On what would have been electronic pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey's 89th birthday, we were treated to an intimate tribute to the man by Gotye (aka Wally De Backer) in the Salon at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Mary and I attended the first of two sold out shows this evening, which were presented by arrangement with MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), a not-for-profit organisation supported by Wally that is dedicated to the creation of electronic sound and music.
Unlike the other Australian shows over the past couple weeks that Wally has done with the Ondioline Orchestra at Mofo in Launceston and the Sydney Festival, this one was just him solo talking about the career of Jean-Jacques Perrey and the Ondioline (invented by Georges Jenny). The Ondioline was an early precursor to the modern synthesizer, and Perrey was a virtuoso on the instrument which produced some unique sounds. Wally got to know Perrey and his daughter Patricia in the last few years of his life and was given access to a treasure trove of recordings and other rare materials.
The research and archival work Wally has done resulted in the release of the vinyl compilation Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline on his label Forgotten Futures. Wally took us through many of the songs on the record that highlighted the different whimsical styles of Perrey's work, and told stories about the people he collaborated with (including Edith Piaf and Angelo Badalamenti). Wally's enthusiasm and love of Perrey and the Ondioline was so infectious throughout the night as he spoke about and played along with some of the songs. I really liked when he said Perrey's songs have humor in them, which is something he strives to bring to his own music.
The effort it has taken to find and restore these Ondiolines and get them playable again is pretty impressive. Wally has even gotten the original Ondioline manuals and instructions translated into English so those that are interested can understand how the instrument works. Some of the highlights of the hour and a half show were getting to watch Wally play "Chicken On The Rocks" and "Cigale," as well as sing in French the song "The Soul Of The Poets." This has clearly been a passion project for Wally and it's great that he's preserving the works of these innovators so that they are not forgotten.
On Wednesdays during November and December The Basics and MC Jess McGuire have been hosting the second season of The Songroom at Northcote Social Club. The Songroom pairs established and up-and-coming Australian acts in an in-the-round session of original songs and covers, with Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath from The Basics acting as the house band.
Mary and I have been a bit delinquent in attending The Songroom this time, but tonight was the last show of 2016 and featured Monty Cotton and the one and only Gotye (aka Wally "Basic" De Backer). As you can imagine, this show sold out soon after Wally was announced as the other special guest.
Wally was introduced first and kicked off the evening with "Coming Back." Tonight was an unique opportunity to get to hear Gotye tracks done in a stripped back, acoustic fashion and the versions of "Bronte" and "Hearts A Mess" (which included Wally playing a little bell) were outstanding. Jess quizzed him on what is happening in New York with the recording of the new Gotye album and Wally said that he's been working with Franc Tetaz on songs. There are also some satellite projects that are a part of the bigger picture, which is what's causing some of the delays. He is hoping to release some songs in 2017. For covers Wally chose to do Simon & Garfunkel's "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" (partially due to farewelling his Basics bandmates in a week when he heads back to the US) and Kate Bush's "Army Dreamers."
Monty Cotton, a former accountant turned musician, outed himself as a long time fan of The Basics. He is best known for his Johnny Cash tribute show called A Boy Named Cash. For his original tracks he played "Stay With Me Tonight," "No Reason To Explain" and a song he put together of different Irish reels that gradually increased in pace. It was quite funny to watch Wally on percussion keeping up with the fast beat at the end. Monty's cover songs were The Seekers' "I Am Australian" and one of his Dad's songs called "Walkabout." It was at this point that we learned some interesting facts: a) Monty's real name is Alex, and his Dad's name is Monty, and b) he is recording an album of his Dad's songs while also having taken his Dad's name as his stage name.
As the house band for The Songroom, Kris and Tim make a couple "Sultan's Choices" for cover songs each week. Midway through the set they played Stevie Wonder's "They Won't Go When I Go" (a song also covered by George Michael), and at the end they did Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love" (which inspired a conversation about misheard lyrics). Normally this would have been the close of the evening, but for perhaps the first time ever there was demand for an encore. After people got Tim a beer and Kris a white wine we were treated to two more songs. Tim sang The Basics' "Hey Rain" and they finished the night with Gotye's worldwide smash "Somebody That I Used To Know" (with the women in the audience singing Kimbra's part). It was a great show and hopefully there will be future seasons of The Songroom in 2017.
