Andrew Stockdale, Wolfmother. Photo Courtesy of Daniel Boud

From Triple J’s Music News:

“Since arriving here yesterday, much speculation has been circulating about Wolfmother’s future. Rumours from the band breaking up through to line-up changes have been mentioned. I was due to interview Andrew Stockdale a couple of hours before their appearance closing the Supertop Stage at Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay. Management issued a statement to me prior to that saying: “The band is dealing with some internal issues at the moment. They’re hoping to resolve them in the next few weeks but in the meantime it just wouldn’t be appropriate for any member to be doing any interviews - even with triple j.” Reading between the lines, this performance to come from the band could be the last for the current line-up.”

It wouldn’t be fair to both the band or other close associated parties to begin slinging half-cast rumours around Wolfmother’s future. Suffice to say, apart from effectively riding out the same show, and headlining the same slot, at the same festival 24 months ago - when considered, it’s a pretty ’safe’ choice for an incredibly popular band whose label or management hasn’t produced a solid press-release indicating a solid future, let alone a new release. A track lifted onto the Spiderman 3 soundtrack doesn’t count.

The fans are noticing the blank space on iTunes, where by some opinions, there should be Wolfmother’s sophomore release available for $1.79 a track.
As ‘Frank’, a Wolfmother fan had posted on the official fan site, Wolfmother.net -
“shit…im quickly losing faith in these guys…ive been a huge fan on the band for way to long to have 12 songs keep me interested…whatever the hells going on with them…obviously somethings wrong…if they dont have the albm out y the end of this year…theyre finished” (sic)

This is not the first time Modular have run into “creative differences” with or between their artists, causing album delays for follow-ups for successful debuts. The Avalanches’ second record is quickly turning into Australia’s version of Gun’s & Roses “Chinese Democracy”, the ever-renewing anticipation that a release date will turn into an actual date, and a record will be actually be released.

In issuing a ‘joke’ statement in 2006, Modular indicated that the first cut of The Avalanches’ sophomore record was ‘rejected’ and sent back to the studio to reset back to the standards set by their 2000 debut ‘Since I Left You’ - which is jaw-droppingly good (and still audibly ‘fresh’)… and that’s pretty funny, Modular.

Does it keep the fans on their toes and the industry quietly giggling when you retract the statement a week later indicating that everyone on the planet lost their sense of humor, and that we had all ‘over-reacted’? After all, the group have been playing an game of ‘cat n’ mouse’ with their fans since founding member Darren Seltmann released a statment indicated they were taking an ‘ambient world music’ direction in 2005… Obviously some cheek but in hindsight, surely a little unnerving for Modular… who are still a recording company… and there’s still money to be recouped from the Bumblebeez record, I’m sure.

The Avalanches released a press release in January 2007, indicating the were whittling away at 40+ tracks, with a release date that will sneak up on everyone. It’s been reported as recently as July 2008 that the ‘finishing touches’ are being slathered upon what will have to be one hell of an album. Considering the scope and innovation of what The Avalanches’ delivered with ‘Since I Left You’ (somewhat of a smack of the head in the musical ‘climate’ of Nov, 2000) - the question is: is the inactivity from ‘Camp Avalanche’:

1. A stroke of genius, gently stoking the embers of the Modular fire under the band’s popularity as they whittle away at their next masterpiece?

or…

2. The music industry equivalent of a bluffing poker hand?

Let’s hope Modular have their flex on for whatever gets thrown their way by Wolfmother’s current position. It’s no doubt there has been tension, as has been confirmed as recently as yesterday by Brisbane’s The Courier Mail in this article.

Recent speculation that Andrew Stockdale has been auditioning new musicians to replace the current lineup have been unconfirmed by Modular. However, as mentioned in a recent interview with Australian-based guitar importer Gibsonami.com, Stockdale has been holed up for 2 months in a studio recording new material - and is keen to mention it is ALL self produced and perfomed…“All the stuff I just kind of did by myself. That’s me playing drums, and guitars, and bass.”

Let’s consider the stress placed upon the ‘direction’ of a band like Wolfmother - one that has such strong homages to the timbre of 1970’s heavy metal:

* To once again ‘revive’ and renew their sound to a position that is can be critically distanced from their first album (ie: early 70’s rock)
* To be easily approached by fans as a natural progression of the band (ie: Not too Avant-Garde… read: Portishead’s “3″)
* To continue to melt and delight those patrons of Modular, who have come to respect the originality and power of an act who can deliver a sophomore record that is worthy of it’s critical praise and ability to cast a wide net…(ala: The Presets).

