Weekly WTF: Angry Birds Breakfast

TAF11 Dates Confirmed

The new BDO site is up along with dates and the first lineup!

Without further ado - TAF11 will be held on the - 29/30 Jan 2011

Heres the Lineup (in no particular order)
TOOL
RAMMSTEIN
IGGY AND THE STOOGES
M.I.A
JOHN BUTLER TRIO
GRINDERMAN
BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77
WOLFMOTHER
LUPE FIASCO
DEFTONES
THE BLACK KEYS
BIRDS OF TOKYO
PRIMAL SCREAM - SCREAMEDELICA LIVE
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS
DIE ANTWOORD
ANGUS & JULIA STONE
PLAN B
BOOKA SHADE DJS
BLISS N ESO
THE NAKED & FAMOUS
THE JIM JONES REVUE
AIRBOURNE
ANDREW W.K.
LITTLE RED
PNAU
GYROSCOPE
CSS
DEAD LETTER CIRCUS
KID KENOBI & MC SHURESHOCK
VITALIC
RATATAT
BLUE KING BROWN
KIDS OF 88
OPERATOR PLEASE
CHILDREN COLLIDE
WILL STYLES
GYPSY & THE CAT
LOWRIDER
SAMPOLOGY

Stay tuned as I scour the site and more artists are announced!
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Wiki Wednesdays: Swan Bells

Already I've decided to warp this segment into a Perth (re)education opportunity as it seems we are surrounded by landmarks and buildings of historical significance but have no idea why!

Last week was guff on Greenwood Station but let take it up a notch - what about The Swan Bells

What: The Swan Bells (aka: The Bell Tower, that thing, WTF, pointy waste of money)
Where: Barrack St Jetty, Barrack St, Perth CBD
Why: The Swan Bells were supposedly built to commemorate the new millennium.
Who cares: Alot of people! The entire project was surrounded in controversy starting with a supposed 'vote' for it. No one seemed to know anyone who was asked to vote but apparently we all decided the Swan Bells project should go ahead.

In reality the project only cost 5.5m and successfully started an image for the city shoreline. Visitors to the Swan Bells have extended beyond 1million so @ $11 entry its already paid for itself anyway. On top of that, they rent a little bit of it to BOCS ticketing so all the hoop-lar about costs were all for nothing.

Anything Else: The tower itself houses 18 bells, 12 of which were donated to WA in from England in 1988 to commemorate the bicentenary. The bells have a combined weight of around 9t and when playing cause considerable force on the stability of the structure. While it may look fragile, it has been carefully designed using spokes and columns around the spire axis set in re-enforced concrete cast in situ.

As there isn't a volume knob on a bell, the structure itself contains sound proof glass louvres which can direct the 'music' toward the city/river/nowhere when required.

If you want to know more, check out the real Wiki article link below. The history of the 12 english bells date back to the 14th century so if your interested its worth a read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Bells

Class dismissed

P.S. The 'Perth Wheel' which was alongside it was run by a private company, not run by the City of Perth (COP). Despite the common perception the COP didn't drop the ball causing it to be removed. The owners wanted another 5 year lease but as that would run into the upcoming foreshore development project the COP counter offered a maximum 3 year lease. This was declined for some reason and the wheel was removed.
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Open Your Ears Wk 37

Bag Raiders - Way Back Home


Keep on the lookout for this up n coming New South Welshan artist, heavily into the whole electronic/remix thing but with a pop sensibility
click to watch/listen

most probably if anything you would have heard their song Shooting Stars which finished at #18 in last years Hottest 100 on triple j

Wiki Wednesdays

Ok, so here is a new idea I thought I'd trial. We all know Wikipedia has a vast partially factual array of pages on everyone and everything but does has anyone actually searched on Wikipedia for something?

I know from my experience that I chuck blahdiblah into Google and if the wikipedia entry shows up near the top I'll probably click it but I've never manually gone to Wikipedia.com and searched.

This weeks random Wiki page is the Greenwood Train Station.

