Music – Page 9 – helenthura.com

December 5, 2007

The new Breeders record is scheduled to be released in April 2008.

Straight from the mouth of Kim Deal and typed by Kelley Deal.
I knew it was coming next year from the little bits I have seen round the ‘net but there it is in black and white.

The new Breeders record is scheduled to be released in April 2008. There are 13 songs. Mando Lopez is still on bass, Jose Medeles on drums, Kelley Deal, my evil twin, on guitar and vocals, and I’m playing guitar and vocals.

The songs are just songs. But for instance, one song Kelley and I did live. She played stand-up bass and I played acoustic guitar while we sang. Steve Albini taped it live like that. Yet another song has Kelley playing bass and Mando playing rhythm guitar. I’m playing the lead and Kelley and I are singing throughout. On song has Mando playing a lead guitar which Albini then backward masked. One song has three, count ’em, three basses on it….

Source – Venus Zine

To say I am mildly excited would be an understatement. I just can’t wait till they tour the album. If/When they come to Aus, you can bet my bottom dollar that I might just go to more than just the Brisbane Show.

The Breeders are by no means my most listened band but they are the band which has influenced me the most. I can still vividly remember watching the Safari video clip on a Rage tape and been blown away. Who was this band?

They played Brisbane in Feb 2003. I turned 18 in Sep 2003. I was beyond devastated.

That was written yesterday, this morning when I logged onto Myspace this bulletin was waiting for me.

THE BREEDERS NEW ALBUM — MOUNTAIN BATTLES — SET FOR RELEASE ON 4AD APRIL 8, 2008 IN US AND APRIL 7, 2008 IN REST OF WORLD!

4AD is pleased to announce the forthcoming world-wide release of Mountain Battles, the new album from The Breeders on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 (April 7 outside of North America).

The Breeders released their last album – Title TK – back in 2002. Since then, of course, Kim Deal has been part of one of the most highly successful and warmly received music reunions of all time, getting back together with the rest of The Pixies for a series of exhilarating live shows in 2004 and 2005. After that, Kim headed back to Dayton, Ohio to start writing a new record.

Mountain Battles is the result. It’s an album which captures all the bittersweet electricity of classic Breeders records like Pod and Last Splash, and which breaks new ground at the same time; classic sounding, yet as relevant and exciting as ever.

Mountain Battles was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Erika Larson at Stagg Street, Manny Nieto at Manny’s Studio, at Refraze in Dayton and by Ben Mumphrey in the Basement.

The Breeders are : Kelley Deal, Kim Deal, Jose Medeles and Mando Lopez; Jose and Mando are both veterans of the Title TK campaign.

The Breeders will be playing live all over the world in 2008. Their schedule includes performances at Canadian Music Week and SxSW and Coachella, plus full tours in the USA and in Europe.

The Breeders are also set to play a full UK tour in April to mark the release of the album.

The Mountain Battles tracklisting is :

1. Overglazed
2. Bang On
3. Night Of Joy
4. We’re Gonna Rise
5. German Studies
6. Spark
7. Istanbul
8. Walk It Off
9. Regalame Esta Noche
10. Here No More
11. No Way
12. It’s The Love
13. Mountain Battles

We’re Gonna Rise is currently streaming on The Breeders myspace page. I am at work for another 7hrs 45mins. The first thing I will be doing when getting home is listening to that song 😀

December 2, 2007December 5, 2007

I have to be this way.

Friday night in The Valley.
The eve of Summer.
The Zoo.
85% sweaty males in black t-shirts.
Melbourne Bitter was the flavour of the night.
One of the greatest Punk bands.
Something special.
$35 was a bargain price.
It was The Bouncing Souls.
There is a reason they are who they are.
It was a very good night.

I went with my little brothers and one girlfriend. There was Carter ambushing Kate, yeah that Kate as in Futon store Kate. There was a guy who was in my year at school breaking his nose in the 2nd song. There were the people who smiled at me when they saw my camera and let me pop in front of them or forming a guard round me to prevent stage divers landing on me. There was milling on Ann St after the show whilst Matthew talked to the various randoms/scene kids.

It was a night which was a good night. The support bands were good, The Zoo wasn’t as hot as it normally gets.

The supports were The Gift Horse and The Black Market.

Then it was The ‘Souls.

