JULY
- 31st Steering By Stars at the Jade Monkey with Bing Goes to Monaco
- 31st Paul Champion and Sandy Moonie at the Metro
AUGUST
- 2nd King Curly at the Wheatsheaf
- 7th Panoptique Electrical cd launch at EMU, Adelaide Uni.
- 7th God God Dammit Dammit, Bohoeffer and The Rooftops at the Cranker.
- 8th Hit the Jackpot, Electric Jellyfish, Like Leaves at the Metro.
- 14th The Lucksmiths at Jive.
- 15th Bye Bye Mountain (former Little Ice Age members) with Aviator Lane at the Grace Emily.
- 15th The Weevils, Shame Spiral and Ringo Stalin at the Metro
- 22nd Isolée at Sugar.
SEPTEMBER
- 2nd Pink Reason, Lakes and Hit the Jackpot at the Metro.
- 24th Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks at Fowler’s Live.
- 26th Native Cats and Hit the Jackpot at the Metro
OCTOBER
- 1st The Vivian Girls and Hit the Jackpot at the Metro.
- 1st The Wagons at the Grace Emily.
On the Stereo
- Fourplay String Quartet – Fourthcoming cd (Smart Pussy)
- Fourplay String Quartet – Now to the Future cd (Smart Pussy)
- Squarepusher - Big Loada EP (Warp)
- Stereolab - Oscillons from the Anti-Sun 3cd+dvd (Duophonic / Too Pure)
- Music vs Physics – Underscore cd (Love & Mercy)
- Underground Lovers - Dream It Down cd (Polydor)
- Swirl – Tears cds (Half a Cow)
- Swirl – Touch cdep (Half a Cow)
- Swirl - The Last Unicorn cd (Half a Cow)
- Pavement - Wowee Zowee cd (Matador)
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Tonight sees the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France, which finishes as always in Paris. Overall I’ve found the 2009 tour to be enjoyable, I think that the organisers came up with an interesting route. Monaco was a great place for the opening time trial, Annecy was also a good time trial setting (especially for a Rohmer fan), the stage finish in Barcelona (nasty weather though), the exciting mountain finish in Andorra, some spectacular descents in the Alps and of course the famous Mont Ventoux last night.
Of course the tour has been heavily dominated by to riders, both backed by strong support from their teams. The tour leader Alberto Contador and the incredibly strong Astana team with the likes of Armstrong and Kloden (and Leipheimer until his early withdrawal), but also there is Mark Cavendish who has been incredibly dominant in the sprints with numerous stage wins. His team (Columbia) did a great hob of getting him into the best position each time, especially his lead out man Mark Renshaw. Thor Hushovd has kept things interesting by aggressively going for points to get ahead of Cavendish for the green jersey, there should be enough points up for grabs for them to fight it out tonight.
It’s hard not to wonder what we might have seen if Contador and Armstrong had have gone head to head rather than being team mates, but it looks like we’ll get that next year. Also strong this year was their team mate Kloden, the Schleck brothers and I was impressed by the Liquigas team who had a great team time trial and have the King of the Mountains (Pellizotti) plus two top ten finshers (Nibali, Kreuziger). The other big standout was Bradley Wiggins who put in a great effort to threaten the other big names, and was well supported by Vande Velde.
A number of big names struggled to make an impact, of course the focus was on Cadel Evans here in Australia, but also last year’s winner Carols Sastre, and Giro d’Italia winner Denis Menchov also failed to finish high in the GC.
One big difference this year from recent years is the lack of a drug scandal, which is something of a relief for the follower of the tour, however given the events of recent years you can’t help but wonder whether the riders are clean or the cheats are once again gaining the upper hand over the testers.
Anyway, even with the GC decided firmly in favour of Contador there is still plenty of interest tonight, can Cavendish grab yet another stage win, or can Hushovd gain the upper hand to keep the green jersey. On top of that there’s the usual spectacular backgroung of Paris.
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The Adelaide Cinémathèque has recently announced details of their program for the second half of the year. It is a film society that shows a great variety of films, including many which are rarely seen. It offers a great opportunity to see classic films on the big screen. The program is available here. Due to issues regarding screening rights it is for members only, this just means that you have sign up and you can choose either a 4 film, 16 film or annual pass. Screenings are each Monday and Thursday.
The highlight for me is a collection of three Ingmar Bergman films – The Virgin Spring, Cries and Whispers and Wild Strawberries. Other highlights include a series of films by the Japanese masters Kurosawa and Mifune, a series on race relations in the USA (unfortunately To Kill a Mockingbird clashes with the Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks gig though), a chance to see the spectacular Aguirre The Wrath of God on the big screen (also the only version I’ve seen was dubbed so this should be an improvement), a series of Jaques Tati’s films (I’ve not seen any of his films before but know that many of the French New Wave directors held him in very high regard), and a series of classic silent films accompanied by live scores. This is just a small selection, there is lots more as well.
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The first announcement has been made for Homebake and it includes the “original lineup” of Underground Lovers. Ever since seeing a near UL reunion at a GB3 show a couple of years ago I’d been hopingthat Vince would join up with the others again. Hopefully they’ll tour elsewhere, though I think I’ll look into whether it’s feasible to visit Sydney in early December. Actually the only other time I’ve been to homebake was the very first Sydney one (the very first ever was at Byron Bay) in December ’96 and the highlight of the day was without a doubt The Undergound Lovers (I particularly remember the climactic finish with Vince ferociously attacking his guitar on Tabloid or Bust ). I’ve seen many other great shows by them as well, including a great one in Novermber ’97 when they played two sets at the Annandale with a set by Grant McLennan in between (when I really should have been putting the finishing touches on my honours thesis which was due the next day). The last time I saw them was on the 31st of December 1998 at the Globe in Newtown and I’ve been hoping for another chance to see them ever since!
In fact the Undies aren’t the only band from ’96 Homebake getting back together, Tumbleweed are also on the lineup for this year. There’s some other good stuff to like Roland S Howard (with Mick Harvey) and Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
It would be nice if they look back at the ’96 Sydney Uni lineup for more inspiration and add Crow to the bill as well. There is an article about their reunion at Mess + Noise.
Full details here
UPDATE – more shows announced on the Underground Lovers Myspace page, including one that I’m going to.
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Not according to this. Quite a disappoitment. I was prepared to accept that perhaps there was an outside chance that I wouldn’t be asked to be the curator, but not that there wouldn’t be one at all.
On the other hand there is some good gig news, finally Stephen Malkmus is returning to Australia, and will play a show with his band The Jicks at Fowlers Live on September 24. His last album Real Emotional Trash was one of my favourites of last year and I’d really been hoping he’d tour it in Australia.
Elvis Costello fans in Adelaide are not in luck though, they’ll have to go to Melbourne if they want to see him. Or Sydney. Or Brisbane. Or Perth. Or Canberra. Or Hobart.
(Thanks to The Don for all the updates, I’ll do a full Adelaide gig guide when I get back there)
On the Stereo
- Various - Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow Vol.1 cd (Sound&Fury)
- 808 State – Quadrastate cd (Rephlex)
- Clark – Growls Garden cdep (Warp)
- Portishead – Third cd (Island)
- Earth – Phase 3 Thrones and Dominions cd (Sub Pop)
- The Necks – Aether cd (Fish of Milk)
- Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – The Letting Go cd (Spunk / Drag City)
- Flipper - Gone Fishin’ cd (Water)
- The Monks - Black Monk Time cd (Polydor)
- Toys Went Berserk - The Bitter & The Sweet 2cd (Memorandem)
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I have also...