The Now Now 2009 Festival

Details for The Now Now 2009 Festival have just been released. Spreading itself over three days in the Blue Mountains from the 16th to the 19th of January, this looks like it's going to be a good one. Featuring, amongst others, Eugene Chadbourne. Make sure you check it out if you're in the area. More info below:

Founding mothers, Clayton Thomas and Clare Cooper will be here, along with friends from Berlin - Magda Mayas (piano) and Steve Heather (percussion). Also american maverick songster and noise magician Eugene Chadbourne with some of the most exciting improvised music talent from Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Brisbane and Melbourne.

the NOW now 2009 is brought to you by Jim Denley, Peter Farrar, Monika Brooks, Mike Majkowski and Alex Masso. To contact us: series at thenownow.net

the NOW now would like to thank Arts NSW, The Australia Council and ABC Classic FM for their support.

Friday, 16 January, 2009

Afternoon concert @ Lhamda Books
5pm : THE PROPHETS : drums and saxophones and masks : Dale Gorfinkel / Peter Farrar / Rosalind Hall / Sam Dobson / Finn Ryan / and more
5:30pm : Inge Olmheim / Aemon Webb : Electronics

Evening concert @ Wentworth Falls School of Arts
7:00pm : PIN PIN PIN TRIO : Clare Cooper (guzheng) / Magda Mayas (piano) / Steve Heather (percussion)
7:30pm : THE SPIDERS : James Heighway (everything)
8:00pm : Adam Sussman / Martin Kirkwood : Acoustic Guitars
8:30pm : (outdoors) : T.A.D. and Yusuke : voices and guitars
9:00pm : Eugene Chadbourne : freely improvised country guitar and banjo http://www.eugenechadbourne.com
9:45pm : Pateras / Baxter / Brown + Louise Curham : prepared piano / prepared guitar / unprepared drums / performative film (respectively)

Late concert @ Akemi
from 11:00pm :
Clayton Thomas (double bass) / Dale Gorfinkel (vibraphone / inventions) / Finn Ryan (drums)

Cinemusic (1972) : a film by David Ahern, made with Phil Noyce : introduced by Geoffrey Barnard

Lloyd Honeybrook / Robin Fox : prepared saxophone and computer

Saturday, 17 January, 2009

Morning concert @ King's Cave
6:00am : Steve Heather : percussion

Sound Walk : with Anthony Magen : from King's Cave and midday

Afternoon Concert @ King's Cave
2:00pm : Inge Olmheim (electronics) / Ian Pieterse (baritone saxophone) / Rosalind Hall (prepared alto saxophone)
2:30pm : Sam Dobson (double bass) / Jon Rose (violin)

Afternoon talk @ Wentworth Falls School of Arts
5:30pm : Birdsong : The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music : Hollis Taylor

Evening Concert @ Wentworth Falls School of Arts
7:00pm : Clayton Thomas / Clare Cooper / Robin Fox : strings and computer manipulation
7:30pm : Joe Derrick / Simon Ferenci : trumpets
8:00pm : Kusum Normoyle / Aaron Clarke / Rivka Schembri / Bonnie Hart : voices
8:30pm : HELMET HEAD : Rod Cooper and Anthony Magen : Audiovisual madness
9:00pm : Laura Altman / Magda Mayas / Monika Brooks : clarinet, piano and accordion
9:30pm : BOTBORG : audio visual feedback web

Late concert @ Akemi
from 11:00pm :
Pilgramage from Scattered Points : a film on the Scratch Orchestra by Luke Fowler

Doc Chad (Eugene Chadbourne) Left Wing Country Jam

Sunday, 18 January, 2009

Midday in Wilson Park : KITE MUSIC : Jon Rose and Robin Fox

Afternoon Concert @ Wentworth Falls School of Arts
2:00pm : THE SPLINTER ORCHESTRA : the NOW now's very own house band
2:45pm : Anthony Pateras : solo piano
3:30pm : THE LOOP ORCHESTRA : Australia's longest running experimental music project : John Blades / Richard Fielding / Manny Gasparinatos / Hamish Mackenzie / Juke Wyatt
4:00pm : Mike Majkowski : solo double bass

Evening concert @ Akemi
from 7:00pm :
- Dave Brown / Joe Musgrove / James Heighway : guitars and electronics
- THE UNAUSTRALIANS
- Hosebeast : Jon Hunter / Ivan Lysiak / Peter Newman : guitar and drums and computer
- Lucas Abela / Sean Baxter

Click here to get your festival tickets.

