An analysis of the online community ‘Mess+Noise’ using the theory of Symbolic Interactionism

Although efforts have been made to define community in many disciplines, there is yet to be a clear conceptualization of the construct. This lack of coherence has been evident since 1955 when sociologist George Hillery compiled over 90 definitions of community and found the only commonality across all these sources to be that they dealt with people (p111). 

Early online sociologists also struggled with the term. Jonassen et al. (1998) state that community can be defined as a social organization of people who share knowledge, values and goals. Group members come to depend upon each other for the accomplishment of certain goals or to fulfil certain roles. Social groups become communities when the interaction and consistent communication between group members lasts long enough to form a set of habits and conventions, which allows symbolic interactionism to be used to study them (Wilson and Ryder,  1996).

With the rise of new media, however, online communities have challenged the concept of traditional communities. Communities no longer exist only in the physical world but also in the virtual world that operates through the internet, or, as Fernback states, we can ‘leave behind bodies, prejudices and limitations associated with those bodies, to interact solely as minds in an unfettered environment’ (2007, p51). Community can be prescriptive, descriptive and normalising in a way that is perhaps best usurped by the study of social relations, as a geographic place has been replaced by a sense of collectivity (Janowski 2002, p39).

The term ‘glocalized’ has been invented to describe internet-based communities which can have global and local connections, such as the one I’m studying, where ‘‘worldwide connectivity and domestic matters intersect’’ (Wellman & Gulia, 1999, p. 187). Self-help groups in which users interact with each other, gather information and learn about local treatments and support demonstrates glocalization well (Riper et al 2008, p218; Lieberman and Goldstein 2005, p855). Thus, online communities seem to have many of the characteristics of offline communities. As Fernback (1999) summarizes, ‘‘cybercommunities are characterized by common value systems,  norms, rules, and the sense of identity, commitment, and association that also  characterize various physical communities and other communities of interest’’ (p. 211). 

A pertinent local example of this type of community is Mess and Noise (M+N). M+N is predominantly used to share information and opinions about music, especially local music and current issues. Discussions extend to politics, popular cultural phenomenon, personal issues and irreverent humour. The site is moderated but interaction from the moderator occurs rarely and few users have ever been banned or discussion threads removed even when discussion rules have been broken.

Using the concepts of symbolic interactionism and role theory I chose to analyse the styles of interaction, the reasons people use the site, and the values placed in it.

The Site and Anonymity

In her study of online fandom, Baym states that there is a generation of collective intelligence and affect with the creation of self concepts and self presentations within fan groups prior to the creation of a shared identity (Baym 2007, p2). As with many sites, M+N asks contributors to adopt an identity (usually anonymous) to share the knowledge that is essential to the survival and success of their online communities. Anonymity has been shown to increase antisocial comments in online communities and the popularity of adopting a (usually culturally referential) username has been shown to markedly increase user participation, while peripheral participation has been shown to remain unaffected (Kilner and Hoadley 2005, p272).

The common approach of symbolic interactionism when analyzing communities bypasses two of its main contributing qualities, location and organisation. Through its focus on meaning and identity, interactionism can help to understand the reasons people choose to be part of this community, regularly contribute to it and often find it hard to leave. There is a high level of group cohesion, which is critical to the flourishing of any community, and a high level of ‘lurkers’ or ‘social loafers’; people who follow discussions but contribute little or nothing (Shiue, Chiu and Chang 2010, p768).

Many users on M+N are friends outside of the community given that the majority of users live in Melbourne. Anonymity is not as pronounced here as in other more subject-specific forums. Though gender can be hard to determine, gender split is relatively equal. Typically there are around 20-50 people using the site at any one time during the day, meaning that the interactivity of a community is constantly occurring (Figure 1. p3)

Figure 1. Statsbot Report of user numbers for messandnoise.com (Retrieved 06.09.2010). Taken from <"http://messandnoise.com/discussions/3677441>

Symbolic Interactionism and Online Communities

Symbolic interactionism (SI) was outlined by sociologist Herbert Blumer in 1969, Blumer set out three basic premises of the perspective:

1. "Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things."
2. "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society."
3. "These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters." (Blumer 1969)

To examine the meanings people find in things is to focus on micro-level interactions. Theoretically, these can be used to extrapolate meaning in behaviour and knowledge gained about a community or society from that. In sourcing knowledge of an individual, SI examines the individual’s relationship with their environment, or in this case, the relationship to and within an online community.

As an example in this context, the exchange documented in Appendix I (p9) can be used to examine meaning found in participating in M+N; participant observation is a useful tool for gathering information when using SI making this an ideal method for online community analysis.

In this case we can see that users are discussing the relationship between income and happiness. The perspective adopted indicates that contributors to this discussion appear to be literate, aspirational, of low to median income, relatively articulate, respectful of others comments and use humour as a way to deflect from the seriousness of the issue.

In keeping with the principals of SI, there is a high degree of interpretation of other users’ actions rather than a straight response to them. There are jokes, abbreviations, cultural references, frequent references to local people, places and bands and customization of language and tone in keeping with the known dialogue of the community. This is an example of a community using symbols and signification and meaning can be found within one another’s actions.

Symbolic communication is an important and defining device when using SI to construct a reality. SI states that material and individual realities are constructed through a communicative and dynamic process.  Blumer’s (1969) interpretation of SI posits that humans act toward social stimuli based on meanings they hold about those stimuli. These meanings are generated and developed through social interaction, and people’s interpretations mediate their understandings of their culture (Blumer, 1969; Musolf, 2003). Thus, human agency or our ability to construct meanings and act upon these meanings define and build the SI study of community. Cohen’s (1985) focus on symbolic meaning as defining community reflects this interactionist perspective. The Chicago school in which Mead developed and SI grew conceived the self and social elements combining to result in human action and believed meaning construction occurred through symbolic interpretation as a way to build communities with shared interests (Kreiling and Sims 1981, p15). 

Strauss’s study of interaction focuses on the definition of boundaries of social worlds. He explores Shibutani’s ideas of boundaries as set by the ‘limits of effective communication’ (1978, p119). This theory can be applied to M+N as many may visit the site but few will be informed enough to understand the references to habits of members, or many may be put off by the initial cynical, obscene or negative tone of many threads. This limits the growth of the site to those who have the requisite patience or knowledge of popular and local culture.

This boundary-setting elitism or focus on a user with a certain style of interaction is one way of regulating the size and style of the community.

Online Communities, Boundaries and Social Capital

In Lee and Lee’s article the authors explore the positive relationship between online community use and social capital (2010, p712). They argue a site like M+N supports face-to-face interactions, that its users have a higher level of sociability than non-users and that communication abilities are enhanced through technological advances. SI and social capital are complementary as the value in social capital can be easy to ascertain. A community desires social capital and the information held within a site like M+N can be seen to be capital. The discussion in Appendix II indicates an example of M+N community organising a community rally to protest against the closure of a live music venue, and the lack of support for a similar venue in Sydney. This supports Lee and Lee’s suggestion of the value placed in real world interaction.

