Norman Blake and Joe Pernice

If the bands Teenage Fanclub or the Pernice Brothers mean anything to you, then you would have been as excited as I was to have seen Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake and Joe Pernice from, you guessed it, the Pernice Brothers, live together and acoustic at the Northcote Social club.

It started with an email from O. She found out that Norman and Joe had a new band together called 'The New Medicants' and were touring here, playing new songs and songs from their own back catalogues! She sent me a link to a new track and before you could say 'Norman Blake is a hell of a handsome man', O, R and I brought tickets to their show.

Joe Pernice (on the left) and handsome devil Norman Blake (on the right).

It was such a great gig and had a very easy going vibe. Joe and Norman played a few new tunes together  (wowzer! These guys sound great together!) and then they played their own songs, often accompanying the other on guitar or tambourine. At one point sexy Norman Blake (did I just say that?) stopped a song as he forgot the chords. At another point he vamped on some chords and then joked that he had forgotten the lyrics to the second verse. A punter quickly yelled them out to Norman, who thanked him and continued you.  It was all refreshingly relaxed and fun.

As much as I love Norman, Joe Pernice was just a tad better as a solo performer. Halfway though the show Joe was about to start playing 'Bum leg' from his Big Tobacco album and a few punters yelled out to the female bar staff to shut up... Joe was such a professional and decent human being as he told them that was not cool and that the bar staff could do as they pleased. He also went on to joke that it was his job to win them over. O and I both agreed that he as lovely man.

At the end of the gig, Joe came off stage and was talking to some punters and signing things. I walked over and said some thanks to him and then Norman stepped off, met my eyes and said hello. I half froze, nervous as hell, stammered out 'errr hi'.. touched his arm and ran out of the building....
ummm teenage crush anyone??? 


If you are not familiar with their works, let me introduce you to a few of their pieces I really like (and in no particular order):

Teenage Fanclub (Norman Blake)- 'Mellow Doubt' [Off the 1995 LP  'Grand Prix']


The Pernice Brothers (Joe Pernice)- 'There goes the sun'  [Off the 2005 LP  'Discover a lovelier you']



Chappaquiddick Skyline (Joe Pernice)- 'Hundred Dollar Pocket' [Off the 2000 self titled  LP]



Teenage Fanclub (Norman Blake)- 'Tears' [Off the 1995 LP  'Grand Prix']



Teenage Fanclub (Norman Blake)- 'The Concept' [Off the 1991 LP  'Bandwagoneque']



Joe Pernice- 'Bum Leg' live. [Originally off the 2000 LP 'Big Tobacco']. There is a train passing by at the start, so forgiveness for that. Oh and there is a swear word in there somewhere.



Teenage Fanclub (Norman Blake)- 'Did I Say'  [Off the 2003 Best of LP  'Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty Six Seconds: A Short Cut to Teenage Fanclub']


Thanks O, R, Norman and Joe for a great night!

a different way of looking at things.

It is the second week two of my three week solo photographic exhibition at APTE, so while we are all still in a photography mindset, I thought I would share some of the more abstract pictures I have been taking over the past month or two. I do love it when I walk past an abandoned or a maligned facade and something of beauty catches my eye. One of the below images can also be found at the current APTE exhibition:

                                     ‘The partygoers: After the party’   (version)

                                                                'Volcano'

                                                         'acronym #2'

                                                'The hidden you'

                                  “Under the mountain, under the stars #1”

                                        

                                   ‘Urban moon #33’- B & W version
                       

All photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2013

Solo Exhibition at APTE cafe

                                          'You are... [insert text here]'


  
It kind of just happened. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. TomboyBill called suggesting I call some guy who had a gap in his exhibiting calender. I called and was asked to bring in my folio and then it was done. I was to have my first solo exhibition.
Then the panic set in.....
What if it's no good?!
I don't have this.. I don't have that..
Nothing will be done in TIME!!!!
No one will like it!!!
Why oh why did I say yes to this??!!
Why did Tomboy Bill call me??!!!

I started to hyperventilate. Daniela (from Daniela Esposito creative marketing), stepped in to calm me down. Yep, I panicked just a little.

I have no flyers for this exhibition!!! No problem said Daniella and the next day she presented me with a few options. The day after that they were off to print. Talk about a pro.
I have no idea what pieces I am using and how I am hanging them!! I stressed. Daniella and TomboyBill turned up and helped me sort out which pieces to use and in which order/groups to hang them.
I took the framed prints to APTE, still nervous and full of worry, Tony from APTE was great and hung the prints calmly even with me saying.. "hmm Tony could we try that just a little bit more to the right.. and this other print needs to be just a smidge.. no another smidge more to the left!'

Now it is done. All hung and ready to be viewed.

Now I can breathe again..... now I can be calm.

