4TH ANNUAL CAIRNS BLUES FESTIVAL – SATURDAY 12TH MAY 2012

The 4th annual Cairns Blues Festival was a party for punters and artists alike as crowds flocked to Fogarty Park on Saturday May 12 for the 11-hours of back-to-back live blues music. With 16 artists on the bill this year, it was the biggest year artist-wise for the local festival, which saw about 150 applications from musicians around the world interested in performing on the bill.

This year’s program included the likes of US blues legend Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges, Aussie blues rock man Jimi Hocking and incredible blues guitarist Ray Beadle, alongside a host of other local performers. The 2012 event kicked off at 11am with Junior Bowles sparking things off in great style from the Pacific Music Stage. Despite a bit of early drizzle, crowds weren’t discouraged and as the day cleared, punters travelled between the two stages to catch their favourite acts. Local acts included Roz Pappalardo & The Wayward Gentlemen, Flamin’ Canetoads and Johno’s Blues Band. There were also unforgettable performances by US artists Thomasina Winslow and now Australian-based Bo Jenkins, and a return showcase by Jesse Deane-Freeman who was on the line-up of the inaugural festival.

Touring bands like Blue Heat and Dukesy & The Hazzards, both from Victoria, brought in the evening with some rollicking blues, paving the way for the high energy performance by the soulful Andrea Marr Band, and an incredible rockin’ set by Ray Beadle that saw crowds beg for an encore. Jimi Hocking’s Blues Machine wrapped up the music from the Pacific Music Stage with his fast-paced electric blues and the enigmatic and legendary Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges finished up the night on the Sound Shell Stage, showing audiences why he has blues in his blood.

The enthusiasm from the artists was evident from the high energy performances on stage and the crowd, which was up on 2011 festival numbers, soaked up the music in near perfect weather conditions. Cairns Blues Festival artist programmer Dan Vowles said while final ticket numbers were yet to be confirmed, he believed the numbers were up on previous years. “I was particularly impressed with the early roll-up,” he said. “There were a couple of hundred people here for the first act, it kicked off the day well. The crowds were really getting involved, everyone was really impressed with the quality of the music. We’re starting to get more interest and tickets are being purchased online from interstate and overseas.”

Cairns Blues Festival committee president Pauline Langley said it is evident the festival will just continue to grow. “It was a fantastic day,” she said. “There was a great cross-section of ages. It does show a certain amount of maturity for a city if a festival like this succeeds. It stretches the cultural tourism of the city. This year’s festival has been like a massive reunion, not just for the punters but also for the artists.”

With the massive number of artist applications received, Dan said it was a tough process to pick the 2012 line-up. He said the festival was starting to earn a solid reputation amongst blues players. “We are getting great feedback from the artists on the set-up of the festival,” he said. “They are often quite surprised that it is a volunteer run event, and mention how professional it is. We’re not chasing headline acts anymore, artists really do want to come here to play. They also understand that we’re [Cairns Blues Festival] a not-for-profit committee and want to support us.”

The festival would be unable to operate without the support of its sponsors and funding bodies – Cairns Regional Council and Events Queensland Regional Development Program. The committee is continually grateful for the support provided by the local community. They’re already looking forward to next year’s event, which is scheduled for the second weekend in May – official dates to be confirmed shortly. If the first four years of the festival are anything to go by, the Cairns Blues Festival will continue to go from strength-to-strength and continue to bring the best of the blues to the north.

Feritta is a Perth native who brings a refreshing sound of “east meets west” Indian/R&B fusion with her album “A Journey Begins”. Twice-voted Best Female Solo Artist Australia at the International Music Aid Awards and two-time Western Australia Music Industry nominee, Feritta represents the best of the East and the West.

2011 has seen her open for Triple Platinum Award Winning Artist Pankaj Udhas, and her songs have enjoyed Top Ten status in various categories on the USA Broadjam.com charts, including the Broadjam Earth, Pop, Contemporary R&B, Production (Other + Mid Tempo), Female Vocal, Australian, and West Top Ten charts.