The Thin Green Line Foundation is an amazing organisation that protects nature's protectors: the park rangers who are on the front line in the battle to protect animals from poachers. Founded by Sean Willmore, the foundation provides rangers with essential
anti-poaching equipment and training, as well as financial support to the
widows and orphans of park rangers killed in the line of duty. I would never have been able to see the number of animals I did on my African safari trip in Kenya and Tanzania last year if it were not for the conservation efforts of the rangers in the national parks.
Greenline Grooves has become a bit of an annual event to benefit the foundation and celebrate World Ranger Day. All of the artists on the bill at the Melbourne Town Hall last night donated their time to perform. First up was singer-songwriter Damian Howard on acoustic guitar, who's set was filled with country-tinged songs. Next was Makana, a Hawaiian slack key guitarist who was amazing to watch play. He joked that he was enjoying the cold Melbourne weather because it allowed him to wear layers. He sang "The Ranger Song" which he wrote a day or two beforehand after hearing Sean speak about the foundation, as well as a cover of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." The last of the warm up acts was Melbourne roots/folk band Tinpan Orange, who played a lovely set of music.
Sean Willmore then came out onto the stage to speak about why we were there, inviting all the artists on the bill to stand behind him. Tex Perkins told a story about how his mum had watched the Australian Story episode about Sean a couple weeks ago and was so impressed that she wrote a $200 check to the foundation, which Tex then presented to Sean. Sean also spoke about the number of park rangers who have lost their lives this year and requested a moment of silence before a bagpiper came out to play.
After everyone exited the stage is was time for the main event- The Thin Green Line Ambassador All-Stars featuring Gotye, Tex Perkins, and Nicky Boomba (along with members of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra). Each of them took turns singing songs from their own catalogues as the others joined in. Mary and I were really there to see Gotye and Wally did not disappoint as he sang the beautiful "Hearts A Mess," "Learnalilgivinanlovin," which featured the Melbourne Ska Orchestra horn section and a dual drum solo by Nicky and Wally, and of course his worldwide smash hit "Somebody That I Used To Know" where he turned the mic toward the audience to sing Kimbra's verse of the song.
The set also contained some great covers. Tex sang lead vocals on The Specials' "Ghost Town" and Blondie's "The Tide Is High," complete with an audience sing along. Wally absolutely slayed it vocally with his versions of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" while playing piano and The Beatles "Oh! Darling" while on drums (I think he may have been inspired by his recent recording session at Abbey Road with The Basics). For the encore all the band members returned to the stage in animal onesies and they closed the night with Nicky singing lead vocals on Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds." It was a pretty amazing evening and a very entertaining concert for such an excellent cause.
Here's the World Ranger Day message from HRH the Duke of Cambridge:
Today I escaped work early and headed down to ACMI in Fed Square to meet up with Tash and Mary for the Gotye and His Collaborators event as part of Spectacle: The Music Video Exhibition and Melbourne Music Week. It was a nearly hour and a half conversation with Wally De Backer (aka Gotye) and some of the people he has worked with on his videos hosted by film and music critic Megan Spencer. After a short intro of the panel they discussed the ideas behind the videos done for songs off the album Making Mirrors and the processes they went through to make them, including some amusing behind the scenes "making of" clips.
First up was director Natasha Pincus of Starkraving Productions, who made the video for the worldwide smash hit "Somebody That I Used To Know." She discussed the importance of giving your full attention to those first couple of listens of a song in order to get inspiration for a concept for the video. Wally talked about his admiration for her previous work with Paul Kelly and Sarah Blasko and the emotive performances she gets from artists she works with. The video was shot over a couple of very long days with Emma Hack doing all the body painting of both Wally and Kimbra.
