Smells Like Teen Spirit is covered by The Meat Puppets. It’s fitting as the influence and relationship between The Meat Puppets and Nirvana. However, their semi-acoustic take on the song took away the punk-fuzzed brilliance that made it an anthem. If it was meant for an acoustic performance, don’t you think Kurt would’ve played it for the MTV unplugged album?

Butch Walker & The Black Widows take In Bloom. They’ve given it a slowed down, dirty swamp blues feel to it. The verses sound quite good but it lacks the punch in the chorus the band aim for. Come As You Are was given to Midnight Juggernauts and wow!…..what a fucking disgrace. The song sounded nothing like the original. Electronic beats and chipmunk style vocals would make even Courtney turn in her grave and she’s not dead yet or had anything to do with Nevermind. That’s how ridiculous it is.

Titus Andronicus take on Breed. They did a fantastic job of it. Why try and recreate a song that works? Keeping to the original, it’s a stand out on this record. And after track 3 atrocity, brought my faith back to this not being completely crap. Lithiumwas always my favorite Nirvana song. The Vaselines did ok with this. The frantic chaos that was held in this song was controlled down to an almost haunting, ethereal track.

Polly was given the Amanda Palmer treatment. Played on xylophone with sound effects in the background in the first verse. Banjos were introduced in the second verse and then double bass in the last verse. Her voice is dirty sexy and actually works this song to a new level that impresses. Surfer Blood do Territorial Pissings and like Titus Andronicus, keep true to the original. A pacey punk number with three chords.

Drain You were interpreted by Foxy Shazam. Interpret is the best word. Starting out like a stadium Queen style track before slipping into their oddball brand of pop/punk/theatrics. They are a kooky band and they sure do mix it up on this version. I didn’t love it or hate it. Jessica Lea Mayfield did a nice stripped back indie pop version of Lounge Act. Very Tegan & Sara in sound

Stay Away was given the southern blues rock touch from Charles Bradley. I don’t know who you are Charles but I likes what you’ve done to this song. It does have that whisky-fueled, red-lit smoky bar feel to it. On A Plain is performed by Telekinesis and they keep true to the original with enough fuzz box distortion and teenage don’t care vibe that sat with the original version. Jeff the Brotherhood gives a creditable version of Something In The Way. Sparse verses with a true Seattle grunge chorus. Endless Nameless caps of the tribute performed by EMA.

Overall this is better than what I feared. There’s a couple of bizarre choices, as you’d expect on a tribute record, and one blatantly horrible one. Otherwise a commendable job from ]]> http://musicfeeds.com.au/album/spin-magazine-newermind-a-tribute-to-nirvana%e2%80%99s-nevermind/feed/ 0 http://musicfeeds.com.au/features/ws010-open-model-popular-consciousness/ http://musicfeeds.com.au/features/ws010-open-model-popular-consciousness/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 05:45:49 +0000 Michael Carr http://musicfeeds.com.au/?p=28292 Fashion Launches, Featured, FLRL, Lo-Fi Collective, Midnight Juggernauts, Siberia Records, Welcome Stranger
]]> Known to most of you as the drummer from the Midnight Juggernauts, Daniel Stricker is a man of many distractions. Aside from his skin wizardry with the Juggernauts, as well as serving as one of the founding members of local open plan super-group FLRL Daniel also helms Siberia Records, and independent record label that releases the Juggernauts music as well as a selection of other local acts, including Music Feeds favourites Kirin J Callinan and Danimals. The label have also been trying their hand at promotions running Siberian Nights at GoodGod in Sydney, the shows serving as does the label as a platform for emerging and experimental artists to display their talents.

Their latest project sees Stricker and co teaming up with Lo-Fi Collective residents Welcome Stranger to present a performance designed to compliment a retrospective/remix project of the last 9 items the group produced. The performance will see multiple drummers playing together, running the sounds through digital equipment, looping certain elements and creating… well creating something although whatever it might be I don’t really know.

Excited by such an interesting project we caught up with Daniel Stricker himself to ask him a few questions not only about the performance but also the ethos behind Siberia Records as well as what we might expect from them in the future.

Music Feeds: So tell me about this upcoming project with the Welcome Stranger collective at Lo-Fi, what should we expect?

