I Can't Make You Love Me

Released as a free download via bandcamp (click to go there). you can download it as mp3, flac, ogg vorbis, aac etc. or stream the entire release here.



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released may 19, 2010

The second single for the 'Love On The Second Stair' album. 'I Can't Make You Love Me' is the album's opening track. The edit here abbreviates the introduction but still has all the joyful racket that distorted kalimba, castañelas, floor tom, an Adam and the Ants drum sample, cowbells, phasing synth washes and 4-part vocals provide. 'Scarecrow In The Melon Patch' is the first of the B-sides, and was originally written with the idea of mixing the two great forms of garage - 60s garage rock and 90s garage house. 'Monday Wednesday Friday' is a low-key electronic pulse with bit crushed guitar and monotone/melodic vocal contrasts. 'The Quest For Love Aboard The Belafonte' was the first single from the album. This version was performed live to air on Sydney's FBi Radio in November of 2009. It features melodica, toy squeezebox, typewriter and floor tom - an acoustic version of sorts.

To download the entire release in mp3, flac, ogg vorbis, aac or alac, with artwork included, go here. The bandcamp pop-up menu will ask you to choose your desired format and the price you wish to pay. The release is free, so just type a '0' in for the price. Of course, you can choose to make a small donation to the Telafonica cause if you choose, but that's certainly not a requirement!

A. I Can't Make You Love Me (download)
B1. Scarecrow In The Melon Patch (download)
B2. Monday Wednesday Friday (download)
B3. The Quest For Love Aboard The Belafonte (Live on FBi Radio - Acoustic Version) (download)

The Gate, May 20th, 2010

Please pardon me for my late review. This past week has been rather busy with our youngest turning seven and the celebrations requiring sufficient preparation to make it a seven-year-old standard of success.
The Gate was a great place to play. Telafonica turned up in two contingents and then discovered that the all-important "Bag of Little Things" was totally and tragically missing. This resulted in some Telafonican girl bonding time for Cherry and me as we battled peak hour traffic between Ryde and Toongabbie to retrieve the bag and save the gig. We felt quite super in our heroic efforts.
I would have liked to stay and soak up the atmosphere at The Gate - I always feel more comfortable playing when I have been a part of the audience first - but Cherry's company and her chocolate chip cookies well and truly made up for it.
What were the male Telafonicans doing while we were gone? I suppose they were doing the peripheral business of "patching" and setting up and sound checking all the not-so-essential instruments - the computer, the keyboard and Blake's guitar.
We arrived back just in time like good superhero girls should, and not a moment too soon. It was fun fun fun to play in Joe and Carly's backyard! We had a great grassy stage that I could dance on without all our music stands swaying in a crazy rhythm, and we had heaps of room!
The audience were very supportive with their cheers and clapping. I think I saw a few of them move during the song, just a little to the left and right. It wasn't really a dance kind of event perhaps but we didn't mind. They may just be the first audience to actually listen to the lyrics!
Blake and AJE came away from it a little unsure about their performance, but I had a ball. I think I am finally learning to be happy to make mistakes and let it go. I make a few. On each song. Besides, perfection is not really a Telafonican ideal.
Adrian and I had to leave pretty soon after we played so I cannot report on Garage Hymnal. Perhaps Cherry and Blake could fill everyone in on that score in a comment.
I can't remember the set list and I am too comfortable on the lounge to go find out at this juncture but I do know that we roughly ordered our songs into a gospel of sorts for this event. We definitely started with "An Invitation" and finished with "I Can Hear There's a Peace in the Dark". Thanks Joe and Carly for having us!

what to do...

...with our set on saturday night? it will be the first one without bec in quite a while and so will necessarily be fairly different from what we've been doing over the last few months. how far into the deep end should we throw cherry? should we give things like time and distance another airing? it would be good to get some vague ideas so that i can get the tracks prepared to some degree on live before we rehearse.

may 20th, 2010

Hush, hush my son
Don't rattle the bars
Lay, lay down your head
On the pillow and sleep

Hush, hush my love
Don't, don't fight the sleep
Soon, soon you will rise
And play once more with me

Hush, hush my father
Don't rattle the bars
Lay, lay down your head
On the pillow and slip away

Hush, hush my love
Don't, don't fight the dying
Soon, soon we will rise
And we, we'll be together

bandwidth - june 12, 2010

facebook event can be found here.

roxbury hotel - 29.5.10

facebook event page can be found by clicking this sentence.