This sentiment is also reinforced in Baym’s article. She argues that there may be a shared ethos but disagreements are common and actually desirable as there is a high level of creativity which is promoted and enabled in new ways by the use of the internet (2007, p2). Baym also suggests that a sense of community may be formed by the users on one site meeting again on another site which aims to unite people with a more specific interest, mimicking the ‘bumping into someone’ manner of meeting in geographically place-based communities (Baym 2007, p13). It could also be argued that a community cannot be understood by referring to one site alone, particularly when a specialised interest is shared.

How SI has Influenced My View of M+N

Having been an occasional contributor to M+N for three years I found a forced external view interesting, and questioning why the community exists and reasons for its popularity. Educated people who have access to the internet and opinions about art and music abound in Melbourne and when given an opportunity to argue from a relatively anonymous position, will be attracted to that. As a place for learning about what is currently popular, younger people will go there to find out and older people will dispense what they perceive as wisdom. Both give the site value and user become invested in their identities over time. M+N sees a commitment to the community from many of its members with a suicide and several near suicides of members bringing face-to-face help from others who had not previously met. Symbolic communication can be regarded as purposeful social action in keeping with Blumer’s theory; however people cannot be active in a community without contiguity meaning that a geographical closeness is needed to allow this to happen. Neither can it be regarded as a substitute for offline socialisation. 

Conclusion

There is likely to be a great deal more research on the application of social community theory to online communities. Though symbolic interactionism is a useful way to analyse online communities and the interaction therein, there is likely to be a surge in new sociological approaches which combine current disciplines in order to understand the relationships herein in an academic, legal, political and economic sense. Online communities are increasing in number and in importance as recognised by the amount spent on advertising in online communities and the opportunities they represent for socialisation and targeted marketing (Papworth, 2010). Around ten of the top fifty most popular websites are social networking/online community websites ("http://www.mostpopularwebsites.com"; www.mostpopularwebsites.com; "http://www.alexa.com/topsites"; "http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/"). One could argue that the term community needs to be modified as there is a convenient togetherness on online communities but no real responsibility is engendered and, in fact the placement of social groups with ‘egocentric networks’ can be found to be true in some places (Boyd 2006, p12). Ultimately it matters more how well we understand it rather than what we call it. SI is a useful, if limited, tool for increasing our information about online interactions.

References

• Atkinson, P. Housley, W. (2003) Interactionism Sage Publications, London, UK
• Baym, N. (2007) The new shape of online community: the example of Swedish independent music fandom First Monday 12:8;1-17
• Blumer, H. (1962) Human behavior and Social Processes Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, UK, 179-
• Blumer, H. (1969) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method University of California Press, Berkley USA
• Boyd, D. (2006) Friends, Friendsters and Fop 8: Writing community into being on social network sites First Monday 11:12;1-12
• Clarke, A. (1991) Social Worlds/Arenas theory as organisational theory Social Organisation and Social Process: Essays in honor of Anselm Strauss Aldine de Gruyter Publishers, New York, USA p119-140
• Cohen, A. (1985) The Symbolic Construction of Community Ellis Horwood Publishers, Chichester, UK
• Fernback, J. (1999) There is a there there: Notes towards a definition of cybercommunity in Doing Internet research: Critical issues and methods for examining the Net Jones, S. Ed. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks USA pp203-220
• Fernback, J. (2007) Beyond the diluted community concept: a symbolic interactionist perspective on online social relations New Media & Society 1:49-69
• Forte, J. (2001) Theories for Practice: Symbolic Interactionist Translations University Press of America Lanham, USA
• Jankowski, N. (2002) Creating community with media: History, theories and scientific investigation in The Handbook of New Media Lievrouw, and Livingstone Eds. Sage Publishing, London, UK p34-49
• Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence culture: Where new and old media collide New York University Press, New York, USA
• Jonassen, D. Peck, K. Wilson, B. (1999) Creating Technology-supported Learning Communities in Learning with Technology: A constructivist perspective Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, USA
• Hillery, G. (1955) Definitions of Community: Areas of Agreement Rural Sociology 20:2;111-123
• Kreiling, A. Simms, N. (1981) Symbolic interactionism, progressive thought and Chicago journalism in Foundations for Communication Studies Soloski, J. Ed. Center for Communication Study, University of Iowa, Iowa City USA pp5-37
• Lee, J. Lee, H. (2010) The computer-mediated communication network: exploring the linkage between the online community and social capital New Media and Society 12:5;711-727
• Lieberman, M. Goldstein, B. (2005) Self-help online: An outcome evaluation of breast cancer bulletin boards Journal of Health Psychology 10:855-862
• MostPopularWebsites  "http://www.mostpopularwebsites.net" Accessed 7th September 2010
• Musolf, G. (2003) ‘The Chicago School’ in Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism Reynolds, L. And Herman-Kinney, N. Eds. AltaMira Publishers, Walnut Creek, USA pp91-117
• Papworth, L. (2010) Monetization: Social Network Advertising  "http://laurelpapworth.com/social-media-monetization-social-network-advertising/"Accessed 7th September 2010
• Reich, S. (2010) Adolescents’ sense of community on Myspace and Facebook: A mixed-methods approach Journal of Community Psychology 38:6;688-705
• Riper, H. Kramer, J. Smit, F. Bonjin, B. Schippers, G. Cuijpers, P. (2008) Web-based self-help for problem drinkers: A pragmatic randomised trial Addiction 103:218-227
• Shiue, Y. Chiu, C. Chang, C. (2010) Exploring and mitigating social loafing in online communities Computers in Human Behaviour 264:768-777
• Strauss, A. (1978) Social Worlds Studies of Interaction 1:119-128
• The 1000 most-visited sites on the web  "http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/"  Accessed 7th September 2010
• Top Sites: The Top 500 Sites on the web "http://www.alexa.com/topsites Accessed 7th September 2010"
• Wellman, B. Gulia, M. (1999) Virtual communities as communities: net surfers don’t ride alone in Communities in Cyberspace Smith, M. Kollock, P. Eds. Routledge Publishers, New York, USA
• Wilson, B. Ryder, M. (1996) Dynamic Learning Communities: An Alternative to Designed Instruction Proceedings of Selected Research and Development National Convention of Association for Educational Research and Technology, Indianapolis USA < HYPERLINK "http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/dlc.html"http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/dlc.html> Accessed 6th September 2010

Appendix 1: Money = Happiness Discussion <http://www.messandnoise.com/discussions/4023136

Appendix II: 1000 Protest Tote Closure <http://www.messandnoise.com/news/3849119

CD Review: BANDE MAGNÉTIQUE – ninetynine

(Patsy Records)

Continuing their seemingly unstoppable mission to musically define an indefinable genre, ninetynine’s seventh album is yet another fine achievement, and one that in any just world would garner thousands of new fans and prodigious airplay. Singer and main songwriter Laura MacFarlane is one of the quiet giants of the Melbourne music scene, having done years ago what most bands are struggling to do now. Build a profile, a name that reeks of integrity, a sizeable fanbase from multiple international tours, and enough clout to play overseas festivals - without grants, airplay or any industry help at all, in a commitment to quiet, constant industry. Even the refusal to capitalise their name reinforces how this is a band whose fanbase discovered rather than was handed them.

