Tag Archives: lifemusicmedia

Interpol “Interpol” – Album Review

Review: Kenada Quinlan


Interpol - InterpolInterpol – Interpol
  Established in 1997 and with only 4 albums under their belt to date, Interpol have decided to go it alone for the self-released and self-titled 2010 offering. Kick starting with ‘Success’, the New York based quartet delightfully introduce their brand of Indie that over the years has refused to shift in any fashionable sense.

The next step of ‘Memory Serves’ is an atmospheric, thumping masterpiece that captures loneliness and loss with beauty and an infectious groove. The vocal line “You don’t have say that you’d love to – but baby please that you want to – some day…” resonating far passed the song’s inception.

The off-kilter latter beats of this composition making way for ‘Summer Well’ – a more spritely drum and piano medley. Breaking into an uplifting yet damning verse of harmonies, vocalist Paul Banks inviting drones raise precisely on time for a hop, skip and jump to graceful emotional ruin.
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Danza Contemporanea De Cuba @ The Playhouse (Brisbane Festival), 15th September 2010 – Live Review


[Image courtesy Brisbane Festival]
  Review: Lana Harris

Young and old wait in the shadows for the outsiders. Excited and unsure about what to expect from these strangers, from this contemporary dance troupe from the other side of the world, the other side of governance. Their entrance: a few members trickle onto the stage, in silence and unadorned.

Continue reading Danza Contemporanea De Cuba @ The Playhouse (Brisbane Festival), 15th September 2010 – Live Review

Sylvia by A.R. Gurney – Brisbane Arts Theatre, 11th September 2010 – Live Review

Review: Pepa Wolfe

  Sylvia By A.R. Gurney
Directed by David Bell

With: Karla Deane, Michael Civitano, Natasha Kapper, Jill Brocklebank, Kate Hawkins.

There was a decidedly pleasant mood at the Brisbane Arts Theatre on Saturday, as people gathered for the opening night performance of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia. Promoted as a comedy about the relationship between Man and “Man’s best friend”, the play’s title character is in fact a dog – a precocious little mut, played by Karla Deane.

Continue reading Sylvia by A.R. Gurney – Brisbane Arts Theatre, 11th September 2010 – Live Review

The Drums “The Drums” – EP Review

Review: Natalie Salvo
The Drums are a young band from New York City who – like The Strokes before them – received a lot of hype very early on. But as their debut EP, Summertime! And now eponymous debut album have proved, this indie pop quartet are more about basking in the sunlit glow of a California beach than being inspired by yellow cabs or shopping on fifth avenue.

The guys ooze retro cool and like Peter Hook’s bass playing in Joy Division and New Order, their sound makes an immediate impact gaining your attention quickly with its old-yet-fresh style. But it seems this quality is also the group’s pitfall because when spread out over 12 songs, it becomes too repetitively simple and the buzz does tend to wear off a little. Like summer itself, you miss it when it’s gone but after enough humid 40+ degree days you can’t wait for winter or at the very least, autumn.
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Black Label Society “Order of the Black” – LP Review

  Review: Lana Harris

Zakk Wylde is known as one of the metal world’s best guitar players, particularly
when talking shredding abilities. He was Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist for two decades, and didn’t let decadence overcome discipline – as well as working and touring with Ozzy, he completed an album a year from 1999-2006 with his side project, Black Label Society (BLS). BLS have their guitars firmly wedged in heavy metal/ hard rock – think Alice in Chains, a bit of Ozzy’s influence apparent in the vocals. But now Wylde’s no longer with Ozzy, and Order of the Black is the first album release by BLS in four years.

Continue reading Black Label Society “Order of the Black” – LP Review

Interview with JOHN 5 [Audio]

Interview: Ben Hosking
There aren’t many guitarists out there displaying as much originality and commitment to their craft as John 5.

Long known as the axeman behind such artists as Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, he’s also played with such luminaries as Rob Halford, David Lee Roth and Paul Stanley. When he’s not touring with Zombie, he’s playing session work with artists from a wide range of styles including Ricky Martin and recording his own solo albums; such as his latest effort, ‘The Art Of Malice’ which is available now.
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Junip “Fields” – Album Review

Review: Natalie Salvo
If ever there was a group that embodied the spirit of quality over quantity, then Junip’s it.

The trio – made up of José González (vocals, guitars), Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (keys) – have released a few singles and EPs; taken a 5-year break (where the former toured his solo work); and are now on the verge of releasing their debut album, Fields. It took a lot of effort to get here (although it was by no means the longest spell – Guns N’ Roses anyone?) but in this case people will declare it was a labour of love well worth the wait.

González and Araya have been making music together since they were 14, having started creative life as a hardcore group. In 2010 they’ve taken a different musical route, improvising together to find song sketches and in particular, looking for beats and guitar patterns that stood out for their overall groove and melody. The result is 11 nu-folk and pop songs borne out of patience, perfectionism, inspiration and sheer bloody mindedness.
Continue reading Junip “Fields” – Album Review

Goodnight Owl “Goodnight Owl” – EP Review

Review: Natalie Salvo
Goodnight Owl started life in a bedroom, graduated to various recording studios and a church in Melbourne, and the result is a folktronica quartet content on blurring the lines between musical genres. Peel away the layers and you have five songs on a self-titled debut EP that have too many ambient noises and electronic beats to be strictly pop, yet also boast too many tender, heartfelt moments to be strictly the former.

