The movie really delivers with legendary stories, cliches, rockers and hangers on in the scene. It’s more a bar room yarn than a doco of say Nick Broomfield standard (who produced Kurt and Courtney and Biggie and Tupac). Nor does it geniunely consolidate Lemmy as a hero in the way the Ramones doco or Julian Temple’s movies have (Filth and the Fury and the Joe Strummer one).  All this could be forgiven though. It’s a celebration of Lemmy as a top bloke and a great musician. Nothing more, nothing less. On that premise, it’s OK and I’d see it again any time.

What cannot be forgiven though is the quality of the print that they screened in Melbourne. The aspect ratio was all wrong, so all the titles on screen got cut off! The quality of the video was like Youtube on the big screen. For $17.50 cinema prices, you expect a full quality print. Not something that looks like a dodgy download. It was a packed out screening and I don’t think we were the only ones disappointed at the quality. It felt like a really, really bad way of paying back fans for their patience when this movie could’ve gone straight to DVD a year ago.  Thanks for nothing MIFF!

Lemmy will screen again on August the 4th 2010. More details on the Lemmy Movie at MIFF.

Last night Melbourne’s Arthouse Hotel was nicely packed out with quiff hair styles and hot rod heels on stunning looking rocker girls resembling the ultimate 1950’s librarian fantasy. If this gig is anything to go by, the Rockabilly scene in Melbourne is burgeoning and god bless it. The mosh was full of familiar friendly faces. And for what may look like an all out fist fight in the most is just good fun fist banter.

Despite the mohawks and barrel chested tall boys that would scare you shitless in a dark alley, toes are stepped on people shoved and even beer spilt. But everyone is friendly and nothing turns ugly. A good night is had by all because thankfully this is a cool scene made up of very cool people. There’s something really funny about a six foot something greaser standing at the edge of a mosh, barely moving as he’s pushed and shoved. All the time balancing his stubby, with his back to the band as if nothing’s happening.

Sure enough as lactic acid seeps its way into every sore muscle of my post mosh body, the Kingswoods did rock. Lyndsey had some wireless guitar cord conception that was awfully modern for the 1950s. But nonetheless it allowed him to romp through the crowd and even jump on my mate Ben’s shoulders for an impromptu off stage piggy back – whilst playing! These guys play good, sweaty raw rock and roll and get a good fan fare doing so.

It seems at least half the mosh know these guys personally. But its the rough as guts Aussie Tinged rock that got them out on a Friday night, not simply helping a mate. Well adept at audience participation, half way through the set, a punter brings three Sambuca shots to the stage in what seems a familiar ritual to the band. It wasn’t the only time the band to and froed with the audience.  This is a band well worth checking out. If nothing else for the colourful tunes and the aesthetic.

You can find out more about the guys here on Facebook.

Acrassicauda are a band of four Iraqis in their twenties who have suffered such a plight. They were Iraq’s main if not only heavy metal band to have endured right through the war. A war which sent them from Baghdad, to Damascus in Syria, to Istanbul in Turkey and finally safe refuge in the good old USA. That’s a rough six years.

Their lives were documented in the movie Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Far from being just about metal music, this movie covered far more home truths about the madness and suffering of the Iraqi war than most docos of a political discourse. Moving from one place to another, they struggled to find a place where they could earn an honest living, let alone a venue for a gig. At one point they had to sell their instruments to pay the rent.

Given that only a few thousand Iraqis have benefited from refugee status in the US since the war began, it’s pretty miraculous. You’d like to think it was perhaps the magic of Obama, but the arrangements must’ve started while Bush was still in office! Frankly it’s reassuring to see that people aren’t forgotten right now.

Now the boys are in New Jersey. They can grow their hair as long as they want, listen to whatever music they like and lose the Islamic garb. As if that wasn’t enough, they managed to get backstage at a Metallica gig. Now it’s not often you see a war veteran metal head light up like a Christmas tree. But when James Hetfield walks in unannounced, gives them one of his guitars and signs it with ‘Welcome to America’ words can’t describe the reaction. Hetfield had a pretty big arsed smile on his face too. It’s just brilliant stuff to watch.

While my heart goes out to the victims of the local bush fires, their loss and the tough life decisions they’re making now, refugees are a constant. Acrassicauda have suffered irreconcilably for the best part of a decade and yet they’re truly lucky. You only have to see the movie to see what they’ve been through to survive, let alone to play their music.

I saw Heavy Metal in Baghdad a few months ago, and strongly urge you to do the same. The last I checked on the band, they were stuck in Turkey penniless broke. Let’s hope that America works out for them. And when it comes to acts of god, don’t just make the big conspicuous donation now. Keep it coming and make sure other burnt Aussies, and indeed forsaken refugees get their lives back.

P.S. One such charity is the United Nations High Council of Refugees (UNHCR). Reading this article, it looks like they’ve done at least something to help Acrassicauda in their plight. Which makes those monthly donations I’ve been making for several years quite worth while.

