posted by david on Tue 31 Oct 2000 @ 07:38 PM

It appears that guitar-whiz Jeff Healey has a new album out, titled "Get Me Some". I haven't ventured near his stuff since his second album "Hell To Pay" but this new album seems to be getting some decent reviews (Q gave it 4 stars). Incidentally, Jeff is the one who led me to John Hiatt because he covered some Hiatt songs on his first two albums. His version of "Angel Eyes" was particularly good.

Review: Q Online

posted by david on Tue 31 Oct 2000 @ 07:21 PM

The Sydney Morning Herald has a piece discussing how the weak Australian dollar is forcing international acts to reconsider and/or cancel any plans they might have to tour Australia. We don't usually get that many big name tours (compared to somewhere like the UK or the US) so I didn't need to hear this. I hope it doesn't deter Mr Springsteen, who was rumoured to tour in January. We're lucky Ricky Martin still came out here isn't it? <cough, splutter>

posted by david on Tue 24 Oct 2000 @ 07:49 PM

Tim pointed out "you'll probably find this one out yourself because it's on the Rolling Stone homepage, but Zack de la Rocha has quit Rage Against The Machine, the band says they'll keep going, but apparently he owns the name, and as far as I know he's the one behind all the lyrics, no?" Maybe it's just me but I don't think a band should continue under the same name when the frontman quits, especially when that person is a core part of their songwriting and lyrics.

posted by david on Tue 24 Oct 2000 @ 07:42 PM

There's a certain irony in George Michael's latest outburst where he criticises the British music industry for ignoring real talent in the quest for big sales. Blind freddy can see that he's implying he's one of those with real talent (cough!). Isn't this the guy who hangs out with Geri Halliwell? George, you may have a good point, but coming from you it looks more than a little stupid.

posted by david on Mon 23 Oct 2000 @ 07:51 PM

Here's a bunch of things I couldn't be bothered posting as separate items. First, Cos pointed out that Paul Kelly has a new EP out called "Roll On Summer" which features the song "Every F*cking City". He'll be doing some gigs around the Australia capital cities from mid-November. After 11 years of musical silence, ex-Fine Young Cannibal Roland Gift will return next year with his debut solo album which may or may not be called "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (wait and see). PJ Harvey's new album "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" will be released at the end of the month and she's started showcasing the songs in some live performances.

PJ Harvey review: BBC Online

posted by david on Thu 19 Oct 2000 @ 07:54 PM

The new U2 album isn't actually released until the end of the month but as the first reviews are starting to appear I'm going to start linking to those that I come across. The US "Rolling Stone" review opens by describing "All That You Can't Leave Behind" as "U2's tenth studio album and third masterpiece" (after Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby). If you come across a review of the album somewhere, let me know so I can link to it. Actually, that request applies to any album I mention here...

Reviews: Rolling Stone - The Age (scroll down) - Wall of Sound - Billboard - The War Against Silence

posted by david on Thu 19 Oct 2000 @ 07:53 PM

First there was the challenge to crack SDMI, the proposed secure digital music formats. Then salon.com reported claims from some SDMI insiders that it had been thoroughly cracked (but the official SDMI line would deny that). The head honcho from the SDMI then denied it. And now those insiders have responded in greater detail and the head honcho has denied it again. If you find all this politicking interesting, then read on. If not, don't. Blahdy blahdy blah blah blah...
update: Some of the "crackers" have stepped forward - no less than a team of academics from Princeton University who undertook the challenge as a research project and aren't interested in the $10000 prize.

posted by david on Tue 17 Oct 2000 @ 07:55 PM

Over at Slashdot they recently discussed a piece that appeared on the ABCNEWS.com website about the new Sony Super CD format. It's basically a format that contains more detail than the standard CD. A Super CD disc has two sets of data (normal CD and "Super CD") so it can be played on a normal CD player so there's no reason why they can't start manufacturing all of their CDs in the new format. Whether people want to fork out the money for a new player is another matter. Most people listen to music in less-than-perfect environments (eg. in the car) or on less-than-perfect systems (eg. micro hi fi units) so I'd question whether the general public are going to hear the difference between normal CDs and Super CDs.

