Blaster’s Radness - “More than meets the eye” (sung in Transformer tune)

sosueme’s buddy Blaster is dropping in this week to “transform” some beats fo yaw audio pleazure!

He’s put together a micro-mini mix for us in anticipation of his sizzling set @ Panther DLX’s EP Launch this Fri 29 Aug. Also playing are WOW, One Glove, Hey Now, CSK_OK and MORE!

Listen to Micro-mini-mix here.

Track listing:

1. Transformers’ Theme Song
2. Get into the Groove (Sidechains Remix) – Madonna
3. TV=Off (Is Good) – Boys Noize
4. We Are Your Friends (Acapella) – Justice Vs. Simian
5. Cowbois (Dilemn Remix) – Shadow Dancer
6. Divine Gossa (Switch Remix) – Radioclit
7. To Protect and Entertain (Crookers Remix) – Bust P. feat. Murs
8. Movin it Over Here – Foamo
9. Je T’aime (Switch Remix) - Armand Van Helden
10. Fake Blood Splashing (Fake Blood Theme Song) – Fake Blood
11. Speaker Dirt – Cheap as Chimps
12. Hideaway (Switch Remix) (Diplo Edit) – Mystery Jets
13. Grab Ya Funkstick – Lee Mortimer
14. Dum – The Martin Brothers
15. Phoenix – Daft Punk
16. Music Talking (Fred Falke Remix) – Roland Clarke, The Montanas
17. Girl from Ipanema – Astrud Gilberto

Check the RAD shots from last Friday’s mega-party feat. Spit Syndicate with Mailer Daemon’s EP Launch and Friday 15th too up in the photos section. Thx again to Reef Gaha of Innerstyle for immortalising the epicness!

Spit Syndicate @ sosueme - riot police had to be called into Q Bar after their set… AWESOME!

Last Friday we experienced the sheer ‘Sub-Powa’ of the BLACK GALLANT SOUND SYSTEM (feat. PEACH, CATCALL, KOBRA KAI, JOEY MAKER, and it’s masterful conductor of Big-Bass conjuring-excellence: MAILER DAEMON!

34b then erupted Vesuvius-style, with the genre-smashing, hands-in-the-air, Hip Hop-engineered dexterity of SPIT SYNDICATE… That room has NEVER sounded so huge!

WAX MOTIF gaves us the bodypop goodness in 34b, and rubbed us up the right way… 2ONAJOYRIDE gave us party-induced chills and our very own MIXTAPE:MAFIA keep the room thumping until 6:30am! No shit!

Photos here

Holy shit, sorry this is so late, umm… but yeah… check the photos here.

Here it comes…

I love festivals, but Australia’s festival climate is changing. For the last couple of years almost every festival has sold out, which has led to the addition of a number of new events, however the tide is turning as people begin to realise that due to increased competition, the lineups of said festivals are becoming increasingly diluted, and the big events are beginning to repeat themselves (look at Splendour this year for instance). Securing an original lineup is getting tougher and tougher and even the big festivals are feeling the pinch of reduced ticket sales. Case in point, this year’s Great Escape which was recently got cancelled, citing unusually low ticket sales. Poor planning had it on the same weekend as the super-popular Parklife (which is also yet to sell out). Neither Good Vibes or V Fest are running in the black and the big winners that are still certain sell-outs like Splendour in the Grass, Field Day, Summafieldayze, Shore Thing and Falls Fest are treating their loyal punters with distain by providing weaker and weaker lineups because their goodwill will ensure it’s a sellout regardless. This really shits me, for these promoters it’s not about the party anymore, it’s about what they can get away with and STILL sell out, this is what happens when capitalism meets ecstacy. We get lazy and stick to winning formulas, the same mentality that kept Big Brother on air for 8 fuking years, appealing to the zombie hoards!

This crossed with the afore mentioned “trance invasion” might eventually see this blogger ditch this sinking ship to the greener pastures of South America for a few years, where the market hasn’t been suffocated with what many are beggining to suggest are imaginationless opportunists.

