Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 8, 2012, 5:16 am
I have a question for all you music lovers out there: what is your approach to music in a language you don’t understand? Do you seek out a translation of the lyrics at all? Do you try to imagine what a song might be ‘about’?  Or do you just let it wash over you? This ‘best of’ tunes fro...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 6, 2012, 5:16 pm
I’ve decided to spice up the blog a little by also sharing my views on any live musical shows I might encounter.  I’ll try and build a complex system that allows comparisons so that my end of year rankings are more reliable! Artist: Pugsley Buzzard and his Trio Venue: East Brunswick Club, Mel...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 4, 2012, 6:36 pm
The decision of Henry Saint Clair Fredericks to adopt a stage name was understandable. But perhaps instead of the subcontinent’s most famous mausoleum, he could have chosen “Sidney Opera House” (and passed himself off as the part of Sun House’s clan).  Or got all funky with “M.Pire State...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 3, 2012, 9:07 pm
I’m sure I’ve mentioned here more than once that I have a strong preference for the “dirtier” end of the blues music spectrum. Blues should sound raw and dangerous, and if happens to tell of love gone bad or misadventure, all the better. Taj Mahal doesn’t fit said bill. His recordings (w...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Feb 1, 2012, 11:28 pm
I expanded yesterday’s post about the Dick Smith anti-FDI stance for the Conversation wbsite.  Click here to read it. Filed under: Uncategorized
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 1, 2012, 2:09 am
As concept albums go this is one of the least ambitious efforts I can recall. Featuring only songs with titles commencing with “i” (and then listing them in alphabetical order isn’t really a stretch. If Stephin Merritt was really lazy, he could have simply named fourteen random songs with unr...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Feb 1, 2012, 12:21 am
Perennial soundbite provider Dick Smith has been very vocal in the past couple of days about the prospect of his namesake retail business falling into ‘foreign hands’. Despite him selling the electronics chain to Woolworth’s two decades ago, he is threatening to ‘trash the brand‘ if some f...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Jan 31, 2012, 12:55 am
The more observant readers of this blog may have noticed that I blabber on about Thailand every January (see here, here, here, here and here for examples). I travel to Bangkok each year to supervise 20 lucky (and talented) students who work intensively on ‘real’ company projects.  It’s a fant...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 13, 2011, 6:56 pm
Having one album from J.Walker’s nom de plume Machine Translations has always granted my some musical cred in my mind. JW is one of those artists who gets name-checked with startling frequency in the ‘serious’ Aussie music press (usually preceded by the term “under-rated”), and I’ve alw...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 12, 2011, 6:31 pm
I listened to this album walking to and from work over the past couple of days, and was all prepared to dismiss much of the album as lacking energy. Yet, listening again this early morn at the desk in my study, the album seems much more vibrant and perky, and much less grating than the intermittent...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 10, 2011, 7:16 am
And thus begins our journey into the letter M. 493 reviews ago I wrote a pretty damning review of the debut solo album from The Mabels’ frontman. Part of my disappointment stemmed from my affection for his earlier work.  This, the band’s 1998 debut, showcases much of what they did best (altho...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 9, 2011, 1:18 am
... to a few of the standout tracks.  For example, knowing that Burn, oh junk pile, burn is about a crazy former neighbour with a penchant for Xmas day bonfires, make me delight more in the wordplay and playfulness. The Hawaiian guitar on said track also adds (in a bizarre fashion) to the off-cen...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 5, 2011, 8:30 am
One Friday night in NYC, while the missus was off gallivanting in London, I jumped the L-Train over to Brooklyn to check out Ms Golightly. I had a recollection of said lady singing on a White Stripes album and one by the Greenhornes, and being name-checked regularly as a righteous and prolific babe...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Oct 3, 2011, 6:06 pm
One major disappointment on arriving in NYC was discovering these guys had played there the week before.  I bought this latest effort as consolation. Revisiting my old reviews I am struck by my wavering views of the band’s consistency. In many ways that sums up my response to this album At its ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 30, 2011, 9:00 pm
Wow, I just snuck under the wire yesterday on having to rename this blog “One Album Every Two Days”.  My late burst of activity has got me across the line, and the effort has rejuvenated my interest in this eternal quest. So let’s have a look at the wash up thus far. Twelve letters have been...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 30, 2011, 2:56 am
