Australian
Musician is available from all good music
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The
Spring 2003 edition of Australian Musician
included:
POWDERFINGER
- Brisbane’s Powderfinger
recently unveiled their newest album
"Vulture Street" in July this
year. It showcases the sound of a band
connecting with their inner-mongrel,
exercising their rock mojo and cranking
up the big riff machine like never before.
One thing that will never change though
is Powderfinger’s patent emotive
prowess, that ability to make your chest
swell until it fills like it’s
going to burst. The effect here is the
same, just this time it’s coming
from a more guttural source. It’s
looser, less cerebral, and more pelvic.
MAGIC
DIRT - Tough Love
is the fourth album from Geelong’s
always compelling, never compromising
electric guitar voyagers, Magic Dirt.
Like its predecessor of 2000, What Are
Rock Stars Doing Today?, it’s an
explosive dose of power pop that crams
10 years of intense passion and experience
into 45 minutes of ragged chords and
razor sharp lyrics.
BUTTERFLY
EFFECT -
Brisbane band The Butterfly Effect are
one of Australia’s most exciting
heavy rock bands, with an electrifying
live show. Ever since the release of
their independent EP in 2001 the band
has had a buzz about them. Triple J lifted
the track "The Cell" off the
EP for regular airplay, and it seemed
it was always only a matter of time before
a major record deal was struck. For Butterfly
Effect, their time has come.
COLDPLAY
- Before
Coldplay arrived in Australia, they’d
toured America and played some massive
shows which had them hailed as the biggest
British band of 2003 – bigger than
Radiohead, and critics hailing them as
the new U2. These shows including the
Hollywood Bowl to a total of 34,000 fans
(where the legendary Brian Wilson of
the Beach Boys fame came backstage),
the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver
and finally Madison Square Gardens in
New York. Chris Martin, affable and down
to earth, was starting to become a rock
spokesman.
RICHARD
THOMPSON
- He's
already achieved more as a songwriter
and instrumentalist than most musicians
could do in a lifetime. His sound is
familiar, with ties to practically every
Western genre imaginable and many that
lie beyond our horizons. His colleagues,
ranging back to Jimi Hendrix and including
today's young guns, unify through time
in admiration of his accomplishments.
And so it is hardly surprising that Richard
Thompson, nonpareil guitarist and perceptive
observer of life's persistent ironies,
has produced another masterpiece "The
Old Kit Bag".
FIDDLING
WITH AMPS
- The
first electric violins were produced
commercially in the mid-1930's. Stuff
Smith a jazz and blues violinist, was
one of the first to own one of the innovative
instruments. With the advent of 'Ragtime'
in the early part of the 1900's and big
band music of the 1930's and 40's, violinists
needed an instrument that could be heard
in the midst of the horn sections and
drums of the larger ensembles popular
in of the era. Likewise, the violin player
today can easily be heard above the wall
of noise of a rock band via connection
to an amplifier.
Gear road
tested in the current edition includes:
-
Ashton AWM100 UHF Wireless Microphone
-
Behringer V-Amp Pro
-
Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 Amplifier
-
LANEY HARDCORE MXD 15 AMP
-
ESP Eclipse II Standard Guitar
-
Laney R5 Richter Bass Amp
-
Epoch Violins