Daniel Stricker: Our friends at Welcome Stranger wanted us to create a performance to compliment one of their items, it was focused on drumming so we couldn’t really say no… we’re going to get a bunch of drummers together, creating a looping, ambient piece (by running a bunch of acoustic gear through digital equipment) using strictly drums, in a configuration that makes the performance surround you

MF: Who’s going to be involved in the performance?

DS: You’ll just have to wait and see. There’s 5 of us so far.

MF: Siberia Records have built a bit of a reputation for putting on events and supporting artists that step around the edge of the expected, what motivates you to work out of left field like this when, considering the profile you have built through Midnight Juggernauts, you could easily run some more mainstream style dance nights and probably be more commercially successful?

DS: I guess we’ve always liked to explore different aspects of the world you can create within a band or a collective. We’re trying to (and it is very early days yet!) explore an open model of popular consciousness and subversive ground swells, and where they meet. We do it because we enjoy it, not to make heaps of money – otherwise yeah, we’d be some unethical business or something destroying raping and pillaging. Plus there are a lot of people with good ideas in this community, and it’s fun to collaborate and explore those with others.

MF: It’s obvious that with the success you have experienced, you feel it’s important to turn that to try and help support local music, which is something you don’t often see other bands doing. Have you found undertaking such a task to be a difficult one? What makes you want to keep going with it?

DS: There’s a lot of great music out there, we get genuinely excited about it – it’s more a love of wanting other people to get excited about it too, and hopefully giving younger artists a platform. That and putting together the best possible collectible item to capture the whole experience. These days it’s so great to get something in the mail, especially when a lot of effort has gone into it. It’s a labour of love, so it’s not really difficult – it’s time consuming though.

MF: This event seems to me to be very FLRL inspired. With you guys having played your first gig together in a while a month or so ago, as well as releasing those recordings, are we about to see more action from you guys?

DS: Yeah. We’ve all been quite busy with our respective projects, but seeing as it’s a model for an open group (no set musicians or songs) we’re starting to get together with whoever is interested and getting it out into the world.

MF: What else do you have in the works with Siberia? I know Erik Omen in Atlantis was your last project, on top of the Kirin J Callinan and Djanimals 7″s, what’s happening with all of those guys?

DS: Erik Omen and Kirin’s cassettes sold out – now we’re doing a 12″ with the Erik Omen guys (coming soon) – Kirin’s in the studio working on his debut album, Djanimals are about to release their debut on Stones Throw and we’ve started collating a bunch of recordings documenting temporary existence – ie. we’ll be releasing a series of vinyl’s and cassettes of ‘seasonal’ events (including the Welcome Stranger exhibition and live recordings by our and other artists) in locations you wouldn’t really expect… I’m really excited about it. I can’t tell you more than that for now.. but it’s going to be a really fun project…

You can start to pre-order the series from this Friday at the event.

For more information visit the Siberia Records website.

The performance will take place at Lo-Fi Collective above The Kinselas Hotel in Taylor Square on Friday the 25th of March

For more information visit the event page http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=131115206962465

WS010
Friday 25 March
Lo-Fi Collective
Lv 3, 383, Bourke St Darlinghurst, above Kinselas

Once you stepped off that ferry, you travelled back in time to when there was no such thing as mobile phones and network coverage. Your stress free time and your excessive indulging of beer began. An eclectic mix of sounds echoed between the mountains, featuring international artists, the cream of local talents, and numerous eccentric acts spread over four joyful (but very hot!) days. The festival offered six stages of music, from noon ‘til midnight, international food stalls (hence the constant smell of Jamaican barbeque, Danish mini pancakes and Turkish gözleme), Australia’s largest costume party and a much needed riverside area.

My first musical experience on festival grounds was the high-pitched vocals of singer songwriter Andy Bull. He played the keyboard, sang like a girl, and put me right into the relaxed mode I craved for after setting up a tent in agonising heat. He sang his songs calm and steady, like he was in the middle of a storm. Rather than performing as somebody who could leave footprints in the sands of time, Andy Bull performed as a typical small pub player.

At about four o’clock each day the whole daytime menagerie would come to a halt and the so-called professional shows would begin. Independent artists got to prep the crowd before the international line up was released on the main stage. The first international beast to be released was Tricky – probably Playground Weekender’s biggest disappointment. He acted as if he was the emperor of the place, he even had his own harem, his devotees, but his performance was awkward and nothing more than a man beating a mike on his chest.

