If you squint, just a little, the deserts of Texas and the deserts of Australia could look fairly similar to the untrained eye. ADAM CONNORS spoke to Mark Pirro, of Dallas’ Tripping Daisy, about yet another similarity.
Category: Music
The Spinanes’ Rebecca Gates
Warm, generous in mirth, ensconced in simple riffery … Rebecca Gates, the once fanzine editor, record store clerk and college radio gun from Portland, Oregon, is certainly ‘chuffed’ about the peculiar rise of her now-jetsetting outfit, The Spinanes.
“Chuffed? Yeah, chuffed is a great word for what has happened!”
Lush – Lush Life
In the period of English music fondly remembered as ‘shoegazing’, Lush trailblazed with their distinctive multi-layered female vocals hugging and caressing all in their path. In 1996 they have returned and bass player Philip King tells ADAM CONNORS how their sound survives after the downfall of most of the early 90s supergroups.
Elastica – Sexy Is Attitude
Interview with Donna Matthews
When Elastica brushed, nay slapped, the testosterone from the stage at the various Big Day(s) Out this year, they had the Britpopping punters lapping at the railing for any number of reasons.
Dead Can Dance, Capturing the Spiritchaser
Interview with Lisa Gerrard
I was dressed in pyjamas when I first confronted Dead Can Dance – the imagescape of 1993’s Baraka was flowing over me with The Host of Seraphim, from Dead Can Dance’s 1988 tome, The Serpent’s Egg, invading my soul. The theatre was full, but I think I had been standing throughout the whole trial. For the images of Baraka are truly a trial for any mortal. Environmental degredation should make any bastard shirk.
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broadcast | Weezer’s Brian Bell, October 7 1996
Backstage at an acoustic performance at 78 records in Perth, Brian Bell – the kinky 70s glam geezer from Weezer – reflects on the British press, a US presidential election and Negativland. Includes live recordings from the gig (October 7 1996; 10 mins)
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Ash, Tuesday October 1, 1996
Metropolis Concert Club, Fremantle
You could say that the Australian tour for Ash started at Monday’s ARIA awards. This Irish teenage supergroup were there, presenting an award on a night littered with examples of Australia’s own youth-orientated heroes You Am I and Regurgitator reclaiming contemporary ground. Just as Ash did when they dethroned Alanis Morissette off top spot on debut in the UK, and just as their opening show in Perth furthered the worldwide reclamation of youthful contemporary music with an utterly rewarding show of their own.
broadcast | The Eels’ E, September 27 1996
The guy is a control freak – and he like it like that. The Eels on the debut of Beautiful Freak. Adam speaks with frontman ‘E’ (September 27 1996; 14 mins)
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Jebediah; Bluebottle Kiss; Something For Kate, Shenton Park Hotel, September 14, 1996
The “Unipalosers” may have only played to about twelve people in Canberra, home of our national treasures but little more besides, so finding a wealth of punters at the Shenton Park Hotel could have been quite a surprise for the tired gaggle of Murmur stablemates. And “yip”, they burped, for this was the last gig of their five week Australian tour and Vanessa (Jebediah) was sick of sharing vans with nine stinky lads.
Tyranny of Distance? Save your Pity For Yourselves
Article for The Australian – Western Australia feature (Sept, 1996): WA music industry
It was during a small, suburban park cricket match in late 1995 that many of us finally realised that Western Australia’s largely unheralded music ‘renaissance’ had finally broken through. Halfway through the Treadmill Eleven’s dashing batting effort on a slow but true pitch against Perth’s X-Press Magazine, the booming strains of Ammonia’s Mint 400 album came wafting across the field from a brick and tile suburban dwelling.
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