Chick Corea and John McLaughlin - Five Piece Band Second Show

Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, who are teaming up with a few other people to form a five piece band for some shows around Australia, have just announced a second show at the Sydney Opera House. Tickets for this event go on sale this morning: don't miss out. More info below:

Drummer Brian Blade will now join Chick Corea and John McLaughlin’s Five Peace Band when they head to Australia & New Zealand this summer, February 2009.

Blade replaces Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, teaming up McBride (upright bass) and Garrett (saxophone), and of course the legendary Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. Colaiuta has become unavailable due to other continuing tour commitments.
Hailing from a Louisiana childhood infused with the sounds of Gospel, Blade’s musical development began in the school band, gaining an early appreciation for Jazz. Graduating to University Blade moved to New Orleans, establishing himself as a versatile & accomplished drummer, becoming apart of the local scene with inspiring & nurturing musicians such as Ellis Marsalis, John Vidacovich, to Harry Connick Jr & Daniel Lanois. In 1998 Blade & friend Jon Cowherd formed Fellowship, eventually evolving into his highly acclaimed Blue Note debut Brian Blade Fellowship. Blade has since appeared on albums with Joshua Redman & Kenny Garrett, & more recently recorded with Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris & Joni Mitchell.

This will be the first time Grammy Award winning pianist-composer-bandleader Chick Corea & guitarist John McLaughlin have joined forces since they were members of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew era band over forty years ago. Playing music from then & now, with Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride & Brian Blade, the Chick Corea & John McLaughlin Five Peace Band is poised to elevate new audiences with series of legendary concerts.

With illustrious musical careers dating back over more than four decades, Chick Corea & John McLaughlin created explosive live bands melding rock with jazz, Return To Forever & the Mahavishnu Orchestra, two of the most popular instrumental groups of all time. Their music went far beyond the ordinary, fusing energy, spirituality, emotion, with improvisation & hard rock. These groups inspired a new generation to expand their own musical horizon.

Don’t miss this chance to witness these incredible artists shine on stage.

New Dälek Record January, 2009!

Dälek have just recently announced that they are planing on releasing a follow up to their groundbreaking hip-hop record Abandoned Language, which was release on Ipecac Recordings in 2007. The new record is called Gutter Tactics, and will also be released on Ipecac, slated for a January 27, 2009 release. More info below:

What's good my peoples????
Well the subject line is pretty self-explanatory. Our new album is set to be released on January 27th, 2009 on Ipecac Recordings! ARTWORK AGAIN by MR PAUL ROMANO, photos by ALEXANDRA MOMIN, graff tags and pieces by MARKO BURBANO,OPIEM, and PAUL HIMSELF!!! REAL OTHER LEVEL WORK!! WORTH THE PRICE OF THE RECORD JUST FOR THE ARTWORK!!!! I just posted two joints off the new one, "2012 (the Pillage)" and "No Question" here on our myspace page. Hope yall feel them as much as we do.

Just got back from a 3 week+ run of Scandinavia, with shows in Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Greece. We want to thank everyone who came out to the shows, as always we APPRECIATE the love and support!!!! Mad respect to NIC, ACTION BEAT, OTTO von SCHIRAC, GRIMELOCK, LAINEEN KASPERI, ZU, FULTON LIGHTS, and the rest of the bands we had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this time around!

