get the impression they're a little sick of the track) and Pissing Down in the middle of the set, instead of closing as is customary. (It was still killer, though.)

I reckon they're moving to a new plane of existence, and if this set was any guide, it'll be a plane of existence involving touring foreign countries, brown M&Ms and lashings of alcohol in riders and groupies all round. And possibly also Jimmy wearing Amish hats, though that may have been just this gig. Quite a few killer new songs, especially one about "her little finger" (before which Jimmy said he'd been listening to a lot of Tom Waits).

But it was what they did with each one, big rock breakdowns with the boys all in the same place as they took this thing to Mexico. Rhythm right there, mixing it up but staying on the button, guitar wandering Nels Cline-ish through the mix, vocals soaring and swooping over the top. Reminiscent in many ways of a Wilco live set, though not so much of Kicking Television which is the less impressive new-school Wilco, the old-school The Band-listening Wilco. Clinkerfield are sitting comfortably between rock, blues and country and doing a smashing job.

And the new album - Take In The View should be out quite soon. Get onto it.

Hasta La Sola, Baby

2006-01-17T15:20:00.000+11:00

In California, they've just scored $3b over the next 10 years in rebates and incentives for solar paraphenalia. It's funded the obvious way, with a miniscule fee tacked onto power bills - like $1.10 a month. And you save up to $7k on a $20k system. This is thanks in no small part to the Governator. I admit I haven't been following his reign of Austrian terror closely, but seems like when the clock inevitably ticks round to Republican, he's of the bearable type.

Though, in fact, there's even some federal US incentives for renewable energy. They'll pay you 30% of the cost of the system - but only up to $2k. This was thanks to the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Yeah, it didn't do heaps to transition to clean energy, but the bill wasn't all bad. Better than nothing, anyway.

Which is approximately what we get in Australia. Canberra slashes solar power rebates! Rebates were halved from $8k to $4k at the start of the year, and next year they'll be gone - "replaced" by the token "Solar Cities" program. That's $75.3m (fuck-all) over 6 years, across four limited locations (like, say, the size of Coburg), which they haven't even got around to choosing yet, well over a year after the first announcement.

That's a shit program. It's an ineffective sop to industry, which is complaining (with good reason) that they'll have trouble selling any solar systems without the rebate, because they definitely won't be price-competitive. While it may debatably help industry, it's gonna do four-fifths of five-eighths in the short-term for emissions. There's only the vaguest of possibilities that it may provide impetus for development of more efficient solar.

The real problem is that our power's among the cheapest in the world, thanks to metric shedloads of coal. Solar can't play on this field without some serious economies of scale - which reducing the incentives seriously mitigates against.

So, as always, the real real problem is government policy.

Heim Likes Manouevres

2006-01-16T14:20:00.000+11:00

Anyone want a unified field theory which enables anti-gravity and faster-than-light hyperdrive propulsion?

Ladies and gentlemen, Heim Theory!

There's a bit of buzz around this in the wake of a recent New Scientist article with a positive bent. The theory makes the standard impressive promises, like faster-than-light travel without needing any fuel. In the near future, a return trip to Mars in three hours. (Right now it's a ruinously expensive six months one way.) Later, trips to other solar systems and even galaxies.

Unsurprisingly, the eponymous Burkhard Heim was a reclusive genius who refused to publish on the theory until it was finished. Slightly less conventional is the fact that he had no hands and was 90% deaf and blind, thanks to an explosives accident. The past tense, of course, is because he died in 001 - taking his theory with him? No! Never fear! A retired Austrian patent officer, Walter Droescher, has been running with the idea since 1980, in a futile battle against the criminally complacent world of established physics theory.

You couldn't sell this plot.

In the ruck of lunatic fringe theories, however, this one stands out. For a start, it recently won a prize from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, sparking the current interest in the work. More importantly, the theory actually makes testable predictions - as opposed to just vague, un-verifiable promises. (Yeah, I'm talking to you, creationists.)

So it's another unified field theory, attempting to fit neatly together the two huge and seriously weird shaped jigsaw pieces that are quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. Relativity gives us four dimensions, and Heim's theory adds four dimensions to that. This is good because when these dimensions interact they can produce some pretty funky forces. One is gravitophoton force which can "accelerate a material body without the need for a propellant". I imagine the oil price won't matter so much in the future, then.

The second is even more rad. Quintessence (no, I'm not kidding) allows transition into a "parallel space" where you can achieve "superluminal speed". That's parallel universes and faster-than-light travel! Though I'm sure they come with all the attendant problems as detailed in sci-fi, like crashing into things when you can't see them and discovering horrible things with tentacles and faces like Kerry Packer's cold, dead bum hiding in the cracks between the dimensions.

Which is all moot if it's bullshit. The internet consensus seems to be that there could be something in this, mainly because it gets good results on the predictions tested thus far. In fact the best part is that there's an experiment which can be done which should be a test. If they can find someone to pay for it, it's as simple (!) as getting a big magnet and pumping up the field until something happens or doesn't happen. So let's hope. Cause I want to go to Mars.

Grand Salvo - The Temporal Wheel

2006-01-09T22:21:00.000+11:00

Joanna Newsom, Smog, Grand Salvo. If that wasn't the Melbourne line-up of the year, well, maybe Mercury Rev supporting The Finn Brothers was. Or Bright Eyes supporting REM. No - the Bird Blobs, The Drones, Damn Arms and My Disco! Um. Yeah. I digress. Paddy Mann, the brains of Grand Salvo, was in exactly the right place that night (a claim diminished only slightly by the fact that I missed his set).

He may not have the raw stage presence of Bill Callahan or the ethereal beauty of Joanna Newsom, but Mann does have a large beard, a wonderful part-Celtic accent and a mastery of the simple things in songs. His latest album is The Temporal Wheel, one of 2005's finer releases.

So it's a folk record. Mundane first-person narratives ramble over understated acoustic backing. With just a couple of two-day sessions to write and record the album, there was no time for Mann to get over-complicated with lyrics or arrangements - but this isn't a bad thing. The final product has an appealing simplicity, produced with beautiful clarity by Tony Dupé, who's done similar work recently with Holly Throsby and The Woods Themselves, not to mention his own Saddleback project.

Mann's velvet vocal chords are consistently at the front of the mix, with his harmony lines a particular highlight. He backs himself on every track, with variations in timbre and colour filling out the rich sound. The lyrics themselves are maybe not profound but always heart-on-sleeve. Sour Grapes: "I'm glad you left today/I loved you too much anyway", or "I dunno where it all came from/I think I dreamed about my home" from In My Bones. And "You're sprawled upon the bed with nothing on/Move your knee up closer to your chin/I wanna see your quim/Oh I'm obscene" has such endearing honesty when Mann delivers it that it's not nearly offensive.

In The Morning, which that line comes from, is the manifesto for the album. It's the quiet, reflective feeling of a Sunday morning spent lying in the sun without a care in the world. However, the highlight, and putative single, is Brave Like A Goose, where the accompanying instrumentation really comes into its own. Opening with a simple glockenspiel line, Mann's close harmonies join it, then the multi-tracked cello builds into the chorus, backed by Rae Howell's beautiful mellophone. The track falls to nothing at the coda - then builds again to the final chorus with admirable restraint.

In fact, the accompaniment is an unsung (boom-tish!) hero throughout. Jess Venables' cello is ever-present, providing the body for most of the album. Muted brass is Rae Howell, from New Buffalo, her mellophone starring particularly at the end of Three Cats Watch, with the echo of "My cat was murdered, blood was matted in her fur" to finish the song. The respected Steve Majstorovic (Architecture In Helsinki) drops in some clarinet. And, of course, Paddy's brother Oliver Mann, he of the operatically trained angel-voice, appears. Playing glock and percussion and not singing a word. I think it's a sibling rivalry thing.

It's simply a beautifully crafted folk album, coherent, with appealing personality and candour.

Blonde Joke?

2006-01-09T15:58:00.000+11:00

Classic:

Best Blonde Joke Ever

Meme it up, kiddies.

Genre Illusionists

2006-01-04T12:58:00.000+11:00

Clinkerfield are a band who are good and hard-working. And underappreciated.

At their website you can get a gander at a couple of tracks which showcase their range. Gravel Road and A House Is Not A Home, from The Silly, Serpentine Wind EP, are quiet, reflective alt-country tracks, with intelligent lyrics. Then there's Fuck Love Songs from Treason Season, a slammin' angry rock number - "I don't wanna be in a band that sings about girls/I wanna be in a band that rocks the world!" and "If you like my riffs and if you like my band/Well meet me backstage and I'll fuck you where you stand!" - while Mutual Disturbation is ponderous almost-stoner-rock.

They're coming off a big year, filled with a massive 87 gigs in 005, and three live-to-airs! This was topped by a festive season full of Melbourne rock royalty - Christmas Eve with Mick Thomas and New Year's Eve with Dave Graney. January? More of the same. Eight shows including a residence, free Wednesday nights at the Old Bar. That's right, that's tonight. Or tomorrow at the Rob Roy, Friday at the Commercial.

Support the hardest-working band in Melbourne. They reward the effort.

Songs For The Late Lamented

2006-01-03T11:57:00.000+11:00

Actually, I don't think many are lamenting the passing of 05, especially in Oz. Nasty and incompetent conservative governments. Wild weather and disasters crunching all over the place. Lots of people, including some 'important', died. And what's with all these riots? But everyone's optimistic in January.

Here's an alphabetically-ordered top 31 tracks:

This Heart Is A Stone - Acid House Kings (from Sing Along With)
"They say your middle name is trouble/But I know it's Caroline."
Picture-perfect naive Swedish pop.

The Purple Bottle - Animal Collective (from Feels)

For Today I Am A Boy - Antony & The Johnsons (from I Am A Bird Now)

Maps - Arcade Fire (from BBC performance)

Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire (from Funeral)

Do The Whirlwind - Architecture In Helsinki (from In Case We Die)

Slow Graffiti - Belle and Sebastian (from Push Barman To Open Old Wounds)
"Listen Johnny/You're like a mother/To the girl you've fallen for/You're still falling."
I know it wasn't actually released this year. But it's super-melancholy and that's what they do best.

ibi dreams of pavement (a better day) - Broken Social Scene (from Broken Social Scene)
A shot of euphoria straight into the jugular. Looking forward to this live.

Amphibious - Children Collide (from we three, brave and true)

Skim/East Brunswick Run Down - City City City (from The Perimeter Motor Show)
They're wonderful musicians but sometimes the playing has outweighed the songs. This album is great though still a little patchy, but the transition from Skim to East Brunswick Run Down is right up there with the transition from Dirty Dream Number Two to The Boy With The Arab Strap.

The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)

Loverslain - The Darling Downs (from How Can I Forget This Heart Of Mine)

Politics - Dead Frenchmen (from When Ghosts Take Over)

O'Malley, Former Underdog - Deerhoof (from The Runners Four)
There's about twelve potential classics on this album, but the stratospheric vocals on O'Malley still do it for me. Only five and a half weeks till they get here!