Waking up to costume Saturday in a heat of 40-something degrees felt like a punishment, a punishment for the sins we punters had committed on Friday night. Seeing Buzz Lightyear on the back of a donkey, a human-sized penis holding hands with a walking vagina, and a group of fifty people dressed as Wally from Where’s Wally made you not only question your senses but your entire existence. The artist to revive us who lingered by the healing riverside was the Sydney based singer Giselle. With the help of a little pink music box, Giselle offered the ringing rhythms of electronica, folk and dream pop, infused with her almost child-like vocals.

As the Saturday grew older, the costumes got crazier and the performances better. Roy Ayers, the godfather of neo-soul, performed as no other 71 year old can. He did not only bring energy to the stage, but true musical talent that you sometimes long for. The American disco group Kool & The Gang put on a show in the spirit of Jackson Five.

Midnight Juggernauts made a stage dive I will not forget. With an inflated boat, the lead singer, Vincent Vendetta, decided to go for a ride on the wave of cheering hands. Once in the boat he picked up his sword and posed of triumph.

The Australian reggae band King Tide more than succeeded to prep us punters for the main act of the evening: De La Soul – who’s performance can be described with a three letter word and an exclamation mark: wow!

Exhausted from the previous three days, most people packed their gear and evacuated on Sunday morning. Those remaining on the island either took refuge under any speck of shade or cooled themselves with ice-cold beers at ‘The Shack’. Performing on the stage was mesmerizing Kristina Miltiadou, with a kick in the head singing voice. She was passionate and stinging, could howl and whisper, turn blues into ballads and ballads into blues. I loved her style. Her songs had songs within songs, and influences as diverse as pop, soul, folk and traditional Greek music. The experience certainly made you fall into a certain mood – in the mood for the Sunday’s main stage performer Mayer Hawthorne.

Mayer Hawthorne is a singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist who draws inspiration from the music of Isaac Hayes, Barry White and Smokey Robinson. Dressed a little finer and a little sharper, Mayer Hawthorne had the flow with an enigmatical gaze through those heavy rimmed glasses and a romantic voice that struck blue notes. The sound of his voice went through me like an electric rod. It became evident that he has it in his genes, in his genetic makeup. Before Mayer Hawthorne was born this music had to be in his blood.

All in all, Playground Weekender’s fifth edition was an extravaganza of patchwork, featuring anybody and anything – a vibraphonist, a man choir, an indie girl playing the music box, and a hip hop trio from the 80s. If you were wondering what intoxicated people in teletubbies costumes were all about, this was the place where you could get more than a vague glimpse.

With their latest single ’Vital Signs’ making the cut for the NME’s ’10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week’, Midnight Juggernauts are also gearing up for festival appearances at Lovebox (United Kingdom), Exit Festival (Serbia), Bennicassim (Spain), and Montreaux Jazz Festival (Switzerland).

Featuring 12 glittering tracks, including the singles ’Vital Signs’ and ’This New Technology’, The Crystal Axis is a 50-minute symphony of synth-rock invention. Veering from percussive, hypnotic grooves to luxuriant jams, walls of sound, and 70s AM melodic forks, the album will be available with a limited edition, seven track bonus disc.

Recorded at Sing Sing studios in Melbourne, The Crystal Axis was produced by Midnight Juggernauts and engineered by Chris Moore (TV on the Radio, Yeasayer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars). The record provides the follow up to the trio’s successful debut album, Dystopia, which established them with audiences across the globe.

The Crystal Axis is released 28 May on Siberia Records via Inertia.

Midnight Juggernauts
The Crystal Axis Album Launch Tour

Thursday 12th August
The Gov, Adelaide
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au

Saturday 14th August
The Capitol, Perth
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au

Thursday 19th August
The Forum, Melbourne
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au (136100)

Friday 20th August
The Forum, Sydney
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au

Saturday 21st August
Hi Fi, Brisbane
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au and all Oztix Outlets and http://tickets.thehifi.com.au

Tickets are on sale now for all shows.
Visit Midnight Juggernauts online.

Finally coming off a two year tour circuit earlier this year, the boys have been writing their new album furiously and are now embarking on yet another tour this time to promote their new single This New Technology ahead of the new album’s release.  Music Feeds was lucky enough to have a little one on one with Andrew Juggernaut, whose last name is not a coincidence.

Music Feeds: You’re touring the single, must feel good to road test that stuff live?

Andrew Juggernaut: Yeah it’s always interesting, you’re getting used to playing new songs, playing new equipment. It’s interesting to see how people react. I think we’re sick of playing older songs too, so hopefully it all goes down well.

