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BARE ESSENTIALS Catching ABBIE CARDWELL as she prepares for a rare northern sojourn with her band ABBIE CARDWELL & HER LEADING MEN, TYLER MCLOUGHLAN learns how only having a few bucks to record an album can yield the richest recordings.
FORTH OF JULY
weekend,” Cardwell says proudly of recording The Bare Bones Sessions. “We set up on the Friday night, and we recorded on the Saturday and Sunday and that was it. One weekend!”
July Days threw a camera against the wall in 2010 to watch the colours fall out, leaving behind a UK tour, the St Kilda Festival Audience Award and a new record, launched in October. So as not to sit around doing nothing but aging, July Days are jumping right into 2011 with some new tunes and a tour to match. Shows in Adelaide, Tassie and New South Wales throughout the summer will be highlighted with some wonderful shows through hometown Melbourne. Beginning with the Toff In Town this Sunday, July Days will be joined by special friends Better Than The Wizards and RVC. Entry is $10 with a free CD from 7.30pm.
ALL THE RAGE: CARRY Having spent several years honing her craft in hometown Brisbane, Carry Nation has built a reputation for her haunting live shows and ability to transfi x her audience. She has also had the pleasure of performing with Darren Hanlon, Laura Jean, Washington and McKisko. A recent (and extremely welcome) transplant to our city, Carry Nation has introduced herself properly with a residency at the Edinburgh Castle, every Sunday in January on the backyard stage. She plays this Sunday with Adrian Slattery (Major Major) from 4-6pm. It’s free.
HAVNOTZ TIED TIGHT
The Havknotz are Sydneysiders breaking new ground with live mash-ups. With MC Losty on vocals, Waza on the bass and the beats and guests as diverse as Ill Bill (LA Coka Nostra), DJ Kilmer and Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil) on drums, as individuals they’ve done their time supporting everyone from Koolism to The Prodigy. They unleash their Music–Life–Pain EP this week and support HED PE at the Corner Hotel on Thursday 27 January. Tickets from the venue.
GET MONO
Holy rock-a-moly, this is gonna be good. JJ Symon & The Monochromes play a brand of bluesy rock that’ll tug at your nostalgia strings and stamp your feet for you. The Empress Hotel staff are lucky bastards having this mob play for them every Saturday arvo in January and for just $4 entry you can be a lucky bastard too. With an array of special guests featuring through the month, round three sees them joined by Brother Buffalo and Olivia & Heather. Doors open at 3.30pm.
PAT BATEMAN
Crazy fuckers Bateman take to the stage this Friday at Pony for their first Melbourne show of 2011. Their last Pony show saw mic stands destroyed, drum kits used as safety nets and plenty of crowd interaction. Make sure you’re there this time to see the carnage! (Plus you will be rocked out of your proverbial socks with their riff-rock punk metal.) Support from Emerson, Declaration and Ocean Grove, and entry is $10 from 9pm.
An intrinsic understanding of each other’s personality and style was also the reason they were able to embrace the rudimentary elements of live recordings.
Y
ou may recall Abbie Cardwell as the bluesy, rootsy South Australian belle of Triple J’s Unearthed program in 2002. Cardwell & Her Leading Men are promoting new album The Bare Bones Sessions. Due to financial necessity, Cardwell imposed strict recording constraints on the trio, a move which has gifted the group a ready-honed live set for upcoming shows. “Initially it was a case of working within my financial constraints. It was: ‘I want an album. I’ve only got a few dollars, so how do we do this?’ I thought about doing it live then I thought about how amazing it would be to have a strict rule that there was absolutely no overdubbing. We just ran with that. It was real old school,” she giggles. “It just made it become something else and the whole recording process was really enjoyable and scary all at once. “And I think now even having had that experience, even if we got money for the next one, we would still plan to record it live. It may not be that rule that we can’t overdub but we would essentially still choose to record the basics of everything all together live.” The three, comprised of guitarist/brother Jeb and stalwart drummer Ashley Davies, are a tight unit who’ve been playing together for close to a decade; considering the nature of the recording and the long three moths spent rehearsing, familiarity was a necessity. “We did it in one
BATTERHAM UP
Melbourne singer/songwriter Nick Batterham recently took a sideways step from his guitar duties in Cordrazine to unveil his debut solo record, Second Lovers. The album (out now through Head Records/ MGM) is a stunning collection of wistful and melodic folk rock songs. Recorded in Batterham’s home studio, an array of instruments feature throughout the record, such as horns, strings, electric slide guitar, saxophone, euphonium, guitar and drums, all of which compliment the songwriter’s emotive vocals. Catch him this Friday at the Wesley Anne and this Saturday at the Drunken Poet.
