Going back to school

Hello! Sunday here in Tuttyville, home of Tuttscorp. Had a coffee, watching some of the Cricket World Cup. The gentleman at the house behind me is yelling out ‘Peaches!’ in a disapproving tone yet again. After over two years at my place I’m still not quite 100% sure whether he is referring to a disobedient dog who doesn’t speak human, a young rowdy child, or if he’s just really hanging out for another tour from the fantastic/sweary Canadian/German/international citizen.

Anyway, I have some shows coming up. A mini-tour booked for my forthcoming cassette in April/May on A Guide To Saints/Room40 in Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne (and maybe Canberra?), but before then I’ve got a Melbourne show in March. It has been over a year since I’ve been in Melbourne (since my show with Matmos last January) and since I’ll be hanging out in Adelaide for Unsound, I thought it’d be great to spend a weekend in Melbourne.

Am playing a show at Sunday School at The Public Bar in North Melbourne on Sunday 15 March. I haven’t been to The Public Bar for years, and since then the wonderful crew at The Old Bar have taken it over. I love The Oldie, and their old venue The Afterdark, so am pretty excited to head back to The Public Bar. Also playing is HALFSHARK (Jessie Warren of Carry Nation’s new project) and Inner Light (side project of Smoke Bellow’s Christian and Meredith). Will be a great show! Free entry, twilight show so you can go to other shows or bed afterwards. Info here!

Weird Noise – The Outpost @ Laneway Festival

Am playing The Outpost stage at Laneway Festival in Brisbane this Saturday. Should be lots of fun! Playing at 4pm for 45 minutes, new jams/new ideas/different plans. Sharing a stage with pals including Pale Earth, White Palms, Enderie Nuatal (Cured Pink), Cedie Janson, Lautreamont as well as DJs, visuals and The Outpost. The main lineup is pretty great too with Future Islands, Jon Hopkins, Seekae, Flying Lotus, Rustie, Ratking, Courtney Barnett, Caribou, JOY. and heaps of others. Set times here and FB page here.

Omar Souleyman support

Happy new year! Super excited to announce I’m supporting Omar Souleyman at The Brightside in Brisbane on Wednesday 21 January. Tickets available here. Hooray!

Official 2014 #tuttythumbsup

The lovely folks at Sonic Masala have added my official #tuttythumbsup of my favourite albums, short form releases and live shows of 2014. Check it out?

new ‘single’ – …from soapbox to Senate

 

 

The result of an invitation by OtherFilm to create a work to present at their Institutional Capture festival (otherfilm.org/institutional-capture/), …from soapbox to Senate is inspired by Gordon Brown, a gentleman of the Commonwealth (Australia via Canada and United Kingdom) who variously as a radical agitator, subversive, unionist and respected ALP politician served stints both as the President of the Senate in Canberra and at Her Majesty’s Pleasure in Boggo Road Gaol in the first half of the twentieth century.

The history of both Gordon Brown and Boggo Road Goal, as well as directly interacting, share some tangental similarities. Both the man and the building experienced the ‘fearful conditions’ and oppressive isolation of the itinerant poor; and upon the cessation of their active tenures Gordon Brown and Boggo Road Gaol both achieved a degree of optimism and closure.

Through the use of digital synthesis, on-site field recordings and sparse acoustic guitar, ‘…from soapbox to Senate’ conveys the oppressiveness of institutions (the prison system, the old Empire) and also the ability of people and buildings to transcend and rehabilitate the consequences of prior associations.

The ‘…from soapbox to Senate’ single was created from a live performance, edited improvisations and on-site field recordings at Boggo Road Gaol in November 2014.

Free download, out now! Thanks to all of your support and interest throughout 2014.

 

Institutional Capture

I will be performing a work titled …from soapbox to Senate as part of OtherFilm‘s 2014 festival event Institutional Capture at Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane this Wednesday 26 November. Details on my work below. Looking forward to performing with a wonderful array of Brisbane, national and international (The Soft Pink Truth) cross-media artists!

…from soapbox to Senate is inspired by Gordon Brown, a gentleman of the Commonwealth (Australia via Canada and United Kingdom) who variously as a radical agitator, subversive, unionist and respected ALP politician served stints both as the President of the Senate in Canberra and at Her Majesty’s Pleasure in Boggo Road Gaol.

The history of both Gordon Brown and Boggo Road Goal, as well as directly interacting, share some tangental similarities. Both the man and the building experienced the ‘fearful conditions’ and oppressive isolation of the itinerant poor; and upon the cessation of their active tenures Gordon Brown and Boggo Road Gaol both achieved a degree of optimism and closure.

