Perth Music

Bob Evans is on the road for an extensive run of dates, playing his first Australian headline shows since 2006 and visiting some regions he’s never played before. Bob and his comrades have saddled up for 4 weeks of touring and a little bit of white line fever.

After taking his band of merry men around Australia a few times (including the Big Day Out, Homebake, West Coast Blues and Roots and last weekend’s The Great Escape) dodging showers and spreading the love around it’s now time for Bob to take to the skies and spread the love over international waters. Earlier this month, Bob headed to the USA, UK and the musical Mecca South Africa for some solo shows.

Bob Evans’ “Sadness and Whiskey Tour” will coincide with the release of the song of the same name at radio, as well as a very special deluxe version of “Suburban Songbook” which is instore now. The deluxe version features Bob Evans promo clips, exclusive footage and audio.

South Africa’s Farryl Purkiss with Victoria’s Machine Translations join Bob Evans and band as special guests for most of the east coast dates.

Wed 13th June – Foundry, Cannington WA
With Farryl Purkiss
Thu 14th June – Prince of Wales, Bunbury WA
With Farryl Purkiss
Fri 15th June – Capitol, Perth WA
With Farryl Purkiss and Abbe May
Sat 16th June – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
With Farryl Purkiss
Sun 17th June – Brighton Hotel (Bwana Room), Mandurah
With special guests

Thanks to the great people at Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Australia we have a whole bunch of CD’s to giveaway. If you would like to be in the running to win 1 of either:

10 x Thirsty Merc - Slideshows
5 x Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
5 x Nelly Fertado - Loose (Tour Edition)
5 x Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion
5 x Akon - Konvicted
10 x Pink - Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely) - Single
10 x Natasha Bedingfield - I Wanna Have Your Babies - Single

just email perthmusic@gmail.com with:
a) your name
b) age
c) postal address
d) and in 50 words or less describe the funniest moment that has happened to you at a gig or music festival.

The Western Australian Music Industry Association (WAM), are set to officially open entries for the WAM Song of the Year 2007 Contest on Monday 21 May.  Amateur or professional songwriters who want to take their career to the next level are urged to enter the WAM Song of the Year 2007, with over $30,000 in prizes to be won including the Grand Prize - a 3 day recording session and a pressing of 500 cd’s!

SOTY entrants can enter their original songs into the categories of Pop, Jazz, Country, Rock, Heavy Rock/Metal, Urban, World & Folk, Blues & Roots, Electronic/Dance, Mixed Bag, Love, Gospel, Professional and School Aged categories. Get your song in now – entries close August 10! Prizes for the Indigenous and Regional Song of the Year are drawn from entrants in every category. In 2007, WAM Song of the Year introduces a Professional category where published Western Australian based songwriters are given the chance to enter their works in WA’s premier song writing Awards.

You never know where WAM Song of the Year will take the song writers and their songs. 2006 Song of the Year Grand Prize Winner, Erik Hecht, has already gone on to sign a record deal, secure some fantastic touring opportunities for his band Institut Polaire and be unearthed by triple j. Blues and Roots Category winner, Abbe May, has had a stellar year of performance and recording opportunities following her win in 2006.

WAM Song of the Year is a perfect opportunity for entrants to gain industry recognition and great prizes. To be eligible to enter entrants must live in Western Australia. For the first time in SOTY history, participants can enter their songs in the WAM Song of the Year contest online, making entering cheaper and easier.

For full competition and entry details and a complete list of prizes go to www.wam.asn.au (.) Entries close on 10 August.

Ten years strong, four albums in and a bagful of stories to tell, Bomba embark on their biggest national tour yet in June /July with special guest artist Dereb Desalegn from Ethiopia. The tour will feature the new song ’Hold Your Ground’ written and recorded in support of the unsung heroes of our old growth forestry campaigns.

No strangers to hard work and fun, Bomba have rightfully earned a solid reputation as one of Australia’s best live acts, headlining festivals all across the country, playing alongside international acts and touring overseas. Enjoying the opportunity of connecting with audiences from all walks of life, founding member Nicky Bomba says “We’ve built a solid following just getting out there, being consistent and having fun. Communicating with a live mob is a wild feeling and there’s nothing better than music to create an immediate community vibe. Apart from the hoo-ha and hype of this industry, we as musicians have an important cultural role.”

The band has been active of late immersing themselves in many different projects ranging from writing and recording a protest song in conjunction with the anti-logging campaign in Southern Tasmania’s Weld Valley,(Hold Your Ground); Supporting the Suitable Transport Clean Energy initiative with a version of War’s “Low Rider” (where a group of workers dressed in business suits rode from Melbourne to Sydney on Electric bikes!) ; Assisting the Vision Generation awareness campaign with the “Stir Music” cd and teaming up with Master singer and Masenko player from Ethiopia, Dereb Desalegn.

