Gee muses

Okay, I take some of it back. Oasis are not washed up old Britpop has-beens. While 2005’s Don’t Believe The Truth had white-limbed little Pommy critics bouncing up and down in their bedsits proclaiming the return of the Gallaghers, some of us were less convinced. Okay, it wasn’t quite the tub of lard most of their recorded work since the brilliant (What’s The Story) Morning Glory had been - stodgy, gormless, piss-driven and unimaginative. It at least had legs and and some sort of fitness and life about the songs. Basically, it was b-grade rock. Pleasant but no nutcracker.

Enter stage right Dig Out Your Soul, the first Oasis album in three years and an absolute corker. Somewhere the Gallagher boys and their current compatriots have discovered what made them compelling a decade and a half ago. The songs are sometimes quasi-psychedelic, sometimes bluesy, occasionally Beatlesque, mostly rock hard and imaginative. There are moments when you seriously want to examine the album cover to check this really is an Oasis record. Noel has his writing mojo back, his six songs are standouts, no more so than on the utterly gorgeous, swirling, Falling Down, but the biggest surprise is saved for the album ending Soldier On, a mood piece that expands the Oasis world dramatically. Elsewhere, Liam’s Lennonesque, I’m Outta Time, is so convincing you could believe the ex-Beatle was reincarnated for the sessions and then there’s a beautiful piece of Gallagher driftwood called The Turning that is just a great song. But it’s the sprawling, brawling, slightly weary, punchy rock (check out Bag It Up and Waiting For The Rapture) that dominates the rest of Dig Out Your Soul that says here is a band that has done what the title suggests. What a surprise.

Guitarist Gem Archer is having a cuppa , elevenses as they say, and bemoaning the unplanned tour break forced on the band after a stage incident involving Noel.

“Basically, this guy got on stage and pushed Noel,” Gem says, “and because of that he has three broken ribs. Five gigs have been cancelled, Hopefully, there won’t be any more. Noel’s in a lot of pain and the ribs aren’t a great injury to deal with. They heal slowly. It’s like a broken nose - not much you can do for it. But it’s one of those freak little things you can’t predict. I actually thought he’d got the injury from falling on the monitor but it was the impact of the guy.”

(more…)

It’s a long way to the top if you want to … and Regurgitator have. Now they don’t as much. In their halcyon days The Gurge as we fondly dubbed ‘em, sucked a lot of you know what, danced around in videos with animal suits on - Which Warner’s heavyweight executive was in one of those costumes? My lips are sealed!, made cheap keyboards a comeback novelty, veered erratically from the end of the punk rope to the top candy-smeared pop schtick. The singles and albums flowed to the top end of the charts. The Gurge were mighty. Their moments came and went. And when the fizzle and razzle and dazzle faded, they accepted the movement and passing of time with grace and just got on with what it is they do. Now Regurgitator are on an indie label and are a well-inured-in-the-psyche cult band. They will never be less than good because they are that talented. Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, Peter Kostic and new girl Seja Vogel, take a bow. You deserve it.

Ely, a splendidly friendly Queenslander who is as well known in that State’s underground scene (he’s played in any number of side projects) as he is for his exploits in The Gurge. At home in Glebe, yes, he’s moved out of Queensland, he talks happily about some 15 years or so in and out of the spotlight.

“It’s not so intense now,” he says. “We don’t take it all as seriously as we used to, we don’t tour as often. Quan now lives in Hong Kong while Pete and I live in Sydney and Seja in Brisbane so we’re quite spread out.

“I think we appreciate it more now though because we do it less; you tend to take it for granted when it’s all you do all the time. Now we do a show in, say, Manly or Dubbo and a crowd turns-up and we tend to put a lot more into the show. It’s more of a fantastic thing. less is more when it comes to the band and music.”

The band’s sixth and most recent album, Love And Paranoia, has been dubbed by the band as it’s first romance album. Think broad definition of romance. After all, Blood & Spunk and Drinking Beer Is Awesome, aren’t exactly Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, although at the same time the allegory and associated imagery does linger in a twice removed 21st century kind of way. Anyway, it’s not a balls and all Gurge record but it is - as usual - a lot of fun and perfectly entertaining.