Sounds like an odd one at first but have a quick read. While short, its packed with information you never thought you needed to know about it including proposed names, train line, zone, parking layout and even when buses run and where to!

So who the hell has bothered to add it or even cares about the info! On that bombshell - Congratulations Greenwood TS - You're awesome for mediocre normality causing fame.
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Weekly WTF: Lego Dope

TAF11 Is Coming, Are You Ready?

With the overwhelming success of TAF10 we'd look stupider than a redneck in Faithless if we didn't continue it onward and upward.

There have been some huge changes/improvements/addons to the TAF11 setup and we hope they are all embraced by the attendees to create a bigger and better festival this time around. Everything that went well is of course remaining so those that are making it back-to-back TAF's you'll see some similarities.

So Whats The Same?
- It will be over 2 days with camping strongly recommended. I can safely vouch for the TAF10 campers and say it was awesome!
- The lineup will be dictated by BDO. CD's will again be purchased and redistributed to attendees after Sunday's headlining act closes the festival.
- 2 Beers on tap. I'll leave the finer details to the Ah' Yeah brewing company but be assured your palette will remain satisfied.

Whats Changed?
- TAF11 will NOT be on the same weekend as BDO. We're waiting on the official dates to be announced but at this stage it looks like TAF will be on the 22nd/23rd Jan 2011.
- New house means fresh layout! I'll be creating a new festival map over the next few months so you don't get lost.
- We have been approached by 2nd brewery hoping to get in on TAF so your beverage choice could be even more widespread!

And Whats New?
- Live performances. There will be an allocated timeslot on Saturday afternoon for 'TAF Undiscovered' acts. More info to come later on but we're thinking acoustic guitars and amplified vocals so get writing and rehearsing!
- Merchandise and more!!!!

I'll leave it at that for now but get it in your calender and stay tuned for the date to be cemented in later this month.

Cmon, get amongst it!
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Not Charles Darwin

We're back from Darwin! But oh if you didn't know, We're going to Darwin!

Kylie has always wanted to go, I hadn't been either and it was a easy intro to planes for Cam so we decided to take advantage of our relatives up there and soak up some sun for a week.

We'll I can now say there's sun and there's SUN. Holy sugarplums it was hot. No record breakers on the temperature front as it was 30-36 each day but the humidity was enough to make a cactus weep. Oh and a side note - you cant swim at the beach because of crocs!

Needless to say we spent alot of time in the spa or a/c over the time so it wasn't too bad. We saw all the museums on WWII and cyclone Tracy etc, soaked up the atmosphere at the Darwin Boat Show on fathers day (beautiful!) and ate way too much Barramundi.

Our live-in babysitter (otherwise known as Linda) volunteered to clean up after Cam for 2 days so we jumped in the car and headed to Katherine Gorge for a huge day trip. 3.5hrs each way and a 2hr boat cruise down the Katherine river in between - Lovely Lovely Lovely! Really happy we made the effort as its a truly spectacular part of Australia.

Our 2nd day 'off' was spent floating in croc infested waters in Corroboree Billabong fishing for Barra. No fish to speak of but plenty of crocs made our necks sorer than watching 6 tennis games back to back. After a few mins it was clear why so many people get eaten every year - #1: Stupidity, #2 Vision (or lack of). People are walking past signs saying Crocs and wading waist-deep into the water to launch their boats. We're talking water that is so murky you cant see anything 5cm below the surface so if you thought you could react in time - think again!

Took Cam to Lichfield National Park (pictured) which was great. Including a swim in one of the waterfall lagoons which apparently has freshwater crocs from time to time so that made mother a little nervous. Of course saying "She'll be right" didn't help much. Did a small rainforest style walk until we saw a few rather large wild forest spiders that looked unwelcoming. Lots of pics to prove it too!

Anyway it was a great trip both for the scenery and the company. Cam did REALLY well on the plane and even slept through the entire landing into Perth. Not that there was any doubt he's perfect :)

Good to be back and doing DIY on the house again though ............ yea right!
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Imitation is the best form of flattery?¿?