The group have been likened to The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, Bon Iver and Band of Horses and they admit their music can take you in one of two directions. Like being faced with a road less travelled, on the one hand there is the promise of the embrace of the dawn while the alternative is an adventure into the dark
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Jez Mead “Beard of Bees” [LP Review]

Review: Lana Harris

  What deal did Jez Mead make with the devil to get that voice? He certainly didn’t trade his finger picking abilities (his mastery of the guitar is evident in this diverse mix of tracks), but the man surely gave up something for a voice that soars across octaves, that swings from gravel to whisper to a full blown resonance that seems to take up real, tangible space in the room. Beard of Bees is Jez Mead’s fourth recorded offering to the world, and a record that uses his vocal gift (no matter how it was acquired) to deliver a striking set of songs.

Let’s begin at the end: the last song on this album

was the best. A gorgeous, chilled out track called ‘Crooked’ was a resplendent way to finish, with slow chords and soulful crooning and Jez humming low and full, a honey coated vibration that left goose bumps in its wake (and was not the only track to do so). ‘Devil’ (featuring Julia Stone as Mead’s duet partner) is similarly slow and haunting, a love song which includes such lyrical blues gems as ‘Devil wants my blood for making whisky’. Continue reading Jez Mead “Beard of Bees” [LP Review]

Senses Fail (USA) Australian Tour – August 2010

  New Jersey quintet SENSES FAIL are set to tour Australia this August 2010, fresh out of the studio with producer Brian McTernan (Thrice, Circa Survive). The band’s long-awaited return will happen nearly 7 years after their first visit when they performed on the Taste of Chaos tour.

Senses Fail will be performing songs from their entire catalog, including their most recent Vagrant Records release ‘Life is Not a Waiting Room’, which came out in October of 2008.

7 Australian dates, 5 eager members, and a brand new live DVD scheduled to hit stores later in the year (details to come); this tour will lively demonstrate all of the passion and fury the post-hardcore band is renown for serving.

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Photo Gallery: Biffy Clyro @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane 18 May 2010

Photographer: Stuart Blythe
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Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro

[Photo: Stuart Blythe]

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Biffy Clyro @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane 18 May 2010
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Interview: Ben Weinman – The Dillinger Escape Plan

By: Ben Hosking
[Click here to listen to the audio version of this interview]

In a scene where many bands tend to follow the latest musical trend and the industry doesn’t know which way is up, The Dillinger Escape Plan stand clearly out from the crowd.
THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLANFormed in the late 1990s, the group has gone from strength to strength thanks to an unwavering self-reliance and unique ability to churn out some of the most twisted, ugly riffs available. Founder member and guitarist of the New Jersey band Ben Weinman (BW) talks to LifeMusicMedia’s Ben Hosking (LMM) about band dynamics, society’s relationship with technology, illegal downloading and their new album ‘Option Paralysis’.

LMM: How’s the tour going?
BW: Pretty good. Everybody’s a little sick, but we’re holding it together.

LMM: Too much partying or more a case of ‘one guy gets sick, we all get sick’?
BW: I think it’s the latter, man. We’re all on a bus together, so when one person starts hacking up a lung, it just spreads like wildfire.
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Interview with Dallas Taylor – Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

MAYLENEInterview / Dallas Taylor April 2010.
Interview By: Hannah Collins

Dallas Taylor (DT), the longest standing member of southern rock/metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster talks to LifeMusicMedia’s Hannah Collins (LMM) about divine justice, family, touring and their new album “III”

LMM: I’m sure you’ve probably told this story a million times, but can you tell it once more? That is, how you guys got the name “Maylene and the Sons of Disaster”? And what it does actually mean to you all?
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Photo Gallery: Hoodoo Gurus w/ The Break + The Gun Street Girls @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane 29 April 2010

Photographer: Charles Williams
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Hoodoo GurusHoodoo Gurus
The Break

[Photo: Charles Williams]

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Hoodoo Gurus w/ The Break + The Gun Street Girls @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane 29 April 2010

Hoodoo GurusBuy: Click here for HOODOO GURUS from iTunes

The BreakBuy: Click here for THE BREAK from iTunes

Gun Street GirlsBuy: Click here for GUN STREET GIRLS from iTunes
Continue reading Photo Gallery: Hoodoo Gurus w/ The Break + The Gun Street Girls @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane 29 April 2010

Slash – Australian Tour – August 2010

Slash   Few artists in rock history can carry off the single moniker, and carry it with gravitas.
SLASH is one of that rare breed.

Since emerging with Guns N’ Roses, SLASH has been one of the world’s most sought after guitarists. Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Quentin Tarantino and so many other fellow icons have sought his services in order to make the good sound great.

Critics and fans alike still debate the greatest rock riff of all time with “Sweet Child O’ Mine” consistently taking top honors. Time Magazine placed SLASH second only to Jimi Hendrix amongst the greatest guitarists of all time.

Continue reading Slash – Australian Tour – August 2010