That being said, it’s not all doom and gloom, here’s a quick update of festival season as it stands (up until January anyway):

- Parklife still selling, fairly good lineup, not as good as last year. Kippax Lake, Sun 5 October.
- Homebake sold out, best homebake lineup in a while, great local talent, 6 Dec, the Domain, Sydney.
- Melbourne’s Summadayze first release announced: Eric Prydz, Digitalism, and legends Underworld – this will sell out in milliseconds, Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on January 1st, 2009.
- Global Gathering is the newest addition to the summer festival circuit this year and it looks to be an “interesting” collab between Angel Music, Future and MOS. Interesting because it’s such a Pom festival. It’ll be touring Oz, with first round lineup including Mark Ronson, Kraftwerk, Fischerspooner, Sasha, Above & Beyond, Felix Da Housecat, LA Riots, The Orb, Larry Tee etc. It will probably sell out in most states although I’m not convinced it deserves to. Visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth (in conjunction with Mellen Events) between November 22nd and 30th, 2008. Tickets are onsale from September 1st.
- Pyramid Rock is in it’s 5th year, hailed as a RAD festival, some of the lineup includes The Black Keys, The Living End, Morcheeba, Cut Copy, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Midnight Juggernauts, Digitalism, Karnivool, Gyroscope, The Teenager, The Herd, Dr.Dog, Birds of Tokyo, The Getwaway Plan, Little Red, Salmonella Dub, The Black Seeds etc. Monday 29 December, 2008, to Thursday 1 January, 2009 Phillip Island, Victoria. Tickets on sale, 9am Thursday 4th September.
- Meredith, I’ve never been but am seriously considering it, MGMT, The Bronx, Ten East, The Mountain Goats, Holy Fuck, Saul Williams, Tame Impala, Man Man, Beaches, Grand Salvo, Final Fantasy, Muscles , Little Red, Black Diamond Heavies, The Ruby Suns, Yacht Club DJ’s, Architecture in Helsinki, Regurgitator, The Datsuns, Combo La Revelacion. In rural Vic 12,13 & 14 of December one stage! There’s a ballot, so you’ll need to register.
- Sensation NYE in Melbourne. Leading the trance invasion is Amsterdam’s world famous Sensation White which is coming to Oz for the first time. Hailed as a visionary in the festival scene, it’s visuals are apparently short of miraculous. Try and imagine what Daft Punk could create if they did the visuals for a mega-festival, times 100, on acid. It will sell out in no time if it hasn’t already.
- Field Day will be big this year I think and it’s always a sell-out. Apparently though, getting a unique and exciting lineup is becoming exceedingly difficult, even for Fuzzy. Lineup TBA but will be similar to Summerdayze. Sydney, NYD, Domain.
- Shore Thing has been disappointing the last couple of years. It’s fuzzy’s small scale NYE Bondi Beach festival. 5,000 strong, sells out seriously fast and had Fatboyslim not 3 years ago. They’d better do something good this year to redeem their last couple but I doubt they will, and it will still sell-out in record time. Bondi Beach, NYE, Sydney.
- Harbourlife – great festival, shit house lineup, always. Again more trancey and minimul techy aka “I wanna punch u in the dick for destroying dance music” than the others. It’s meant to be in November, but we’ve heard nothing yet. Great location, Mrs Macquarie’s chair, Sydney.
- Falls Fest. Still never actually been but many laud as one of the best festivals in the land. It’s in Lorne, this year’s lineup: Franz Ferdinand , The Hives , Eli Paperboy Reed , The Cat Empire , The Kooks , The Grates , Gomez , Faker , Tegan and Sara , SoKo , Donavon Frankenreiter , Jamie Lidell, TZU , Mystery Jets , Architecture in Helsinki , Atmosphere , The Dodos , A Track , Wolf and Cub , Liam Finn , The Drones etc. Ballot for ticket sales, get on it now, even if ur undecided as to whether u want to go or not.
- BDO rumours rife. Some say AC/DC, Pendulum even Radiohead. Always a must as the big boys come out to play this annual tour, probably bigger than any other festival, bar maybe Field Day and or Parklife who’ve swelled in recent years.

