Category Archives: Music

R.I.P. Alistair Hulett

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It’s with sadness that I bring this news. Radical folk singer, Alistair Hulett passed away last night after becoming ill in the last few days. A revolutionary until his final days, he is an inspiration to socialists everywhere and I had the pleasure of working with him last December when he performed in Melbourne to raise money for Marxism 2010.

May comrades honour his memory by continuing the struggle for a better world.

Memorial services will be held in Sydney and Melbourne. In Sydney, people will gather at the Gaelic Club in Surrey Hills on Sunday, February 14 at 3pm. You can email me for details to the Melbourne memorial that’s to take place this Friday.

Alistair Hulett

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Best of 2009: Books, Albums, and Movies

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As December brings 2009 to a close, I was thinking I wanted to dedicate some of my blogging time this month to summing up the highlights of 2009 in the various areas this blog discusses. So, there’ll be a bit about writing, a bit about politics and a bit about popular culture.

For December’s Absolute Write Blog Chain, I thought I’d sum up my best books, albums and movies for 2009 to go under ‘popular culture.’ Note that this is my best of 2009, the stuff I’ve read, listened to or watched, and they might not necessarily have been made in 2009.

Book: The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

At the start of the year, I ripped through this book really quickly, hooked by the strong and unique voice; I really couldn’t put it down.

The White Tiger, a story about life as a servant in India, is also exceptional for its blatant class politics. Whilst gritty and imperfect at times, Adiga illustrates class society so well, the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots.

Honourable mentions to King Rat by China Miéville, and possibly if I finish it, The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

Album: The Majority – Mammal

This was really hard to pick and I basically had to write a short list of all the albums I played to death this year.

I discovered Mammal this year at Big Day Out, a left-wing Melbourne hard rock band, with awesome political lyrics against capitalism and oppression coupled with heavy, energizing music and a mean live act.

Their debut album The Majority was the soundtrack of my 2009, playing songs like Smash the Piñata on the way to protests this year, psyching me up.

It’s a real shame they broke up a few months ago, but I know anything front man, Ezekiel Ox produces next will be just as awesome.

Special mentions go to Crash Love from AFI, The Poison from Bullet for my Valentine, Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair from La Dispute and Sound Awake from Karnivool.

Movie: [REC]

[REC][REC], the Spanish original of which Quarantine was based on, is easily the scariest movie I’ve seen ever.

A zombie movie shown through the camera of a documentary filmmaker, it feels so real as it follows a reporter quarantined inside an apartment block where strange attacks have happened.

The violence and suspense kept me on edge the whole time as people were picked off one by one leading to a terrifying ending as the mystery unfolds when it’s too late.

Special mention goes to Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, District 9 and Frontier(s)

They’re my top book, album and movie of 2009. Feel free to add your own in the comments section

December Blog Chain Participants
Lost Wanderer – http://www.lostwanderer5.blogspot.com
Claire Crossdale – http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/
coryleslie – http://corrinejackson.wordpress.com/
bsolah – http://benjaminsolah.com/blog
DavidZahir – http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/
RavenCorinnCarluk – http://ravencorinncarluk.blogspot.com
Ralph Pines – http://ralfast.wordpress.com/
shethinkstoomuch – http://shethinkstoomuch.wordpress.com
Lady Cat – http://www.randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com
truelyana – http://expressiveworld.com
misaditas – http://misaditas-novels.blogspot.com/
collectonian – http://collectonian.livejournal.com
laharrison – http://lesleyharrison.wordpress.com/
beawhiz – http://beawrites.wordpress.com
razibahmed – http://www.blogging37.com
FreshHell – http://freshhell.wordpress.com
AlissaC – http://alissacarleton.blogspot.com
Aimee – http://writing.aimeelaine.com

Music Review: Sound Awake – Karnivool

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Karnivool’s second album, Sound Awake has the same distinct Karnivool sound whilst also being a marked progression. Sound Awake is a complex and multi-layered album that really needs to be listened to a few times to really appreciate it in its entirety.

