Bloc Party - Secret Show @ The Zoo

Bloc Party Rocks a Pre-Splendour Crowd

Bloc Parties Splendour appearance was tipped as the only Australia show that the Brit alternative rockers would be playing. However, the day before one of Australia's biggest festivals, Splendour in the Grass, Bloc Party played a secret show early on Friday evening at The Zoo in Brisbanes Fortitude Valley.
The show opened with an amazing set by local heros, The Last Dinosaurs, blasting through some old and new tracks such as, 'Time and Place,' 'Honolulu,' 'Weekend,' and their first commercial smash, 'Zoom.'

The crowd was pumped and itching to see any glimpse of Bloc Party or their front man, Kele.

It wasnt long before the boys of Bloc party burst on to stage. The crowd errupted as Bloc Party began their set with one of their 'Poppy' tunes, 'So He Begins to Lie.'

The blasted their way through some Bloc Party classics as well as showing some previews of their soon to be release EP, 'Four'.

These songs included 'Octopus,' 'Team A' and others. All of which reverted back to the pre-'One Last Chance' days in which Bloc Party made addictive and melodic songs using Russell's loops and effects pedals.

The set of course finished on (in my opinions) Bloc Party's best song, 'HELICOPTER!' Kele placed a helicopter hat on his head (which belonged to me) and played one of the best live songs I have heard in my life.


After the show, I had the pleasure of meeting Kele. He had invited me backstage to thank me for letting him keep my hat. Humble and relaxed, Kele offered me his jacket in exchange.

He was a great guy.

Overall the show was one of the best viewing expereinces anyone could have. They went on the tear up the main stage the following night in Byron Bay at Splendour in the Grass.

Their new EP 'Four' will be released 20th August, 2012.

Little Comets - Jenifer

Soul, Scat and a Whole Lot More

Although this isnt the original release, the acoustic version of this song just pushes all the right buttons. This is the acoustic version of 'Jennifer' from Little Comets' recently released 'Jennifer And Other Short Stories' EP, out now on Dirty Hit.

It is a combination of soulful acapella and pop acoustic guitar. Wonderful piece of music.

Ball Park Music (New Release)

'Surrender'

Brisbane's home grown heros, 'Ball Park Music' have dropped another toe tapping tune in the last few days. The title of the new release 'Surrender' is exactly what I do to their music everytime I listen. Had the privelledge of seeing them live in February, and boy do they put on a good show.

They spent weeks teasing their fan base on Facebook and other social medias, but finally, it is here.

So please, sit back and enjoy a taste of Brisbanes music brilliance.

Copyright 2012, Ball Park Music

Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait

Arcade Fire Classic - It needs to be relived again

Many are aware of the 2010 release of the interactive music video that acompanied Arcade Fire's, 'We Used To Wait.' This came along with the release of their album, 'The Suburbs.'

If you have never seen it before, today is your lucky day.

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

The 5 Genre Review

This month's best; 5 Songs of 5 different genres.

Alternative:

Alt-J - Breezeblocks

A fusion of alternative mellow guitar, dripping bass and an unmistakable voice. 

Acoustic:

The Trouble With Templeton - I Wrote A Novel 
Raspy blues tones provided by a rediculously talented Brisbane artist.

Rock:

Loon Lake - Bad To Me

Upbeat and 'The Strokes' like in nature.

 

Indie Pop

Jungle Giants - She's A Riot

This song makes me nostalgic of Summers many years ago

 

Electonica

Kavinsky - Nightcall

Appeared in the movie 'Drive.' This song is reminisent of 1980's Miami, Florida.

Alhambra Lounge - Friday, 15 June, 2012

Mosman Alder, The Trouble With Templeton, The Oyster Murders

Alhambra Lounge

15 June, 2012
 
Things are looking good at Alhambra tonight. It’s still early, barely past 9pm, and the venue is already buzzing while the opening act sets up. The new stage at the venue is a great addition. The space feels like it is built for gigs now, rather than a bar that happened to have bands occasionally hidden in the corner; a definite improvement.

The Oyster Murders open proceedings with their enjoyable take on the darker side of indie rock. Their mix of male and female vocals gives them what is typically a fairly uncommon feel, although it proves something of a theme tonight. Second song, Ghosts In Our Wake, is the highlight of the set; dark, melancholic and catchy, it’s a lovely track that shows off the band’s melodic skills.

