There’s something about coverage

Last month I wrote about the recent Hey Rosetta gig in Melbourne and their album Into Your Lungs (And Around In Your Heart And On Through Your Blood) has been getting some serious spin here these last few weeks.

The other night I was flicking channels on the telly and came across a familiar song playing over the end credits of a TV show I hadn’t seen before (the show was Flashpoint I discovered later). I picked the song straight away though – it was ‘We Made A Pact’ by Hey Rosetta. Beginning with a soft piano progression, the track builds and when that violin kicks in around the two minute mark, it’s on. Tim Baker usually takes care of most of the lead vocals, but Canadian singer songwriter Jenn Grant also lends her voice to this track which makes for some lovely harmonies.

We Made A Pact – Hey Rosetta

Just listen to those strings

05 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

mp3, Music

Early last year I was doing a bit of relief teaching and I did a stint teaching music a couple of days a week for three weeks at a rural primary school. You may think that this is a fitting job for a music blogger, but I have absolutely no musical talent whatsoever, and so we did a lot of dance and movement stuff and didn’t go anywhere near anything even approaching musical theory.

On my first day I was foolish enough to think that there would be some suitable music in the classroom ready for such a purpose, but I’d forgotten how music tends to take a backseat in most primary schools and that the best you can hope for is a few dusty songbooks and an old cassette featuring Rolf Harris going on about tying his bloody kangaroo down (suitable for children? I think not).

Racing back to my car, I found a lone burnt CD in the glove box, and this was the catchiest tune on it. Luckily the kids loved it, but after playing it endlessly throughout that day I was thoroughly sick of it and I shelved it for months before rediscovering it last week. I’d forgotten just how much I loved this – I don’t use the word ‘joy’ very often, but that’s exactly what this song is. Pure joy.

The Magic Position – Patrick Wolf

Trawlin’ the Blogroll

05 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by Agnes in Ditties From Down Under, Trawlin' the Blogroll

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

mp3, Music

Time to check out what’s going on around the good ol’ blogroll…

Go to I Correct Myself…to read Tart’s enthusiastic review of the recent Heartless Bastards gig. Sounded like quite the show!

The latest episode of the Contrast Podcast is up, with this week’s episode focusing on Sizes. Next week’s theme asks us to share a secret. I’m definitely intrigued as to what everybody else will come up with but have no idea what I’ll end up contributing. Time to dust off those skeletons…

Captain Obvious said goodbye to January (can you believe it’s February already?) with a fantastic mixtape that includes tracks from M. Ward, Heartless Bastards, The Decemberists, Neko Case and more.

I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and Licorice Pizza mark the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death with wonderful original recordings and some fantastic covers.

And head over to Way Cool Jnr to check out their take on the Top 25 Australian music blogs. I’ve discovered a few fellow Aussies to keep an eye on, and you may recognise a familiar name there clocking in at #13 – my favourite number.

Let’s wrap it up with some tunes for your trouble.

My contribution to last week’s Contrast Podcast was this little ditty by Little Birdy from their album Big Big Love. A catchy tune and a fantastic live number.

Tonight’s The Night – Little Birdy

My favourite HB song. Just listen to that snarl!

UPDATE: My favourite is actually ‘All This Time’, but I posted this track only to discover that it was mislabelled in my library, and turned out to be ‘Into The Open’ - which is also a fantastic slice of HB greatness.

Into The Open – Heartless Bastards

I heard this song recently, not knowing that it was Crowded House and tracked it down via a half remembered lyric. How did I miss this one?

She Called Up – Crowded House

Creepy crawlies abound

04 Wednesday Feb 2009

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

mp3, Music

There’s been a lot of creepy crawly activity around my house lately as many of you know, with snakes, spiders and mice all making an appearance. I’m already planning on spending tonight in the loungeroom due to suspicious rustlings in my bedroom cupboard this morning, along with the reappearance of a dirty great huntsman that I thought had buggered off.

