Live Review: Little Birdy Single Launch

Little Birdy Cd Launch
Amplifier Bar
Saturday 16th September
Review and Photos by Dylan McArdle

Promoted as a single launch for the tune ‘Come on, Come on’ the gig was more of a preview of little birdy’s up coming album.

Jeff Strong opened proceedings in what can be a tough spot, especially when you give the impression you’re just going to be a boring, time-filler act. But Jeff showed he had charisma and personality and was actually entertaining. The acoustic, folky sounds of Jeff were upbeat and he was lively in between songs. He was also joined by two backing vocalists (his band members?), Matt Delahunty and Jeff’s girlfriend for a couple of songs.

One Horse Town filled the middle spot tonight and for the recent Australian tour. It’s evident of the community spirit in Perth music, where, when it comes to choosing a band to take on tour, that you think highly enough of your mates to take them with you. Tonight, they hardly put a foot wrong.

As well as demonstrating the best tracks from their recently released album, OHT showed they have some new material up their sleeves and added a couple of new tracks into the set. Sascha’s baritone guitar playing impressed and Ronan Charles plays the keyboard quite unlike anyone else, including using his feet at times. While ‘Havana’ may have got a WAM song contest nomination it is the song ‘Holiday’ that iwas the icing on the cake to a fast passed, lively set. OHT were sure to have won some new fans with that performance.

It’s been a few years since this reviewer seen the Little Birdy play live and I was impressed by their new sound. The Live line-up with Fergus on Keyboards, was well utilised tonight with the keys playing a more dominant role, leaving the new songs sounding more poppy and less country influenced. And Katie Steele may be diminutive in size, but she sure packs a big punch on stage.

The new single ‘Come On Come On’, played early in the set was an example of this new sound and it’s certainly very catchy. Katie was playing the guitar less and that gave her the freedom to move around on stage more.

There was a range of tunes tonight early tracks like ‘Relapse’ through to first album cuts, to new songs off their yet-to-be-released second album ‘Hollywood’. They also covered Gyroscope’s ‘Beware Wolf’, describing the Gyro boys as ‘one of their favourite bands’. The cover sounded darker and more sultry than the original, showing the number of different styles of sound the Birdy crew can play.

Katie had the crowd eating out of her hand all night, or as it was, waving their hands in the air on cue. To finish off, they walked off stage and came back for an oh-so predictable encore. Though it was worth it, with the band getting stuck into ‘Beautiful to Me’ and finishing off by doing of a version of ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’ in a way that Split Enz would be proud.

For more photos from the night go to: http://d-mac77.livejournal.com/196926.html

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Leo Says: Why Music?

I put the question to the crew on the message board the other day, so now I’d thought I write my answer in a blog.

Why music? Well, it simply gets me through the tough times, it cheers me up when I need it, it gives me somthing to look forward to, when nothing else can, it makes me laugh and get excited when I want to. And most of all it inspires me to be a better person.

When i was 16, I spent a lot of time sick and when I was recovering, i began to go walking with a walkman on. It wasn’t so much the exercise, but the joy of listening and being able to think and letting the music become the soundtrack to whatever was going on with my life. The music got me through a lot of hardship.

A few years later, I began to play guitar and then took interest in more guitar-orientated music. Then I followed the progress of Jebediah on the local scene, and began to discover many other acts and suddenly it was not only something that i would do at home, but a huge part of my social life on the weekend, where I would frequent 2 or 3 gigs every weekend.

Nowadays it’s grown to more than that. It’s become something that is with me all the time. I have so many thoughts about music, it’s embarrassing. I spent so much time doing music related tasks, including this website, i continue to ask myself why? I wonder if my music related obsessiveness may seem boring to others, but who cares? I love it!

