Posts matching tags 'ninetynine'
2007/6/1
Melbourne casiopunk combo Ninetynine recently played a live-to-air performance at Melbourne radio station PBS. The performance (which was quite good; including Wöekenender and The Process and some promisingly angular-sounding new songs) may be streamed from here (or, if you view the source, you can find the RealAudio file here.
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2007/4/29
Mess+Noise has a short piece on local band Ninetynine, which mentions their future plans and their surprising popularity in Finland:
Having been back in Melbourne for three months now, waiting for the album to be reissued, Ninetynine have been rehearsing, writing new material (some of which will be heard on their upcoming dates) and commissioning a series of low-budget videos for album tracks with the simple proviso that the band don't have to appear in them.It's good to hear that they're working on new material.
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2006/10/24
And a few video fragments from the weekend's Ninetynine gig in Reykjavík:
Polar Angle:
and Wöekenender:
(They look a lot less blurry in real life. Or, indeed, in the video before it went through the YouTube process.)
Anyway, they're playing Spain this week, and in London on the 31st. More details on their web site.
2006/9/4
Ninetynine have just posted their upcoming European tour dates. They're playing Finland (13-15 October), Russia (17-19), Iceland (22nd), then a five-day tour of Spain (24th to 28th), and ending the tour with a London date on the 31st.
Their new album, Worlds Of Space, Worlds Of Population, Worlds Of Robots, has just been released in Australia. More details on that when my copy arrives.
2005/12/24
I just saw this on the ninetynine website:
- A brand new ninetynine song "Repitition" appears on the German Kultur Shock double LP alongside tracks from Citizen Fish, Sin Dios, Oi Polloi, Guts Pie Earshot and others. A celebration of the yearly festival that takes place in Berlin's Eastern suburbs Details about where you can get the album from to follow soon.(Hmmm.. ninetynine + the name "Repetition" + a German art-rock/punk/something festival; it sounds like it could be rather motorik, especially if it's similar to their last EP.)
Is this a festival they've played at before, or one they're going to do? If the latter, than I guess I'm off to Berlin...
2005/7/18
Casiopunk art-pop band ninetynine have a new best-of compilation out; titled Chapter Ninetynine, it has most of their essential tracks (Wöekenender, Super 8, Polar Angle, The Process and Cois Il Hamdu Lilah make it on), a few tracks from their last record-club-only EP, and a few more obscure gems (I'm glad to see that the sublime 180 Degrees (from the Anatomy of Distance compilation) made the cut); there are only a few omissions of note (one of Mesopotamia or Kinetic Factory would have been good, as would have The Specialist and, indeed, Popemobile).
Chapter Ninetynine is out on Strange Ones, a Barcelona-based indie label. No word on whether there will be an Australian release (or, indeed, whether it'll be through Chapter Music).
(via ninetynine.org) ¶ [1 comment]
2004/12/20
A big page of Ninetynine lyrics, transcribed with varying accuracy, for those having trouble figuring out what Laura's singing. As far as figuring out what the words mean, however, you're on your own.
2004/3/21
I went to the Make Mixtapes Not War benefit at the corner this evening, which was quite good.
I walked in halfway through the Jihad Against America set. They were loud; they're basically hardcore punk/metal played by people some 10 or so years older than the usual hardcore punk/metal band (hi Ben!), and with a sense of irony. They were rather loud, and played fairly tightly, though some of their material (especially the bits with the growly metal vocals) is a bit too close to Filthy Maggoty Cunt territory for my taste. Still, to each his own; the kids in the studded bracelets seemed to like them.
Keith's Yard were fairly good; they were very much in a post-punk vein (think the Melbourne little-band scene), with droning guitars (two or three in each song), bass and drums, and the odd repetitive vocals delivered with a sneer; I imagine that that's the sort of thing one could have seen at the Seaview Ballroom in 1978 or so. (Ben Butler compared them to the Happy Mondays, in their combination of strong rhythm and nonsensical lyric fragments and getting the crowd dancing; though the key difference would be that the Mondays combined indie rock and house/dance music, whereas Keith's Yard are pure post-punk classicism. Still, in the age of punk-flavoured house music, is there really so much of a distinction?)
The Bird Blobs couldn't make it, on account of Ian Wadley being overseas with another project, and so were replaced by an outfit named SNAP! CRAKK!. They were also in a new-wave/post-punk vein, only this time with drum machines and synth keyboards (as well as chaotic guitarwork and random lyrics). The vintage Korg keyboard they used was, amusingly enough, plastered with Burzum stickers.
