Showing all posts about music
Mental health, well-being, prime concerns for music workers
30 May 2022
A recent survey of people working professionally in the Australian music and live performing arts industries makes for grim reading. Conducted in March by Support Act, a charity assisting artists and workers in the Australian music industry, the findings reveals many are fearful for their livelihoods and mental health:
- 66% of participants had high/very high levels of psychological distress, more than four times the general population
- 59% experienced suicidal thoughts, which is over four and a half times the proportion of the general Australian population
- 29% reported having a current anxiety condition and 27% reported currently having depression, both more than twice that of the general population
- Over one third of participants reported incomes from their work in music/live performing arts as less than $30,000 per annum, which is below the poverty line
- Just 15% said they felt safe at work all of the time, with 35% saying they were exposed to unsafe working conditions in the last year
- Over 47% lost their jobs due to the pandemic
The full summary of survey findings (PDF) can be read here.
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Pistol, the story of the Sex Pistols by Danny Boyle
28 May 2022
Pistol, trailer, a six-part TV series tracking the rise, and fall, of legendary punk band, the Sex Pistols, debuts on Tuesday 31 May 2022.
The series is based on the 2016 memoir Lonely Boy, by Steve Jones, former guitarist of the English group, and is directed by British filmmaker Danny Boyle, he of Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, and Slum Dog Millionaire, fame.
Actually we’re not into music, we’re into chaos.
Hell yeah. Time to break out Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, the group’s only studio album, released in 1977. God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the UK, Pretty Vacant… the music only gets better as time goes by.
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Radiohead’s Ok Computer album turns twenty five
23 May 2022
Last Saturday, 21 May 2022, marked twenty five years since British band Radiohead released their third studio album Ok Computer, in 1997. To mark the occasion Ed O’Brien, the group’s guitarist, took to Instagram to share insights into the way the band thought and worked.
Wow… feels like an age away.. 1997 belonged to a different era .. we were just kids.. with unswerving focus and drive .. no partying just the desire to make better and better work.. it was fucking exciting .. people seemed to get what we were doing and the gigs were getting more powerful.
“1997 belonged to a different era”… I copy that.
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The 2022 National Indigenous Music Awards
19 May 2022
Like many festival and award ceremonies, the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) have been forced to proceed with virtual/online events in the last couple of years. In 2022 however the NIMAs return in an in-person format, and will be held in Darwin on Saturday 6 August 2022.
The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) are recognised as one of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous music awards and have been celebrating Australian music for 16 years. The NIMAs showcase the rich musical landscape of Australia and highlight the music coming from all corners of the country. The Awards bring together acts who are yet to make their mark on the world alongside those who have achieved international acclaim, such as Gurrumul & Jessica Mauboy.
Nominations for the awards are currently open.
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Australian music, Indigenous music, music
Bono and Edge of U2 perform in Kyiv Ukraine
17 May 2022
Excerpts of a surprise performance given by Bono and Edge of Irish rock band U2, accompanied by Ukrainian band Antytila, whose members are also assisting in defending their country from the Russian invasion. Bono told those gathered in the Kyiv metro station that is doubling as a bomb shelter, their people fight not just for their freedom, but for all who cherish liberty:
Your presence leads the world in the cause of freedom right now. The people of Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom.
Bono’s on point as per usual.
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William Barton covers Johnny B. Goode with a didgeridoo
13 May 2022
A mind-blowing cover of Chuck Berry’s 1958 rock-and-roll classic Johnny B. Goode, performed by Indigenous Australian musician and didgeridoo player William Barton.
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Australian music, music, William Barton
Charli XCX: Alone Together, by Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler
13 May 2022
Charli XCX: Alone Together, trailer, a documentary by Los Angeles based director duo Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler, follows British singer and songwriter Charli XCX, as she goes about recording her fourth studio album How I’m Feeling Now, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s early 2020 and the world is thrust into lockdown, grinding everything to a halt – including pop superstar Charli XCX’s North American stadium tour. Stuck at home in LA and not working for the first time in her adult life, instead of bingeing both Netflix and junk food, Charli decides to push herself to her creative and physical limits by recording and releasing an entirely new record in just 40 days.
Armed with a producer sending her beats remotely, speedy Amazon deliveries of recording and filming equipment, a reluctant and utterly charming boyfriend and her legions of fans offering suggestions, video clips and adoration, Charli XCX embarks on both an introspective and deeply collaborative journey into the creation her widely celebrated album How I’m Feeling Now.
Charli XCX: Alone Together will screen in selected Australian cinemas, for a few days only, over the first weekend of June 2022.
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Bradley Bell, Charli XCX, film, music, Pablo Jones-Soler, trailer
Paul Kelly’s song How to Make Gravy to become a movie
9 May 2022
I don’t know how many songs end up being adapted to film, but Australian musician Paul Kelly’s 1996 composition How to Make Gravy, looks like it’ll join their ranks, after Australian film production company Speech & Drama Pictures acquired the song’s film rights.
Written from the perspective of a prisoner named Joe writing home to his brother Dan at Christmas time, the song has gathered momentum year on year as more people discover the plainspoken but emotionally profound work.
But will it be a case of the song is better than the movie? Let’s hope not…
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disassociated rides again
8 May 2022
Wowser, you guys are good. How ever did you figure out I was bringing dis back?
As a reward, go listen to Alive by Sydney based electronica act RÜFÜS DU SOL. They won a grammy with it this year, and it’s been the soundtrack of disassociated’s re-boot. I posted thousands of links here between 2007 and 2017, a great quantity of which were dead, so instead of trying to edit all those posts, I decided to start over.
I’ve been trying to read more books these last few years — contemporary Australian fiction where possible — so there’s a definite bookish bent here at the moment. Anyway there’s a few kinks to iron out here, and what not, so I’ll be back later.
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Australian music, electronica, music
FutureNever, new music from Daniel Johns
26 April 2022
Reclaim Your Heart is a track on FutureNever, the new solo album from Daniel Johns, former guitarist and songwriter of defunct Australian indie rock act Silverchair.
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