Noam Chomsky Sprink Break 2002 - Department Of Eagles (from The Cold Nose)

Shyness Will Get You Nowhere - Die! Die! Die! (from Die! Die! Die!)
It's the energy, the wondrous noise, the simple riff. But mostly the sentiment.

Doris - Dirty Three (from Cinder)
The bagpipes.

Brave Like A Goose - Grand Salvo (from The Temporal Wheel)
A beautiful, touching folk album. The rest is consistently good but this track really sticks out as a classic.

Season Of Young Mouss - Handsomeboy Technique (from Adelie Land)
Dance, kids!

Big In Japan - The Inches (from Trust Me)
I just like the organ riff.

pi - Kate Bush (from Aerial)

Everywhere I See The Sea - Khancoban (from something forthcoming)
I fell in love with these guys. Get it from www.khancoban.net.

I've Got You And You've Got Me (Version Two) - New Buffalo (from New Buffalo)
I liked the original. But strip it back and the essence is so pure and painful.

Sing Me Spanish Techno - The New Pornographers (from Twin Cinema)

For Real - Okkervil River (from Black Sheep Boy)

Glosoli - Sigur Ros (from Takk)
My mum loves this track. But only until the distortion kicks in. It takes a special band to break apart something so beautiful.

Say Valley Maker - Smog (from A River Ain't Too Much To Love)

Oh These Walls! - Souls On Board (from Souls On Board)

Puddle Of A Nation - SubAudible Hum (from everything you heard is true)

Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (from Illinoise)

I'll Believe In Anything - Wolf Parade (from Apologies To The Queen Mary)

Um. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's been a pretty good year for music. Despite everything.

Double-Oh Six

2006-01-02T09:07:00.000+11:00

Happy 2006 all!

(Unless you're in that recalcitrant group still using the old-school Julian calendar. In which case, you've got almost two weeks to wait, till January 13th. Good luck with that.)

(Of course, there are others. The Chinese Year of the Dog doesn't start until January 29th, otherwise known as Big Day Out Day. It's also Tết in Vietnam. Jewish year 5766 has been happening since October 3rd last year. Islamic year 1427 has to wait until about the 31st of January. Thai New Year will be April 13th to 15th this year - as it is every year.)

Enough wikipedia wandering. Where was I? Munching on an assortment of leftovers from the WorldChanging fridge.

"(U)sing white rooftops - tiles, paint or other - had a substantial environmental benefit, potentially greater than would be gained using traditional solar panels" White Roofs, Revisited. It's cheaper and arguably better than solar panels for enviro-friendliness of houses. Think about that. (Not mentioned there, but I presume it also increases the Earth's albedo, though possibly not enough to counteract melting ice.)

On the subject of wasting energy, how about the multitudes of pretty electronic boxes, drawing power for hours when they're not used? (OK, admittedly the TV's always on, but that's a separate problem...) Have a look at smart power boards to stop this sorta profligacy - "pay for itself in as little as six weeks" is an admirable claim. Dunno how much they might cramp your lifestyle, though.

And BMW are working on recapturing some of the energy wasted through the exhaust pipe of a car, by the simple (!) expedient of tacking on a steam engine. It's only experimental, so there's no word yet on whether it'll go "too-ooooot" like Thomas. But, as Jamais says in the article, any unintended heat like that in exhaust gas or on brake pads is a complete waste - you burn petrol to create it then just dump it into the atmosphere. There's a long way to go on making systems properly efficient.

Lastly, the Algerian Space Program. Yeah, this sounds like a punchline but it's leapfrogging again. Small nations are able to get satellites in space for a tiny cost, relative to the benefits they'll give.

Linked through that article is Jamais' great argument on the utility of the space program, from a green perspective. "(A) focus on sustainability, a bias towards the accumulation of knowledge, and a preference for long-term thinking" are qualities shared by greens and a good space program. Going to space allows us to get invaluable information about planetary ecologies, like why did Earth get livable while Venus and Mars missed out? And how do changes in the Sun affect us? (No, it doesn't just sit there and shine.) And while it seems fairly unlikely that we'll find ET life anytime soon, that could give Earthlings some perspective, that we're in this together (don't bet on it, though). Maybe this is why I like the space program.

Department Of Eagles - The Cold Nose

2005-12-29T08:20:00.000+11:00

Department Of Eagles are scary good.

Here's the backstory. Two kids stuck in the same room at college, and instead of abusing each other for food misappropriation and inappropriate partying, they make a metric shedload of music together - from breaks to hip-hop to new rock to old rock. And someone publishes it. And what's more, it's really good.

The Cold Nose, for me, is the spiritual successor to Since I Left You, the magical LP from the dearly-departed Avalanches. Since I Left You was the classic summer party album, the one that you could leave on repeat for seven hours without anyone complaining. The Cold Nose (in the US, it's called The Whitey On The Moon UK LP for only slightly interesting historical reasons) gives the same feel, albeit touching only briefly on the beats and breaks ground The Avalanches tilled so successfully.

This album almost feels like that mix-tape you made years ago which still sits in the glove-box because you haven't been able to beat it since. Noam Chomsky Spring Break 2002 is classic beats; an infectious, tricky rhythm buried under piles of samples. Yeah, microchips and the 'net let anyone pirate a sequencer and do this stuff, but it takes skill to do it as well as this. Sailing By Night has a similarly catchy beat, but a contrastingly spare arrangement, with guitar and vocals over the top. When the strings kick in two-thirds of the way through, this one goes through the roof, and ends up in light drum'n'bass territory.

Romo-Goth is kinda very different. It sounds like nothing so much as a Franz Ferdinand/Strokes jam - though the coda harks back to the earlier mood, and the track never really rocks all the way out. Family Romance takes us in a similar direction, but goes all Beatle-esque in the guitar and bass parts. It's kinda Your Mother Would Know crossed with I Will - but these comparisons are futile, cause then it goes almost Polyphonic Spree in the breakdown.

And then another left turn. Forty Dollar Rug, starting with an ethereal Avalanches-style choral sample, then breaks into a nice clean hip-hop thing with fake British accents; nods maybe to The Streets but not quite. And then, as is becoming customary, in the breakdown it turns into something else entirely, eventually ending up almost skanking around the studio. The epitome of this coat-of-many-colours behaviour is The Curious Butterfly Realises He Is Beautiful - a big solid beat, more operatic samples, a bit of Wes Anderson and a great organ line.

So, in amongst this sea of references to genres and other bands, where exactly is the album? It's in there somewhere, amongst the well-worked beats, guitar, heavy samples and post-punk vocals, and influences proudly on the sleeve. The thread binding it all is the musical sensibility of these two; Butterfly Emerging and Iron Chrysalis. And, as the pseudonyms and some track titles suggest, there's a strong jokey sophomoric feel about the whole thing which is actually seriously appealing. But only cause the music gives it legs.

Epicure - Main Street

2005-12-21T22:02:00.000+11:00

I still love Epicure, but I'm not in love with them.

We've been growing apart for some time. We first met when Richard Kingsmill played Opportunity's Knocking on the Australian Music Show on JJJ - it must have been early 1998. The honeymoon period of our whirlwind romance was Fold, which I still look back on with astonishment. Quiet moments; the lush, perfectly produced ballad Calm; On Hold, a smooth instrumental; and the epic Last Dance. Not all quiet, though; Johnny Venus, with that huge funk breakdown; the deep, dirty crescendo on Bottom Of A Well; and the anthemic Sunsilk Girl. And the less friendly bits; Feet From Under Me's angry, yet still affectionate "let me know what you want from me/so I can be a friendly enemy"; Juan's rock-rap on Fly The Flag out of "why'd you go/why'd you go/why"; and of course Opportunity's Knocking: "where the fuck have you been".

Ah, the halycon days. Back when festivals were still fun and JJJ was still cool. An album which added up like few others.

As the relationship progressed, the past started to come into it. Airmail. Things were patchier - after every perfect Gentle Like A Tidal Wave or Airmail moment, there was a not-quite-meshing Momento Man or The System to bring us back to earth. But we still had that passion, that raw energy and excitement. Closure - "now I am as I've always been" - anger delivered with so much feeling.

The Elevator and Life Sentence EPs were a development phase for the relationship - untrustworthy, unpredictable, uncomfortable change. Elevator gave us The Angel's Wings, a solid harking back to the best rockers of Fold; while Listens To The Rain gave a taste of where we were going. I wasn't certain I liked it, we were slowing down, settling, becoming less idiosyncratic and more radio-friendly. And the live show (the sex?) was becoming less exciting and compelling - it was lights-off, missionary-position routine.

But despite this, the Life Sentence EP was un-hatable. Five tracks, all of the highest quality, from the beautiful organ line on the title ballad, through the ear-candy chorus of Armies Against Me. Then the highlight, Isolate - Juan showing just how far his vocals had come since the shouting, rapping, tyro who drove Fold. Buckley-esque is not a completely inappropriate adjective. Though it's not actually a word. But all of a sudden there was nothing fast, energetic, exciting about the relationship.

There were no surprises, then, when The Goodbye Girl was released. A beautiful, comfortable album, with so many spots of real, tender, poignant emotion. Bluesy, on So Broken and No-One's Listening, but predominantly shoe-gazer heart-on-sleeve stuff. Dime-a-dozen? No, that's truly unfair. But, at this point, there's something definitely missing from us. I'm waking up in the middle of the night, sweating, from dreams featuring others where once there was only Epicure. And they're so much more fulfilling. The seriously similar Art Of Fighting - less emotion, but more drive and energy. The exciting unpredictability of Architecture In Helsinki. The unique electronic structures of New Buffalo. The country-styled Wilco-esque noisy variations of Khancoban.

So, and finally, to Main Street.

All the ingredients are there, as in The Goodbye Girl - but there's little progression here, we're in a rut and I don't think there's any way out. The first four tracks are really good, especially Tightrope Walker, despite the kinda creepy "watching you sleep" thing. But somewhere in the final third of the disc (usually in Eve Clover), Juan's voice - consistently at the top of the mix - begins to grate. This is paradoxical for such a sweet, pure voice, but it's the unvarying, similar nature of the songs on the album that does it. More than ever before, this album turns consistency into a fault.

Few are as good musically as this combo, few have such well-crafted tunes and 'how many dudes you know sing like this?' - 'not many, if any'. Juan's voice (and I strongly suspect also his songwriting) remains Epicure's unassailable advantage over the challengers. But I think they might have slipped into musical groupthink. They want to succeed so much, but they all write the exact same songs, which on the face of it makes perfect sense, but in practice causes everything to converge unerringly to a point. Not by any means a bad point, but not what I loved them for.

Last chance? Yeah, I think so. I'm too young to settle down behind the picket fence, with the Commodore, the above-ground pool and, god forbid, the kids. I'd like to think we can still be friends. And maybe if we'd met five years later it'd all be different. Thank you Epicure, and fare well.

Proactive Insurance?

2005-12-14T16:21:00.000+11:00

(Wow, a whole month without a post. Impressive.)