Will fans be receptive to a new lineup, led by Stockdale… or even a potential new formation, as yet unnamed?

And Modular lost $5.9 million dollars last year?

Whoa. Hold onto your butts.

Spooky circumstances abound here, dear readers.

In an increasingly super-funky-natural circumtance, this photo has surfaced - taken by the new Google Map Street View application, just launched for selected Australian cities.

Q-Bar, Level 2, 44 Oxford St… Home to SOSUEME and/or aliens

There are varying states of alarm and/or urgency of PartyLust at the release of this photo, speculation includes:

* Heaven exists, it’s a party at Q-Bar on Fridays nights and this photo is evidence
* Hell exists, its a REALLY good party at Q-Bar on Friday nights, and this is a photo of it’s gateway into awesomosity / hedonism / big party dancing on pool tables and stuffed bulls
* Aliens have arrived, most likely to party and/or probe Sosueme attendees
* The Google Maps Van photographed the EXACT moment Q-Bar exploded into a fireball, due to what our lab-rats are dubbing: ‘Over-Radification’.

Find the truth, buy the ticket, take the ride:

Friday 8th August, Sosueme.

… in the photos section here. Once again some brilliant shots thanks to Reef Gaha!

Note to self, Hump Day Project are AWESOME!
&
Buckets are dangerous!

Rad night! Thanks to all for playing.

Party pics here

sosueme 25 July

Ok so they’re saying AC/DC but I’m not sure I buy it. Still a possibilty. Anyway straight off the top of my dome (as I rock, rock, rock-a.. ahh geez)

NB: Rather than add new posts, I’m just going to keep adding to this list as new predictions come to mind

Radiohead (Have yet to play a BDO. It is written in the stars. Oh yes.)
Amy Winehouse (STRONGLY tipped)
Weezer
The Verve
The Sabouteurs/ Raconteurs
Nine Inch Nails
Simian Mobile Disco
Santogold
The Roots
MGMT
Pendulum (Basically a shoe-in)

Slight possibilities
Coldplay
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Ghostface Killah OR the full Wu Tang (hey, its possible)
Mark Ronson

… a couple of great interviews with the Femme Fatales (launching their EP @ sosueme THIS Friday) and Skye Harbour (launching their EP @ sosueme NEXT Friday).

Check em in the interviews section or in Brag.

Skye Harbour

1. Growing Up
I should probably note that we actually come from Adelaide – we moved to Melbourne early 2007. I started learning the piano when I was seven. I was a sensitive kid and it was a tactic devised by my teachers and parents to help me deal with school, and I guess that’s what music became for me – a personal, cathartic thing. My first song emerged in Year 4 while riding my bike through the suburbs of Adelaide; I got a ditty in my head and somehow decided I should write a song out of it. It was pretty naff – a song called ‘Try Your Best’. Apart from that, my music study was fairly conventional until adolescence, when I decided piano wasn’t cool anymore and started guitar. Basically I discovered that being in a band was pretty much the best thing you can do. Eventually I rediscovered piano however, and it’s what I play in the band now.

Frank played drums in early high school but this gave way to his playing euphonium and then trombone through most of school. He was originally reluctant to play drums for the band, but I think its part of him – that guy has rhythm running through his veins.

Matt and Jack both started guitar as teenagers and I think that’s partly what makes them so valuable to the band – they don’t suffer from the curse of years of music theory. Beefy actually began his musical tuition within the band, having never played an instrument before. We needed a bass player and when you’re 17 anything’s possible. He picked it up quickly and these days he’s actually really good.

2. Inspirations
As most kids are, I was brought up on my dad’s record collection. I remember listening religiously to Meat Loaf, ELO, War of the Worlds and the Australian recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, which probably contributes to a lot of the band’s bombast.

Different bands inspire me for different reasons. The Beatles and Queen managed to tread the line between pop and creating something progressive and original, which is pretty amazing. I think everyone has a few Beatles phases; I’ve just had my third. Plus of course, for Queen, Freddie Mercury was such a strong front man; his ownership of the audience was intimidatingly awesome. I love The Smiths, there’s something in the space between Morrisey and Marr – two really strong creative forces – which is really undefinable. The Queen is Dead has it all for me – well written lyrically, mind blowing arrangements and good, concise songs.