It is appropriate that I should hit the much-delayed five-zero-zero with an album which was also tardy, numerically inclined, and from an act who’ve been occupying a very high possie on my all-time rankings since way back. Even more exciting is that this album is a welcome return to form from an ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 29, 2011, 1:32 am
Another CD I picked up in recent months. A trap for young album purchasers is accidently buying a ‘for the fans only’ album like this one. This is a pastiche of the 8-track demo that got DCFC ‘noticed’, plus ten other early recordings from the infant act. As you’d expect, it is a bit of ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 23, 2011, 8:40 pm
Another gift from reader extraordinaire Andy. The full name of this album is “When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your ...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Sep 21, 2011, 10:01 pm
I’m not sure which is less surprising: (a) the announcement that the Foster’s Board are now supporting SABMiller’s takeover offer; or (b) the ill-informed hysteria in the tabloid press about the ‘loss of an Aussie icon’. But let’s have a look at The Hysteria.  The grounds for concern ar...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 19, 2011, 4:37 am
Here’s another act we caught live in NYC.  The attraction was really the venue (Radio City Music Hall), and a couple of cool-ish supports (, Wild Flag, and Wild Flag). But I had some inkling that I’d quite enjoyed reviewing an earlier Bright Eyes release, and the chance to see them showcase a ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 14, 2011, 7:30 pm
This is the album BJL and his sweet furry buddies were showcasing then we caught them live back in May. It must be a blast having such a brash, party-inducing groovathon to drag around the stages of the world. This album is bigger and sleazier and even more confident than their last. The riffs are...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Sep 11, 2011, 1:55 am
One of my three readers mentioned she was missing my reviews, so here I am back again… Our stay in New York saw us pick up a variety of new CDs from the A-L section.  This here is one of two from an Austin band I’d never heard of before, but can’t seem to stop recommending. This soul-funk c...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Aug 12, 2011, 2:06 am
It is rare to see an Australian multinational announce two international expansion moves in the same week. And it’s even rarer when said moves are to two different continents. Shopping centre giant Westfield made two such announcements this week, with joint ventures signed in firstly, Brazil, and ...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Aug 4, 2011, 11:49 pm
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a newspaper journalist seeking some comments on the troubles of low-cost airline Tiger Australia. The reporter was specifically interested in the likely impact of the current grounding on the firm’s relations with its parent back in Singapore (with a partic...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 20, 2011, 5:12 pm
Finally we’ve crawled to the end of the letter L… and all those Lucksmiths albums. It’s been a long arduous journey. We started back on January 1. Forty or so reviews in 6½ months isn’t very impressive is it?  But that did span several countries.  It also spanned the usual diverse range o...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 20, 2011, 12:29 am
No, I haven’t misread the artist’s name… I understand she is a “Li”, but this is a relatively recent purchase and just gets in under the wire before I close up the L shop. Our house has a soft spot for Scandinavian poplets, and Lykke Li is the latest additional to our stable. unfamiliar ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 14, 2011, 12:36 am
So finally we turn our backs on the Lucksmiths and tune in to an album that has been getting pretty regular spins in my world for 17 years. This is one of the rare CDs in my collections that I’ve always enjoyed, that has a distinct sound and context, and which has never prompted me to seek out an...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 12, 2011, 4:49 am
A week’s a long time in football, and like dog years, in music-reviewing time a day is the equivalent. While Naturaliste drew analogies to a tired, lacklustre football performance, this follow-up sees the band burst back on to the field with much-needed enthusiasm and zip, suggesting perhaps we�...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 11, 2011, 1:30 am
I spent a very chilly and depressing afternoon yesterday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I was there to support my football team of choice as they took on the powerhouse club de jour.  We started well, in the sense that we scored first… but this was a false dawn, and the game was soon a massacr...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 6, 2011, 8:43 pm
This is the 7th album in the Lucksmiths’ discography. It isn’t a ‘real album’, however. Rather it is a collection of singles etc from a three-year period. As such, it’s a surprisingly coherent opus, with a fuller band sound, greater use of horns, organs and other non-stringy instruments....
