Apr
30
All Miller, No Filler
Filed Under Interviews | Leave a Comment
Before vocal gymnast Kate Miller-Heidke returns to Newcastle, Reverb asked her to tell us her six favourite songs and why they mean so much to her.
JONI MITCHELL - A CASE OF YOU
This is my favourite song from my favourite album of hers, Blue. It’s such a cliche for musicians to like Joni Mitchell, but it’s the truth. ‘A Case of You’ is so deeply woven into the fabric of my life that I can’t say why I like it anymore. I don’t have any objectivity about it. The song is part of who I am.
DIVINYLS - SCIENCE FICTION
I did a show with Chrissy Amphlett a while back, and she told me she wrote this song while working as a cleaner. When I listen to it, I always imagine her with a mop, humming to herself while mopping back and forth. I love the spiky melody and unpredictability of it. I love the way she uses her voice.
COLIN HAY - WAITING FOR MY REAL LIFE TO BEGIN
I first heard this while watching Colin Hay’s set at Woodford Festival a few years back. Halfway through the song I got a massive lump in my throat and I started bawling behind my sunglasses. I couldn’t stop crying for the rest of his set, which was embarrassing, especially during ‘Land Down Under.’ God he is good. This song is about the frustration of being a struggling musician. The way he describes constantly checking the answering machine for messages, waiting for that elusive ‘big break’…it’s masterful. I have a musician friend in Brisbane who loves Colin Hay but he refuses to listen to this song because it is too true, too real, too heart-breaking.
PUBLIC ENEMY - HE GOT GAME
Feel-good, empowering, intelligent piece of musical brilliance. It just grooves. I love all the internal rhymes. Most of all, I love the mixture of joy and poignancy.
CYNDI LAUPER - TRUE COLOURS
I never knew how much I loved this song until I saw CL performing it a few weeks ago in Perth. It’s possibly the most perfect pop ballad ever written, and she’s possibly my favourite singer in the world.
‘ANNIE’ THE MUSICAL - IT’S A HARD-KNOCK LIFE
I’m a sucker for good musicals. I still get chills when it gets to this point in the movie. I just wanna gather up all those feisty orphans and give them a big hug. What a song!
Kate Miller-Heidke plays The Bar On The Hill on Thursday May 8, 2008.
Tickets available from Big Tix
Apr
30
Groovin The Moo, the review
Filed Under Gig Reviews | Leave a Comment
Finally after more than a week of solid downpour the rain clouds made way for the sunshine, leaving glorious black, smelly mud for ‘Groovin The Moo’ festival –goers to dance in… or rather to trudge through. A special mention should be paid to those who opted for sliding through the mud, and extra kudos given to those who decided to actually wrestle in it. Personally not my style, but hey guys: this years’ festival was for you.
First and foremost let me apologise to local bands The Sacred Stereos and Lover for missing their sets, unfortunately the morning after Anzac day really just did not agree with me. Matt, the editor here at I’m With The Band, said that both bands were really solid and in both cases were better than some of the bigger acts that followed.
My day officially kicked off by being left awestruck by ‘That 1 Guy’. This man is quite possibly the most uniquely talented musician I have ever witnessed, with his crazy instruments and madcap lyrics he left the crowd begging for more shortly affirming the conspiracy that the moon is actually made from cheese.
Skip to Custom Kings, never seen them play? You’re missing out. This is a band whose music exudes something so pure that they left me beaming for the rest of the night. What I especially love about Custom Kings is my inability to just shove them into a genre, they take elements of pop, roots and god help us, country; and blend it together to form something uniquely memorable and breathtakingly fresh. Their frequent four piece harmonization together with their obvious onstage passion made this band an absolute pleasure to watch.
Karnivool were dynamic as always, mixing it up between their old and new material. Gyroscope were similarly energetic, giving both diehard and new-to-the-wagon fans something to scream about. I’ve never been a massive Spiderbait fan, however they were well worth the wait, the hard hitting threesome gave festival goers their final dose of no frills, straight up rock for the evening.