Joel at WorldChanging writes about developments that could change insurance companies forever - and for better.

Big Euro reinsurance company Munich Re - who insure the insurers - found recently that "the world has suffered more than $200b in weather-related economic losses over the past year". In the US, investors representing $800b asked listed insurers about their exposure to climate change risks. Possibly this was because losses from weather events have increased 15 times in the past thirty years. The incentive for the insurers is obvious. Could they start pushing for action on global warming?

Prevention is obviously in the interests of insurance companies - it's a shedload more effective than putting the premiums through the roof to pay for it. And it's not just in this area. Car insurance? Well, sure, AAMI give me 5% off if I do the skilled driver course, and there's a bit of a saving for off-street parking. Home insurance? It's cheaper, as I understand, if you've actually got locks on your doors.

Health insurance is the one which strikes a chord with me. Surely it's in the interests of the insurer to see that you don't actually get sick, rather than having to pay out for your hospital bills. Insurers and allopathic medicine seem to go hand-in-hand, with the philosophy "you get sick, then we'll treat your symptoms and hopefully you'll get better". There's very little prevention, bar the routine over-prescription of blood-pressure- and cholesterol-lowering drugs. (And boy, do the drug companies love that.) Yes, there is some inclusion of 'extras' in policies, which allow spending on many alternatives (like dentistry...) to be claimed, but there's no real incentive to do so (or indeed to pay the extra premiums to get extras included).

I'd love my insurance company to talk to my GP and then propose that I see a homeopath once a month, at their expense, to combat those niggling headaches and neuralgia. Or if I see an acupuncturist, to do something about my low energy, they'll reduce my premium by 5%. Or a dietician, to get rid of that persistent heartburn. Or even a psychologist, to have a chat about how I deal with stress at work. Remember that Australian breakthrough - that Stress Makes You Sick (SMH)?

I wonder how the cost-benefit equation works. The government's got a stake in this as well, through PBS and health funding. If an insurer could make all their clients 10% more "well" (a tricky metric, I know), how much could they, and the country, save? Is anyone trying?

Kate Bush: Aerial

2005-11-14T14:36:00.000+11:00

Make no mistake, this is a beautiful album. But is it a great album? For me, at the moment, it just misses that mark.

King Of The Mountain is the single and opens Side A, and gives a good taste of what to expect from the rest of the recording. Production is flawless, absolutely clean and smooth and leaving room even on the busiest tracks. This space is required, of course, for Kate's voice; it's as pure as ever, but more languorous and relaxed than before. She's always at the top of the mix, except on the great closing track Aerial - being set back here seems to give more freedom to her vocals, the highlight in the peculiar yet charming section where she sings a duet with a bird.

There's plenty of variation in the tracks. Bertie, while sickly-sweet on first taste - "Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely Bertie" - eventually resolves into a baroque romp with harpsichord and a great cello line complementing the vocals. How To Be Invisible is practically country, tasting like a much less-angry Neko Case. Sunset swings jazzily with cool upright bass; the pulsating bridge (in 6?) makes the track. Somewhere in Between has new-school R&B overtones and shows off the incredible restraint in Kate's vocals this time around. Nocturn is seriously soft-rock - again, a decent bass line helps the track to the climax.

There are sundry unexpected bits. Prelude, opening side B, is Kate playing accompaniment to bird-song samples - before being joined by someone I can only assume is Bertie (without the CD cover in front of me). This works, surprisingly. Less successful is An Architect's Dream, leading into The Painter's Link, a pair of "concept" tracks about a street painter whose work is washed away by rain. The music is fine, but the half-spoken, half-sung stream-of-consciousness "painter" interludes are simultaneously too obvious and too metaphorical.

Then there's Pi, my favourite track. I was initially turned off by Kate's beautiful, full-range recitation of the digits of pi, but before long my inner geek embraced the track. Another in 6, it has a brilliant wandering bass line and shuffling groove under organ, guitar and a transcendental Kate.

Overall? Really good, but not great. Much as I like Pi, the album lacks true highlights. It never reaches the spectacular stratosphere of Wuthering Heights or Sat In Your Lap's euphoric abandon. There's nothing which gives me goosebumps like the urgency of Hounds Of Love. Why? Well, as with many artists, I reckon she's got too happy and her art is suffering.

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

2005-11-12T16:53:00.000+11:00

American Gods was great, a harsh, unforgiving tale of the clash of gods in a dirty world. Anansi Boys is nominally a sequel, but couldn't be more different. All that stays the same is Gaiman's gorgeous writing style and his Gods-as-special-humans framework.

Anansi Boys is a "funny" book in the same way that Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are "funny". The description, often aimed to belittle, misses the point completely. The humour and conversational tone are a spoonful of sugar; the incisive points about human nature and modern society are the medicine, which slips straight down.

Anansi Boys is the story of Fat Charlie. His dad, apparently a god, dies, and an unexpected brother enters his life. Spider inherited the godly portion of his father while Fat Charlie apparently inherited the flawed, mundane bits. Spider wanders in and starts effectively living Charlie's life for him, only much, much more successfully. This resonates with me. It's about all those situations where, if only you were someone else, you could've done so much better; could've kissed her, could've taken charge of the meeting, could've scared the mugger away, could've approached them with the plan. But being me seemed to rule 'em all out.

And the comparison with Pratchett was anything but accidental. This book of Gaiman's is remarkably similar to the best of Pratchett. Indeed, a couple of bits seem almost lifted from the Discworld - compare the voodoo ladies with the Ramtops witches; or Maeve Livingstone with King Verence in Wyrd Sisters; or Grahame Coats with any Discworld villain. Not to mention his use of unrelated witty footnotes, which given another six or eight books could become almost as prevalent as Pratchett. This is all said without rancour - I love Pratchett, and I loved this book, but the feel remains solidly, wonderfully Gaiman's own. The mythic passages, especially, are so light yet well-drawn, otherworldly without becoming dense description, and seamlessly blended with the text.

A truly excellent read.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

2005-11-11T11:57:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was an activist in Nigeria from an ethnic minority known as the Ogoni, whose traditional homelands are in the Niger Delta; an area rich in oil and long exploited for this fact. Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against the environmental and social damage caused by this, especially the activities of those perennial villains, the multinational oil companies.

Saro-Wiwa seems to have been one in a million; successful in everything he tried, as an author, businessman, TV producer and even in bureaucracy and politics. His biggest task, however, was to lead the aforementioned campaign at the head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), attacking the Nigerian Government and the multinational oil companies. The oil companies pulled out. The Government arrested and executed him.

Corruption, exploitation, degradation, racism, heroism - this story has many timeless aspects. Read more on Chippla's Weblog and on Black Looks.

Fairy Tale Power?

2005-11-09T11:58:00.000+11:00

A too-good-to-be-true story from Alok Jha in the Guardian:

Randell Mills, a Harvard University medic who also studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims to have built a prototype power source that generates up to 1,000 times more heat than conventional fuel.

Wow! And zero emissions.

The problem is that according to the rules of quantum mechanics, the physics that governs the behaviour of atoms, the idea is theoretically impossible.

This is hydrino energy.

In a recent economic forecast, Prof Maas calculated that hydrino energy would cost around 1.2 cents (0.7p) per kilowatt hour. This compares to an average of 5 cents per kWh for coal and 6 cents for nuclear energy.

When I hear "1,000 times more heat" and "1.2 cents per kilowatt hour", I'm excited - but unfortunately also pretty sceptical, especially with "theoretically impossible". It brings to mind unreproducible cold fusion claims and unexploitable zero point energy theories. This is certainly the tone taken by the Guardian article.

The scepticism thickens when it's revealed that Mills first made these claims in 1991. In 1999 he started BlackLight Power, picking up a lazy $25m from investors - and planned to get a hydrino "plasma"-powered car on the road in California within months. I can't find any further evidence of the car, but hey, at least the company still exists, which is more than can be said for most late 90s companies.

It's probably not really surprising that this has taken so long, though, if only for commercial reasons. The majority of the physics world seem to think this guy's nuts, so it's probably hard for him to get over due diligence hurdles and actually get development cash. In the early 90s, the cold fusion backlash was well in place, so it's not surprising this similar idea was ignored. But in the late 90s there was money everywhere, so that was a good time to go commercial. And now, with oil prices high, alternative energy is all the rage - so it's back on the agenda.

So is it a mirage? Well, after fourteen years, the idea seems to be kicking on despite efforts to tear it down. The hydrino itself is a new form of hydrogen, with slightly less energy; so creating it from normal hydrogen releases huge quantities of energy. The problem is that it pretty much destroys all established quantum theory (not to mention strings and other unified theories), apparently favouring a deterministic model of the atom instead of the probabilistic. But it explains some things that quantum theory can't, especially to do with dark matter, the 90% of the universe we can barely imagine. And also some anomalies of the Big Bang Theory.

As is traditional in these cases, Dr Randell Mills is not a physics PhD - he's actually an MD, with training in biotechnology and electrical engineering. Also worrying is that many articles talk about his charisma. The Village Voice said his "cadences are more often like those of a motivational speaker". But there seems no doubt that he's smart - he got his MD from Harvard and the rest of his undergrad from MIT.

The collective wisdom of the Internet is that he's nuts. And this still seems the easiest thing to believe; after all, if the technology worked then the commercial applications are far too compelling for it to sit on a shelf. The opposing view is that it's damn hard to challenge the established order, and that the development of completely new technology is long and fraught with difficulties.

But it's such a seductive idea.

A Day Of Kate

2005-11-05T10:39:00.000+11:00

I currently have in my hot little hands a copy of the new new new Kate Bush album, Aerial. (And in my hot little ears - I'm up to track 3.) This is exciting. That is all.

(And incidentally, there'll be a new Belle & Sebastian album - The Life Pursuit - next February. Which is also exciting.)

Copyright vs Genocide

2005-11-02T15:20:00.000+11:00

At ...My heart's in Accra, the tireless Ethan posts on the contrast between a protest on DRM and a protest by refugees from Darfur.

Do people care more about DRM than Darfur? Definitely, is my immediate, cynical response. People as self-interested agents means you obviously care more about the songs on your iPod than the dead bodies on the other side of the world. There is, however, probably more to it than that. Maybe it seems like DRM can be fixed, with a moderate amount of action, whereas the problems of Africa seem intractable. Maybe there's no easy target; blame the record companies for being tight, but whose fault is poverty and corruption in Africa?

But I reckon it's more to do with comparative visibility, which then comes back to the role of the media. Darfur appeared in the public consciousness for a week, maybe two, and then dissolved into the background noise. It gets a passing mention once in a while, but I don't think most people realise there are still problems. Why is it no longer mentioned? The media is notoriously fickle, but that's not surprising, because so much else has happened in the 30-odd months since the conflict began. Not just Makybe Diva, either.

Ethan thinks this is where the blogosphere should come in, but that it's ineffective because the blogosphere focuses on technology. There's no doubt that most people with blogs are geeks, but probably also that most people who read blogs are geeks. My Mum, for instance, wouldn't know what a blog is, let alone where to find one. Maybe 5% of people in the developed world regularly read blogs (if that), so how useful can they be?