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Jul 6, 2011, 1:14 am
So, I make my much-delayed returned to the blogosphere with the biggest-selling album of ALL-TIME. I  received this CD from MJ’s biggest/oldest fan, Andy, who couldn’t stand that the J reviews were King of Pop-less (and given it was Andy’s 39th birthday last week, this might be seen as a bela...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - May 7, 2011, 12:22 pm
Patient readers, I am alive, but lazy.  Here’s my first review in over a month!! In the very early days of courting my eventual wife, I purchased her this CD. Thankfully she liked it, as I was very into it (and this band) at the time. As an intro to the band, this album works well, as there are...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Mar 24, 2011, 10:31 am
The Aussie news headlines have been buzzing in recent days with the competing cries of our embattled brewers and the ‘on the side of the consumer’ supermarket giants, over an alleged effort by the latter to sell the majors’ beers as ‘loss leaders’.  See here and here for a reasonable summ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Mar 23, 2011, 1:46 pm
I’ve never found there to be much of a correlation between the length of an album and it’s quality.  If anything a meandering album is often a sign of miscalculated confidence or an inability to cull. This is perhaps the shortest of the Lucksmiths albums, with only ten tracks over 27 minutes.�...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Mar 20, 2011, 10:37 pm
If ‘...Bicycle Case‘ and ‘What Bird…‘ were the albums where the Lucksmiths seemed a little over-involved in British history, then this album could be seen as the album where the band graduated to more contemporary content. Sure, there are still a book-ish track (World Encyclopedia Of Twen...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Mar 9, 2011, 11:59 am
Loyal readers, you might have noticed a lull in proceedings over the past week or so. I am currently staying in New York (with sporadic commutes down to Philadelphia). Our apartment here doesn’t have a newfangled stereo that’ll play my iTunes, so the albums currently in the queue are only hear...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Mar 8, 2011, 11:11 am
I’m breaking up the (very long) run of Lucksmiths albums with my usual ‘back catalogue’ reviews. Here’s another CD from my generous reader/friend Andy. I presume he gifted me this in recollection that I once taped (!) a copy of this off his vinyl (!) version. For an album I wouldn’t hav...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Mar 1, 2011, 4:35 pm
I distinctly remember my excitement at the release of this 3rd full-lengther from the Luckas. This may well have been the peak of my enthusiasm for this band as a live outing, and I suspect most of the tracks were pretty familiar to me by the time I heard them on here. As such, often the quirkier ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 28, 2011, 4:24 pm
In between their debut and this second album, The Lucksmiths released a fantastic EP titled Boondoggle. It saw their sound leap into some crystal clear poppy wonderland. That lesson wasn’t forgotten here, but added to the mix was a big dose of history. The trio get all olde skool with a Thomas H...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 24, 2011, 11:46 pm
Sit back folks, we might be here a while. This is the first from a pile of albums from these three (for now) Melbourne lads. The Luckas were but awkward teens when they cobbled together this debut album, which I did indeed buy on cassette the very first time I saw them playing support for Tlot Tlo...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Feb 24, 2011, 9:44 pm
Forget the online sales tax kerfuffle, this is the most ominous sight for several Aussie fashion retailers: This is in the Bourke Street Mall (central Melbourne)… Filed under: International business, International retailing, Retailing
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 23, 2011, 2:50 am
Thus my short Love Me Fest hits the home straight (and I gird my loins for perhaps the most harrowing (for you my dear reader) extended run of albums from one artist). This third album has served as a lovely, mellow backdrop to my afternoon of slowly working through a rather drawn out rewrite of a ...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 22, 2011, 10:50 pm
This bloody band really weren’t thinking about their subsequent searchability with their very generic choice of name and album titles. It’s a shame anonymity has been thrust upon these guys, especially in light of their outstanding debut. This follow-up doesn’t quite cut it, however, and mig...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 21, 2011, 9:08 pm
This act ranks right up there in terms of obscurity.  Their decidedly non-Googlable moniker renders them pretty much invisible in the cyber world, and there are no sound files or clips that I can find. What I do know is that the Sydney band featured three vocalists, that on this 1996 album Dave Or...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 21, 2011, 6:09 pm
It’s probably about time we re-entered the dance floor to the sound of pounding electronic beats. This British combo where a yet another (somewhat tangential) member of Big Beat scene who somehow captured some of my wallet attention. This 1998 collection sits nicely as a more band-like incarnati...
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Andre S. posted an article on International BS - Feb 16, 2011, 1:51 am
While Australia’s largest brewer slowly tears apart its less than successful attempt to also run a wine empire, one of our most internationally competitive (and innovative) winemakers is stepping into the beer business. Casella Wines, who have grown extremely fast off the back of the game-changing...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 15, 2011, 7:34 pm
My alphabetisation skills have failed me again.  This album has been in the wrong spot for years (I blame my weird belief that ‘liquor’ is spelled ‘licq…”. As you’ll discover if I ever make it to the letter ‘T’, I once had quite the fixation on the work of the They Might Be Giants....
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 15, 2011, 1:00 am
So we come to the end of our Liquor Giants four-play. It’s been a mighty pleasant journey (if a little tardy). Ward Dotson and co-conspirators have cobbled together a wonderful pastiche of sounds from the 1960s and 1970s into a coherent and entertaining body of work. This album sees the sound ge...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 14, 2011, 4:38 pm
How appropriate that this album has a velvet themed cover. This album evokes a sense of adult sophistication (like the velvet bags that one purchases at the theatre), yet it is playful and textural. Indeed, the juxtaposition of the single title Chocolate Clown keeps up the sweet, but possibly psyc...
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Andre S. posted an article on One Album A Day - Feb 10, 2011, 11:18 pm
I thought I’d break up the Liquor Giants quartet with this recent acquisition (via the very generous Andy). Diving into this album was a surefire recipe for a delayed review. This is not a cheap and dirty nine-track exercise pumped out one afternoon in the studio. Rather it is a finely structure...
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