Ed Roman and Viv. Ed's clearly a better rock star as he's not smiling

Ed Roman is a ‘guitar shop to the stars’ kind of guy. He is based in Vegas and appears to have been dealing with rock star types since god started designing dirt. And his rant here proves it.

I stumbled upon his celebrity guitars web site the other day and have been reading through his ‘celebrity guitar’ pages for almost a week. It’s stupid crazy addictive for a muso. Ed’s created a site that despite not being updated in a while and a few old school design elements (I’m always up for a redesign project Mr Roman!), the content is just so bloody good.

Anyway, after I’d gone through all the heroes, there was the celebrity page for Def Leppard guitarist Viv Campbell. This article sums up Def Leppard beautfully as one of the most talented yet clearly irrelevant groups in rock history. Ed’s article goes from talking about Viv into a two page manifesto of what’s wrong with rock today. There’s literally about 3 lines about Viv and Def Leppard in the whole thing.

It’s all about how people could really play in the eighties and everyone’s a three chord poseur now.

In the 80’s, you had to know how to play your guitar or you couldn’t join a rubber band. I mean today a lot of these so called garage bands can barely tune their instruments. So instead of learning how to play their instrument or how to use their gear, they just babble on about 80’s hair head bands and call them spandex sissies.

Then he draws on personal experience to point out the poseurs:

Just the other day a friend of mine from Washington DC moved to LA. He proceeded to try to join a band. The little fascist, elite, snob, douche bag members of the first band that he auditioned for, told him he couldn’t join their band. He was playing a Hamer Californian. They said he was a great player and easily good enough but he would have to cut his hair and play a Les Paul if he wanted to join their faggy little gaggle of idiots band.

And you guessed it, record companies are to blame for everything

Record companies don’t want any more Mick Jaggers or Frank Sinatra’s or Elvis Presley’s or Jim Morrison’s or Jimi Hendrix, They want bands like Hootie and the Blow Fish. They want bands that will never make it past their third album which usually doesn’t even get released.

Um, I’m guessing that was written before Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster movie came out. Maybe they’re the exception to the rule. While I hate virtuoso players, I’m loathed to admit I agree with Ed on his comments.  Music is more of a commodity than ever. Hey even Bumblefoot couldn’t join Guns n Roses unless he hung up his beautiful French made Vigier guitars and played a Les Paul. Pretty narrow minded stuff.

Anyway Ed’s got a great web site going and some great experiences and stories to share. He’s also brutally honest when guitars aren’t up to snuff, e.g. Joe Perry and Santana’s signature models. If you’re a guitarist check it out. It’s a great read.

So you’re walking down the street and you see a garage sale sign. Normally you might think “meh it’s probably just junk”. But wait till you see the car this garage sale sign was on! Yes only in Prahran in Melbourne will you find a Lamborghini owner having a garage sale. Sure LA is full of them, but how many owners are out there enough to have one of the most flambuoyant garage sales ever!?

Yes the garage sale was the average house bric a brac for sale. Oh yes and the Lamborghini Gallardo itself, yours for $599,999.99. Bargain. Turns out the bloke didn’t have room for the big bull and his Porsches.

The sale went down a few weeks ago. Sadly I haven’t seen the car since. Someone must’ve wandered past with six hundred grand burning a hole in their pocket. Ecomonic crisis, bah humbug!

Sadly I couldn’t get better photos. It was a really sunny day and the camera on the iPhone sucks.

Without doubt the best garage sale promo ever

the sign on the lambo windscreen

To be honest, I was still in two minds about the latest album, thinking it’s a bit too Radioheady. So the gig starts with the stage lights coming on and some of the ’samples’ from the latest album playing. They walk through the crowd onto the stage somberly, get up and just let rip with about 4 new songs non stop. I’m no longer so undecided. The new songs rock.

The album is still a bit too concepty for my liking, but it truly comes together live. And the mighty You Am I have lost none of there delivery. In fact, Rusty is hitting the skins harder than ever. His fold back kept visibly shaking the whole night!

Set wise, they played a decent spectrum of songs. And a very decent 2 hours worth! Virtually every song on the new album got a guernsey. At least 8 or 10 of them. At one point, Timmy unrepentently mentions that the band are playing what they want to play, fuck the singles. Although, Berlin Chair, Mr Milk and a hearty piss take of Heavy Heart were all in there.  The rest of the songs were mainly off Dress Me Slowly or Convicts. A big thank you to the boys for adding ‘Arse Kickin’ Lady from the North West’. That went down an absolute treat.

All in all, this was a beachy, small town gig and the whole vibe of the thing was great. The second support band Tame Impala(?) were unbelievable. Imagine the adolescent children of Black Sabbath and Syd Barrett Pink Floyd. That’s this Perth power trio in a nutshell. Totally trippy acid rock pulled off perfectly. They were young, but they cranked the psychedelic like they were 60 year old hippies. And if playing support for You Am I does for them what it did for Silverchair, watch out. These punk ass bitches could be the next Wolfmother! I’m not sure if Tame Impala are playing all supports but I hope they are. Not my style but a fantastic band.