Right that’s enough for now. Looking at them all together like this is kinda exhausting/arousing.

Best part is, this morning I walked out of my house and for the first time in months, felt the warmth of summer fleetingly splash across my face. It was a gentle and caring gesture from the Sun Gods, a quick flirt just to let me know that the wintery shroud of darkness is dissipating and the dawn of sunshine love is coming into view. Hold on to your butts!

Luke Steele + Nick Littlemore = Empire of the Sun

This is not promo for Empire of the Sun.

… But I’m putting down ten bucks that once Nova starts playing this summery piece of spank-arse cream-pop, we’ll see this thing shoot to #1 on the charts.

That was a compliment, by the way.

Check out the video & playback of first single Walking On A Dream.

tyDi

Step aside AJAX, there’s a new sheriff in these parts: prepubescent QLD producer/DJ tyDi who stole the top gong at last night’s ITM Top50 awards, up from #4 last year, pipping at the post fellow banana benders the Stafford Brothers, with 2 year reigning champion AJAX taking bronze, Baby Gee 4th and the Potbelleez 5th.

What surprised sosueme. the most was how very few people in the crowd actually knew who tyDi was, let alone could recognise and I dare say even appreciate his brand of music. Our question to you dear reader is: does the crowning of a trance DJ genuinely represent a paradigm shift in Australia’s dance tastes or is it just reflective of an over-zealous state to the north who’re eager to over-compensate for their lacking of actual clubs by staking the votes for their local boy-wonders?

Is the trance takeover an unavoidable reality? Like Keating’s “recession we had to have”? We might if we can, refer to sosueme’s FBi interview of February predicting just this. Is there anything any of us can do to stop this onslaught or is our fate already written?

Full listing of the top 50 DJs on next page

Pages: 1 2

… check the latest coupla interviews with Mailer Daemon who’s launching his EP with a hoard of special guest vocalists this Friday @ sosueme & Panther DLX who are making the trip down from Brissie to launch their debut EP @ sosueme next Friday.

From the ‘where are they now?’ and ‘what the hell!?’ pile comes ex-Limp Bizkit member Wes Borland’s announcement as Marilyn Mansons new geetar player.

To quote Manson himself:

“We have a new guitar player that’s gonna play for the first time tomorrow.It’s the first time we’ll play onstage [together]. His name is Wes Borland, and he used to be in a really terrible band that he left because he felt that it was a destructive force in art, and he has his own band, Black Light Burns, but now he is in Marilyn Manson.”

Nuff said.

Not that it really matters though - I mean, when was the last time Mr Manson was any relevant anyway?

MGMT
The Bronx
Ten East
The Mountain Goats
Holy Fuck
Saul Williams
Tame Impala
Man Man
Beaches
Grand Salvo
Final Fantasy
Muscles
Little Red
Black Diamond Heavies
The Ruby Suns
Yacht Club DJ’s
Architecture in Helsinki
Regurgitator
The Datsuns
Combo La Revelacion

If you can git yo’self down rural Vic way on the 12,13 & 14 of December then hop to it! There’s a ballot, so you’ll need to register here

EP Launch @ sosueme 29 August

1. Growing Up
Music was constantly around when I was younger, my parents, although not musicians themselves, were music lovers and always supported my passion to pursue music. Along with my father’s vast record selection as a kid I was switched on to alternative music by peers. One of my earlier memories was when I was about 9 and was given a Silverchair EP and an Offspring album on cassette by a family friend. It’s a funny memory because any curse words on the tapes were overdubbed with unenthusiastic mumbles by the son of the family. I think that getting into music throughout my childhood has definitely channelled a passion for all things creative and has fuelled my passion for it, I really can’t imagine my life without music in it.

2. Inspirations
I really don’t like having to choose ‘favourite musicians’ because I’ve never been one to idolise a handful of them. Some artists that I have got into lately have been; Grace Jones, I love the power in her voice along with the musicality of her recordings from the mid 80’s. I also admire her style and flair and the people she associated herself with. I’m sure with the resurgence of disco sounds people will be delving into her back catalogue. A band that I started getting into a few years ago now and still am inspired by is Television. I think it’s due to the fact that they were ahead of their time and I’ve always intrigued in bands/artists that make music years ahead of its time. Television also gave me a new love for guitars and the different sounds the can create.