Feritta is pushing the boundaries of traditional techno/pop and her song Karma is the perfect example of how to do it properly.

The song is a rich tapestry of sounds you may not think would work together, but it does. The end result is a lush, deep and beautiful song that might just change the way you listen to techno/pop in the future.

For more info, visit
Official Site

(Howling Dollhouse used to be known as “Into The Night“. You can see a previous entry about them at the link)

‘Howling Dollhouse’ is a five piece rock outfit who have just unleashed their second full length studio album. Produced by David Carr (Antiskeptic, Sadhana) at Rangemaster Studios in Melbourne, this offering promises to be one of the best albums released in 2012, and a key ingredient in the definition of this generation’s musical journey. ‘Howling Dollhouse’ are all seasoned performers with musical interests as varied as the songs they create. Yet even in with their assorted tastes, they hold true to their strengths and find ways to push the boundaries of their genre. ‘Howling Dollhouse’ consists of Azazel on the skins, BenJamin’ on the 6-string, Lee on the low 5-strings, Andy on keys and Trick on the vox. Five guys with the passion and the drive necessary to secure a spot in the soundtrack of the twenty-teens. Five guys who are prepared to take on the world, so the world better be God damned ready.

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These guys have a certain magic about them. Their music is dripping in luxurious melodies underscored by thumping drums and outstanding vocals.

This is music for the thinking rocker, just brilliant.

For more info, visit
Facebook
Official Site

You can listen to these songs for free and/or you can buy them for as little as 50 cents each.

Get behind this incredible project and show your support for Dave and local music. Visit his website to read about the processes behind each and every song and listen to the end result.

The latest song is called I’ll Come Around and you can hear it right here!

www.davewalker.com.au

Click here to see more of the 52 songs

You can listen to these songs for free and/or you can buy them for as little as 50 cents each.

Get behind this incredible project and show your support for Dave and local music. Visit his website to read about the processes behind each and every song and listen to the end result.

The latest song is called I Just Want The Truth and you can hear it right here!

www.davewalker.com.au

Click here to see more of the 52 songs

NEW MANIC SPREE have released their new single Sangria, and are hitting the road with interstate, east-coast shows. This is the first cut from an upcoming EP, delivering the full package of catchy melodies, strong rock vocals, pumping bass, and maniacal guitar that the Brisbane-based four-piece is known for.

Accompanying the single is a new video clip, working in collaboration with Oomph! Studios, and continuing the collaboration on from their last release, Hollywoods and Galaxies. The concept behind the clip was conceived by guitarist, Ed Hiew, and will eventually become part of a short film to be released in full later this year.

In Stores Friday 4 May through Born Fresh / Obese

He’s been a feature artist on triple j’s Hip Hop Show and played alongside everyone from Grandmaster Flash (USA), Ice Cube (USA) and Jungle Brothers (USA) through to The Herd, Hilltop Hoods, Urthboy, Muph n Plutonic, Pegz, TZU, Thundamentals, Astronomy Class, Tom Thum / Tommy Illfigga and many more. Mention Rainman amongst the initiated and the respect attributed to his name is palatable. Recognised nationally as one of Queensland’s finest, his list of collaborations, support slots and guest appearances reads like a who’s who of Oz hip hop.

The Herd’s Urthboy said it well: “destined to become a positive and very listenable force… with laidback but self assured flows and a gift for hooks and phrases. One of Brisbane’s best-kept secrets”. Australia’s ‘hip hop central’ OzHipHop.Com dubbed him Queensland’s “best-kept secret – with an eloquence for song-writing rarely seen in Hip hop”.

Friday May 4th sees Rainman drop his second album “Bigger Pictures” through the freshly minted Born Fresh Records and via Obese Records Distribution. “Bigger Pictures” sees the collaborative partnership of Rainman and Sammsonite (The Optimen) return for the lion’s share of the production but also features some of Australia’s finest beat- smiths including the APRA and AIR Award winning, ARIA nominated Count Bounce (TZU/Urthboy), DJ Bonez, Mangohig (Sietta), Chasm (Astronomy Class), Cam Bluff (Vegas Aces) and Calski.

