soothe my soul k.c.

i saw the most distressing thing this afternoon. it was such a beautiful day - cold and clear, but the sun was out to warm us like an outdoor travelling heater. me and a gang of friends decided we would make some delicious snacks and spend the afternoon playing tennis at some cute nearby grass courts at sydney uni.

i was actually super excited, because i have a lot of tennis playing friends, but i'm usually relegated to the sidelines to cheer and drink beer - which isn't entirely bad when you think about it...i make an excellent, if tipsy, mascot.

anyway, today i was welcomed with open arms and i think in the end i wasn't a complete disaster. i don't know how well my sparkly converse sneakers went down as exercise appropriate. and i'm not sure how i feel about being told how funny it was to see me run. i am sure that it was totally awesome that there were twin gingas playing on the court next to us. and i bet you want to know if i'm ever going to get to my musical point.

so game, set and match, various people hopped in cars/on their bikes to part ways when all of a sudden their was this awful crunching sound of one car hitting another and we turned to see that a car indeed had mounted a curb and backed right into another parked car. then without warning, it flew into drive and in a matter of probably only 2, 3 seconds max, it had totally smashed into a lampost that consequently snapped and broke clean in two. if that lampost hadn't been there though, i am 99% sure this car would have gone flying onto paramatta rd.

it was just awful, the driver was in intense shock, his skin was grey, there was blood coming out of his nose and in his mouth. he kept saying he was ok when he was so far from it. no more details, i'm only writing about it in a cathartic effort to stop myself thinking about the whole thing, because it actually made me go into semi-shock and feel sick to my stomach. good in a crisis i am not.

anyway, so we get home and decide we need either a strong drink, or a pot of tea, and given that the sun had gone, the sky had darkened and it was about to pour buckets, we went with the latter. then i decided we needed some nice, comforting music to go with it.

enter k.c. mckanzie. this girl rocks. well not in the musical genre sense - but check out her myspace to listen to a beautiful selection of songs from her 3rd album hammer & nails. k.c. is german and her folk ditties are effortlessly engaging. she had our breathing back to normal and smiles back on our faces in no time. her lyrics have a definite wryness to them, simple and sweet with a sprinkling of dark humour every now and then. her voice is lovely - especially in the ever-so-strained falsetto moments, which somehow work everytime, even though it sounds as if she's not quite nailing them.

k.c. has a new album coming out later in the year, and if you haven't already clicked the vid link at the top of this post, do so now for a katie dazzle super exclusive, and my favourite track off the new album, which will be called dryland. the song is called 'lonely fighter'. and it's for everyone out there who is awesome in a crisis x

do magpies swoop?

i'm not sure. you know who does swoop? swoop swoop. you may know him as streaky jake, but swoop swoop is what this perth artist is now going by, since the release of his album somewhere in the shadows a month or so ago.

i'm going to keep this short and sweet. my favourite track for sure is the opener 'i know what to do with myself'. this song makes me think of what maybe one fleet fox would sound like if he was stranded by all by his lonesome. and on a beach.

it also sounds like a song that could be playing in one of those hospital drama series we all love to hate, but secretly actually love, if only for the person whose job it is to pick the songs that play as the camera scans around the waiting/on call/operating rooms and make the doctor people in their scrubs seem full of wretched depth and emotional intensity. oopsi, tangent.

the rest of the album, while lovely, doesn't grab me as much as track one, and is a little disappointing after such a good opener. but it's still a beautiful collection of songs that sound like they were written by a guy living on the coast who should go and get lost in the mountains. and perhaps bump into the fleet foxes.

guitar that twangs ever so slightly in certain points of 'sean gormans dream 123' make you wish they twanged some more. swoop swoop has a breathy vocal delivery and the songs with the least arrangment and production are definitely the winners here. basically i just want you to go and listen to 'i know what to do with myself' right now. so now you know. go x

hot, hottie, hot.

the countdown to get your vote in for 'the triple j hottest one hundred of all time' is on kids, i believe voting closes this sunday, june 28th. everyman and his abc youth network loving dog has his or her chance to name their ultimate top ten mixtape, a task that many music lovers would find difficult. no exception here folks, this is a daunting list to even begin to imagine to compile. so don't imagine, just do and you'll find it comes a lot easier.

if you're on struggle street with making your list, you might also find the following helpful:

1) do not read anyone else's list* to try and get ideas for your own. try! well for one you should not have to try, the hardest part should be culling the damn thing! and the reason for including a song in the list has to be genuine, not just cos some dude, in some band, who you think might be quite cool at the moment, thinks it's cool. or something.

