I have been anti General Pants Co. for a long time. They create thousands of copies of an item I spent ages trawling through a dingy op-shop to find then sell it for ten times the price to armies of hipsters! Well enough ranting, it seems I am going to have to change my proverbial tune (and the pun is indeed intended) now that General Pants have teamed up with Peer Group Media to create a ‘singles only’ record label wholly owned by General Pants Co.

The artist maintains ownership of copyright has full creative control and receives 100% of the royalties through the sales of music through digital retail stores. Sounds pretty damn good to me. On Wednesday night recent additions to Major Label; Guineafowl, Made in Japan and Underlights played at Oxford Art Factory. Not only were these great bands playing for free, but there was also free alcohol and free pizza. General Pants: All is forgiven.

In between the awesome freeness of the night I caught up with Guineafowl and Made in Japan to chat about their music, Major Label…and somehow, Pokémon and Santana as well as preventing suicide with Nickelback. [Ed note. What is it with you and Nickelback? Honestly.]

++

+ Guineafowl have only been around for six months, and you have been receiving a whole lot of hype. How have you managed that?
> Guineafowl: Um… just generally. Our manly charms.
> Lachy: Haha, yeah definitely.

+ So how do you think Major Label will help if you have in a short period of time already got a lot of attention?
> Lachy: To be honest. I think in a few months it wont matter all that much but it’s helped give us a boost and for a band that’s only been around six months, for us to get the exposure is great. Read more for the full interview…

Posted by Holly Isemonger in Features, News

Tags: betty airs, bill murray, dead china doll, Deep Sea Arcade, diver dan, fergus brown, general pants co, Ghoul, guineafowl, made in hapan, major label, margaret thatcher, Megastick Fanfare, nickelback, otouto, oxford art factory, Parades, peer group media, sea change, Seekae, the annandale hotel, underlights, We Say Bamboulee

Mum’s a big girl now, all of three years old. In World Bar years, that’s like, mid 40s, right? Anyway, she’s lived such a full life so far, supporting fBI Radio, being a mainstay of the live music scene in Sydney, proudly not shutting down even though other venues fashionably did, supporting hundreds and hundreds of bands with a loving crowd, attractive venue, drinks and fees that don’t insult.

As the premier indie band night in Sydney, Throw Shapes is proud to have Mum on board, and they’ll be running a column interviewing some of the bands Mum hosts every Friday. For now, we’re going to help celebrate Mum’s birthday by introducing you to the bands that will be celebrating with her on April 30th, where you will also find Throw Shapes DJs spinning some nice little tunes. Eliza Reilly is here to teach you about the ways of Sydney indie bands Richard in Your Mind, Megastick Fanfare, Howl, The Laurels, We Say Bamboulee, The Frowning Clouds, Guineafowl, Hancock Basement, La Mancha Negra, The Salvadors, Psychonanny and the Babyshakers, Convaire, WIM, I Like Cats, Decorated Generals, The Walk On By, The Go Roll Your Bones, Brown Bear Black Bear and The Whipped Cream Chargers- who they are, what they’re like, and why you’ll like them. Read more for all you’ve ever needed to know about all the best indie bands in Sydney…

Posted by Eliza Reilly in Features, Music

Tags: adelaide unearthed, art vs science, Belles Will Ring, bertie blackman, Bird Automatic, BJB Studios, bluejuice, british india, brown bear black bear, Cloud Control, convaire, dave novak, decorated generals, domeyko/gonzales, field day, friendly fires, guineafowl, hawkwind, holy soul, howl, hungry kids of hungary, i like cats, jane slattery, jesus and mary chain, john towey, johnny cash, jon hunter, Kyu, la mancha negra, Laneway Festival, liz slattery, magnetic recording council, major label, martin solomon, Megastick Fanfare, menagerie festival, modularfield, monterrey records, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, nida, off the hips, olivia tremor control, parlophone records, phoenix, psychonanny and the babyshakers, queenscliff, Radiohead, rage, red eye records, Rice Is Nice, Richard In Your Mind, rollings, sam yeldham, sonia z, SPOD, stereosonic, talking heads, tame impala, the frowning clouds, the go roll your bones, the john steel singers, the laurels, the salvadors, the scare, the sonics, the stooges, the walk on by, tom ugly, triple j, Unearthed, unearthed high, Vampire Weekend, We Say Bamboulee, whipped cream chargers, whippettes, whitest boy alive, wim, you am i, zeyd natio

Photos by Natalie Connolly.

