Gigs Galore!
Hi there all coolest ones,
It seems it has been forever since I submitted an update. In fact, I have missed the entire summer/autumn season of events due to being computerless, internetless and extremely busy! Sometimes it feels as if my life is on permanent fast forward and I wish that just for a few moments I could hit the pause button and relax (especially since I have been suffering from the flu for the last month. There’s an epidemic of sick Melbournites right now!) Ok, I shall attempt to scan the ol’ memory banks and recall some of the highlights of the past few months.
Way, way, back I got to do the sound recording for a Chinese cooking show:
‘Elizabeth Chong’s Tiny Delights’. It took a couple of weeks of shooting in a TV studio kitchen. Elizabeth Chong is a celebrity chef, often appearing on daytime television and was one of the first chefs’ to bring Chinese cooking to the Australian culinary palette of meat and 3 veg. Elizabeth is an amazingly beautiful, talented and energetic woman who defies her age by at least 20 years!
She’s down to earth and has many fascinating tales to tell. The best thing about working on the show was not only getting to know Elizabeth and her the tricks of the trade but being able to taste test the results. mmmmm I mean the food was outstanding…(a far cry from working with hot dogs, burgers and fries).
Although I don’t eat chicken or beef, I certainly hoed into the seafood, vegetable and sweet delights; calamari, salmon, oysters, lobster, giant prawns, exotic mushrooms, vegetables and some delicious desserts. For lunch, the assistant chefs would cook up a storm for the crew, I mean these were the finest Chinese chefs in Melbourne, hand picked by Elizabeth! How lucky. The show is due to hit TV screens late 2002 along with a fabulous companion cookbook. Mouth watering stuff! Watch out for it! Elizabeth you rock! Many thanks to the producers, Ron and Ruth Brown, for offering me such a fantastic experience. Can’t wait to see it on TV!
Moler has been gigging regularly. Just recently we played at Revolver with excellent bands; Willow, Fort Mary and The Pictures. It was to launch a 7 inch vinyl compilation featuring a track from each band. Our track, ‘Mysterious Ways’, recorded in all its glory, in Matt Heydon’s lounge room on crusty cassette, is a WALTZ! It certainly has a sea shanty charm about it. There’s only a limited amount of vinyl available so if you want a copy for your collection email Julien: greasypolecat@hotmail.com. Many thanks to the brilliant Matt Sigley, who played keyboards with us that night since Matt Heydon had to travel interstate with Cow Penalty (Cow Penalty had to use a fill in bass player as well- clashing gigs…ouch). Matt S, had a run through of the set just before the show and played some wicked stuff. Matt Sigley has just returned from the UK and has his own band called ‘Daytime Frequency’. I’ve heard one song that they’ve recorded and it sounds excellent. Definitely go check them out!
Moler won’t be playing again until late August because Julien will be traveling to the US and Canada to promote the Sixpack record label and some great independent, Aussie bands on a sampler CD. Watch out all you people over there for a guy with a whole swag of CD’s, he’ll be looking for a comfy couch to sleep on! As soon as Julien returns we’ll be playing around and recording our next album with producer, Simon Knight. It’s gonna be great!
25th of April, ANZAC day, there was an excellent mini fest over 4 days, called Rock Wars, featuring 24 brilliant Aussie bands at the Duke of Windsor Hotel. Holed up in the lovely surrounds of the beer storeroom, it was my mission to record every act, live to CD! Indeed a challenge! But what magnificent results! Soon you will be able to purchase your very own live ROCK WARS CD, recorded in krustorama by the Helcat! The bands that played were:
>Prelude
>Slow Hand
>Sean Kelly
>Day 1
>The Twits- Fred Negro’s pub rock legends
>The Specimens-loud ‘n proud breakneck rock’n’roll
>The Gammarays- surf, soundtrack instrumentals
>Speed Demons- like Rose Tattoo on rocket fuel
>The Sailors- sexually explicit rockin’ sailor tunes
>The Onyas- punk rock supremos
>Day 2
>KTV- power pop grrrl with a voice to die for
>The Spazzies- twin sisters, chick ramones style fun fun fun
>Porcelain- sassy all grrrl power pop
>Moler – that’s us, you know the story
>Mach Pelican- Japan’s finest ramones style boys
>Day 3
>Jet- beautiful songs, kinda oasis meets T-rex meets the Stones
>Fort Mary- exciting boogie rock, S.T.Y.L.E!!!