Despite a beloved back catalogue and a litany of smart ideas and catchy melodies it’s hard not to feel that Bande Magnétique is the greatest album ninetynine have yet made, one that succeeds richly in what it sets out to do. Lyrics are concise and evocative, all players on top form, the pacing and arrangements inspired and the production perfectly sympathetic to the band’s instrumentation and vision. Musically, ninetynine channel the warm throb of evelatory post-grunge mid-90s-redolent riffs, and sweltering and bubbling keyboards courtesy of Meg Butler, which MacFarlane’s gorgeously warm voice leaps above and Cameron Potts’ busy but never distracting percussion drives.

The opening melodic vitriolic burst of shimmering Casio pop Guest List Girls details the hip inner city gig-going experience from the stage; a breathless and pointed calling card. It’s hard to believe there’ll be a more beautiful song released this year or a more compelling one in their vast back catalogue than the third track Woods with its atypical string arrangements, perfectly judged dynamics and Catholic v. Protestant subject matter. ‘Bus them away this time/ Vandalise the bleakest skies are begging / If you bus them away, humanise their tongue / This is the way these dogs and days have become’. Other songs to find online include Potts’ San Pedro, first single Broken Hands and gorgeous closer Long Way Back.

That Bande Magnétique will likely just become a high point in a lengthy discography discovered years from now and hailed in distant countries as a triumph rather than win new fans is nothing new for MacFarlane and co, and thankfully won’t stop them making more stellar albums like this one.

BACK TO THE ROOTS - An interview with DC Root aka Damian Cowell aka That Guy From TISM

At the inception of their final show, frontman of irreverent Melbourne country institution Root! and one-time TISM honcho gives his last interview as DC ROOT and his first as DAMIAN COWELL. ANDY HAZEL marks the occasion.

  
“This is a momentous interview!” prefaces DC Root, singer and songwriter of country and western-influenced, lyrically hilarious social commentary band Root! as he slides into a booth in an inner Melbourne cafe. “This will be like John Lennon’s interview with Molly Meldrum in 1969 when he said ‘the Beatles are dead,’ I mean, it’s clearly on that scale isn’t it?’ he says drily. “This is the end not only of Root! But of DC Root.” he continues. “I’ve adopted a new pseudonym, which is actually my real name, I am henceforth known as Damian Cowell; it’s the end of an era,” says Cowell with a smile. “No one is being fired, which sounds very Gillard-Abbot of me, but it’s true. It was the fact I couldn’t bring myself to fire anybody that was part of the ending of the personae. It’s not all me of course, it’s my fabulous canasta partner Henri. He’s a man who drives over the cliff like Thelma and Louise, he was kicked out of Balwyn Public Swimming Pool once, so he’s clearly a man of action,” says Cowell tucking into his minestrone.

Never one to celebrate his past, Cowell occupies a unique position both as social commentator and artistic terrorist so to find him ensconced in one of the most staid of genres had more than a few fans scratching their heads before buying the albums. Soon enough, Cowell reached a point where it was clear that no style could claim him. “Our new manager asked some hard questions when she took over a year ago,” he says seriously. “She asked ‘Why do you wear the [cowboy] hats?’ I fumbled around for two hours and bored everyone into a coma with my answer, but I didn’t have an answer at all. Pant-wetting fear that was the real reason, and as a result Henri said ‘Lose the hats and let’s not get pigeonholed as a Ryan Adams kind of thing’ - which, if you look at our photos, we could be – ‘let’s break it apart and take the bits you like.”

That the initial idea of Root! was a country punk band with lyrical barbs and songs like I Wish I Was Tex Perkins was no accident. “When you get on the twilight side of thirty and look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘who do you think you are getting up on stage with all these young people’ I figured, erroneously, that I needed a prop or crutch to lever me from the world of lawn-edging and tracksuit pants,’ he says sincerely. ‘I’m not afraid of what I’m doing, but it’s very difficult to disassociate being young and sexy with being intelligent in this incredibly superficial arse-end of showbiz that is rock, everyone loves to hear from an angry young man, but an angry old man is just bitter. I was overly conscious of the fact that I didn’t look right, that I needed a look.” 

No such fears are allaying Cowell now as he pieces together his next move. Recent Root! songs Girls Girls Girls, Henry Wagons and Shut The Fuck Up are all likely to appear on his forthcoming solo album as are some of his more articulate works. Age is clearly not dulling the pen of Cowell who is still full of opinion (‘obviously Sting is a hateful individual who needs a Bic ballpoint pen through his eyeball’), and creativity. “I’ve always managed to not write songs about death, addiction and all those melodramatic things that only happen to people who go to private school,” says Cowell humbly. “I’m fully aware I live a double life because my parents programmed me that if you didn’t have a decent job you’re a loser, and I freely admit to living in a suburban box and it’s great. You can crap on like Pete Doherty but you catch that 7:15 stopping all stations every morning and then tell me about pain.”

A TRUE STAR - An interview with Todd Rundgren

After producing Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, fronting The Cars, redefining prog-rock and releasing the world’s first interactive CD, TODD RUNDGREN finally finds time to tour Australia. ANDY HAZEL manages to keep it together.

If someone, a reporter from BBC no less, stated that one man was ‘a visionary without whom there would be no Prince, MTV or access to internet music…a master of every style from classic soul to bizarre electronica’ and Mojo Magazine called him ‘a one-man Beatles’ you would think this man would be a household name. “The funny thing is,” says the recipient of this acclaim, tentatively, “when I’m involved in one of those things that gets praise, it often happens at a time when that opinion is yet to meet a critical mass. If I do something good, it always seems to get discovered afterwards or in another place, but at the time, it’s seen as something inadvisable or inappropriate. My attitude is ‘what have you done for me lately?’ I could have used the help five years ago - why don’t you praise this thing I’m working on now?” he says, laughing.

