i made a bandcamp page for the nothing ventured/an invitation 7" so that people can buy it and then get a digital copy straight away as well. it's over here. (i also updated the page on the blog that has all the info for it, if you click on the little icon down the left.)
speaking of which, how about slipping nothing ventured back into the set list on friday? we haven't done it for a while. any other requests for the set list so i can start getting it ready? also, it seems that thursday evening is the only time everyone is free before friday, so that looks like it will be the date for rehearsal.
11/07/2010
28/06/2010
mr maps again
so mr maps is on our case again. which is highly complimentary indeed. they are planning to come to sydney again to launch a new work in early october. at this stage, they're thinking october 8 or 9. they've asked us if we'd like to play with them. i definitely would. in case anyone needs convincing, i've added a clip below of them playing live. let me know if we'd like to and i can let them know.
if anyone other than bec or i, who shall be in port macquarie next week, is looking for something to do next thursday night - might i suggest the excelsior in surry hills, where they'll be doing the original gig they asked us to do (which we're not, obviously, doing) alongside underlapper and a few others.
if anyone other than bec or i, who shall be in port macquarie next week, is looking for something to do next thursday night - might i suggest the excelsior in surry hills, where they'll be doing the original gig they asked us to do (which we're not, obviously, doing) alongside underlapper and a few others.
22/06/2010
rebecca
no one is safe. this one took a bit of work to find - there's lots of artists with rebecca in their name, but not too many songs called rebecca. this one is not technically just 'rebecca', it's 'här kommer rebecca', which is swedish, but it's the only thing i could find, and also turns out to be pretty great in that so-bad-it's-great way....
21/06/2010
18/06/2010
cherry cherry
thought this might lighten up an otherwise fairly heavy week on the cherry front...
future name-themed videos to no doubt follow.
future name-themed videos to no doubt follow.
13/06/2010
Bandwidth at the Red Rattler
"Good mornin' Good mornin' We've danced the whole night through. Good mornin' Good mornin' to you!"
This was definitely a Telafonica record for a so-late-it's-early bed time. It was after 3.30am that I crawled into bed and Cherry and Blake had even further to go.
It is well known that Telafonica loves the cosy grandeur of the Red Rattler and that we love hanging out with Clan Analogue so it was going to be a success whichever path the evening took.
There was a moment when I was sitting in a deep red arm chair and I looked over to see the royals, Andy and Rachel Rantzen (forgive me Rachel if you didn't take Andy's name), surrounded by their courtiers and it felt incredibly grand to be at such a gathering.
It's always great for me to see Andy and Rachel, Ant and Maja, Mel, Nick, Andrew from Loopsnake...It really was a big night that I don't know how I can fit it all in here!
O.K. Here are Bec's highlights:
* Receiving a very cool Lunar Module badge from Ant. Am going to wear it everywhere.
* Bloodloss Vegas singing Pulp's "Disco 2000". I can imagine a sing-a-long in my future retirement village featuring that song.
* A T2 Earl Grey tea for only $2!!
* DJ Tigerlily's set - was very excited to hear a little tune from one of my favourite CDs - "G Swing".
* I quite liked the music of Swingin' Tasty Bag.
* I loved the drama of the Actual Russian Brides (and the huge Russian hat, and the tiny waste - how does Elle fit all her organs in there?).
* I got to hear Cherry playing the saxamaphone next to me on stage (although her brothers in the audience didn't).
* I always love Loopsnake's music and we got to see a shadow performance of him from behind the screen as we were packing up.
* Lunar Module was even greater than usual with Mel on keyboards. Always great to see women onstage. Especially when they dress like Mel - from purple-streaked hair bob to shoe buckles, Mel looked splendid! I love the rest of the band. Let's not be sexist here. Ant had a very nice jumper with a red cross and it was good to see Peter singing and Grant playing bass. Really liked it. "I wanna be on TV..."
* It was really nice to meet M.O.R. - Antonio - of whom I have been a fan ever since we played the same night at The Sly Fox and he wore his extremely realistic horse head.
* Watching Rachel dance is always a highlight. Others follow a repetitive loop of movement regardless of what song is playing (and that's fine - the collective movement works together like a visual orchestra). Rachel, however, doesn't just move, she dances. And the joy on her face is beauty itself. Not the self-conscious apology of a smile that the rest of us front when dancing with friends, but the pure delight of music and dance.
There are always downers and items for improvement.
* I lost one of my knitting needles and two pieces of dark chocolate, I know not where.
* The sound was very uneven in the foldback. We could only really hear the computer, Adrian's voice and Blake's guitar but we have had really positive feedback from a few people and a few CD sales so it must have sounded OK from the front.
* Also, our DVD that was projected onto us blinded me from the audience most of the time so it felt a bit cold and like singing without an audience. Less connection than our other previous gigs.