I chose not to venture into the King Street Hotel tent, although witnesses reported it as being invariably similar to the actual King Street Hotel, only with the added advantage of a three-inch thick muddy floor…I’ll let you form your own opinion on this topic.
Whilst for the most part everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, I for one felt a severe sense of déjà vu. This years line up was fundamentally the same as 2007, only this time without any real ‘headlining’ acts. 2007 sported You Am I, The Black Keys and Silverchair, all acts who were equally capable of headlining a sold out festival and yet this year, festival organisers resorted to re-booking The Presets and Sneaky Sound System. Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoy these bands as much as the next pill-popping-dance-club-attendee, however I found it quite ridiculous that Sneaky Sound System could go from being a freshly emerging dance band playing in the king street hotel tent in 2007, to ‘headlining’ the Cattleyard stage this year, honestly Mr Organiser Sir, jump further onto the band wagon.
The lack of international and/or headlining acts indicate to me that the promoters simply did not want to spend any money after the festival was sold out, which is all well and good in theory however I feel that this was a detrimental move for the life of the festival. If organisers want ensure the longevity of Groovin’ The Moo, they really need to start spending big money in order to secure actual headlining bands and not to just simply cater for the latest trend to sweep through the iPods of fifteen year olds.
By Linsey Wilson
Apr
30
Alienware Area-51 m17x
Filed Under Tech & Toys | Leave a Comment
Alienware® – the leading manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook and entertainment systems – launches the Area-51® m17x, a commanding and aggressive addition to the newly redesigned Area-51 line of notebook computers. Alienware already shocked the computer industry this year by demonstrating the raw power of the 15.4-inch Area-51® m15x, and the company has once again upped the ante. With a brilliant 17-inch, widescreen HD display, Alienware designed the Area-51 m17x for PC gamers, 3D content creators and multi-media enthusiasts.
The Area-51 m17x surpasses expectations as the fastest notebook Alienware has ever designed. An Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor teams with the fearsome power of dual, SLI®-enabled NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX GPUs for unprecedented performance levels. The notebook’s 500GB mobile hard drives are the world’s largest. Dual drives configured in a RAID 0 array plus a 500GB Smart Bay drive for additional storage give the user an astounding 1.5TB capacity, accommodating approximately 250 games, 375 full-length movies or nearly 400,000 songs.
“We pride ourselves in designing elite systems for consumers who absolutely refuse to settle for second best,” said Frank Azor, Executive Vice-President for Alienware’s Product and Marketing Groups. “The Area-51 m17x is, by far, the most aggressive, most powerful notebook computer Alienware has ever built.”
The Area-51 m17x satisfies even the most demanding mobile users by delivering:
- NVIDIA SLI technology with dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics cards to produce an unrivaled mobile DirectX® 10 gaming experience.
- Intel’s 45nm Core 2 Extreme X9000 mobile processors supporting maximum speed and responsiveness during intense battle sequences in users’ favorite games, crisp 3D rendering, flawless music encoding and other high-intensity tasks.
- Up to 1TB of hard drive capacity configured in a RAID 0 array for storing massive entertainment collections, plus support for solid state drives and hybrid hard drives.
- Smart Bay technology that allows users to swap out their optical drive for an additional 500GB hard drive, bringing the notebook’s storage capacity to 1.5TB.
- The Alienware Command Center control panel, home to exclusive programs such as the AlienFX® customizable lighting feature and the AlienFusion power management system.
When asked to compare the Area-51 m17x to its sibling system, the Area-51 m15x, Azor said, “With both systems, Alienware has once again revolutionized mobile performance. The Area-51 m15x is ideally suited for road warriors or students who are constantly on the move but still want that boost of power Alienware delivers. The Area-51 m17x is for professionals and hardcore enthusiasts who want pure, unbridled performance with the added benefit of portability.”