2) the beauty of lists and mixtapes is that there are always going to be more to be made. if you're lucky, the opportunity to produce lists and mixtapes will never run dry (if they do you may need to make some new friends). in fact, probably in a few days time i'll be compiling a mixtape titled 'the 10 songs i actually wish i'd voted for in the triple j hottest one hundred of all-time'.

anyway, without any further fanfare and in an order ascertained by me drawing crumpled pieces of paper out of a hat, here is mine - with linkable bits so your ears can understand exactly what i'm going on about.

*disclaimer - it is totally ok to read kit/katie dazzle's list as you are probably awesome and have already placed your vote, and would never steal another's personal musical memories anyway. x

lou reed - walk on the wildside

i liked transformers as a kid and not knowing anything of lou reed or the velvet underground, believed that was reason enough to get this album. lucky i was such a dork when i was little, the standout track for me on an entirely stellar album.

feist - i feel it all

feist is a female force to me, and she always makes me feel strong and independent. this song in particular taught me how a house can really be a home. and that you can never be too big for fireworks.

portishead - glory box

mysterious, haunting and lingering. and although it's wrapped up in a fuzz of desperate electric guitar, hearing this for the first time made me realise that sad songs make me happy.

the shins - new slang

i saw this song live and actually think i had an out of body experience - no drugs necessary. for some reason now when i listen to the album i always wish i was walking through snow... power of the tambourine perhaps?

tom petty & the heartbreakers - learning to fly

most mornings, there is an amazing homeless aboriginal man who sits at either central or redfern train station with a battered guitar, singing for money. his voice is completely mesmerising - so strong yet so raw. when he sings tom petty it's so hopeful, it puts a skip in my heart and no matter what has happened the day or night before, i know it's going to be a good day. and it always is. tom petty goes alright too.

the cure - friday i'm in love

such a hopeful song to me. maybe you're only in love one day of the week, but friday is only ever another seven days away. i was hooked from the opening notes.

azure ray - rise

the way this song builds is amazing, i love the way my heart actually swells and contracts when i listen to it. i'm so glad i don't associate it with any personal heartbreak (yet) because i never want to stop being able to listen to this song. so painful yet so, so beautiful.

the beatles - blackbird

cute and lovely. evokes memories of that nursery rhyme where some blackbirds are baked in a pie. i think they got trapped. in this song they would be set free again, lilting and uplifting from an iconic group of musicians.

the stranglers - golden brown

this was my song when i was growing up, given to me by the parentals due to the colour of my hair. now a redhead, the wispy golden tendrils are gone, but the awesomeness of the song remains - who doesn't dig a harpsichord?

the panics - don't fight it

when i first heard this song i was on my lunchbreak in the postage stamp sized backroom of a retail tenure i'd rather forget. i think i may have decided then and there to quit, and properly find my way into the music industry. so guess i owe the panics some thanks - this song might be enough though. jae's voice cuts like wire, the piano makes my heart pound, the panics make me happy to be part of the australian music scene.

cover me with....

i'm an out-of-the closet covers lover. i used to do a rad radio show where i found and played an excellent cover track each and every week. i don't think all cover songs are excellent by the way, in fact i think they get a bad wrap because a lot of them do suck the big one.

for me, it's all down to the covering artist taking someone else's song, and completely making it their own, so when you listen to it, it's kind of like an old, old friend coming to visit. sure, they've changed a bit on the outside, but give them a few minutes of your time and (hopefully) you're reminded of all the reasons you liked them in the first place. and maybe even the aesthetic differences go down ok in the end too.

for this reason, i usually go searching for an artist i like, rather than a song i think would make a good cover. because when a favourite song is done badly, it runs the risk of being spoiled for as long as your short-term memory lasts these days.

on the upside of this though, the most surprising cover delights can come from songs you'd never dig in their original incarnations, my case in point here is the bee gees being delivered by the similarly named the bird and the bee.

while momentarily on hiatus from my said rad radio show, my discovery of an awesome cover track hasn't been quite as fruitful as normal, but that just goes to make the gems that much more sparkly.

the apra 2009 awards shebang is happening tomorrow, june 23rd. when the nominees were announced at the end of may, kate miller-heidke and her husband slash band guitarist keir nuttall did a super beautiful version of empire of the sun's 'walking on a dream'. it's stripped and it's bare but rather than being a skeletal frame of one of the electro/pop hits of the summer, it gives kate's voice and keir's timing the chance to shine so brightly they burn, in an achingly good way. with only a few tambourine taps along the way, there's no powerbook in sight. check it. x

you're from where?

you'll find the middle east actually hail from way up north - townsville to be exact, but i'd have these guys anywhere.

the buzz surrounding the middle east has been steadily getting louder and louder over the past few weeks, and i'm lucky enough to work with a dude, who knows a dude, who had the record, so have been happily listening to the recordings of the middle east for a month or two now.