Guest MCs on the record include Muph (Muph n Plutonic), Tommy Illfigga, Yuin Huzami (The Coalition Crew), Seven (triple j Unearthed winner) & 4TH (Vegas Aces), while Laneous (Laneous & The Family Yah), Kel on Earth (Bankrupt Billionaires) and Youka (Killbot Kindergarten) all lend soulful vocals across the album, mixed with a drop of folk courtesy of pear (Pear & the Awkward Orchestra).

The actual title of the album says a lot about the record itself. Rainman explains: “Midway through making the album I realised how often I found myself saying ‘look at the bigger picture’ in conversations and in my own lyrics. There seemed to be this recurring theme for me about remembering to keep things in perspective and seeing that my own worries were pretty small in the grand scheme of things. As I started to use it as a working title I realised how the tracks are like zooming in and creating a bigger picture of a topic or a moment or a state of mind or even a place, and often is about revealing something that may have been missed. So then it was settled, the album was actually a whole bunch of ‘bigger pictures’.

Lyrics-wise Rainman is rarely comfortable with speaking generally, preferring to dive into topics, swim in the details and indeed – paint the bigger pictures. Themes across the album range from poor eyesight to marketing; the creative process to ‘duck faces’; the love of music to the love of a lady. This is an Australian hip hop album that can take the piss and have a laugh, but still hold an intelligent conversation and tell a story.

It’s an album that swings from the bombasticism of tracks like ‘Valley’ to the refined storytelling soul drop of ‘Muse Sick (feat. Laneous)’. It’s an album from a laidback hip hop head who grew up on dope rhymes and banging beats but doesn’t aspire to purity of the form. Hip hop that people who don’t listen to hip hop can still get into. Humorous, emotive and reflective, it doesn’t always scream at you that it’s hip hop, it just is.

It’s all best said in the man’s own words: “again, it’s quite obviously reflected in the title, but to me this album is about perspectives. This is both my personal stories (trying to paint bigger pictures of where I’m coming from), but also my take on the world and with a broader encouragement for people to look around them at what’s going on with a wider perspective.

Lastly – tuning in with the different perspectives theme, there’s a few tracks that are the flip sides of each other and tracks that flip perspectives within the one song. ‘Darlin’ flips things in the third verse to speak from lady hip hop’s view, ‘The Buzz’ flips from the intense moments at the start of a relationship to a time in the future when it’s all over. With ‘Big Night’ we’re all heading out for drinks and yet ‘The Valley’ is about just seeing that whole ’big night’ scenario through a sober lens of an onlooker. ‘Everything Ain’t’ is me getting bogged down but it’s then followed by the reality check of ‘Count Blessings’, that picks up from those same tensions but takes a step back. It’s a reminder that I’m actually pretty damn lucky to only have the worries I do have – things could always be better but they could definitely be a whole lot worse y’know….”

Catch Rainman live, officially launching “Bigger Pictures” up and down the east coast:

Saturday 16th June @ The Born Fresh Block Party, Coniston Lane (ex Woodlands), Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, QLD

Friday 27th July @ FBI Social, Kings Cross, Sydney, NSW

Rainman – painting “Bigger Pictures”. In Stores Friday 4 May through Born Fresh / Obese.

www.rainmanmusic.com.au

4TH ANNUAL CAIRNS BLUES FESTIVAL BRINGS THE BLUES TO CAIRNS THIS WEEKEND

Far North Queensland is gearing up for a massive weekend as some of the most prolific blues performers from around Australia and the world head to Cairns this week for the 4th annual Cairns Blues Festival on Saturday May 12.