The Trouble With Templeton have some early gear problems, but it’s handled with good humour and when they do start, it’s a very impressive performance. Bleeders, their debut LP, released late last year, is a solid record, but there’s a sense of immediacy and intensity to the live performance that really causes the tracks to shine. Thomas Calder’s voice is strong and soulful, and tonight he’s aided by some beautiful harmonies from Betty Yeowart. There’s a second guitarist, a relatively recent addition, who adds an interesting twist to the sound too, with heavily-effected notes twisting around the folk rock of the originals. The punters don’t do the band a lot of favours – the chattering from the back of the room threatens to overwhelm some of the subtler moments – but for those paying attention it’s a wonderful set.

Mosman Alder’s debut EP, Burn Bright, has been gathering some impressive critical responses and it seems that word has definitely spread as a rather large crowd gathers around the stage in anticipation. The band quickly justifies the turn-out tonight. As with the supports, their already solid EP is turned into something more visceral live, with shifting dynamics and layered instruments that create an impressively coherent whole. There’s some sharing of vocal duties throughout the set, with guitarist Jackson Muir taking over for some new tracks, and while it creates variety Mosman Alder are at their best when primary vocalist Valdis Valodze has the reins, his distinctive voice giving the band a unique presence.
The audience seems excited and engaged and Valodze is clearly thrilled with the response tonight as he mentions how exciting it is to see audience members singing along. There’s still a sense that there’s room to grow for the band, but when everything gels – like when clear highlight Tokyo 1933 builds into distortion and then fades away on a haunting violin line – it’s clear that Mosman Alder have something special to offer.

Deep Sea Arcade - See No Right

Shoe-Gaze meets Psychedelic Pop

The days of the 90's are unfortunately long gone. However, one of the most influential music scenes of the time, Shoe-gaze, can be found rearing its melodic little head in many songs floating around in the present day. 

One band who I think captures this well is Sydney 5-piece, Deep Sea Arcade. This song makes you feel as if you are inside a haunted house. This song in particular, 'See No Right,' off their album 'Outlands' to released on 16 March, 2012 is a beautifully written song that embodies the genre of Pop, Psychedelic, Indie and many more. I look forward to hearing more from this band in the future.

A Grindhouse production

Director - Nic Mckenzie
Producer - Ash Morgan

My Life in a $10 Scrapbook

Lomography Competition Slides

These are the photos I will be entering in the
Lomography contest, hosted by Urban Outfitters

 Owned by Jordan Gurdler 2012

The Trouble With Templeton - Someday Soon

The Blues Revival

It started with The Rubens, and now a new contender has entered the 'Blues Revival.' Simple minor progressions and one hell of a singing voice has resulted in this beautiful piece of melodic genius.

I give you, Thomas Calder (aka, The Trouble With Templeton). Coming fresh out of suburban Brisbane. Even the video clip for this gut wrenching songs will give you the creeps. Post death, the bloody corpse of Caldan sings you a sadistic lullaby.

Listen and download more of his beautiful songs at:

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/TheTroubleWithTempleton

I will continue to promote his music on my blog as it will continue to improve over time.

Deforestation in the Amazon

Impending Issues in the Amazon

Deforestation continues to be the dominant land-use trend in Latin America (Fig. 1) (Ramankutty and Foley 1999, Achard et al. 2002), and subsistence agriculture, an important part of many local economies, is one of the major contributors (Chowdhury and Turner 2006, Pan et al. 2007). But, socioeconomic changes related to globalization are promoting a rapid change toward agricultural systems oriented to local, regional, and global markets. The Amazon basin is the region that has lost the largest area to deforestation, and where deforestation has had the greatest impact on biodiversity and biomass loss (Houghton et al. 1991, Laurance 1998, Lambin et al. 2003), but most other biomes have also been and continue to be severely affected by conversion to agriculture and pastures (e.g., Ellenberg 1979, Sader and Joyce 1988, Viña and Cavelier 1999, Galindo-Leal and De Gusmao Camara 2003, Klink and Machado 2005, Viglizzo et al. 2006, Gasparri et al. 2008). Historically, traditional shifting agriculture and cattle ranching, often favored by government subsidies and migration policies, have been the main drivers of deforestation in the Amazon, as well as in other ecosystems in Latin America such as the Andean forests, Central American lowlands, and South American dry forests (Hecht 1993, Kaimowitz 1995, Grau et al. 2008a). Although these driving forces continue to act in many places, export-oriented industrial agriculture has become the main driver of South American deforestation. In Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina, extensive areas of seasonally dry forest with flat terrain and enough rainfall for rain-fed agriculture are now being deforested for soybean production, which is mainly exported to China and the European Union (Dros 2004). This process affects the species-rich Amazon forests (Fearnside 2001, Killeen et al. 2008) and indirectly favors other forms of degradation beyond the agriculture frontier, such as logging and fire (Nepstad et al. 1999). The expansion of modern agriculture is having its greatest effects on the two most threatened biomes both at global and continental scales (Hoeckstra et al. 2005): tropical and subtropical dry forests (Zak et al. 2004, Grau et al. 2005, Silva et al. 2006) and temperate grasslands and savannas (Paruelo and Oesterheld 2003, Baldi and Paruelo 2008). Although the “soy boom” in Latin America is an important threat to the region’s biodiversity, it has brought large economic benefits to the economy sectors associated with production, transportation, commercialization, and processing of agricultural products and to the local and national governments through taxes. Furthermore, the “soy boom,” partly based on transgenic cultivars, is supplying cheap calories and high-quality protein to help meet the growing demand for food in Southeast Asia, and is thus contributing to increasing nutrition levels in this region.  