And here we are.

Here you are

and hopefully you may have time to be there:

APTE Cafe
538 Heidelberg Road,  Alphington Vic.
(between Grange rd and Station st's).

The exhibition runs from Wednesday January the 9th for three weeks until Wednesday the 30th of January.

There are framed and unframed prints for sale. Starting from only $25

From My artist's Blurb comes this:

"Matthew grew up in and amongst the concrete housing commission towers of the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood during the 70’s and 80’s. As part of the underclass Matthew had little but his imagination and a keen eye with which to find joy and beauty in his surroundings.

In continuing this practice with his photographic work, Matthew often brings to our attention the beauty which lies hidden in our world. In particular, the beauty that exists in the minutiae of forgotten and vandalised transient urban spaces.

Just as the piece ‘You are… [insert text’], is a humorous comment on how context and a person’s affect/mood changes the way we think and engage with others, i.e. ‘you are… beautiful’ could very easily be ‘you are …a rat bag’, Matthew’s work asks us to relook at the world around us and at how our preconceived ideas and our affect effects how we view and experience life."

I do hope you may have a few minutes to pop down to APTE, grap a coffee and have a look at my work. Here is a sneak peek, just for you!:

The much talked about ‘Blue Culicidae #53’:

 Black and white prints:

Colorful prints:

Tony from APTE hanging the 'First of the leaves, the last of the leaves' set of four small prints.

My flyer, as designed by the wonderful Daniela Esposito!

Special thanks to Daniela Esposito and TomboyBill, because without the both of you this exhibition would not have happened.
Thanks also to APTE for having my work there and to Tony for taking time out of his holidays to come in and hang the pieces.You are a gem!

All artworks and images are copyright matthew schiavello 2013.
Flyer design copyright Daniela Esposito 2013.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue: January 2013

For the first blog post of the year, I thought it would be nice to ease into things with some tunes.

Something Old:

David Bowie: 'Five Years'
The opening track of the fantastic 1972 album "The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from mars"

David Bowie: 'Five Years'




Something New:

Pulp- 'After You'
From the Triple J website comes this tasty info about the track:
"Pulp fans at a recent hometown gig in Sheffield, England, got a special treat from the band. They were handed Christmas Cards with a download code for "a little present" that turned out to be a brand new song.
According to the Pulp wiki, 'After You' was written and first demoed back in 2000. But the track released to fans on Christmas Eve was a new version produced over a few sessions, including one with James Murphy in London"

Pulp- 'After You'



Something else that is new and very cool. The Twerps b-side 'He's in Stock'. This comes from the 7 Inch 'Work it out', released in October on cool local indie label 'Chapter Music'. Triple J have this on their hit List!!!!  Yay for local indie music! This track reminds me of indie/alternative bands in the 80's like The Bats.

 The Twerps- 'He's in Stock'



Something Borrowed:

Blondie: "Hanging on the telephone"
A few weeks back I have the pleasure of seeing the Shambelles play and they dropped this tune in their set and did great! While Blondie are famous for this song (off their 1978 album 'Parallel Lines' , it is a cover and was originally done by The Nerves back in 1976 (two years before Blondie's version).

Blondie: "Hanging on the telephone"



Something Blue:

I don't need to say much about this except:

Bob Dylan- 'It's all over now, Baby Blue' ( live in 1965).

Triple J Australian Music awards

Yep, they happened and as much as people may love or hate The J's, no one can say that their unearthed radio or Oz music awards are bad things. Unearthed radio is really great news for local unsigned artists. The J Awards similarly recognise and celebrate Australian music, both signed and unsigned. Yes, the winners are often Triple J's 'usual suspects', but still, they are Australian.

According to the Triple J website, "The J Award is for an album of outstanding achievement as an Australian musical work of art - for its creativity, innovation, musicianship and contribution to Australian music."  The inaugural J Award back in 2005 was won by Wolfmother's self titled LP. Other past winners are; The Hilltop Hoods - 'The Hard Road' (2006), Pnau - 'Pnau' (2007), The Presets- 'Apocalypso' (2008), Sarah Blasko- 'As day follows night' (2009), Tame Impala- 'InnerSpeaker '(2010) and Gotye- 'Making Mirrors' (2011).