I actually really got into Cold Chisel for a while, there doesn’t seem to be many bands today really speaking to the Australian part of Australian kids and at least in legend, Chisel seemed to do that. I guess they represent an era lost for me, where live music flourished and Scotty and Macca would get down to see a band, not just listen to the Foo Fighters on their iPod.

In terms of bands today, there’s a shitload of good ones but not many really blowing my mind. Arcade Fire do, both their albums are amazing and they blew me away when they came here. Radiohead’s amazing, as is Muse. Sometimes it feels like everything’s been done, everyone just seems to be rehashing and piecing together bits of the past.

3. Your Band
Jack and I actually met when we were 14, over MSN through friends of friends. We realised we listened to similar music and he mentioned he was starting a band and asked me to come over. I played a guitar I bought from Cash Converters through a bass amp I borrowed from school. We then picked up Beefy, as I mentioned. I was doing composition in Year 12 with Frank and we bonded and eventually I asked Frank to play drums for us. Matt came later - we wanted more power to create interesting arrangements (I’d been listening to a lot of Queen and really wanted to have two part guitar harmonies). We met him through friends and connected really well so we asked him to join and move to Melbourne with us. I’m now 21, so we’ve basically grown up with the band and our musical tastes with that. I think that’s a powerful thing for us. We decided to move to Melbourne because we felt a little suffocated by Adelaide. We felt Melbourne held more opportunities for us and it wasn’t an option to not make it, and still isn’t.

4. The Music You Make
We find it hard to fit into a scene; it’s probably something that holds us back. We’ve always strived to be varied from song to song (and usually within the songs), however this means it’s hard to align us with one movement or group of bands. We’ve just released our second EP, ‘Houses’, which we recorded with a producer in Adelaide, Matt Hills. We were originally intending to do the recording ourselves, in our house but Hills approached us and said he’d really like to do it. He’s a bit of a figure in the Adelaide scene, he mixes a lot of the bands and has an amazing ear. He built a studio to do Wolf & Cub’s last album and the vibe just felt right. We spent a month in Adelaide tracking and mixing, which gave us the freedom to do some interesting stuff, probably more than most bands of our level get. We pretty much went all out, there’s strings, brass, harmonium, accordion, Hammond and all of our friends on there. The end product essentially sounds like a culmination of our influences. You’d listen to it if you liked Arcade Fire, Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, the new Silverchair stuff or Battles……. ok, maybe Panic at the Disco. That’s right, I went there.

Doing the cover art for the EP was almost as much fun as the recording. I’d been thinking about what we should use for ages, and was staring out my window one day when it came to me. Basically we stole 50-60 milk crates from around the city, built them into a cube, covered the thing in Christmas lights, hired a generator, stuck the whole lot in the middle of a park at night, took a photo of it and called it art. The result was actually a lot less humble than its constituents.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
The scene in Melbourne is vastly different from what we were used to in Adelaide. In Adelaide, if you have a thousand Myspace friends and play a gig every month or so then you’re instantly one of “the” bands. If you’re into local music, you’re probably aware of most bands. The Melbourne scene represents a large part of the national scene, however. We instantly came into competition with bands with much more experience, much more money, and much more record deals. Everyone says it’s all about contacts, and we rocked up with our instruments basically knowing no one. We getting there though, we’ve played some good gigs and met a lot of cool people. But, it’s still frustrating to see average bands with huge posters playing huge gigs because they wear the right clothes and suck the right dicks. Not to sound like bad sports.

Femme Fatales flying in for their EP launch

Tell us about your music:
Anarchic .It’s a mash of layered guitars, vigorous synths, with big driving beats and rhythms. It’s noisy and energy driven yet there is still a focus on melody and song structure.

What’s been happening for you lately?
Apart from playing regular gigs in our hometown of Adelaide as well as interstate, we’ve been writing and rehearsing new material. We’ve come to a place where we want to be with our music and can’t wait to get into the studio to record it in October. We feel these songs will represent us as a band a lot better than the current recorded material. We’re excited about it.

What albums to you have blaring in the van while on tour?
Albums we’ve been playing a lot are:
A Place To Bury Strangers – Self Titled, No Age – Nouns, Crystal Castles – Self Titled, Suicide – Self Titled, Black Lips – Good Bad Not Evil. For the Aussie contingent, we’ve been listening to a bit of Cut Copy and PNAU’s latest albums.

