Music

King Stingray: For the Dreams

Music / / 3 minutes of reading

How do you follow up an instant classic? This was the challenge faced by King Stingray, the self-described Yolŋu surf-rock group from Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, whose self-titled 2022 debut sounded more like a greatest hits collection than a first album. It deservedly won the Australian Music Prize.

Thankfully, the band hasn’t overthought things. Their answer to the above question is simple: make another one. For The Dreams may as well be titled King Stingray II. The themes are practically identical: the joys of being on country (and getting back to it), slowing down, chilling out. The wind, the sun, the rain, the moon, the tides.

In that sense, there is little development from their debut, musically or lyrically. King Stingray have simply stuck to what they’re already exceptional at. For The Dreams teems with hooks, the choruses are massive and the sound is universally bright, up-tempo and uplifting. And there are no bad vibes, anywhere.

You can look at this in two ways. King Stingray could have made a record that better reflected the times and, perhaps, last year’s failed voice to parliament referendum. They could have picked up the call for Treaty; singer Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu is, after all, the nephew of Yothu Yindi leader Dr M Yunupiŋu, while guitarist Roy Kellaway is the son of that band’s bass player, Stuart.… Read more..

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Countdown: appointment television that changed Australia

Music / / 5 minutes of reading

At 6.30pm on this day in 1974, Countdown made its television debut. Perhaps it didn’t change Australia overnight – that really happened on 1 March 1975, when Skyhooks heralded the dawn of colour transmission in Australia with a special midnight broadcast – but it’s safe to say music television would never be the same again.

This weekend and next, the ABC will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the program’s appearance on our screens. Hosted by Myf Warhurst and Tony Armstrong, Countdown 50 Years On features a long list of luminaries past and present paying tribute, from 70s mainstays Daryl Braithwaite, Marcia Hines and Leo Sayer to Regurgitator, Katy Steele and Kate Miller-Heidke.

It’s not just nostalgia. Countdown maintains its hallowed place in Australian cultural memory because nothing effectively replaced it since it last went to air on 19 July 1987. Perhaps nothing ever could. “Sadly, I think you’ll never see a show like it again, because times have changed,” Warhurst says.

It’s gone down in Warhurst family folklore that in 1976, when she was a toddler, she crawled out of her brown velour beanbag to plant a kiss on the image of Braithwaite on her television screen. The singer, wearing a wide-lapel blue satin jacket over his bare chest, was lip-syncing Sherbet’s monster hit Howzat.… Read more..

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Live music crisis pre-dates Live Nation

Music / / 4 minutes of reading

I watched Four Corners’ investigation Music For Sale on Monday with some anticipation. The program was an overdue reckoning for Live Nation and Ticketmaster – the international entertainment behemoth, which has long faced accusations of abusing its market power by buying out venues, booking agencies, touring companies and merchandise manufacturers.

The program finished to the soundtrack of Midnight Oil’s Forgotten Years – singer Peter Garrett was a prominent interviewee – playing over a nostalgic montage of some of this country’s most celebrated musicians on stage. Many artists, we were told, were too afraid to speak out for fear of retribution.

In response, Live Nation issued a comprehensive statement rejecting the program’s claims, saying: “Our investments in artists, venues, event organisers, and entrepreneurs have enriched Australia’s cultural landscape and created thousands of jobs … Our business model aligns with standard industry practices.”

There’s no doubt live music in Australia is in crisis. The years since Covid-19 lockdowns have seen the closure of more than 1300 venues and the cancellation of a lengthy roll-call of local festivals. But we also need to keep things in historical perspective.

The fact is the grassroots of Australia’s live music scene has been on the threatened species list for at least two decades, as inquiry after inquiry – in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and now federal – has repeatedly shown, long before Covid crushed attendances and Live Nation arrived on these shores to skim any T-shirt money left on top.… Read more..

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Ollie Olsen 1958-2024

Music / / 4 minutes of reading

Ollie Olsen, the maverick Australian post-punk and electronic music innovator, died on Wednesday after a long struggle with multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disease which he “fought like a Viking”, according to a statement shared on his social media accounts. He was 66.

Olsen – who changed his name legally from Ian Christopher Olsen to Ollie Jngbert Christian Olsen in the early 90s – had been inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame earlier this month, with the organisation describing him as “a true artist and visionary in every sense of the word”. He was no chart-topper, but was deeply respected by musicians who bothered them more regularly; notably, the only time Michael Hutchence stepped outside INXS was to collaborate with Olsen.

That was in 1986, when Richard Lowenstein tapped Olsen to be the music director for his film Dogs In Space. Hutchence, then at the peak of his fame, played the lead. The film is a grimy look back at Melbourne’s post-punk scene of the late 70s, of which Olsen was a central player in acts such as Whirlywirld and Young Charlatans.

Hutchence recorded Olsen’s song Rooms For The Memory for the soundtrack. The only piece of music recorded under Hutchence’s own name during his lifetime, it reached Number 11 on the Australian charts early in 1987.… Read more..

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The Necks: Transcendental Meditation

Music / / 5 minutes of reading

They were the overnight sensation 30 years in the making. In 2017, a review appeared in the New York Times: “My obsession with the Necks, the greatest trio on Earth”. It followed the LA Times, which called them “among the world’s greatest forces in music”. The Washington Post, in 2020, was slower to catch on, describing one of their songs as “umpteen metric tons of bouncing-clinking stuff being discarded into an abyss of stairs”.

It’s a good thing they’re smart enough not to pay attention to any of it. The Necks’ music is so ephemeral that no one can be expected to respond the same way. There are no set lists. No expectations. And definitely no requests. There is only trust: that the three of them will quite literally make it up as they go along.

It was in 1986 that bassist Lloyd Swanton, percussionist Tony Buck and pianist Chris Abrahams, all seasoned players, coalesced around Abrahams’ description of their basic principle: “What if we just, you know, played music?” On Friday, they released Bleed, their 29th album (including live recordings, which – being improvised – are as unique as the rest).

Originally, the Necks were an entirely private project.… Read more..

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Custard: the perfect career trajectory

Music / / 4 minutes of reading

A more precious rock star than David McCormack might bridle in indignation when an interview segues away from the music. For more than three decades, McCormack has led the Australian indie-rock band Custard, who today release their ninth studio album: a 21-song epic called Suburban Curtains.

These days, though, all paths of discussion inevitably lead to McCormack’s role as the voice of Bandit Heeler, father of Bluey, in the phenomenally successful animated adventures of a cartoon dog that premiered in Australia in 2018. It changed McCormack’s life, and Custard’s, in ways neither could have anticipated.

For the affable McCormack, it’s the perfect career trajectory. The Brisbane-based group made five albums through the 90s, with hit songs on the then-dominant Triple J including Apartment and Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us), without ever crossing over to a bigger audience. They disbanded in 2000 with a compilation album called Goodbye Cruel World.

McCormack busied himself with a successful soundtrack career (he’s now working on NCIS: Sydney) alongside the Polaroids, one of his many other bands. It wasn’t until 2015 that Custard returned with the album Come Back, All Is Forgiven. The title was perfect, the band’s self-effacing humour intact.… Read more..

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