Anyway, read his post and think about it.

Wolf Parade: Apologies To The Queen Mary

2005-10-27T17:36:00.000+10:00

Wow, hype-a-tastic. They're from Canada. They keep playing shows with the Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse. They've been talked up on Pitchfork, on Cokemachine Glow, on Tiny Mix Tapes. They started with two EPs which kept selling out. Isaac Brock, from Modest Mouse, produced this album.

But most of these things are probably related (hey, play enough shows with The Arcade Fire and the world will beat a path to your door). At some point, you gotta actually listen to the music before deciding if you like them or not - a revolutionary idea, I know. So their first full length album had to deliver. And I reckon it does.

So it's a platter full of indie art-rock, with all the obvious comparisons, including and especially the afore-mentioned. The playing and production is by and large faultless, if not obviously virtuosic. Drums, guitar, keys and 'manipulation', with two boys singing close harmonies. But these guys are doing something really right, because it builds on solid foundations to give us a consistently great, and at times brilliant, album.

My highlights of the album have to be in Grounds For Divorce - "Look like a newlywed" into the chorus - and I'll Believe In Anything - "I'll take you where/Nobody knows you and nobody gives a damn". But almost every other track does it for me as well, except maybe the seven-and-a-half slow, guitar-jangle tinged minutes of Dinner Bells. But it does provide a welcome comedown after the frenetic pace, melodies and hooks of the rest of the album. And finally there's the Beatles-esque refrain of the last track - "It's getting better all the time" - which leaves us on a truly optimistic note.

And the drumming deserves a mention. It's so straight ahead, so thumping, reliably filling the bottom end in the absence of a bass, keeping the pace perfectly and not going overboard on the cymbals. Most notably, the almost complete lack of elaborate fills is such a refreshing a virtue; no drummer's ever resisted the temptation to hit everything in front of him, in those two beats he gets all to himself.

Yeah, this one'll last a while.

Lie Veight?

2005-10-27T15:37:00.000+10:00

Thanks to a post on the wonderful Black Looks, The Independent has taken a look back at the Live8 concerts and Make Poverty History rallies. Warning: Parental Guidance Recommended. This gruesome story's really not for kiddies, there's too many baddies and no happy ending.

The backstory is that three months ago G8 leaders were meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland, triggering a 200,000 head rally for global justice. Simultaneously, Bob Geldof organised the Live8 concerts to promote debt relief and raise money. The summit ended with smiles all round, especially from Geldof and Bono, who praised the leaders as having taken serious action. While it sounded unlikely, I have no trouble believing that Geldof and Bono are serious in their hopes for poverty relief, so if they were happy then surely we should all be.

Tragically, it was all bullshit. Make Poverty History (MPH), the broad-based UK coalition and lobby group largely behind the rally, responded at the time: "Today the G8 have chosen not to do all that campaigners insist is necessary to free people trapped in the prison of poverty." (Just because campaigners say it's necessary, it doesn't follow that it is, but I'll let that lie for now.) Kumi Naidoo from the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) said "...the promise to deliver by 2010 is like waiting five years before responding to the tsunami".

The Independent article talks about the standard dodgy political tricks in the G8 announcement: "New aid money!" which was really already pledged or budgeted; broken promises on dropping trade barriers; from the US, promises of aid - but only if they got something in return; "100 per cent debt cancellation!" which was more like 5%; and debt relief which simply replaces aid dollars, and is conditional on subjecting to the IMF and World Bank's agenda.

The article's pretty left-wing partisan, and so it's hard to get a good flavour of the exact situation, but it seems unarguable that all was nowhere near as rosy as Geldof and Bono painted it at the time. My hope is that they continue to have their sights fixed on the bigger picture, and in pandering to the leaders of rich nations they at least keep a seat at the table, in order to get some sort of action eventually. Some real action.

Pedant's Corner

2005-10-27T08:39:00.000+10:00

(I know at least two people will appreciate this.)

Peter Beattie, on the 7:30 Report last night:

"...asking them to get their Solicitor-Generals to have a further phone hook-up."
"The Solicitor-Generals from around Australia need to meet with the Federal counterpart..."
"...but I'm not absolutely sure until all of the Solicitor-Generals sit down...

Unless there's been some sort of royal decree, the plural of Solicitor-General is Solicitors-General.

Petrol - Dead Like The Dodo?

2005-10-26T13:09:00.000+10:00

Thanks to KurzweilAI.net, an hydrogen-car related tech breakthrough [IsraCast] which just might foreshadow a plausible pathway to a no-petrol future.

Hydrogen fuel cells still look fairly unusable for a few reasons. Infrastructure: how do we get the hydrogen in enough places so you can actually fill your tank? Storage: this can go boom quite easily, so how do we store it? Production: yeah, there's hydrogen everywhere, but how much power are we willing to spend to get it into a usable form? (As I was reminded last night, hydrogen is an energy store, not an energy source.) Cost: are we willing to pay through the nose for a fuel cell car?

Engineuity would like us to think they have some answers, especially to the problems of storage and infrastructure. The basic premise is that hydrogen is produced on board the vehicle. Bingo, the problem of storing large amounts of hydrogen is avoided! This production is done, as I understand, using pure metals such as magnesium or aluminium, and heated water. The waste from this process is metal oxide which can be collected and recycled.

To this point, it sounds magnificent. And the engine barely needs to be modified - it's only the fuel system that changes, as the car is really powered by steam (and hydrogen). What I don't understand, though, is how this reservoir of water is heated, in order to react with the metal, or more specifically where the power comes from to do this. In fact, the way they describe the process (water "heated to very high temperatures"), it's hard to see how this differs from a steam engine! Yes, it will be zero emissions, but aren't water problems likely to be a significant restriction on future society? And doesn't this rely heavily on water infrastructure? And it will also require some form of 'metal infrastructure' in order to allow the car to be refuelled (required about as often as current cars).

The idea sounds wonderful, but I don't quite see what they're getting at. In fact, the more I consider it, the more this has the taste of pure PR, especially in the phrase "seeking investors that will allow it to develop a full scale prototype". I'd like to believe, but I think more proof is required.

EDIT:
The Engineer-Poet has posted on this [@ The Ergosphere] with much more scientific rigour than I ever could.

Let There Be (More) Light

2005-10-25T12:17:00.000+10:00

I like a true-blue Aussie science breakthrough, and this one's a good one (thanks, Lu!). It's all about speeding up fibre optics:

Scratches in glass break electronic traffic jam

One of the big limits on transmitting any signal over distance is the gradual 'fade' of the signal, or attenuation. To solve this, amplifiers or repeaters are used to grab the signal, clean it up, and rebroadcast it at full strength. There's no limit on how far a signal can travel if there are sufficient repeaters.

But for optical signals through fibre, this is a problem, because the cleaning up and rebroadcasting is always done with electronics. The light signals move so fast that this periodic amplifying of them is a serious bottleneck. Yeah, computers will get faster, but there's a limit to how fast you can do the processing, and it's still a lot slower than the speed of light. And that's where this breakthrough comes in.

A team at the Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) in Sydney have developed a piece of glass with a scratch in it. A "carefully engineered scratch", though, which makes it an optical signal regenerator. This puts them a step closer to 'all-optical' information transmission. They're talking about the difference between 40 Gb/s and 160 Gb/s, which sounds pretty impressive.

And the next step? An optical 'transistor', or switch, which would be the basis for all-optical (photonic, baby!) computers. And then we're talking serious speed. Imagine how many CPU cycles per second Windows can waste then!

Lyrics That Grab Ya

2005-10-25T11:28:00.000+10:00

"Then you said, have you been crying?
There was no denying,
Cause I had started up once more,
This time much stronger than before.

I dunno where it all came from,
I think I dreamed about my home."

In My Bones - Grand Salvo (from The Temporal Wheel)

It's the Land of the Free (Mostly)

2005-10-25T09:55:00.000+10:00

Just quickly, from The Tattered Coat via Kung Fu Monkey, here's the really disturbing story of a US soldier in Iraq who's been seriously silenced by the bureaucracy. It's easy to blame the military, but the ultimate conclusion has to be that War Is Evil; there are just so many victims on all sides of this thing.

Deerhoof: The Runners Four

2005-10-20T19:09:00.000+10:00

I know nothing about Deerhoof and only bought this album because I heard someone play a track on RRR, where it's currently (until like tomorrow morning) Album of the Week.

You've gotta get through the first impression. Of an ADHD-affected conglomeration with twee, sharp-sounding two-minute tracks and no depth. These guys regularly remind me of Architecture in Helsinki, except that Deerhoof stop for a breath every two minutes, whereas AiH are more inclined to burst through the key and style changes without stopping the madness.

And in fact, now that I consider it, there's not a lot of style or structure variations on The Runners Four. Possibly The New Pornographers are a better simile - it's predominantly straight-ahead indie-guitar power-pop, played very competently and with some catchy hooks. And those indie trademark top-register vocals. All nice production, keeping the drums back and letting the vocals soar over the jangling guitars.

But the key is the surfeit of well-executed ideas. The poppiest track is O'Malley, Former Underdog, a quick 1:45 of head-shaking and foot-stomping. Then there's the guitar crunch - it's almost a dirty rocker - of Scream Team. Siriustar is slower paced and sparse, until the big drumroll propelled chorus. Wrong Time Capsule has one of George Harrison's guitar parts surrounding an inimitable Deerhoof vocal. But Satomi's piercing vocals are shown off best on Spy On You, an unconventional ballad. And to end the album, a touch of old-fashioned rock with Rrrrrrrright.

The Corruption Race

2005-10-20T09:55:00.000+10:00

Why is Nigeria celebrating after being named the 6th most perceived corrupt country in the world? Chippla's great blog gives a flabbergasting and scary perspective on the way much of the world works.

This is according to the Corruption Perception Index. In Australia, we're consistent top ten performers in the least corrupt country stakes, along with the usual suspects; my first surprise was Chile at 21, equal with Japan. But have a look at this map for an idea of just how widespread this problem is. The map is dark with small expanses of light, in Western Europe, North America and Oceania. In dark colours are 8 of the 10 most populous countries - China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria - with 52% of the world's population.

It's yet another ridiculously widespread problem which we just don't see in our lucky country.

Bite-Size Meaty Chunks of Global Warming

2005-10-19T15:59:00.000+10:00

David Roberts on Gristmill extracts a great paragraph from a post by Stuart Saniford on The Oil Drum about global warming. Have a look at it - 21 links to 17 different sources makes this a great potted summary of the state-of-the-art in global warming science. (I don't got the background to know if anything's missing, but it looks good to me, anyway.)

Slices of Worldchanging

2005-10-18T16:03:00.000+10:00

Couple of dollops from Worldchanging have piqued my interest. (Slow day at work? You better believe it. It's so nice outside and so air-conditioned in here.)

