I’ve been remiss in not mentioning here recent band news. We’re launching our new EP Between your lines next Wednesday (25 June) at the Hopetoun Hotel.

Come down and help us celebrate: our friends Underlapper and Karoshi will be playing earlier in the evening. If you’re on Facebook you can RSVP for the event there.

The EP is also on a range of music download services, most notably iTunes if you want to get the tracks before the launch.

We’ve also got t-shirts for sale, featuring the CD art, on RedBubble. They’re going for AUD$24.95, are printed on American Apparel tees, and are available in a range of colours (just click on the colour chart below the image to preview).

Update: And we’ve just launched a new-look website…

This is just a little techy post for folks that use Ableton Live on an Intel Mac under Leopard (10.5). Just passing it on for the Google-bots - hopefully it’ll save someone a bit of grief…

I started getting major audio glitches the other night (not the good kind), and I couldn’t quite work out why.

I tracked down the problem to Apple’s IAC midi driver. I use the driver (which you can enable under Applications > Utilities > Audio & Midi Setup) to send midi notes from a track within Live to trigger a scene change.

When I enabled it on my MacBook I started getting major audio glitches in Live (6.0.10). After a bit of troubleshooting I worked out a configuration change in Live that (seems to have) resolved the conflict. A screenshot:

Just a quick note to let y’all know I’ll be playing an acoustic show at Mars Hill Café (Parramatta) next Saturday 29 March with my long-time friend Kristian Jackson.

By happy providence, the gig spans across Earth Hour, and Mars Hill will be participating in the Earth Hour event. So if you’re looking for a a special way to participate in Earth Hour, or just want to enjoy an night of music, you know where to come

Just posted details of this year’s nonzero/FBi fundraiser that’s happening next Thursday and Friday over at the Fuzu site. Hope to see you there!

Just a quick reminder that Fuzu, my band, are playing tonight at the Hopetoun. We’re onstage at 8.30pm - so it’s an early start (and finish) if you’re worried about it being a school night.

We’re supporting the wonderful Centipede and Underlapper (who are also playing the Bat & Ball on Saturday night) - so it should be a great gig if you wanted to stay for the evening.

As an aside - for those that have been following the whole guitar saga, I picked up my replacement telecaster late yesterday arvo too, so I’m looking forward to christening it at the gig…

Radiohead have announced their new album. They’ve skipped labels and are releasing independently. You can pre-order the album as a download or “disc box” here.

The “disc box” contains one vinyl LP + 2 CDs, plus the access to download the album on 10 Oct, all for 40 pounds. The disc boxes themselves will begin to be shipped in December - I expect to gauge demand and to establish numbers before production.

What’s most interesting, is you get to choose how much you pay if you go for the download only option. That is, they have not set a price - you add it to your cart and then specify how much you’ll pay for the downloads. Fascinating…

Anyways - I’m tossing up whether to part with the $120 odd bucks for the full box set. I probably won’t but I’ll have a think about it for a few days before deciding…

Cameron Moll talks about the arduous task of self-publishing a book. As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels of recording your own EP or album. I would love to do a write-up similar to Cameron’s on the process we just went through - I might try and find some time on the weekend…

This week I’ve been lucky enough to make it along to Newtown Dendy to see two music related films. The first was Strummer: The future is unwritten - a documentary by Julien Temple, probably best known for his pair of films on the Sex Pistols - The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury. After the film, Temple took part in a Q&A session.

The film follows the rise and fall (and reprise) of Joe Strummer, lead singer of the Clash, and later in life Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. I knew some of the more classic Clash’s songs, and vague bits and pieces about their history. I knew that Mick Jones, Clash guitarist, went on to form Big Audio Dynamite. But that was about it.

The archival footage in the film is amazing. Temple was a friend of Joe’s - and was part of the scene that gave birth to The Clash. During the Q&A we learnt that Temple lived in a squat near Joe, and helped to sneak the band into his film school at the time to record early Clash material.

The film flicks between this archival footage and interviews with people that knew Joe, from the early days in the 101s through to his final band, the Mescularos, and is punctuated throughout with segments from Joe’s World Service radio program, London Calling. What’s cool is that for the first 20 minutes or so of the film, all of the people interviewed had unfamiliar faces - they are the people who Joe grew up with, people like your next door neighbour. You do get an insight into his history and up-bringing, and some of the experiences that influenced his move into the punk movement.

The odd celebrity then appears, seeming almost out of place: Bono, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Steve Buscemi, Matt Dillon, Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Jim Jarmusch all make appearances. At the Q&A session, Temple apologised when asked about the stars in the film. Not quite sure why, but perhaps he also felt they were out of place in telling Strummer’s story.