Graduating from 60s garage rockers Nazz via the double-album heavy prog rock years with Utopia to latter-day projects such as fronting a reformed Cars, Todd Rundgren has moved with ease between genres, private obsessions and social fashions all the while working on melding technology with a strong base in musical adventurousness. Despite this impressive canon, he’s best known for his production work with Meat Loaf, Cheap Trick, XTC, New York Dolls and countless other acts. What brings him to Melbourne next month though, is his recent revisiting of some of his 20 plus solo albums in what seems to be a ubiquitous trend of playing an album live track by track, though the Australian shows he says “will be two-plus hours of all sorts of stuff.”

“Essentially, it’s down to the pressure of the listeners and fans that I’m doing these concerts,” he explains. “RundgrenRadio is a radio station that a fan set up a few years ago and he plays my music, he interviews all the artists I‘ve ever worked with and stuff like that. He got it into his head to poll the listeners of the radio station to find out which record they’d most like to see live and definitively the answer was A Wizard A True Star. Coinciding with this he decided he would get into the event production world and he lined up promoters and hired venues. We did that and it was fun, and the next two records they wanted to hear live are Todd and Healing; well that’s a big chunk to bite off. We did a short run of six shows at bigger venues and with equally big production values. This show is equally theatrical in its way but I’m not going through a dozen costume changes again,” he says of the acclaimed enactment of A Wizard A True Star. “By the time we got it down, there was a magical element about it, it was like a play where the actor plays six different parts and it all happens with split second timing; he walks off stage as a guy and comes back as a woman on the opposite side of the stage,” Rundgren says chuckling. “Some costumes were a bear to get into and out of like the fat suit, some nights we might have issues like it just not inflating, oh man it was hard work! Todd/Healing is a whole different kind of thing, it will involve the band a little bit more but I’m not going into any more detail; we kept it completely secret last time and I like having an element of surprise for the audience.” Audiences were certainly surprised to see the next project Rundgren announced he was doing; a cover album of songs by blues grandfather Robert Johnson.

“Yeah, I guess it does seem strange,” he happily intones. “I was never that drawn to Robert Johnson in high school. I was very much into blues artists though, like The Yardbirds and Paul Butterfield. The first gig I had was as a blues guitar player, before I’d ever written a song or fronted a band. When I signed with [current record label] Arena, part of the deal was that they wanted me to do a cover album of Robert Johnson songs, because they owned the back catalogue but they didn’t own the masters of his recordings. They were looking for an artist to cover the material so they’d have masters to licences for movies and TV and stuff. I procrastinated for a year, because I soon realised Eric Clapton had made a career of doing exactly this. This is Eric Clapton circa-1965 though, and I decided that this record is more a tribute to the bands in the mid 60s who were influenced by Robert Johnson and other blues artists, because basically every song is a frame for a guitar solo,” he says with refreshing candour.

One thing Rundgren can never be accused of is laziness, and his breadth of material is a perfect example of how an identity can be spread across decades, genres and in and out of projects without losing any integrity – spandex bodysuits or not. “I don’t think other musicians are lazy by comparison,” he says breezily, “a songwriter like Elvis Costello is amazingly prolific. Nowadays it’s much harder for me to write songs as it seems to me the more you’ve written the more your stuff starts to sound like something else you’ve already written, and the subject matter and style become similar.” Maybe that’s why projects such as playing albums live and covering Robert Johnson has come along? “Perhaps.”

“What constantly comes to mind to me is the anecdote about Something/Anything. By the time I’d got to the end of making that record – and it was only meant to be a single album but I just kept writing and writing - songwriting had become a formula. Every song was about the same high school relationship that went bad and I finally sat back, and listened, when the record was doing well and the label were waiting for the next album. I was reading press and someone had said ‘he’s the male Carole King’ and that’s the one thing I don’t want to be; someone who writes formulaic music that it’s really easy to categorise. At that point I realised I had to do something to distinguish myself and that was going to involve being weird.” A maxim he’s, thankfully, never stopped following. As cyclical productivity has been replaced by one-off projects and a fresh embrace of touring, finally bringing him here, it’s reassuring to know that this age that Rundgren has had such an uncelebrated hand in developing still finds a place for him.

CD Review: VULTURES OF VENUS - Vultures of Venus

(Independent)

Reportedly, Lillian Wightman, founder of the boutique fashion store Le Louvre on Collins St, was so infatuated with Parisian styles that she never went to Paris. She stayed in Melbourne and created her own meticulous version of what she thought a Paris boutique should look like. Like Wightman, Vultures of Venus (VoV) don’t need to move to London to understand or render their British influences any more vividly, their doing just fine here in Melbourne.

Enlivening the outer fringes of the inner-city music scene for the best part of the 2000s, VoV haven’t been wasting time putting together this début LP, one that lives up to the considerable task of matching their glamoursick live show.

Seeming borne from the glam-infused wing of Britpop, which housed Menswear, Suede and Sleeper, Vultures of Venus is full of fuzzy stop-start guitars, glistening keyboards and affected vocal stylings, which are bound to inspire some and repel others. Taking the seedy and speedy urbanity as a paradise of riches, the album is an inspired ode to glitterbombed nights out at imaginary clubs and mornings watching Shit on TV or ‘experimenting with Nutella’. While few bands in Australia have the jeans black enough to walk this walk or to sing a song called Transexual like a mincing novice rent boy, VoV have synths and styles and know how to use them. Songs like Ravenette and Jump Into It get very Gary Numan when setting the scene before taking to the centre of the floor-lit dancefloor like Depeche Mode on top form. 

 The production is tough with the rhythms and sparkling with the synths and though it sounds like something The Mavis’s could have released in 1994, it’s a refreshing change from a bigger-than-life approach that dance music often aims for.

There is a sense of fearlessness to the sounds and themes and it’s rare to find this in an Australian band. Lyrics extend from depicting debauched nights (The Devil), drug trips (General Gloworm), sugar highs (Lollyshop), public sex (Transexual) to loss and reclamation of identity (Circles), in other words, perfect escapist music for someone city-bound by day who only knows freedom at night. 

With any luck this interpretation of some of the starkest, most danceable and most lascivious music of last century will drag their darkly glittering name into bigger fonts on band billings and, like those Britpop bands – slaves to the whims of NME - a certain radio station may do the same to these dark stars.

DVD Review: EDGEPLAY: A FILM ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS

(Shock Entertainment)

Picked up by Shock for release five years after it’s US bow, to coincide with the middling biopic, ex-bassist Vicki Blue’s insightful but plodding documentary tells a cautionary and occasionally surprising tale about teenage girls being caught in a get-rich-(and laid)-quick scheme devised by manager-producer Kim Fowley.