Love of Diagrams played their classics from The Target Is You, as well as some new songs, some of which have vocals. Other than that, they're doing much the same sort of thing; guitar/bass/drums and lots of energy.
The Bites were OK, and had some good songs. Sinking Citizenship, however, didn't grab me; they sounded like fairly rote post-grunge rock.
The Ninetynine set was interesting; Amy is still in Berlin, so they made do without her (and without her songs, of course; there was no Great Escapes or Highway Delights in the set); however, they had three guest musicians, including a bloke in a pinstripe suit playing cello and an accordionist. They played two new songs, both by Laura; one (called something like Bridge) was in a similar vein to Mesopotamia or Kinetic Factory, with a vibraphone and vocals, gradually building up, and the other (Red Card Yellow Card) being a bit more upbeat. They finished with a rocking rendition of Wöekenender, one of their classic crowd-pleasers. Oh, and Iain had since cut his hair really short, with a slight quiff at the front, which, with his glasses and anorak, gave him a slightly Morrisseyish air. This was the first Ninetynine gig in something like seven months, and (from what I heard) may well be the last one for equally long.
2004/2/20
In 1996, a number of Australian indie bands recorded covers of TV show themes for a tribute compilation named Box; this was released on cassette; I recall seeing a copy in PolyEster records back when Paul Elliott ran it. Now, it's available in MP3 form. Hear Wank Engine's cover of the Mr. Squiggle theme, Ninetynine's version of Blake's Seven, New Waver's characteristically Darwinian take on the Four Corners theme and some outfit named Pigshit doing the Degrassi Junior High theme, among others. (Thanks to Greg Wadley for the heads-up.)
2004/1/10
In the early 90s, the Spill label (which seemed to have been connected to the Fortitude Valley indie scene in Brisbane) released 3 compilations of songs by Australian indie bands. These compilations have now been made available in MP3 format; they include tracks by Minimum Chips, Clag, Clowns Smiling Backwards, New Waver, and The Sea Haggs (which was Laura/Lora Macfarlane's old band), as well as less-known bands with intriguing names like Volvox, Wank Engine and Farfisas In Exile. The MP3s are of fairly low quality (22kHz sample rate, and 56kbps bit rate), but they're better than nothing. (via Rocknerd)
And if you like the Clag tracks there, you can find some more Clag MP3s here.
2003/12/31
The Null Device's top 8 records of 2003:
- 8. Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun. A nicely laid-back collection of grooves from Yo La Tengo, and more than a worthy follow-up to And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out.
- 7. Martin L. Gore - Counterfeit2. Covers of acts including Nick Cave, the Velvet Underground and others, done in glitchy, electronic fashion, with the characteristic Depeche Mode formula of aching humanity and cold electronics. Note: the Australian release is corrupt; the US release isn't.
- 6. Ninetynine - Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction EP. A five-track taster of their upcoming album, available only through a singles club in the US. Has some good new tracks, though I still think they shouldn't have taken the guitar line out of San Pedro.
- 5. The Postal Service - Give Up. Indie synth-pop from Seattle; intelligent and well arranged, even if some of the love ballads may be a bit too perky.
- 4. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief. This could possibly have been album of the year, or close to, had it not been for EMI deciding to release only defective versions in most markets (the US being an exception). In any case, the set of MP3s leaked onto the internet prior to release was actually slightly better than the released version (for example, The Gloaming lost its third verse before making it to CD). NOTE: The Null Device does not advocate violating copyright laws.
- 3. Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress. The Glaswegian indie-pop collective's latest album, produced by Trevor Horn, and bouncing all over the place, from rock to pop to retro. A bit fey in places, but then again, you'd sort of expect that.
- 2. Minimum Chips - Gardenesque. Three tracks they recorded for SBS and a longish studio arrangement. Good, if a bit short. Maybe one of these years they'll record a full-length album?
- 1. Spearmint - My Missing Days. Spearmint probably have the best songwriting of any English indie band these days. Their songs are very much about subjective experience, and don't confine themselves to the usual romantic-relationship clichés that sell well, but cover other things, like accumulating too much stuff as one goes through life, or the process of really getting into a book. Their music is pretty good too, reminiscent in places of Pulp or someones.
(A number of albums were disqualified for not being available to the public in non-defective CD format; being available on import from the United States or similar was sufficient. These include albums by David Bridie, The Thrills and Client.)
2003/10/31
My copy of the new Ninetynine EP, Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction just arrived. I've posted a brief write-up to ninetynine_fan. I'll probably write something more detailed later, possibly for Rocknerd.
