The Music Network
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Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
Lifelines Recovering: John Mayer, from surgery for a non-cancerous growth called a granuloma that was located just above his vocal cords. Split: Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and singer/actress Zooey Deschanel, after two years of marriage. Injured: Tony Lorenzo, 25, guitarist with US death metal band Sons of Azrael, left paralysed after a mugger shot him, lodging a bullet in his spine. Injured: Veteran Jamaican musician/producer Winston Riley, 65, shot in the head at his home in Kingston, the latest in a series of attacks on him. Hospitalised: Rhianna, from flu and exhaustion during a Swedish tour. Attacked: Usher had beer sprayed over him and his shirt was grabbed by a woman, for parking in a handicap spot during a Halloween parade in Atlanta. In Court: Taylor Swift has called in her lawyer after the Celebrity Jihad website posted an image of a topless lookalike, and claimed it was her. Died: George Rountree, 61, Four Tops’ music director and keyboardist. Died: Fleetwood Mac’s original bassist Bob Brunning, 67. After being replaced by John McVie he became a headmaster, and wrote books Blues – The British Connection and Fleetwood Mac: The First Thirty Years. Died: Steve Harris, guitarist and mainman with UK rock band Shy, after a two-year battle with a brain tumour. Died: Filipina Glee singer Charice’s father Ricky Pempengco, 40, stabbed after an argument with a drunk in a grocery store in Manila.
NEW SIGNINGS #1: CLOUD CONTROL
Cloud Control inked a US deal with Turnout, home to NYC buzz band We Are Augustines, distributed by Atlantic/Warner. Their debut album Bliss Release (issued in Oz by Ivy League, and winner of the Australian Music Prize) has scored a few goals since it was released in May in Europe/UK through Infectious. It received glowing four star reviews in The Guardian, Times, Independent and Q, and the band were announced as one of the most played acts on BBC6 in 2011. They’ve been touring Europe, UK and the US, and will do a Euro run with The Drums before returning to Oz for the summer festival season.
NEW SIGNINGS #2: ELECTRIC EMPIRE
Electric Empire’s appearance at Glastonbury seems to have paid off. Signed to UK indie Red Disk, they leave this week for a 15-date UK tour opening for Beverly Knight. Aloe Blacc asked them to open for his Australian summer tour and they will play Japan soon, after they were signed to BBQ Records there. Tower Records made their self-titled album its record of the month.
REED: DEATH THREATS FROM METALLICA FANS
Lou Reed has received death threats from Metallica fans over the collaboration album Lulu. “They are threatening to shoot me, and that’s only because I showed up. They haven’t even heard the record yet and they’re recommending various forms of torture and
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death,” he said. Meantime, the promoters of Metallica’s cancelled show in Delhi, India blamed unruly fans. After a security barrier collapsed, they decided to postpone the gig for 24 hours. But some of the 25,000 fans ran on stage and smashed the band’s equipment, causing the show to be axed. The four promoters were arrested for “fraud” after refusing to return the money. A show in Bangalore two days later went on without a hitch.
Psychology. This follows previous research that suggested restaurant diners spend more money when establishments played classical rather than pop music.
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EMERGING MUSICIANS
YOU COULD BE IN THE LIVING END’S FILM CLIP
MusicNSW and City of Sydney Council have developed a free workshop series called ‘Social Media For Emerging Musicians’. It looks at how to use different forms of social media to reach fans, press and industry. Jai Al Attas (One is a Word), Ashley Chang (Pedestrian) and Vanessa Picken (RunDNA) will discuss how labels, press and artists utilise social media; they will also talk about digital distribution. The two workshops are being held Wednesday November 23 at Customs House Library (12:30–1:30pm), and Thursday November 24 at Surry Hills Library (6–7pm). RSVP essential. Email siobhan@musicnsw.com with your name and preferred date to confirm a spot.