With headline acts such as Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges (US) Ray Beadle Band, Jimi Hocking, Junior Bowles, Andrea Marr Band and Thomasina Winslow (US) as well as local performers like Flamin’ Canetoads, Roz Pappalardo & The Wayward Gentlemen and The Tailgaters (and more), the 2012 festival is set to be the best yet.

Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges needs no introduction to blues fans. The son of blues guitarist Hideaway Slim, Eugene’s mother was from the Bullock family (the same family as Anna Mae Bullock, also known as Tina Turner) and he claims he got his guitar skills from the Bridges side of the family and his vocals from the Bullock side. Based in the US, he has toured the world engaging audiences with his unique style. His music crosses between blues, soul, funk, gospel and rock.

Ray Beadle Band features established blues musician Ray Beadle who has been cutting his teeth in the Australian scene since the 1990s. Originally from New Zealand, he has earned a solid reputation on Australian soil. In the early part of his career, he performed a three month residency with the house band at B.B King’s Club in Memphis. Jimi Hocking and his Blues Machine will bring audiences to their feet. A songwriter, singer and guitarist of the highest calibre, Jimi has earned a solid reputation in the blues scene for his live performances and acclaim for his ‘high speed picking’. No stranger to touring, he has taken his Blues Machine around Australia and overseas. When he’s not playing the blues, Jimi is the lead guitarist with Aussie rockers The Screaming Jets.

Thomasina Winslow (US) grew up on a hearty diet of blues, touring with her bluesman father Tom Winslow and her family, The Winslows. They toured throughout the US earning a solid blues reputation. Thomasina herself was considered a prodigy of sorts, she recorded a solo on her father’s album when she was only four. She also took to the stage, performing her own solo, as a child while on tour with her family, and her impressive performances endeared audiences to her. From there, Thomasina carved herself a stellar career, touring and performing her own music as well as well-known blues classics. She continues to work non-stop and is currently putting together a concert series to pay homage to her father and her musical roots.

Renowned bluesman Junior Bowles is well reputed for his ‘old fashioned attitude’, Junior Bowles wears his heart on his sleeve and his sound sits somewhere in between a 1920’s blues rambler and a present-day unconventional instrumentalist. He’s performed at a swag of festivals, including National Blues Fest, Bridgetown Blues and Darwin Blues. This is a unique blues performer, unlike any other you’ll see grace the stage at Cairns Blues Festival. Andrea Marr Band has a style of ‘feel good blues’ that has won the hearts of audiences around Australia and earned Andrea accolades such as 2009 Australian Female Blues Artist of the Year Award and 2005 Blues Performer of the Year Award to name a few. In 2010 Andrea signed to Chicago blues label Blue Skunk Music and received rave reviews when her album was released in the US.

Don’t miss the huge line-up at the 4th annual Cairns Blues Festival! Visit www.cairnsbluesfestival.com.au for the full 2012 line-up.

The 4th annual Cairns Blues Festival is held on Saturday 12th May at Fogarty Park, The Esplanade, Cairns, Far North Queensland. Gates open from 10am.

Second release are now on sale through Ticketlink and Ticket Cairns – adults $60, concession $55, youth (14-17) $30 and children 13 years and under are free. ID is required.

Tickets will also be available at the gate on the day of the festival for $70 (adults), concession $65 and $35 (youth).

After much hullabaloo, build, anticipation, blood, sweat, tears, money, lust and lunacy, Melbourne’s Dallas Frasca is pumped to announce the official release of her sophomore album “Sound Painter” which hits stores Friday May 4th through Spank Betty Records / MGM. With lead single All My Love still blasting across radio airwaves after taking out 3rd place (from over 16,000 entries) in the International Songwriting Comp, recorded in New York City with Australian producer Andy Baldwin (Bjork, Chrissie Amphlett, Living End, Kram, Cat Empire) at Rola Pola Studio’s in Brooklyn, “Sound Painter” has been a true labor of love for everyone involved.

But the results speak for themselves.