Executive summary: it's all good.
2003/9/24
Today's InPress has a piece about Ninetynine, which reads much as the one before the Process launch last year did (and appears to have the same publicity photo). Though, interestingly enough, they refer to their upcoming release, Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction (due out in Australia next year), as their "forthcoming album". Which makes one wonder exactly how many extra tracks the Australian release will have on top of the 5 that the US release has.
(The Beat piece on Ninetynine, in contrast, doesn't even mention Receiving the Sounds, but talks about their most recent album The Process, and its impending vinyl rerelease.)
2003/9/17
Looking at the temporary page on the Ninetynine web site; apparently there is a video for The Process, but it's in streaming Windows Media only. (The XML-like file linked to also says it's copyrighted by Festival Mushroom Records, which sounds a bit odd, given how the band like to own all their own masters, unless News Corp. commissioned the video themselves or something.) Anyway, whuffie to the first person to send me a HTTP, FTP or BitTorrent link to a file of the video. (Preferably in MPEG4 or some good-quality format. Windows Media 9 and below is OK as long as there's no DRM involved; i.e., as long as mplayer on Linux will play it.)
And here are their Australian tour dates:
SYDNEY LEG
Fri 19th Sept - Annandale Hotel w/ The Devoted Few + Disaster Plan. - 8:30 Start $8
Sat 20th Sept - Pop Frenzy Presents.. @ The Taxi Club, 40 South Dowling St, Darlinghurst w/ Disaster Plan - 9pm Start
Sun 21st Sept - All Ages Show @ The Club House, Jubilee Park (under land bridge) Glebe w/ Pure Evil. 2pm - Donation
MELBOURNE LEG
Fri 26th September - Rob Roy Hotel w/ Pink Stainless Tail (CD Launch) + Jihad Against America
Sat 27th September - Rob Roy Hotel w/ Love of Diagrams + Because of Ghosts
And apparently there's vinyl of The Process coming out too. (Which stands to reason, as labelmates Architecture In Helsinki have been doing the vinyl thing too.)
2003/9/15
The new Ninetynine mini-CD is out, and it's called Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction (how's that for a cool title?). So how do you get it? Well, you can't buy it, but you can get it by joining the Dark Beloved Cloud singles club. No, it's not a dating service. To join, you send your details and six hand-decorated 3"x3" cards (which will become the artwork for other people's singles) to a PO box in New York.
If your creative skills aren't up to it, you can always wait for the UAR Australian rerelease next year, which apparently will have bonus tracks. (I wonder what those will be; new original material, remixes, live tracks, or multimedia content?)
(Thanks to Leigh for the heads-up)
2003/9/8
I'm currently listening to Jelly CD, a compilation (released around 1995) of EPs from various projects one Lora (now Laura) Macfarlane was involved in in the early 90s (notably the Sea Haggs, Keckle and some of her solo material). It's rather interesting; it's similar, in places, to the first Ninetynine album (funny, that), all jagged guitars, garage-rock vocals and power-pop songwriting, though with a few oddities thrown in (quite a few of the tracks end with the sound of a radio being tuned between channels), and the odd cute indie melody here and there. There's a bit of chromatic percussion (often sounding rather discordant), though no Casio keyboards. The most interesting tracks, though, would be some of Lora's solo pieces; in particular, Boot, which eschews the pop-song format for thrashy acoustic guitar chords and abstract soprano vocals alternating between pretty and deranged. This is immediately followed by a pop song about the theft of a woollen beanie.
2003/8/25
Keith Urquhart's remixes of the last Ninetynine album are online in convenient MP3 format. Check them out. (The Kinetic Factory one is my favourite; and the Cleaner one is also pretty interesting.) (via Rocknerd)
Update: There now appear to be MP3s on the Ninetynine website; also worth checking out. You haven't lived until you've heard Wöekenender.
2003/8/12
A rather unusual object fell into my hands today: an unreleased album of electronica remixes of the last Ninetynine album. They vary from plausible dance mixes to some quite interesting experimental IDM (think somewhere between Björk and the FourPlay remix album from a few years back). A full review will be posted shortly has been posted here.
2003/8/10
I just came back from the Heligoland CD launch, which was pretty good. The DJ (Electric Sound of Jim) actually played some Field Mice (Missing The Moon, actually) which made my day. Too few of us Mice fans in Australia.