Edgeplay is essentially a home movie that uses almost every camera effect in the Final Cut Pro book to ineffectually spice up repeated footage of the girls – now in their late 40s – recanting barely remembered stories of their brief time in the spotlight. Blue labours over the member’s recollections; drummer Sandy West, guitarist Lita Ford, singer Cherrie Curry often tell the same story in succession, dulling any impact considerably particularly given that so little footage of the band is included and almost avoids actual discussion of the music. The most glaring failing in this intensely well-meaning documentary is the omission of the film to include any actual music by The Runaways due to the ban enforced by chief songwriter Joan Jett who appears in the film only in grainy flashback.

One thing Edgeplay does well is documenting their stories; clearly, Blue has earned the trust of the other deservedly jaded ex-members. Especially poignant is that of Sandy West who, in the film’s most interesting section, details her life after the dissolution of the band and despairs the band’s inability to reform, repeatedly asking a very reasonable ‘why not?’ Adding to the emotional impact are interviews with her mother who would sadly outlive her daughter who died from lung cancer months after the film’s release.

As a documentation of also-rans of music history, this is an interesting addition to its field, and somewhere between Edgeplay and The Runaways is a great story waiting to be told, but, like The Runaways’ career, the film reeks of missed opportunities.

NEW BEST FRIEND - An interview with Kate Nash

With a new album, a world tour and an obsessive approach toward writing, KATE NASH still has time for catching up with Riot Grrl and modern feminist literature, as ANDY HAZEL discovers.

Kate Nash is a force of nature, a polarising and prolific performer as British as Bow Bells and as verbose as a Cockney car salesman on a roll. No longer reeling from her dizzying year of 2008 which saw her go from ex-BRIT school theatre graduate with a broken leg and the maternal gift of a guitar, via a MySpace hype-explosion (remember them?), to a UK number one album and accolades both in the US and UK, Nash has chilled. Whether these props are deserved is a hotly debated topic on blogs and, you’d imagine, between teenage couples; topics for songs usually surround boys being jerks, girls being exasperated, and acting independently. However, three years into a relationship with Cribs’ guitarist Ryan Jarman attentions have turned elsewhere.

“I think that life is still a little bit hectic and mental but I’m used to it now,” she says in her typical rapid-fire manner. “I’m used to the lifestyle; being away from home a lot, constantly having to deal with the merry-go-round of shows and meeting people but now I’m more settled and I’ve bought my own place. It’s really nice to chill out and have your own space, so I’m really enjoying playing live and playing the new songs and getting to tour.”

With her schedule soon to be bringing her from the summer festival circuit of the UK to our own shores, Nash has been getting to know her songs in a new way. “It’s interesting playing an album I’ve fully realised,” she ponders. “I feel like I’m more at ease with the whole process because I put a lot of pressure on myself to live up to the expectations of what an artist does after their first album and it’s not easy to a year to write another lifetime of experience in a year. My Best Friend is You I kind of wrote without realising it. I never sat down and said ‘I’m going to write a second record’, I just wrote, I wrote the songs and let them come out the way they did.”

Featuring songs that are already hits in the UK Do Wah Doo and Kiss The Grrl the two predominant musical themes of the album are detectable in those titles. “I was listening to a lot of soul, 90s Riot Grrl and girl groups and I wanted to have that clash of sounds on the album; 60s vintage styles, spoken word and Motown and experiment sonically and mix it up a little bit.”

Mixing up songs is something that Nash is particularly accomplished at, with the year since her début Made of Bricks spent “doing normal things, like sitting around at home in my dressing-gown watching daytime television,” followed by year of working with a frankly impressive array of collaborators. Producer Bernard Butler, folkstar Billy Bragg, Blur’s Dave Rowntree and Jason Trachtenberg from his Family Slideshow Players feature among the musicians she’s worked with both musically and as part of her social activism. “When it comes to collaborations, I think you have to go with what you feel, what you like and trust and form a relationship,” she affirms. “It has to be natural and organic. Being who I am I’m very reliant on gut instinct and if I think something feels right then I go with it.”

This ‘going with it’ approach has been seeing a lot of exercise as Nash’s work ethic begins to look like that of an army squadron. Yet another graduate from The BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology (Amy Winehouse, Imogen Heap, Noisettes etc.), Nash found her time there as integral to much more than just her songwriting. “They were my formative years. I studied theatre so it taught me about taking myself out of comfort zone, putting everything on the line, being fearless and a lot about storytelling and about creating a character. Most of all I took it very seriously and did a lot of things I was afraid of and developed a lot as a songwriter and performer because of it.”

Being almost absurdly productive and active is something that seems to be essential for any artist wanting to keep the attention of a largely teen and twenty-something fanbase, though it doesn’t seem as if this is a calculated move by any means when it comes to Kate Nash. “I do keep a diary as I write day to day,” she says “I’m trying to write down when specific things happen to try and remember write in a matter of fact way to record events and sometimes to remember where I come from. I write short stories and pieces for my blog and myself so it’s absolutely part of my day-to-day existence.”

Much of her writing is personal as her songs seem and, naturally for someone whose lyrics have been described as ‘gauche live journal poetry,” her fans respond. “I get really nice things from fans,” she says, brightening. “I have a book coming out soon as well so I’ve got a lot to write for and I get a lot of response to that. A little while ago I asked people to write about what love is and this one woman sent me a piece about how her three-year-old kid had leukaemia and the way this had changed the way she expressed love. She was writing about how in nature a bird would rip off their wing to help their baby, an elephant would lie down next to their baby and die for it and this woman wrote that love was shown by the way she could carry her pain. I published her letter and then she wrote to me again, and her kid wrote to me as well. It’s a bizarre relationship as you don’t know them but you do; really intimately.”

The theme of friendship and support is a key one both creatively and emotionally, Nash clearly holds friendship and her relationship with Ryan Jarman as sacred above all other things. Though not musically related, she describes their relationship as ‘a special situation’. “We’re spending a lot of time apart and that’s a challenge,” she says seriously. “It’s very romantic to miss each other and to get excited to see each other. I can’t imagine being with someone who doesn’t do the same thing as me, I couldn’t be with someone who didn’t inspire me. It’s easy now, we understand each other and understand the stresses, know what it’s like to do promo and be on tour and to be able to enjoy music together. We have a few things we like to play together too, but we very much have our own lives,” like all best friends.

CD Review: FANFARLO - RESERVOIR (Warner Music)

England’s Fanfarlo are an indie pop group who rode a bracing wave of online journalistic hyperbole late last year following a glowing David Letterman appearance and the release of this, their début album. As is the way with bands and hype like this, the Australian release and tour comes as almost an afterthought but this is an album with much to be fond of.

Written as a live band and perfunctorily produced by 2009’s producer du jour Peter Katis, Reservoir is an album that a lot of people would like, but few will hear. Reasons for this are writ large throughout the album, as it ticks so many boxes of what is ‘quality indie’ since Arcade Fire tore up the rulebook. Baring little resemblance to the ebullient twee that coloured earlier EPs and their contribution to 2006’s landmark Kids At The Club indie pop compilation album, Fanfarlo have grown in a way that many of their contemporaries on that album would never have considered and would likely have viewed as very…American.

