The News Review:
- Natasha Mitchell
- Big Dipper: Supercluster < Music | PopMatters
- Be Kind Rewind showcases movie ‘sweding’
- Second MySpace tour metes out Justice
- Under one groove
Natasha Mitchell
abc.net.au – Mar 18, 2008
After working in different research labs during that time and a stint as a Women in Engineering coordinator – she’s now doing what she really loves – chatting to people about the wonders and idiosyncrasies of the human condition from philosophy and psychology to artificial intelligence and neuroscience and everything else besides. Her bits of paper also include a postgraduate diploma in Science Communication at the Australian National University for which she travelled around Australia performing shows to schools and public audiences in 1995. Her first foray into radio was as host of a punk music show at Monash University but she’s been a listener to Radio National since before she was knee high to a grasshopper. Natasha lives and breathes in ABC Radio National’s specialist Science Unit home to programs like The Science Show and Health Report. She initiated All In the Mind in 2002 part because of a love of eccentric minds an innate ability to spend more time in her head than she possibly ought to and an interest in critical engagement between science art and culture.
Big Dipper: Supercluster < Music | PopMatters
PopMatters – Mar 18, 2008
“The Younger Bums” is built on a blistering confrontational guitar riff that slashes in and out of group-shouted choruses. It was inspired according to the notes by a conversation between bass player Steve Michener and his old Volcano Suns friend Peter Prescott and it has the rough post-punk urgency of that band’s best work. And if pop and post-punk are two sides of the triangle with off-center humor as the third then Heavens has all three. You only have to listen to “When Men Were Trains” (written by Michael Cudahy of Christmas and later Combustible Edison ) to get the distinct sense that Big Dipper is messing with you. Take them too seriously at your own risk. Craps the last Homestead-released Big Dipper album is perhaps the best of the three with definitive songs like “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House” “Meet the Witch” and “Bells of Love”. The best track on Craps though and maybe the best song Big Dipper ever recorded is “A Song to Be Beautiful”… You can tell that the songwriters were up against a wall and yet it’s an attractive sardonic form of anger that blows through songs in the harder rhythms and more aggressive guitars. “Lifetime Achievement Award” from this record seems to be simultaneously a sideways sneer and a wistful goodbye to the idea of commercial success. Even after everything that the music industry could throw at these guys they retained some of the open-hearted idiosyncratic sincerity that percolated through Boo-Boo. Completists will also be interested in a set of nine unreleased tracks included on Disc Two including alternate takes of “Ron Klaus” and “San Quentin CA”. These are not throwaways but rather among the retrospective’s best. “Lou Gerhig’s Disease” is a blistering slice of chaos with clanky post-punk-ish bass lines and the band’s two guitar players pinging and colliding and throwing sparks off each other. And “He Is God” with its happy-go-lucky rhymes and straight-from-the-bible retelling of the loaves and fishes parable could be the song that the cool long-haired pastor digs out at church retreats.
Be Kind Rewind showcases movie ‘sweding’
stuff.co.nz – Mar 18, 2008
The former punk-rock band drummer and renegade French music video and film director watched as one by one theatres in his neighbourhood closed. "I found it so sad" the thin-framed Gondry sporting a wild shock of curly blond hair said on a recent Sunday morning in Los Angeles. "I always had this dream of creating a community built around a theatre. "They would not play studio films at the theatre but the community would create their own films to play there. "They would take a camera shoot themselves and take the tape to the theatre where the neighbourhood watches it.
Second MySpace tour metes out Justice
PopMatters – Mar 18, 2008
Classes the next morning be damned this was the best excuse to party and dance hard on a Monday night. ”The following night’s performance in Dallas elicited this from The Dallas Morning News: “Call Justice’s music electro-house dance-punk hard techno or whatever; it’s among the heaviest and funkiest synth rock this side of Iron Maiden. ”Auge says he drummed in “some very lame cover bands” and recorded synthesizer tracks at home before meeting de Rosnay five years ago through common friends and “at some point we decided to do music as a full-time job. ”De Rosnay says he was playing bass in a disco band when he met Auge. Before that he was a part of amateur school bands. “We never recorded anything” he says.
Under one groove
Malaysia Star – Mar 18, 2008
my HEAVY downpour or not the Sunburst KL music festival was an event that proved that Malaysians were ready to brave the elements to enjoy an outdoor music festival that is bound to set new standards in the entertainment scene here. Held at the Polo Pavilion Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday Sunburst KL was also something most Malaysians have not experienced in their own country: a music festival with a slew of relevant local and international music acts that had contemporary appeal and which mattered to the ticket-buying masses. Big names such as John Legend Incubus The Roots George Clinton & P-Funk and Incognito were the festival favourites but take nothing away from a list of homegrown acts that held their own at this fest that stretched on for more than 12 hours with 28 acts in action… Held at the Polo Pavilion Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday Sunburst KL was also something most Malaysians have not experienced in their own country: a music festival with a slew of relevant local and international music acts that had contemporary appeal and which mattered to the ticket-buying masses. Big names such as John Legend Incubus The Roots George Clinton & P-Funk and Incognito were the festival favourites but take nothing away from a list of homegrown acts that held their own at this fest that stretched on for more than 12 hours with 28 acts in action. The sight of a drenched out but enthusiastic crowd rocking out to Love Me Butch’s set in the pouring rain in the late evening made for a festival moment while newer indie acts like Hujan Bittersweet pop-punk unit One Buck Short and Tempered Mental more than met expectations at the Sunburst fest with rip-roaring performances to signal the arrival of the new local breed. “Local” was also the buzzword at this fest with the entire stage set-up back-line and artiste programming schedule handled by a homegrown crew hired by organisers Pineapple Concerts. Without a major budget or government patronage (unlike the Live & Loud fest) the Sunburst fest was a risk that paid off for the organisers proving that they had picked their cast of acts wisely. The huge festival grounds accommodated four stages booths for food and beverage toilet facilities and some fun and games such as a mechanical rodeo bull ride. A fireworks display was also thrown in for good measure.