Ok so its no secret I am a huge Triple J fan, now I am also bright enough to know this does not go for the majority of the population and I'm happy with that. I don't think less of people because they prefer pop, r'n b, best of the 70's 80's and 90's or whatever, I just prefer not to listen to it myself.

Now I might be dragging my heals and refusing to believe I am not a teenager anymore and youth alternative radio is soooo my kinda scene. Its seems now however that I now have another option, NOVA...

It seems the newest kid on the block who has never really found a niche market and have seemingly tampered with their stylings since inception (anyone remember when they started and they played old school grunge like Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots ), are now becoming a "best of" Triple J station. It's almost like someone at Nova has a job to listen to Triple J and pick the best songs to transfer across.

This tears me apart a little as I don't know whether I like this or not, here lies my internal dilemma...some points about my fave station
A) Triple J has been the intial stepping stone for a crapload of artists in Australia, Silverchair, Grinspoon, Killing Heidi (now "The Verses")are some of the bands who were launched by Triple J find a band comps. Powderfinger's first songs were played only by the js, we could go on but the point has been made.
B) With an emphasis on new music you get a variety of results on Triple J, you kinda wade thru the crap to find the gold, also being a wide genre like "alternative" you get a huge variety of styles, hip hop, punk, metal, indie, folk/blues and apparently nearly 45% australian content which is way above the legal requirement which is around 20 i think.
C) NO ads ;)
D) Free range on swearing in songs

anyway so back on track here, Nova is now seemingly mimicing the high rotation tracks on the j's and launching it as "you heard it first on Nova". This is really good for the exposure of these artists who will become so much more economically viable by getting into the general population. This is good for the artists who make the music that I enjoy so it can't be a bad thing.

I stayed up watching Channel V top 10 last night and I couldn't believe the songs, let me list the ones I know are j-born

Plans - Birds of Tokyo
Sunday Best - Washington
Rock It - Little Red
My Eagle - Children Collide
F U - Cee Lo Greene
Big Jet Plane - Angus & Julia Stone
Revolution - John Butler Trio

I mean don't get me wrong, I was loving this mix and it was followed by some new Mark Ronson, kanye, arcade fire and more. A few of these songs were in my line up for Open Your Ears future episodes but if they are getting to public radio/tv first then my segment becomes a little nulified! argh

So is alternative "in"?
Are Nova trying to convert outside people to this music or triple j listeners to Nova?
does it even matter? more airtime for alternative music has to be a good thing

PS. this isnt a new thing, just felt like writing about it since i saw channel V last night, check out this blog page from last year

Open Your Ears Wk 36

Arcade Fire - Ready To Start

Phil has previously shown much disdain for this artist but anyhoo, they are a unique artist indeed. If you don't know them then certainly worthy of a spot in my weekly segment

YouTube Video

if i ever had the time or the inclination to do my 100 best songs ever then they would feature these three fo shizzle

Wake Up

Neighbourhood #3 (Power out)


Keep the Car Running

"they don't call it the amazing race for nothing"

Open Your Ears Wk 35

Talking like I'm falling down stairs - Sparkadia

Sparkadia was a four piece back in their early days but since have dispersed to just leave the brains trust Alex Burnett to run it as his own entity. Based out of New South Wales Alex has a penchant for writing beautiful indie/pop songs.

Jealousy came in at number 79 in Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2008 and along with the strong debut album allowed Sparkadia to tour the world as a support act for many big bands like Death Cab, Pet Shop Boys, Hot Hot heat, Vampire Weekend and Elbow. This has actually given them a bigger support base in Europe then here in Aus.

No youtube of the new single but it can be found on the myspace site along with their other three singles from the last album. I couldn't pick four better songs to show his talent so listen to them all

www.myspace.com/sparkadia

Alex also blogs and tweets a bit, if you're interested in music then he is frequently blogging about it here... sparkadia.wordpress.com