Although the efficiency of modern agriculture and the associated lower food costs are positive for consumers, smallhold farmers, particularly those on marginal lands, are frequently unable to compete with large-scale agriculture. This process and the increase in off-farm jobs in the service and industry sectors in the cities stimulate rural–urban migration. The combination of agricultural modernization and rural–urban migration often leads to a shift in the mode of food production and the abandonment of marginal agricultural and grazing land, which can favor ecosystem recovery both as spontaneous processes and by facilitating the implementation of protected areas or conservation policies (Mather and Needle 1998, Mather 2001, Aide and Grau 2004, Grau and Aide 2007, Izquierdo and Grau 2008). Forest transition or more generally, ecological transition (ecosystem recovery occurs also in non-forested biomes), occurs when an economy shifts toward non-agricultural production, agriculture concentrates in the most productive lands, and marginal agriculture is abandoned, favoring the recovery of forests and other natural ecosystems. Although comparatively less important than deforestation and much less perceived by the general public and the scientific community, processes of ecosystem recovery can be observed in many Latin American areas (Fig. 1). Forest expansion or recovery of degraded forests during recent decades has been reported for several Caribbean and Central American areas in association with the strong impact of rural outmigration and economic modernization, including Puerto Rico (Lugo 2002, Grau et al. 2003, Parés Ramos et al. 2008), Dominican Republic (Grau et al. 2008c), Mexico (Klooster 2003, Bray and Klepeis 2005), El Salvador (Hecht et al. 2006), Honduras (Southworth and Tucker 2001), Costa Rica (Kull et al. 2007), and Panama (Wright and Samaniego 2008). In South America, examples of ecosystem recovery include forest expansion in peri-urban ecosystems (Baptista 2008, Grau et al. 2008b), expansion of Andean forests into grasslands (Grau 1985, Kitzberger and Veblen 1999), and land-use disintensification in deserts and semi-arid ecosystems (Moran et al. 1996, Preston et al. 1997, Wiegers et al. 1999, Morales et al. 2005, Jepson 2005, Grau et al. 2008a).

Although agriculture is being abandoned in some marginal areas, in other areas it continues to expand; for example, in regions used for illegal crops. Compared with modern agriculture, which concentrates in fertile and flat soils, illegal crops are often cultivated in marginal areas, mainly because of poor accessibility, which reduces legal controls. The most common of these areas in Latin America are the humid slopes of the Andes, where cultivation of coca and opium are a major source of deforestation and environmental degradation (Cavelier and Etter 1995, Fjdelsa et al. 2005, Bradley and Millington 2008). These areas are also affected by armed conflicts and are outside the legal system of the country, a situation with two contrasting consequences for conservation. On the one hand, social and economic deterioration may lead to outmigration and land abandonment, but on the other hand, conditions for establishment of protected areas and legal enforcement of conservation become very difficult.

Another fact not mentioned in this essay is the possible removal of over 100 uncontacted tribes.

Copyright © 2008 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance

Triple J - One Night Stand (DALBY)

Rain, Music and Snot Nosed Brats

This year my friend and I made the three hour jouney to see Triple J host One Night Stand in Dalby, rural Queensland. The line up for a free concert was better than expected. Being a big Matt Corby fan I was excited to see him.

Upon arrival, the rain immediately poured down and continued to do so for hours on end. The crowd flooded in one hour before the first act came on, so we all stood, freezing cold in the pouring rain eaglerly awaiting 'Mace and the Motor' to come on. It was quickly established that the crowd of predomintely 15 year-olds was only there to see 360.

Mace and the Motor definitely had some talent, obviously a lot of instrumental experience within this Three-Piece from Towoomba. Playing a rocking set of alternative rock and roll, the crowd was just not entertained, due to their pining for 360 to start.