Next up was Andrew Goldsmith from Oh Yeah Wow who did the video for "Easy Way Out." He spoke about the 9 month process it took to make the video, which included building the sets and stop motion animation. Wally felt he got off light in this video, only being on set for a total of four days compared to the rest of the crew. His bits were recorded to the song being played at a quarter of the speed, which it gives it that jerky motion look.
The last of the collaborators were Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp from the animation studio Rubber House. They worked with Wally on the videos for "State Of The Art," "Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You" and "Seven Hours With A Backseat Driver" off the album Like Drawing Blood. Wally spoke about his love of animation and puppets stemming from a childhood watching cartoons and Sesame Street, as well as the freedoms you have due to the limitless story possibilities with animation. Wally also really admired the amount of work that was put in considering some of the tight timelines he gave for these clips, which have been used as visuals for live shows as well as official videos. Both Ivan and Greg talked about the constraints of animating a song within the parameters of what is requested. They will often try to fit in traditional story arcs while at the same time trying to ensure they hit the beat at certain points in a song.
Overall it was quite an interesting conversation with the panel and very informative about the creative process behind making a music video. All of them really enjoyed working with Wally and it has given them more exposure for their work and led to other projects over the last couple of years (especially with the success of "Somebody That I Used To Know"). Wally was asked about how he goes about picking people to do clips and most of the time he will have someone in mind for a song. He has found that asking for pitches doesn't really give him the result he desires and he'll often end up approaching and asking someone to do the work instead.
After the event finished we headed out into the glorious sunshine and walked down to Alexandra Gardens to have dinner at the Night Noodle Markets, which is part of Good Food Month. It seemed as though most of Melbourne had the same idea because the opening night was absolutely packed. As we did a lap of the grounds to check out what was available all the various food booths had massively long lines. Considering most of them were restaurants you would have been better off going to the place itself! Not wanting to wait for over an hour for food that may run out by the time we got to the front, we headed back to the entrance where the food trucks were parked and lined up for Lil' Nom Noms who I have been wanting to try out. I had the steamed pulled pork bao and lemongrass chicken bun cha, which were both very good. The Night Noodle Markets runs nightly until the end of November, so check it out if the weather is nice (and hopefully the crowds will calm down a bit).
You would have to have been living under a rock during the past year to have not heard Gotye's (aka Wally De Backer) worldwide smash hit duet with Kimbra "Somebody That I Used To Know." The track comes off of Gotye's third album Making Mirrors, which was released in 2011. For this album Wally not only used samples from records he had found, but also recorded different types of instruments note by note onto his computer so he could play them in new ways. The very first single "Eyes Wide Open" includes samples from the Winton Musical Fence and has a strong environmental message. The album contains a range of songs, from uplifting tracks like "I Feel Better," "In Your Light" and "State Of The Art" (written in honor of his Lowrey Cotillion organ) to more introspective numbers such as "Giving Me A Chance," "Save Me" and "Bronte." Gotye is more than a one hit wonder, and this album proves it.
Favorite Lyric: We walk the plank with our eyes wide open ("Eyes Wide Open")
Another year is coming to a close which can only mean one thing- time for all those end of year top ten lists. Not to be left out, here are my top ten favorite songs for 2011 (aka songs that make me want to hit repeat after having just listened to them).
10. Slow Dancer "Leave It To Me" Slow Dancer is the solo project of Simon Okely from Oh Mercy. "Leave It To Me" is the first song he has put up online and I really love the laid back feel to Simon's music as well as his excellent guitar playing. Definitely one to watch for 2012.
9. The Good China "No More Maps, No More Roads"
2011 saw the return of The Good China to the Melbourne live scene after nearly a year's hiatus. The single "No More Maps, No More Roads" was a live favorite and has all the great hallmarks of a Good China track, including lots of hand claps.
8. Boy & Bear "Feeding Line"
It has been a monster year for Sydney's Boy & Bear, having won 5 ARIA awards for their debut album Moonfire. "Feeding Line" was the first single off the album, and signaled a new musical direction for the band from their previous EP.
