Rock City is mad about PBS FM
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Edd Fisher stops traffic. It’s because he’s from Tomorrowland
Source: HeraldSun
All the latest in Australia’s indie music scene with a few curvey curveballs this week in the form of Janelle Monae and Kimbra.
PBS FM are mad fer it, mate, absolutely bonkers. Radio that is challenging and unpredictable; music made in the past that comes from the future: Tomorrowland.
Progressive Broadcasting Station FM’s Radio Festival runs from Monday until May 25. It’s a local institution. Another cray cray reference for you there, keeping with their theme of Mad For Music.
Appropriately, Edd Fisher of the Tomorrowland program (Fri, 1-3pm) is gripped by new sounds. He’s been a radiohead since “growing up in London. I got my first radio aged eight, I had it next to my bed so I could tape songs that I liked. I remember listening to it softly before falling asleep”, His Dreaminess says. “I was taping Grandmaster Flash, The Fugees and Michael Jackson.”
Fisher now DJs at least six times per week at venues like Toff In Town, New Guernica, Boney, Howler (for the first night of Hiatus Kaiyote’s residency this Wednesday!) and he killed it at Meredith Music Festival last year. He gently quells Rock City’s fanboy gushing and says, “PBS has given me a platform to become a part of the local and international music community as well as the challenge of producing two hours of new material weekly. It’s taught me to trust my ear with my selections.”
Fisher is fond of “the variety and specialities of the shows on PBS — Latin Connection, Flight 1067 To Africa, Boss Action, The Breakdown and Break the Chain — because of the depth of research into their material”.
If Fisher could play three songs to people who don’t usually listen to PBS FM and have just stumbled upon your show, what are the three that are going to get them and keep them locked?
“Angel In Harmony’s You’re A Melody. Kasav’s Kasav and Seven Davis Jr’s One,” he says without hesitation.
Finally, Mr Edd, Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow. Discuss.
“You’re only a day away . . . A tip of the hat to the past with focus on the future.”
Beautiful.
When (not if) you subscribe to the station based in Easey St, Collingwood, you’re in with a chance to win including a classic red Vespa PX-150 scooter, a banging Audiophile hi-fi system and a 101 PBS Feature CD pack.
Don’t make the radio gods mad, subscribe:
pbsfm.org.au or 8415 1067
Double Act are Funkadelicate
Brace yourselves.
Those billboards you’ve seen around town of Janelle Monae and Kimbra back to back in black and white threads are as still as you’ll ever see them together. The Golden Electric Tour has a kinetic YouTube teaser video (below in a bit) that shows they have matching timbres. Matching moves.
They look match-fit.
From the moment the 28-year-old Kansas singer-songwriter met the 24-year-old Kiwi pocket rocket at Montreux Jazz Festival it was clear: they wanna be startin’ something.
“We just hit it off,” Monae beams, taking a break from a “top secret video shoot”. Any hints? “You’ll get a chance to see Janelle Monae before she was in tuxedos and black ’n’ white.”
You can bet it has an elaborate concept behind it, just as her breakthrough record The ArchAndroid and follow-up The Electric Lady had in spades. Same goes with her new BFF. “Kimbra is a person who is very much into concepts and ideas and very much in control of her art, just like myself (sneezes twice … I bless her, knowing she – like Kimbra – is down with Jesus). Thank you.
“It was about her excitement at another female like myself being creative and being confident and being unafraid to share her positive thoughts about what I was doing. I’m like that, I love giving other female artists encouragement. I was like ‘Wow, she doesn’t have an ego… she genuinely wants the best for me and for all of us women who she admires’. She wasn’t trying to act stand-offish,” Monae continues.
“We have so much range and so many things we can do.”
This is evidenced by the teaser clip of the two ripping through freeform covers of Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson. “We love those songs Rock Steady and Wanna Be Startin’ Something. We didn’t rehearse it, we just got up and did it, it was very organic.” Here it be, faithful reader.
Sounds like a collab is in the works? “Who knows? It helps that we’re vibing together so well! We’re like family. We’re performing in Australia, New Zealand, Kansas, Atlanta … it’s gonna be funkadelic.”
The show will be a Kimbra set, then a Janelle Monae set and then 45 minutes together. “Honestly I don’t know what we’re going to do… we have so many ideas. I think we’ll just flip a coin each night,” she says, breaking into a Muttley laugh.
“Each show will be fresh and new,” she adds, then freestyles:
“Come ready with your hearts open, your hips greased, your shoes off … because we’ll take you to new planets and you’re not going to want to come home.” Interstellar baby. Power up! Power up!
“POWER UP! POWER UP!” she shoots back.
To win a double pass to The Forum show email michael.cahill@news.com.au with the subject heading SHOW ME THE MONAE
Winner notified by email Monday afternoon.