20th on the bridge

tonight from 8pm sydney time, jeff, who runs the 20th project, will be on the bridge - justin zeltzer's show on fbi radio. it's the same show blake and i went on a couple of months back. so jeff will be programming the whole show and will be including the original 20th version of 'but i lose myself' - which used recorders instead of melodicas. i'm sure he'll also discuss the 20th project in some detail, as well as his own music with the desks and other sydney things he likes.

so tune - 94.5fm or http://www.fbiradio.com

Style Announcement Telafonifolks!

Have decided since Ellie is our firey red and Cherry has now filled the position of spectacular blonde, that I shall take on the mantle of the sultry brunette. Hope that agrees with everyone since the deed is already done.

telafonica @ deja, may 1, 2010

Deja was another one of those Telafonica adventures where you discover that great cultural experiences can (and most often do) happen in the most unexpected places. We love Marrickville. Where else can you play at midnight for an enthusiastically dancing crowd amidst the comforting smells of bonfire and baking bread? Definitely you cannot find anywhere else an MC with a swiss cheese cape, calling himself Dairy Mouse and quipping on current politics, expertly fending off hecklers and conducting a raffle for babybel cheese and homebrand butter.

It was Cherry's initiation into the band and she passed with supersonic purple colours. The audience loved her. And they told her so. No jealousy implied.
We enjoyed, as always, listening to Alps. Art Rush was..well..interesting. Memorable. The Fuji Collective were big, polished and impressive. Andy Golledge had a nice sound. And we... well we rocked! Well we must have if that means we had fun and and there were people dancing and that they begged us to keep playing at 1am! And the folk from Fuji Collective (who live where we played) and Emma, all of whom organised the gig - were exceptionally great to work with.

We also learned a great deal. Much of it was joyful. Some of it sad. There was one precious soul that didn't seem to have a very high opinion of herself and finished our set unconscious on the floor with an empty vodka bottle in her hand. It has affected me a great deal. I want to give her the hope I have been given but I don't know how.
I do know, though that there were others who were there for the music. Our most cherished meeting was with Colin - a new friend who greeted Adrian with a cup. (for context - colin e-mailed the telafonica e-mail address to find out what the address was. i sent the details and told him to come up and introduce himself if he made it. except, in my haste, i accidently wrote 'cup up' instead of 'come up' - which colin literally did (see photo) - adrian)

One miraculous occurrence was that even after the last piece of equipment was carried past the water heater and into the back of the Spacia and the four Telafonicans had looked longingly into the next door bakery and had taken one more whiff of its aroma; even when we were on the M4 and even in Prospect, Blake was still chatty and wide awake. A Telafonica first!

A surprisingly wonderful evening for which Telafonica are extremely thankful.

And the setlist:
Æowyn And The Absolute Truth
The Tail End Of Winter
Smells Like Rain
The Unravelling Man
This Is The New Thing
Your Hands
I Can Hear There's A Peace In The Dark
I Can't Make You Love Me

the woes/ the morning after effect of deja

i was still sleeping at home while church was on

my dog isn't happy with me

interesting show though

what's an autoharp? bec, you represent.

The Exoneration of Cherry

I have at long last found the blasted Animal Collective CD that Adrian lent to Blake, who lent to me, who thought she lent to Cherry but obviously did not. Unless Cherry snuck over here last night and framed me! It was behind a big canvas artwork of The Lady of Shalott, and I have no idea how it got there. I only put that canvas where it is now, a few weeks ago, and it certainly wasn't there then. So the mystery is somewhat solved. Cherry is innocent, I am guilty, Adrian's underlying suspicions were correct, yada yada yada. I'll bring it over sometime.

Ballad of the Drowning Landlord

She is the heart
and she stands with her hand
over the mouth of truth

He is the head
and he's handing out lies
and half-truths constantly

I am the landlord
and my problem is this
I believe every word that they say

They told me there was a fleet of arks
Coming to save my soul
The water is rising up past the windows
And the waves beginning to roll, roll over me

april 20, 2010

details/lyrics to come...

box-stomper wanted!

telafonica is putting out a call for someone(s) who is willing to tag along to gigs, add something (undefined, open to suggestion) to the stage presence, and most importantly, stomp on the distortion and delay and tremolo in between the verse and intro sections in 'i can hear there's a peace in the dark'. blake is quickly learning it is tough and he admits his need for a committed, seasoned campaigner at his side (or his feet).

bec thought she might be fit for the role but blake quickly shirked from the idea when bec started substituting the main role for washing his feet with water, expensive perfumes and oils. obviously this would make it harder for her to make the section breaks in the fast-moving song.