I also got a look at a copy of the newly-pressed new Sir album, titled Trapped In A World Of Make-Believe, that Jesse had with him. It looks quite promising; the artwork looks very crisp, and the track listing has various songs they've been playing since The Night I Met My Second Wife. I look forward to hearing it, and probably spinning it in a DJ set or three.
(And speaking of DJ sets, hopefully there'll be some good news about those in the not-too-distant future. Watch this space for details.)
Oh, and Ninetynine have a new 4-track EP coming out. (Yay!) Unfortunately, it's only coming out in the US and UK; Cameron says it's because nobody's interested in putting them out in Australia. I wonder why that is; whether it's scene politics rearing its ugly head, the local market being too conservative to accept casiopunk as a valid genre, or collateral damage from the Back-To-Basics Rock Revival. Anyway, time to keep checking Twee Kitten, I think.
And the Heligoland gig was good. They played some new tracks and some older ones, in their usual æthereal style, and as an encore did their cover of Kraftwerk's Neon Lights.
2003/6/20
Notonova is a site in Germany which has a lot of pictures of recent Melbourne indie band gigs; including a few of which I've been at. (I see someone else has followed Ninetynine halfway around the world with a camera.)
Apparently he'll have videos up soon too; hopefully they'll be longer than the 30-second clips my Canon Powershot makes. (What the world needs is a good Ninetynine live DVD or three.) (via Rocknerd)
2003/6/2
Heh; I just found this early Ninetynine gig flyer in the Cat and Girl reader-contributions section. Actually, there is an uncanny similarity there...
Btw, the new Chat et Fille T-shirt they have looks pretty doovy, in a Belle-et-Sebastien sort of way.
2003/5/31
I just came back from the Ninetynine gig at the Rob Roy. There's some good news: they're playing again in late June before Laura moves back to Perth. Oh, and they're touring Europe (again) in October.
The gig was brilliant, btw. The Ninetynine set included the 3 new songs they have been playing the last few gigs, and rocked. The Grey Daturas were also pretty cool, in a Mogwaiesque sort of way. Though I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the Bird Blobs; they're a bit too pub/blues-rock for my taste.
2003/5/25
Tonight's Ninetynine gig was fun. The Process sounds interesting with the Polar Angle drum loop. Their new material is also quite good (the sort of New Order/Stone Roses/Blur-sounding song which keeps changing its name (it was called something like "Look Out For Trams" tonight) is very cool, as is Red Weed (i.e., the one in 15/16 time).)
(The support, Royalchord, were entertaining, in a slightly retro-kitschy tex-mex way, too. If they release an album, they should try to get it out in 8-track format. Even though most people won't have a means of playing 8-tracks, it'd be a pretty doovy collectible/conversation piece.)
Btw, next Friday at the Rob Roy is Ninetynine's last gig in Melbourne before Laura moves (temporarily) back to Perth. By coincidence, the next night at the Tote is the last local gig for local all-girl power popsters Bidston Moss before BeTh moves to her newly-acquired dream home in Queensland.
2003/5/12
Local music scene news/gossip: apparently Ninetynine won't be playing around town much in the future, as Laura is moving back to Perth (where her family live). Though they're playing at the Love of Diagrams CD launch next weekend, and possibly a few shows after that. Or so I'm told. (I hope this isn't the end for them; if they broke up after the tour de force that was The Process, it'd be a shame.)
Meanwhile, Sir's new album will be released on local indie Unstable Ape, who are also home to local post-rock/grindcore fusion outfit The Night Terrors. The title won't be "Only Lonely", as previously suggested, but something else.
2003/4/12
One of Melbourne's most original and consistently rocking indie bands, Ninetynine, have a new website, including tour dates (they're coming to Adelaide and Sydney soon) and a lot of MP3s. (Personal recommendation: start with Polar Angle, The Process, Wöekenender, and perhaps Baluchistan or Cois Is Hamdu Lilah, and take it from there). And apparently videos will be up soon too. Excellent...
2003/3/22
For those reading this up in Sydney, I just heard that the mighty Ninetynine will be in town tomorrow (Saturday) night, playing at some place called the Spanish Club. No idea where that is, I'm afraid. Though if you can't make it, word is they're doing a gig at the Hopetoun in a month's time or so.
Apparently they'll also have a new website up and running in a few weeks, run by some guy in England. Hopefully this one will actually be up to date.
(I went to their gig at the Tote tonight, which was quite doovy (despite a minor sound problem during The Cleaner); they played a rocking rendition of Wöekenender as an encore. Though it seems they're not any closer to giving the new song a proper name. And DJ Low Sperm Count's DJ set wasn't too bad, in an electro-hiphop-meets-trashy-pop sort of way. Oh, and Tatu don't sound as dire as I feared. (I suppose having Trevor Horn on board made the difference.))
