heute-und:

Everyone give Kyle and Jackie-O a round of applause for finding the new low that none of us could have imagined was possible.

Bravo, dickheads.

Let’s get these fuckwits off the air.

At this rate I’m going to have to simultaneously tag all my Australia-themed posts with ‘expat material’.

"But the absence of women from recent, mainstream rock music is troubling. I want to argue that there are two, interconnected reasons: the first has to do the masculinist nature of the “rock myth”, and the second is the increasing commercialisation of what we used to call “alternative music”."

Female Hottest 100

nohemy:

Since females were so overlooked in the Hottest 100 I am doing a little poll on a forum I post on.

What would be your vote?

I am asking people to email me in their vote for the top 5 songs with a lead female vocalist and thought I may extend the vote to tumblr as well.

(via okayjokesover)

Ahhhh thank you! I’ve been grumbling about this since yesterday. Keeping in the JJJ spirit of ‘five favourite songs’ rather than ‘the five best songs’, I would go with:

yeah yeah yeahs - maps
le tigre - deceptacon
asobi seksu - thursday
the long blondes - giddy stratospheres
electrelane - to the east

and, bonus: april march’s chick habit and francois gall’s poupee de cire, poupee de son.

Until I see the Hottest Female 100, I’ll be over here listening to my Where My Ladies At mix, and maybe some old-timey British bands of the morose variety.

Daryl Prondoso is cranky and talented and he kind of bowled me over when I looked through his design portfolio [ieyeaye]. The thing that strikes me is that he and Fiona Yap [sacred peanut], a Semi-Permanent-vetted graphic designer, both studied at the University of Western Sydney. Socially speaking they’re kind of removed from the inner west where the indie kids have appropriated the creative hotspot image, but their work completely outshines anything I’ve seen coming out of Newtown or Surry Hills. Clearly it’s time to go (further) west! As Daryl writes in one blog entry,

two kids from the shitty side of town go against all odds and make something good out of their lives - but I think that it’s a testament to the work we put into the project, and proof that there’s more to Western Sydney than domestic abuse and junkies.

You can also see his work at IdN Creators.

What?

An Australian property developer has called on apartment designers to include gay-only, women-only and student-only floors in unit complexes.

Molonglo Group managing director Nectar Efkarpidis said the property industry should ”think outside the square” and break away from concepts focused only on the traditional family structure.

The Canberra-based developer said it made sense to provide levels where single mothers could access communal play spaces or childcare facilities, while university students who enjoyed loud parties should also have their own area.

”The needs of gay people can also be different,” Mr Efkarpidis told brisbanetimes.com.au.

However, the editor of gay and lesbian publication Queensland Pride, Peter Hackney, said devoting levels in unit complexes specifically to gay people could be problematic.

”In the gay community, how do you define strictly who’s gay?” he said.

”And what if they’re living on a straight floor and come out as gay?”

Mr Hackney said the idea might appeal to some gay people, but others would have a problem with excluding certain groups from the mainstream.

”Some people identify very strongly with whatever minority group they are a part of, but for other people their sexual orientation is no different from the colour of their eyes or hair,” he said.

… Mr Efkarpidis said he was not trying to segregate people.

”We’re not talking about discriminating - if you aren’t that way you can still buy there,” he said.

(via indefensible)

Australian musicians?

My friend in the UK runs a music zine and is thoroughly involved in the underground British scene (years ago she featured a then-unknown Florence and the Machine and The Go! Team; I would say she knows how to pick them) but she knows next to nothing about Australian music. When she understandably assumed Architecture in Helsinki were Finnish, I realised just how low a profile locally-known Australian bands maintain overseas.

Now she’s asked me to do a feature for her on Australian artists and bands, both established and up-and-coming local acts. I’m happy to do it, except I can’t quite gauge what sort of presence Australians have in the international scene.

I have a two-fold question I’d like answered if you wouldn’t mind helping me out:

1. International music fans: when you think of “Australian music”, which bands and artists do you think of/listen to/like?

2. Australian music fans: who would you recommend as a good starting point for Australian music -or- who epitomises the “Australian sound” for you -or- who do you think will succeed overseas/deserve more recognition?

I have comments enabled if your answer won’t fit into the limited character space below. Please spread the word so I can do the Australian scene justice! Thanks guys

laundromat:

The British Council Realise Your Dream programme awards excellence in the arts and creative industries and offers talented Australians the chance to further their career in the UK. Now in its seventh year, Realise Your Dream provides financial and professional support to help candidates make lasting connections and expand their horizons in one of the world’s most vibrant cultural settings.

Five Awards will be offered in 2009 to candidates in the early stages of their career. They will be flown to the UK and receive an $8,000 NAB Cash Passport to assist with expenses. Most importantly, the British Council taps its network of the UK’s finest creatives to help craft a tailored professional development programme and to open the doors the winners need most to further their career.

We’re looking for applicants who show innovation and leadership in their field, can demonstrate their creative potential and have a clear vision for why they’ll benefit from connecting with Britain’s best. Realise Your Dream is open to emerging practitioners working or studying in creative industries including visual arts, design, architecture, music, digital media and performing arts.

I THINK YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT APPLYING

NOOOOOOOOOOO

A sad message to all our friends

Dear Friends,

There’s no easy way to put this, so please accept our apologies for the seemingly abrupt nature of this post. We are saddened to announce that after sixteen years as The Lucksmiths, the band has decided to break up.

The last few years have been an uphill battle in many ways, so this isn’t a hasty decision based on any falling-out between band members, but rather, an acceptance of the inevitable. This decision was finally reached a few months back, so we’ve had plenty of time to let it sink in.

We had tried to operate the band in a way that would suit all of us, but at the same time we’ve been very conscious that too much compromise would in the end affect our creative output. We’re very proud of the music we make, and we certainly didn’t want it to start stinking. So, in taking our cues from Devo, we’ve decided to whip the proverbial cream before it sits out too long.

We’re really excited about our upcoming European tour, and have booked some Australian dates for our “farewell tour” in August. The details for these shows are in our gig guide. We really hope to see as many people at these shows as possible, as we will be playing super long sets, cramming in as many old favourites as possible.

We must apologise for not making it back to the USA, Canada, Japan, New Zealand or Singapore, or to the other amazing European countries we’ve previously visited — and for never having made it to the other fifty or so countries we’d hoped to tour one day.

We really want to thank you all, especially the wonderful people who’ve helped us out in any way, and anyone who’s listened to our music or come to a show. We’ve loved having you in our world and we will miss you dearly.

xo The Lucksmiths

I’ll be checking my bank account every ten minutes until this comes through!