In short, this is exactly the sort of album that would be made if Clap Your Hands Say Yeah got Beirut to do some arrangements for them and told Peter Katis to do whatever he did on Funeral. This is both great, because Fanfarlo are smart songwriters and you could do far worse than those touchstones, but it does feel as if the band’s personalities were lost somewhere over the Atlantic.

Despite the ready references, there are some top tunes herein. Fire Escape is a gloriously wrought mix of Farfisa, synth arpeggios, acoustic guitar and exuberant horns all brought to a rolling boil by vocalist and ringleader Simon Balthazar. Ghosts (unsurprisingly already used in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy) makes Beirut sound more fun than he’s ever had appropriating, and Drowning Men should satiate Arcade Fire fans until the release (and perhaps following the release) of The Suburbs. While there is nothing earthshaking about this modest addition to the year’s impressive array of indie albums, it’s not entirely without appeal and worth investing in for those who want to get something familiar yet different onto a mixtape, or to hear what a British indie pop group sounds like when made over by one of the most lauded producers. With an Australian tour in August, those who hear Reservoir will likely be convinced to check them out, or at least bide time with Fanfarlo till the real thing comes along.

CD Review: WHITE WOODS - BELLPLAY

(Sensory Projects)
The funereal stomp underpinning many of the tracks on the début release from Melbourne’s White Woods seems to emerge from some distant rhythms beneath the bitumened streets of the city. There is a depth to the music here as if it has been composed while on a 3AM walk and channelled directly to analogue tape. Mo Tucker rhythms, strangled guitar slashes and melodic bass push the songs along and under the skin, never going for the jugular when an imperceptibly subtle increase in tension will do. Though the album has only seven tracks each is a different variation on the theme of what to these ears seems like personal isolation and urban desolation.

Far from being a depressing proposition, Bellplay is brightly mixed and Keith Mason’s keening slices of feedback and warping shimmers ease in and out of songs with an engaging unpredictability. The sad and propulsive chording are the musical highlight in their marriage to the vocal meters. Their pale distance allows the bass to meander and chime while the drums beat mournful tattoos.

Here’s hoping that the distant voices that occasionally colour proceedings don’t get too loud, that interviews and photos don’t tarnish the mystique that this albums so effectively builds. Perhaps it’s selfish, but this band is quietly making passages out from their firmly built walls and it’s bound to resound with a lot of listeners. There is a lot to like in here; the lurching beats and precise rhythmic accentuations that all instruments and vocals follow creating a dirty hypnotic swirl like a slowly approaching pavement to the face of a falling drunk as on Groundswell and Sea Sickened. Elbows and Kneebones begins with surely the slackest-sounding Phil Spector-beat ever recorded. While there is little of true originality to begin with, the twists and turns taken by the players ensure that what may begin as familiar becomes weirdly compelling, somewhat similar to a dream of being buried by an avalanche in slow motion, it’s sad and impenetrable but bleakly beautiful too.

Though unlikely to get much airplay and win fans over with live performances, White Woods are an interesting group for the atmosphere the album makes and the subsuming of personalities by the relentless force they make as a whole. A layered and well-recorded début.

Live Review: EARL GREY POLICY, THE GALLANT TREES

Monday, June 28, 2010

WESLEY ANNE

The importance of musical ability in composition, and as a part of putting on a decent show, is thrown into the spotlight tonight at the Wesley Anne. It’s not as clear cut as one band has it and one doesn’t, but the role it plays in The Gallant Trees (as secondary to songwriting and the act of a performance), compared to Earl Grey Policy (it’s all we’ve got), makes for an interesting contrast.

The Gallant Trees, brainchild of singer-songwriter Joel Stibbard, are one of the most underappreciated bands on the Melbourne scene. Playing his 107th gig since last May, Stibbard plainly has a huge affection for his songs, the audience and performance, and they combine to make a wonderful show. Backed by Chris Chinchilla on drums and Tim Woods on bass, songs primarily concern the loves of the songwriter, namely birds and social observations. While Pigeons are the Best Headbangers has been steadily growing as a cult hit, Birds With Fangs and Visit Me Pelican also allow the band to shine while Stibbard’s earthy banter takes in an open discussion about social anxiety, hallucinations, operatic vocal solos and a frank disclosure about glasses and nose sweat. This band is clearly unlike any other and utterly of their place and time in a way so few are. Bring on the album.

In stark contrast, Earl Grey Policy are about as exciting as you’d expect a band with the word ‘policy’ in their name to be. Playing a blues-funk-reggae fusion, with a lot of competent solos and no dynamics, this is the musical equivalent of watching someone park a sports car for an hour.

EGP may be suited to an early afternoon slot at a summer festival where the vibes flow a little more loosely, but this is a Sunday night in winter in inner Melbourne and if you’re going to show off, you’d better be charismatic. Unfortunately, bandleader Andrew Ferguson calling for another meandering piano solo, cracking an in-joke or taking another wailing guitar solo over some offbeat reggae chops does not suffice. Watching talented musicians play and work with each other to create something unique can be compelling, but EGP come across as a lunchtime jam at the VCA with songs comprising verses that bookend the extended displays of musicianship.

Still, the freedom and passion earlier exhibited by The Gallant Trees more than makes up for later uninspired rambling. Tonight’s lessons: don’t treat a gig as a jam, and pigeons are the best headbangers.

Live Review: THREE MONTH SUNSET, IOWA, THIEVES

Saturday, June 26, 2010

CHERRY BAR

Let’s get this out of the way right now: yes, these bands are united by a love of big swirly guitar sounds and sure they are all indebted at least a little to the lush cacophonies created by sonic pioneers Kevin Shields and Robin Guthrie, but never does this get in the way of a glorious gig or suggest a lack of originality in composition. Meditations on a sound or field of sounds when played by people who understand it well, invariably brings a personality into the music as much as a trained jazz pianist and tonight’s lineup suggests the shoegaze well is far from dry.

Thieves are a new group who channel that early-90s British sound to glorious ends. Balancing fury and beauty, the atonal and tonal, climbing and falling basslines, riffs and melodies from chugging verses, to bridges that build up and choruses that burst into widescreen give a lot to like. Vocals sit back in the mix but winding melodies shine through, most commonly from the bright 12-string guitar of Seb Hammond, though it’s singer and guitarist Patrick Robinson who leads the charge through the songs. Penultimate track Almost Over hints at the sky-carving glory this band – still in early days - are capable of.