We head back out after a week of pseudo-rest, on NOV. 24th with our family DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS on a 3 week + run all over the UK, SCOTLAND,IRELAND, with a few other random stops (GERMANY, CHECH REPUBLIC, and SWITZERLAND). So even though technically we are wrapping up touring for the year, yall know us by now, we never stop!!!! Plans are already in the works for full GUTTER TACTICS WORLD TOUR in 2009!!!
Will keep you posted! Line ups should include us out with ODDATEEE, DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS, ZU, among others!!!

ON the ODDATEEE front.... DEADVERSE RECORDINGS is up and running!!!!!
ODDATEEE's "Halfway Homeless" was released on November 4th!!!! So if you haven't already GET A COPY!!!!! CHECK YOUR STORES, CHECK ITUNES, JUST GET IT!!!! WE AIN"T SONY MUTHAFUKAS BUY OUR RECORDS (dälek records too!) EVEN IF YOU DOWNLOAD THEM FIRST....BUY OUR SHIT!!!!
aight enough ranting.

I got plans as to upcoming releases, but I'll keep them close to my vest for now!!!!
Check www.myspace.com/deadverserecordings and www.deadverserecordings.com for updates!

deadverse.com will be updated as well. For now it all starts here! SPREAD THE WORD. 10+ YEARS IN THIS GAME!!!! AND WE STILL COMING, BOUT TO SMACK MUTHAFUCKAS ACROSS THE MOUTH WITH A BRICK!!!!
I'm amped for this, hope yall can tell!!!
ONE,
dälek

Five Shows You Should See This Week in Sydney

Here are some shows you might want to catch throughout the week if you're in Sydney:

1. Sunday 22/11/08: Dracopede, Onani and Camoo at Re-Pressed Records (365 King Street Newtown). Cost: Free!



2. Monday: 24/11/08: Now Now Festival launch at Serial Space (33 Wellington Street Chippendale). Cost: Free!



Here's all the info you need for this:

NOW now 2009 Festival Program Launch

In 2009 the festival will again be held in the Blue Mountains from
16th-18th of January, based around the Wentworth Falls School of
Arts, with a packed line up of some of the sickest improvising talent
in the country, and a few from out of it. There will be gigs at
Kings Cave in Linden (one at dawn), late night events at AKEMI, some
historic films, unscheduled jammimg into the wee hours and sonic kite
flying in a park.

The festival program will be launched at a free concert on November
24th, featuring three performances.

Anthea Caddy (cello) / Thembi Soddell (electronics), whose CD ILAND
is one of the classics of exploratory music from Australia - two
young Melbourne women redefining what it means to play with
instruments and recorded sound.

Jack Dibben / Finn Ryan / Abel Cross / Aemon Webb ? four of the
best looking sonic explorers in Sydney form a boy band from hell.

+ Lloyd Swanton: a rare solo performance by Sydney's master double
bassist. His work with The Necks has for years been a sensuous anchor
- come and hear him up close and alone.

Discounted festival passes will be available on the night, and the
program - featuring extraordinary international and Australian
musicians, new collaborations, rare films about experimental music
from Sydney.

3. Saturday 29/11/08: Pivot and My Disco at The Gaelic Club. Cost: $15.



4. Friday 28/11/08: Woev and Lloyd & Michael at Serial Space. Cost: $8/10





5. Sunday 30/11/08: Mike Nock at Bohemian Grove. Cost: $10

Fantômas Coming to Australia

According to Trevor Dunn's MySpace page, Fantômas will be playing a slab of dates in Australia as follows:

Jan 16 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Aukland, NZ
Jan 18 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Gold Coast, Aus
Jan 21 2009 8:00P	The Tivoli (supporting Serj Tankien)	Brisbane, Aus
Jan 23 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Sydney, Aus
Jan 24 2009 8:00P	Enmore Theatre (supporting Serj Tankien)	Sydney, Aus
Jan 25 2009 8:00P	Palace Theatre (supporting Serj Tankien)	Melbourne, Aus
Jan 26 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Melbourne, Aus
Jan 30 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Adelaide, Aus
Feb 1 2009 8:00P	Big Day Out Festival	Perth, Aus

Fantômas are slated to perform their record The Directors' Cut on these dates.