Through the use of digital synthesis, on-site field recordings and folk instrumentation, for …from soapbox to Senate I wish to create an piece that conveys the oppressiveness of institutions (the prison system, the old Empire) and also the ability of people and buildings to transcend and rehabilitate the consequences of prior associations.

#tbt

A bit of an accidental nostalgia month! The Minesweeper (ex-Kill Yr Boyfriend) show at the start of the month was a fun one-off (or very irregular at the least). Even included an old Molliger song. We recorded our own tracks throughout our rehearsals and should have a digital EP out in the new year.

Tomorrow night (21 November) is a bit more of a nostalgia fest. I’m playing at The Underdog in Brisbane with Laptop Destroyer (Kris Keogh, NT), Gerald Keaney and the Gerald Keaneys, and more! I was working on new tracks but found myself playing some old Anonymeye songs… as I’m playing a short set thought it would be fun to go down that path. Will be exclusively playing adaptations of my The Disambiguation of Anonymeye album from 2009… Want a reminder of five/six years ago? Here it is! Free download (any paid downloads donated to Black Dog Foundation)

Hi Tumbleweeds!

Hi!

Have been a bit quiet on the blog front lately. Managed to do a bit of a number on my shoulder so have been quiet the last week or so. Frustrating timing!

In September I was fortunate enough to travel to the USA for two weeks of mentoring, music making and attending festivals – will get around to doing a bit of a travel blog when I get the chance.

In show news, my old old old (PS, old) thrashy-surf-punk band Minesweeper will be playing our first show in approximately eight years on Saturday 1 November at Fat Louie’s in Brisbane. That is a long time. How long? Our ‘site‘ is a) myspace and b) we had a different name. We’re all in the same city/country for once so thought it would be fun to do. I play bass and don’t sing.

Also for anyone checking out this site for writing work, click here for more info.

Vexed Axis, Volume Six

Not much to report on this month. Still slowly making some new sounds. Have been to quite a few different kinds of live music events, ranging from the usual haunts to a few things outside the comfort zone – so all very exciting! Some of the many highlights this month include David Grubbs, Jonti, Chad Morgan, Underground Opera Company, Sezzo, Fatti Frances, No Magic, Queensland Symphony Orchestra – to name a few!

Am on a bit of a break from live performances until mid-October while I’m trying some new studio/live ideas here at home, busy at work, and will also be holiday for a couple of weeks in September.

In the meantime, I’ve also got a track on the new Vexed Axis compilation. Stream/free download via the below link!

August, no gloop

A month since the last update? My my, time flies. In the last month or so I had a birthday, worked on some music, saw some sport. Good times all around.

The main project over the last month was working on a score for a short film by American director John Moody. It is a 10 minute exploration of Melbourne’s architecture in the CBD and is quite beautiful! Really enjoyed putting something together for it – a combination of new sounds and a few snippets from recent releases. I’ll let you know of future screenings as they occur.

Just the one show in July, a really enjoyable evening at the Unstable Landings bi-monthly event at The Bearded Lady in Brisbane’s West End. A rare banjo and guitar set!

In other news, I’ve got a couple of tracks (as well as two Anonymeye tracks and a very old Molliger track) on the preposterously outstanding BNE compilation from Brisbane label Trans:Com. This compilation + book is an incredibly elaborate undertaking and a wonderful look at the history of Brisbane electronic music.

 

I’ve been making a bit of music lately as well. Quite a bit, in fact. Preparing some new working methods in the studio, trying out some software, preparing for some exciting adventures in the next while… There’s been a lot of trial and error which has actually been really fun. I’m trying to get back into the habit of making more music and having it be a super enjoyable thing! Not that it ever hasn’t been – but sometimes can get caught up in things. Here’s a link to a private soundcloud stream of some of these ideas – 10 tracks, a minute sample each. Some of these are pretty frankly trash and I won’t be doing anything with them at all – but possibly interesting as a sketch.  Some of these I’ll flesh out more and put towards a release or something in the not too distant future. One of them features a guest, one of them is the loosest ‘cover’ of all time, there’s a few very obvious (to me) homages and so on. They’ll be up on soundcloud until they’re not anymore. Unfortunately ‘not anymore’ meant not at all – stupid browser closed when I was trying to upload it. Probably a sign from the zany world of the internet that uploading this stuff really isn’t necessary!