What music/artists have inspired you along the way?
All the artists listed above as well as - Liquid Liquid, Blur, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Violent Femmes, Happy Mondays & Yellow Magic Orchestra.

You’re currently pushing your debut EP? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
It was recorded by Matt Hills (Wolf & Cub) at Hillside Recording Studio, however we took the recordings home and reworked them ourselves. The final production on the EP was done by LK from the band. It took a while as he was learning as he went, but I can say we learnt a great deal about ‘our’ sound and how we were to capture it. It’s a lot easier getting a new song to the point of where we are happy with it now rather than six months ago.

Now from the ridiculous consumer trend pile comes the announcement that Justice have teamed up with designer label Surface to Air to procuce a line of their uniforms; Biker jackets and Black denim jeans. Retailing for 500 and 150 Euros respectively, anyone seriously willing to front the cash for these can apparently find them at Incu stores in Aus.

Man, i was just thinking about where these guys had gone to the other day! For all the metal-hedz out there, the nine-member beast that is Slipknot are heading our way in October for a tour with veterans Machine Head (I guess you could call them veterans nowadays, thats kinda scary… I recall buying Burn My Eyes when i was 16, I’m like 43 now..)

Anyway, if this aint like the BEST metal double-bill EVER, I dunno what is… unless like, Roots-era Sepultura got back together and played too. Anyway I digress. Just check out the ‘knot’s super scary new masks!! They’re dropping a new album this August, called All Hope is Gone, produced by Dave Fortman (Mudvayne). Lets hope its as super-rad as the Rick-Rubin helmed Vol III: The Subliminal Verses

If you’ve yet to have a chance to see this band play, the shit’s an experience; their show at the Hordern on their first tour here had them throwing steel beer kegs in the air and landing them on their heads, band-members and punters climbing the rafters and a clown masturbating onstage. These guys absolutely live depravity. Apparently the current U.S tour has seen DJ Sid playing in a wheelchair after breaking both heels onstage.

Tour dates below. I guess the only thing that sucks is that this is a fully fledged Arena tour. Bring the sickness!

Friday 24th Oct – Riverstage, Brisbane
Sunday 26th Oct – Acer Arena, Sydney
Monday 27th Oct – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Tuesday 28th Oct – Jubilee Pavilion, Adelaide Showground
Thursday 30th Oct – Robinson Pavilion, Perth

sosueme. have the following people playing live/DJing Friday night, hold on to ur butts, this shit’s gonna be insane!:

Femme Fatales flying in for their EP launch

The real femme fatales: Beau Monde

The party Gods, the Hump Day Project

Dance soul destroyers the Hey Now DJs

and a shit load more! Don’t miss it!

sosueme 25 July

A special event Homebake this year with the theme of “Peace in the Park”.

Pretty good lineup so far too for the December 6 Domain event , which is a lot more dance-y than last year, which sosueme smiles in anticipation of:

• CROWDED HOUSE
• SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM
• THE VINES
• CUT COPY
• GABRIELLA CILMI
• PNAU
• KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON
• DIED PRETTY
• THE POTBELLEEZ
• BLISS N ESSO
• YOU AM I
• KAARNIVOOL
• INFUSION
• HEADLESS CHICKENS
• BRITISH INDIA
• THE GETAWAY PLAN
• SPARKADIA
• BLUEJUICE
• EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING
• DRAPHT
• LITTLE RED
• SNOB SCRILLA
• PEGZ
• DASH & WILL
• BAG RAIDERS

Now write this date down – Mon 18 August at 9am, which is when tix are on sale for $88 thru ticketek.

… in the photos section. Big up’s to Reef Gaha our flickering magician of innerstyle.com.au.

LOOSE!

Tomas Ford is the craziest person we’ve ever met and sosueme loves him dearly. Big high-five to Foxx on Fire and the Blush Foundation for their rad sets, and the DJs for continued danceatronik awesome.

Party pics here.

sosueme. 18 July 2008

Posted recently on their website and myspace, Ween’s pals THE BRONX have finally delivered on their promise/threat/dare to venture into Mariachi territory. Olé!

