GIGGLES AND
LEGALITIES
Ned Collette will
be packing up his guitar and pedals and hitting
the road next month, launching his new album Jokes
And Trials across the country.
Ned Collette’s musical history to date draws on
a broad sound palette: an honours degree in modern
composition, works for string quartets, various
electro-concrete pieces and playing in a variety
of loose fit outfits whilst focusing his talents
in City City City. But don’t let any of that scare
you.
Parallel to all this, Ned has been working on Jokes
and Trials. Forgoing the democracies of
a group, Ned plays close to all the instruments,
writes all the songs and sings in his warm and
weary voice. Here the song is king with Ned focusing
more and more on the importance of the lyric as
he falls under the influence of Leonard Cohen,
Robert Wyatt and Cat Power.
Singing sweet and playing guitar in his trademark
looped and sampled way, Ned will be performing
on his own for most of these shows except at his
Melbourne launch where an eight piece band including
strings and keys has been assembled for the special
occasion.
Dates:
September
Wed 6 - Warnambool, The Loft
Thu 7 - Belgrave, Ruby’s
Fri 8 – Ballarat, Grainery Lane Theatre
Sun 10 – Melbourne, Northcote Social
Club
Wed 13 – Port Macquarie, Macquarie Hotel
Thu 14 - Newcastle, Northern Star
Sat 16 – Sydney, Hopetoun Hotel
Sun 17 – Brisbane, The Troubadour
Thu 21 – Adelaide, Prince Albert
Fri 22 – Adelaide, Jade Monkey
Fri 29 - Melbourne, Spanish Club
October
Thu 5 Oct – Cronulla, Brass Monkey
Sun 9 Oct - Bulli, Heritage Hotel
AVAIL AUSTRALIAN
HEARTIES
Hardly in need of
any introduction, Avail boasts heavyweight status
as one of America’s longest running punk bands
of merit. Originally conceived in the suburbs and
shadow of late ’80s DC hardcore, the band soon
relocated to Richmond, Virginia where the band
has called home for the past 15 years. As much
as anything, Avail are a reflection of the city,
a poor, Southern rustbelt town where history and
modernity collide daily, a place where unpretentious
folks go about the business of surviving.
There’s no big city glamour here, no flashiness.
Avail are earnest, fucked-up, struggling, morose,
hopeful. They’re five guys who swing hammers
and pour drinks for a living when they aren’t
plying the highways in a battered Ford Econoline
van, playing stages in dingy bars and clubs. All
of this comes through in the sounds and words. It’s
so Richmond it hurts.
With years of incessant touring,
studio and live albums including classic releases
such as Satiate,
Dixie and 4 A.M. Friday (which along with Over
The James have recently been re-issued by Jade Tree),
Avail’s high-energy melodies, thundering breakdowns
and occasional classic rock riffs gradually integrated
more and more of the band’s Richmond roots. The result
has been a truly unique band outside of the obvious
punk subset molds. There’s no need to try to paint
it as intentionally blue collar, purposefully Southern
or anything else: it’s just Avail.
Having toured Australia in 1998 with Lagwagon, Avail
are set to return in October of this year for the
first time in eight years.
Dates:
Friday 20 October: Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Saturday 21 October: Arthouse Hotel, Melbourne
Sunday 22 October: Arthouse Hotel, Melbourne
Tuesday 24 October: Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Wednesday 25 October: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday 27 October: Basement, Brisbane
Saturday 28 October: Rosemount Hotel, Perth