“Because there’s a lot of space in the songs, there’s one or two takes where we’d be back in the control room sitting there kind of going, ‘Oh, were we a bit late here? Was that alright? Was that note too long?’ And every now and then we ended up deciding that a take we were about to throw away was actually the best. So that was kind of a beautiful surprise to find that,” Cardwell delights. “Some songs we preferred when we thought we had the odd weird moment – for some reason it was just better.
MCCUE TO RETURN
Australian-born, Nashville-based Anne McCue returns in February for a couple of shows to promote Broken Promise Land, her new album and first on Laughing Outlaw Records. McCue has attracted high praise in the States for the record and her performances, with the Cincinnati City Beat describing her dynamic as “stratospheric guitar work, whiskysoaked voice and songs crackling with classic intensity and modern energy”. She stops into the Caravan Music Club in Oakleigh on Friday 11 February – grab tickets from caravanmusicclub.com.au.
CHOC TOPS Brisbane-based eight-piece band Chocolate Strings play an assortment of funked up, souled-out melodies mixed with Latin and a touch of reggae. Featuring the lush Polynesian vocal blends of Ofa Fanaika, Nia Falekakala and Nikkie McWalters, the group are jumping on stage at Bar Open this Friday night. They’ll be supporting Blak Roots, whose original show combines reggae with Congolese rumba, Afrobeat, a touch of Latin and Caribbean salsa and zouk. Blak Roots were hand-picked to support the legendary Alpha Blondy and Congolese star Awilo Longomba. Entry is free from 10pm.
“You hear that in old records of artists, like Elvis in Sun Studios… Recordings where people have gone in and done stuff live and they’re amazing, they’re extra special because of the nuances you hear or the odd string that’s out of tune.” Sending off the recordings for Nick Didia (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Powderfinger) to mix put the icing on the album cake for Cardwell. “He just manages to make the best of everything. He did my album before so I just trust him implicitly and send everything to him,” she gushes. “We had a rough mix at the time in the studio, but it was like magic getting it back from the States!” WHO: Abbie Cardwell & Her Leading Men WHAT: The Bare Bones Sessions (Vitamin) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 January, Rites Of Passage Tattoo Convention And Arts Festival, Royal Exhibition Building
MALCOLM TURN BILL
Malcolm Hill presents a one-man show like no other. A “one-man Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on stage” is one description. But he equally turns his hand to his “pretty songs” too. Seen in the stageplay about Ned Kelly, The Jerilderie Letter, his music has also been the subject of a great doco film The Last Of The Wild Bohemians, which followed him around on tour with Nick Cave. Hill plays the Edinburgh Castle Hotel this Saturday as part of his residency with Andrew McCubbin & Hope Addicts, who have been in the studio recording the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2007 release, Blue. Be in the backyard from 4-6pm for the free gig.
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BLOW UP DOLLS Priory Dolls are taking their narcotic chaos pop to the Tote this Friday to headline a fillerless line-up. Getting seedy with them is the best band in the world (well, it’s subjective), Greasers, featuring members of Little Red and Eagle & The Worm, as well as the relentless, soaring, fucked-up rock of Sydney’s Go Roll Your Bones. And warming you up before you’re pissed enough to not care about going deaf is blissful poppers with endless charm Francolin and Brainsworth (Sean from Fearless Vampire Killers with friends). Tantrums DJs spin between sets. Head to priorydolls.com for a free download of their single Me & My Accelerated Friends.
ARE YOU LONESOME?
Lonesome, one of Melbourne’s finest country rock acts, will be appropriately launching their debut album, Saturday Night Special, at Yah Yah’s this Saturday night. Also launching their debut album that night will be Ryan Sterling & The Sister City. Special guests are the superb Joni Lightning. Featuring members of The Morning After Girls, Paul Kelly & The Dots and The Sacred Cowboys, Lonesome combine elements of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons. They play original music with some old western swagger. Doors open at 9pm.
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