7. The Harpoons "Keep You Around"
Another favorite band of mine that reemerged this year was The Harpoons. "Keep You Around" showcases Bec Rigby's soulful voice in this song about love with the great lyric "when you smiled at me I was a hopeless case." I am definitely looking forward to their debut album coming out in 2012.
6. Liam Finn "Don't Even Know Your Name"
This song was not a single but it's my favorite track off Liam Finn's latest album FOMO. "Don't Even Know Your Name" has a driving beat and an optimistic energy to it, and I absolutely love the chorus (which for some reason reminds me of "Panic" by The Smiths). Here's a live version of song, but do seek out the album track.
5. Brous "Streamers"
The first single off of Brous' self-titled debut EP, "Streamers" sounds like a song from a 1960s James Bond film. Sophia Brous' voice is quite amazing and I love how the first verse of this song keeps speeding up. There is a definite cinematic quality to her music and it will be interesting to see what she produces next.
4. Seeker Lover Keeper "Even Though I'm A Woman" Seeker Lover Keeper is the female Australian supergroup made up of Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby. One of the initial singles off of their self-titled debut album, "Even Though I'm A Woman" is a song about long distance love sung by Holly and written by Sally with some biting lyrics such as "I love you more when I'm missing you, it's why I'm always away." The song is a bit of an anthem for female independence.
3. Kimbra "Cameo Lover" Kimbra is originally from New Zealand but has been living in Melbourne the past few years. "Cameo Lover" come off of her debut album Vows and won her the 2011 Vanda and Young Songwriting Competition as well as an ARIA award for best female artist. I love the contrast between the verses and chorus of this song as well as its fantastic video.
2. Gotye "State Of The Art"
You may have thought that I would pick Gotye's biggest hit to date, but no, my favorite song off of his latest album Making Mirrors is "State Of The Art." Only Wally would write a song about his beloved Lowrey Cotillion organ. My favorite part of the song is when the bossa nova rhythm kicks in to the lyric "start the bossa nova beat and limbo from the living to the kitchen." The video animation by Rubber House is also exceptional.
1. Oh Mercy "Stay Please Stay"
My most played song of the year is Oh Mercy's "Stay Please Stay," the first single off their second album Great Barrier Grief. I absolutely adore the chorus of this song, especially Thomas Savage's beautiful jangly guitar. It also has a great closing lyric by Alexander with "what can I do with a love that gathers dust in a busy room?" An indie pop classic.
After meeting up for dinner at Tazio on Flinders Lane, Tash, Mary and I headed over to The Forum for the first of Gotye's four sold out shows in Melbourne in support of his chart topping album Making Mirrors. We arrived during the second half of Oscar + Martin's set. They sounded okay but had some tech problems at the end so played a song doing the beats on the drums and rapping freestyle.
Gotye started his set with "Making Mirrors" and then played "Eyes Wide Open." Wally once again had the 10 piece mini-orchestra with him and used many of the same animations as at the Sydney Opera House album launch last month. The audience sang along to a lot of the songs, which was exciting since the album has only been out for a little over a month. "State of the Art," "I Feel Better," "Smoke and Mirrors," and the number 1 single "Somebody That I Used to Know" (this time performed with Kimbra's recorded vocals) were highlights of the night. Unfortunately Wally has been sick during the week and was starting to lose his voice by the end of the night. This may have resulted in a song or two being cut out of the set list, but he did come back out for an encore and played "Learnalilgivinanlovin." It is amazing how much success Wally is having with this new album and I hope the momentum keeps building for him both here and overseas.
Here's a short documentary on the making of Making Mirrors
The main reason for our trip to Sydney was to see the animated album launch of Gotye's Making Mirrors at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, which was part of the Graphic Festival. We had pretty incredible seats in the fourth row with a great view of the stage and screens. The show started with Shaun Tan's Oscar winning animated short film The Lost Thing with a small group of musicians playing a live score.
After the stage was rearranged Gotye and his 10 piece mini-orchestra came out. They were lucky to make it after also getting caught up in the flight delays/cancellations in Melbourne this morning due to the fog. The set started with "Making Mirrors" and then launched into "Eyes Wide Open." Wally played nearly all of Making Mirrors and many of the songs had animations to accompany them. It made it hard to know where to look because you would get absorbed in the animations but also want to watch these songs being created live on stage by the musicians.
