April 2008

Finally after more than a week of solid downpour the rain clouds made way for the sunshine, leaving glorious black, smelly mud for ‘Groovin The Moo’ festival –goers to dance in… or rather to trudge through. A special mention should be paid to those who opted for sliding through the mud, and extra kudos given to those who decided to actually wrestle in it. Personally not my style, but hey guys: this years’ festival was for you.

First and foremost let me apologise to local bands The Sacred Stereos and Lover for missing their sets, unfortunately the morning after Anzac day really just did not agree with me. Matt, the editor here at I’m With The Band, said that both bands were really solid and in both cases were better than some of the bigger acts that followed.

My day officially kicked off by being left awestruck by ‘That 1 Guy’. This man is quite possibly the most uniquely talented musician I have ever witnessed, with his crazy instruments and madcap lyrics he left the crowd begging for more shortly affirming the conspiracy that the moon is actually made from cheese.

Skip to Custom Kings, never seen them play? You’re missing out. This is a band whose music exudes something so pure that they left me beaming for the rest of the night. What I especially love about Custom Kings is my inability to just shove them into a genre, they take elements of pop, roots and god help us, country; and blend it together to form something uniquely memorable and breathtakingly fresh. Their frequent four piece harmonization together with their obvious onstage passion made this band an absolute pleasure to watch.

Karnivool were dynamic as always, mixing it up between their old and new material. Gyroscope were similarly energetic, giving both diehard and new-to-the-wagon fans something to scream about. I’ve never been a massive Spiderbait fan, however they were well worth the wait, the hard hitting threesome gave festival goers their final dose of no frills, straight up rock for the evening.

I chose not to venture into the King Street Hotel tent, although witnesses reported it as being invariably similar to the actual King Street Hotel, only with the added advantage of a three-inch thick muddy floor…I’ll let you form your own opinion on this topic.

Whilst for the most part everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, I for one felt a severe sense of déjà vu. This years line up was fundamentally the same as 2007, only this time without any real ‘headlining’ acts. 2007 sported You Am I, The Black Keys and Silverchair, all acts who were equally capable of headlining a sold out festival and yet this year, festival organisers resorted to re-booking The Presets and Sneaky Sound System. Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoy these bands as much as the next pill-popping-dance-club-attendee, however I found it quite ridiculous that Sneaky Sound System could go from being a freshly emerging dance band playing in the king street hotel tent in 2007, to ‘headlining’ the Cattleyard stage this year, honestly Mr Organiser Sir, jump further onto the band wagon.

The lack of international and/or headlining acts indicate to me that the promoters simply did not want to spend any money after the festival was sold out, which is all well and good in theory however I feel that this was a detrimental move for the life of the festival. If organisers want ensure the longevity of Groovin’ The Moo, they really need to start spending big money in order to secure actual headlining bands and not to just simply cater for the latest trend to sweep through the iPods of fifteen year olds.

By Linsey Wilson

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Alienware® – the leading manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook and entertainment systems – launches the Area-51® m17x, a commanding and aggressive addition to the newly redesigned Area-51 line of notebook computers. Alienware already shocked the computer industry this year by demonstrating the raw power of the 15.4-inch Area-51® m15x, and the company has once again upped the ante. With a brilliant 17-inch, widescreen HD display, Alienware designed the Area-51 m17x for PC gamers, 3D content creators and multi-media enthusiasts.

The Area-51 m17x surpasses expectations as the fastest notebook Alienware has ever designed. An Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor teams with the fearsome power of dual, SLI®-enabled NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX GPUs for unprecedented performance levels. The notebook’s 500GB mobile hard drives are the world’s largest. Dual drives configured in a RAID 0 array plus a 500GB Smart Bay drive for additional storage give the user an astounding 1.5TB capacity, accommodating approximately 250 games, 375 full-length movies or nearly 400,000 songs.

“We pride ourselves in designing elite systems for consumers who absolutely refuse to settle for second best,” said Frank Azor, Executive Vice-President for Alienware’s Product and Marketing Groups. “The Area-51 m17x is, by far, the most aggressive, most powerful notebook computer Alienware has ever built.”