In a way though, Regurgitator are now in a new world. The old kids on the block. Fans who were 16 when the band first appeared are now in their 30s; others in their late 20s are into their 40s.

“Our audience has been amazing. Very dedicated. We genuinely appreciate the fact they are still coming out to see us,” Ben says. “I mean it’s like ‘Thanks for coming out and here’s a song you’ve heard 500,000 times before … ‘.” And while he jests, Ely does recognise that initially The Gurge’s timing couldn’t have been better.
(more…)

John Taylor is a talkative 47-year-old slightly rock star for whom time may be ticking. And you get the feeling he knows it. If that sounds tough it isn’t meant to be. Duran Duran, the band he founded and in which he’s spent 26 of the last 30 years, are genuine survivors and still know how to be put on a show and cut it live. Its latest album, Red CarpetMassacre, isn’t as bad as its been made out to be by some critics; there are moments of real grandeur and working class grunt and some of the melodies match the band’s best. The problem is that uber producer Timbaland and his protégé Nate “Danja” Hills have cut the band out of the album. Yes, SImon Le Bon is on every track, and Nick Rhodes gets to whirl his keyboards on and off but the band’s strength - its rhythm section of bassist Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor, are pretty much eliminated from the mix by Timbaland’s taste for electronic beats. You’d think Taylor would be pissed about that: Instead he says the chance to spend five days with Timbaland and get three songs out of him plus the presence of Justin Timberlake on two songs has extended the band’s credibility and give it a real boost.

Still there has to be a point where the line in the sand shifts too far; where a band needs to say ‘Sorry, we’re the band. We have to be on the record.’ That aside, 30 years on Duran Duran remains the epitome of New Romantic cool; a cultural icon that briefly changed fashion, pop culture and all that hangs off it.

“Thirty years ain’t what it used to be,” Taylor says. “With the technology we have today bands can get a lot further a lot faster. It’s hard to take all the changes on board but it doesn’t really change who I am. I’ve still got a little of the infantile in me. I’m not sure whether I’m trying to be a child or resisting becoming an adult.

“It has been a trip. Who would have known we would have got the cards we did. We’ve got to take it as it comes now. I feel we’re on borrowed time. Every day working together, doing gigs, making records, is a bonus. Who knows it could go on forever.”

And in that single paragraph lies all the dichotomies of being a rock star. The hopes and fears and possible realities all run into a few words that take half a lifetime to reach and just a few seconds to say.
(more…)

Kate Nash is in the not-so-envious position of being the UK’s latest next-big-thing. Lily Allen who is already championing the 20-year-old Londoner is her closest reference point musically and lyrically while NME has already tagged her “like Mike Skinner [The Streets] busking in a mini skirt”. Depending on your perspective this may all sound terribly unfortunate or terrifically tantalising. The reality, as it turns out, is considerably better than expected.

Kate Nash is a not-so-talkative, certainly not lippy, pragmatic young woman with a degree in honesty. Her debut album, Made Of Bricks, debuted at #1 in the UK after the single, Foundations, spent seven weeks in the top 3. The second single, Mouthwash, is even better and boasts a killer piano line. remarkably, her first single release, Caroline’s A Victim only came out in February on the independent Moshi Moshi label. Four months later, Polydor offshoot Fiction Records - home of The Cure and Snow Patrol amongst others - signed her, immediately released Foundations and then brought her album release forward to August in the UK. Hello, overnight sensation.

Nash, who’s talking from the tour bus which is on the outskirts of the famous (for its pottery) English town of Stoke, says, “The speed things have gone has totally surprised me. It was such a … you know, you’re shocked. There’s no other word for it. Frankly, it’s weird to have a #1 debut. All of a sudden everybody knows who you are and I’ve stopped going to HMV because it’s too embarrassing.