Sound AwakeAnd it seems every time I listen to Sound Awake, I gain something new from it, or just love it on a whole new level. It’s one of the reasons it’s taken me longer than usual to write this review. Each listen offers something new and makes me feel unable to understand it totally. I know the next listen will offer me something else.

The first listen is even a little disorientating. A lot of it sounds so different to Karnivool’s first album Themata, and unconventional to the genre. There’s lots of building up to big finishes, it’s epic even if the build up feel like they don’t eventuate to anything all of the time.

Almost all of the tracks are favourites for me, but at the moment ‘New Day’ is good in the conventional Karnivool way and ‘Deadman’ has been the stand out track of the album since the first listen. It’s such an epic and intense track. It very much encapsulates the whole album, alongside with the other epic track, ‘Change.’

This follow up lived up to high expectations from fans, maintaining the sound that attracted people originally whilst also providing something new and developed that wasn’t just a repeat of their previous album. Sound Awake is one of those albums you’ll have to play over and over.

[Rating:4]

Karnivool, Sound Awake, music, review, album

Gig Review: Karnivool @ The Forum

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Karnivool @ The Forum

Karnivool played their second Melbourne show at The Forum last night. It was an awesome show full of theatrics and intensity.

The elaborate gothic style architecture suited Karnivool’s style and I absolutely loved the venue.

The support band, Sugar Army were good too. I’d seen them support Gyroscope last year and they were heavier this time around – perhaps influenced by the band they were touring with.

But Karnivool were simply amazing. The crowd surge that nearly squashed me against the barrier at the front, a testament to their popularity. Their set opened with a speech by what looked like some old American President on this LCD screen split up into columns. The video distorted and cut out as Karnivool took to the stage.

The columns of LCD screens played visualisations reminiscent of Sound Awake‘s album art throughout the rest of the set. Front man, Ian Kenny was quirky and in his own world it seemed with his strange and organic movements. He had the audience fixed on him, especially in moments where he crouched on the ground almost singing at the floor.

They played songs from their new album, Sound Awake (review to come soon) which were complex and mesmerising, and they also played tracks from their debut album, Themata which seemed to excite the crowd the most, eliciting familiar memories of gigs past that I’d unfortunately never been to till tonight.

This morning, my head hurts a bit. I expect it was from the crowd surfer that landed on my head and neck about 3 or 4 songs in.

Karnivool, The Forum, music, gig, Melbourne, review

Music Review: The High End Of Low – Marilyn Manson

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Marilyn Manson’s latest album The High End Of Low is another great listen, musically underrated, and yet again taken over by everyone’s obsession with the shock value of their lyrics.

<img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41IeMNlGggL._SL160_.jpg" alt="The High End Of Low" align="right" vspace=5 hspace=5 /Some critics had labelled The High End Of Low as going back to their older records like Mechanical Animals, partly to do with the return of bassist Twiggy Ramirez. And in part, they’re right. This album has some of the faster, more electronic sounds associated with early albums.

But I was happy to find that there was still a lower, darker and heavier feel like in The Golden Age Of Grotesque, the album that made me love Marilyn Manson.

Musically, it’s diverse, with tracks like “Four Rusted Horses,” where there’s a Banjo/Country style element to it. Overall, the musical is great and heavy, with that extra element of electronica seen in previous albums.

Lyrically, it’s not that special. His classic shock-value lyrics seem to gain more attention that the music, which is a shame but “We’re From America” is a stand out in the lyrics department as a partly political song with lines like “We don’t like to kill our unborn/We need them to grow up and fight our wars.”

The High End Of Low is overall a good album, with some stand out tracks like “Wight Spider” and “Running To The Edge Of The World.” The album should be assessed on its musical credibility with less focus on the shock-value of some his lyrics.

[Rating:3.5]

Marilyn Manson, The High End Of Low, music, review, goth rock

Music Review: 21st Century Breakdown – Green Day

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Green Day’s latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, seems to live up to expectations, providing a hard-hitting set of tracks full of radical and controversial political lyrics.

