Another big weekend gone. Loving being back home in Melbourne – a fantastic town for bands, art & culture. We’ll be staying put for a while (not touring), soaking up the city & letting the creativity find it’s way back to us for the next album. Started out the weekend on Friday night at the mighty Park Hotel, then the Corner in Richmond. Saturday afternoon at ACME for a Melbourne Writers Festival show featuring Ophira Eisenberg, key-note speaking on her latest book ‘Screw Everyone’. Saturday night – a pub crawl starting at The Park, IDGAFF next for a couple of local bands, quick stops at the Barleycorn & The Bendigo, landing finally at The Tote. Awesome. Topped off with Indian food at 3am in Victoria Street. Sunday – recovery.

Ophira Eisenberg at ACME – Melbourne Writers Festival 2013.

Fires out.

Flew back last night from a great weekend up on the north coast of New South Wales. Went down to watch & film some grass-roots AFL footy at South Kempsey Oval on Sunday. My folks are involved in the Macleay Valley Eagles football club, coaching the kids & running the club’s administration. There’s some amazing talent being developed there. Suffice to say, the weather was beautiful, 25 degrees & blue skies (very unlike the weather 1200 kilometres south in Melbourne). All three Eagles teams (under 11’s, 13’s and 15’s) won their games easily, showing great courage & skill throughout. Sunday was the last game for each team before the finals next weekend. The under 15’s have been undefeated this year – a major achievement for the club.

Macleay Valley Eagles, Under 11’s at South Kempsey Oval, Sunday 1th August 2013.

After the game, we went to the beach-front pub at South West Rocks, met up with friends & watched a local indigenous band playing blues & Bob Marley tunes. Perfect Sunday arvo. Capped off the day back at my folks place, watching the Western Bulldogs win against Adelaide.

Fires out.

Craigie sent me this link – a disturbing article about the impending closure of several local pubs. Interesting times. I noted that one of the factors contributing to their demise was the “cook-at-home ‘MasterChef effect’. Yet another reason to boycott the cultural scourge that is ‘reality TV’.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/straitened-times-put-pubs-on-block-20130813-2rugw.html
– article courtesy of The Age Business Day.

Fires out.

Had a reasonably big weekend. Started on Friday at The Park hotel. Bar staff dancing behind the bar, beer flowing, great vibe, footy on TV – one of my favourite pubs in the world. Friday was so big in fact, that I missed the 2 gigs I’d planned to see on Saturday – 4pm at the Tote & a mate’s band at Night Cat later in the evening (stayed home recovering). Got back on the horse yesterday to see our friend Mat Virgato play at Whole Lotta Love bar in Brunswick. It was Mat’s 2nd show as a solo acoustic artist. He played a mix of stuff, bringing 90’s grunge into focus with a bunch of older classics. Great way to spend a cruisy Sunday arvo.

Mat Virgato at Whole Lotta Love.

A little slow off the mark today – but not too bad. Monday’s always a rough one…

Fires out.

3 days to go. If you’re reading this, you’re an Aussie & you haven’t done it yet, enrol to vote for the upcoming federal election. Send our politicians the message you want them to hear. The electoral roll closes Monday at 8pm. Click this link to enrol on line – www.aec.gov.au/enrol/

Have your own personal say. Many of our politicians would gladly prefer you didn’t. Stick it to ’em. The last federal election went down to the wire, and this one looks like being the same – a government decided by a handful of votes. And yours could be one of them.

Fires out.

This is gold. About 8 years ago we played a year-long residency at the Yak Bar, Hoddle St Abbotsford (now known as IDGAFF). During that time, a guy called Paddy would come on after us & do the Sunday late-night slot as his alter-ego Lulu; a cross-dressing, outrageous solo punk artist, singing to backing tracks he (or she) had created. It was the perfect way to round out a debauched Sunday. Fast forward to now & Paddy’s ‘twin sister’ Lulu just released this single & video. It’s been a few years in the making (I recorded the guitars for this track some time ago)…

Great work Lulu!

Fires out.

The final song in our set & the final live TV festival footage from Taiwan last month, ‘Without’. A great way to say good-night at Ho Hai Yan festival – we love the song as the last song in our touring set…

Fires out.

This gets pretty epic in the middle – Sky Caves In, last month at Ho Hai Yan festival… Max on all fours over the keys, channeling some kinda Hendrix voodoo thing.

Fires out.

New song (a strong contender to be on the next album), Next To You, live at Ho-Hai-Yan festival Taiwan last month…

Fires out.

We played this song at our house concert last month & I (Marty) mentioned how much hated it, cracked the sh*ts & wanted it dropped from the set. Next day it was back in. A love/hate relationship. Apparently someone told Max I need to “harden the f*ck up” about it. Here it is, 10 days after said house concert, live in Taiwan…

Fires out.