The Area-51 m17x satisfies even the most demanding mobile users by delivering:

• NVIDIA SLI technology with dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics cards to produce an unrivaled mobile DirectX® 10 gaming experience.
• Intel’s 45nm Core 2 Extreme X9000 mobile processors supporting maximum speed and responsiveness during intense battle sequences in users’ favorite games, crisp 3D rendering, flawless music encoding and other high-intensity tasks.
• Up to 1TB of hard drive capacity configured in a RAID 0 array for storing massive entertainment collections, plus support for solid state drives and hybrid hard drives.
• Smart Bay technology that allows users to swap out their optical drive for an additional 500GB hard drive, bringing the notebook’s storage capacity to 1.5TB.
• The Alienware Command Center control panel, home to exclusive programs such as the AlienFX® customizable lighting feature and the AlienFusion power management system.

When asked to compare the Area-51 m17x to its sibling system, the Area-51 m15x, Azor said, “With both systems, Alienware has once again revolutionized mobile performance. The Area-51 m15x is ideally suited for road warriors or students who are constantly on the move but still want that boost of power Alienware delivers. The Area-51 m17x is for professionals and hardcore enthusiasts who want pure, unbridled performance with the added benefit of portability.”

“Intel’s Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo mobile processors power the Area-51 m17x to performance results that are nothing short of spectacular and can even rival most desktop systems,” said Erik Reid, Director of Marketing, Mobile Products Group, Intel. “Improvements in speed and energy efficiency delivered by the Intel Core microarchitecture give Area-51 m17x users confidence that they are working and gaming on the most advanced technology imaginable.”

“With NVIDIA SLI and two GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs, the most powerful notebook graphics processing solution ever, Alienware’s Area-51 m17x is equipped to generate an unrivaled visual experience,” said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook GPUs at NVIDIA. “Whether users are tackling the new era of DirectX 10 games, high-definition movies or dynamic Windows Vista applications, they can count on the Area-51 m17x to deliver.”

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When The Flood Comes, the sophomore album by ARIA Award winning band The Audrey’s has debuted in the Top 20 on the ARIA Album chart this week. The first time EVER the band has had an album in the ARIA charts.

This is an album of lyrical and sonic beauty that expands their musical template beyond the alt-country-tinged instrumentation and smoky pop of their gorgeous debut. Musically, it’s a revelation that almost defies categorization. It aches. It breaks. And it drips with passion.

The critics are loving it with rave reviews pouring in, “Brilliant, Just Brilliant ” 4 1/2 Stars – The Courier Mail

“There is great chemistry at work here in the melding of banjo, violin and an assortment of rootsy accoutrements with Coates’ fragile, breathy voice” 4 Stars – The Weekend Australian

“If you like your music real, this is about as good as it gets” 5 stars – iTunes.

The band head out for an extensive national tour, which will include all capital cities and extend into many regional areas. Special guest support on all shows will be J Walker (Machine Translations).

• Wed 14th The Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba NSW – 02 4782 1322
• Fri 16th The Basement, Circular Quay NSW – www.moshtix.com.au/1300 438 849
• Sat 17th The Basement, Circular Quay NSW – www.moshtix.com.au/1300 438 849
• Tues 20th Lizottes, Central Coast NSW – www.lizottes.com.au or 02 4368 2017
• Thur 22nd Sound Lounge, Gold Coast – www.thesoundlounge.com.au
• Fri 23rd The Zoo, Brisbane – 1300 762 545/http://www.zoo.oztix.com.au
• Sat 24th Bass In The Grass festival, Darwin
• Wed 28th Great Northern Hotel – www.oztix.com.au/1300 762 545
• Thur 29th Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW – www.offbeatoperations.com.au/02 6652 3833
• Fri 30th Newcastle – Northern Star – www.bigtix.com.au
• Sat 31st ANU BAR, Canberra – www.ticketek.com.au/132 849

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THQ today announced Battle of the Bands has shipped to retailers. Designed exclusively for Wii™, Battle of the Bands maximizes the Wii Remote™’s innovative functionality, combining beat matching and combat into one head-to-head battle for music supremacy. The innovative music switching feature and the 30 chart-topping hits – recorded in each of the game’s five different music styles – rock, funk/hip-hop, country, marching band and Latin – delivers a truly unique gameplay experience.

“Battle of the Bands offers an exciting variation in the music category, where the fusion of music and combat sets the stage for a head-to-head battle for music supremacy,” said Randy Shoemaker, global brand director, THQ.

So what exactly is Battle of the Bands?

