Spoonbill’s Electronic Wonderland
Spoonbill returns to the fore with his fourth full-length album Tinkerbox. This fresh sonic anthology traverses the landscapes of cinematic groove electronica like a caravan of space gypsies; packed with instruments, handmade sound toys, weird musical contraptions, trinkets, puppets, clowns and a kick-arse high-end recording studio inside. Tinkerbox has been crafted as a eclectic but refined listening album that features a vast array of 16 musicians, recorded in many studios around the world from Canada to India and Australia. The live instrumentation has been forensically sculpted with synthesised tones and foley recordings to achieve a dynamic spectrum of tonality that provides the listener with an evocative cerebral experience.
Spoonbill, aka Melbourne-born Jim Moynihan, is one Australia’s unique electronic musicians carving out a signature sound that has influenced the glitch hop, broken beat and bass music genres in the electronic music scene over the last ten years. This album shines a new light on one of the pioneers of the Australian scene, adding a new feather to his already plumage-laden cap. He presents a one-off show that promises to be a sensory spectacle to remember. Durrumbul Hall on Friday 28 August. 6pm till midnight.
Door tickets only. $20
There will be tasty food and chai.
Want to play Country Roots?
Want to play at the Murwillumbah Country Roots Fest (2–5 Oct)?20 Enter the MCRF Band Comp for your chance to win one of TWO spots in the festival lineup, a Lucky Boy recording package, Byron Music in-store vouchers, festival passes and more! Sundays in September from 3pm at the Imperial Hotel, Murwillumbah. Contact [email protected] for details – early entries will receive preference.
Uke Night Debut in Club Mullum
Miss Amber and Stukulele’s UKE NIGHT has moved venue to Club Mullum, the auditorium in the Ex-Services Club. To warm up the room this month’s songbook is all about the uke with Hawaiian and Hapa-haole classics and some easy-to-play modern pop smash hits. Special guests are local uke songstress Renee Searles, young powerhouse diva Misty Henderson and the nine-piece Northern Rivers Uke Orchestra. Bring your uke, belt out some tunes or just enjoy the show. Thursday 27 August from 6.30pm. Grab a copy of the songbook by joining the mailing list at ukemullum.com. Entry for adults is $10, kids under 15 $2.50. Ukulele will fix whatever ails ya!
Walker and the Suave Fucks
Polka Dot Productions and Select Music welcome Australian musical legend Don Walker and his superb touring band to Mullumbimby for a rare performance in this region. Later in the year Cold Chisel are touring nationally and Tex, Don & Charlie are playing Out On The Weekend in Melbourne. This upcoming gig offers Walker lovers the opportunity to see The Don perform in a smaller venue – up close and personal.
Don Walker’s songs have been mapping Australia, from Kings Cross to regional towns and the spaces between, for more than thirty years, through solo albums and shows, a couple of albums with Tex, Don and Charlie, back to his youth as a member and main songwriter of Cold Chisel. This is the band he is bringing on the 2015 tour: Michael Vidale bass, Hamish Stuart drums, Garrett Costigan pedal steel, Roy Payne and Glen Hannah on guitars and The Don on keys and lead vocals. They will be joining him at Club Mullum at the Ex-Services Club on Saturday 5 September at 7.30pm. Pre-sale tickets $33 + bf: Mullum show: www.trybooking.com/141183. Tickets at the door $35
FireTree at Club Lennox
Indie folk darlings The FireTree are Dale and Josephine, unapologetically do-it-yourself musicians who have been steadily carving out their niche in the vibrant Australian live music scene.
Embracing the multi-instrumental culture, the pair play a modified drum-kit, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, harmonica and mandolin to create a captivating raw indie pop sound topped with soaring vocal harmonies. At Club Lennox on Sunday from 4pm.
Lucky Duckies at Mullum and Ballina
Sydney-based Galapagos Duck was an integral part of the foundation and success of the legendary jazz club The Basement. The band performed in the club continuously for 16 years, during which The Basement became known as one of the greatest jazz clubs in Australia and the world.
The ‘Duck’ also toured extensively all throughout Australia, visiting the capital cities on many occasions and performing frequently in country areas including the remote areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory with festival highlights including Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Jazz Yatra festival in Bombay and Musexpo in USA. The band began in the late 60s while the members were engaged in a winter season at the New South Wales skiing resort The Kosciusko Chalet at Charlottes Pass. After returning to Sydney the band continued to work and became well known in the Australian jazz and music scene during the 70s when it was the house band at the emerging jazz night club The Basement near Circular Quay.
Although the membership has changed, of necessity, the direction of the band has always remained the same and that is to create a performance experience that while jazz oriented may be appreciated and enjoyed by everybody. They play the Ballina RSL on Friday night at 8.30pm and Club Mullum at the Mullum Ex-Services on Sunday at 3pm.
Tijuana Cartel gone Gonzo
Tijuana Cartel’s influences are so broad that a new album release that digs deep into the Australian counterculture was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s called Psychedelicatessen. You might say the album’s been in the making for roughly 40 years.
The seed for Psychedelicatessen was planted way back in 1978 when Double J broadcast a psychedelic road trip from Brisbane to Sydney called What’s Rangoon to you is Grafton to me. What was then a ‘quintessentially Australian gonzo rant’ is now a cult classic radio play that intrigued TC’s singer/songwriter/guitarist, Paul George, for years. Psychedelicatessen is Tijuana Cartel’s tribute to the play and to its author, Russell Guy. ‘This new album pings on cruise control as it translates, engages and navigates the worldwide plague of earthquakes, terrorism, crime, corruption, scoffers, mockers, volcanic eruptions and psycho-babble, while segueing into a groove that the Gobble-up Machine can’t follow.’
The awesome Tijuana Cartel play the Hotel Great Northern on Sunday.
Unforgiven
The Unforgiven Band was born one afternoon in July 2013 at a throw-together gig at the Aussie Hotel, Ballina, hometown to the majority of the band. Horace, Stuart, Lenny, Craig and Jesse found the sweet spot and the result of that gig was the Unforgiven Band. After playing a few more gigs together it was a given that the band should do an album. So, after sorting through about 30 songs they decided on the chosen few to compile their first album Breathe. It was recorded in the most raw and free-spirited way with amps and cables in bedrooms and kitchens in a makeshift studio in the garage. The band wanted to get back to the way music was recorded before the digital age. You play your part and that’s what goes down. If it doesn’t feel right, do it again. If it feels good but it’s not prefect, then it’s probably perfect!
The Unforgiven play the Ocean Shores Country Club on Friday at 8pm.