>Fez Perez- high energy rockabilly meets metal
>The Casanova’s – kiss cock rock muthafuckas
>Day 4
>P-Tex- Country AND Western
>Butterfly- beautiful, sparse, lilting, country, folk, featuring Shane and Vivian’s spine tingling vocals
>Dank Alley- one talented man, his band included, folk meets sonic youth and Paul Simon???
>Large No. 12’s- great harmonies and songs, including some great covers, you will often catch them at the Duke.
>Cashcow- an eva changing line up means no two gigs are the same! Cowboy sci-fi!
>The Double Agents- will have you movin’ to their infectious sounds
>Legends of Motor Sport- wicked, grooves, with the greatest vintage keyboard sounds.
>The Drones- country gone psycho…they played so well that they got a bit carried away and smashed the hired backline!!! Oooops, bad Drones…ahhhh but sooo good!
>All these bands were so fantastic, just goes to show what a healthy and world class music scene we have here in Melbourne. (and these are just the ROCK bands) Not to mention all the other bands of all sorts of genres that are playing around…they’re everywhere, old and new! If I had to choose my favourites of the ROCK WARS fest, oh what a hard choice! I loved every one of them but The Drones, Dan Kelly, Legends of Motorsport, Fort Mary, The Sailors, Butterfly were exceptionally attuned to my taste buds.
Speaking of mini-fest’s, there was a benefit called ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ at the Espy a few days later. A bunch of local bands donated their talents to raise money to send a container load of musical instruments for the people of East Timor. Bands who generously donated their talents were:
>Holesome, Dan Kelly, In Vivo, Moler, The Sailors, The Gammarays, The Red Hot Poker Dots, The Dice Age, Roland S Howard, Charlie Owen’s Disco, Alex Burns and Co., The Tree Tops, Mustang, Luxedo, Jess MacEvoy and Odilla.
Spencer P Jones’s Cow Penalty has been gigging locally and interstate. Highlight shows were at ‘Vic on the Park’, in Sydney and last weekend at the Espy front Bar. I even got to catch up with my old friend, Mick Blood, singer of the Lime Spiders. Spencer’s off again now touring in the UK with Paul Kelly and then will be touring Australia…so there won’t be any more shows til he finishes that! That leaves me free of playing live for a little while but no rest in the songwriting department.
Sad news too, alas, Antibody is no longer a band!
Due to business disagreements, we had to call it a day. After 3 years of rehearsing, recording and writing and just starting to make an impression in the live scene, it was quite a disappointment. The good news is that I am still jamming with Dave and Steve. We’re working on a few more songs before we hit the live circuit again and of course we have to come up with a new band name!
That’s the hard part!
Coming events:
>Fri 28th June: Cow Penalty at Bar 107 – Adelaide
>Sat 29th June: Cow Penalty at The Tote – Melbourne
>Fri 5th July: Cow Penalty at The Bridge Mall Inn – Ballarat
>Sat 6th July: Cow Penalty at The Esplanade Hotel
>Fri 12th July: Norma Bates at The Duke of Windsor.
>Fri Aug 16th: Fort Mary CD Launch at Revolver
>Aug: The Specimen’s CD launch at The Tote
Well, I think that will about do this update. Of course there’s so many other bands I’ve seen and many stories to tell but I gotta end this somewhere! Have a rockinest time where eva you are and be cool!
Your eva lovin’ feline
Helcat
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Leave a Reply