the band actually released their mini LP the recordings of the middle east last year, and were selling them through their website. But super smart Spunk Records obviously knew they had stumbled upon a winner after hearing the middle east and luckily for anyone with ears, they have just re-issued the record.

with 5 tracks to choose from, the listening experience is short, but oh so sweet. 'blood' is beautiful, and when the tinkly and tingly xylophone kicks in about one minute in, it's the stuff that shivers are made from. and by the end of the track, the horn section almost has me packing my bags for north qld. also, i think because of the xylophone, it reminds me a lot of fat segal's 'kissn emeth', which serves as the theme song to my latest favourite bbc obsession skins. go and check it out by clicking here. useful tip - if you're ever having an insomnia moment, i highly recommend watching skins - it's pacifying in the realisation that whatever is bothering you, you're probably never going to be as f%#ked as the characters in this show.

while you're clicking on links, the middle east are right here. the page is pretty scant for info, but the two tracks they've got up for your listening pleasure, are probably actually my favourite off the album. the aforementioned 'blood' and the slower, guitar based 'the darkest side'.

the middle east produce songs that make me simultaneously happy and sad - the vocals, whether boy or girl, are raw yet tuneful. the lyrics make me contemplate, and think that i wish i knew the people who had written these words. speaking of words, word on the street is that these townsville kids are going to be heading round the country on a national tour tres soon - so buy some tickets, take a loved one and enjoy. x

ouch

so i think i might have a new nextdoor neighbour. i never saw them move in, i never saw a sign out the front. i never saw removalist trucks. i've come to this rationale only because for the past 1 year, 11 months and 20-something days, i've been cosily getting on like a house on fire with the sandman almost every night. and in a four-person sharehouse inner city terrace, that is a pretty sweet deal.

ok, so sometimes i get the odd bout of sunday night anxiety, where the impending work week ahead causes me to stay up all night googling the difference between panic attacks and heart attacks.

and yeah, sometimes i have to plug in the iPod to make sure i'm politely excused from listening in to any of said flatmates late night activities. because let's face it - unless i'm enjoying my own late night activities, i absolutely need my beauty sleep.

so imagine my surprise the other night, when at about 9pm on a wednesday, my walls start vibrating to the swelling, aching strains of jebadiah's 'harpoon'. "wow" i think to myself, "that is really mother flipping loud!" oh well, it was by all accounts pretty early, no real drama. i had to catch up on a couple of missed episodes of masterchef online anyway, so in go the headphones and i'm saved.

but when i emerge from my reality cooking revery, approximately 2 hours later, 'harpoon' is still going strong. and loud. "hmmm, playlist is back to the beginning guys, time to mix it up slash turn it the f#$% down".

it was only when i'd heard the same song another seven mother flipping times, i realised that perhaps there never was a playlist. that whoever was currently residing in number 84 is either tone-deaf, heartbroken or insane.

i've never been a huge jebediah fan, but i've never disliked them either - sweet indifference my friends! bob evans even goes alright too. but seriously, when you're up til 3am, with no escape from, "and i love heeeeerrrrrr, but does shhheeeee think iiiiit's ok, when i teeeelllllll herrrrr..." etc. you do start to get a wee bit scratchy.

and when it starts again at 9-a-f%#king-m the very next morning? when you're trying to sleep-in to replace all the lost hours from the torturous and sleepless night before? you do not get a pretty kitty that is for sure. and can i also just say that this is not a one-night only, once-in-a-lifetime event. it's turning out to be a recurring nightmare - where i am unfortunately awake. all the time. looks like it's time to invest in some earplugs x

the music makes me sick

i suppose the title of this inaugural post might like seem like an inauspicious beginning to make me a mixtape, but this is actually the name of a ripper new album and also the title track from it's a musical's debut, the music makes me sick. and as this is a debut of sorts, actually it makes perfect sense.

this is the kind of record to listen to after you have had a completely ratshit day. i'm talking, waking up on the wrong side of someone else's bed, banging your knee on the bed as you sneak out the door, and getting sprayed by a massive mud puddle while you're doing the walk of shame home, kind of ratshit. here we have twelve delightfully crafted indie/pop gemstones that demand you sit up straighter, smile brighter and get your happy on.

just like matt & kim, german/swedish duo robert kretzschmar and ella blixt have left the guitars behind in favour of sparkling keyboard chords, swinging drums and i'm guessing some sort of powerbook and appropriate music software.

released on the independent german electro-pop label morr music, it's a musical is snappy hooks, sassy rhythms, sweet melodies, observant lyrics and, at heart, two eccentric popsters having fun and sounding excellent while doing so.

standouts from the album include the token ballad 'take off your t-shirt', the (ironically) upbeat opener 'pain song', and without a doubt the title track 'the music makes me sick'. check out the video clip that goes with - if ever there was a time to be bringing onesies back... x