First, more leapfrogging biz. Developing countries are leapfrogging over legacy fixed phonelines right now. Us rich countries are slowly disconnecting landlines but "(c)ell phone subscriptions jumped 67 percent south of the Sahara in 2004, compared with 10 percent in cell phone-saturated Western Europe". The real advantage of this is "not just the leap over landlines to handsets", but also "the leap over paper mail" and the implied requirements of literacy and a fixed address. It's a big market for smart companies.

The other bit is about agriculture in Africa. Traditional farming methods, refined for centuries, have developed the ability to deal with the natural cycles in the region - whether droughts, insect invasions or storms. But "(h)ow will traditional practices fare in an era of climate change"? There's work going on to make these traditional farming methods more sustainable, focusing on reducing erosion and saving water. But there is resistance from local farmers who trust their ancient expertise.

My impression is that food shortages are Africa's major problem. If this is caused by worsening climate change which the practices can't handle, then the practices need to change. It's also likely that the geology of Africa means that traditional agriculture can't support huge populations - after all, when we say (as in Guns, Germs and Steel) that population densities have always been lower in Africa than Europe, surely that actually means that traditionally a lot of people starved to death before they could reproduce?

It seems likely that if Africa's farmers could instantly begin using industrial agriculture, as rich countries do, many of their food problems would be solved. (Assuming water is sufficient, of course.) It also seems likely that the environment would seriously suffer.

Cause agriculture is a vexed environmental topic. Modern industrial agriculture - fertiliser, pesticides and GM crops - allows much higher food-per-land yields than even 50 years ago. While no-one wants more land (and rainforests, and pristine grassland, and national parks) to be swallowed by agriculture, it's unarguable that industrial agriculture comes packaged with serious environmental problems - loss of biodiversity, fish stock depletion, uncontrolled chemical runoff and aquifer depletion. The right balance between high-tech farming and inefficient farming is kinda unclear. Kinda very unclear.

So what does that mean for Africa? Maybe another potential leapfrogging opportunity? As Jamais says in the article, it seems like incremental changes, tailored to the region, will be easier for farmers to accept. Hopefully that means the correct choices will merge with traditional practices, to avoid the obvious missteps of industrial agriculture and yet keep the millennia of hard-won knowledge.

Joanna Newsom & Smog: Prince Bandroom & Athenaeum

2005-10-17T15:36:00.000+10:00

It's been put to me that going to the same concert two nights in a row is kinda disturbing. But they were different venues! Anyway, a real hardcore fan would have gone up to Castlemaine the next night as well. And a real fan would probably've got tickets that weren't right in the back corner of the Athenaeum. But anyway.

Quite different venues, quite similar shows, an interesting contrast. The Prince Bandroom is a beautiful space, but with seats taking up the entire pit, it was a bit crushy and obscured for the kids up the back in standing room. Isn't there some sort of etiquette that says that beanpoles have to stand up the back so us shortarses can actually see?

Smog, first. Big Bill Callaghan. He's not especially prepossessing, but, as Symposiast Elanor sayeth, it's all about the charisma. He's got that sort of tall brooding funny dancing Nick Cave thing going on and it just works on stage - not surprising, I guess, as he's lasted 15 years in the game. Dry, dry, dry humour. And legs.

The legs are the real star of the show. Bill strings his guitar high, and of course his arms and torso are constantly occupied with playing it. Below, his legs, looking about five feet long, and with a high degree of autonomy; they have to support him but aside from that are allowed the latitude to go nuts. At the Prince, he was perched on an awkward stool for a few songs, and the legs propped him up, at times spread wide, clenched together, jigging or tapping. Then, when standing, there were the full repertoire of dance moves - side kicks, Elvis' trembling knees, two-steps. And all at the most incongruous times, divorced from either rhythm or melody.

And the music was very good, as well.

So, then, Joanna. Night one, at the Prince, I wasn't convinced. The harp seemed out-of-place, the vocals twee and she seemed uninterested, just playing the tracks and finishing up. In short, it was everything other people had told me I should think about Joanna Newsom. But I think this might have been more about my external circumstances.

Because the second night it was magic. Maybe the venue was more suited? It was better with the a cappella track starting the show, as it was very solid - her voice may have unconventional tone but she has good pitch and range. There were the epics, and the album tracks. The highlight of the evening was definitely halfway through Sadie, where she forgot the words and actually had a chat to the audience, something that had been mostly missing from the previous night. Maybe the music should speak for itself, but it's strange to listen to someone who barely acknowledges that you're there, for mine.

It's interesting that at a Joanna Newsom gig you probably hear - or notice - more dud notes than at any other. Despite the fact that she's obviously a harp virtuoso. But it's equally true that you probably hear more notes, in total, than at any other gig. Maybe sixteen tones a second, on average? A massive, multi-layered sound comes from the instrument. Combining this with the similarly multi-layered, non-linear, esoteric lyrics that Joanna writes, it's not surprising that a few bits go missing occasionally. It must be a pretty gruelling mental workout.

The bigger question, of course, is will their relationship last and when the baby's gonna be born... Oh, no, that's right, that's Tom and Katie. Simple mistake to make, though.

Broken Social Scene: Broken Social Scene

2005-10-14T12:47:00.000+10:00

After hearing ibi dreams of pavement thanks to Said the Gramophone, and reading the Pitchfork review (I'll save you the click, it was 8.4), I got this album. Was I chasing cred? Probably. But, in my defence, ibi dreams of pavement is a truly great track.

So what about the album? It's not an all-time classic. It's got great tracks and good tracks and mediocre tracks. It starts with the gentle, atmospheric our faces split the coast in half, which is all muted brass and undecipherable vocals propelled by a shedload of percussion. Then the afore-mentioned big rock anthem ibi, fading from its huge brass riff into 7/4 (shoreline). Yes, it is in 7/4; duelling acoustic guitars and an urging drum line sit under the generic indie vocals, but a good riff catches this track before it falls.

Following is finish your collapse and stay for breakfast, a nothing track but not actively unpleasant. major label debut is the other great track on the album, an insubstantial yet filling dose of well-structured indie pop. (The rockier version on the accompanying EP works even better, mainly thanks to the constant drum fills.)

And it's about here that the album loses its way. fire-eyed boy starts with a promising groove then degenerates into a bit of a mess, breathy half-heard vocals the main killer for me - it reminds me of what I don't like about The Dandy Warhols. Similarly, windsurfing nation has a promising beat and hangs onto that drive, hitting a hand-clappy chorus, but again lacks in the vocal stakes, getting all post-rock and style-over-substance, with seven different uninspiring vocal lines running at once. At this point I'm really missing some nice power pop dealing half-ironically with love. On swimmers, the vocals seem particularly trite (though probably only because you can hear them) and the by-numbers music fails to arouse. Then hotel and handjobs for the holidays round out the particularly uninspiring, monotonal middle third of the disc.

Then it picks up a bit, with superconnected, a solid rocker, and bandwitch, a cleaner pop track with a good background vocal line. temoloa debut is another nothing track, but the nigh-on ten minute closer it's all gonna break, is more conventional than much of the album. And it works well. Say what you like about verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus (almost) but it gives ample room for these guys to display their talents. Because they are seriously talented, a fact hidden by the navel-gazing that wanders through the middle of the CD.

So yeah, it failed to quite hit the spot for me. Too pedestrian for too long, which is really brought home by the golden moments when everything comes together and it's a triumph.

Khancoban @ Bar Open

2005-10-13T12:47:00.000+10:00

Khancoban played a low-key gig at Bar Open last night. I'm not usually a set list type person but I thought I'd give it a go on my phone. Andre's quite accommodating with track names but he didn't say what the new track was called. Here 'tis:

Such A Big Sky
I Wish I Was On A Plane Somewhere
New Song?
Underneath Cold Stars
I'm Gonna Steal That Car From You
Everywhere I See The Sea
These Lines Can Be Traced
Take Me Where I Might Want To Go
Smoke And The Light
I Woke Up And I Was Here

Bar Open's a funny band venue. It used to be cramped but atmospheric, but then it became a bit too comfortable. The proliferation of couches and funny viewing angles doesn't tend to make for real excited audiences. And a long setup for the sound guy didn't help matters.

But belying this, Such A Big Sky opened the set with a bang. It's rapidly becoming my favourite live Khancoban track, though the demo recording doesn't do it full justice. It builds majestically from a simple guitar riff and distant drum line, adding golden piano to the top of the track; and then the drums kick in, the guitar starts to wail and it's moving slowly yet inexorably towards a crescendo; before disappearing back into the initial guitar riff. Last night it was topped off with some experimental big distorted guitar

The rest of the gig never quite lived up to the promise of the initial track, though. The new track sounded good though finished abruptly - needs another verse and maybe a bridge, I think. Underneath Cold Stars, another slow builder, was good. And These Lines Can Be Traced is another great track, Andre sounding very Glenn Richards which can't be a bad thing. But Everywhere I See The Sea was unusually subdued - is it getting boring? - as was Smoke And The Light. And none of the other tracks have really grabbed me yet as good live.

Shame I'll miss tonight's Empress gig, but unfortunately Joanna Newsom calls.

Innovationing

2005-10-11T12:11:00.000+10:00

I liked this entry from the slightly magnificent Inhabitat yesterday. It's about biodegrabale junk food packaging, specifically, trays made from 'bioplastics' - plastics made from biological not petrochemical products. Their environmental advantage is that they dissolve with just the addition of plain water. Their theoretical disadvantage, of course, is that they dissolve after contact with moisture. So don't try to carry four full beers back to your seat on one, cause you'll be wearing them. But in practice this might not be so much of a problem; I imagine they take a little dissolving and won't fall apart after just a few drops of soft drink.

And the company, Plantic Technologies, is Australian, and indeed based in Laverton North. Most interesting is the fact that the genesis of the company was the Cooperative Research Centre for International Food Manufacture & Packaging Science, part of the low-profile CRC program. The CRC thing interests me; I know they exist, but what sort of success rate do they have? If this one's any indication, it's easy. This PDF (page 19) says the CRC was established in 1995 and got $44.2m over seven years, $17m direct from the government, at which time it metamorphosed into an innovative multinational company (offices in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK), filling a niche in the market.

(Incidentally, this is with help from TiNSHED Capital, an 'angel' investment firm which also interests me. But that's another thing.)

So this has inspired me to have a look at CRCs in a bit more detail. Are they just venture capital with similarly low success rates? Just basic research with similarly poor commercialization rates? Or something better than both? And how much cash goes into them?

Lyrics That Grab Ya

2005-10-10T12:42:00.000+10:00

"They'll never cure this thing,
With medicine and magazines."

Low - Things We Lost In The Fire - Medicine Magazines

Zorba The Greek: Nikos Kazantzakis

2005-10-08T13:09:00.000+10:00

See, I never realised this was an actual work of literature. My 'Zorba The Greek' was, I think, the song as used in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (great movie), and also maybe the grapevine step dance which we learned to it at school. Turns out that the song is actually from the movie starring Anthony Quinn, which won three Oscars though none of the big ones. And that the movie was based on the book.