Playing under the creatively adjusted name of El Bronx, their Mexican incarnation adds Brad Magers on trumpet and Vincent Hidalgo on guitarrón to their lineup, and if I’m not mistaken, puts Joby on vihuela duties. Oh, and dresses them all in charro suits.

One album of each of The Bronx and El Bronx material are to be released “this summer"… whatever the hell that means in this time of ostensibly warming globes and other such weirdness. If you can’t wait til “summer", let alone til you find out when exactly that is, (Two Bronx albums in one goooooo…. aaaaarghhhhhhhhh!) go download the decidedly The Bronx new tune Knifeman, from their myspace in the meantime.

P to the S, on their myspace is also a video of the Warped Tour diary. Check out the seriously minimal crowd. Ay caramba! They always say how weird it is for them to have such a big fanbase here. Ha, makes sense now. I guess it explains why they love our lil island so much, where they sell out shows in a flash and everyone gets muy into it..

Speaking of free drinks and hot bi-sexual presenters, uncharTED’s band comp #2 final is this Thursday 24th @ the OAF with MTV filming it live and Extra Dry supplying beers all night on them (boom!).

Ruby Rose will be there cutting sic among less interesting/attractive co presenters.

Guestlist only, it packs out so get there @ 7, email: TED@uncharTED.com.au to get on said guestlist.

*I pause to briefly consider whether they’ll approve of me publically posting this information before I decided to continue regardless*

Right - how about this for a rad deal? At the most recent sosueme board Meeting (aka cheeky drop in to the Full Moon Party in Thailand on Saturday night) the notion of a ridiculously expensive (read: madtacular) free party was passed. To that end, we, sosueme, so solemnly promise to throw a stupid-big party for everyone with free entry and free drinks all night should we win the InTheMix Top 50 competition for best clubnight in NSW.

All you need to do is vote for our asses and if we win, we’ll do it properly and throw a free bash of epic old-school 1980’s labour government extravagance, Alan Bond (pre-conviction) type party. Ice sculptures and shit.

Voting takes seriously 20 seconds, follow these instructions carefully:

1. Click this link – http://www.inthemix.com.au/50/2008/myvote/5575/
2. Our club-night is already prefilled (gigidy), so all you need to do is enter your preference or a donkey vote in the other fields (fav DJs and producers etc).
3. Press submit and then enter your details with a valid email and then press VOTE.
4. They will then email you a confirmation with a link to click on that will validate your vote and then BOOM, you’re done!

NB. Vote won’t count till you click on the validation link in the confirmation email they send to you. Do this and you also go into the draw to win a phat Sony entertainment system or some shit, so yeah… cool.

Pass on to your friends and lovers, every vote we get puts us one step closer to the mega-rad-free-party-of-biblical-proportions.

Come on admit it, it’s a pretty good reason to vote… and you KNOW we’d make good on our promise too….

A certain sueme blogger spent some time earlier this year moonlighting for a super-underground publication by the name of ‘The Daily Crêpe’, with the likes of George Metaxas, the premise of which suited her just fine, as it required her to eat a minimum of one crêpe per day. And mostly they’d fuck up the video, or lose track of time, so the team got to eat probably about three each, every day. And those were just the ones that were documented. Yessss.

Here’s YOUR chance! Guzzle yourself silly on some of the best crêpes in Sydney at Alliance Française Grand Café tomorrow for lunch. Book now!

“After last month’s smashing success, Aymeric will once again serve up his selection of sweet & savoury crêpes. Complementary glass of Pipsqueak cider.”

*Gasp* does this mean AF Crêpe Day has officially gone monthly?? Stay tuned..

What happens when you splice the dna of SPOD, Patrick Wolf, Sam Sparro, Yahoo Serious, Andrew WK and David Bowie together? You create an entertainment monster… you create something akin to Perth’s party-lord Tomás Ford.

He’s stopping in at sosueme tonight in his only Sydney show as part of his east coast tour. I genuinely don’t have the vocabulary to accurately describe this man’s style or genre or can even begin to explain what to expect in his live show… to be honest, we’re a little scared, and have the following items on standby: - a pulp fiction-esque adrenalin needle; a fire extinguisher; a magnum-PI loaded with silver bullets; chloroform; our passports; and a cyanide tablet. Hopefully we’ve got our bases covered…

Tomás Ford is on-stage @10pm tonight, deets below, don’t miss it!

sosueme. 18 July 2008