2003/3/10
I finally went to see Dirty Three tonight, and I don't see what the fuss is about. Yes, there is dionysiac energy in his violin playing, but the arrangements seemed fairly bland, and a bit on the random side; not as emotive as, say, the Bad Seeds, or as intense as someone like, say, Mogwai. IMHO, as far as string-based live acts go, FourPlay do a better job. (I'll probably get death threats over this, I know...)
One thing I noticed: Warren Ellis the violinist has a lot more hair on his head than Warren Ellis the sequential-art writer.
Oh yes, and Black Heart Procession were quite good too; they started with a prerecorded video with some English-accented Nick Cave lookalike announcing that Black Heart Procession are dead, having all been gruesomely murdered, and that the musicians playing tonight are merely their restless spirits in borrowed bodies. As the two musicians played (guitar, keyboards and theremin), videos of the band were projected behind them (some of them looked a bit Lynchian, and others had that surreal, and vaguely macabre, quality favoured by certain San Franciso hipster types; the Lomo-style split screen on the first one was kind of doovy though).
(And apparently the new Ninetynine song is titled "My Hobby Is Better Than Your Hobby". I wonder if this title will stick, though.)
2003/3/8
Ah yes; the Architecture in Helsinki gig last night was good. They played most of the songs off Fingers Crossed, including a longer version of One Heavy February with actual vocals. (That song will undoubtedly be an enigma to those who haven't seen them live.) They also had an assortment of hand-made merchandise, including a surfeit of button badges. (For AUP10, you could get a set of badges of Macintosh icon renderings of all the band's members; though I just got the two "Fingers Crossed" badges.)
(The support set by Ninetynine rocked hard, but you knew I was going to say that. And the dance number by those two birds with funny wigs and party poppers was somewhat amusing, in an art-schoolish post-ironic-hipster-kitsch sort of way; well, what I could make out of it over the heads of the crowd from the front of the other stage.)
2003/2/24
This afternoon, I made my way down to the Fitzroy swimming pool. Why, you ask? No, not to do a few invigorating laps of the pool, nor because of any sort of aesthetic liking of the smell of chlorine and the sounds of children running around and splashing, but because today was Rockpool, the annual daytime-concert-at-the-pool event. No major international artists, but local acts (like B(if)tek and Architecture in Helsinki) came along to give something back to the community.
In particular, I showed up just in time to see the Ninetynine set; the first one of the year, I believe, and the first time I had seen them since London. The sounds wasn't ideal, but the energy was there and it rocked. (Incidentally, they seemed to rely on a MiniDisc for a lot of the rhythm loops; perhaps they're running out of Casiotone keyboards or something?) They did a new song, with Amy singing; it sounded a little New Orderesque, at least to my ears. (Occasionally I wonder just how much they were influenced by New Order/Joy Division; that and the guitarwork on Woekenender and Laura's lyrics sounding just a tad Barneyesque in places.) Anyway, they rocked.
The audience was full of pale indie types who don't usually go in the sun; some were looking a tad awkward in bathing costumes, others came wearing band T-shirts and shorts and such. (I was the guy in the Gentle Waves T-shirt and brown cords, looking rather out of place in the sun.)
2003/2/12
Last year, I saw an amusing indie duo from London named Partition at the Empress. I recently found out that they were back in Melbourne and doing more gigs, so I went to see them tonight at Good Morning Captain.
It was a fairly good gig; about 2 parts indie-pop and 1 part comedy. They did a number of good songs, the one about fancying some bird for 10 years and then going out with her for 2 weeks that they did last year (apparently it's a true story, too); one titled Emigrating Next Week, about the perils of falling in love with someone when you're about to move overseas, a few mildly political numbers (about war being bad and bigotry against deinstitutionalised mental patients; don't expect bolshy agitprop on the level of Jihad Against America or Stereolab or someone), and some rather amusing and deliberately daft interludes, in between dancing around bozotically.
They were joined on cello by one Sheila B, who's in a band named Fosca (think sort of like Baxendale only not quite as zany); she did a good job accompanying them.
Anyway, it emerged that the guys from Partition were at the Ninetynine gig in London in October, but we didn't run into each other. Probably because darkened caverns with loud music and black-painted walls aren't the best place to recognise someone you spoke to half a year ago in a different country; unless you expect them to be likely to be there, that is.