Kaiser Chiefs:

Ricky Wilson is a bit out of sorts. “It’s half nine,” he grumbles in his endearing Leeds accent “Which is pretty early in the morning for me.” As it turns out, Ricky’s just trying to make sense about where waking up before midday was in his rock star contract. “It doesn’t make any sense! We do these wonderful things; we make an album, we go on tour, we work really hard…and you know what our reward is? Getting up really early, and talking on the telephone to someone.” Wilson and I brainstorm some other interviewing options. Facebook? “I kind of like that, because you have to do everything in bullet points.” Skype? “Yeh see that’s good. But then I guess we both have to be awake still, don’t we?” Really, Ricky would prefer to have every journalist in the room with him. Slight problem, we’re about a 22 hour plane ride away from one another. There’s only one solution, isn’t there? The Kaiser Chiefs have to come to Australia again.

Supergrass @ The Forum, Oct 3:

Supergrass are one of those bands I’ve loved since I was a wee lad, but sort of got lost in the indie fabric as I reached gig-going age. That’s probably because they released the dreadfully introspective ‘Road To Rouen’, which was pretty much universally disliked by all of their fans. Credit to the boys then, because they’ve bounced back with ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, an absolute glam ripper of an album that makes Jack White look like a little girl who writes lame James Bond theme songs with Alicia Keys…oh wait. Anyway, I’ve never seen the Forum so packed in my entire life, with equal amounts of Brits and Aussies eager for a glimpse of the ‘90s most critically underrated band. Obviously somebody in touring thought Supergrass wouldn’t fill a bigger venue. Big mistake. The place is so crowded that you have to jostle for a view of frontman Gaz Coombes’ onstage antics amidst throngs of thirty-somethings madly pashing like they’re at their formal all over again.

Put simply, this band is explosive. So much so that I felt guilty about abandoning them for Coldplay at age 17. Gaz writhes about on stage like he’s got a snake in his boots, replete with ‘70s porn moustache, fedora and courtesy-fan-blown hair, he looks and sounds every inch the rock star. Ripping out ethereal guitar solos that make all the women around me lose consciousness for a few seconds, Gaz leads his merry men through a killer selection of old favourites like ‘Moving’, ‘Sun Hits The Sky’ and the delightfully misogynist-baiting ‘Mary’, which quite literally blows the roof off the place, and results in the first decent mosh pit I’ve seen on a Friday night in a very long time. Gaz has now recuited his entire family into the band, with brothers Rob and Charly filling out keys and second guitar respectively. The dynamic between them (and bass player Mick Quinn) is unbelievable, especially considering that they manage to get some pretty difficult harmonies dead-on (despite having walked off a plane in 35 degree heat a few hours prior).

There’s something immediately refreshing about seeing a rock band who don’t throw up disguises and personas but simply love to play live. Supergrass are testament to the fact that a great front man is only as good as his backing outfit, who, incidentally, are superb. Not one bum note or out-of-tune chorus the entire evening, and you know what that means? Professionalism, dammit. We should stop glorifying crappy guitar bands who can’t even get their shit together for forty minutes and remember Supergrass, who gave us ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ long before Amy Winehouse started smoking crack. Not many gigs have made me this happy. Supergrass, I’ll never forget thee….

The motto: Listen to good music. Bigpond won't be huge on it, but it'll make you smile

-Jonno

Ok, so we all know about the 'No Undie Sunday' stunt at the Saint, in St Kilda, Melbourne town... funnily enough I work there. 

I have hosted there ON A SATURDAY (different night to the stunt-pulling night) for over two years now. In the Saint's defence, they are awesome blokes and not sexist at all (I would def not be working there if that was the case). At the juice of it, it was the blokes who run their Sundays, who came up with it all, and got them into trouble. These blokes run a few other nights in Melbourne, and I am not a fan of them. They ARE sexiest moles, and I hope for the Saint's sake that Pauli and Cam, my boss' fire those boys ASAP. 

Anyway, the article took me on a trip down memory lane - when I used to run around in my undies every Friday for not much of a reason at all. Here's a really badly made YouTube clip of us up to our tricks - but it's still entertaining!