Adrian Belew Power Trio Tour

Adrian Belew will be touring Australia soon for what's dubbed as his Power Trio Tour. Belew, having played with King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, is an exceptional guitarist and this a tour you won't want to miss.

Here are the dates/venues he's playing:

03 Dec 08	The Corner Hotel	Melbourne, Australia
04 Dec 08	The Basement	Sydney, Australia
05 Dec 08	Adelaide Intl. Guitar Fest	Adelaide, South Australia
06 Dec 08	Adelaide Intl. Guitar Fest	Adelaide, South Australia
07 Dec 08	Adelaide Intl. Guitar Fest	Adelaide, South Australia
08 Dec 08	Vanguard	Newtown, NSW
09 Dec 08	Vanguard	Newtown, NSW
10 Dec 08	Brass Monkey	Cronulla, New South Wales
11 Dec 08	Heritage Hotel	Bulli, New South Wales

And here are some clips to whet your appetite:

King Crimson solo



Recording parts for Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV



Adrian Belew With Frank Zappa (pre-King Crimson)



Adrian Belew with Bowie performing "Changes" off Hunky Dory

Mogwai and Cult of Luna Announce Australian Tours

Post-Rock daddies Mogwai and the crushing Sweedish Post-Metal band Cult of Luna have both announced (separate) tour dates for next year. They are as follows:

Mogwai:



3 Mar The Tivoli QLD
4 Mar Enmore Theatre NSW
5 Mar The Forum VIC

Cult of Luna:



12 Feb The Tivoli QLD
14 Feb Manning Bar - Sydney University NSW
15 Feb The Hi-Fi VIC
17 Feb HQ SA
18 Feb Club Capitol WA

New Boris Record: Smile Live

Boris are releasing a live version (recorded at Wolf Creek) of their wonderful new record Smile through Daymare Recordings on the 21st of November. You can also pick up the record through Diwphalnx and Inoxia (overseas orders).

Earth "The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull" Now Avaialble on Vinyl

Earth's terrific new record The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull has been given a super-deluxe vinyl treatment by Southern Lord Records. More info and pictures below:

The excruciating wait is over! It is with honor that we are able to offer the deluxe double vinyl version of the latest recording from Earth: "the Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull". Featuring the exclusive vinyl only bonus track: "Junkyard Priest" (featuring Milky Burgess on slide!).

The audio was specifically mastered for vinyl and the LP lacquers were cut by Bob Weston (Shellac). Complimenting the audio is the supreme packaging presentation.

These 180 gram gold vinyl lps come housed in a over the top bible-esque triple gatefold jacket. Outside is faux leatherette with gold embossing. Think CSNY "Deja Vu" lp meets the Holy Bible!. Inside is the amazing artwork and photography from Arik Roper.

We feel that this may be the best packaging we have ever done, definitely a site to behold! Of course the pictures dont quite do it justice and you need to see and feel this in person to get the proper effect.

Pressing is 4980 total. (3k black, 1k clear (for European Distribution only), 980 Gold (mailorder ). Once these are gone we will not repress this version again. We think this was well worth the wait, we hope you do to!

Pictures:

Issue 17 of Rock-A-Rolla Now Out

Rock-A-Rolla's 17th issue is out now and features Grails, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, M.G.R. Akimbo, Zach Hill, Hair Polic, Deerhoof, Porn, Moha!, Helms Alee, Ten East, Aaron Dilloway, Southern Records, release and live reviews.