Through the film I got a real sense that Strummer had a kind of artistic rebirth - starting in London slums and joining The Clash, then joining the rave circuit in a tent around campfires then rekindling his musical passion over a decade after The Clash imploded.

Overall the doco was really inspiring and fascinating, but despite its depth I still don’t feel I really know “Strummer” all that well. But I certainly feel like I now have a little insight into what shaped his life and brought him to become the star he was - as much as any film can do that I suppose. I’d definitely rate it 4/5 stars.

The other film I saw last night was Once, featuring The Frames‘ Glen Hansard and Czech songstress Marketa Irglova. I have to admit, going into the film, I wasn’t familiar with Hansard’s work with The Frames, nor Irglova’s work as a solo artist and with Hansard. I’d read good reviews of the movie, and Dave at work had highly recommended it to me, so was keen to check it out.

By the time I saw the film I’d forgotten the plot line from the review I’d read and only had Dave’s comment that it was a loose musical of sorts - having seen the film I now know what he means - so I was pretty much going in without much expectation.

The film follows an unnamed “guy” (I didn’t realise he was unnamed until the credits - “Guy” and “Girl” are how the leads Hansard and Marketa Iglova are credited) as he meets “girl” when he is busking. They discover a shared interest in music and start writing together as we learn more about their lives.

There is a loose romance that is apparent between the two characters, but always at a distance. The plot is very loose - pretty much joining the various musical pieces together. We follow them on their journey to record a record and returning to their previous lost loves.

The film walks a fine line between becoming a naff parody and naive gem, but luckily falls on the right side of those two extremes. The music is great, written and performed by the two leads - I am keen to get the soundtrack after seeing the film. It’s a delightful film - another I’d recommend. 4/5 stars.

I just picked up a new (for me) guitar - a 2003 Fender Telecaster Deluxe 72 Re-issue. (You can check out the details at Fender’s site, on Wikipedia and some reviews on Harmony Central).

This is the first electric I’ve had since I was a teenager - I’ve been playing a lovely Maton Performer acoustic (more reviews) for some time, but decided to pick up an electric to fill out our live sound now that we’ve recorded the Fuzu EP.

Like any new instrument, I’ve been bitten by the bug on this one, and have been playing it heaps since I picked it up. It’s got a lovely tone across the 3 pickup combinations, though I’m finding I’m settling for the neck pickup an awful lot. I was looking for a guitar that handled the type of open chords I enjoy playing - with a bit of dissonance - and it does the job beautifully.

I read in the Wikipedia article that switching out the pots (behind the volume controls etc.) to a different impedence helps a lot, so I’m probably going to get a friend to help me give that a try. Overall I’m stoked with the guitar especially at the price I got it for.

I also picked up an MI Audio Tube Zone at the same time and it’s awesome. I really wanted a nice, character-ful tube-like distortion that could range from just biting when I dig in to being pretty rocky too, and it does the lot (thanks for the demo Damian). I highly recommend it.

I also picked up a Line 6 Toneport UX 1 (thanks, again, to Damian) that I’m really digging as a practice rig (my practice space is right where my computer is, so I don’t mind having to hook it up to my iMac to get it to work). It’ll work great for demo recording too (already started playing with some ideas). Solves a couple of issues with my home studio setup too - leaving my Presonus dedicated for live.

Next on my list is an amp - gonna crawl for a secondhand one, but failing that probably look at a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (more reviews). Looking forward to gigging again soon (Tobes is due back in a couple of weeks).

Update: Two quick things - one of the things I really love about the tele is the neck. It’s really chunky, which for me, coming from bass guitar and acoustic, is perfect.

The other thing is that the Toneport keeps randomly dropping out, esp. when using it in Ableton Live (which I just upgraded to v6). Because the Toneport appears to offload some of the FX/amp emulation to the hardware, it needs a custom driver (a rare thing on the Mac as far as hardware goes). I suspect it’s a bug with the driver, but not 100% sure. Gonna see if I can reproduce it consistently and report it to Line6. It isn’t a major deal at the moment, given I’m using it for practicing and demos, not live performance. But annoying all the same…

Just a quick note to say Dom and I will be playing an acoustic show at Mars Hill Cafe in Parramatta on 4 Aug. The set will be a mix of re-interpreted Fuzu songs and a couple of solo tracks from my pre-Fuzu acoustic gigs.

We’ll be joined by our friend Kris - something I’m definitely looking forward to

Entry is free, and you will find the cafe at 331 Church Street, Parramatta.