This years nominations were:

-Tame Impala - Lonerism
-Alpine - A Is For Alpine
 -Hermitude - HyperParadise
- Ball Park Music - Museum
- The Rubens - The Rubens
- Bertie Blackman - Pope Innocent X
- Regular John - Strange Flowers
- Oh Mercy - Deep Heat
- Urthboy - Smokey's Haunt
- The Presets - Pacifica
- Sarah Blasko - I Awake
-Parkway Drive - Atlas

The winner, was unsurprisingly: Tame Impala - 'Lonerism'

Here is a very cool track and clip from that album.
Tame Impala- 'Feels like we only go backwards'

Only because I really like Alpine's album 'A Is For Alpine', I want to share a track off that. I turned on the radio one day and was half listening to a concert that was being played and suddenly found myself thinking, wow, this band sound great live and the tunes are good as well. That band was Alpine and based on what I heard of that live concert played over the radio transistor, I went out and brought their album 'A Is For Alpine'. I was not disappointed! They are a great Melbourne band.  Support Aussie music. Support local music. Go and buy a record today! In fact, go and buy several records today!

Alpine- 'Gasoline' (unofficial video)


The Nominees for the Australian Video Clip of the year were:

-Alpine - Hands
- Gotye - Easy Way Out
- Flight Facilities - Foreign Language
- Kirin J Callinan - Way II War
- Bertie Blackman - Boy
- Hilltop Hoods - Rattling the Keys to the Kingdom

The winner of the Music video of the year was Kris Moyes clip for Kirin J Callinan - 'Way II War'

If you have not seen it, it is pretty cool and well worth a look, In fact if you only look at one clip in this post, make this the one! I would go on about how I find this clip invigorating, inspiring, forward looking, yet reminiscent of the 80's and DIY/underground music, but it is probably best if I stop rambling and let you make your own minds up.

Kirin J Callinan - 'Way II War'


I'd like to also share the film clip from Video of the year nominees, The Hilltop Hoods. I like their idelogy behind the clip. For the clip they said that  "Not only did we want to do something unifying, we also wanted to use the platform we have to promote artists that we think deserve more exposure. Of course, not everyone involved in the filmclip needs exposure, as many of the artists involved have huge followings in their own right. But having these artists involved in the filmclip just further serves to unify and consolidate the scene".  Nice! I like their inclusive attitude. I also like the great beats and production in the tune, but will say that I cannot help but notice only a couple of female hop hop artists in this clip.

Hilltop Hoods - Rattling the Keys to the Kingdom



The Unearthed artist of the year nominees:

- Flume
- The Rubens
- Chance Waters
- Kingswood
- Thelma Plum

The winner of the Unearthed Artist of The Year award was ' The Rubens'.

Here is a track of theirs. The Rubens- 'Don't ever want to be found'


Australian music, great stuff. get into it!

It's christmas time again.

I was going to start this blog with an unseasonal Bah! Humbug! But I won't. I do fear that I am but half a moment away from becoming that cranky old man in the cardigan, waving his walking stick menacingly and raving on about disrespect and how things were so much better in 'my day'. OK, maybe I'm not QUITE THAT bad, YET. I do really enjoy buying gifts for loved ones and this is the season to indulge. While things have been a little tight financially this year, that doesn't stop me from being able to share some lovely christmas things with you all:

Something kind of cruel but, some of it is so very, very funny! Parents intentionally giving their children crap presents and filming the reactions!

Jimmy Kimmel: I gave my kids a terrible present.


Part 2:



Something musical and Christmasy that I never get sick of:

The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl- 'Fairytale of New York'




Something to remind us of others that need our help:



"There are about one billion people suffering from starvation in the world today. One in seven people doesn’t have enough nutritious food to eat and their bodies are literally feeding on themselves.
Here’s a basic overview of what happens when someone doesn’t have enough food. First, their bodies will use up energy stores in their muscles and fat. Once that’s depleted the body will feed on internal organs. Eventually the person will die from diseases because of their weakened body, or the organ failure from the starvation itself.
There are many horrible ways to die, but I can’t imagine many worse than having your body feed on itself.
I also can’t imagine what it must be like to watch your child succumb to starvation and be powerless to help them."

The above picture and quote was from http://saveonetoday.ca/. I do not know enough about this organisation to endorse them personally, but I do support any message that reminds us all of the plight of the less fortunate.


Lastly, something to fill our hearts and souls:

Ode to Joy- flash mob style:


Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and what ever your religious beliefs, may you be safe, warm, fed and content this festive season and beyond. May we all appreciate what we have and be thoughtful enough to share what we can with those that are less fortunate.

And for those that believe in 'Festivus', let the airing of  grievances begin!

warm wishes all round,
matthew schiavello.

People and faces - December 2012

As much as I love abstract photography, I also love photographs of people and in particular, their faces. I thought I would share some recent shots with you:

An unknown waitress in the city, looking Zorro-esque!:

Silhouettes at NGV (Ian Potter Centre):

Coffee in a city arcade and Tom's reflection in the window:

A couple of photos I took of my friend F's very cute and bubbly daughter:

Brad's Birthday in Melbourne:
My mate Dean and a waiter at Pellegrini's... we ordered and ate, I pulled out the camera and then it suddenly became very... umm what is the word the young un's use... random?

 

All photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2012