Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The DCC has lost the plot.

A few months ago I became unusually flabbergasted by the Dunedin City councils' inability to listen to its constituents and ability to make questionable decisions. So I started a facebook group called "The DCC has lost the plot" - which now has over 3000 members.

I wrote and recorded a protest song and posted it on youtube around about the time of the groups creation and a few weeks later decided to record the song "properly" with a full band. This is the result.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Sounding good live..

Here's a great article on how musicians and sound engineers can work together to get the best possible sound in a live scenario. Well worth a look for performing musicians and live sound engineers. Too often one side dictates rather than listens with the resulting compromise andfrustration producing an average to sub par sounding show.

http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/set-lists-for-the-sound-man-and-sound-woman.html

On that note today I will be running sound for 12 hours in the Dunedin town hall.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Album release


Well the Sex with Bowie album release at Chicks Hotel was a good old time. We hired Dreich McCulloch to bring in his full KV2 system and engineer the show which seemed to give Hector, the venue manager, quite a fright. As we were setting up Hector, with a somewhat pained look on his face, exlaimed "I just don't get it!" I tried to make a joke about it but it didn't go down very well.


As a sound engineer I really, really hate going to gigs that sound like shit. As a performer I really, really hate sounding like shit. The week before I ran sound for a band at the same venue and they sounded like shit. Chicks has two of the dreaded "Poshing" brand high/mid bins which are harsh sounding to put it politely. Chicks is tiny and for many shows their system is adequate. Admittedly the system we hired was far larger than required but I kind of like having more than necessary. It's part of Sex with Bowie's appetite for excess. KV2 rigs are, frankly, amazing sounding PA systems and can be run at low volumes with a flat response across the frequency spectrum; I'd used the system before so I knew it would work. Bad sound is something that can ruin live music for your average punter and turn them off of it for ever.

Dreich did a fantastic job and is unreasonably reasonable when it comes to charging for his time, effort, mad skillz and outstanding rig. If you want to sound better than you ever have give him a bell.

Dreich also recorded the sets from all 3 bands, you can download "Mr Hands" here - google mr hands if you have no idea who he is/was. Thanks also to Lucinda McConnon for the fantastic photos.

A huge thanks to all of those that came out and helped us cover our costs.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

2 new Sex with Bowie tracks

I just finished mastering the album; well, pretty much. I'll probably continue to tweak it leading right up to the day we actually print off the artwork and put the first few records together. It's funny trying to master an album like this. There's already so much distortion on everything it becomes hard telling the difference between the compressor's distortion and what's actually on record. Ha, it's almost becoming part of our sound.

Anyway, fuck it, here's the first 2 tracks from the album: Baby Panadol and The Bainful Truth.

Baby Panadol

The Bainful Truth

Friday, September 4, 2009

Sex with Bowie "Absolute Beginners" album release.

So we're releasing our second album "Absolute Beginners" next Saturday the 12th of September at Chicks Hotel. We'll have Thundercub and The Gideons along for the ride, and it should be a good time.

This show will also be the Dunedin debut of the SEX WITH BOWIE DJS (myself and Logan). We've played a few times up in Wellington and it's usually all kinds of times. We'll be playing stuff like Phil Collins, Tears for Fears, Huey Lewis and The News and excerpts from the bible read by William Shatner.



















9pm doors. The Gideons are on at 9:30 and if you're in Dunedin you should try not to miss it because they hardly ever play live and are totally amazing.

To celebrate the celebration I've put our "acclaimed" first album, Corporate Karoke Function, online which you can download for free in it's entirety. Enjoy.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Right at this moment

I am recording the Biff Merchants playing live in Sammys for a pilot show called Off The Cuff.

The Biffs are a fantastic Psychedelic Pop band from Dunedin with a great album out called Harold; also recorded in Sammys by my buddy Stu Harwood.

Here's some photos (taken on Andy Biff's cell phone):











































Will post an mp3 asap!