GENERAL PANTS EXPANDS ITS BUBBLE
For the past three years, General Pants Co. has hosted The Bubble in its online store, which has allowed 2000 new artists to post around 4000 examples of their artwork — some of which are used in General Pants’ marketing. Now The Bubble allows talent to submit work in eight categories — music, TV/film, graphic design, fashion design, photography, art & illustration, creative writing and blogging/styling. This will be through fashion-led challenges from streetwear brands like Lee, Vanishing Elephant, Levi’s, The Library and Evil Twin. Prizes include artwork being used by brands, and iMacs and iPads to help the winners create art. General Pants already runs its own innovative singles label, Major Label, through which staffers can discover the next big thing – and it is integrated within the program. Bands can apply to be signed through The Bubble, with a two-month artist package including full record royalties. “Our aim is to provide solid avenues of exposure for the artistic excellence our community is producing within a viable career progression plan to Australia’s next big talents,” says Leanne Sheraton, General Pants’ GM for Marketing and Online.
GRAND JURY SPLIT
Philadelphia Grand Jury revealed on Facebook that they have split. (When we announced it last year after a band member told us, PGJ’s people insisted it was a temporary hiatus, and wanted a retraction…)
The Living End are inviting punters to help create the video for new single ‘For Another Day’. Go to facebook.com/thelivingend and upload footage of you or your friends at a TLE show, or of your TLE tattoos, paraphernalia or anything else band-related. The best submission will be included in the vid, and the winner will get a signed copy of the The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating album, plus a vinyl copy, a merchandise pack and a credit in the film clip. 15 runners-up will also be included in the video, and get a signed copy of the album.
SXSW ANNOUNCES SHOWCASES South By Southwest’s first round of 109 global acts to showcase lists Melbourne duo Big Scary and Sydney’s The Black Ryder. Over 250 acts from this country applied, and about 50 will be chosen.
IT'S OFFICIAL: NICKELBACK'S A TURN-OFF
Nickelback are a turn-off to romance. That’s according to dating service tastebuds.fm, which matches partners based on their music tastes. It asked users to nominate their musical turn-offs, and Nickelback led the way with 13% of votes. Trundling behind were (2) Justin Bieber, (3) Lady Gaga, (4) Ke$ha, (5) Coldplay, (6) U2 ,(7) Creed, (8) Katy Perry, (9) Lil Wayne and (10) Britney Spears. Coldplay aren’t too loved by those who turn to dating services: earlier, Tastebuds assessed Coldplay fans as least likely to have sex on a first date.
MUSO’S CONNECT
Lisa Butler Music Consulting and Macron Music will hold Muso’s Connect on Saturday December 3, where Central Coast musicians, singers and songwriters can connect and learn how to move their careers forward. Held from 10am to 4pm at Macron Music in Erina, singing teacher Doreen Van Bree will
be holding a vocal workshop, Lisa Butler, founder and coordinator of the Australian Songwriters Conference, will offer song critique and performing sessions, and Macron Music staff will demonstrate the latest instruments and sound gear, with a jam session at the end of the day. Check out lisabutlermusic.com
BLASKO, CAPSIS & HUGHES FOR SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS
Performers added to the Screen Music Awards ceremony next week include Sarah Blasko, who will sing Miles Nicholas' nominated ‘Dream On’ from The Missing Key. Paul Capsis and Christa Hughes will do a selection from the Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo soundtrack, and an orchestra conducted by composer Cezary Skubiswski will perform some nominated compositions. Announced as presenters are Playschool’s Jay Laga’aia, Don Hany, Claudia Karvan, Sigrid Thornton, Steve Bisley, Richard Brancatisano, Damon Gameau, Red Dog producer Nelson Woss, TV host Brendan Moar, and former Go Betweens member-turned-screen composer Amanda Brown. The awards are presented by APRA and the AGSC, and will be held on Monday November 14 at City Recital Hall in Sydney.
BIEBER IS THE KING OF YOUTUBE Justin Bieber has become the first person to pass 2 billion views on YouTube, says social media statistics service Famecount.com. He already holds the record for the most popular single video on YouTube – ‘Baby’ has almost 650 million views so far. Last month his YouTube channel received 94 million views. Bieber has an awesome digital presence: 37 million Facebook fans, 13.9 million Twitter followers and more than 1 million YouTube subscribers on his main channel. Lady Gaga is runner-up, with 1.88 billion YouTube views. Gaga recently became the first person to get 15 million followers on Twitter.