posted by david on Fri 13 Oct 2000 @ 07:58 PM

The folks at SDMI put their heads together and came up with a technique for "watermarking" music to prevent digital piracy. They then challenged the hacker community to try and break their fancy schmancy copy protection. Guess what happened next? Someone broke it. Or at least that's the rumour emanating from within the SDMI organisation. The Slashdot crew pointed out this Salon.com story which comes complete with an amusing quote from a SDMI goon: "That's false, [but] I don't know the specifics because I'm not on the testing committee." Now that's what I call a convincing denial. :-) update: The RIAA have announced they will introduce a standard way of tagging digital music files. No doubt this will make things easier for them when managing their own digital music catalogues but they're putting an almost comical "this will help us stop piracy" spin on the story. If the best efforts of a high-powered consortium like SDMI can't come up with something to do it it's pretty obvious that the RIAA doesn't stand a chance.

posted by david on Fri 13 Oct 2000 @ 07:56 PM

Melbourne music lovers may want to head down to Queenscliff on the weekend of Nov 24-26 to catch their annual music festival. This year the lineup includes Black Sorrows, Ed Kuepper, Deborah Conway, Vika & Linda, Fourplay and Mental As Anything (to name a few). You can find all the details at the festival website. Thanks to Mark O'Meara who pointed this out in a posting to the Deborah Conway mailing list.

posted by david on Thu 12 Oct 2000 @ 08:01 PM

It seems that the single format has just been re-invented - record label Arista have announced their first set of DVD singles. I guess it was only a matter of time before they started selling us the videos as well as the songs themselves. I suspect releases like this won't happen too often, it takes time to assemble a DVD with extras like interview footage. I wouldn't be surprised if they just start packaging their DVD singles in a generic form, with the video clip for the song and a generic Arista menu system for accessing stuff. The price here seems a bit rich, almost equivalent to a full-price album for a glorified single. I suspect they won't sell in amazing quantities like that but I can't see any reason why they can't become the standard single format in the future.

posted by david on Tue 10 Oct 2000 @ 08:02 PM | read or post comments (1)

I've got a bundle of Joe Jackson albums but I must confess, I'm not sure why. Sometimes he can be a very sharp pop songwriter (eg. "Real Men") but he's always seemed a touch too serious and calculated for me. His more recent albums have consisted of classical-type pieces, with the song cycle of "Heaven & Hell" and the obviously titled "Symphony No. 1". His new album will be released on October 24 and is titled "Night & Day II", a sequel to his 1982 album. It features a couple of guest vocalists, most notably Marianne Faithfull. Whether this is a return to classy pop or not remains to be seen. Billboard has an article with info and the dates for the accompanying tour. If nothing else, I love the inside-a-New-York-cab cover photo.

Review: The War Against Silence

posted by david on Sat 7 Oct 2000 @ 08:03 PM

When his songs have been sung by people like Sinatra, Streisand, Cocker, Garfunkel and Cash, it's probably fair to say that Jimmy Webb has few peers in the field of songwriting. Looking beyond that, he is a surprisingly powerful and wonderfully expressive singer. As a pianist he is simply formidable. Of course, the best way to appreciate all of this is to catch a Webb live performance. The first night of his 3-night stand at Melbourne's Continental Cafe had the crowd begging for more (I lost count of the encores). I wasn't familiar with all of the material (hey, all I've got is "Ten Easy Pieces") but there was no question this was one very classy gig. update: Brian Wise of Addicted To Noise has written a review of one of the shows. Yes, that's one of my photos.

see the rest...

posted by david on Wed 4 Oct 2000 @ 08:06 PM

In 1998 when mp3 technology became a massive blob on the radar of the recording industry, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) group was formed so that the various record companies and electronics manufacturers could bash heads to devise a secure (ie. profitable) way of distributing music digitally. Two years on they've yet to come to an agreement on what to do and there are many within the SDMI who feel the battle is now completely pointless. The Slashdot crew have pointed out a great article that explains the SDMI infighting and makes some excellent points about why SDMI will fail. It repeats the assertion that supposedly inaudible watermarking probably isn't and this quote is representative of the piece: "If SDMI continues to search for something that simply doesn't exist, then you have to wonder, why continue this process?"