“Intel’s Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo mobile processors power the Area-51 m17x to performance results that are nothing short of spectacular and can even rival most desktop systems,” said Erik Reid, Director of Marketing, Mobile Products Group, Intel. “Improvements in speed and energy efficiency delivered by the Intel Core microarchitecture give Area-51 m17x users confidence that they are working and gaming on the most advanced technology imaginable.”
“With NVIDIA SLI and two GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs, the most powerful notebook graphics processing solution ever, Alienware’s Area-51 m17x is equipped to generate an unrivaled visual experience,” said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook GPUs at NVIDIA. “Whether users are tackling the new era of DirectX 10 games, high-definition movies or dynamic Windows Vista applications, they can count on the Area-51 m17x to deliver.”
Apr
29
The Audreys debut in Top 20
Filed Under Australian News, News | Leave a Comment
When The Flood Comes, the sophomore album by ARIA Award winning band The Audrey’s has debuted in the Top 20 on the ARIA Album chart this week. The first time EVER the band has had an album in the ARIA charts.
This is an album of lyrical and sonic beauty that expands their musical template beyond the alt-country-tinged instrumentation and smoky pop of their gorgeous debut. Musically, it’s a revelation that almost defies categorization. It aches. It breaks. And it drips with passion.
The critics are loving it with rave reviews pouring in, “Brilliant, Just Brilliant ” 4 1/2 Stars - The Courier Mail
“There is great chemistry at work here in the melding of banjo, violin and an assortment of rootsy accoutrements with Coates’ fragile, breathy voice” 4 Stars - The Weekend Australian
“If you like your music real, this is about as good as it gets” 5 stars - iTunes.
The band head out for an extensive national tour, which will include all capital cities and extend into many regional areas. Special guest support on all shows will be J Walker (Machine Translations).
- Wed 14th The Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba NSW - 02 4782 1322
- Fri 16th The Basement, Circular Quay NSW - www.moshtix.com.au/1300 438 849
- Sat 17th The Basement, Circular Quay NSW - www.moshtix.com.au/1300 438 849
- Tues 20th Lizottes, Central Coast NSW - www.lizottes.com.au or 02 4368 2017
- Thur 22nd Sound Lounge, Gold Coast - www.thesoundlounge.com.au
- Fri 23rd The Zoo, Brisbane - 1300 762 545/http://www.zoo.oztix.com.au
- Sat 24th Bass In The Grass festival, Darwin
- Wed 28th Great Northern Hotel - www.oztix.com.au/1300 762 545
- Thur 29th Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW - www.offbeatoperations.com.au/02 6652 3833
- Fri 30th Newcastle – Northern Star - www.bigtix.com.au
- Sat 31st ANU BAR, Canberra - www.ticketek.com.au/132 849
Apr
29
Battle of the Bands - Shipping for Wii
Filed Under Game Reviews | 2 Comments
THQ today announced Battle of the Bands has shipped to retailers. Designed exclusively for Wii™, Battle of the Bands maximizes the Wii Remote™’s innovative functionality, combining beat matching and combat into one head-to-head battle for music supremacy. The innovative music switching feature and the 30 chart-topping hits - recorded in each of the game’s five different music styles - rock, funk/hip-hop, country, marching band and Latin – delivers a truly unique gameplay experience.
“Battle of the Bands offers an exciting variation in the music category, where the fusion of music and combat sets the stage for a head-to-head battle for music supremacy,” said Randy Shoemaker, global brand director, THQ.
So what exactly is Battle of the Bands?
Battle of the Bands is the first true musical combat game and allows players to battle to prove their preferred musical genre reigns supreme. Designed exclusively for Wii, Battle of the Bands features an exciting two player head-to-head mode and an extensive single-player campaign.
The game introduces the innovative concept of “music switching,” playing the music in the preferred genre of the winning player. When an opponent turns the tide of battle, the music changes as well, switching between different music genres. Battle of the Bands features 30 classic and modern chart-topping hits from the last four decades, all of which have been recorded in five different styles - (rock, funk/hip-hop, country, Latin and marching band) - for the game, resulting in a total of 150 unique tracks and 70 unique musical weapons.
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