Only complaint about the whole gig is Davey Lane’s hair. I’m fucking jealous! Timmy was his ever cocky self too, which is always good. Best of luck with the tour boys. If this show was anything to go by, it’s definitely one of the best tours I’ve seen you do. And I first saw you at Monash Uni circa 1996.

Before seeing this, I thought art deco was funky, old solid apartment buildings in South Yarra and St Kilda in Melbourne. But this exhibition shows that it was far more than that. Art deco as a movement in the 1920s to 1930s that brought together the exotic, the modern and uber luxury on a global scale. More importantly, art deco was bling in its purest form.

On display at the NGV are so many objects that capture the era: porcelain, glassware, furniture, fashion, cars, rugs, jewelery (and we’re talking Cartier here. No costume jewelery, the real deal) you name it. There’s even half of the lobby of the London Savoy Hotel from when that was art deco.

This in itself was amazing. Much like hip hop has done for music today, art deco was a movement that captured so many inspirations in its wake and made something new. They took in aincient influences as well as things never done before. Like shiny lacquers, mirrors, chrome and plastics. While also taking influence from Africa, China, even Japan. Like the samples DJs grab from god only knows where, art deco drew upon equally eclectic influences to innovate.

You could almost describe art deco as a renaissance but it would be totally missing the point. The fact all involved were trying to create something truly new couldn’t be more evident than in this exhibition. And while there are some concessions made to modernity later in the period, it’s art in its purest of forms.

For those of you that think going to such an exhibition is truly nostalgic, you’re wrong. The blue Cord saloon on display is every bit as relevant as a Hummer rollin’ on 26 in rims is today. It’s only nostalgic if you’re the kind of person who will be embarrased to tell your kids in 10 years you listened to P Diddy and Fiddy Cent back in the day. Just like hip hop of old, this is bling with style in its purest form. Check it out. It’s breathtakingly awesome. Easily the best exhibition they’ve had this year.

Here’s the link again.

Check it out here:

 http://www.roadrunnerrecords.de/page/News?&news_page=&news_id=55877

Second bigbest highlight had to be the Ford stand. I’m loathed to admit I’m a bit of a Ford man and you couldn’t pick a better year to go if you are. All the new XRs, G series Fords and Mondeos are on display and you can have a sit. Oh yeah and the FPVs. Especially the FPVs were a highlight to have a sit in. Oh what a great year for Fords. Seriously, they’re great looking cars. Although it looks like Ford haven’t resolved the driver’s seating positioning problems in the FG. But we won’t truly know until it can be driven.

Stands you can walk straight past are the Holden and BMW stands. Don’t think you missed the Mercedes stand, because this year they couldn’t be bothered. Truly, they couldn’t give a rat’s arse about Melbourne, so neither should you about Mercedes. The other two are basically shopping centre car parks, full of shapes and colours you’re already pretty familiar with.

You can sit in most of the Audi range and the R8 is on display too, which would’ve been an even bigger highlight if there wasn’t one parked on the street the other day. Perks of inner city living! The A5 is there too and that is truly breathtaking enough. Oh that V10 wagon is there somewhere too. Also had a sit in five, count ‘em FIVE Alfa Romeos. Awesome.

Biggest surprise display was the Range Rover modifiers stand Long Horn(?) who have two utterly pimped out Range Rovers on display, one dumped on its guts! They seriously look like they should be in Ben Cousins’ driveway.

Biggest exploiters of bright, shiny objects this year were Toyota. They basically had nothing new to show you. So they brought along a drag car with a 2JZ GTE engine, massively turbo charged and the hybrid Supra concept. But apart from that, tampons would be more interesting quite frankly than most other product on their stand.

Most underwhelming were the GTR and the Evo. It’s hard to explain why, but the GTR somehow has lost its Skyline heritage and kind of looks like a Porsche. So you can guarantee it’s now squarely in the realm of accountants and dentists, not speed freaks and drug dealers.

Anyway every other Melbourne motor show I’ve been to in recent memory has absolutely sucked arse. This one is a real experience and well worth the price of admission.

Newest addition to the fray, Juzzie the drummer is fighting in really well. He makes me wonder how the band ever got by without him, blasting away on the double kick pedal. One thing’s for certain though, tonight I felt like I saw Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone incarnate. Not three dudes from Geelong. It was just one big blur of down picking wrists, tight guitar and trembling bass to the shriek of Wayne screaming his guts out, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s a bit of Aussie underground rock in there too (especially the Lobby Loyde cover), plus a healthy dose of The Melvins bunged in for good measure too.

This was their second gig at the Espy, though the first in the new public bar. I dare say it wont be their last. I don’t wanna jinx the boys, but they’re getting to a level of professionalism that deserves a devout following, and hopefully more Melbourne (and interstate) gigs. All the best for the Adelaide gigs boys.