Subscribe now: Click here

Buy issue 17: Click here

Mastodon Boxset

If you can afford it, a Mastodon boxset has just been released through Relapse Records. More info below:

9 LP limited edition super deluxe box-set featuring Mastodon’s entire recorded output from the Lifesblood ep all the way through to Blood Mountain. This heavy duty box-set contains ‘Lifesblood’, ‘Remission’, ‘Leviathan’, ‘Call Of The Mastodon’, the final copies of ‘Blood Mountain’ ever to be pressed on vinyl and for the first time ever on any format-Mastodon’s blazing live set from the Relapse Contamination Festival in 2003. Also featured are 3 killer covers-their legendary version of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald’, as well as 2 covers of both Melvins and Metallica, which have never before been on vinyl. Each lp is pressed on heavy-weight 180 gram vinyl for maximum stereo destroying sound! And to protect your record players from the crushing heaviness of over 5+ hours of Mastodon, each box set comes with a special Mastodon turntable slip-mat. Also included is a deluxe vinyl sticker pack. This box set is strictly limited to 1100 copies and will absolutely be the cornerstone of any record collection. Quite literally the heaviest box-set EVER!

[via Relapse Records]

Links:

Mastodon - Boxset [U.S. Only]
Mastodon - Boxset [Canada Only]
Mastodon - Boxset [Mexico Only]
Mastodon - Boxset [International Only]

Captain Cleanoff This Saturday at Maggotsville

1990s Australian grindcore outfit Captain Cleanoff will be playing Maggotsville (Sydney) this Saturday at 8:00 PM as well as quite a few other venues/cities around Australia.

Sydney Festival 2009 Announced!

The events listing for Sydney Festival 2009 (January 10-31) was announced last night. The festival, which has brought out high-profile acts in the past such as Lou Reed performing his Berlin record in 2006 and Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds in 2007, boasts an impressive selection of events designed to make your mouth water. In addition to music, the festival also highlights dance and theatre productions, and have been responsible for the world-premiere of a theatre adaptation of Samuel Beckett's short-story/novella First Love in 2007.

Some of the highlights of the festival are as follows:



This year, Sydney Festival brings out Grace Jones, who will be performing a series of shows at Enmore Theatre tagged as her Hurricane Tour. The dates for these performances are the 11th, 13th and 14th of January.






Over at Cockatoo Island, the first ever Australian All Tomorrow's Parties (curated by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) will take place on the 17th and 18th of January, featuring a too-good-to-be-true lineup.

Tickets for all of the events at Sydney Festival go on sale on the 10th of November. For those of you (including me) who cant afford breaking the bank for a lot of these shows, don't fret. Sydney Festival have always presented series of free events, some of which are surprisingly good. Of particular interest is the festival's opening night on the 10th of January, which is an all day event featuring everything from dance productions to Grace Jones and Santogold.

For the full list of events, visit the official Sydney Festival website.

Column: Show No Mercy

Pitchfork Media have a new column by Brandon Stusoy called "Show No Mercy". If you remember, Stusoy wrote the excellent article "Blaze in the North American Sky" on the historical and musical development of black metal, which was posted to Rollaroll just last month.

This month, Stusoy interviews quite a few people, including Brian Williams of Lustmord. As always, Stusoy is excellently perceptive and well-informed, so it's definitely worthwhile to check it out.

Spartak Interview with Shoeb Ahmad

I recently caught up with Shoeb Ahmad of Canberra-based band Spartak to discuss, amongst other things, their incredible new album, Tales from Colony Room, touring and collaboration. Read the interview below:

SPARTAK INTERVIEW with Shoeb Ahmad

Would you like to give readers of Rollaroll some background into how you came about performing as a musician and became involved in Spartak?

Basically, I decided one day in primary school I wanted to play guitar and be in a band and music then ruined my potential sporting career…met Evan Dorrian in year 7 and we've been making music together ever since. Been working on solo recordings for the best part of this decade so far and still continue to on such wicked labels like Sound&Fury, Low Point and Cook An Egg. So a couple of years ago, best mate Evan and I decided that it'd be a great idea to make music that sounded busted, messy and retarded so that's how Spartak came together. Further ideas like no songs, no pre-planning and use whatever sounds good came to fruition as well and here we are today, at home after surviving a most recent tour of this barren land and two countries on the humidity threshold while storming hellosQuare place with fractal noise and treble blast.