“It can be hard to grasp on reality when things happen like this. You have to keep your friends and family around you, work with people you trust. But I’ve been brought up really well, my mum’s a nurse, I come from a good family. I’ve never been disillusioned about life and death. I have standards. It’s up to you to turn into a tart. I decided not to. Some people do and I think you start to live in la la land then, but I won’t. I don’t like grossness. I see no need for it.”

“It’s up to you to turn into a tart. I decided not to.“

(more…)

EMI
*** (3 stars)

What’s right about this, KT Tunstall’s second real studio album (there’s an acoustic album which popped out last year, initially by mail order only) is that there’s nothing wrong with it. What’s wrong with it is that everything’s right about it. Drastic Fantastic ticks all the boxes. Tunstall has an irresistible voice, can write a mean song, has lovely ideas about harmony and melody, flirts with rock bravado but most comfortably nestles in the bosom of mother pop. But her debut, Eye Of the Telescope remains the better album, simply because it’s less processed. KT was simply coming off her strumm and bash background and letting it fly. Nobody expected a mega hit, countless TV soundtrack appearances - oddly, Suddenly I See has been tacked on the end of Drastic Fantastic - and the odd likelihood that a Scottish singer/songwriter could break big in the US. So in a way it was only natural the album seems aimed at consolidating all those conquered territories. That said there’s enough of those quirky Tunstall tunings to keep it interesting. The third album could be very interesting indeed.

The curse of the sophomore set is largely overcome but too much fizzy drink does taint the party.

Sony/BMG
**** (4 stars)

It is somewhat sad that this classy record has been largely ignored in Australia by a public that once adored its creator. Annie Lennox has few peers when it comes to contemporary female vocalists. She is also a woman of some conscience and her fourth solo album, Songs Of Mass Destruction, is a pointed reminder - if you need one - that not all is well with society, with this fragile world. Lennox said a few weeks ago it’s “a dark album, but the world is a dark place. It’s fraught, it’s turbulent. Most people’s lives are underscored with dramas of all kinds: there’s ups, there’s downs - the flickering candle”. As such AIDS, climate change, global poverty, the Iraq War, all come under the spotlight. Annie is frankly “sick and tired” of just about everything and isn’t mixing her metaphors. All this chest beating could be overwhelming but it’s to Lennox’s credits that the arrangements and the variety she brings to the songs carry the album effortlessly. ‘Songs’ is soulful, funky, strident, pop and rock, but never predictable. Her vocals are as good as they have ever been. At 53, she remains vital, an intrinsic part of the greater popular culture. And this record deserves much better than a chart high of 41 in Australia.

Sweet dreams aren’t neccessarily made of this but who cares when the chocolate is so good.

Stereophonics has reached the small notch in the tree marked 15 years. These days that’s some kind of achievement. Of course, it hasn’t all been trouble-free. Stereophonics has ridden the highs and lows of superstardom, surviving the departure of original drummer Stuart Cable, some management problems and the inevitable physical and emotional toll that being a major international act takes.

And Stereophonics have been major. They were virtually inescapable from 1998 to 2003 as the albums Performance and Cocktails (1999), Just Enough Education To Perform (2001) and You Gotta Go There To Come Back (2003) saw it top the charts, play to monster outdoor audiences of up to 65,000 and dominate the airwaves. That kind of success takes its toll.

Returning in 2005 with Pushing the Senses and new drummer Javier Weyler, the trio played to its biggest audience yet at the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park. The album became the band’s fourth consecutive #1 on the UK charts. Now it is unleashing Pull The Pin, which doesn’t mean the band is about to quit, far from it.

Weyler, who is London after returning from a promotional tour of Germany, Holland and Russia with fellow ‘Phonics Kelly Jones and Richard Jones (no relation), says that this time around the band has reached that happy place where it just doesn’t care what anybody else thinks. Kelly makes the point strongly in the band’s latest bio: ‘Part of me doesn’t give a shit anymore,” he confesses. “The stage I am at now is very close to how I was when I was 21. I’ve learned how to deal with the ups and downs of being in a band, people liking you, people not liking you, how you look on a magazine cover, how everyone else thinks you should behave, all that is not in my head anymore, it’s gone.”