21st Century Breakdown21st Century Breakdown follows on very much from American Idiot in the more overt political direction of their lyrics. Whilst American Idiot seemed to be very much themed around Bush and War, their latest album surrounds the collapse of the Bush regime, the economic crisis and the new era under Obama.

Musically, it follows on from American Idiot also, with a sound to it that is more epic and big band than their older records, so it combines that punk edge with more traditional sort of rock sounds. ‘Know Your Enemy’ sounds like older Green Day whereas the tracks in Act III, like ‘Horseshoes and Handgrenades’ and ‘American Eulogy’ are very epic and similar to stuff like ‘St. Jimmy’ and ‘Homecoming.’

The album seems to become stronger as it goes on. Whilst there are some standout tracks in the first half of the album, it seems to become consistently good at the end, building up to some of the more epic tracks, like ‘American Eulogy’ with standout lines like “Fight fire with a riot/The class war is hanging on a wire.”

My favourite tracks are ‘American Eulogy’, ‘East Jesus Nowhere’, ‘Peacemaker’, ‘Know Your Enemy’, and ‘Horseshoes and Hangrenades.’

21 Century Breakdown is an impressive album overall, that’s sure to piss off politicians and the media, and one that I think will grow further on you the more you play it.

[Rating:4]

Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown, Billie Joe Armstrong, music, punk, review

Disturbed @ Festival Hall, Melbourne

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As I said in my last post, I’d get to telling you about how awesome the Disturbed gig was on Saturday night. I guess my weekened was too packed full of adrenaline to fit it into just one post.

I was kind of tired after the protest. I didn’t expect it to be so energized and I hoped I had something in me left to enjoy seeing one of my favourite bands, someone I’ve wanted to see for a while. And it turns out that it didn’t matter if I had the energy or not, the adrenaline took over. I haven’t been to many gigs before, and this was certainly the biggest. The atmosphere was incredible and something I could easily become addicted to (I’m going to see Gyroscope tonight) and something I want to see if I can transfer to the page somehow.

I got a couple of decent photos, one of them you can see below, and afterwards we went out, so tired and not expecting to be out for long. We ended up getting home at 5.30am :-P

Disturbed @ Festival Hall, Melbourne

Disturbed, concert, gig, Festival Hall, metal, Melbourne

Silverchair's, Young Modern

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Young ModernDid anyone come back here on Friday to see if I lived up to my promise? Sorry, but it’s the weekend and I got dragged away from my computer to have some fun.

Like Diorama, Silverchair’s previous album, Young Modern, has this edgy alternative quality that is like drugs to your creative channels.

It seems that the album isn’t confined to one style and constantly straddles new boundaries without being overly complex. Though, upon first listening, the new style doesn’t seem to totally sink in but soon it becomes tangible to the point of addiction.

Without a doubt, it’s Daniel Johns, the front man, that exerts all this creative energy and leaves me inspired. I’ve always found him to be an inspiring person in terms of his unbelievable amount of creativity.

I got this inspired feeling around the time they released Diorama and now, seeing Johns’ interview in the ‘making of’ DVD that came with the limited edition release of Young Modern, I’m getting it all over again.

Silverchair, Young Modern, Daniel Johns, rock, alternative, music, review

Element Eighty

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The music coming from Playstation games arn’t usually the best. They’re either the popular crap or some midi beat. ‘Need for Speed: Underground’ made an exception. It featured the likes and Static-X and Jerk, and also this little gem, Element Eighty. This relitively unheard of band really packs a punch with their first self-titled album. They stretch the boundaries of metal, with most of the tracks extracting some harmonic sounds from David Galloway, the vocalist.

The track on ‘Need for Speed,’ ‘Broken Promises’ impressed me so much, I went to the trouble of importing this CD from the states, as it isn’t available mainstream in Australia. The lyrics are basic at times, but the execution is on tee to produce some music that brings concern the fact I have not heard much about them.