I hope you’re enjoying Perth Sounds and the new look.
Leo Abbs

Tour Diary: Antistatic

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

6 shows. 5 days. 4 flights. 3 states. 2 sold out EPs. 1 killer east coast run. Current mood: accomplished Hey guys..Drew here. Hope you’re all well. I’m writing this as we sit on the plane home from Brisbane to Perth. The first run of our national tour supporting Karnivool and Blindspott has come to an end and it has been so rad I don’t know where to start. But here goes.. What a crazy run. This week we played six rad shows throughout Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, making heaps of new friends all over the east coast. Every night was huge with around half the shows selling out entirely. Vibes both on and offstage were fucking electric and we still can’t believe the response we have been getting from the crowds, especially it being our first time out of WA. Huge thanks to everyone who came out early and made us feel welcome by filling out the front of the rooms. We’ve posted up some photos from the Hifi Bar show in Melbourne, check ’em out. Thanks Sam! Very stoked to report also that we sold out of the entire stock of both our EPs we took along on tour and that we have had to order heaps more for the upcoming shows. We’ll have some new merch at the Perth shows so check that out. We’ve had a total blast checking out the country but we are hanging to play some Perth shows and catch up with you all. We ran into a whole lot of cool people on our travels. Throughout the tour we bumped into dudes like Darren and Karl from Kisschasy and Flynn from Cog, who joined us for a beer and had some really flattering things to say about the band and the show. We really respect and look up to a bunch of those cats, so that was killer! The Blindspott guys were awesome to us and we had a great time hanging with those boys every night. Down to earth, cool guys that just keep it real. Tops. It sucks they can’t make it to Perth, they put on a great show. Check out their new album, “End The Silence.” Hope to see y’all again soon! Karnivool were on top of their game too, great dudes, great band..always a pleasure to play with those guys. We’ve all had fuck all sleep this week so I’ll wrap it up about here. Big, big love to everyone who came down to the shows, you guys rule. I must make special mention of our light/sound/tour management dreamteam who kept the ship afloat – cheers Burb, Griff and Luke. Special props to Jarrad and Alana, long time dear friends of ours who put us up in Melbourne. (Jarrad produced “Stand Up In Disguise” and even came along to two of the shows to pull some killer mixes! Nice one!!) To everyone who’s been voting for “Stand Up In Disguise” on JJJ and various other radio stations…thanks! You can make your JJJ requests once everyday, please continue to hassle those guys for us as play is definitely picking up. Keep it up and help us spread the word. We appreciate it. All in all, totally stoked. Big success! See you Perthies next week…and bring on the rest of the tour! Static xoxo

New Band Profile for September – The Government

New Band Profile For September: The GovernmentBand Name: The Government

Band Members: Jenna Hardie (vocals, guitar), Sarah Norton (vocals, bass), Anthony Chiovitti (lead guitar), Chris Howe (drums).

Influences:
There’s a little bit of a\nlot of influence… just to name a few…..Pixies, Queens of the Stone\nAge, Howling Bells, The Screaming Trees and so many more, being the LOVERS of\nrock that we are!!!

Favourite Perth bands:
Mink Mussel Creek, The Fuzz, From the Skies, The Avenues, The Flairz, Little\nBirdy, Sleepy Jackson, The Sugar Army, Snowman.

Style:
There are ROCK songs, there are\nMOODY songs, and there is even a song we like to refer to as THE EPIC.

Where does\nyour band name from :
Jenna\nand Bruna after a big night out (Jenna’s birthday 2005) sat down and\nworkshop-d the band names over and over until we came up with The\nGovernment… and that was it… the name of the band… you gotta\nlove the gov!!!

Upcoming gigs:
Thursday 7 September at Norfolk\nBasement Bar with Jeff Strong, Dave Pensabene and DJ Skatergirl

Thursday 21 September at Hyde\nPark Hotel, supporting DAY OF THE DEAD (free entry)

Thursday 5 October at Mojos Bar

Website: www.myspace.com/the_government :

The.government@hotmail.com

http://www.myspace.com/the_government

Mp3s: not yet… they are on the way… we are planning to hit a studio and record a demo in the next couple of months and then we’ll post it on our myspace for your listening pleasure.

Cd Launch: Nix

Cd Review – Ben Zabbia

Ben Zabbia- Into The Flame
Review by Paul Speering

Although being a more than competent musician, this album didn’t do much for me. It was very single-paced and lacked enough variety to keep me interested. But, that being said, there were some nice songs in there, such as “Fly Away Little Boy.”