You can view the rest of the photos over here at Flickr

November 19, 2007

Rock-Bottom Jackpot

Friday day. Another day in the office. Answering the phone. Doing the mail. Typing up quotes. Answering the phone. Chasing suppliers. All that fun stuff that fills my day between 8am and 4:30pm each day.

Friday night. Another night in this not so sleepy city. Relishing that sometimes mellow, sometimes rock reggae sound floating out into the night air. The DÃ© Jah Groove boys were in town to release their debut album Rock-Bottom Jackpot and had pulled out two of the staples of the local scene The Cool Calm Collective and Heavyweight Champions and an up and coming band The Colour who were mighty impressive.

The venue was of course The Step Inn, in some sense the little train that perhaps just could of the Brisbane venues. It used to be the Shamrock, a place on the fringe of the “The Valley” which was more of a shall we say public bar establishment than a place to go to see fine live music. The last year though the Step Inn has really “stepped up” and became almost a go to venue. They play host to a wide variety of bands from pyschobilly to reggae dub to metal and I have a feeling that after we all stop saying, it is still the Shamrock, we will realise what a treasure it just might become though it has a lot of work to go yet in improving the venue.

It doesn’t have the nicest lighting mostly due to the design of the stage and the room in general. The lighting though does change a lot depending on the band that is playing which is a lot more than can be said for some of the other live music venues round The Valley. Friday night though I was at the extremes ISO 3200, lenses wide open round the 1.8-2.2 stop and my shutter staying at 1/200 because other wise there was no hope in hell of getting crisp photos because unlike some of your more folky acts. Those boys like to move around a bit. Back to the show though. It was a nice night, talked to a few people, missed catching up with some people who I had wanted to say hi to, running into some girls from Caloundra the other weekend, taking photos and enjoying that sound. I have to give it to the DÃ© Jah boys for playing a nice long set which will stay in my little memory box for the weeks to come.

This is one of my favourite tracks off the album – One Drop High. Enjoy.
[audio:09%20One%20Drop%20High.mp3]

some photos of course. The rest are over here in a Flickr set

The Cool Calm Collective

Heavyweight Champions

The Colour

November 5, 2007December 24, 2007

…just some words from my heart…

Last Wednesday I went along to the Tivoli to shoot the Xavier Rudd concert for The Dwarf and had a ball 😀 It was my first gig with a true blue press pit and much to my astonishment, I was the only photographer there. Quite interesting. The support act Jeremey Fisher was a total treat and Xavier was well he was Xavier. The venue seemed to be lacking a little bit in terms of energy but it was still great music. That said when he started playing Let me be, I think the whole place just lit up smiles on faces or when he did a remarkable Australian version of Bob Marley’s classic Redemption Song in which you could feel Xavier beating in your heart. It was a good night.

November 2, 2007November 9, 2007

CMF Sunday

The last day of a very music filled 2.5 days at Caloundra. Part of me was glad for the festival to be over but another part of me was sad, as I had heard so much great music over the course of the weekend. Will be really interesting to see how it will be run next year and what the line up will be.

Some more DÃ© Jah Groove photos. I had enjoyed these boys at Woodford but at Caloundra they really blew me and just about everyone else away. I am still listening to the CD every few days and looking forward to when they come up in a couple of weeks time.

Another big highlight of the w/e was Kaya. Another group I had seen at Woodford and were blown away by. Kaya are four ladies who sing with such passion and soul in their voices you would think that they have been told that after this show they will not be singing anymore

I think it is pretty well known round these spaces that in terms of “Brisbane” bands, Women in Docs pretty much top the list for me and for the Sunday show they played Tin Roof which is always going to make me smile.

Tijuana Cartel
These guys were pretty classy to, mixing up classical guitar with some “rap” elements.

Lisa Hunt, the last act on the main stage and by george can this lady sing.

What a weekend it was, great music all weekend, fun times with my camera and of course meeting a great bunch of people 😀

November 1, 2007December 24, 2007

Mia Dyson & Co

Last Saturday night I headed along to The Zoo for The Dwarf for the Mia Dyson & Epicure concert. You can see all the photos from the night at The Dwarf gallery. Mia Dyson reminded me how much you never know how much you will like a band till you see them live. You can hear them on the J’s day in and day out but until you see a live show you really just don’t know. Mia Dyson had just the the right amount of rock/country/etc for me, really enjoyed her set. Epicure were great as well, I had thought that they were going to be a lot more rockier before the set but they didn’t disappoint. Matt Walker was the support as well as been Mia’s guitarist and he provided a very nice welcoming set.