MF: Speaking of that single, I saw the video. It’s every acid dream I’ve ever had.

[youtube xcMsG8FYxXA]

AJ: I know man we made it with these dudes Special Problems, two guys from Auckland. About a month and a half ago we went up there, and did some shooting, but we’re not even in it much, it’s just those guys doing their thing. I suppose there is a lot of eye candy there, its very visual.

MF: The song is sick too. So Dystopia came out in 2007, in the last two years has it just been writing, recording, touring?

AJ: I suppose the way the last album worked we recorded it and released it in Australia and it wasn’t released internationally. Then we did a whole lot of touring behind the record, in Australia. But then the international release was staggered, so we had to go again and tour it in different countries. So we only finished the end of last year and we went straight into doing some demos.

MF: Where’d you work on it? Home recording?

AJ: No we spent time in a couple of studios in Melbourne. Went to Sing Sing Studios, which was really good. It’s a different record, different to last one, a lot of it has to do with touring and how much time we spent as a band. It’s a lot more of a live record.

MF: The Juggernauts spent nearly two years flogging Dystopia, which is a good effort. But I’m guessing when it came time to finish up, there was some excitement?

AJ: Yeah definitely, we’d spent two years touring the same material. The album was going well but we just needed something new, wanted to get back in the studio, we realized that we just wanted to make more music. We got to try a lot of new ideas, new methods for recording and stuff, and we’re happy with the way it came out.

MF: The Jugs put all their frequent flyer points together and flew out engineer Chris Moore, of TV on the RADIO and Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame. He also worked with Scarlett Johansson. It seems the partnership was a loving one?

AJ: Yeah he was great, it worked really well. He’s from New York he came out to Melbourne, he’s very relaxed. He was engineering but we were producing so we had an arrangement. We gelled well, and he respected our ideas and vice versa.

MF: So is the album good to go?

AJ: Yeah after Chris left we’d pretty much finished it. Sat on it for a bit made a few small changes and now it’s all done. The single is out, we’re about to tour, early next year I think it’ll drop.

MF: I know a lot of parents begin to hate their children as they grow, is that what its like with an album, as it becomes older the relationship changes?

AJ: It’s interesting, right now because its coming to a head, the single, the tour, everything, its hard because you’ve been with it for so long. You go through periods and it makes it hard to get perspective on what you’re doing. There is a sense of excitement, but more relief that’s it is finished. Its hard for us, once we’re in that creative mode, its hard to detach from it.

But you get to a point where you spend so much time on something to make it as great as possible in the end you just want to get rid of it and move to the next thing.

MF: Playing it live is a whole new thing though, that’s another challenge

AJ: Definitely, most of the album was recorded in more of a live way, so coming to start rehearsing we’d kind of been playing them live already. But we started playing around, changing them, and improvising.

MF: What’s your take on the community music situation. The Hopetoun has shut down recently and I know you guys were involved with FBI, obviously something that’s important to you.

AJ: Yeah well I mean it wasn’t a hard decision for us to help out. FBI from when we first started, they were the first station to play our EP in 2004, they were always big supporters. So it made sense for us to do that, I think stations like FBI are really important.

MF: O.K… final question. Have you ever been to Venice, Italy?

AJ: No I haven’t.

MF: Well a friend of mine went recently and she was stopped by a guy selling t-shirts on the side of the road. He asked where she was from and she said Australia, he said you must know my friends, The Midnight Juggernaut, they stay at my house.

AJ: What the fuck, I’ve never even been to Venice. So wait was he selling t-shirts with our picture on them?

MF: No, that’s the best bit, they had a picture of his own face on them. T-shirts with his face for sale.

AJ: That’s weird man.

MF: Well you’ve always got somewhere to stay in Venice.

Midnight Juggernauts play Metro on Friday 6th November. Visit their Myspace page for more info.

Produced by Midnight Juggernauts, ‘This New Technology’ was recorded at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios by Christopher Moore (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Liars) and mixed by Andy Baldwin. The release of the single coincides with a national headline tour by Midnight Juggernauts across Perth, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Frankston, Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide during October and November.

