Muxtape Rises

Incredibly popular and forward thinking mixtape sharing site - Muxtape - is officially closed... but soon to be relaunched! There's an awesomely candid article on the site currently explaining how and why it was shutdown.

With the amount of money involved in online music now, and the power of big online retailers like iTunes, eMusic and Amazon growing... plus the label's own online stores popping up and deals being cut with mobile providers etc. everyone is out to protect their patch. Or that of others, in the case of the RIAA.

The new Muxtape will be good news for bands...

Muxtape is relaunching as a service exclusively for bands, offering an extremely powerful platform with unheard-of simplicity for artists to thrive on the internet. Musicians in 2008 without access to a full time web developer have few options when it comes to establishing themselves online, but their needs often revolve around a common set of problems. The new Muxtape will allow bands to upload their own music and offer an embeddable player that works anywhere on the web, in addition to the original muxtape format.

But the show is over for those of us who used the service to make out own mixtapes for friends and listen to those of others. Boo!

Incoming

I'll be presenting the Incoming program this Wednesday October 1st, filling in for Richard Moffat. Tune into Triple R on 102.7FM in Melbourne or online from 4pm AEST for the latest Australian music, and maybe even an interview or two!

The Harpoons

Forget Melbourne mop-toppers Little Red. If you're looking for a true blue 60s hit of pop nostalgia wrapped in skinny jeans and youthful wide-eyed enthusiasm then check out The Harpoons. Their ragged demos sound like they were recorded live in a bathroom, the four members arranged around some ancient, retro microphone. Check them out on myspace, where highlights are Tonight Tonight and If You Wanna Dance... plus they play live at The Birmingham with Oh Mercy tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

On Air

I'll be co-hosting the Breakfast Club program on ABC Radio Australia tomorrow, Friday and Monday. It can be heard from 7:30am AEST on FM relay across Asia and the Pacific, and also online. Tune in tomorrow for Sophie Koh playing live, and then Friday for Irish trio The Script.

I Shall Be Released

Wilco and Fleet Foxes team up for a stunning live version of this classic. Listen below or at Cause = Time, and with thanks to Boing Boing for the tipoff. Wilco are using the download as a way to get people to pledge to vote in the upcoming in the US elections, and also contributing to the "Feeding America" charity. All details at Wilcoworld.

The Rectifiers and The Sun Blindness

Sensory Projects, the excellent independent Melbourne label, has been busy releasing two of the most interesting and satisfying local releases of the year so far. The Rectifiers new long-player Playtime for John Mountain finds the band at their most confident and articulate, shedding most of the alt-country baggage (much like Wilco before them) and further embracing the more experimental and widescreen-pop vision started with their prevoius effort Wear The Weight of the Resting Sky.

The record, like the most recent by Clue to Kalo, can be thought of as a 'concept' album, as the band told Mess and Noise:

“We wanted it to be kind of pastoral,” says Jo, “it’s sort of about nature and we also wanted to find new topics and things to write songs about, lyrically. So we ended up creating a really bizarre little set of characters and fed that into the album so there’s recurring themes and characters and stuff like that, and none of it really makes sense.” Says Nick, “We were trying to sort of, almost do a children’s album, just happy, not about ourselves. We didn’t want to say, ‘I’m so sad’ or whatever. Taking it completely out of that singer-songwriter kind of confessional. So the way that we approached was just by creating scenarios and little stories and that’s why it was fun because we’d just sit here drinking beers and just going, this song, what’s this song about – well obviously it’s about a dog with a blue nose. And none of that ever gets to the final kind of cut, but just the process was like you know just completely surreal and ridiculous.” full article

Playtime for John Mountain is being launched by The Rectifiers tomorrow night (Friday 19th September) at The Northcote Social Club. More details on shows and links to tunes on their myspace.



Also coming out on Sensory Projects is the debut for local duo The Sun Blindness, which is a more psychadelic, shoegazery affair. Think Spacemen 3 or the woozy, acid tones of early Stone Roses. The guys launch their record at the Northcote Social Club on September 26. Check out some of their great tunes on myspace.

Shoot The Player

Just found this great blog which reminds me of similar ideas i've seen overseas, in particular the excellent La Blogotheque crew and the Black Cab sessions from the UK. The basic premise is to put artists in an interesting place/context (usually outside or on the street) for them to perform solo. The team behind the Sydney based site acknowledge the influence of those who've gone before (and pay aestehtic homage too) but describe their own take on it thus:

Jonathan and Amelia began making single shot music videos on the streets and in locations around Sydney – that was it; shoot whomever you want, wherever you can. What you see and hear is exactly what happened on the street that day.

Featured on Shoot The Player are rad humans like Laura Jean, Young Werther and Jack Ladder. Plus some international types like the overrated Lightspeed Champion.

Check out Shoot The Player, or have a quick look at this video featuring Pikelet:


Pikelet: Pillowcastle from shoottheplayer on Vimeo.

The Drones - Havilah

Melbourne 4-piece critic-magnets The Drones are just about to release their new album Havilah. The new set was written and recorded in a mud brick cottage near Mt Buffalo, in regional Victoria. Its every bit as dark, ragged and glorious as their previous efforts, and Gareth's lyrics are as potent and uncompromising as ever. Standouts include Oh My ..."People are a waste of food, the end is nearly nigh"... and I Am The Supercargo "And I am a ruin borne by sea, the stone age smoked by dysentry". Check them in action on the slightly bizarre video for lead single The Minotaur:



Havila, the fourth studio album by The Drones is out on September 20th through ATP recordings.

Small labels are winning

Great article on The Guardian this weekend on successful small labels like Rough Trade, XL and Domino in the UK and how they are staying true to their independent nature and finding success when many major labels are struggling in the face of the changing music business.

Once upon a time, the major labels were king. They swept up sales in their velvety cloaks, showered money from the heavens, and defined the way you and I bought music. Now they're shedding staff, dropping bands and losing their star names. Now the drivers of the record industry are small, maverick labels that define trends and launch careers. Some of them even sell records by the lorryload.

Read all about it here.

Tame Impala

Also floating my boat at the moment, and gathering the attention of many switched on radio announcers, is a new band from Perth called Tame Impala. I put them on my recent podcast and they have been added to the bill of the now sold-out Meredith Music Festival in December. They are also spreading their scuzzy 60s psychadelic witchery around the land with Oz rock-royalty You Am I for their album tour, as well as international supports in October for Yeasayer and The Futureheads. Groovy!

Catch You Am I and Tame Impala for the "Lets Be Dreadful" tour here:

Thursday October 16th – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Friday October 17th – Fly By Night, Fremantle
Saturday October 18th – Fly By Night, Fremantle
Wednesday October 22nd – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Thursday October 23rd – Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Friday October 24th – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday October 25th – Sands Tavern, Maroochydore
Saturday November 1st – The Govenor HIndmarsh, Adelaide
Sunday November 2nd – Prince Of Wales, Melbourne
Monday November 3rd – Prince Of Wales, Melbourne
Thursday November 6th – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
Friday November 7th – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Saturday November 8th -San Remo, Philip Island
Sunday November 9th – Barwon Heads Hotel, Barwon Heads
Thursday November 13th – ANU Bar, Canberra
Friday November 14th – Wollongong Uni
Saturday November 15th – Cambridge Tavern, Newcastle

Blow your little mind at Tame Impala's myspace! Freak Out! Or check this great remix by Canyons of their tune "Skeleton Tiger"...