Battle of the Bands is the first true musical combat game and allows players to battle to prove their preferred musical genre reigns supreme. Designed exclusively for Wii, Battle of the Bands features an exciting two player head-to-head mode and an extensive single-player campaign.

The game introduces the innovative concept of “music switching,” playing the music in the preferred genre of the winning player. When an opponent turns the tide of battle, the music changes as well, switching between different music genres. Battle of the Bands features 30 classic and modern chart-topping hits from the last four decades, all of which have been recorded in five different styles – (rock, funk/hip-hop, country, Latin and marching band) – for the game, resulting in a total of 150 unique tracks and 70 unique musical weapons.

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The rain has led to one slight change. The Showground carpark is too wet for cars, so will be closed. There is plenty of parking around Maitland within a 15 minute walk to the venue. The best places to park will be on the Maitland City (ie North) side of the highway, in and around High Street. From there you simply use the pedestrian bridge to cross the highway.

Maitland and surrounds have copped a lot of rain this week, but it is forecast to clear for the weekend. Whatever happens, the show will go on! If the weather people get it wrong and showers do hang around, bring a raincoat or some wet weather gear. PLEASE NO UMBRELLAS – they are dangerous in the MOSH.

The ground will be a bit damp, so best not to wear stilletos, your tux or your best ball gowns. Solid shoes, boots, even glammed-up wellies are the suggested foot attire. It will get cool in the evening, so bring something warm to wear (preferably an old jumper you can tie around your waist). There will be plenty of warm bodies to snuggle into when Sneaky and the Presets hit the stage.

SO EMBRACE THE WEATHER AND HAVE A BALL !!!!!!

Just to put a stop to some rumours circulating on MYSPACE, THE PRESETS and THE POTBELLEEZ are definitely playing at MAITLAND!!

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The Grates are currently in the studio recording their sophomore album “Teeth Lost, Hearts Won” at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Tokyo Police Club).

It’s not the first time that The Grates have worked with Peter Katis, with him having put in all the tough bits mixing their breakthrough album, “Gravity Won’t Get You High”. For their sophomore effort The Grates are creating a cohesive album with more direction. “Teeth Lost, Hearts Won” shows the culmination of a band with two years of solid, heavy touring under their belt, with a confidence that is born from more than 200 shows – from 16,000 people singing every word at Splendour In The Grass to their sold out Winter Wonderland tour, to their numerous overseas jaunts.

On this album, The Grates have brought a depth and density to the songwriting, the lyrics are raw and poignant, the sonics more biting and aggressive. There’s still that Grates spirit and vibrancy, but there’s also more reflection and more sophistication of expression. “Teeth Lost, Hearts Won” is looking to capture something of the Flaming Lips’ sense of whimsy and grandness with a fuzzpop edge of Weezer’s “Pinkerton” album.

The Grates demoed extensively for “Teeth Lost, Hearts Won”. This time around the band know what they want, with more adventure and exploration in the additional instrumentation they have chosen to augment their sound with. There are also some surprises in store with guest vocalists and guest players. In between Cheezels, Turkey Burgers, Bridgeport Hockey Games and patting Bob Dylan (the cat), The Grates have managed to lay down most of their new album with many gold stars already on the board. For regular updates on the recording process, watch Triple J TV Saturdays for their recording diaries. For online updates from the band, visit http://thegrates.blogspot.com/

The Grates had this to say about making the album: “ ‘Teeth Lost, Hearts Won’ is an album in the same high spirit as our first, but with a greater sense of dreaminess, grandness and guts. The last few years of touring really fed our confidence and built our sound. Whilst writing we fought each other, but didn’t write songs of frustration, rather respecting the battles as a passage for growth. We chased what excited us and celebrate in our achievements, as friends.”

The Grates sophomore album “Teeth Lost, Hearts Won” is due out in August through Dew Process.

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Splendour In The Grass will return to warm up your winter this Saturday 2nd and Sunday August 3rd, 2008. Australia’s much loved festival event will take place at Belongil Fields in Byron Bay and will feature a veritable feast of musical treasures from around the globe.

This year all tickets to Splendour In The Grass will be sold online through the ticketing service, Qjump, via www.qjump.com.au.

Qjump is a newly launched online ticketing company whose parent company has 7 years experience providing web based ticketing services. Qjump sells tickets for many leading Australian events and venues and its website and custom built hosting environment has been specifically designed to meet the high capacity on-sale demands of events like Splendour. In our efforts to improve and streamline the ticketing process, this year’s tickets will be delivered to buyers by email using Qjump’s print@home e-ticket. The benefits of this include reducing paper usage, greenhouse gas emissions and ticket scalping as well as reducing the cost of delivery for ticket buyers.

Tickets go on sale at www.qjump.com.au from 9am on Thursday 22nd May.

Now to get onto what you really want to hear, who’s actually playing at Splendour In The Grass this year……drum roll please..

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Those of you who have been reading my blog for a little while will know the ongoing saga that was me trying to decide on a new car, here and here …

It’s been around 4-5 months of indecision, test driving and what not but finally it’s all over and I’ve just picked up my new car, a Peugeot 308 from John Patrick Prestige Cars in Port Macquarie.

[click to continue…]

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Yes it’s true…. Rock fans everywhere rejoice…. The Angels Are Back!

It was a decade ago that seminal Australian rock band The Angels decided to call it a day. Their charismatic frontman, Doc Neeson, was involved in a horrific car accident that prevented him from performing for several years but after rehabilitation he went on to form Doc Neeson’s Angels. The rest of the band continued to perform as The Angels Band. In August 2007 tensions boiled over between the two parties and the The Angels court case was splashed across newspapers throughout Australia.

Now, after months of mediation the former band mates have decided to reunite, and to the delight of music lovers everywhere, reform as the original line-up of Doc Neeson (Lead Vocals), John Brewster (Rhythm Guitar, b/v), Rick Brewster (Lead guitar), Chris Bailey (Bass,) and Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup (Drums) … The Angels.

On the 27th of June 2008 The Angels will headline the 30th Anniversary Golden Stave Foundation Charity Luncheon at the Hordern Pavilion. The Golden Stave has raised over $10 million for children’s charities since 1978. The Angels will then hit the road on the Face to Face Anniversary Tour. This 20-date run across the nation will revisit the venues and shows that made them a household name.

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Face to Face, Albert Music and Sony BMG will be re-releasing a series of classic Angels albums. Scheduled for July is the re-mastered 30th Anniversary edition of Face to Face and The Angels ‘08 Tour EP featuring the previously unreleased song Open That Door, a live version of Who Rings the Bell plus exclusive bonus tracks. Not long after fans can expect re-mastered versions of No Exit, The Angels and Their Finest Hour plus This is it Folks, the DVD of The Angels infamous 1979 concert at La Trobe University.

This classic line-up is the most loved combination of The Angels and had that chemistry that made music history when they became ARIA Hall of Fame members in 1998. The combined song writing talents of Neeson/Brewster/Brewster has proven to be one of the best collaborations in the Australian music industry with seminal songs like ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, ‘Marseilles’, ‘After The Rain’, ‘Face The Day’, ‘No Exit’, ‘Take A Long Line’, ‘Mr. Damage’ ‘Comin’ Down’, ‘Shadow Boxer’ and many more.

The Angels live show has always been a tour de force. Blitzed audiences across the world from the famous Whisky shows in LA with Guns ‘N Roses to the ‘riotous’ free concert on the Sydney Opera House steps on New Year’s Eve in 1979, leaving 100 000 reeling fans in their wake.

The Angels have always had their fair share of issues and controversy; it’s probably the reason for the sheer intensity of their live shows which catapulted them to the forefront of Australian music and kept them there for three decades.

Now with the 30th Anniversary of Face to Face looming, Australian audiences are about to experience for themselves that The Angels have lost none of their vigor.

FACE TO FACE ANNIVERSARY TOUR

June

27th – Golden Stave Charity Luncheon, Hordern Pavilion

3rd – Souths Junior Leagues Club- Syd NSW

4th – Blacktown RSL- Syd NSW

5th – Revesby Workers Club- Syd NSW

9th – Hallam Hotel- Hallam VIC

10th – Ferntree Gully Hotel- Melb VIC

11th – Doncaster Shopping Town Hotel- Melb VIC

12th – Chelsea Hotel- Melb VIC

18th – Governor Hindmarsh- Ade SA

19th – Governor Hindmarsh- Ade SA

24th – Caloundra RSL- Sunshine Coast QLD

25th – Southport RSL- Gold Coast QLD

26th – North Leagues and Services Club- Bris QLD

31st – Wyong Leagues Club- Central Coast NSW

1st – Waves- Wollongong NSW

2nd – Panthers- Newcastle NSW

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