The Forum, 154 Flinders St, city, May 17, $ 99.90/$ 109.90; The Plenary, 1 Convention Pl, South Wharf, May 26, $ 99.90, ticketmaster.com.au
Maestro Gigs
Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces begins late June but you need to know the line-up now, it’s that flippin’ good. Look at art and rock out.
Here we go: Kirin J Callinan (June 27), Owl Eyes (July 4), Mick Turner (July 11), Teeth and Tongue (July 18, left, contemplating Correggio), The Orbweavers (July 25), Dan Kelly (Aug 1), The Audreys Duo (Aug 8), New Gods (Aug 15), Everything But the Girl’s Ben Watt solo (Aug 22) and The Break (Aug 29). Each show goes from 5.30-9.30pm. There ain’t no better way to start a weekend, warrior. Book it:
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, city, June 27-Aug 29, $ 23.$ 28, ngv.vic.gov.au
The Butler Did It
One of Melbourne’s most thoughtful musos, Cam Butler, has completed a new album, Self Portrait. He describes it as “a collection of solo electric guitar instrumentals floating on a cushion of mysterious, other-worldly electro-acoustic backings”.
It includes cover versions of Rowland S. Howard’s The Golden Age of Bloodshed and Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood. Get it:
soundcloud.com/cam-butler-1/self-portrait-whole-album-mixtape
Acting Like A Fairy
Get your act together and apply for a gig at the 39th Port Fairy Folk Music Festival, March 6-9, 2015. The act applications are open until July 31. Do it:
Strategic Speak Easy
The City of Melbourne has released a draft strategy dedicated to the music scene. It outlines how the City of Melbourne will further engage with, support and enrich Melbourne’s music industry over the next three years. Damn straight it will! It’s available to read and open for community feedback until May 30. Sounds like they have open ears so sharpen your fingers and hit it:
MUST SEE THREE
1 Infinity Broke
Guys, guys, guys, THE GASOMETER IS BACK! You baaaah-you-taaay. Not just that, Bluebottle Kiss’s Jamie Hutchings and Jared Harrison return with Infinity Broke to smash the metaphorical bottle of champagne across the bow. They launch River Mirrors.
Gasometer, Collingwood, Fri, 9pm, $ 20
2 Reeps One & DJ Moonshine
Have you heard of Face Music? Nup, neither had I until the guys from The Espy emailed me. This cat, Reeps One (UK), is a beatboxer who doesn’t loop or use effects, he just comes c’rrect and spits out grime-y dub, chopped-up house and hip hop DON’T STOP. Face it.
Front bar, The Espy, Sat, 9pm. Free, epsy.com.au
3 Marlon Williams
2014’s Imported Gentleman of the Year, Marlon Williams, has impressed a helluva lot since he arrived in Melbourne. The new Folk Club night Alastair Burns runs has been described as “tits on toast” and this week Williams is joined by Mick Thomas and Suzannah Espie. No slouches! Shoulders back, Marlon.
Bella Union, Carlton, Wed, 8pm $ 18/$ 23 bellaunion.com.au
GOING AT A CLIP – UNDER THE MIKEYSCOPE
Control You – Movement
Best bit: Nicolas Jaar’s influence is permeating music…even this clip is very Darkside. It needs a stronger hook but it’s a grower in the Jamie Woon vein.
Weird bit: How much it sounds like Des’ree’s I’m Kissing You at the start.
Earworm: The lovely airiness of it all. Napper’s delight!
Wait for Teeth To Show – Veda Rays
Best bit: The Donnie Darko soundtrack vibe. Twisted Echo and The Bunnymen moments, throwbacks to the legwarmers ers.
Weird bit: The teeth x-rays. Oh wait, Wait For Teeth To Show, eye geddit. Also, the stockings-on-heads.
Earworm: “Waaaaay-haaaay-haaaait, wait for teeth to show.”
A Tale of Outer Suburbia – Hands Like Houses
Best bit: The double-taped harmonies. The relaxed guitar that gets you onside before the complaint rock chorus takes over again. And the bubble explosion!
Weird bit: Susan Boyle-esque vibe as she sings to her washing machine.
Earworm: The shouty bit.
My Second Mistake – Busby Marou
Best bit: When the song finishes.
Weird bit: My Aunty/Godmother contacted me out of the blue a year ago and urged me to see Busby Marou live…Unfortunately, I briefly caught them once and have been washing the vanilla out of my ears ever since. YOU’RE NOT MY REAL MOTHER!!!
Earworm: N/A.
The Haunted – Northeast Party House
Best bit: The fact they’ve finally written a decent tune. Faint praise maybe but this isn’t advertorial.
Weird bit: How it changes into a headbanging rave-up at the 3 minute mark. Weird meaning wonderful.
Earworm: “We all stand too long on the wrong side.”
Thanks for playing, playas. Who dat who who dat? It’s me on twitter.com/joeylightbulb