Your new record, Tales from Colony Room, has just been released through HellosQuare recordings. Would you like to take me through the recording and studio process for it?

We came back from a short tour of Malaysia and Singapore, where we played with hardcore and noise bands and basically decided that was the time to record an album, capture us after an intense period of touring basically. So we had a couple of weeks off from each other during Christmas and then spent two days at hellosQuare house playing and recording live, just banging out the pieces according to certain ideas and narratives we had in our minds. The record is more mellow then we both expected but we were really drawn to the fragility and the ambience of say 'The Bloodletting' alongside the noisier, more taut pieces like 'Sunstrokes' and honestly, we wouldn't want it any other way.

I find it quite an impressive record, but how have other people been responding to it?

Cheers for yr kind words! The response has been generously good so far, obviously it's not as representative of our live digs as it could be and people have mentioned that but I think once they understand that we see both mediums (performance vs recording) as separate ideas and play accordingly, they definitely appreciate the record even more then they might have before. That said, we've always been ready for people not to really dig on it so we are finding ourselves lucky to be in a situation where people are genuinely excited by what we are doing and for that we’re seriously grateful.

Are you and your band-mates pleased with the record yourselves?

Yeah, I think for what it is, we are proud of it and while we know the next one will sound even better through the changes we’ve gone through and the circumstances we want to set it up in, we're definitely not ashamed of ‘Tales…’ at all.

I think I remember you mentioning that you were happy with the artwork for the new record. Who conceived and produced the artwork and designed the layout?

hellosQuare's good friend Traianos Pakioufakis was kind enough to put together the photo cards and design which is great because I've always dug what he's done with his label Meupe and he's a great photographer to boot! He basically designed the whole package to go with the cases that I picked out from Portland, Oregon's best organic printers Stumptown and I think it's worked out really well.



Performing live, you seem to create a wide range of sounds through what appears to be quite a simple set-up. What kind of equipment and performing techniques do you use in order to achieve your unique sound?

It's quite hard to say if there is are any techniques involved with the performance itself. We've got the guitar and drum kit that we work from but we compliment these melodic and textural sources with computers and junk along with whatever else takes our fancy. It's just so Do It Yourself and we just want to be making interesting and exciting sounds so really, even if we're just using two laptops, guitar + percussion or if we’re a no-input mixing board and bowed cymbal duo for the night, we just set up a narrative with the initial movements of a set and take it from there.

I saw you perform with Spartak collaborating with 3ofmillions at Bohemian Grove, which worked really well. Any plans to collaborate further with them, either in a live setting or in recording?

Who knows homie? It'd be awesome to play with them again and we've done so much stuff together between all of us anyways but being in different cities does make it a little difficult so yeah, who knows. We do a lot of collaborating with other people in general though, both during jams and live like the Bohemian Grove dig and at the Canberra album launch, where we had a saxophone, trumpet and trombone do the second half of our set with us. It's just fun to get thrown into the deep end with a different element that helps dictate the way we move.

What's next for Spartak?

A nice long break! We have plans to record another album really soon and we've got a couple of tentative ideas in regards to how to do it and what we want to look into sound wise. For now though, just constant jamming and watching cricket to no end!

And lastly, what are some new records you're currently enjoying?

Ah my young friend, I've been listening to heaps of records lately, many of which were bought while Spartak traversed the country so here's a list of current faves:

COOL SCHOOL

Ohana - Dead Beat
Embers – Slag-Welter
The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed, Afterwards It Did
Tape - Luminarium
Mark Stewart - Edit
The Bug - London Zoo
Robbie Avenaim - Rhythmic Movement Disorder

GOLDEN OLDIES

.snd - Tender Love
Saint Etienne - Finisterre/The Sound Of Water
Low - Drums And Guns
The Necks - drive-by/Chemist
Town And Country - Up Above
The Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express