The national tour will bring a stepped up classic Bomba show  including a mento/calypso set, where the band pays respect to roots of reggae, a percussion workout with African drums, and new tunes and selections from their current albums “Learn To Breathe” and “Bomba vs Laroz”. Special guest Dereb will perform with Bomba featuring songs from “Drums and Lions” a new world music album recorded by Nicky and Dereb.

Bomba will be recording all shows on the tour for a forthcoming live album, capturing the true energy and essence of a Bomba performance. Screaming ,chanting and odd noises will be all welcome….

Friday 1 June – Funk Club’s Winter Games - Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
With special guest Dereb Desalegn & The Funk Club House Band

Saturday 2 June – Fly By Night, Fremantle
With special guests Dereb Desalegn and Jess Mcavoy

Sunday 3 June – 3 Bears Bar, Dunsborough ** foundation day long weekend
With special guest Dereb Desalegn

For more info visit www.bomba.com.au or www.myspace.com/bombamusic

Friday 4th May, 2007
Fly By Night Club, Fremantle
Brooke Fraser
Blanch Dubois

Supporting her new album, Albertine, Brooke Fraser made only her 2nd visit to our fair city to perform at Fremantle’s Fly by Night Club. There was a great atmosphere in the club that is celebrating its 20th year of supporting local music and it was very relaxing to have plenty of chairs in front of the stage to enjoy the music. With a big contingent of very supportive New Zealanders, it’s no surprise that Fraser’s album debuted at number one in New Zealand and has gone three times platinum.

First up on the bill was Perth act Blanche Dubois who were very talkative and very engaging with the audience. With plenty of new songs to play, sisters Nadija and Adriana Begovich cruised through their set to an excited crowd. And even with some laryngitis issues the girls were able to be entertaining through song, music and even anecdotes.

Brooke Fraser took to the stage looking beautiful and, besides a few sound problems at the start of the set, sounding fantastic. A few old songs were played but almost all of Brooke’s new album was played with Brooke playing guitar and piano. Deciphering Me, Love, Where Is Your Fire, Faithful, Hosea’s Wife were all played with great attention to detail while Seeds was explained to the audience as ‘kinda about eating placentas’.

A short introduction by Brooke to the song Albertine explained how a trip to Rwanda for World Vision completely changed the way she felt about the world. A promise to an orphan named Albertine brought a purpose to Brooke’s music and created the song as well as the new album. Brooke sang ‘I will tell the world, I will tell them where I’ve been, I will keep my word, I will tell them Albertine’ and tonight she did.

For more info on Brooke visit www.brookefraser.com or www.myspace.com/brookefraser

WHAT: The Love is My Velocity Cookbook Launch
WHO: Love is My Velocity Records
WHEN: May 19
WHERE: The Bakery Artrage Complex
WHY: Because it rules
HOW: With aplomb

The Love is My Velocity Cookbook (unofficially sub-titled “A Thing That Is Completely Different To The Cookbook X-Press Put Out A Few Months Ago In That, For One, It Actually Is A Cookbook”), like a yeti upon a snowy peak campsite, approacheth.

What is it, you say? Yes, we can hear you. It’s a 60 page guide to Perth music and intermediate cooking whose every last recipe was contributed by the 48 bands featured, an exhibition of original work commissioned for this book by 60 of Perth’s best young artists, and the first stop for anyone wanting to immerse themselves in WA music, or look at it in a way besides the traditional.

During the making of the book people have told us that they doubt there are even 48 bands in Perth. These people are so wrong they make our feet hurt. They’re familiar with Capital City, Snowman, the Bank Holidays, Schvendes, the Kill Devil Hills, New Rules for Boats, and think that they’re the only bands around. They aren’t. Also featured in this book are quality but not as known acts like Mink Mussel Creek, Cease, the Leap Year, Extortion, the Wednesday Society and Kill Teen Angst. Not only are these bands around, not only are they good, but they know how to cook. Norwegian three-month-long lamb, Serbian cabbage rolls, lemonade scones, chilli chocolate cupcakes… we say the recipes are meant for intermediate cooks but in reality there’s a lot of fancy shit in here.

And the art! Oh man, the art. We said it was daft to think that there weren’t 48 good bands in Perth, but we would’ve agreed that there weren’t 60 awesome. We would’ve looked like cretins. We gave our artists a band each, a recipe, some songs by the band and, sometimes, a photo, and they gave us back images so immaculately pretty we wouldn’t think twice about tattooing them on our faces.

It’s turned out even better than we expected. We hope you like it, and will consider joining us for its launch, a two room extravaganza on May 19 at the Bakery (233 James St Northbridge). The exhibition opens at 7pm, and bands (Institut Polaire, New Rules for Boats, the Painkillers and Mink Mussel Creek) start playing at 8:30pm. It’ll be a right ol’ all night party. You’d be foolish to miss it.