(more…)

Quan Yeomans is sitting in what could pass for a beige soft porn set in Hong Kong on the 21st floor of a lofty tower. “I seem to end up in Hong Kong,” he says. “I love it here. I’m relocating here. I have been for a while. It always feel like home.”

The multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter for Brisbane’s now near legendary Regurgitator seems in a happy place. The band, 13 years old – becoming more and more unheard of in these days of one album contracts – has gone past all those youthful highs and lows to reach what Yeomans describes as a great relationship. With original partner in crime bassist ben Ely, drummer Peter Kostic and new girl Seja Vogel, the latest incarnation of ‘the Gurge’ is looser, more melodic and almost whimsical on its sixth and latest album, Love And Paranoia.

Quan says he was nervous about it, particularly the sound. It’s not the Gurge some of the band’s harder core fans might expect. Yet it is the band you’d expect this far down the track. The band that sucked a lot of you-know-what to get where it is, hasn’t lost its sense of humour – try Blood & Spunk and Drinking Beer Is Awesome – but it ahs in Quan’s term produced its most romantic album.

“Seja has had a lot of effect on us, in terms of having a female in the band and a really good keyboard player. We really like keyboards but in the past we’ve approached them lightly in a naff 80s kind of way. She has more taste; she comes from a Kraftwerk background. She has a deeper understanding of keyboards – she plays synthesisers. In fact it has rubbed off on me and I have started a collection of analogue synths myself.

BROAD has set a standard for, well, not just broads, but contemporary music as a whole. The idea of taking five women of oft disparate sound and skill - with the common thread that they are all profoundly talented singer-songwriters - and putting them all on a stage together and seeing what happens is not just exciting entertainment, it’s also quite mysterious. Stories are told, foibles and fabs are laid bare, love is released - the good and bad, and the audience and entertainers interact. Helmed by near legendary ‘rock chick’, Deborah Conway, whose own body of work is as impressive as it is, dare I say, broad, the festival enters its third year with yet another stellar line-up joining Conway: Jade Macrae, Anne McCue, Sally Seltman (new Buffalo) and Abbe May. As always with BROAD, Conway does her interviews by email so here’s the transcript of the electronic conversation.

1. The first BROADs have set a very high standard – what do you think this mix of women will bring to the table?
Deborah Conway (DC): I‘m really excited about this year, possibly the best year yet. The potential in the combinations is particularly delicious, the voices are all so different and so beautiful in their own spheres. Sally’s subtle and delicate songs that flower into glorious multi-layered pieces of contemporary pop; Jade’s urban R&B grooves and incredible vocals; Anne who writes songs like Tom Petty and plays guitar like Jimi Hendrix and Abbe who sounds like KD Lang just swallowed a pint of Jim Bean and picked up a ukelele with a fuzz box – who wouldn’t be excited!

2. How do you go about selecting the women to appear in BROAD? Do you have along shortlist? What are you looking for in the performers?
DC: I’m looking for the differences in the whole group, voices that contrast and complement each other. I start with one person and if they say yes, that suggests the next kind of voice I could find and so on. I do have a long and getting longer short list, so much great talent out there.

(more…)

Svein Verge is a funny man. Uncertain of which half of the electronic music duo, Royksopp, I’ve been hooked up with, I ask the obvious question. Svein replies, “The guy with the big nose and black hair.”

And, kids, there’s more: “It’s 10am, I’ve just woken up in my home [in Bergen, Norway] and I’m walking around in a robe. I was working late last night. Me and my esteemed colleague in Royksopp, Torbjorn Brundtland].” Doing what? “Umm, sitting the studio picking keys [musical notes] and playing those keys on different instruments. We were just sitting there playing for hours in the middle of the night and it was an extremely slow piece of music with no audible beat … ” For the new album? “We are doing that now - in between New Age noodling.” (more…)