Gyroscope, Fly By Night

Alright, so apparently I suck at taking breaks. All it took was one sms mentioning the magic ‘G-word’, and I was packing up my gear for what seemed like my millionth Gyroscope shoot in the last year. Support for the evening came from Calerway, a band I’ve been working with for as long as I can remember. Two bands that are definitely never a chore to shoot. This is a pretty picture-intensive post, I wouldn’t suggest tackling it with dial-up.

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British India, Amplifier

British India seem to be more popular on the West Coast than anywhere else, and two nights of a packed house at Amplifier showed that the trend was continuing. I’d bought a ticket to see them last time they toured, but didn’t actually stick around to see them play. With all the media frenzy and hype surrounding the band, I thought it was worth my while to finally see what I’d missed out on.

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Boys Boys Boys, Amplifier

A big ol’ photospam to recap on the weekend’s activities. The Next Big Thing band competition is the biggest band comp in WA, with winners getting some pretty sweet prizes (including playing at the Big Day Out), as well as having their name firmly shoved out into the national spotlight. I was the official NBT photographer last year, and while it was pretty hard work and I missed out on a fair few gigs cause I was tied up at the NBT shows, I do miss the camaraderie and trying to guess the winners of each heat. So when I got asked to cover the two NBT semi finals this weekend, I was never going to say no.

Boys Boys Boys were victorious at Amplifier on Friday night, with Project Mayhem coming in second, while The Typhoons took out the Rosemount semi, with Myles Vincent not far behind. They all go on to the grand final at the Rosemount on Saturday, joined by two finalists from the regional semi final and a wildcard. I won’t be able to go, as I’m covering British India at Amplifier, but it’ll be a hotly contested final and well worth a look. My pick is Boys Boys Boys for #1, but it’s too hard to call the runner-up spots without having heard the regional acts, and knowing who the wildcard will be.

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Two weekends, two local bands, two album launches, and finally getting around to shooting in RAW format. Egads!

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Will do a proper photo post tomorrow, but just before I do, I would appreciate it IMMENSELY if you could go over to the JPG Magazine website (and sign up if you’re not already a member), and vote for my Wolfmother photo, which I’ve submitted in the ‘On Stage’ category. JPG Mag is one of the few that I’d be happy to be published in ‘just for the exposure’, cause it’s such an awesome mag (but because it’s so awesome, they do pay for the use).

Direct link to my photo is http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/827963

Many many thankyous coming your way. I normally would never pimp my stuff like this, but I’d really love to get in this magazine. Snowman, Sugar Army and Schvendes photos to come sometime tomorrow.

Firstly, apologies about the title. It doesn’t really fit the subject, but I’m going to find any excuse to slip an Eddie Izzard quote in.

 While browsing the latest issue of Blunt over lunch today, I came across a quote from Scott Owen of The Living End, weighing into the analog recording vs ProTools debate. Seems to adapt to the ever-ongoing film vs digital war, and I really liked the analogy.

“You want to be able to record onto tape and get your takes done. Piecing it all together on a computer, there’s no thrill and no real reward in that. If you play a helicopter flight simulator and you crash, you just hit re-set. But if you learn to fly a helicopter and you crash, you die. The thing is, at least when you’re flying you actually get the thrill of flying.”

 Was from an interview done during the recording of their soon-to-be-released album ‘White Noise’. I’m very much looking forward to it, I’m a big Living End fan, and their last record ‘State of Emergency’ is one of my top 10 favourite albums ever.

This morning I woke up to a nice surprise, an interview with lil ol’ me on the Isolated Sounds website. Isolated Sounds is a new website focusing on the behind the scenes and support sectors of the Perth music industry, including but not limited to, promoters, producers, managers, photographers and film makers. I’m always up for anything that’s being used to promote the local scene, so when Christina emailed me, I couldn’t say no.

Check it out at  http://isolatedsounds.wordpress.com/july08jacintamathews/

Not a lot to report on the photo front, my run of bad health has continued and landed me with tonsilitis. I did however manage to squeeze in shooting Snowman’s album launch at the Bakery, so I might pop some photos from that up soon.