Why I may end up on tour with Billy Corgan...

So...it was definitely one of the greater disappointments in my life when - after a mighty manhandling effort  to boost my arse over the barricades to ensure the closest look possible - I saw a band for whom I have been passionate about since the tender age of ten, The Smashing Pumpkins...at a festival which I do not wish to inadvertently promote, but starts with V...


Disappointing..How so, Mig, you ungrateful cretin?? you may ponder...Well, it is because, in fact, it was more of a sad exercise in exhibiting Corgan's inflated ego...


In fact, all that represented the "Pumpkins essence", was the former disgraced member, heroin addict, Jimmy Chamberlain... At least I THINK it was his vacant stare meeting the crowd behind the drumkit...

Gone are the amazing factions presented via James Iha and D'arcy, instead replaced by trashy chicks donning display guitars in an effort to plug the 2008 release, Zeitgeist...


And now it's even worse: instead of generously standing aside in order to allow new and emerging musical talent, he publishes a book of poetry and does open callouts for auditioning new members...


So all ye bassists and keyboardists (I wonder whether they're still hunting down a replacement following the death of their previous touring keys player who OD'd on heroin, hence, busting Jimmy in the act..) if you have a shred of talent, proffer your services to the rather sad decline of a band that once rocked my world...


My mellon collie and my sadness, is, indeed, infinite...

Why we are corporate whores to music industry pimps

Music festivals

Summer hosts a mutlitude of them and I know everyone goes, and most people try and relay enthusiastic reviews to all and sundry, trying to drive them to envy you and admire how cool and rock you are..


But isn't there just like this small, tiny part of you that is just over being one of the great mass of swarming, sweaty human beings; all of whose excretions leave a particularly foul that permeates all around you in the skanky portaloo (a la Kenny... for 12 twelve hours)..

Why did you bother with the JJJ 100!!???

So, we are all aware of the culture inherent to Australia Day, much akin to that of Cup Day, basically requiring all patriotic participants to get inebriated and carnivorous, quite often, to the background sounds (and betting pool) of the hottest 100...

And, as predictable as this countdown may have become of late, it hardly takes it quite so far as the all important #1 was leaked onto an ABC website way ahead of time....it's all like Mumford and what now?

I feel out of the loop with all hip in musical popularity, but I don't recognise this tune by its title, and I certainly wouldn't have felt in any way vindicated by the crappy pseudo-surprise of getting them to play it live in the studios. This is what happens, j, when you leave important work to the likes of kiddies...even if they are tapping into the slowly declining age demographic..

Oh Mig, so bitter, so obviously seething with envy over a lack of listenership for her own pezzy lil show on Tuesday - and yes this may in part, be true - she has a go at them poor j bangers...yeah well, suck it up, I say, you wouldn't have picked what I had playing on the show...

But fear not, (I tell this to myself more than anyone else...) for here's a nice true blue ocker lookin tape in green n gold so you can enjoy the talks based stuff which doesn't see me in court if I publish it...

ON TUESDAY OVERDRIVE LAST WEEK, AUSTRALIA DAY:

I was reunited with the Pobs as well as catchin up with major success story: Oh Mercy, as they grace our presence for the St. Jerome's Laneway fest...in its new, completely anti-laneway venue of Callan Park!!

Why Cat Power really is The Greatest!

from Days Like This Festival, January 10, 2010

Why Peats Ridge Festival was my Skank Nirvana

I may still be picking the dirt out of my toenails but, check it out, I got to go to the spectacular spectacle of all things arty farty, musical, zen and environmentally sustainable - yet, in a refreshingly skankier, un-concdescending, un-preachy Tim Flannery-ish approach - hosted by the glorious Glenworth Valley on the Central Coast over 3 days, concluding in the early hours of the new year...(well, 11am, but that's pretty rough post NYE...)

Why Music is a Corporate Whore

Well, Media Watch broke the story about the controversy embedded in the climate change capital and their cozy relationship with The Age (wow, I can't believe there's something about Melbourne that I now truly hate...)

Furthering this thought, something that I have wondered about ever since last year's Splendour in the Grass festival, and the "carbon neutral" costing that is now whacked onto (already bloody hefty) admission prices for all those bloody PoMosers (in other word, post-modern posers) who love the thought of being environmentally friendly, and thus, heaps cool.

However, my qualm revolves around the fact that to get to Byron Bay, one needs to expend numerous emissions of a carbon nature, and how the hell does an extra $5 on a ticket price reconcile this? And what about the festival itself? What, is it bloody well running on solar powered amps or what?

And now, you have no choice! Now, I don't want to look like a corporate whore (but in any case, it may well be true, if only I had enough moolah), but I attended Richard Branson's glorified advertising bonanza, oh, oops, I meant the V Festival, and this crappy carbon neutrality thing is already included in the (already exorbitant) ticket prices, and this h

In light of this, dearest Jade, (ex-editor of The Dwarf, current ed. of A Fine Line) let me run with this hot-headed train of thought, and even published it in the December issue of A Fine Line, so here it is, somewhat brought down a level, anger-wise...

So here it is...

CARBON NEUTRAL - AT WHAT COST??

It seems that lately, carbon has become the latest buzzword. We talk of the imprint in our “carbon footprint”, and think of ways in which becoming “carbon neutral”. The problem with this term, many argue, is that there is no possible way to neutralise or offset one’s carbon emissions

But it seems that as much as the capital world used to blame ideas of environmental consciousness as conspiracies against consumption, they are only now too happy to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. Now, it seems that money can buy the way out of anything: even, as the case may be, the degradation of the natural world and the piece of mind that comes with the title of “carbon neutral” too can be attained for a price.

Not to be outdone in any way, the music industry too has felt an obligation to stand up for the rights of Mother Nature. It seems to have started with Coldplay’s album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, the first album to be classified as carbon neutral.
On a local level, national festivals and tours by the likes of Splendour in the Grass and the John Butler Trio have placed a carbon neutral levy on ticket sales, assuring patrons the notion of carbon neutrality. However, is it all too easy to claim that the carbon emissions at major music festivals can really just disappear from forking out a couple of extra bucks here or there? When one considers the potential environmental impact of the travel ticket holders must endure to arrive at particular venues, not to mention all the electricity consumed by the various bands and their equipment, it seems hard to fathom that a couple of dollars added on to the original ticket price could make much difference.

“It’s got to be more tangible than that.” Says Falls Festival director, Simon Daly on the potential for festival organisers to do their bit.
The Falls Festival occurs annually on camping sites in Lorne, Victoria and Marion Bay, Tasmania. Since 1999, the organisers have been ardently working towards doing all they can to maintain the sites that they use. This includes incentives such as a conveyer belt to sift through recyclable materials.
“If just one item from those bins is non-recyclable waste, then the whole lot is deemed contaminated,” Daly explains. “So with conveyer belts, we can ensure that everything that can be recycled will be.”
Also new are the self-composting toilets, which, in Marion Bay, are all you get, no port-a-loos for these guys! “100% of the toilets at Marion Bay are composting.”
Daly believes that the next step is to get the bands involved, but sees the festival as an overall positive experience for the average environmentalist who doesn’t wish to tread heavily on the earth. “We use the time to really get in there and educate a lot of like-minded people.”
The Falls Festival has also encouraged its attendees to pay a surcharge of “a couple of dollars”, according to Daly, to offset the carbon emissions related to their travel. In fact, just over a quarter of all patrons opted to do so.

There are problems with such terms as “carbon neutral” and “carbon offsetting” being offered in that consumers are being led to believe that they are in fact, cancelling out their environmental impact altogether.
Not true, says Professor Christopher Dey from the University of Sydney, who has recently penned a research paper entitled: “Carbon Neutral: Sense and Sensibility”. He argues that….
Others agree that such incentives are just ploys taken on from major corporate giants.

The move by UK band, Coldplay to create their “carbon neutral album” seems to have been the origins of music’s involvement in environmental activism, which has since been taken on by the likes of major tour promoters and bands.
However, Aussie hip-hop outfit, Combat Wombat have been conscious of the carbon impact that national touring can involve by adding to their tour bus a vegetable-oil fuelled engine. “It is very efficient,” says Combat Wombat’s Monkey Marc of the bus’s capacity to run. “We actually get more miles per gallon on veggie oil than we do on diesel.”
Not only does this system benefit the environment, but also funds.
“All the oil we get is old so it’s all recycled and free. We’ve done just over 20 000 kms around Australia for basically nothing.”
But is it really even plausible for anyone to just chuck in an old frying pan and fill up the tank?

We are constantly fearing the imminent environmental armageddon and we want to act responsibly as individuals, while still enjoying things such as live music and travel. The question which seems difficult to resolve is how this should be done. It seems all too easy to boil it down to a system where one person can pass off their own environmental activities by paying a few dollars, but for all those penny-pinchers out there fear not. It seems more productive, in cases such as Combat Wombat and the Falls Festival, to get out and get actively involved. Then, maybe you’ll rest easier about the well being of Mother Nature.