Sufjan Stevens To Play Forum

And these feinting goats are excited.

Tickets on sale next Friday.

In Rod We Trust

The old bloke couldn't give a rat's arse he's in perhaps the greatest music video ever made.

I Love You Sophie, You Are Really Tops

Found some old magazines I used to write in.

Here's a review of one of the best shows I've ever been to.

BARDOT
(Festival Hall)

I went to see Bardot at the Festival Hall and it was really good. I like the yellow hair one called Sophie because she dressed up in Mummy's clothing and sang happy birthday to the fat man with the hair on his face. The fat man with the hair on his face liked it a lot, his smile was funny.

Before the Bardots came on stage, me and all the other kids screamed very loud. I screamed loud and yelled "I love you Sophie, you are really tops!" My mummy said that the kids screaming and the funny smell would have been same as the Festival Hall when Beatles and Peter, Paul, Tom, Dick and Mary were there in the olden days.

Bardot were really good and there was this one time, this one time when all the Bardots wore Tiffany's hats and she said that they stole the hats. They gave her the hats and then sang my favourite song Poison. I like Poison when they say "Don't treat me bad. Don't treat me bad, my glove fell in the ocean."

I like boats.

One day I am going to the ocean on a boat.

Bardot are good dancers. I don't really like the Katie one. She talks too much and doesn't wear pretty dresses.

Bardot play lots of slow songs in their concerts. I don't really like slow songs. I like the man playing guitar in the Bardot show. His guitar made twiddly twiddly noises. I like the pretty lights. Bardot are better than Freddo Frogs. I like the strawberry ones.

- Glenn Peters (aged 27)

Vale Billy Thorpe

One of the best shows I've ever seen was his mid 90's Aztecs comeback at the Myer Music Bowl.

His crowd of washed up rockers, bikie thugs, reprobates, lovely families, grandmas and grandpas with their grandkids, hipsters, dags, Hey Hey fans, my girly and me bowed to his gloriously loud rock and agreed, Thorpie's crayayzee!

Nobody's gonna rest in peace now Thorpie's up there.

Top bloke.

The Correct Way To Hold A Press Conference

Here's how Prince announced he would be playing the SuperBowl's halftime show.

Was I Right Was I Right Or Was I Right?

I told you Lebanese power-pop kookster, Mika was "going to be huge" way back in July last year.

Guess who hit number one in the UK charts this week.

I'm free for any A&R jobs you may have laying around.

But not for long.

Tom Waits On Don Lane: The Footage!

"You're starting to sweat, Don."

"If you were in my position, you would be too."



Filmed in Channel Nine's Bendigo St studios way back in 1979, Don Lane does his best to interview the 29 year-old Tom Waits.

Then Don joins Tom on the piano for a lovely version of On The Nickel.

For the past 16 years I've been trying to find a copy of this interview and now it's on YouTube!

Here's Tom on Don Lane's show two years later.


Visit TarenFox's YouTube page for hours of Tom Waits interviews and live footage.

Melbourne Rocks: The Game

The game is easy. Mix your favorite Melbourne suburb name with a your favorite band or singer's name. Had almost half the Corner Hotel's front bar play the game after The Bees (I mean The Weribees) show last night.

Here's a list of the 75 better combos so far. Help me get the list to the big century double quadruple century (!) by submitting your ideas to the comments bit at the bottom of this list.

Eltham John
The Fountains Of Gate
KD Lang Lang
Carrum Carpenter
Dromanarama
Bachman Wantirna Overdrive
My Mornington Jacket
Guns and Rosebud
Mentone As Anything
Four Geelong Blondes
Dandenong Warhols
Soundgardenvale
Williamstowns Van Zandt
Corio Steamwagon
Frankston Sinatra
The Painters And Docklands
Elsternwick Light Orchestra
Olivia Mentone John
Linkin Parkville
You Am Ivanhoe
The Bayswater City Rollers
Beaumaris Frawley
Casey And The Sunshine Band
Peter Hampton
The Tally Ho Betweens
Bright Said Fred
Bentleigh Rhythm Ace
Narre Warren G
Chaddy Cool
Robbie Williamstown
The Bonbeachboys
Watsonia Dada
Rye-d
Carol Kingston
Croydon Orbison
Dead Broadmeadows
Yea CDC
The Gypsy Kingsbury
The Kings Of Leongatha
The Cruel Seaford
Essendon Lake & Palmer
Bentleigh Drawn Boy
Liz Phairfield
Carnegie Pop
Joni Mitchum
Boys 2 Mentone
Bentleigh Rhythm Ace
Marilyn Mansfield
Duran Prahran
Fitzroy Orbison
The Clashburton
LangWarrant
The Beasts Of Burwood
Belgrave And Sebastion
Langwarrin Zevon
Kew Am I
Westgarth Brooks
The Black Rock Sorrows
The Black Keysborough
Scoresby Stills And Nash
Kew 2
Stone Templestowe Pilots
INXEssendon
Fitzroy Orbison
The Jackson Five Ways
Ripponlea Coulter
The Flemington Lips
The Como-dores
Groove Armadadale
Katrina And The Waverleys
Caroline Springsteen
Knoxette
Frankston Goes To Collingwood
Mick Thomastown
Brighton Eyes
Malvern And Shirley

We're at 225! 257 367!