Indeed, from the comedic to the heartbreaking, the making of “Sound Painter” has been beset with challenges and journeys. Firstly, following a run of national shows to help pay for the record, Dallas and band mates Jeff Curran (guitar) and Peter McDonald (drums) arrived wearily home only to have all the takings from the entire tour stolen at Melbourne airport. Enter fan based damage control with Frasca fans banding together and raising over $4500 for the band, $4500 that meant “Sound Painter” could actually be finished. Then, when it was finished, it was stolen. That is to say – upon returning from New York, the band held a listening party to pick the first single and the laptop with the only completed version of the album was stolen by someone at the party. Long story short is that the laptop was returned with ‘no police involvement’ after simultaneous mild heart attacks from all three band members.

Says Frasca: “It’s been 2 ½ years since our first album, (2009’s “Not For Love Or Money”) but we took away any deadlines and pressure and let the songs dictate when they were ready to be recorded. By way of just playing, we overhauled the band’s sound. Jeff(guitar) and I have been playing together for over 6 years now, and we made the decision that this album would be about capturing everybody’s true strengths as musicians. Jeff had his last alcoholic drink, we got serious about what we wanted to achieve and when Pete (drums) came into our lives, it was like our stars had aligned. I feel people have only been able to hear 10% of what we are capable of on our previous recordings compared to this one”

And so, after months of rehearsal’s in Footscray, the band headed off to record “Sound Painter” next to the Willliamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, New York with a producer they had met after playing a raucous 2 am set at a hippie festival in regional Victoria. Within the first 10 minutes of leaving the airport in New York, a rock was thrown from an over pass, smashing their cab window. It was on.

Again, in Frasca’s words: “We had to ride our pushies 7 km’s through Manhattan every day, from our accom to the studio, and then back again at night. That change of scene, from Melbourne to Manhattan, Footscray to Soho, was inspiring and it gave Jeff, Pete and I the chance to create anything we wanted to. You can hear that confidence on the record”.

Using no click tracks for that true honest rock sound, all the guitars, drums and most vocals on the album were live takes with next to no over dubs and most songs were captured in their first or second run through. The entire record features no bass; just Dallas and Jeff dueling gargantuan slabs of riffs on 2 Les Paul’s through 1960’s Fender Silvertone amps.

Dallas explains: “Being in the studio making “Sound Painter” was the most challenging and rewarding artistic endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. The songs were never controlled by traditional laws of timing or “right”, as each song grew we took its lead and let “it” tell us what it needed. We always knew when they were finished. I remember Pete creating each drum sound with Andy before every new track, we would lovingly butcher the kit each time before we started to record, taping tambourines onto bass drums, wallets onto snares and tuning the kit to the key of each song. It was groups of special little moments like these that still stick out to me.

For example, album closer ‘Ain’t No Fury’ was the last song I recorded. I did it by myself before I flew to India and then left the acoustic skeleton with Andy. I remember my world being blown apart when I heard the vocal line that Andy had put on the chorus line when I was in Udaipur, Rajasthan. I had a cow resting next to me and a goat at my feet in an internet cafe and I couldn’t believe it was my song. I wrote the song for my best friend and she cried right there with me with happiness when we heard it.

“Sound Painter” is tough, heavy, big and loud. Tougher, heavier, bigger and louder that anything Dallas Frasca has done before. Though the themes are universal, lyrically there’s a feminine strength that runs throughout. Musically, it’s an album that angles for the knockout punch, no dancing around for the points decision. Searing riffs give way to melodious break downs, blues progressions careen their way into sludged Zeppelinesque builds. Curran’s dynamo riffage constantly chops away throughout – as authoritative in the notes he doesn’t play as to emphasise the ones he does.

Frasca: Each song on the album is a part of the story of a crazy upside down year. A relationship break up, feeling destroyed but overcoming and feeling free and positive again – sometimes all at the same time.

Frasca sums it up: Ultimately – the universe brought us altogether at exactly the right time in our lives, we were all ready to work hard, we were all ready to share our ideas and no one had any delusions of grandeur…. We just wanted to make a powerful f**cking album that would be listened to for generations to come!”