A big weakness in this recording is what sounded like the use of backing tracks rather than real musicians in almost all the songs. His rigid use of rhyming held back the flow of several of the songs, and really took away from the skilled musicianship.

However, Ben has a decent voice, and I believe, that with a good band behind him, he could produce a decent recording in the future.

Interview: Hooper’s Store

Hooper’s Store
Interview by Graham Knapp

Photo by Frog Delacroix

1. Who is in your band and what do you play?
Lee Canestrini – Drums
Chris Sorgiovanni – Guitar
Ben Sorgiovanni – Bass

Chris: I play Guitar ,although Ben answered some of these.

2. How did it all get started?
We played in various bands together since high school. Lee and I were jammin it
up in Lee’s shed, Ben returned from a trip to England and Hoopers Store began.

3. Hooper’s store caught the attention of a lot of punters in the NBT heats,
having had some time to reflect- what did the NBT comp mean for your band?
NBT was great. Like being catapulted into space by a gigantic G-string (sling- shot style)!

4. If you could assinate any politician and walk free, who would cop it? (You
don’t have to answer that one )
I would throw eggs at John Howard.

5. Are you guys looking for a life on the road, as such? Is there a gameplan
for Hooper’s Store?
We don’t have a game-plan really.

6. Did you get any cool prizes from the NBT?
Yes, lots. They are very nice people indeed.

7. Favourite gig you have played and why?
Probably next big thing final, because we never expected to be there. Or
supporting Pivot, because we got to play with Pivot!.

8. Describe your sound?
Garage / Hyphy / Grime (with instruments)

9. What do you guys think about having the NBT judges make live comments to
bands. Like on Australian idol, for next year?
Could get ugly.

10. Name a local act you really wanna play with.
Adam Said Galore.

Live Reviews: Mo Wilson/The Panda Band

Mo Wilson/MF Truckload of Hope/Roly Skender and The Tonics
Swan Basement
1st Sept 2006
Review by Leo Abbs

The sad side of local music shows is sometimes, the best shows are played to a crowd of very little. Tonight was one of those occasions. While each band may argue they weren’t at their best, it was more the combination of the three bands which complimented each other’s style while all being unique, that made the night tops.

Roly skender’s band was absolutely fantastic tonight. For a band that I’ve never seen before, they sounded shit hot. Some very talented musicians putting their own stamp on some rock with country/bluesy edge – it was hard to pinpoint the sound, but not hard to stand there and say wow.

Being more familiar with Mo Wilson’s work, it was great to see the band again. One of those bands, that can fit in on many lineups, they looked most at home in a bill like tonight. A member down, Luke, who was on tour with Karnivool (he’s their sound guy) they played a stripped back set with no guitar.

If you really like piano driven music, that isn’t shit like Ben Folds, more like Nick Cave, check them out. And freo people take note – this may be the first band to write a song about White Gum Valley, not wandin Valley, but ‘the Crows of White gum Walley’.

Panda Band Cd Launch – The Fly By Night
Saturday 2nd September 2006
Insomnia struck me all week, so when I managed to fall asleep on sat night i was relieved, but frustrating enough, i was woken by an sms at around 10.30, so after that I headed to the Fly By Night, to see if i could catch The Panda Band.

I managed to get their after the door person had packed up, so it’s cost me nothing and walked into the sounds of ‘Eyelashes’, one of the few panda songs I know. They sounded in fine form – anyone should for their cd launch – but there was fuck all people there considering the reputation of this group, and the hype they’ve had. For a band like that to launch their cd to less than 150 payers is very surprising.

Maybe they hadn’t put in the marketing effort, or they shouldn’t have booked Freo, but that’s a small turn out in my eyes. Especially when I saw a local metal gig at Freo Metro’s farewelling Seraphim pull more people on a friday night recently.

So basically, more people need to go out.

Photo by Frog Delacroix – http://www.frogdelacroix.com