photoshoot

the photographer at the parramatta paper wants to do their own photos for the article, because none of the types of things i sent them were suitable. it needs to happen by monday afternoon at the latest. so we're booked in to meet him/her at mars hill at 3:45 on monday afternoon. bec, i've told them we have a strict deadline of leaving at 4:15 so we can get imojjen. blake, i know you're not free but the only other possible time was today at 4, at which time bec and i were the only ones free, so monday is the best of two less than ideal options. but if there was any chance of being there, that would be excellent.

blog layout

p.s. blogger has some new layout settings which i'm playing around with. the original layout was a template imported into blogger which wasn't ideal. i like the layout of that template, but because it was a 3rd party template, it had a few glitches in trying to run it within blogger (like the title image which regularly disappeared, as you may have noticed in the last day or so). so i'm trying to recreate that setout within blogger's new template structures. i'm almost there, but if things look a little strange, that's just my experiments playing out in real time. my apologies.

everything is chemical virtual 7" single

raymond collins, who runs the excellent everything is chemical blog, is setting up a virtual 7" series (kind of like the 4-4-2 music e-single of the month club) and has asked us if we'd like to contribute a couple of tracks. here's the rundown...

"The virtual 7" idea is something I plan on starting this summer/fall. What I am asking from each artist is to really step out of their shell a little bit. I would prefer mostly chill/relaxing ambient tracks, but that doesn't mean no vocals or "peppy/upbeat" sounds. I would prefer to keep it a little more on the electronic side, but that doesn't mean I'm against "organic/natural sounds". Each track must be exclusive to the EICV7". At least one newly composed track (or two), and/or one cover."

any suggestions for tracks we can contribute? there's probably something from a 20th we can polish up. a cover would also be fun - are any of the covers we've worked on suitable (i don't think any are particularly laid back that i can recall)? if not, any suggestions for a track we can cover that would fit the bill? or, actually, just a track we could cover - if we start from scratch we can make it fit the bill no matter what the original sounds like.

mars hill cafe - 11.8.10

july 20th, 2010

two tracks for this month, one i did late at night (hence its minimalism) and one blake did as lessons in time.

mars and venus is just a single bass drone which i repeated about 4 times, pitching each slightly differently (+/- about 10% of a tone overall) so they phase in and out, causing lots of random peaks and troughs. if you aren't listening with any bottom end on your playback system, the first half will probably sound like silence. it's actually relatively loud, but needs bass speakers to be present. the rest is one drum loop sped up and chopped up lots, then a little blippy arpeggio. that's about it.

blake - blunt and unreferenced versus new and black: i used an acoustic guitar recording, a couple of voice recordings, some straight percussion samples and delay on probably everything. the song is probably a little shorter than what i want it to be. it was originally a little longer but i didn't like it all, so i deleted some bits.

mars hill café

matt wakeling is playing a show at mars hill cafe on wednesday, august 11 as st jambience - his improvised soundscape music. he's asked us if we'd like to play. would we? other options might be for lessons in time to play a set as blake is keen to get that happening (but it might be too close, not sure - blake?). i've also been discussing an improvised ambient/noise thing with julian rojas which we could maybe do. my guess is it would be a bit more low-key on a wednesday than it would on a saturday. anyway, i'm keen to do something in whatever setup. what does everyone else think?

an update from sam

in sam's words...

"heres a still of how its going.. note: not complete............................."

(this is just a detail - if you click on the image it will take you to the full thing)

scissor lock

marcus whale, who runs curt who will put out our 3inch ep in a couple of months' time, is launching his own new scissor lock album tomorrow night (sunday) in a warehouse. i'm keen on going - anyone want to come with me? i'm doing sound between 4 and 6 and will head in after that if i can scrounge up any accomplices (sp?).

excelsior hotel - 16.7.10

nothing ventured /an invitation

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.

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.

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....

eliza

sorry, eliza. this is the only one i could find for you....

cherry cherry

thought this might lighten up an otherwise fairly heavy week on the cherry front...

future name-themed videos to no doubt follow.

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

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?

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.)

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.

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.

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)