The book is about the dynamic between two characters, the Narrator, a book-bound Greek intellectual, and Zorba, a Cretan who becomes his friend. The Narrator hires Zorba to run his coal mine on the beautifully evoked Mediterranean island of Crete, but before long the relationship is turned on its head by Zorba's gregarious nature, endless tales and vast appetites. The Narrator, in the process of writing his masterwork, has been asking all the hard questions of life, but is smitten with Zorba's attitude, which seems to answer every question without even realising.

Zorba is, as described elsewhere, Dionysian. He doesn't bother to restrain his appetites for the good things in life, especially women, who play a passive role throughout the book. He lives on instinct and bypasses all forms of rationality. He's utterly unbearable for his gluttony, and yet at the same time his lifestyle is so attractive in the age of reason. He asks me - why bother going to work? Take the day off, start drinking at 10, end up with a beautiful woman in your bed.

The Narrator is his polar opposite, the epitome of the intellectual who can tell you the logic behind everything but nothing about how it feels. He is drawn inexorably to Zorba's irrepressible spirit, and while Zorba calls him 'boss', it seems that the Narrator develops a kind of vicarious relationship with the man, doing his best writing work when inspired by a particularly sordid or scandalous tale.

The book has a nice feel, paced well, clearly written without too much artifice, though it would of course be better in the original Greek. The obvious lesson is not to waste time philosophising about life when you could be living; but this doesn't stick for the Narrator, and hasn't for me, though I'm trying to be a little more Zorba.

Myriad Mutterings

2005-10-06T16:13:00.000+10:00

So much time spent wandering the internet, so much time overlooking that which is under my nose. Thanks to marypage1, who pointed out in comments the new City Of Melbourne Council House (CH2). This is currently in development just across Little Collins St from the Town Hall, an imposing old edifice where I used to work. The CH2 is six Green Star certified; the only building to hit the top on that scale developed by the Green Building Council of Australia to measure the environmental friendliness of office buildings.

This sounds pretty impressive. They reckon it'll use 13 percent of the energy, and have 20 percent of the emissions of the existing Council House. (Part of this is just swapping CRT sceens to LCDs.) Solar hot water and photovoltaics on the roof, and a gas co-generation plant for power and heating. A water mining plant to recycle black water into non-drinking water. 80 bike spaces compared to just 20 car spaces, 9 showers for cyclists. And they're budgeting for a 4.9% increase in staff productivity, saving $1.12m a year! Which sounds like a fairy tale, honestly, but who knows?

Looking at the GBCA factsheet, the base building cost $29.9m and the nice bits an extra $11.3m - a 38% increase in the cost of the building. They're estimating payback in about 10 years, thanks to utility savings and staff productivity increases. It's due to be complete by the end of the year.

.

Cool Holiday Destinations. Yeah, it's a globalised world, but there's still plenty of places for the dedicated contrarian to go on holidays. The single qualification criteria for a certified CHD is that you've never heard of anyone else going there. Most of sub-Saharan Africa qualifies, except South Africa and some of the safari countries. Most of South America's out, every man and his dog is down there - oh, OK, you can have Suriname and Guyana, and some of the islands. Not heaps in Europe, except smaller places like Iceland and Liechtenstein. Though lots of Eastern Europe is still on the list - Bulgaria, Albania - and most of the former Russian republics - Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Estonia. Axis of Evil countries score extra points, of course, and if they're still communist that's a good sign. There's a few in SE Asia - Laos and Burma especially, but also Bhutan.

This is all a long-winded lead up to Ethan Zuckermann's interesting article about Bhutan. I couldn't even have pinpointed Bhutan on a map. It's a strangely isolated corner of the modern world which appears physically most similar to Tibet or Nepal, but politically seems most similar to Burma. Especially interesting is the development philosophy "centred around the maximization of 'gross national happiness'". This means very, very slow and controlled development - according to the national website, only 9000 tourists entered the country in 2004, and "the numbers in coming years are not expected to increase greatly". So you can count on it remaining a CHD, and a fascinating (if slightly regimented) place to visit.

Diluted Dwellings

2005-10-05T16:29:00.000+10:00

Sarah at Inhabitat is doing a great series at the moment on houses built on water. And these are a lot more than your standard shoddy houseboat. Have a look at these from Germany, these from the Netherlands and these from Sweden.

As Sarah says, these could become much more important as seas rise. A fair proportion of the world's population lives on or near the coast - this report calculates that it's 'only' about 21%, or 1.1 billion people within 30km. If sea levels were to displace just one-tenth of those, it would be an enormous disruption and demographic shift, as this is often prime real estate. I reckon putting up a few of these babies could keep it that way.

Can We Set Our Sights A Little Lower?

2005-10-05T12:05:00.000+10:00

Power generation is a sticky little problem. Of course consumers won't willingly curtail their lifestyle just for the sake of the future; fuck it, the future will take care of itself. So power needs aren't going to drop. And paying more for it because it comes from a wind-farm at Portland - what's the incentive? Do the volts coming out of the powerpoint actually look green?

Well, maybe we can rely on the power companies to look after the future of the ecosystem in which they operate and to work on switching the majority of their generation capacity to renewables, because that way... Hang on, would it hurt the next P&L statement? There's the door; don't let it hit you in the arse on the way out.

I guess it's up to government to do what everyone knows is the right thing (except a few economists, and scientists, and journalists, and rival politicians). A top-down approach. A Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. Everyone will gradually pay a little more for their power but the race might live a few more generations. And maybe there'll be an incentive to use a little less? Well, that's probably a fairy tale.

But governments the world over are doing this sort of thing. The EU just reviewed their renewable energy target; by 2020, they'll have 20% of power coming from renewables. Not bad, and with savings targets that might make a 33% improvement. But what's the point if Europe are the only ones to do it? The Poms don't really listen to them, but they're going for 10% by 2010.

Hang on, didn't China have a go recently? That's right, they're aiming at 10% by 2020. Not bad for commies in the fastest growing economy in the world.

Any others? Well, those crazy cats in New Zealand were sitting at 29% renewable energy in 2000, with a target of a 20-odd percent improvement by 2012. How about this list. Wacky Scandinavians, of course: Denmark 29% by 2010, Finland 35% by 2010, Netherlands 12% by 2010, Sweden 60% by 2010. Poor countries? Mali 15% by 2020, Latvia 49.3% by 2010, Estonia (!) 5.1% by 2010.

How about Australia? How does a 2% target sound? Ridiculous, right, because we don't have room for wind farms or solar panels. Or the right countryside for geothermal holes. Who are we kidding?

That's right, we're at 2% by 2020, sitting down here with Hungary (3.6% by 2010) and Turkey (2% from wind by 2010). And probably, the US, which as far as I can tell has no target whatsoever.

Fucking pathetic.

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

2005-10-04T16:55:00.000+10:00

In breaking news, Kate Bush has been crowned the premier Bush on the planet by no less an authority than googlefight. In a related development, she remains the top diva, easily taking out Miss Minogue and Mariah Carey.

These frivolities are inspired by the impending release of her undoubtedly magnificent new album - Aerial - though a twelve-year gap since the last one produces some big expectations, as well as kilos of publicity. 35 days to go, by my count, though one day more in North America so living in the US sucks just that little bit more this year.

To celebrate, I'm catching up on the old stuff. I know compilation albums are seriously passé, and that this is only really the first two-thirds of her career, but since I was cheap enough to burn this one before I gifted it to Mum, it's what I got. (Dunno how well the 'Whole Story' can possibly be done in 12 tracks, but let's see how it goes.)

The literate, ecstatic rock of Wuthering Heights (with a re-recorded vocal?) must lead the album; the brilliance of this track is not dimmed by the years, and that big drum fill before the last chorus gets me every time. It's kinda unimaginable that this should have been her first single. It's just good for the world that she didn't do an Emily Bronté and make it a debut-swansong package.

The rest of the early tracks are the low point, for me. Cloudbusting has a good string riff but the synth and snare action is a little incongruous, and the song is generally a bit unimpressive. The Man With The Child In His Eyes always reminds me of Elton John (not necessarily a bad thing), what with its piano noodles and swelling strings. And then Breathing, a lengthy three-movement piece which doesn't really come into its own until the last minute or so, when Kate really lets herself go.

Track 5 picks up the album. Wow - track name and feeling, all in one. It's a slow builder with a big bass line and a great chorus, especially when Kate dives from the top of her range all the way down. This leads into a great drum part, the big tom riff from the start of Hounds Of Love, my favourite Kate Bush track. I love the nature imagery, especially the 'it's in the trees/it's coming!' that leads into the track. It's a mark of genius that she can find the right place for human voices barking like dogs. The only problem with the track is that, I reckon, it's one chorus short; just a little more, please, Kate?

So then we're Running Up That Hill, a good track that's only spoiled a bit by the very very 80s drum machine and synth backing. But it's another great chorus. Army Dreamers follows, a charming political statement wrapped up in a really sensitive arrangement. And then another big tom riff on Sat On Your Lap - Stuart Elliott again, I believe? This is where Kate seems to give her voice the biggest workout, spanning her entire three octaves and using such expressive intonation and shaping. All this and a big finish.

And then it's Experiment IV, the new track on this album, which is a nice late-80s slow rocker, but not a seriously great track. The Dreaming follows, pushing the boundaries a bit with some vocal percussion, didgeridoo and open political statements about the treatment of Australian indigenous people. And then, of course, it's Babooshka, the strange, strange tale of a wife who tests her husband by sending him anonymous notes signed Grandma, in Russian? At one level these lyrics are pretty straightforward, but I'm convinced I'll never quite get what she was about.

It's a great album. She's a great artist. Long live Kate; and let's hope she doesn't have any more kids so she can concentrate one making some more great albums.

Modified Frogs Leap Higher?

2005-10-03T13:43:00.000+10:00

[Inspired by Luisa. Hi!]

So nanotech can 'leapfrog' developing countries to a better place. Yeah, it might be closer than it looks, but for now it's all very pie-in-the-sky. Biotech, on the other hand, is here now. For all those smart Aussie biotechnologists who want to go to Africa and make a difference, what are the options?

Well, biotech in Africa is overwhelmingly focused on agriculture. As this article says, the goal is to boost production so that imports of basic food items can fall, increasing the continent's food security. In this context, that means GM crops.

(Aside: Agriculture is clearly Africa's strongest industry for the forseeable future, but exports are suppressed by the huge subsidies Western countries hand their farmers - see How Northern subsidies hurt Africa. As good economics disciples, surely we expect that Africa requires incentives to improve food production, so shouldn't we drop our subsidies?)

So, GM. Us privileged few in rich countries have the luxury of consideration on issues like GM, to take time to try to balance the big-pharma spin against the anti-science horror. Unsurprisingly, the prevailing view in the West is that biotech crops are something of a luxury, with FlavrSavr tomatoes - "... reaches the consumer in an optically attractive state ..." - leading the charge to more predictable food.