Iowa are an odd group, with a name suggesting cornfields and Slipknot that thankfully have nothing to do with either, and everything to do with making riff-heavy Dinosaur Jr/Swervedriver–influenced sounds that ricochet around the low-ceiling and grubby walls of Cherry Bar. Songs chug and burn and the melodies slide out of layer after layer of meticulously crafted guitar, when songs slow and drag, the sounds and details crackle to life with a Crazy Horse-like glow and things get very nice.

Launching their first EP and in no uncertain terms owning the evening are Three Month Sunset, a band who has coalesced around the loud and ‘beauty-as-terror’ guitar of Gabriel Lewis. Lights off, a projector beam is trained on the band, monochromatic kaleidoscopic images play as the shimmering guitar, and dual-bass throb of the band begins soon moves to a cruising altitude.

When music is as loud and carefully constructed as this, the mid-gig addition of clashing vocal harmonies seem incongruous. On record, the singing is gorgeous; here the music is so loud pitching must be a problem. The EP’s opening track No Horizon is still a mesmerising triumph though and the singing barely detracts from the brilliance herein. Watch this space, Three Month Sunset are likely to set it on fire.

CD Review: DEAR DARKLY – THE BOAT PEOPLE

(MGM)

Quite why this band hasn’t yet ‘broken’ (should that be what they want to do, and judging by the production on Dear Darkly it is), is a mystery only explained by their lack of an out-front vocalist. They receive airplay, write crackling pop singles, have a work ethic, create great film clips, have a style that is familiar yet their own, and, most importantly have fresh ideas.

By no means as beholden to the idea of ‘epic’ or ‘expansive’ pop as say Temper Trap, Boat People have, on Dear Darkly, set their sights higher than earlier releases would suggest. While a trajectory is all well and good, and the natural development of a band can take a more polished path to questionable ends, The Boat People have integrity coming out their ears and this proves to be their finest album yet. Tracks like Dance To My Pain, single Soporific and the frankly unhinged Echo Stick Guitars suggest that live shows will be getting even better and the band now want you to move as well as appreciate.

While mixing their Go-Betweens indie sounds with a bit of Midnight Juggernauts beats may cause some to wrinkle their nose, Boat People make it seem like the best idea they could have had. Under the Ocean is all headlong guitar slashes and near shoegaze-submerged vocals. This is perfect for those who like their Triple J-rock and lose interest with bands like Ghostwood or Three Month Sunset. Songs like Antidote and Damn Defensive are surely just weeks away from getting sweet repositioning to a TV show or film and going totally nova.

There is an ambition on Dear Darkly that is likely to surprise those who have been following the band, and it doesn’t sound like an affectation or adoption. Given the tightness and confidence from a band with a stable lineup and on their third album, there is every reason to believe that things can only get better, though it’s hard to see how the scope and songwriting can beat Dear Darkly.

CD Review: ZULYA – TALES OF SUBLIMING

(Unstable Ape Records)

Since her arrival in Australia in 1991, Zulya Kamalova has been awing, bewitching, educating and captivating audiences with her Westernised interpretations of Tartar and Russian folk music and this may well be her finest hour.

Dispensing with the Children of the Underground moniker, though keeping the members and adding hosts of other instruments, Tales of Subliming is a monumental achievement, likely to bring her another ARIA for World Music Album of the Year. Expanding from the more traditional folk flavours of earlier releases, this is a free-flowing and inspiring album with production and instrumentation reaching new heights; Kusturica soundtracks and early-80s Tom Waits are the most commonly mentioned touchstones but they barely scratch the surface of what lies here.

Julian Marshall’s work both as percussionist and producer is utterly glorious, giving the songs and their hugely varied sounds the space to shine and building Zulya’s voice – that ever-evolving lustrous thing of wonder – a throne from which to rule. Surely there can be few more evocative and understated singers in this country, regardless of whether she sings in English (as she does here on seven songs) or Russian. The Mermaid’s Tale and Ocean Lullaby reveal a never-bettered torch song sentiment that thrills Europhiles as much as jazz aficionados or anyone longing for something definitely different.

Songs linger on individual freedom (Little Sky), race through fables and folk tales (Baba Yaga’s Dream) and haunt the back alleys of Mediterranean ports (He Fell So Deep) all the while tugging gently at your hand. Songs are pushed along with lulled strings, junkyard percussion, insistent double bass, creaking nautical horns while the coursing backdrops highlight the plight of the protagonist, often caught in a fairytale of their own creation.

Anyone can sing about marriage as a prison (The Ropemaker’s Daughter), lost souls (The Water Woman and the Orphaned Girl) love and death (A Tale of Love and Death) and transcending mortality to become a cloud (The Subliming of the Snow Maiden). It’s a rare songwriter who can tap into folklore centuries old, see it from the perspective of an eternal outsider, tie those feelings into a voice so powerful and with musicianship so accomplished to deliver it without a hint of pretence or affectation. If you crave the authentic and the pure amidst a world of artifice and posturing, you can do little better than to listen to Tales of Subliming.

CD Review: CLAIRE HOLLINGSWORTH – CRAFT SAVVY CRIMINAL

(Independent)

With her début release, Claire Hollingsworth, bandleader at Brunswick’s School on the Hill, follows on from her two EPs with a gently sparkling ode to deviations from normalcy. This is a small album both in tone, ambition and running time, though it’s no less wonderful for its intimacy, a sense that fits perfectly with the production and packaging.

“I come to you in sleep / guided by the lighthouse that you keep” Hollingsworth gently intones as the album unfolds. Many songs herein are quiet and thoughtful turns, served well by the treatment they’re given. Roping in Andrew Wright to produce and percuss, Craft Savvy Criminal has been given an ideal midwife. The album is a lovingly made collection of songs, and, as the cover art so clearly suggests, one heedless of fashion or current trends. Hollingsworth has a voice it’s difficult to imagine inhabiting any other genre, so well matched to a gently strummed acoustic guitar, sparse piano and quiet reflections that seduce as they celebrate. Odes to a stolen laptop (Dear Junkies) and her hometown (Fremantle) rub shoulders with the darkly fragile and lonely Four Walls while the whole thing sounds as though it couldn’t have come from anywhere else in the world than Melbourne.

Hollingsworth’s talent for constructing and arranging a song is greater than her subjects, which are more commonly musings that become compelling through her rendering. It’s easy to feel you know her given the sincerity and warmth inhabiting every second and it’s a testament to the musicians involved that the performances are top notch and arrangements sensitive. Possibly the finest songs on the album Mirror Mirror and Faux Serial Killer sees Hollingsworth empower her songs with uplifting vocal and string arrangements which suggest that when she’s ready to broaden her palette, the results will be wonderful indeed. As it is, Craft Savvy Criminal is a record to seek and treasure.

MADE TO LOVE MAGIC - An interview with Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers

ROMEO STODART, singer and songwriter with London’s THE MAGIC NUMBERS tells ANDY HAZEL about repressed accents, working with the late Robert Kirby and singing with great Brian Wilson.