3. Your Band
The three of us all went to school together, Phil our drummer I’ve known for like 13 years and James, our guitarist, I met in highschool. We all came together to play in a ska/punk band during that time and got to experience recording and touring. When that band came to an end we kinda went our separate ways until I showed them some songs that I had been working on. Both of the guys were keen to make something out of it and were both interested in the direction I was heading in. So yeah it’s been about a year since. In terms of personalities I think we have a good mix, James works full time in the construction industry so he’s the weekend warrior of the band. Phil is currently studying Law and I would say he is the social butterfly. And I suppose I’m just the tall one.

4. The Music You Make
Pop, rock, electro, dance, funk, hip hop are all styles that are incorporated in our sound but if I had to choose I’d say we play dance music with pop sensibilities. Contemporary artists that are fuelling my passion for making music are, Ladyhawke I’m a big fan of putting a modern spin on an old pop sound, Bag Raiders and Miami Horror, bringing out everybody’s love for analogue synthersizers, and Little Red, Cause I admire their passion for playing the music they love.

Our EP ‘Into The Night’ (will be released on iTunes), is a good example of the current musical direction the band is focussing on. I think it reflects on the fact that we play music that we like to play and we tell stories we like to tell, and that’s basically Panther DLX…… oh and that we like to party.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
There’s good and bad points to the music scene at the moment. The positives being that technology makes it possible for anyone to make their music at home and can project it out on the web. This is especially evident with electronic music as the world of blogs allows DJ’s from all around the world access to your music and can add your tracks to mixes and playlists, (this is how we end up on Treasure Fingers mix). The negatives that I see is there are just not enough risks being taken in the music industry today. From a business standpoint this is probably a good thing but from a music lover’s perspective it means you are missing out on a lot of great music. If I had it my way artists and bands would be given opportunities on their potential alone, and they would either live up to it and become successful or become grand failures, but I guess that’s cause I like chaos.

Locally (Gold Coast) there isn’t much of a music scene, which I find both sad and exciting. Sad because there are hardly any music venues to play, and no local independent radio stations to get your music played on. But it’s also exciting, cause even though there is a lack of a music scene there are new bands arising and new event promoters coming out of the dust and are building up Gold Coast music, which is fantastic.

EP Launch @ sosueme 22 August

1. Growing Up
I grew up on a mix of records from my older siblings and trashy Malaysian top 40. There was Weezer, Pearl Jam, Rancid, Verve, Floyd, Stone Roses, Ride, New Order, Smiths, Prodigy, Aphex Twin, Beastie Boys, Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Mogwai, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, e.t.c… I used to jam and gig around in high school punk bands, and learned to produce by recording those bands on 4 track as well as making beats on a DOS program called Scream Tracker.

2. Inspirations
My ears are currently gravitating towards the dance/hip hop crossover sound, Mad Decent, Fools Gold, Ro Sham Bo, B-more breaks e.t.c… it feels very punk and raw. Creatively, the first take or first few seconds of an idea inspires me, because anything after that feels like a photocopy. DJing inspires me because you can see first hand how specific sounds or rhythms impact people. Existentially, failures of your own or people around you can be major inspirations of roads not to take.

3. Your Band
Mailer Daemon is the horse, and Black Gallant is the stable. We exists in the form of blackgallant.com and onstage as the Black Gallant Soundsystem, with it’s current incarnation fusing symbiotically with Peach, Catcall, Supaboma, Joey Maker, Bo Jangles, The Vangarde, Purple Haze, and Kobra Kai. Think Professor X, and the X-men. If there is a Magneto out there, come challenge us. ‘Bub’.

