New Music / Spank Rock

March 22, 2007 | New Music | by Natalie Liechti |

Baltimore’s bad boys are back! Spank Rock recently put their stamp on the latest serving from hip London club, Fabric. Producer Alex Epton discusses the method behind the madness. Following the huge success of Yoyoyoyoyo, how has life changed? ‘The biggest change for me has been just that: I now make records for a living! A year and a half ago, I was still driving a delivery truck so I feel pretty lucky that I get to do music all the time now’. Are there plans for a new album anytime soon? ‘We’ve started on a few things. I think it’s going to be really good. The Spank Rock family has expanded this year, so we now have a big stable of artists, singers, and musicians to draw on. I think that this record will be much more complete than the last one’. How did you go about selecting tracks for FABRICLIVE.33? ‘Well, we’ve never done a properly licensed mix before, so that was a challenge. I just tried to pick tracks that I was playing out a lot, along with some stuff that people might not have heard of – like Best Fwends or KW Griff’.

New Events / The Science of Sleep

March 13, 2007 | New Events | by Natalie Liechti |

Where would we be without Michel Gondry’s delightfully childlike vision and playful interpretations of the world and its occupants? The Science of Sleep, Gondry’s latest contribution to celluloid encapsulates all this and so much more. Toiling away in a job he hates, Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) pines for his neighbour, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Escaping into his dreams, Stephane’s perception of reality takes a decidedly absurd turn when it all begins to collide. Logic and reason fly out the door as cardboard cities spring up, giant hands impede work productivity and his mind is a filmed television chat show. It’s quirky, it’s inspiring and it’s pure Gondry. Released May 10th in Australia, or elsewhere in the world it’s on DVD. [view trailer]

New Music / Operator Please

March 10, 2007 | New Music | by Natalie Liechti |

Scoring a box of doughnuts can do strange things to a band. When Brisbane indie outfit, Operator Please, took out first place – and the doughnuts – in a local band competition, something clicked. Having only met and formed a few weeks earlier, thanks to vocalist/guitarist Amandah Wilkinson, Operator Please not only continued to play together, they went on to showcase throughout New York, sign to Australia’s EMI and UK’s Brille as well as record an EP, Cement, Cement. And all of this between school work. Bassist Ashley McConnell explains, “we were at high school together and Amandah wanted to enter the battle of the bands so she just asked people who she knew played instruments. We’re a tight family unit now. The biggest challenge has been balancing school and the band. We love what we’re doing now. We like to have fun”. [see also Winter Park]

New Music / New Pants

March 6, 2007 | New Music | by Natalie Liechti |

Formed in ’96 with the intention of creating music that portrayed the ‘spirit of youth’, Beijing’s New Pants veer between punk and electro, often chaotically merging the two. They have a new album out, Dragon Tiger Panacea, and the video for the title track is definitely worth checking out. How would you describe Dragon Tiger Panacea? ‘It is full of memories of the 80s when life was simple and not so fast. The culture and fashion at the time, like disco and breakdance, influenced us a lot. Through this record we want to bring people back to that era’. How has China’s music scene evolved over the years? ‘Compared to ten years ago, the music scene here has changed a lot. Now you’ll find more and more kids play in bands and make different sorts of music’. You’re a very visual band, is that an important aspect for you? ‘We have always put a lot of effort into the visual – music isn’t the only way we want to express ourselves. We want to make things more interesting and playful’.

New Music / Mickey Avalon

February 17, 2007 | New Music | by Natalie Liechti |

Meet Mickey Avalon, as famous for his delightfully rudimentary hip-hop tunes as he is for the debauched and tragic past he raps about. With a warts ‘n’ all attitude, Avalon and sometime cohort, photographer Mark the Cobra Snake, are bringing their unapologetic trash-chic to a town near you. Following a tumultuous upbringing involving drug abuse and prostitution, he gained an audience with his single, ‘Jane Fonda’ and has since risen in the ranks as a performer. ‘I was born under a bad sign in east Los Angeles. Some how it started to work’, he explains. ‘I was never interested in making music. I’m influenced by anyone who has the balls to speak what they mean. It’s all autographical in one way or another, whether speaking from the inside or the outside’.

New Events / Latex For Fun

January 15, 2007 | New Events | by Natalie Liechti |

Hurrah! Poor people need never be bored again! Or so say the team behind toy design project, Latex for Fun. Founder and designer Max-o-matic put forth the challenge to create an affordable toy using nothing more than DIY ethos and a balloon. ‘It started by chance’, he explains. ‘I found a bag of balloons at work and started drawing over them. It was so simple and so catchy and at that point, I knew this was something really cool and invited other people to join in. In that precise moment the Latex for Fun project came to life’. Entries have been pouring in from all over the world and the team will now narrow them down to a selection for display in a book and exhibition in Barcelona later this year. ‘The reaction was fantastic. It was quite a shock seeing that in only a few months we had tonnes of awesome submissions from great artists from all over the world. Gary Baseman said something that summarizes what many people thought of the project: “I love this stupid and incredible project”. It’s such a simple idea with so many possibilities – this will be quite an exciting year for latex lovers!’ [Tim Biskup's artwork above left; Sauerkids' work above right]

New Music / Macromantics

January 10, 2007 | New Music | by Natalie Liechti |

Australian emcee Romy Hoffman, otherwise known as Macromantics, released one of the better albums of 2006 – Moments in Movement. Think Sage Francis-style spitfire delivery, twisted beats and unpredictably poetic flows. ‘I made this record as a necessity for my own sanity and as a documentation of where I was, in my head and heart. I would have been proud of this album whether 14 or 1000 people had listened to it. The support it’s received is an added bonus and I feel honoured’. Which track on the album are you most proud of? ‘I like the dark songs on the album. My favourites would have to be Darkside of Dallas and Vaudeville. Darkside of Dallas was the biggest challenge, in terms of writing. It was also the last song we recorded, so it sealed the album with a kiss’. You initially started out in music as guitarist for Ben Lee’ first band, Noise Addict. How did that come about and what inspired the eventual switch from axe to mic? ‘Ben asked me to join Noise Addict on their final tour of the US back in ’95. We went to the same school and knew each other through drama and music. It was on that tour that I saw hip-hop music being lived, breathed, eaten and spoken. I was in awe of this movement, this social and cultural force. I got given a bunch of rap records that changed my life, I came home and begun writing raps – and here I am!’

Cool Travel / The Chicken Noodle Soup

November 29, 2006 | Cool Travel | by Natalie Liechti |

Forget krumping, breaking, and popping and locking, the latest craze sweeping urban club dancefloors is the chicken noodle soup. Thanks to Harlem teens DJ Webstar and Young B’s and their recent hit, Chicken Noodle Soup, kids the world over are twisting it up, with YouTube also assisting in spreading the phenomenon. Taking direct influence from the Harlem Shake, the Chicken Noodle Soup has further fuelled the flames dividing east and west coast hip-hop, with much hate coming from the other side. Need a quick lesson? Simply flail your legs loosely out to either side of your body in a wriggly fashion. Too easy!