But for a starving continent, widespread debate is definitely not a priority, or even particularly feasible. There's so much that GM crops can do to seriously improve the lot of African farmers, from giving pest and disease resistance, and reducing fertiliser and water needs, to improving the nutritional value of food. From India, a common modification increases cotton yield up to 80% - but with legitimate questions about sustainability.

Of course, it's not just crops that gain from modification, as still-more-controversial GM animals begin to wander the globe. We're all waiting for the GM super-intelligent monkey to enslave us all, but goats with spider silk in their milk are just plain weird. But seriously, animals that grow faster, require less feed or are more drought-tolerant must help in Africa.

Is all this necessary, though? Here's doubled crop yields; no GM, just rotation of feed crops with a weed called tithonia. It prevents erosion, builds up nutrients and can be made into mulch, firewood or animal feed afterwards. No miracle, just a natural solution to the problem.

There's no doubt GM can help Africa leapfrog forward; it's something that the West is less willing to do, for one reason or another, so widespread uptake in Africa could really give the continent an edge. But will the morning after the GM party have the mother of all hangovers, as the entire ecosystem collapses because of biodiversity reductions or runaway GM crops?

Science & Biotech @ allAfrica.com
Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International
Special Report on GM @ New Scientist
Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa @ USAID (with a grain of salt)

West Wing Season 4

2005-10-02T17:34:00.000+10:00

The moment when the snare drums roll for the start of a West Wing episode gets me every time. The West Wing is like love; after not having it for a while, you forget how good it can be. The pair of episodes which start Season 4 are not even among the best, they're kinda gimmicky (Toby, Josh and Donna missing the motorcade) and end in a wash of schmaltz (the same trio returning to the White House). There's not enough character interaction, some preaching (the ordinary Joe in the bar) and the climactic event (pipe-bomb attack) seems underdone (possibly because real life continues to trump it).

But it also reminds you of how good it can be. The production values are always sky-high and there's constantly impressive ballroom scenes and Air Force One shenanigans. I love the discussions of policy, and the constant jockeying between huge-picture foreign affairs and tiny-picture individual concerns; repeatedly reminding me of the scope of governing any country, let alone the indisputably most powerful. And it's almost assumed that the characters, with all their idiosyncracies, quirks and weaknesses, are well-drawn and sensibly played. And they all look so intelligent, always drawing card for nerds like me.

Look, it just all works, and if you haven't yet been initiated into the fold, steps must be taken to remedy this. For me, two down, twenty to go - maybe I'll take the week off work...

The War On Cetacea

2005-10-02T11:02:00.000+10:00

It's just weird.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

No, that's from the Observer, not the Weekly World News. The US Navy has been training dolphins to shoot underwater terrorists! And now they may have disappeared in the aftermath of Katrina.

There's so much that's disturbing about this. Could you tell a terrorist from a recreational scuba diver? Do the dolphins just look for the beard? But there's worse. Everyone knows that dolphins are very intelligent. Until now we've been saved by the fact that they don't have opposable thumbs; what are they gonna use for weapons? But now we're arming them. I don't want to be alarmist, but remember when the US armed the Taliban? Or S Hussein?

As Rogers says on Kung Fu Monkey, the Human Age is over.

The Sustainability Deity

2005-09-30T15:51:00.000+10:00

Bleeding edge technology calls to every geek bone in my body, but when that new car smell has faded, it's all about finding clever, sustainable ways to use it. That's where savvy, conscientious people come in. Number one on the list: William McDonough. (Link through Gristmill.)

(Unfortunately, no relation to Blair McDonough from Big Brother and Neighbours. As far as I can tell.)

Trained as an architect, he's transcended that label to become so much more; look at his awards for Sustainable Development, Design and Green Chemistry. He started designing the first solar-heated house in the world, in Ireland. His famous book is Cradle To Cradle, written with chemist Michael Braungart, which apparently talks about eco-effectiveness - "designing from the ground up for both eco-safety and cost efficiency". I haven't read this, but the 'cradle to cradle' of the title is about a cycle whereby goods are created, recycled and used again without losing any material quality. As opposed to those which hit landfill in months. Sounds like an admirable aim, and an interesting tie in with nanotechnology.

He's got strong corporate credentials, which is the only way to get the message across. This article on the Triple Top Line talks about the Fractal Triangle (no shortage of catchphrases), relating any proposal under consideration to all of economics, equity and ecology. This mitigates against gravitating to the extremes - capitalism, socialism and ecologism - which by definition neglect the other two points of the triangle. As it mentions, he's worked this concept with companies like Ford, BASF and Nike; not sure with what sort of success, but that's cred right there.

Here's an interview from Newsweek, providing a good summary of the guy. The quote which grabs me the most is about a story I've seen somewhere before, from the Rohner textile plant in Switzerland. They designed a fabric safe enough to eat, they "screened 8,000 commonly used chemicals and ended up with 38. When inspectors measured the effluent water, they thought their instruments were broken". Who knew there were so many chemicals in fabric? Not me, certainly, but why use 8000 if you can do it with 5% of that number? Less inputs to the process must be a good thing, as he says, they reduced the cost of production by 20%. This is no niche product; it's the seat covers on the new Airbus A380.

Look, there's so many good ideas just in that article, this guy has really got his shit together. Read the article, then imagine what he could do with decent molecular manufacturing. Like, wow.

Miniscule Help For Developing Countries

2005-09-29T13:52:00.000+10:00

Gee, nanotech's cool. It's like, little robots which can do, like, anything. Like you could get nanotech implanted in your skin to give yourself a dermal display on the back of your hand! Imagine getting that all over your body, you could have constantly mutating tatoos!

But nanotech's not just about decadent Western body art. Leapfrogging is a concept I've seen popularised through the most excellent and ubiquitous WorldChanging site. It's where developing areas can skip semi-obsolete technologies and go straight to the cutting-edge, jumping past developed countries which are struggling to replace their legacy tech. Examples. Mobile phones are more common than land lines in much of the developing world, because they're cheaper to install. A developing public sector could adopt Linux throughout rather than Windows; again, it's cheaper. From this article, solar power rollout can give a decentralised power grid. If you've got few petrol stations, it's easier to transition to hydrogen. It's about the infrastructure can be created when there are few legacy considerations.

So, industrial manufacturing economies are passé; why not go straight to information, or better, straight to nano? Is this possible? Is it desirable?

It's definitely desirable, and it might even be vaguely possible. Molecular manufacturing promises to be more precise, which means there's less wastage of materials and power, in the process and the products. Lower power needs are most important as this allows the use of solar cells - there's your decentralised grid, especially in the tropical band which holds many developing countries. In general, nanotech should allow advanced lifestyles with less environmental burden, making it vaguely feasible that people across the world have similar privileges.

And similar life expectancies. There's no doubt nanotech will revolutionise medicine - apparently it's now possible to get early-warning on cancer. Whether this will be subject to leapfrogging is debatable; it seems less likely to me. But water is important, or rather, lack of it is deadly, as are water-borne diseases. 100% effective filters at the nano scale would allow both the reclamation of waste water and the reduction of environmental impact. I wonder how little water a person could survive on, if they had a quick, effective nanofilter - maybe 1 cup, recycled indefinitely? Where to get the filters? How about the local nanofactory? These would require a relatively small initial cost outlay, and little infrastructure; the missing piece of the puzzle is the chemical supply. One nanofactory could provide manufactured goods to an area with nothing. These could also produce cheap, effective greenhouses, increasing agricultural efficiency.

Here's a list more comprehensive than mine, from the Eureka Alert.

It's all positive, right? But it's never quite that easy. New tech comes packed with potential downsides. Remember cars before carbon emissions? Or spray cans before CFCs spoiled the party? Or antibiotics when noone knew about superbugs? Or the internet before porn, spam and identity hacking? Nanotech side effects are an order of magnitude worse than any of these, but the techniques for dealing with them will be similarly more powerful. Yes, care is needed, as with GM crops (I'm on the fence on that one). But I'm convinced that technology is still, as always, the answer to many problems.

The key problem is that capital invested in nanotech will search out those regions where the profit will be highest. No, that won't be sub-Saharan Africa. Yes, that will be the US and Europe. So there's a big challenge in getting it to where it's needed most, to facilitate the leapfrogging behaviour which could produce such dramatic developmental results.

Warren Zevon: Genius [Track]

2005-09-28T13:49:00.000+10:00

My appreciation for the Warren Zevon oeuvre is restricted to that Werewolves Of London. A mental short circuit connects this directly to the Teen Wolf movies and so to Michael J Fox and then... Anyway, it just seemed like a throwaway novelty hangover from my Triple M flirtation in the mid 90s.

I've just listened to the track Genius nine times in a row. I'm a words junkie, and two lyrics in particular seem to do it for me:

"There's a face in every window of the songwriter's neighbourhood,
Everybody's your best friend when you're doing well, I mean good."

A nice little pun delivered perfectly straight.

"Albert Einstein was a ladies man,
While he was working on his universal plan,
He was making out like Charlie Sheen,
He was a genius."

This one always tingles my spine. Einstein must be the least disputed genius in history but seems one-dimensional in a way famous people can't be in the Information/Tabloid Age. Whether this is true or not, I love the thought of Einstein wandering down to a club after a hard day slaving over the atoms. And the delicious juxtaposition with Charlie Sheen is excellent.

Throughout, the song equates success in love with genius. Through Mata Hari and Einstein, to "You broke my heart into smithereens/And that took genius". Which is probably why this song appeals to me at the moment, that's right, it's a breakup song, underneath the elaborate images and tales. Though there seem to be a number of breakups conflated into this, she left him for the hairdresser, or for someone who could help her career.

As for the music, it's well produced, very clean with a nice slow groove, on assorted percussion, behind accompaniment from strings. Zevon's voice floats over the tune with some standard but tasteful studio magic messing with the vocals.

Cold War Fairytales

2005-09-27T13:35:00.000+10:00

From my profound understanding of human nature, it seems ridiculous that the race could have survived the Cold War. So many big red buttons, each with a nervous finger poised over it. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the highest profile of the 'mutual assured destruction' possibilities, but there must have been many more times that nervous men in the field had the authority to launch.

One was on this day in 1983. A guy called Stanislav Petrov (thanks, WorldChanging, yes, I know I'm lazy) was sitting in a bunker near Moscow, with a shedload of computers telling him that there were missiles on the way over the Pacific. All he had to do was ring the Kremlin (presumably on a red phone) and I wouldn't have lived to see my fourth Christmas. So we can all thank Stanislav for having a more sceptical view of computers than many. The Russian satellites had been confused by high-altitude clouds reflecting the sun; obviously this was something so rare they didn't need to test for it. And just like that, we didn't all die.

So thank the heavens for that. Despite everything, I'd much rather be red than dead.

Lyrics That Grab Ya

2005-09-26T14:20:00.000+10:00

"Is a look when you look look look into somebody's eyes,
And you know that they'd just as soon kill ya as smile."