posted by david on Tue 3 Oct 2000 @ 07:07 PM

These shouldn't be lumped together but hey, this is my site and I'll do what I like. First, Jimmy Webb is heading to Australia shortly for a few performances. He's playing the Continental Cafe in Melbourne this Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I suspect there are also appearances in other cities. If you're thinking "who?", think "Galveston", "Up, Up and Away" and "Wichita Linesman" performed solo (with grand piano accompaniment) by the man who wrote them. Second, English singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole is also heading our way and I know of performances at both the Corner and the Continental Cafe in Melbourne later in November. I heard of someone altering their honeymoon plans so that they could catch one of these gigs. And last but not least, AC/DC have announced an Australian tour starting early next year. Woohoo.

posted by david on Tue 3 Oct 2000 @ 06:08 PM

When I was compiling the list of "new releases" in my head yesterday the new Radiohead album was going to be amongst them but for reasons known only to my subconscious, it somehow slipped my mind. Well, it's out and the buzz so far is that it's very different, avoiding guitars in favour of electronic noises and at times sounding more like jazz than rock. Naturally the critics are running around in excitement about the simple fact they've released something new, as Bernard Zuel does in the Sydney Morning Herald. Curiously, he says very little about the new album itself. Apparently there were no pre-release pressings sent to the media so they've been stuck trying to digest something quite challenging as quickly as possible. update: There's an interesting interview with Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien in the Sydney Morning Herald. The judgement of this journalist is a little questionable, he recently described Moby as "one of the humanitarians of our time" (huh?).

Reviews: Billboard - Rolling Stone - Wall of Sound - Dotmusic - Citysearch

posted by david on Mon 2 Oct 2000 @ 08:10 PM

There's a few albums hitting shops about now that sound interesting. The previously mentioned new John Hiatt album "Crossing Muddy Waters" is generating some glowing reviews that have been throwing around the word "masterpiece". John has also launched an official website. The new releases from Pearl Jam have also been generating a little interest, primarily because of the sheer number of them: 25 new live albums. Yes, you read that right, 25 double-disc albums. Is this the first concerted effort to thwart bootleggers like this? And when they're all pitched at regular prices with no "buy-em-all-and-save" deal, is it really going to be cost-effective? Reviews of the actual albums have been positive but of course they've been pointing out the couple that they feel are essential. The band have since announced that there will probably be a further 25 albums from the US leg of their tour. I'm glad I'm not a Pearl Jam fan, it sounds like an expensive time for them. In other news, Mark Knopfler has a new album out titled "Sailing to Philadelphia" and there's a new David Bowie release titled "Bowie at the Beeb" (as in "BBC").

Reviews: (John Hiatt) Wall of Sound
Reviews: (Pearl Jam) Wall of Sound - Rolling Stone - Billboard
Reviews: (Mark Knopfler) Wall of Sound
Reviews: (David Bowie) Wall of Sound

posted by david on Mon 2 Oct 2000 @ 05:11 PM

As you're probably already aware, the new Go Betweens album "The Friends of Rachel Worth" is now in shops. Graham Lee from record label WMinc Productions sent us a link to an interview on the Spin site: "I know this is in my own interests David but it's a very good interview with three songs in Real Audio format (with video) and Grant and Robert chatting about their past and present. Includes a wonderful story from Robert about meeting Lee Remick. The Spin site itself seems to be a very good one. They're also featuring a Nick Drake article." Critical reaction to the album has veered from lukewarm to ecstatically positive, as Graham noted the other week on the WMinc website.

posted by david on Sun 1 Oct 2000 @ 08:13 PM

By all reports, the Sydney Olympic Games went off very, very smoothly. The opening ceremony was suitably theatrical, the music was conservatively chosen and then the following sporting events allowed the TV commentators to unleash all of their favourite cliches on the unsuspecting public. And tonight I've caught glimpses of the closing ceremony and quite frankly, I'm still reeling. My surprise at seeing Midnight Oil on stage was quickly eclipsed by the astonishing sight of their clothing, clearly displaying the word "sorry". And then I was further amazed by their choice of song: the lyrically pointed "Beds Are Burning". I don't think anyone expected them to be able to sing "it belongs to them/let's give it back" at an event like this. And if all that wasn't enough, the following act was Yothu Yindi singing "Treaty" with it's simple refrain "treaty yeah, treaty now". So, what did John Howard think of all that? I can't imagine him being a happy chappy. update: I've finally found a piece that gives some background on the Oils and those shirts, complete with a picture of Peter wearing one. The Sydney Morning Herald has another piece in a similar vein plus another discussing the political reaction.