* My biggest disappointment was that by the time Andy got up, almost everyone had gone. His set last year was so wonderful and irresistible, I was sad for everyone who missed out. It was very late/early by then so AJE and I decided to quickly pack the car so we could dance and then leave but Andy's set finished just as we stepped onto the dance floor. There was a debrief afterwards between Andy, Nick and AJE and it sounded like there were some good ideas to try out for next time.
* Finally, we didn't get our dinner at all and were hanging out for Laziko's at 3am only to discover that all the World Cuppers were chowing down when we got there so we trundled off down the motorway back to the burbs with empty bellies.
We did have the privilege of Nick's company for a trip to Paddington which was a lovely surprise and, when we got home, Adrian cooked us a tomato, lentil and chorizo treat with a fried egg and toast and that smoothed out all the wrinkles of the evening.
All-in-all it was a wonderfully grand Ben Hur kind of evening celebrating the very special Clan Analogue and reuniting with friends from last year. A good time had by all. Many many thanks to Ant and Adrian!!!
P.S. Cherry, Blake and Adrian, please add your highlights in the comments box.
Set list:
I Can Hear there's a Peace in the Dark
Smells Like Rain
Your Hands
The Tail End of Winter
I Can't Make You Love Me
This was definitely a Telafonica record for a so-late-it's-early bed time. It was after 3.30am that I crawled into bed and Cherry and Blake had even further to go.
It is well known that Telafonica loves the cosy grandeur of the Red Rattler and that we love hanging out with Clan Analogue so it was going to be a success whichever path the evening took.
There was a moment when I was sitting in a deep red arm chair and I looked over to see the royals, Andy and Rachel Rantzen (forgive me Rachel if you didn't take Andy's name), surrounded by their courtiers and it felt incredibly grand to be at such a gathering.
It's always great for me to see Andy and Rachel, Ant and Maja, Mel, Nick, Andrew from Loopsnake...It really was a big night that I don't know how I can fit it all in here!
O.K. Here are Bec's highlights:
* Receiving a very cool Lunar Module badge from Ant. Am going to wear it everywhere.
* Bloodloss Vegas singing Pulp's "Disco 2000". I can imagine a sing-a-long in my future retirement village featuring that song.
* A T2 Earl Grey tea for only $2!!
* DJ Tigerlily's set - was very excited to hear a little tune from one of my favourite CDs - "G Swing".
* I quite liked the music of Swingin' Tasty Bag.
* I loved the drama of the Actual Russian Brides (and the huge Russian hat, and the tiny waste - how does Elle fit all her organs in there?).
* I got to hear Cherry playing the saxamaphone next to me on stage (although her brothers in the audience didn't).
* I always love Loopsnake's music and we got to see a shadow performance of him from behind the screen as we were packing up.
* Lunar Module was even greater than usual with Mel on keyboards. Always great to see women onstage. Especially when they dress like Mel - from purple-streaked hair bob to shoe buckles, Mel looked splendid! I love the rest of the band. Let's not be sexist here. Ant had a very nice jumper with a red cross and it was good to see Peter singing and Grant playing bass. Really liked it. "I wanna be on TV..."
* It was really nice to meet M.O.R. - Antonio - of whom I have been a fan ever since we played the same night at The Sly Fox and he wore his extremely realistic horse head.
* Watching Rachel dance is always a highlight. Others follow a repetitive loop of movement regardless of what song is playing (and that's fine - the collective movement works together like a visual orchestra). Rachel, however, doesn't just move, she dances. And the joy on her face is beauty itself. Not the self-conscious apology of a smile that the rest of us front when dancing with friends, but the pure delight of music and dance.
There are always downers and items for improvement.
* I lost one of my knitting needles and two pieces of dark chocolate, I know not where.
* The sound was very uneven in the foldback. We could only really hear the computer, Adrian's voice and Blake's guitar but we have had really positive feedback from a few people and a few CD sales so it must have sounded OK from the front.
* Also, our DVD that was projected onto us blinded me from the audience most of the time so it felt a bit cold and like singing without an audience. Less connection than our other previous gigs.
* My biggest disappointment was that by the time Andy got up, almost everyone had gone. His set last year was so wonderful and irresistible, I was sad for everyone who missed out. It was very late/early by then so AJE and I decided to quickly pack the car so we could dance and then leave but Andy's set finished just as we stepped onto the dance floor. There was a debrief afterwards between Andy, Nick and AJE and it sounded like there were some good ideas to try out for next time.
* Finally, we didn't get our dinner at all and were hanging out for Laziko's at 3am only to discover that all the World Cuppers were chowing down when we got there so we trundled off down the motorway back to the burbs with empty bellies.