HEAVENLY SOUNDS HELPS SALVOS
One Louder and Artist Voice’s Heavenly Sounds tour, featuring Seeker Lover Keeper playing historical churches and cathedrals around Australia, is helping out the Salvation Army’s Christmas appeal. The Salvos will attend all the shows (which run from November 21 to December 2) with collection tins, and ‘Light All My Lights’ from Seeker Lover Keeper’s self-titled album will be the backing track of the forthcoming Christmas appeal TV advertisement. Seeker Lover Keeper
BIG DAY OUT UPDATE
The next round of artists for Big Day Out 2012 will be announced this week, with Noel Gallagher heavily rumoured. Meantime, founder Ken West explained to this column that putting BDO together each year has always been stressful, but in recent years, to maintain its standard, they got into a bidding war with other festivals for acts. The crunch came this year when, he said, co-promoter Vivian Lees thought it was time to pull the plug. West refused, and will go it alone.
DRINK AND JIVE
People who drink wine while listening to music have a different perception of its taste depending on the sort of music they are listening to. The study, involving 250 students, was published in the British Journal of
THINGS WE HEAR
* Adele has denied Twitter-driven rumours that she has throat cancer. * Which Australian festival is pulling all stops to get the Rolling Stones next year? And never mind that “hoax email” – will we see Madonna here in April? * Pop punkers Cartel’s Australian tour has been cancelled. The band blamed the promoter, accusing them of not finalising their flights, permits and gear; Adelaidebased promoter Parallel Touring blamed “fence-sitting fans” who tend not to purchase tickets until the last minute. * To celebrate Cold Chisel playing Coffs Harbour last week, the Coffs Coast Advocate spoke to their former publisher, John Bromell, who’s now retired and living in the area. Bromell spotted them in 1977 as relative unknowns, and offered them a handshake deal with Rondor Music for $750 for three years. Jimmy Barnes recalled that when no label was interested in them, Bromell told Warner that other companies were going to sign them, at which Warner
quickly snapped them up. In the meantime, Chisel’s Margaret River (WA) concert on November 26 is giving some headaches. Because of strict noise regulations at Busselton airport, they’re still waiting for Environment Minister Bill Marmion’s office to approve a special application that had to be made for their charter flights to and from the concert on Skippers Airlines. * Tiki Taane, who got nicked for singing ‘Fuck Tha Police’ as they were busting members of his crowd in a New Zealand club, asked the cops to join him on stage at last week’s Vodafone NZ Music Awards in Auckland. But they said no. …Maybe because he was singing ‘Freedom To Sing’, which was written about the arrest. * Flying back from LA straight to shows in Queensland and Melbourne didn’t cramp Janet Jackson’s energy: she kicked ass at the shows. She had some good news when she returned to Oz. An American appeals court found that broadcasting authorities acted improperly when they fined CBS over the costume meltdown during the 2004 Super Bowl, when one of her boobs was flashed.
* Former Lime Spiders member Richard Lawson’s move to electro sounds for his solo Bread And Water album has worked. Single ‘Magic Touch’ was added to 22 college radio stations in the USA (the 'Spiders topped the CMJ charts for three weeks), it’s getting triple j and community radio airplay, and their launch shows in Melbourne have sold out. Lawson’s first foray into Sydney last weekend saw him joined by Gye Bennetts on drums, with Collette McGrath dancing on stage. * The Sandringham goes for auction next week, but live music will continue in the meantime. * Fuzzy director John Wall told Tone Deaf why there won’t be a Harbourlife until the first half of 2012. “A clash with a private event nearby has proven impossible to resolve so both events could go ahead.” * Il Divo’s Sebastien Izambard is the latest overseas muso who wants to move to Australia. That he’s married to a Melbourne girl who met him while she worked at Sony Music could be a major reason for it.