Posted by amelia in Music, Your Face

Tags: des miller magnetic heads, line drawings, Megastick Fanfare, ripping dylans, sydney spawn, the Annandale, Your Face

Straight up: the coolest thing about this night is that the DJ will play your demos if you bring them along. That’s instant airplay! That’s a whole room of people hearing your music even instantly! You don’t even have to book a gig, rehearse, whatever, you just get results and you get them FAST. So your music is crappy? No-one knows until it plays! And then it still gets played! So even though it’s playing and it’s crap and people’s ears are bleeding and children are crying and people are struggling, fighting to exit the venue it’s still an opportunity to be heard! Hooray! The DJ takes your demo home and listens to it properly, too, and then you might be considered for a gig at a future Sydney Spawn night.

The other cool thing is the great choice of bands, including Magnetic Heads, Ripping Dylans, Megastick Fanfare, The Maladies, and Line Drawings. It’s $10 to see the bands but FREE to just hang out in the DJ room.

We expect to hear some new stuff from the bands, especially Magnetic Heads and Megastick Fanfare. The whole shebang is courtesy of FBi Radio and is a nice initiative that encourages new bands to get their music out there – a great idea following the Hoey fail.

It happens on Thursday, the 18th of February, at the Annandale Hotel.

Posted by amelia in Events, Music

Tags: bleeding ears, demos, des miller, FBI, FBi Radio, line drawings, magnetic heads, Megastick Fanfare, ripping dylans, sydney spawn, the maladies

amelia: hey steph

steph: hey amelia

amelia: were you at Peats Ridge Festival?

steph:

amelia: ?

steph: amelia i saw you there. we hung out. lots.

amelia: ok, ok, i was just trying to make this thing more natural-sounding.

steph: we were definitely both there. we both camped there for three full nights and we didn’t even die and it was sort of the best….

Posted by amelia and steph in Music, Reviews

Tags: Alps, bertie blackman, bohemian love theatre, Brian Campeau, cheesecloth, Dappled Cities, Dead Letter Chorus, Deep Sea Arcade, Elana Stone, emma davis, fergus brown, fuji collective, Goldie Feather, hippies, jonathan safran foer, Kid Sam, lamb, Lanie Lane, liam finn, Lions At Your Door, Megastick Fanfare, peats ridge festival, poop, Seekae, Sherlock's Daughter, The Bird, the Middle East, the snowdroppers, tin pan orange, We Say Bamboulee

I am constantly disappointed every year that this costume or something similar is not made in a size that will fit me. It’s always something less cool that I end up wearing. Children have the best options for costumes. As a child, I dressed up as a toothpaste bottle once. That’s some serious costuming originality right there.

I really want a good costume because the party at the Annandale is going to be awesome. Seekae, Deep Sea Arcade, Richard In Your Mind, Tokenview, Megastick Fanfare, We Say Bamboulee and Kids At Risk will make up a large amount of the aforementioned awesome but I’d wager that some prizes for best dressed, magicians, live art, a human vending machine, trick or treat bags and potion punch would up the awesome-factor quite significantly also.

The only thing that pisses me off (aside from the inappropriately small sized dinosaur costumes dominating the dinosaur costume market) is that because everyone will be at this freaking rad event there is absolutely no chance of me having people around to my house as an excuse to decorate it with jackolanterns and fake spiderwebs or force my cat to wear something stupid. Fuck you, awesome party.

Anyway: Saturday, from 7pm, at the ‘Dale, $17.

Posted by amelia in Events, Music

Tags: Annandale Hotel, Deep Sea Arcade, kids at risk, Megastick Fanfare, monster mash, nic mckenzie only has one jacket, Richard In Your Mind, Seekae, tokenview, We Say Bamboulee

Photos by Natalie Connolly.

Posted by amelia in Music, Your Face

Tags: blogger's delight, fergus brown, Megastick Fanfare, Mum, rat vs possum, who the hell are they, winter people, World Bar