It’s been a quiet spell for The Magic Numbers. Following their auspicious début onto the British scene five years ago which saw reviews glowing and concert-goers ecstatic, it was a mere 18 months between first and follow up album. Comprised of a double brother-sister combo; Romeo and Michele Stodart and Angel and Sean Gannon there has been a near four-year silence from the band since their previous album Those The Brokes. So, what went down?

“We finished touring, built a studio, did a lot of writing and my sister had a baby girl,” says singer and songwriter Romeo Stodart warmly. “I’m definitely excited to get out there to do shows. We’re playing some festivals here then we’re coming to Australia. We’re very keen to get back to the beach, I hope we get some days off,” he says wistfully, “I was born in Trinidad you see.” Does that explain the distinctive high-pitched voice? “Maybe,” he says laughing. “In Trinidad you speak patois with slang and if I’m stoned or angry I revert to the patois, actually, I almost feel like I’m repressing my accent day to day,” he says surprised.

The band’s third album The Runaway sees them branching out from the harmony-laden indie pop that made them the favourites of record store aficionados and the Beach Boys-loving dad throwing a dinner party, and into moodier territory. “Yeah, I guess The Runaway came out a bit like that, more moods than pop hooks,” he explains “There were more ways to colour the songs; more atmosphere in there. I wanted to make a guitar-driven record this time; less band-in-the-room and focus on using different instruments to move songs along. I think the album needs a few listens to unveil things.”

A key reason for this shift was the drafting in of Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. “We’re all big fans of the Icelandic group múm. One of our favourite songs is We Have a Map of the Piano, and Valgeir did a lot on that. We were half way through recording and he was someone we’d talked about bringing in to provide an objective approach with fresh ears. He came over to London and listened to what we’d recorded so far and said: ‘yeah, when can I start?’” Stodart explains happily. “He’s got a really calming presence and ended up having quite a strong influence on the album. For instance, on Why Did You Call? we talked about making the drums different, not like a kit but not like a programmed drum sound either. Sean played the drums then Valgeir would go around the studio finding bits of paper, a box, a can, or anything that sounded good, and would layer those sounds to accompany the drum. What we like a lot is the subtleties of things, tiny things that make sounds you’re very used to hearing sound special, and he was great for that.”

Clearly a lot of other people like their subtle twists on indie folk-oriented pop given the impressive record sales, their six UK Top 40 singles and legions of loyal fans. Evidence of their songwriting quality is the litany of collaborators that their first album brought them. Bringing in Nick Drake’s one-time friend and arranger Robert Kirby for The Runaway turned out to provide Kirby with a worthy swansong before his untimely death last October.

“Robert Kirby had done all the string arrangements on the album so we tribute to him the end of [final song] I’m Sorry. His arrangements are just beautiful on their own,” he says, before a lengthy pause. “We got in touch while working on the second album, initially for the song Take Me or Leave Me. Michele sat there and played the song to him and he said: ‘Wow. Unusual time signature,” and she said ‘Really? I’m not sure what it is,” he says laughing. “We played him some others and Robert said ‘Look, this is right up my street, I’d love to work with you’. We just clicked on music and we became good friends for the last three years. So when we were working on the new album we got it sounding the way he wanted it. We were just really lucky to have made music together.”

Another recent collaboration that bore rich fruit was with Edwyn Collins, singer with Scottish outfit Orange Juice. “It was a really moving experience,” says Stodart contemplatively, tentative about the time spent working with Collins following his recent stroke. “Of course we were all big Orange Juice fans. We’d done a show with Edwyn before he had the stroke, kept in touch and played at his 50th birthday in Scotland, which was fantastic. When he was making the new album I got to go down to his studio; really, maybe nothing there was made after 1970,” he exclaims laughing. “They’ve got ProTools on a computer but it’s almost hidden, just in case someone needs to use it, everything is recorded live. I walked in and this guy shakes my hand and says ‘Hi. I’m playing drums with you today’ and it was Paul Cook from Sex Pistols! I couldn’t believe it,” Stodart says with youthful elation.

Hobnobbing with idols and critical hyperbole while nice don't explain the drive to create music or what keeps a fraternally-bonded band together as musicians. Stodart explains: “I do feel very lucky when I think of who we’ve worked with, and to have achieved half of what we’ve done as a band; playing big festivals, or small gigs where you see people down the front singing the songs. I can’t even describe it; it’s like ‘man…I never thought I’d be here’. The all-time maddest one was – I’m big into harmonies, as you can probably tell – when we supported Brian Wilson on tour in the UK,” Stodart says, his voice still redolent with disbelief. “We were touring with him and occasionally chatting to him after shows and for the last four nights of the tour he got us up to sing backing vocals on Love and Mercy, which is one of my favourite songs of his. To this day I look at this whole thing and that experience especially, as…not real.”

So, can there be any dreams left to fill? “In some ways I feel I can’t ask for more, but I still do have dreams. Neil Young, man…” Having a Neil Young ask to work with you maybe? “Well, yeah, but I’m cool just to rock up and bring my guitar and have a jam. I’d love that,” he says laughing. Don’t put it past him.

CD Review - THE FINISHING SCHOOL: THE HOPEFUL CHORUS LINE

(Vitamin)

Adelaide’s The Finishing School is an interesting prospect, and not one to be confused with (quite brilliant) weekly Melbourne indie-dance night of the same name. The band comprise of brother and sister team Emily and Thom Combe, Lyndon Gray and Andrew Gaborit and are best known for being ‘the band that has Peter Combe’s kids in it’, which is a distracting irrelevancy given that any similarity begins with the surname and ends with the prominent use of acoustic guitars.

This, the début album, is a lushly recorded effort highlights of which include smart arrangements, delicate acoustic finger-picking, a rhythm section more interested in atmosphere than drive and, most notably, a deft use of fraternal harmonies. What it doesn’t have however are memorable hooks or a clear concept of what it wants to get across.

Like the cover art, this band is very good at being made up and looking/sounding the part. However, within the aesthetics lies an emptiness; a lot of nods and gestures but little to distinguish the band from the thick woods of plaintive and mellow Australian acoustic songsmiths, many of whom create stronger images with a lot fewer words and chords. This isn’t to say that there aren’t moments of interest – Starting A Conga Line features some wonderfully intricate and un-showy guitar work from Thom Combe, and there is a genuine grace and warmth to his sister’s floating vocals over the surprising electronic backing of Filthy Attraction.

Given that the album rarely moves above a moderate pace and they are not aiming for the hip, the atmospheres they seek to evoke could be better served with simplicity. There is obvious talent here and future efforts could be more interesting. What does work though is the production of Matt Hills and the rich instrumental backing the band construct, which combine to reinforce the urge for the lyrics to be tightened.