posted by david on Wed 23 May 2001 @ 08:51 PM | read or post comments (1)

You don't know what you've got until you lose it. I've only been in Melbourne a year but as the news of Conti closing broke, I began to realise just how much I was going to miss it. I can only imagine the sense of loss felt by those who worked or played there, and if you wanted proof of just how much they loved the Conti, the final show provided bucketloads of it. Consider the huge lineup for the evening: 30 acts consisting of 80 performers, including Blackeyed Susans, Matt Walker, Paul Kelly, Renee Geyer, Stephen Cummings, Tiddas, Even, Vika & Linda, Rebeccas Empire, Mick Thomas, Deborah Conway, Jeff Lang, David Bridie and Mark Seymour. Consider the huge crowd that remained after five hours of single song sets. Consider the applause that greeted Mario's vicious condemnation of the landlord's behaviour. Or consider my final memory of the night, when the stagehand signalled for the final closure of the purple curtain by cutting his hand across his neck. As it slowly slid across, the Conti staff who had gathered near the stage quietly turned to each other, embraced and quietly began sobbing.

Links: The Age - Addicted To Noise - WMinc

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posted by david on Tue 22 May 2001 @ 08:52 PM

Robert Hilburn is one of those oft-quoted American music critics and someone on a Emmylou Harris mailing list pointed out this article where he discusses the future of music as a career in light of the whole mp3 phenomenon. Will new talents be able to sustain a long term career when young people are using the net to isolate the stuff they want and discard the rest? Personally I don't think the attention span of the general public has changed: music is something that people take to heart so buying an album is partly a financial decision but primarily an emotional decision. Maybe record companies are running a little scared in the quest to make a fast buck but that's a sign of their attempt to predict and commoditise the ebb and flow of the industry, not the music fan. Part of the reason mp3 technology is popular is because it allows music listeners to bypass the random whims of record companies and go directly to what particularly interests them. Did free radio kill album sales? Did cheap singles kill album sales? Did MTV kill album sales? Or do they all just serve to help establish long term fan loyalty? Is the mp3 generation really any different? Just because someone discovers an artist by downloading a song for free doesn't mean they won't be willing to go out and purchase their future releases. Quite the opposite I'd say.

posted by david on Mon 21 May 2001 @ 08:53 PM

Ross Robinson sent me a note to say "Got an advance copy of Travis' new album 'The Invisible Band' which is due for release sometime in June. I don't know if you're a fan, but the new album is really good. I don't think it will be the big hit 'The Man Who' was, but there's at least four singles there." Is it just me or is their website a bit too cool for it's own good? White on black, tiny fonts, wasted browser space...<whine, whine> Actually I only got around to picking up "The Man Who" a few weeks ago (oh bargain bins, how I love thee, let me count the ways) and apart from the singles it hasn't done huge things for me. Maybe I need to give it a few more spins but first it will have to prise Kasey Chambers' "The Captain" out of my player (another belated purchase but a dead impressive debut album nevertheless).

posted by david on Sun 20 May 2001 @ 08:55 PM

Any way you look at the Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs", it's an odd album. A sprawling 3-disc set of, yes, 69 love songs, it not so much defies easy categorisation as it laughs mockingly at the very thought of it. I have found it a difficult album to get into (where do you start?) so I was looking forward to this show in the hope it would help crystallise some of my thoughts on it. While I'm still not enamoured of the dry vocal technique of songwriter Stephin Merritt his songs are starting to get under my skin to the extent that I've found "The Luckiest Guy on The Lower East Side" bouncing around in my head ever since the gig. On stage I found the slower material too slow but the catchier pop songs were rendered with all their irresistible hooks intact, with "Oh Yeah" a particular highlight. Stephin's withdrawn stage manner didn't appear to engage the audience properly but his dry personality was balanced by the unbridled enthusiasm of pianist and vocalist Claudia Gonson. While unusual gigs such as this are what has made the Continental a treasured institution, I think the performers must have felt a little out of place given that this was the penultimate show at the venue. According to a piece in today's Age, the fate of the Continental itself remains uncertain.

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posted by david on Wed 16 May 2001 @ 08:57 PM

There's an interesting piece over at the Sydney Morning Herald which talks about a Sydney radio station and a pay TV music channel showing some courage in their playlists and offering a mix of different styles of music. Whilst the competition for advertising dollars has made radio stations rely heavily on sanitised "market research" these two are bucking the trend by increasing their audiences by offering rather diverse music mixes. It doesn't surprise me that much that they would succeed, Rage has been doing that for years while watching many other music programs come and go.

posted by david on Fri 11 May 2001 @ 08:58 PM

It's been more than two years since the last album from Melbourne-based rock-popsters Even but their third effort, "A Different High", is about to be released. For Ron Sexsmith, sanity has prevailed and his Steve Earle-produced album "Blue Boy" has finally found a record label in ART Records and will see light of day on June 5. And that uncomfortable sound you can hear is Elvis Costello fans gnashing their teeth at the news that his back-catalogue will be re-issued on CD a third time with each release packing an entire extra disk of bonus tracks. I'm all for releasing extra material but couldn't they release them in a box set or something so that the fans don't feel like they're getting screwed?

posted by david on Thu 3 May 2001 @ 08:59 PM

I wish it were April 1. According to news reports this morning, the Continental Cafe, perhaps one of the finest live music venues in Australia, is to close. As The Age explains, the owners were unable to agree a new lease with the landlord. The final gig will be the Magnetic Fields on May 19. I'm completely flabbergasted and hearing Shane O'Mara discussing it on ABC radio this morning, many musicians are equally stunned. 8/5 update: Stephen Cummings has written a piece for The Age and the Addicted To Noise website also has an article about it. 11/5 update: The latest news is that the Continental will re-open under a new name with new management. What I don't understand: how can the new owners make it work where Mario and Mario couldn't? Will the venue be dumbed down?

posted by david on Thu 3 May 2001 @ 08:59 PM

A handful of albums are seeing release this week. The new album from Lucinda Williams is titled "Essence" and is the follow-up to her acclaimed "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road". REM's new album is "Reveal" and one review I've read describes it as a return to basics comparable to U2 and their "All That You Can't Leave Behind". Elvis Costello is still dabbling with classical musicians, this time producing mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter singing songs written by Costello, Ron Sexsmith and Tom Waits (amongst others) on the album "For The Stars". And the mystically inclined Stevie Nicks is back with "Trouble in Shangri-La", featuring appearances from Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham and Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines.