Soobiesta Brisbane

Over the weekend I attended the Soobiesta Festival presented by Straight out of brisbane.  For $25 you couldn’t really ask for much more in a festival, with 4 different stages – Electro, Rock, Hip-Hop and Diverse, there was something for everyone.

I was there predominantly to see my Brother’s band ‘the french horns’ play their last gig, but there were definately a selection of exciting acts I was anxious to see.  My night went something like this.

Frou Frou Foxes

After turning up at about 8.30 there was no time to waste, so I headed straight over to the Rock stage where alternative youngsters Frou Frou Foxes were having sound difficulties, a little bit frustrating for onlookers, but I was glad to have turned up before their performance begun.  Finally they started playing, their sound is obviously very influenced by The French Horns and a couple of other established brisbane bands.  Their driving guitars and crashing drums hold together well with the exeption of breaking 2 guitar strings which seemed to knock their confidence out slightly.  All three members of the band took turns to sing, they all appeared to love what they were doing and executed it well.

Flamingo Crash

I definately don’t *love* this band, but many people do I found out while waiting for the band to set up in the overcroded upstairs Electro stage.  Finally after balancing their sounds they begun playing, these guys are tight! They know what they’re doing and do it so well, although it’s not my ideal choice of music, their flow and confidence is damn impressive.

My Disco

What can I say, these guys blew me away, their angular gutars, consistently taking unexpected twists, while the dark bass riffs with an evil tone (hear Meshuggah) and off timed drum sequences somehow gelled in a totally unique way.  Then finally after a few minutes of playing tricks on my mind the vocals enter, Think June of 44 meets Shellac.  The songs hold together so nicely and constantly surprise me with deep, dark progressions of undefinable goodness.  The only downfall I can see is the similarity between songs – that may however just be the environment they were playing in.

Limited Express (has gone?)

Wow, crazy Japanese! These guys don’t for a second look like they could produce the sound they do.  I can’t even begin to explain their sound and even watching them – it’s hard to believe they can pull it off..  Think The Hives crossed with Boris.. I don’t know how else to really explain it? the bass guitar/electric guitar work together to produce some of the most well flowing and driven progressions you could imagine, while the drummer shmashes away and holds the songs together so neatly at the same time, then come the amazing screams, I couldn’t for a second make out what this petite little asian girl was saying, but I tell you, I bet they were strong words – a highly recommended act.

Amateur Party

Just hillarious! There were only about 30 odd people watching these guys and it’s such a shame to think.  They’re amazing at what they do and my gosh do they do it well.  These guys show us the way PUNK music should be, or should I say, what real punk music is.  I’m so glad I got to see the show and witness what I would call as some of the funniest moment’s all night.

The French Horns

As usual, the French Horns seemed to draw a crowd from behind the shadows.  People emerged to see the band play their final gig ever.  With a few sound difficulties (mostly due to Lachlan/Bass/Vox) they played a pretty captivating set, Matt (on guitars) was obviously struggling with sound due to borrowing a Mashall Stack which he wasn’t used to however came through in control by the end.  All in all these guys managed to play every show throughout their relatively short life and involve the audience in someway, reaching out to the drunken front row and never wasting a minute.

A very great festival – see you all next year.

Big Brother – A Weapon of Crass Destruction

 This Snippet below is from the Courier Mail.

John Howard even felt compelled to suggest the show be taken off air, describing it as “stupid”. Compared with having our troops in Iraq, the AWB scandal or the industrial relations reforms, he’s finally found, in Big Brother, a weapon of crass destruction.

Good one Johnny, putting in your 2 cents again – it’s ridiculous to think, an occurance like this has gone so far, to think that the leader of Australia is commenting on Big Brother when he could be sorting out bigger issues, issues that are effecting Australian’s everyday in their personal and professional lives.  However, it seems the select few that watch Big Brother are more important – what are we being reduced to?

Click here to read further discussion about the Pros/Cons of Big Brother.

The Wedge

I’m sitting here on the computer doing my thing; all I can hear in the background is this shitty TV show the wedge.  Occasionally I look over to see how the jokes are progressing.  To sum the show up in one word, i would say ’embarrassing’. 

The jokes are obviously written by a group of very boring individuals, most of the jokes seem to be derived from early 90’s influences such as Fast Forward and executed on a far more amateur level.  What a waste of an hour.

Last week when the show was on, I actually physically went out of my way to change the station.  This was my individual protest to hopefully lower the Show’s already shaky ratings so that it hopefully gets taken off air (at least if enough people think the way I do).  The only reason the show hasn’t been canned yet is because of its fortunate time slot between the new Simpsons hour and The OC.

Hewitt at Wimbledon

Without totally mocking the ‘Australian Spirit’ does anyone actually care how Hewitt goes this year at Wimbledon?  I mean lets face it, he’s probably not donating any of his winnings to charity, unless a new Ferrari for Beck is considered charity?

Even if Hewitt beats the odds and takes home the Crown, what good does it really do us? In past matches I’ve followed Hewitt’s matches fairly closely and been interested, but lately I’ve taken a turn in my opinion.  As many sports go, I tend to take more of a supporting toward the younger upcoming Players, those who still maintain the raw passion and drive to play the game proplerly, do what the love and do it for the right reasons, being Australian isn’t all that matters.

Big Brother Content Under investigation.

This snippet is from the Ninemsn website.

Federal authorities are checking whether footage of the alleged sexual assault that led to the premature expulsion of two male contestants from the Big Brother tv show might have breached online content regulations.

Also see.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has written to other media outlets asking them to remove footage of the incident from their own websites.

The incident has proved a bonanza for Network Ten, with ratings rising sharply for Sunday night’s weekly Big Brother eviction show.

I was listening to Triple J’s radio program Hack yesterday with Steve Cannane – very interesting to hear discussion related to the big brother incident, the lines between sexual assault/rape VS fun and play.  Some very interesting incoming calls to the program which were very much blaming what people know to be correct behaviour and how education in this area is not clearly defined. 

Young Males these days aren’t being openly educated about what correct Sexual behaviour is, their education is often coming from inappropriate sources such as Males change rooms at Football practise and comments from friends.

The whole issue in question needs to be discussed so people can gain an objective view of the matter from various sources, Victims, Offenders and Teachers from both pro and con view points.

The Ash, Camilla and John incident – footage – big brother (australia)

DOWNLOAD THE FOOTAGE HERE (right click save, then view with media player)

I was watching the news this evening and caught the tail end of a segment about big brother.  Interestingly, some controversy involving 3 housemates Camilla, John and Ashleigh (not the housemates real names).

If you have no idea what I’m talking about here is what was reported.

Ashley and John have been escorted from the Big Brother house by security guards after sexually assaulting Camilla.

The incident occured early Saturday morning at 4.30am when John held Camilla down in bed and Ashley rubbed his penis on her.

This behaviour has happened in past seasons of Big Brother and has gained the slang term “turkey slap”.

Last year housemate Michael’s similar behaviour prompted investigations into Big Brother: Uncut.

Producers have refused to comment officially as to why the pair were kicked out.

For the full story click here to get the complete run down of what happened.

I find the whole thing fairly humerous in a sense – obviously a serious matter, but funny the way Big Brother deals with the situation and bad mouths the media sources trying to communicate the actual sequence of events to interested viewers. read more here

What do you think will happen next? *holds breath for the show to be axed* – but doubtful.  All this just creates hype and interest within the news, media and Big Brother.

Just interesting to see something like this happen and the effect it has on society – what are we reduced to, that a minor event like this occuring at 4.30am is a hot topic throughout the press and a large scale issue – is this where Humanity is heading?

Last .FM – lovin it

In January 06 I created an account on www.last.fm – at the time there was quite a bit of hype going around about this neat little system but being busy at the time I never really found the time to try it.

Over the last couple of days I’ve really gotten into it all and explored how the system works – I must say it’s very addictive, to track and quite a fun tool in discovering music and people alike.

There are some interesting restrictions – for instance I tried joining a ‘group’, which denied me as I had to have a certain number of top listened artists under their most popular list to qualify – I guess a feature like this is both good and bad, interesting none the less.

For anyone interested, my profile can be viewed here I believe I will keep playing with this and see what features are added over time.  Very cool site statistically – also allows you to be nosey and see what your friends are really listening to.

if you haven’t already, check it out here I can see this page being another frequently opened window for me and many others.