Our very good friend, and long time supporter, Stalk, just launched his new web site. He runs a Harley touring business. Max & I booked a tour late last year. Stalk and friend pulled up out front on a couple of classic Harleys & took us for a ride around Melbourne. It was awesome, an amazing way to see the city (Max’s birthday present). Click below to check it out.
Have a great weekend.
CLFO
Blast from the past: June 2009 – The On Fires, when we were known as Asleep In The Park, live in Ukraine at Tarasova Gora Festival (a few hours drive from Kiev). Our good friend Sasha Seminova shot this video. Sasha was (and still is) the manager & promoter of Atraktor featuring legendary Ukrainian punk icon, Sasha Pipa.
We’ve played many a show with Sasha Pipa, joining him on extensive tours of Ukraine back in 2008 & 2009. We first met by accident, opening for one of Sasha’s bands, Borshch, at a small club in Kiev late in 2007. We had no idea how big Borshch were until we got to the venue, which was packed wall to wall, front to back & all the way up the stairs to the exit. I’d set the show up on MySpace with Sasha the manager, not knowing what to expect. That show turned out to be the best of the entire tour – we’d been on the road through Europe for 3 weeks, starting in Amsterdam & traveling east to Ukraine before final shows in Turkey. A mind blowing experience.
The other guys on stage in the video were fellow Melbournites, Naomi & Simon, who were part of the band between 07 & 09.
CLFO.
Midway through 2010 we flew to Poland to play Seven Festival with Russian band, Stepanov’s Starlings. We hadn’t met the guys before but we clicked like old friends. On the first day of the festival, they played a blinder of a set on one of the small stages. We loved their show – complete with bird costumes and wild stage antics. That night we played the main stage & the following night the Starlings played the main stage, having won best band on the small stage, the day before. I vaguely remember too much vodka consumption back-stage. It was a hell of a mess. But what an awesome weekend…
The video below features Stepanovs Starlings on stage (last week) at a festival celebrating the Euro 2012 Soccer Championship in Gdansk, Poland.
Great guys – we miss em. Awesome to see the band kicking it to a big crowd.
CLFO.
Our eyes & ears on the ground, Craigie McG, went along to the Community Cup on the weekend. Two football teams, The Rock Dogs comprising of Melbourne musicians – and The Megahertz made up of community radio jocks, slugged it out at Elsternwick Park for a drawn game; 5.5.35 to 4.11.35 respectively. 9000 people attended, and according to Craigie there was a steaker who appeared at a pivotal moment in the game…
“Went to the Community Cup yesterday.. it was a draw. [On stage after the game] Blue Ruin were great, complete with Cramps covers including “Bend Over I’ll Drive, & Bikini Girls With Machine Guns” – and on stage with Wally Kempton. Tim Rogers did a song too.. lots of weirdos there … good days.”
Pic thanks to Mess & Noise website. (Paul Kelly the coach, on the right)
“Heh.. yes some dogey umpiring (as per usual). A streaker stood on the mark which should’ve been the final goal of the day. Alas, skill on the geetar/stage didn’t match skill on the ground… Lots of banter about it being a ‘behind’.”
The Community Cup happens this time every year in Melbourne, raising money for charity organisation Reclink.
CLFO.
Arcane Saints were on tour in China during April/May this year. We hooked up with the Saints and fellow Melbournites, Backyard Surgeons, for an acoustic show in Beijing. The night got pretty messy, 3 Aussie bands on separate tours of China, hooking up for one show.
Arcane Saints at Midi Festival May 2012.
The Saints dropped us a Facebook post yesterday – their China Tour Diary. Well worth the read. They mention said show in Beijing, Monday April 30 at Blue Stream Bar.
Scotty Rocks Darts Grand Final:
Our house mate Scotty plays darts for Heidelberg RSL. Wednesday night, they won the Northern Districts B-Grade Grand Final against Greensborough.
Scotty on a roll at Heidelberg RSL Darts Grand Final, Wed 20th June 2012.
Max & I went down to watch the game. Scotty played like a champ, sealing the win with his final throw. Heidelberg now move into A-Grade for next season, which begins in 2 weeks time. Go Heids!
CLFO
John Pilger and Julian Assange are brave men indeed. As investigative journalists, they strive tirelessly and courageously to uncover the truth. I read my first Pilger book, Hidden Agendas, in the late 90’s and it subsequently changed my world perception forever. So much of what we see and hear is censored or veiled in a deliberate authoritarian program of misinformation. The result for us is a society trapped in a cycle of manufactured ignorance, which votes and discusses politics and social issues accordingly.
I found Assange’s quiet dignity and fearlessness compelling throughout this video. No wonder governments and corporations the world over want this man silenced.
It’s not a short interview – but definitely worth every minute.
CLFO
Laughed myself stupid Saturday night. Craigie, TC & Mick P were over. We went down to The Park for a few too many & came back for a few more. At some point we decided Mojo should wear the stage hat, which he did.
It’s the 2nd time he’s worn said hat & for some reason it’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen. I wonder about my own sick sense of humour sometimes. Then again, the hat does quite nicely set off a magnificently oaf-ish Staffy head. And thanks to Craigie’s photography, we also have an element of demon possession.
Have a good Tuesday.
CLFO.
Band photographer, Mat Ward, sent us this interesting article about the use of specific chords in pop songs. The folks who held the study analysed some 1300 songs, reaching conclusions about which chords are most used in general – or at certain times.
Graph taken from the Hooktheory Chord article – click here to read.
The C chord appears to be the overall winner by a long way (although not in the graph above). G and F were also popular. One of my guitar teachers used to tell me the C chord was so often used because it related to the genital Chakra. We seem to love Gs and Fs here at The On Fires.
Exciting stuff isn’t it? Hey it is Monday morning – we’re trying to ease into the week here.
Had a big Saturday night with the boys this weekend. T’was a cracker…
Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.
PS – Thanks again Mat Ward.
Went down to Fad Bar in China town last night to check out a friend’s band – ‘Rocky & The Two Bob Millionaires‘. It was a late (messy) evening. The band were great – except for a few songs in the 2nd set where a couple of the boys were ‘recovering’ from partaking in something during the break which might have affected their sense of balance…
Rocky & The Two Bob Millionaires last night at Fad Bar – Rocky to the far right (on the mic).
The crew at Fad Bar were a friendly bunch, kind of a welcoming family. Didn’t leave there til stumps, making for a slow day today.
Checkya later,
Fires out.
This is a quick bit of video taken from recent recording sessions for the latest single, Perfect Day. Kent filmed this at Open Sky Studios, Atlanta Georgia. In the video he’s walking through the studio from the drum booth back into the control room, where I’m listening to the drum tracks (by Skype connection) in our studio in Melbourne.
Perfect Day is our first international recording, played on different sides of the world & put together for mixing in Australia. Technology never ceases to amaze. When we were doing it, I was trying to think of all the things that might go wrong – and coming up with a whole bunch of ‘plan-Bs’ just in case. But in fact, it was all pretty straight forward & went without a hitch.
Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.