Next up was 'the blue eyed dream boat, with the voice of an angel and the face of a sex god' (thanks for the descriptor Tom & Alex). Matt Corby was joined on stage by his usual band, which now includes the talented keyboard player Bree Tranter who used to play in The Middle East. The set began with the soulful 'Kings, Queens, Beggars & Thieves', with the crowd already going nuts. Halfway through the performance Matt surprised the crowd with a fresh new track, so new that in didn't have a name. In fact according to Matt it had only been finished 20 mins before he was due on stage. He and the band pulled it off in style before pounding into a heart-stopping rendition of 'Souls A'Fire', before finishing up with the sing-a-long Hottest 100 gem the whole crowd was waiting for 'Brother'. - Triple J review.
However, what they failed to mention in their review was the disapointment that Corby fans felt by the rest of the crowd. As each song Corby played had ended, it was quickly followed by taunts of "Just play brother!" and "Bring 360 on! Take Corby off!" shouted by an unappreciative 'Teeny-bopper' audience awaiting their idol, the untalented 360. Matt Corby is an amazing raw talent that far surpasses 360, however a crowd of drop-kick, uneducated idiots wearing snap backs and disney jumpers were only here to see one person.

By now, the rain had begun to pour down like we had begged for a shower. Stonefield, an adorable 4 piece from an even more remote town then Dalby. These girls are a power package of female rock and roll, reigniting a 80's Blondie theme that was once thought lost. They played a rocking set of old fashioned rock ballads and melodic female power anthems. Such talent for such young girls straight out of highschool.

It was now time for the crowd to see who they had come all this way for. 360 took the stage to ear-splitting screams that easily cut its way through the pouring rain. The crowd went wild as 360 began playing his catchy songs, accompinied by his lack of rapping ability. He is definitely popular as his songs are catchy, but his rapping ability is not to be desired. With time, I am sure it will improve, but for now I am not even remotely impressed as he does not even deserve to be considered in the same genre of music as the great 2pac, Biggie Smalls, Ice Cube, Nas and LL Cool J. However, due to the rain, the festival was cut short for fear of safety complications.


It was a bitter dissapointment that Temper Trap did not play, as a lot of us have waited in the rain for 5 hours to see them. However, if safety is an issue, it was necessary to pull the plug, literally.

The Dalby Showgrounds had been turned into a mud bath. The day was done. It was time for everyone to make the long commute home.

Jai Paul - Jasmine (Demo)

Genre; Indie, Soulful, Garage Electronica

One song that can definitely not be classified by one genre.
English born producer turned song writer pumps out my
favourite electronica song for the year thus far.

Take a listen and comment. What do you think?

© 2012 Jai Paul

Jelly Fish Aquarium

An Interior Decorative Dream

 

 

If fish are just too boring for you, maybe you could invest
in this beautiful invention!

A fully functioning aquatic environment that can house
multiple jelly fish. It is ten times better than a lava lamp
or a fish could ever be.

What is the catch you ask?
The price.

The basic package WITH JELLYFISH stats at;

• $382.00

And the Deluxe Package will set you back;

• $709.00

If you have the money however, I highly recommend this
awesome little ecosphere.

More info at:
https://www.jellyfishart.com/

Bright Wild Eyes: Katelyn-Jane

Vintage Photography At Its Finest

I have been a fan of this young lady for quite a while now, she is definitely a rising start in photography amongst the Brisbane Community. 

Her photos are not only inspiring, but remenisant of memories youve never actually experienced for yourself. The colours are 70's but the picture quality is that of this century, infusing two perfect elements of photography. This girl is definitely someone to watch in the future.

For more of her brilliant photographical stylings, head to:

http://brightwildeyes.blogspot.com.au/

Grimes - Oblivion

Synth Revival (Dream Pop)

Claire Boucher, or Grimes, with her Dream Pop stunner,
"Oblivion" is the newest Synthetic beat to catch my attention
coming straight of Montreal, Quebec. 

Directed by: Emily Kai Bock (http://www.emilykaibock.com/)
DOP: Evan Profofsky (http://evanprosofsky.com/)

The Suburban Crusade - Born 31/05/2012

Blog Officially Open For Business

This is my Third blog now. I have deleted all the others and I am starting fresh. I discuss a lot of interesting and relevant topics, as well as a bunch of stupid, mediocre dribble.

If you enjoy the following;

• Politics (World and Australian)
• Photography
• Art (PostModern in particular)
• World News
• Music (World and Australian)
• Food and Culture
• Australia (Brisbane in particular) 
• Sport
• Fashion
• Some guy ranting on about pointless shit

Then you have come to the right place.

Expect to see all of this and more.


From the blog creator,

Jordan