This is one of the best interviews I have ever done. I spoke to Richard In Your Mind about their new album, which was released two days ago on Rice Is Nice records. It’s called My Volcano and we talked about why, and other things, like magic theatres and crystals and sloths and Patrick Swayze and Cornettos and look, it’s hilarious. They had just done their photo shoot for the Brag – and the feature article version of this interview is in that fine publication. But this is it all – pretty much unedited.

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+ How was the photo shoot?

> Richard: It was really cool. We dressed in lab coats and I had a bird.

+ Was there a volcano?

> Vicki, who is the intern at the moment is making 30 [model volcanos]. She’s going to take them to Surry Hills and Newtown and cable tie them to busstops and stuff and they’ve got little things on them that say the album’s coming out. We’re hoping that people will see them for a bit and then people will steal them as souvenirs. Hopefully after someone’s seen them.

+ You should put little tags on them that instruct people to do that.

> ‘Steal me on this date’. Yeah she was even talking about getting a website started, asking people to take photos and list all the Richard In Your Mind volcanos, and even do it in Melbourne and stuff. Grand schemes.

> Brent: “Social Media”

> Richard: Twelve points out of ten for enthusiasm and effort and concept. Read more for the full interview…

Posted by amelia in Features, Music

Tags: baba ram dass, brent griffin, caloundra, Cloud Control, conrad richters, crystals, Jordy Lane, little richard, magic theatre, patrick swayze, perth, richard alpert, richard cartwright, Richard In Your Mind, richard linklater, sloths, SPOD

Many thanks to The Brag who have again let me republish this article which you can read in the current issue out on the streets if you really need to read things in your hands rather than on the screen. Also, there are other amazing things in The Brag which you should read, so go read one, or something.

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When I sit down to talk to Alister and Heidi from Cloud Control, I’m struck suddenly by a memory of the first time I heard their charming melodies at an intimate Sydney Uni Night Markets show on a makeshift stage alongside Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers. Like any Sydneysider interested in the indie music scene, I’ve seen more than a few magical Cloud Control shows.

“Woah!” exclaims Alister happily. “Out the front of the bank?” I nod. “Ah, I really enjoyed that show,” Heidi says. “I wore a good dress that night.” Read more for the full article…

Posted by amelia in Features, Music

Tags: Belles Will Ring, bliss release, Cloud Control, cuthbert and the nightwalkers, Danimals, leader cheetah, Richard In Your Mind, riym, Seekae, SPOD, We Say Bamboulee, wim, Yves Klein Blue

“It makes me want to hold hands with all my friends and prance through a meadow,” is what Urby said when he walked in to the office and heard this new Richard In Your Mind track playing. It’s a fair assessment, and made all the more hilarious because Urby’s probably not the kind of guy who would naturally gravitate towards such whimsicality.

Richard In Your Mind are one of the best, cleverest, glittery-est bands in Sydney, and their Summertime EP, released in 2009 was a kickass Beck-esque psychadelic adventure, featuring ‘Make It Chill’, the best local white hip-hop-influenced indie laid back rock track every to grace the stages and loving ears of Sydney. Read more for the full review…

Posted by amelia in Music, Reviews

Tags: i will, my volcano, Rice Is Nice, richard in your mum, riym, SPOD

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

Seja Vogel is synth pop and a pretty voice, some sweet attitude and some time playing in Regurgitator, and now she’s also this hilarious video ‘teaser’ for her new album, We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares. She sings and writes and plays, but she also makes felt synthesisers – like little toy synths made out of felt, so you can hug them? and they feature on the album art and hopefully will one day feature in my life, too, because I want one, a synth, and a felt synth, and a Seja, and also this album. Here’s the video, and yes, SPOD made it, how did you know?

Posted by amelia in Reviews, Screen

Tags: felt synthesisers, regurgitator, Rice Is Nice, seja vogel, SPOD, we have secrets but nobody cares, youtube

Ahhhhh collage. What would we do without collage? How would we have started the demi-art of Scrapbooking? How would the Bauhaus art movement have existed? How would our lockers have been decorated? How would decoupage exist? I love decoupage. Everything should be decoupaged. What would Franz Ferdinand and Goldfrapp and Spod and whoever have used for video art? NOTHING THAT’S WHAT. Or maybe pictures of cats. BUT JUST CATS AND NOTHING ELSE because you couldn’t combine them without the wonder of COLLAGE.

But really guys, really, collage can be pretty kickass and not just school-locker kickass, either. Presser, who was in Gerling, who’s not in Gerling now because Gerling went on a massive hiatus, has transposed his mix-and-match skills from the decks and beats to the scissors and page. He takes old magazines from the 60s to the 80s and turns them in to kind of super-transformer-looking things – he takes all kinds of awesome and remixes them in to super-awesome. MART Gallery, who are devoted to showing art that crosses over with music in some way, are showing Presser’s newest exhibition ‘Life Dust‘. His last show got people all hyped up and sold out in one night.

The show opened on the 26th of Feb and runs until the 13th of March at MART gallery.

Posted by amelia in Art, Events

Tags: cats, collage, franz ferdinand, gerling, Goldfrapp, life dust, mart gallery, music and art, presser, SPOD

DISCLAIMER: So I am kind of managing this band at present. But rest assured that if I wasn’t I would blog this anyway, because they are possibly the best band in the world*, and because I have a blog.

Shady Lane used to be called Jordy Lane, and used to just be just the one guy until he grabbed himself a band at the end of last year, and changed the band name at the beginning of this one. He’s been making with the musics for quite a while now – you’ve probably heard ‘Galileo’ on FBi or Triple J over the past year or so – but he’s finally (FINALLY) put an album together: Here We Go, Down The Black Hole. [nb: the titular comma comes and goes, depending on whether or not someone's dumbass manager was as professional a copy-checker as she really should have been if she wanted to be taken seriously in this hell-hole of an industry.]

The album can be filed under ‘Postal Service’, ‘Aphex Twin’, ‘indie-pop-electronicawesome’, and ‘the best music in the world*’; and the launch is at Curious Works on August 22. You’ll hear more about that later, but it’s time for the music now: the first single is ‘Absolute Truth’, but another track has been reserved specifically for the internets to get their interpaws on before the rest: ‘Oh, Reality’. Find both after the jump…

Posted by steph in Music, News

Tags: Here We Go Down The Black Hole, Jordy Lane, Rice Is Nice, Seekae, Shady Lane, SPOD, Talons, traps, We Buy Your Kids