Some of you may scoff and sneer at what may seem to YOU to be the ridiculous concerns of a snivelly little baby, but people don’t seem to realise how those of us living here in Australia take our lives into our own hands EVERY SINGLE DAY. It used to be that merely stepping outside your front door meant risking your neck, or at least encountering a nasty surprise, but in recent times these beastly creatures have mounted an assault on indoor living as well.

I’m not the only Australian suffering under these deadly conditions. Go visit Arizaphale and read her terrifying accounts of wasps and jellyfish and redbacks and scorpions. This is the reality of life people, and it’s happening right here.

I have to thank Pedro for reminding me of this gem from the Scared Weird Little Guys, who are an Aussie comedy music act who were around long before those Flight of the Conchords copycats (they are cool too though). Listen to their dire warnings about the everyday dangers of Aussie living.

Come To Australia – Scared Weird Little Guys

You should also check out their take on the traditional Aussie family Christmas.

Christmas Day (The Bawdy Song) – Scared Weird Little Guys

And I was going to include a more interesting picture, but what was I supposed to do, Google ‘deadly Australian creatures that may one day result in your demise’? My condition is delicate enough as it is.

Under seige

03 Tuesday Feb 2009

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

bloody vermin, mp3, Music

I know there’s been a lot of critter talk around these parts lately, but I’m afraid I have another story for you.

Last night I went to sleep with the sheet pulled up over my head because there was a big hunstman in the top corner of my room and because the ceilings are high, there was no way I could get rid of it. So, bravely, I huddled under my sheet and prayed that I would make it through the night without the foul thing creeping over my bed and bungy jumping onto my face.

Turns out that I had more sinister things to worry about.

You know, I’m not sure what’s worse, spiders or mice. That spider was a bloody walk in the park compared to what I was about to encounter.

At 3.30am on the dot I was jolted awake by a rustling directly under my bed. I froze, listening, intent. Nothing. I made a fairly poor attempt to convince myself that I’d imagined things and settled down again once more in my makeshift white-knuckled sheet sanctuary, heart pounding.

A minute later it was back. Louder, more insistent. It was as if it could sense my fear and thrived upon it. It could only be one thing. A mouse. Luckily I knew an old trick guaranteed to repel rodents as well. I beat the crap out of my mattress. There is nothing that scares mice more than the sound of an hysterical human thumping a Sealy Posturepedic.

Huddling down once more, I made a conscious attempt to calm my breathing, convincing myself that my fail-proof method had no doubt chased away my intruder.

The third time it moved, I screamed.

Not a high pitched horror movie scream, I hasten to add, but a low, gutteral back-of-the-throat yelp, the kind used by people who know the end is near.

The little bastard had won.

Gathering my few meager possessions, I fled and spent the remainder of the night on the couch at the other end of the house. Bad dreams and night sweats kept me awake and more than a little uncomfortable.

At long last morning dawned, and I worshipped the daylight, certain that it would keep the vermin at bay. After completing a thorough torchlight inspection under my bed from the safety of the hallway, I concluded that my nighttime visitor had departed. What I hadn’t realised was that it had merely changed locations.

The problem with the daylight hours is that you can see the little ferals when they run out from under the dresser in the kitchen as you’re happily skipping past. Innocence shattered, you realise that your life has irrovacably changed, and not for the better. No longer are the daylight hours safe.

Trying desperately to find that silver lining, you realise that yes, while your life has changed, so has that of the mouse. Though it enjoys its freedom now, it doesn’t realise that the death bell is tolling. It won’t be long now before it gets a whiff of a delicious smell, peanut butter perhaps, or jam. Twitching its whiskers in glee it will locate the source of the smell and hurry towards it, not realising that it moves ever closer to the end.

And though I may not be around to hear it, I will tonight rest easy in the knowledge that out there, somewhere, the night will echo with the most satisfying sound in the world.

Snap.

Quiet As A Mouse – Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos

Rodent Disco – Bearsuit

Vermin – Wavves

UPDATE: Offically declaring a plague upon my house. When feeding our chooks this morning, a mouse skittered away as I leant over to open the food bin. Moments later I was blessed with the corpse of another in the chook’s water bucket. Nice.

Rodent deathtrap from here.