4. The Music You Make
Mailer Daemon has just dropped an electro-hiphop EP, which is available from blackgallant.com and Itunes. I’ve also just dropped a dubstep mix for Ghosts Of Television, quirky breaks for Spod, bassline house for Euphonic, and straight up banging electro for The Wahas. There are a few more exciting ones coming up in the pipeline… I’m always looking for fresh new bands and collaborators so hit me up if you got da skillz.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
Australian music kicks ass and it’s awesome to see homegrown heroes like Midnight Juggernauts, Pnau, Presets, Pivot, Bag Raiders and Cut Copy getting international love. Snob Scrilla is an excitingly fresh, I like Amy Meridith, and I hope The Wahas blow up internationally. Stolen Records with Shantan on FBI is always quality, as well as Ro Sham Bo Sunsets. Oh Mailer Daemon kicks ass too.

Yeah, man… like… whatever.

Link:
An excellent apocalyptic rant defining and signaling the end of the ‘Hipster’ movement, from Candian-based anti-consumerist mag AdBusters.

Bring on the ‘Awesome’ Movement, the inevitable pre-2012 world-wide fad where nudity is rampant, irony is a party favour (not a scene) and SPOD & Andrew WK hold the top seven spots in the US charts.

Viva Le Awesome!

Snob Scrilla - The Day Before… (Ive League, 2008)

Snob Scrilla - The Day Before (E.P)

1. There You Go Again
2. Mr Officer (feat. Del The Funkyhomosapien)
3. Chasing Ghosts
4. Diametric Insomniac Society
5. Mr. Whatever
6. There You Go Again (Hey Now DJs Remix)
7. Mr Officer (CSK OK Remix)

It’s difficult to pinpoint where Snob Scrilla reaches the ’social awareness’ high-water mark on his debut release ‘The Day Before’: a highly personal foray and introduction into the world of MC Sean Ray… more here…

Snob Scrilla - The Day Before… (Ive League, 2008)

Snob Scrilla - The Day Before (E.P)

1. There You Go Again
2. Mr Officer (feat. Del The Funkyhomosapien)
3. Chasing Ghosts
4. Diametric Insomniac Society
5. Mr. Whatever
6. There You Go Again (Hey Now DJs Remix)
7. Mr Officer (CSK OK Remix)

It’s difficult to pinpoint where Snob Scrilla reaches the ’social awareness’ high-water mark on his debut release ‘The Day Before’: a highly personal foray and introduction into the world of MC Sean Ray. Lead single ‘There You Go Again’ has definately made solid grounding with Triple J, fusing melodic guitars & choral organs with a blunt message sent from within an overbearing relationship ("…Never in my life have I felt like such a faliure / until I started going out with you / now how’d that happen / baby, cause when I was rapping / you were always laughing…"), but it’s on tracks ‘Chasing Ghosts’ and ‘Diametic Insomniac Society’ that has Snob Scrilla launching a fullscale socio-bomb insight into views of today’s youth, and the blind-rush for the modern world’s ‘cut of the cash’.

On ‘Chasing Ghosts’, Snob Scrilla attempts to deconstruct the percepective of modern-dissociated culture through micro-stories from inside the world he is creating - the opening church-organ sermon lays out the law & explains his alias ("…What are you in this day and age in this society? / Without your cash… Without your ‘Scrilla’?") and ends up preaching his fable through a big-room beat and the soulful vocal snippets. A thought-arresting, solid track which could by itself be interpreted as direction for his forthcoming debut album, had it not been for the overall diversity already displayed in this debut E.P.

In testament to his genre-bouncing modus-operandi, ‘Diametric Insomniac Society’ takes some early 90’s synth pads and a clean Drum ‘n Bass breaks - reminicient of LTJ Bukem’s early sessions - and drives a venomous stake through the heart of the song that paints a pessemistic landscape of society. Snob’s got a message and don’t be surprised when you catch yourself listening.

His well publicized collab with Del The FunkyHomosapien on ‘Mr Officer’ - a fat dubby bass line, snapping over a grimey live feel - paints a cheeky picture with both MC’s spitting stories about their collective run-ins with the Po-Po. At one point, Snob Scrilla nabs KRS-One’s famous line - ‘Woop-Woop, It’s da sound of da police’- and it ends up sounding more of an intelligent nod to the orignal than a snatch ‘n grab, something that would prove a harder task for another MC.