"State Of The Art" was my favorite clip of the show, directed and animated by Greg Sharp and Ivan Dixon at Rubber House.
Another great clip was for the song "Bronte," which was directed and animated by Ari Gibson at Mechanical Apple with background art by Jason Pamment.
The biggest reaction of the night was for the current number 1 single in Australia, "Somebody That I Used To Know." As the song reached the verse that is sung by Kimbra, we wondered if she would be there to sing it and she was! There were huge cheers when she walked on stage. The video for this song has become a huge viral hit worldwide.
Besides the songs from Making Mirrors, we also got a couple of classics from Like Drawing Blood: the haunting "Hearts A Mess" and "Learnalilgivinanlovin," which was the last song of the night. This show was amazing, and we are so happy for all the success that Wally is having at the moment. I'm sure the album is going to debut at number 1, and all his Australian shows for the tour have sold out in record time.
After work I met up with Tash and Mary in the city and then we drove down to St. Kilda to see Gotye (aka Wally De Backer) play a sold out show at The National Theatre. Opening the evening was Tash Parker, who played a solo set on both acoustic and electric guitar with the occasional pre-recorded loop thrown in. She has a great voice and Wally joined her for a couple of songs, including a duet that they wrote together.
Gotye took the stage to large cheers and began his hour long set with the new single "Eyes Wide Open." For this show Wally had two other musicians accompanying him while he played drums and his sampling keyboard. Most of the songs during the evening were from the album Like Drawing Blood, including "Coming Back," "Hearts A Mess," and "Thanks For Your Time" which had a brilliant bit in the middle about being on hold to Vodafone. We got three new songs that sounded fantastic, a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" with just Wally on the piano, and "The Only Thing I Know" from his first album Boardface. Wally finished his set with "Learnalilgivinanlovin" and received a standing ovation from the crowd. It's good to have Gotye back on the Melbourne music scene and I look forward to the release of his new album (whenever that may be).
Today I bought tickets for Gotye's first live show in three years. Thankfully Wally is doing some theatre dates in January before the Laneway Festival. He has recently released the single "Eyes Wide Open" off of his upcoming album. It's a song with a strong message about the destruction of the environment, and has an amazing video to go along with it. I really like the main refrain of the song "We walk the plank with our eyes wide open," which you can interpret in a couple ways. One being the obvious that we are willingly ruining our planet and doing nothing about it. But taking that line outside the meaning of the song, I see it as being brave and defiant- walking the plank with eyes wide open, and not being scared about what will happen to you.
I have spent the last two evenings attending concerts. On Tuesday night Belinda and I headed over to the Northcote Social Club to see Little Red play at one of their Tuesday night residencies in February. Opening this week was Oh Mercy, a young Melbourne band that I was curious to see. I really enjoyed their set and they are another up and coming band to watch. Little Red was fantastic, as usual, and played for a bit over an hour. One of best things about the night for me was that I finally got my hands on a copy of their debut EP "Get Ready!" which I have been trying to get for months.
Photo by Tash
Wednesday night I joined Tash at the Prince Bandroom for Gotye and The Basics. I have been wanting to see The Basics live for a while now, and while I didn't get to hear the album tracks, we were treated to an acoustic set of all new material. Those three-part harmonies were so lovely. Gotye, otherwise known as Wally de Backer (and the drummer for The Basics), came out and played an amazing set of music. Wally's songs are created from a compilation of samples and vocals that he pastes together. It was amazing to watch him create this all on stage by himself. This show was scheduled to allow him to try some stuff out before the upcoming Laneway Festival, and while the lighting and visuals may not have gone quite to plan, it was still an entertaining evening. He finished up the night with a crowd sing-a-long of "We Are The World," which was quite funny.
Here's the video for "Hearts A Mess" by Gotye
Watch Gotye live at the Metro Theatre in Sydney on 29/7/07 here.