We did have the privilege of Nick's company for a trip to Paddington which was a lovely surprise and, when we got home, Adrian cooked us a tomato, lentil and chorizo treat with a fried egg and toast and that smoothed out all the wrinkles of the evening.
All-in-all it was a wonderfully grand Ben Hur kind of evening celebrating the very special Clan Analogue and reuniting with friends from last year. A good time had by all. Many many thanks to Ant and Adrian!!!
P.S. Cherry, Blake and Adrian, please add your highlights in the comments box.
Set list:
I Can Hear there's a Peace in the Dark
Smells Like Rain
Your Hands
The Tail End of Winter
I Can't Make You Love Me
show offer
no doubt bec's review of the red rattler show last night will be posted soon (no chance of me having another go after the uproar following the last!). however, i received an e-mail today from a guy named ty who is organising a show at the excelsior on friday july 16. he was at the red rattler last night and said he was really impressed with our set and was wondering if we would be interested in playing the show (the other band at this stage is named svelt, who i haven't heard of but will google them very shortly). do we have enough yay-sayers to accept the offer? eliza, you back by then?
11/06/2010
cover film
sam lee is currently making a film for us for cover. she's got some progress things up on her new blog over here - some quick trial animations and some character studies. below is one of the images of the main character (the girl) with a paper crane that also features. it's pretty great and i can't wait to see the finished thing.
(and bec - take a close look at the crane's tail.)
(and bec - take a close look at the crane's tail.)
02/06/2010
mr maps
would telafonica be interested in playing a show in support of mr maps at the excelsior on thursday, july 8? underlapper is also on the bill, as is a band i've not heard of before called the understudy. mr maps are releasing a new single and are touring in support of it (they're from brisbane).
i reviewed mr maps' double ep release last year on cyclic defrost (read it over here). as you could probably tell from my review, i'd be pretty keen to play with them. bec, you mightn't quite remember, but the ep was one of the things i've reviewed that you liked quite a bit as well.
i reviewed mr maps' double ep release last year on cyclic defrost (read it over here). as you could probably tell from my review, i'd be pretty keen to play with them. bec, you mightn't quite remember, but the ep was one of the things i've reviewed that you liked quite a bit as well.
31/05/2010
roxbury review
firstly, miles is a master with the camera. there's some more shots over at his photoblog. (as an aside, blake, over on miles' page put your mouse on the close-up shot of me and leave it sitting there until the caption comes up)
secondly, bec was absent from this gig (many thanks to bec for doing all the babysitting that i was supposed to help with so that telafonica could play this gig), while blake and cherry were at pains to remove themselves from the responsibility of writing up the review, so it has fallen to me...
blake commented in the spacia on the way in that it was a rather quiet trip, since bec and eliza are the loud ones (his words, not mine). the roxbury was as red as we remembered and luchi were setting up as we got there. it was their second gig, and the sound guy, who was otherwise great, didn't seem to quite know what to do with a band with so much electronics and no drums! so they took a little while to sort that out, but got there in the end (which also made things relatively easy for us as later the sound guy now had his head around the whole concept!). anna chase set up once they were done and pretty much went straight into her set. she ran her guitar and an accordian through her loopstation, layered over some loops she had prepared at home, and made a really beautiful mix of drones and melodies. i enjoyed it greatly.
we then set up our stuff, though couldn't get the autoharp to register on the mixing desk, so that was a bit unfortunate, but anyway. we started with blending the edges in bec's absence, as blake loves it and bec doesn't. it went rather nicely, with some new additions from cherry's saxophone. the set, on the whole, was quite up and electronic. the rendition of i can hear there's a peace in the dark was the closest to fully satisfying that we have done so far - i think the gradual changes are getting it there and i'm nearly satisfied with it now - it doesn't just rest on it's chorus anymore. i also enjoyed smashing my drum stick on the very last bar of i can't make you love me - so rock and roll. it was a successful set, i thought. it also means there's another permutation of the line-up which we now know will work well!
luchi came on next. i commented to them afterwards that it was very rare that we got to play with a band who are actually doing something in a similar vein to what we do - mixing electronic beats with guitars, fx, melodies and harmonies. i thought they were great and i had a smile on my face for their whole set. they also did an excellent job of filling the room with an audience, for which we are very grateful.
after lugging our gear out through the fancy dress party taking place on the bottom floor, with the assistance of the very friendly older indian gentleman who was the venue's security guard for the evening, we drove off into the west.
30/05/2010
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.
____________________________
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)
27/05/2010
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!
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!
25/05/2010
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.
22/05/2010
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
11/05/2010
10/05/2010
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
so tune - 94.5fm or http://www.fbiradio.com
09/05/2010
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.
03/05/2010
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
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
02/05/2010
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.
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