Midnight Juggernauts
‘This New Technology’ National Tour
With Special Guests Cut Off Your Hands (New Zealand)

Saturday 31 October
The Capitol, Perth
With French Rockets
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.moshtix.com.au or Moshtix Outlets

Thursday 5 November
Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
With Seekae
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.moshtix.com.au or Moshtix Outlets

Friday 6 November
The Metro Theatre, Sydney
With Seekae + DJs Golden Ron & Smart Casual
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.metrotheatre.com.au or the Metro Theatre Box Office – 02.9550 3666

Saturday 7 November
Waves, Wollongong
With Seekae
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.moshtix.com.au or Moshtix Outlets or the venue’s Bottle Shop.

Friday 13 November
Billboard, Melbourne
With Rat Vs Possum + DJs Nile Delta & Golden Ron
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & Moshtix Outlets, www.moshtix.com.au or billboard.webtickets.com.au & Polyester Records

Saturday 14 November
Pier Live, Frankston
With Rat Vs Possum
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.oztix.com.au and all Oztix Outlets and from the bar at Pelly Bar-Pier Hotel or Phonecharge 03 9783 7311

Friday 20 November
Hi Fi, Brisbane
With DZ
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.oztix.com.au and all Oztix Outlets and tickets.thehifi.com.au

Saturday 21 November
Trackside, Canberra
Tickets available August 20 from Landspeed Records (Garema Square, Canberra City), Moshtix (call 1300 438 849, go to Moshtix outlets or www.moshtix.com.au), Ticketek (www.ticketek.com.au plus all Ticketek outlets), OzTix (call 1300 762 545, go to OzTix outlets or www.oztix.com.au)

Friday 27 November
The Gov, Adelaide
With Lady Strangelove
Lic/All ages
Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door
Tickets available from www.midnightjuggernauts.com & www.moshtix.com.au or Moshtix Outlets, www.venuetix.com.au, over the bar at The Gov (11am-9pm Mon-Sat) or phone 08 8340 0744 (11am-9pm Mon-Sat)

Tickets for all shows are on sale now. Keep an eye on the Midnight Juggernauts’ MySpace where the film clip for ‘This New Technology’ will be posted soon! Visit Midnight Juggernauts online here.

Photography by Xavier de Nauw.

Nestled in the heart of Sydney University is Manning Bar, the host venue for the Sounds in the Grounds festival 2008. Just like a house party, this festival included lots of drinking, energy filled dancing, free pizza and loud music; except at this party the music was live and without neighbors to worry about, it was pumped up to the max. With the likes of Midnight Juggernauts, British India, Van She, Bluejuice, The Lost Valentinos, Children Collide and Numbers Radio gracing stages over the two levels of Manning Bar, musical hysteria cast its shadow over its music craving audience. The vibe for the night was one of love, friendship, support for Australian bands and a love for partying, which made the night enjoyable for all those who attended.

Eccentric, electro hip hoppers, Bluejuice, entertained their audience both musically and visually as they rhymed, rapped and danced around the stage like true rock stars. Their hit track ‘Vitriol’ got their audience into a dancing and singing frenzy. Ensuring that there was never a dull moment for their set, the Bluejuice boys jumped on their speakers, were almost pulled into the audience and got slightly nude (upper body nude that is). Everything Bluejuice served up, the audience indulged in with sheer pleasure.
The audience was transported into the realm of the intergalactic as they witnessed the Midnight Juggernauts play their first gig in Australia since March. The audience packed themselves in like sardines to see the band leaving little room to dance along to their dance worthy songs. Playing all their techno-meets-disco hits, there was not a single still body or mouth in site. On stage the band were in a musical trance, a trance they put their audience under as they played their set. This performance proved to any sceptics why the Midnight Juggernauts are so well renowned.

Van She was yet another band who got the party started, setting the night on fire with their futuristic vintage sounds. They were loud, they were proud, and they played a rocking set, which rang through the courtyard and stairwells of Manning bar. Playing a set of songs familiar to all, the crowd threw their peace signs in the air as a salute to these Aussie psychedelic rockers. Electrifying energy bounded between the audience and the band, leading to a highly climatic finale.

With Dj’s including Kato and Purple Sneakers dj’s, Manning bar was never quiet. Spinning indie and electronic hits all night, the place was rocking even between the bands’ sets.

The end of the sets at Manning Bar did not see the end of partying for its musicians and guests. Free buses heading to the after party at Q Bar where a number of the acts were playing dj sets, meant that the party kicked on all night long.

Photos By Margaret Burns & Cara Stricker, http://cara-kicia.blogspot.com