As mentioned, with lead single All My Love still blasting across radio airwaves after taking out 3rd place (from over 16,000 entries) in the International Songwriting Comp, and straight from blowing audiences away at Byron Bluesfest a few weeks ago, catch Dallas and the band launching the album across a national tour of gargantuan proportions, doing what they do best:

By the age 18 Dallas Frasca was on the road, channeling all the sass and irreverence of Chrissie Amphlett and Suze Demarchi. Armed with power and torque reminiscent of Aretha Franklin and Betty Davis her stand out voice didn’t take long to get noticed. After developing nodules and being forced not to sing for 18 months she turned her gaze to the guitar, and her evolution was complete.

In 2006, she won triple j’s “Light Your Fuse” competition from over 500 entries. Her career exploded from there.

Dallas won the 2010 ‘Artist Of The Year’ at the Musicoz Awards and her album was voted in the ‘top ten’ best roots releases on JJJ in 2009. She has also stormed the stages at countless major festivals (Big Day Out, Falls, Bluesfest, Pyramid Rock, Festival of the Sun, Queenscliff, Southbound, and major French festival – Blues Passion Cognac). The bands tribal and stomping roots performances have earned them a large, loyal fan base.

In 2008 Dallas sang for Aussie Alt-Rock royalty Midnight Oil in Sydney, in support of Amnesty International.

In early 2009 Dallas was invited to perform as one of seven artists from seven continents of the planet for International Earth Day in Montreal. It not only allowed her the thrill of holding a dialogue with fellow-artists about social and environmental issues, but she caught the ear of Canadian promoters who have invited her to come back and tour there.

Dallas Frasca is a hard working independent juggernaut who, with her band and this yet to be released album, is carving her own path, both in Australia and internationally. The new album, “Sound Painter” – expect huge slabs of guitar riffage, skin slamming drums and heavy and soulful vocals across an album of heartbreak, comebacks and rock steady drums.

“Currently one of the most successful independent musicians in Australia.” Time Off

“There is nothing that will prepare you for the sassiness and might that is Dallas Frasca… ‘All My Love’ delves straight into the raw and true heart of rock and Dallas does not hold back on any level.” The 59th Sound

“A guttural blues howl laced with demonic slabs of guitar riffage.” Rhythms Magazine

“Frasca’s voice seems to be getting more versatile and refined – she has the makings of a superstar.” Inpress Magazine.

“Sound Painter” is out Friday May 4th through Spank Betty / MGM and available on iTunes

dallasfrasca.com
twitter.com/dallasfrasca
facebook.com/dallasfrasca

Love Parade formed in the small surfing town of Newcastle but soon relocated to the congested nest of Sydney. They bend books ’til the spines are damaged and put records on top of other records on the turntable. They don’t give a fuck. Scratched CDs? No doubt.

Working with an enviable team on their debut record–including producer Robert F. Cranny (Sarah Blasko), Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) and Jay Whalley (Frenzal Rhomb) among others–Like Lovers Do is the first taste from the forthcoming album. Like all good pop singles, it comes in under the three-minute mark. It also features chiming guitars, overdriven organ, harmonies galore (too many, to be honest) and a girl’s name in the lyrics. It belongs on radio. It follows their EP A Strawberry Situation, which was released through seminal label Half A Cow to rave reviews (and one bad one) in late 2010.

Love Parade have been compared to Big Country, early Bowie, The Sunnyboys, The Modern Lovers and a number of other bands that bore no impact on the formation of the band’s sound. They think they sound like Teenage Fanclub, although they sound closer to Tinted Windows. They have more songs than they will ever release, and hearts the size of Phar Lap.

Their goal is to sign to a major and eventually have one of those one-disc, contractual obligation, not-sanctioned-by-the-band, shitty booklet-ed greatest hits releases. Just to see what songs the label would pick.

LOVE PARADE “LIKE LOVERS DO” is out 11th May 2012