The additional remixes hail from the Hey Now DJs (There You Go Again - reviewed & can be heard here on Sosueme.com.au) and up’n coming producer CSK OK (remixing Mr Officer into a blissful electro head-nodder - can be heard here on his Myspace page) round out the E.P. For a 7 track E.P (a healthy size!), there is enough here to win & tide over new Snob fans until his album release later in the year. There’s been a truckload of interest around his signing to Ivy League, and has proved to be the local wild-card addition to this year’s Parklife Festival.

Summer of Snob?

… should make for a fairly loose weekend!

Friday
As usual sosueme’s coming at ya, we’ve got the Reptiles coming up from Melbourne to play some tunes, along side One Flew East’s first show in over 3 months. The Jacket rounds out the live bands, followed by some deejay royalty.

Doors are flung open @ 9, buckets are ice cold, asses are piping hot, see u there!

Saturday
The sophomore GHETTODISCO party is going to be off the hook! France’s Bloody Disco is leaving Busy P to cover his residencies in Paris this weekend while he pops down to Sydney to melt some faces @ Q Bar. Redial is dropping in on the back of his hugely successful EP, along with the kings of Q Bar the Hey Now DJs. The Gauge Breakers with their new lineup bust out their live set late late and good friends the Paper Scissors and Bluejuice drop in play some of their fav tunes on the decks.

Naturally the sosueme crew will be there along with mega trashbags the Brag Bitches to cut sic with the party tunes through till after dawn. Uh oh… did someone say super special guest DJ? We’re not sayin a thing….!

For guestlist action to any of these or both of these email us to parties@clubhaus.com.au and anyone with sosueme stamps from Friday get into Ghettodisco Saturday for nix… just don’t wash ur wrists!

sosueme. was invited last night to the Sneaky Sound System industry album launch party at the Paddo town hall.

Certain members of the crew went for the free drinks, however others went to dance like a teenage girl in the front row to a showcase performance of their new album named simply “2″.

It was a decent affair, with the light show and audio rig really laid out for the industry peeps. The Sneaky crew had a bit of trouble maintinaing enthusiasm on-stage for a particularly docile crowd of potential critics but managed to pull out an awesome show nonetheless, in part because of the pressure of knowing that basically every review coming out around the country in the next month will be written by someone in that room. That and brand new never heard before material can be tough to entertain a crowd with.

For the die-hard Sneaky fans, the sophomore album will be just what you’ve been waiting for as the team have closely stuck to the same winning formula of the debut ablum. As you’d expect there are some great potential hits in there including the current “Kansas City", and I forsee some epic remixes coming our way on a couple of the other potential hits on the album. Interestingly, front woman Connie Mitchell is featured in a much greater capacity on the new album, no doubt a reflection of her widely embraced appeal amongst the target demographic.

We don’t care what those gay scenster music snobs say, I love Sneaky!

Party pics up from Pivot After party thanks to our filthy-rad brethren @ Hobogestapo. Check em in the photos section.

While the superstitious folk of the world were busy getting married on the 8th of the 8th of the 8th, we were busy getting our drink on!

Last friday night’s punishment of party was captured by our loose brothers at Hobogestapo, and featured blistering live sets from Bird Automatic, Chambers & Alter Ego Mania. The boys from Pivot dashed upstairs from their Oxford Art Factory show for their official afterparty, and proceeded to drink ‘n DJ like heroes. Our baby-faced brother of beatmastery, Mr. Sleater Brockman, popped in for a set & the Hey Now DJs made all the boys come to the yard, cause they’re like, It’s better than yours, damn right it’s better than yours, than could teach us, but they had to… PARTY LIKE MOTHERFUCKERS.

Photos here

… yeah… hmmmm… so this was a crazy loose night but unfortunately half of the sueme crew was all like “Fuck you fuck splendour party, I’m going to Splendour cos I got tickets, suck it” and took the photographers with them (may have included myself).

Ergo, we have some rad photos from Splendour if you’d like to see them, but yeah, just use your immagination as to how good the sosueme “Fuck Splendour Party” was.

What. The. Fuck.

It’s the Mines of Moria on disco biscuits.

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.