Augie March - Song In The Key Of Chance

Coconuts And Swedes

2005-09-23T17:21:00.000+10:00

Oil is top of the pops right now, and god forbid I don't post what everyone else is. Both of these are from WorldChanging (if you haven't seen it, you should).

Another clever fuel for diesel engines is coconut oil. This is even better than the previous biodiesel because it works straight out of the shell without any kitchen shenanighans, though adding a little kero helps. It's just as clean as the other stuff. This is going on in Vanuatu, where they have lots of coconuts and not many refineries, so it's very good for their trade balance. Get rid of those dependencies on foreign oil! In fact, that's probably on the best features of biodiesel; it should create a focus on local production in many poor countries, saving money and creating jobs. This stuff's probably only useful in equatorial countries, as it solidifies below about 22°C.

Am I the only one who wishes I was born in Scandinavia? Those wacky, progressive kids are always conceiving something enviable. The top 14 of the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report contains Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands which are on the periphery. Though Australians can't complain as Australia is apparently third on the list, highlighting how ridiculously lucky we are to live here.

(And I'm going to ignore the fact that the media here mainly reported these superficial numbers, and ignored the important in depth discussions of inequality, poverty and conflict in the report.)

Did I have a point? Oh, yeah. So Scandinavian governments tend to be cool. And that's been reinforced as Sweden aims to end fossil fuel dependency by 2020. As they say, global warming affects the areas near the poles most, so the onus is on them to do something about it. They're increasing spending on energy research and subsidising enviro tech exports. Taxes will be reduced for cars running on more enviro-friendly fuels - in obvious contrast to certain Australian governments who are lowering rebates, not taxes.

You're the man, King Carl XVI Gustaf!

Deep Fried Fuel

2005-09-22T12:16:00.000+10:00

McDonald's are making a mistake introducing new healthy menus; that oil in their deep fryers could be the solution to the world's energy crisis!

In the same way that biomass power stations are a real green option, biodiesel is a true alternative fuel. Diesel engines, without any modification, can run on a fuel made completely of vegetable oil, avoiding completely the environmental negatives of mineral oil. Metaefficient has a great FAQ on the subject.

As they say, biodiesel can be made from "soy or canola oil, and can also be made from recycled fryer oil" which means fast food restaurants everywhere could be sitting on a gold mine. As far as I'm aware (judging from where I've worked), the oil is just disposed of after a day (or three) in the fryer. Any further value extracted from it is pure profit. And they could even do this themselves; as Sarah at Inhabitat shows, you can make this fuel in your own kitchen!

And this fuel has other advantages. Chief among them must be that your exhaust smells like popcorn, and more seriously has far less emissions of all kinds, though similar amounts of carbon. It's relatively unflammable, um, nonflammable, well, hard to burn, and very non-toxic. A downside is that, similar to diesel, it's not great in cold weather as it can start to solidify.

Cost? According to the FAQ, making it yourself costs about US$0.60 a gallon - that seems like about AU$0.21 a litre. Not taking into account the effort, of course, but still damn cheap. However, it's not that simply in Australia. According to this article from the Biodiesel Association of Australia, you can't manufacture biodiesel, even for personal use, without paying an excise to the ATO. That's AU$0.38 a litre. So that would make it almost 60c a litre; still cheap, but what about the hassle of dealing with the ATO? And it's illegal to do it at all without a licence.

Commercial cost? In the US, where it's available, it sells for between US$1.90-$3.50 a gallon, which is about AU$0.86-$1.34. But it's hard to compare as they have a different tax regime. It looks like it sells for a 10-25% premium on mineral diesel, so you'd assume here it would be at the upper end of that range. And of course these prices rely on some economies of scale being achieved.

Availability? In Australia? Practically nowhere. The most interesting development seems to be by the company Axiom Energy, outlined in this Age article. They're expanding a 10m litre plant in Laverton to a 100m litre plant in the next year. But it seems they're concentrating more on producing low-sulphur diesel from waste plastics. Not sure about the environmental implications of this; reduced sulphur levels are good, and it reduces the amount of plastic in landfills, but it does nothing for emissions. Everyone else in Australia is doing the ethanol thing, which seems shortsighted.

Smog: A River Ain't Too Much To Love

2005-09-22T11:26:00.000+10:00

I've been trying to work out why I prefer this album to Sime Nugent's The Undertow which I've also been recently listening to. My conclusion seems to be that it's the difference between roots and folk; and possibly also the difference of a decade or so of experience in making albums. Nugent plays bluesy roots, it's mainly quicker and busier, more instruments and sound. In some ways it seems that he tries to oversell the songs. It's a pretty good album, as I've said before, but by no means a classic.

Callaghan, however, has crafted a very good folk album from minimal ingredients. Just the staples; most of the tracks are guitar and voice, with occasional drums sneaking in, and a little fiddle and piano. The words often mean Dylan-eqsue-ly little, but the phrasing and delivery is just idiosyncratic enough to be interesting, while Callaghan's deep and musical voice is compelling. He speak-sings his lines without a surfeit of emotion, putting a bit more effort in when necessary.

The initial highlight of the album is The Well, a prosaic tale of Bill wandering into the woods in search of a bottle he'd impulsively tossed in there. It's a narrative of nothing, building up to the understated climax where Bill gives 'my red rage/my yellow streak/the greenest parts of me/and my blues' to the black of the well, because 'black is all colours at once'. I Feel Like The Mother Of The World has Bill telling the world, as his mother once told him, 'it does not matter/just stop fighting'; a naive but well-meant political statement in the grand tradition of folk. My favourite track is I'm New Here, a nice picked guitar part reminiscent of McCartney's Blackbird underpinning some nice advice: 'no matter how far wrong you've gone/you can always turn around'.

It's a happy, or at least optimistic album. And it has tunes to match the best that's out there. Wholly enjoyable.

The Chrysalids: John Wyndham

2005-09-21T09:27:00.000+10:00

Wyndham's books can only be classified as science fiction, but there's no hardcore science in the Kim Stanley Robinson mould, with fiction as a sideline. Wyndham writes tales which just happen to be set in a possible future, or even an alternate present. And he writes, as the quote on the back of the back says, 'with a sort of hyaline simplicity' which keeps his books oh-so-readable, even fifty years after publication. That said, The Chrysalids remains a book of its time - the mid-1950s, with the world zipping headlong towards destruction as the Cold War escalates.

The setting is Labrador in the far east of Canada, in a miniscule community swamped by a post-apocalyptic world covered with Badlands, where the chances of 'breeding true' - without mutations - are less than 50%. It's an unsubtle flash-forward to a nuclear future. The community' run by theocrats who preach the creed of purity, getting rid of any human, animal or plant with mutations.

The star of the show is David, who grows up in the most fundamentalist family in town. He appears normal on the outside but has telepathic powers which he shares with a small clique in the area. He befriends a girl who he later discovers is a mutant and so discovers that mutants are only human too. Eventually, his group, with the help of his more telepathically powerful younger sister, gets in contact with a much more advanced society in New Zealand. In the climax of the book, this society steps in and rescues them from a clash between outcast mutants and an establishment army, by the use of overwhelming technological force.

The plot sounds prosaic; well, it sounds similar to Harry Potter, I suppose: boy grows up in unhappy family, discovers special powers, ends up somewhere more appreciative. The skill is in the telling, in the understanding of human nature that Wyndham brings to the task. The obvious possiblities for moralising and preaching, on tolerance and respect for life and evolution, unsubtly push the plot aside in a few places. But clear language and solid pace win the day.

Incidentally, isn't it time for another movie version of Day Of The Triffids? Hollywood, are you listening? Modern special effects could possibly even get it right!

Fly Me To The Moon - Play It Again, Frank

2005-09-20T14:23:00.000+10:00

NASA have mocked up some plans to get back into space, in the wake of the retirement (in somewhat worrying circumstances) of the shuttle fleet. This has been coming since last January when Bush promised 'to the moon by the end of the next decade'. Otherwise know as the Where's-My-Cold-War-Textbook plan.

New Scientist - NASA unveils vision for return to Moon
NY Times - NASA Planning Return to Moon Within 13 Years
CNN - NASA unveils moon program
USA Today - NASA to detail plans for trip to moon

So, OK, here's the deal. It's "Apollo on steriods". People are having a go because it's basically the same plan as came to fruition in 1969, 49 years before this one's planned to get there in 2018. Yeah, I'd like us to have colonies on Mars and Venus as well, but this is some of the hardest stuff anyone tries to do. It's not surprising we (the human race) are barely managing to get off the planet.

In fact, I think the Apollo program gave us a misleading view of the quality of the tech. There was so much effort pumped into getting up there that development was accelerated; but this is similar to bringing forward spending, in economics. Example: if big-screen TVs are on special so you buy one today instead of next month, that doesn't mean you'll still buy one next month; the same amount of spending's been shifted forward. I think it's the same with space travel research. A lot happened in the 60s but this combined with no inconsiderable amount of luck and sheer hard work to get success. There were plenty of gaps in the technology and the knowledge, and these are still being filled in. It was always going to take about this long for solid moon trips to begin to be made, but Neil Armstrong's step made us think we were more advanced than we actually were.

In favour of this argument are the stats of the new vehicle. It's a lot better than what we had then: a bigger craft that holds more astronauts, can stay on the moon longer, can land anywhere not just on the moon's equator. It'll be 10 times as safe as the shuttle (1 in 2000 crashes as opposed to 1 in 220). And it's budgeted, inflation-adjusted, at 55% of the cost of the Apollo Program. The technology is getting to a better point. And there's some other good aims here. A priority will be to learn to live 'off the land', to be able to make fuel and oxygen from lunar materials (helped by landing near possible ice at the moon's south pole). This aims at a semi-permanent moon presence, like the sadly-neglected International Space Station.

I reckon it's exciting. But there are arguments against. Many space junkies feel that NASA is inefficient and over-buereaucratic; these posts from Rand Simberg Apollo 2.0 and Mission Costs give a feel of this. It seems that it's possible that it could all be done orders of magnitude cheaper by private corporations. I'd love to believe that. Maybe NASA should be rearranged so that it simply provided funding and support for private enterprise. But maybe space flight is just hard and it just costs a lot (though these guys know more about that than me).

Of course, the other reason for continuing the US space program is because Russia and China can - it's national security, stupid. And the European Space Agency, while it hasn't got human spaceflight capabilities, is sending probes to Mars and Venus as we speak. NASA remains the public's space icon, but they might be dropping off the pace in the hidden public sector space race.

It'd be interesting if it turns out like when you're playing Risk 2210 (the board game). What can happen there is that you dominate the earth but fail to take notice of the moon, and someone else takes that over then starts to seriously challenge your dominance of the earth. All great empires have to end somewhere...

September The Nineteenth: A Word

2005-09-19T15:21:00.000+10:00

Today's word:

hyaline

adj: Resembling glass, as in translucence or transparency; glassy.
n: Something that is translucent or transparent.
(Dictionary.com)

Apparently John Wyndham "writes with a kind of hyaline simplicity". Which, once explained, sounds like how we should all aspire to write. Shame it's so hard.