It started out with just me and my mate Nat being bored uni students with nothing to do but be hung-over on a Friday morning. Fox's Hamish and Andy started PANTS OFF FRIDAY as a little gimmick with Boost, that if you rocked up bared-legged, you'd get a free juice. Sounded awesome to us hung-over ladies. So we did it once. Then we did it the next week and the next and the next. Soon enough we found ourselves being offered money... so we thought, why not do it for charitable reasons. So we ran around the city and other various venues just handing out pieces of paper that said, "Smile someone loves you. Take your pants off, it feels good. If you're up for it, do a little dance. That feels even better. Love P.O.G (Pants Off Girls)".

Lots of Asian tourists stopped us for photos - that was my favourite part. 

Back on track - we decided that spreading our positivity would link in nicely with Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty; so I hunted down which charity in Aus or Melb were helping them out (this is back when the campaign was only in America and Canada) - it turned out to be the Butterfly Foundation. Once I tracked them down I went on and organised a massive dance event to raise money for them and gain awareness of the Dove fund. With my mate Michael, we managed to secure 9 of Melbourne's top local and international DJ's to play free-of-charge, got free venue use of Billboard and then scoped out huge dj/producer FUNKAGENDA from the U.K to come and play ... we still had to pay him a fair bit of course! This was back when I had a show on Triple R fm, so during one show we got the Butterfly Foundation's media guru on the phone and I gave her a rippa interview, plugged the gig and gave away a few tickets. Everyone rocked up in undies, boardshorts, budgie smuglers etc, just not pants. It was really good fun and we raised over $3000 for the Butterfly Foundation. A small event in comparison to a lot, but still a success. 

Since then the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty finally expanded to Australia - as every has seen all their ads for the last year or so with 'Real Women'. I personally think it's an awesome tact and Dove rock my jocks. I feel my Pants Off fun was an example of a more 'tasteful' way to gain exposure for a cause, without being a total skank and degrading myself at the same time! 

 

This is steeped in cultural zeitgeist. I highly recommend you buy it, or steal it, or download it. Not to listen to, just to have in your possession...

Oh and find the supposedly 'slutty' photos of Miley doing the rounds at the moment. Hi-larious fun.

---------------------

Miley Cyrus

Breakout

2 stars

by Jonno Seidler

 

We’ve already seen the disastrous consequences of what happens when a young Disney star takes the giant leap into the recording industry, thanks to the very public meltdown of former Mickey Mouseketeer Britney Spears. At a tender 16 years of age, Miley is at exactly the same spot Ms Spears was when she released Baby One More Time. But unlike her predecessor, Cyrus has already joined the fast-growing Purity movement; a creepy Christian cult where girls pledge to maintain their virginity until marriage…to their fathers. This would work if we hadn’t all seen a very naked Miley gracing the cover of Vanity Fair a few months ago, which stoked the fires not only in men, but women too, as one lesbian-feminist media tutor remarked “She’s taken a vow of abstinence? But damn, she’s hot!”

Yes, Miley Cyrus is kind of good looking. No, she is definitely not a good singer.  When you have a debut record that’s bankrolled by one of the richest companies in the world, it’s always interesting to see what kind of tricks they pull out of the hat. In this case, Miley has a backing band who probably fuck virgins like her on their days off, like drummer Josh Freese who works with Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle and The Offspring and plays like an animal behind Cyrus’ weak singing. The trakcs themselves are pretty much godawful, even my eleven year old sister can’t stand them. This especially pertains to a huge metal take on Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which is actually kind of entertaining until you realise which song is being massacred. Cyrus’ whining American twang is beyond irritating, it can only be compared with La La era Ashlee Simpson, who realised she couldn’t sing or keep her legs closed and got pregnant to a real musician.

The only real winners here are the shit-hot session band, who make loads of money playing the easiest recording gig of their lives.  

Check out me and my bros music blog:

1songday.blogspot.com

And eat lots of soup. It's gonna be a shit weekend

:)

J