Click the comments to read the rest or add a few of your own.

Top 20 Songs Played On My Ipod 2006

1 This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads
2 I'll Come Running - Brian Eno
3 Train Song - Tom Waits
4 Solitude - Billie Holiday
5 Foolish Love - Rufus Wainwright
6 Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye
7 Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye
8 Please Wake Me Up - Tom Waits
9 Franks' Theme - Tom Waits
10 More Than Rain - Tom Waits
11 Heatwave - Diana Ross & The Supremes
12 I'll Take New York - Tom Waits
13 Yesterday Is Here - Tom Waits
14 Sunswept Sunday - Duke Ellington
15 Blow Wind Blow - Tom Waits
16 Cold Cold Ground - Tom Waits
17 Till The End Of The Day - Big Star
18 I Cover The Waterfront - Billie Holiday
19 Innocent When You Dream - Tom Waits
20 Tired Of Being Alone - Al Green

Obviously, Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits was my most played album for the year.

Christmas Time With Bing, Bowie And Rufus

Bing Crosby and David Bowie's Little Drummer Boy always gives me shivers. Didn't know until reading yesterday's Washington Post that Bowie's bit was written especially for him (at his dogged insistence), by a couple of Bing's TV show musical arrangers only an hour and a half before going to air.


Rufus Wainwright loves Christmas carols. There's at least half a dozen of them on YouTube and I've got a few more on tape. Here's the gay messiah hamming it up with French and Saunders.


And here's Rufus belting out Oh Holy Night at the Wainwright family Christmas show last week. Don't worry about the bad camera work. Rufus' performance is incredible.

The Auer Of Power Is Coming!

The Posies' and yes, if you must, Big Star's Jon Auer is playing at The Northcote Social Club on February 18!

So Exciting.

Big Hair, Jangly Guitars And Pointy Shoes

Tracy. Tracy was angry. Why? Because the Gurus stole all her hair gel. She forgave drummer, James Baker because his mum promised to knit her a skiing jumper just like his.


Could you tell those girls with rifles for eyes to lock the shed up when they're finished?


When James Baker drummed for The Scientists he would only wear skivvies, much to his mother's chagrin. In this performance on Countdown, singer Kim Salmon insisted Baker go with the pink one.


James Baker's mum made Tex Perkins a Christmas hat for this Beasts of Bourbon clip. Baker got jealous and stole the hat and wears it for only a few seconds at the very end of the clip.


The greatest rock'n'roll clip ever made. Usual story. It's band meeting on a Tuesday night. Paisley clad band read tarot cards, look into crystal ball and then all of a sudden band appear in a meadow wearing different paisley but looking at the same crystal ball. Singer, Steve Kilby empties a cup of wine on his lap so obviously we need to flash to a graveyard acoustic guitar solo. Yes, an acoustic guitar solo in the home of acoustic guitar solos, the graveyard. And what the hey, it's a solar eclipse time so you know what that means. Of course. It's time for James Baker dressed as a knight in shining armor to gatecrash the band meeting. "I've come with pizza and a slab. Mum sends her best wishes!"

A Very Wainwright Christmas

How good will this be?

The Wainwright Family and Friends evening at Carnegie Hall on December 13, 2006 has just announced some very special guests. We are thrilled to welcome Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Jimmy Fallon, Linda Thompson, and Teddy Thompson to our Wainwright Christmas celebration. It will surely be a fun and festive evening. There may also be a few surprise guests stopping by...hope to see you all there!

Tickets are available at http://www.carnegiehall.org

Ten Things I'd Rather Do Than Endure Another Australian Idol Grand Final

Nice to see Channel Ten cut down the Australian Idol Final to a measly four hours. Most years the final's gone for six to seven hours so last night's bunch of sponsor generated filler seemed to fly.

Though I did shudder every time one of the hosts threatened to have another look at the the final two contestants' (I've already forgotten their names) JOURNEYS to get where they were blah blah yawn piddle pus yawn.....

Anyway, as promised ten things I'd rather do than endure another Australian Idol Grand Final™.

Lynch the Maybelline Style Team.

Visit Quambatook, Australia's home of the mighty sport of Tractor Pulling!

Read every single word of the Cole Inquiry's 2065 page report into AWB's dodgy work in Iraq. Twice.

Scalp, mince and make burgers out of the smarmy kids in the McDonalds Make Your Own Choice advertisements.

Interview Guy Sebastian about his new album. Everyone else has. I'm sure he's got something interesting to say.

See The Black Dahlia again. Maybe not.

Queue to see last year's Idol favorite, Dan England headline at The Empress. What? His gig was last Saturday night and I missed it? I'm so bad with dates.

Watch the grand final episode of Dancing With The Stars. Again, maybe not.

Apply for the job as the driver of Luna Park's big dipper. Yes, it's the only rollercoaster in the world with a driver. He just stands there in the middle caboose holding a big brake lever. No seat-belts. Nothing. And he doesn't care. In-fact, he looks real bored with his job. It's incredible.

