With the onslaught of 24/7 entertainment on cable TV here, (I discovered the Jewelry TV channel here the other night… it is bad) I only recently realized that I have been letting my musical interests slide. I tend to listen to news/talk/more news/more talk and the musical radio stations here are average (no country station!) and I have been slack keeping up with podcasts. Basically my music collection has been stuck back in the day that I left Australia.
Considering I am living in the land that invented MTV, I have to say music TV here SUCKS. I love everything else about TV here bar the lack of decent music channels. Ugh. Between reality shows like the Real World and dumb old filmclips of VH1 countdowns that show 30 seconds of a song and have 5 minutes of non-funny people commenting on it, they are rubbish! We should import Rage here and show it on PBS on Saturday nights. Instant winner.
Anyway back to my story, a couple of weeks ago, Triple J had their Hottest 100 of all time. This encouraged me to get back to surfing iTunes like a madwoman and trying to find some new artists to fill up my iPod. I listened to all of the broadcasts more than once and the countdown was exciting to follow and think up my own list of my hottest 100 of all time.
This resulted in some trips down memory land and some nice little finds.
I downloaded a stack of Silverchair. Just because.
Diesel had two releases that week – one was Saturday Suffering Fools. It sounds like vintage Deez. So good. The other was a live release from the Palms at Crown called ‘The Four Corners’. I hope to get the DVD soon too. He will always been up the top of my playlists. Always.
I also got around to checking out Chris Isaak’s new release, Mr Lucky. He really is rocking… literally! He has really changed it up and headed back to some of his earlier days. My favourite is Big Wide Wonderful World. It just makes me want to hang with Brandon and Dylan at the Peach Pit!
The Dave Matthews Band latest release Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King has been stellar and another one that I have been able to enjoy. There is another post to accompany this as in June, I got picked to go to the Today Show’s live concert series to see them play in the Rockefeller Plaza. That was a whole adventure that deserves a post in itself. So I’ll do that in due time!
Then I rediscovered my favourite JJJ radio show, Roots n’ all and have been faithfully listening to each show each week. It was there that I heard a band that I have had been playing a lot since I heard them. They are called The Little Stevies and they are fabulous ‘working to’ music and are very ‘summery’. With sadness, they only recently just played at my old-favourite-haunt, the Northcote Social Club. Hopefully one day they’ll get over here, or they’ll be playing there while I am visiting Melbourne.
Another band I have been listening too are The Kickouts from Sydney. I am really enjoying their stuff too. They actually remind me a little bit of the Offcutts with the harmonica thrown in there.
I know I have to try and get into more local music here. At the moment that has kind of been overtaken by listening to Michael Jackson. š
Concert wise, this Friday, we are heading out to New Jersey to the Giants Stadium to see… AC/DC!! Woohoo! Poor Bill is being dragged along and we are up the top of the stadium but it doesn’t matter. I’ve always wanted to see them and it will be a good chance to see Giants Stadium as well. Too good!
Then next Wednesday, I am heading up to the Beacon Theatre to see my darling, Chris Isaak. Now, I was quite happy to get Bill a ticket but upon searching, he was scratched out of the equation. A seat on my own got me 5th row, right in the middle. Two seats meant I would be up the back and wouldn’t even get to see Chris’ sequins glitter in the spotlight. Bill wasn’t sad about missing Chris and as this is my umpteenth time seeing him (and hopefully meeting him again afterwards…!) I think when it comes to Chris Isaak, there are somethings that a girl must keep to herself! š
Keith Urban tickets have gone on sale and as with so many shows at Madison Square Garden, they are impossible to get when they go on sale and any decent seats are then scalped for ridiculous prices. To see him, my aim is to wait until the day to get someone who is panicking to get rid of a seat on Craigslist/Stubhub so that I can get one as close to the face value as possible. If not, it is a no go.
Mark Seymour recently played shows in Canada but they kept changing dates/venues and I was not going to risk booking a flight to have the dates changed so I missed his shows. š
In other news, it has been announced that the Sound Relief Concert DVD will be released as a 4-DVD set. I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!! Such good memories of listening to the live broadcast in the dark waiting for Hunters and Collectors to come on stage.