Frigid is no longer, nor is the Frequency Lab. Disorientation is now only doing occasional events, and word on the street is that Pelt, Impermanent Audio and Synaesthesia are all about to end. What does this mean for Australian experimental music?
|
14 Responses to “shake-up”
Leave a Reply
|
|
|
June 17th, 2006 at 7:36 pm - Edit
Hopefully it means a whole new generation of organisers, promoters and performers.
Then again, Sydney is a tough place to start stuff up. Even more so nowadays with exorbitant rents, public liablity insurance and bar guaruntees.
I am hopeful that some new things will happen - stuff that us oldies won’t necessarily find out about.
If it doesn’t then maybe one of the other major cities will take up the slack.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:40 pm - Edit
Oh yeah . . . you heard about the Metro Theatre? Closed down - stacks of acts unpaid etc. A result of many factors, but no doubt the loss to APRA in the court case also had an impact.
Fortunately voluntary administration has come in the form of the Enmore Theatre people last week. They will want to keep it operating as a venue but if it fails again it will no doubt become apartments or a supermarket.
Whilst the Metro closing doesn’t directly impact on people like us, it does force the acts that would play there into other venues which in turn forces others out at the bottom of the chain.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:44 pm - Edit
Or the whole world will succumb to the indie virus!
Seriously though, it seems that festivals such as the NOW now, Liquid Architecture and TINA are now more important than ever.
I’m wondering what effects, if any, this will have on the kinds of music being created - particularly in relation to the criticism that the number of events in recent years had led to a lot of half-baked work being presented.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:48 pm - Edit
I knew about APRA v The Metro but I didn’t know it was closing! It’s not my favourite venue, but it has been one of the only decent ones for the more popular end of interesting music (and vice versa). Let’s hope things work out with the Enmore.
June 17th, 2006 at 8:14 pm - Edit
Metro Theatre - http://www.indieinitiative.com/ifShowHeadline.asp?ID=4768
Festivals - yeah, and art schools.
Indie virus - it’s a bit like the common cold. It never goes away and is seasonal.
(Way off topic but) I gotta say in regards to the indie virus I had a pretty dire experience at Belle & Sebastian last night. Before that show I had not really thought that the whole rockism meme was really around anymore . . . . but that crowd was just so mono-cultural I couldn’t believe it. B&S live confirmed my worst fears. We left 2/3s of the way through. When did 70s AM rock become ironically fashionable? (More importantly, why?) At least with St Etienne (who B&S remind me of lot) there is a very important multicultural London thing going on (and it is audible in their music).
June 17th, 2006 at 8:35 pm - Edit
Gotta admit I’ve never really ‘got’ B&S - for me Stars do a similar thing much much better.
I sympathise about the dire indie gig experience though - it reminds me of seeing Broken Social Scene at The Metro(!) earlier this year - the music was actually very good, although not as adventurous as it might have been. But the audience was annoying to the extent that they pretty much ruined the event for me. It’s weird that for a type of music that I’m quite fond of, I just can’t stand most of the ppl who are into it.
June 17th, 2006 at 9:02 pm - Edit
Yeah I never got into B&S either. But the latest album has some cute tracks on it and a very catchy T-Rex-ish single (The Blues Are Still Blue) which Grace likes bouncing around to . . . I managed to get some comp tickets to check them out live.
Stars - yeah Renae got me to check them out. I like some of their songs but their more ‘emo’-ish stuff irks me.
To my (very biased) ears North American indie always seems to have a certain ‘me, i’m important, my problems are important’ individualistic vibe to it. The British stuff is much more self-deprecitiating and (to my ears) interesting.
Stars kinda oscillates between the two probably because of the Montreal location.
Did you check out Maps? Slightly more electronic-ish. Or Oppenheimer who re from Belfst I think but do a similar thing to Stars as well.
June 17th, 2006 at 9:21 pm - Edit
Stars - it’s all about the album ‘Heart’ - a genuine masterpiece IMHO. It’s an album about emotion, that’s full of emotion, but isn’t emo at all. It’s far too sophisticated for that.
I’ve listened to Maps - it’s fine, didn’t do much for me (I hate being so dismissive of music, cos in truth I have enormous respect for just about anyone who does anything creative). Oppenheimer I haven’t heard yet…
Wow, this has gone off-topic. Hopefully there will be some other comments about the state/future of Aus experimental music.
Btw Seb, my last couple of attempts to comment on that Thermostat thread seem to have failed for reasons unknown.
June 17th, 2006 at 9:28 pm - Edit
Heart . . . yeah that’s the one I like more songs on. I particularly like the bouncy synths.
Maps . . . only two 10″s so far. I’m interested in seeing how it develops. Apparently has been recording in Iceland recently - which could make it go either way.
Thermostat . . . weird. I just did a test comment and it worked. Sometimes the AJAX in the page bugs out.
You should comment on Fresh + New from time to time! I’m sure there’s been some stuff there that has either raised hackles or resonated.
June 17th, 2006 at 9:34 pm - Edit
comments - fixed. Was spam karma picking it up!
June 17th, 2006 at 9:57 pm - Edit
Thanks!
I’ve never been sure how public Fresh + New is meant to be.
June 17th, 2006 at 10:05 pm - Edit
It is ’semi-public’.
I’m really keen to get more people externally commenting on it. Because those comments will feed into internal processes - which is a good thing.
If they are innapropriate for the context then i can just switch them off/delete . . . . heh heh. Obviously quite a bit of what we post there is simply news-related but from time to time we do pose questions - which get answered by people yelling across the office (when i’d really rather prefer they blogged/commented their answers . . . . )
We had some great interactions with some teachers in Tasmania and SA a while ago which really began to shape some teaching ideas in the SHVL. And some great external discussion of our stuf fon other blogs.
July 9th, 2006 at 8:46 pm - Edit
The Frequency lab is still alive!!!! just that we are not operating as a venue at this point. We are looking for a new venue and trust me the lab and our extended crew are committed to music…
what is this indy music stuff anyway its just all music and it deserves venues where it can be heard. please visit
http://www.thefrequencylab.com
for any info regarding events we are putting on or other gigs we are doing about town and beyond.
ironically we are performing at the Metro on the 20th July 2006 in The Lair @ 8pm
July 18th, 2006 at 7:15 pm - Edit
That’s great news that the Frequency Lab is still alive!