Collect moths.

I Hate The Eighties Too

Great comment from Idolator reader, drjimmy11.

I haven't set eyes on "regular" (non-Classic) VH1 in like 6 years, ever since "Behind the Music" became so obviously formulaic and a promotional vehicle for groups with a new album out.

this shit reminds me why:

"still Talkin' Bout Those Crazy '80s??"

how about:
"still can't shut the fuck up about the 80s"
"still manufacturing nostalagia about the 80s"
"still promoting cliches about the 80s that weren't even very funny in The Wedding Singer eight years ago"

Correct.

Talking up the 1980s is and always has been, tedious. I'd rather have my arse hair plucked by an irritable gohper than attend an 80s themed birthday party.

So bogue.

A Loyal Reader Writes

People often write to me for a little bit o' my wisdom. I do my best. Here's something I received earlier today.

Dear Nightwatchman,

My ipod shuffle keeps choosing a Roots Manuva song every second song for around 200 songs when I only have 2 albums and 5 or so extra songs by him.

Kind Regards,

Miss Nonplussed, Carlton North

Thanks for writing, Miss Nonplussed. The shuffle is an interesting and important topic for our times. Not a weekend bbq goes by these days without a discussion on the strange behaviors of our shuffles.

Is the shuffle really random?

Does the shuffle know more than it lets on to know?

If you're thinking of a certain someone and their fave song pops up, does it mean you're both bound to make thousands of babies together?

Geez, I hope not.

As I ponder your query, Miss Nonplussed, a jazzy number from Lalo Schifrin's Dirty Harry soundtrack pops up, followed by the lovely My Morning Jacket ode, Evelyn Is Not Real. Does that mean something? What does it mean? Evelyn? Are you there? Evelyn, are you really real?

The Complete Stax Volt Singles dominates my shuffle. Fair enough, it's a huge box set and I'm not complaining. That's what you get when you put boxes on your ipod.

But there is one record that really gives me the da-dits. The Tiger Lillies & The Kronos Quartet's tribute to Ed Gorey, The Gorey End. The guy's kooky falsetto voice in the Tiger Lillies gives me piles. Sat through a whole song just then.

It hurt.

So my answer to your question, Miss Nonplussed, if it was indeed a question is....

That in these lean times, it's better to be getting lots of Roots than no Roots at all.

Nurse!

Free Willie!

"This week, Willie Nelson, whom Donald Rumsfeld calls the 'number two man in al-Qaeda' - was the victim of a pointless search that revealed he had with him a mere pound and a half of marijuana and a fifth of a pound of psychedelic mushrooms - or as Willie calls it, breakfast.

That's right, cops in Louisiana pulled over his tour bus and searched it based on probable cause, the probable cause being it contained Willie Nelson. The Fuzz then hassled Willie, demanded he cut his hair and shot Peter Fonda off his motorcycle. I mean, Louisiana, come on, your state was under water a year ago - if the man wants some of it for his bong, let him. Yes, he had mushrooms - he's a hundred year old hippie, they were growing in his hair."

From Bill Maher's blog which appears on The Huffington Post.

I Am The Art That Perry Is Working On

Here's a photo of Perry Farrell and his wife, Etty, Shepard Fairley (the OBEY guy) and Don Everlast taken at Banksy's Los Angeles art launch.

What's with Perry Farrell's wife?

As a longtime lapsed Janes Addiction fan, I wasn't aware of this Etty lady. She looks extraordinary.

I had to find out more about the disturbing lookin' bombshell.

There's an interview with her at the Janes Addiction website.

Here's the best bits.

"Of all dance forms, I am most passionate about ballet. My favorite ballet is Swan Lake. Perry and I are in love with dancing The Tango, and Rhumba. Both dances are pure aphrodisiac for us."

"I am the art that Perry is working on."

"He was living the "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" lifestyle, with a girl in LA, a girl in NYC, a girl in Miami, and a lot of drugs to go with them. I was a professional dancer, doing a job, being professional. Although he started persuing me from the beginning, it wasn't something I was interested in. I remember when he tried to talk to me, I couldn't understand what was coming out of his mouth and what he was looking at. It didn't matter really, because the next day, he couldn't remember any of it anyway."

Oh Perry!

Bye Bye Bon Scott: The Exhibition

Big local rock fella, James Young was the bloke who bought Bon Scott's ex-wife Irene Thornton's collection of private letters and photo album earlier this year.

He's framed them and posted them at his ad agency's public cafe SEE for all of us to see.

Samples can be seen online at SEE's blog.

And here's a link to Patrick Donovan's (another huge ACDC fan) Age story about the exhibition.

Check it out at SEE, 25 Nott Street Port Melbourne, from 7.30am to 3.30pm Monday to Friday until Friday 29 September 2006.

Kooky Brilliance Straight Out Of Lebanon

One little bit Sloan and ten thousand big bits Freddy Mercury, Lebanese powerpop wunderkind, Mika is going to be huge.

The first two songs on his myspace page are dainty, rocking and fabulous.

The third stinks.