I Don't Buy Records In Your Shop Now I Tape Them All

This release is a free download mixtape available from the ever wonderful Discontent blog and can be found over here or via the download button below.
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“In December of 2008, the Australian based members of Telafonica decided to specifically focus on the creation of a new album. They already had a handful of tracks in various stages of development that they had been playing in their live shows but were looking to see how to draw all these together, as well as create some new songs. One of the tactics used to give focus was the creation of half hour inspiration ‘mixtapes’ on CD to be shared around. In the end, only Blake and Adrian ended up compiling whole mixtapes, though Rebecca and Eliza contributed other tracks themselves as inspiration for specific Telafonica songs.

“The album was created and released in November of 2009 as ‘Love On The Second Stair’. This mixtape, developed especially for the Discontent blog, combines some of the tracks that were on the initial inspiration discs, along with other inspirations that came to the fore in the process of making the album, as well as some tracks from which samples were directly taken and used within the music that formed the finished album.

“There is obviously a wide range of things to be heard, from the most mainstream of mainstream to obscure side channels in the history of music. These reflect Telafonica’s bower bird approach to music construction, begging, borrowing and stealing from any and everywhere in order to compile their own postmodern, post-retro pop.

“In this mix, where a track appears in full, it has been either already made available by the original artists on the internet for free, or specific permission has been gained from the original artists to include their work. Obviously, a number of the tracks have not been made available for free and permission would be difficult (and costly) to secure. In those cases, the tracks have been used in a traditional sampling sense, with only very brief snippets occurring, and are generally processed in some manner.” Telafonica

DOWNLOAD: I Don’t Buy Records In Your Shop Now I Tape Them All | A Mixtape By Telafonica (69.7MB)

(nomo – all the stars)
(adam and the ants – kick)
(parts & labor – satellites)
(the martini bros – dance like it is o.k. (dj koze & the tease remix))
(the flying lizards – money (that’s what i want))
1. beem – RER
(the beatles – sgt pepper’s lonely hearts club band reprise)
2. balun – a surprise
3. whitewash – feather
(sigur ros – festival)
4. slareffenklang – you win
(bow wow wow – c30, c60, c90, go!)
(the jam – that’s entertainment)
5. ghoul – swimming pool
6. sufjan stevens – sister winter
7. hamilton yarns – newhaven to dieppe
8. go! team – junior kickstart
(the smashing pumpkins – tonight, tonight)
9. parades – exodus (telafonica treble remix)
10. underlapper – choking ibis

IMAGE: Cover Design by Telafonica

deja

cherry

i guess it's probably a good idea to mention on our website that cherry has officially joined telafonica. not sure exactly what she'll do yet, but something will present itself, no doubt. we figured that since she follows us around everywhere anyway, we might as well put her to good use. and besides, she likes to dress up. and having a band where the females outnumber the males will be a somewhat unusual and nice happenstance in the rock and roll world we live in.

a new label etc

hopefully, i can get the belafonte video clip finished these holidays and then we can get it out then get out the free download single for i can;t make you love me. i've been thinking it best to hold that back until we get the video together just so things don't jump all over the place too much.

i've also been talking to marcus whale, who you may have noticed popping up commenting on the website a little over the last few weeks. he runs a 3" cd-r label called curt. you may have remembered the very electronic things i started in january when i didn't have my laptop and bec just got hers, but we didn't have an external soundcard so couldn't record acoustic noises, so i made electronic stuff for a few weeks. well, marcus has said he'd like to release it on curt, which i think would be a good way to get exposure to some slightly different people. so we're aiming for either late june or sometime in august. i've sent the files to marcella, who was keen to abstract some singing on some of them, but would also be keen to get more input in terms of our other usual esoteric array of instruments, so have a listen and see what it inspires.

http://telafonica.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-electronic-music.html

http://telafonica.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-electronica.html

excelsior hotel - 11.4.10

music i played on 2rrr

the night before our last gig i went in to 2rrr radio to talk and play some music on mel's radio show - radio active. i don't think it was recorded, but i thought i'd make a quick file of the actual music i played. we talked between tracks on air, discussing telafonica, clan analogue, 4-4-2 music etc, so the songs are kind of picked around those general ideas. there's only a bit over 20 minutes of music (i was there for just over half an hour) so it's not lots, but i quite like the mix of stuff, so here it is...



if you really want to, you can across to http://www.archive.org/details/telafonica-on-2rrrfm and download it.