Dave Butler

Sooooooo Pissed Off Right Now

2009-04-28T22:04:00.002+10:00

You know when you make a massive effort to go out of your way to avoid something but essentially by doing that the thing you were avoiding comes back to bite you even worse. Yeah, no? Anyway, that happened to me today and I am pissed about it.

Here's a quick rundown. I had a meeting in the city and I had places I needed to get to afterwards so I thought I would drive rather than catch the train. Good plan. I left myself heaps of time so I could find a park and not have to worry about being late. Good plan. Plans started unravelling when someone asked me for a lift into the city thereby destroying the heaps of time I had up my sleeve. But hey that happens right. So I go to park at my favourite spot in town (street park that isn't too expensive) but as luck would have it someone in front of me pulled the last park. Time was running out so I was forced to park in the Myer Center carpark, which, as you can imagine, charges a fortune to use. The passenger with me said it's not too bad because he had a card that could get us cheaper parking. I was like, oh, okay, that's not the end of the world then. As we enter the carpark he remembers he forgot to bring the card, so no cheap parking. Okay then, that sucks. But the meeting should only go for about 45 so I'll be able to get out of the carpark in less than an hour. Meeting goes for longer than an hour and I get charged $25 for parking. I cop it and get my car out of there and go and park at my spot (where there are now plenty of parks). Because it's on the street you have to put money into a meter and estimate how long you're going to be. So I put money in blah blah went on my way. I was meeting someone in town but they got held up, and then what I needed to get done took longer than I expected. I had, of course, forgotten that I only had a certain amount of time paid for on the meter. It only occurred to me that I might be running just a little bit over as I was walking towards my car. I then began to panic as I realised I quite possibly may have copped a parking ticket. Guess what... I get to my car to find a lovely Brisbane City Council parking ticket under my windshield wiper. $50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's do the math here. $25 for Myer Centre + $6 for street park + $50 for parking ticket = $81.

I'm not sure about you but $81 is a f#@kload of money for me. Just thinking of the stuff I could have put that money towards is making me nauseous and a little bit sad as well actually.

So there you have it. Moral of the story? Well I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that no matter what you do, sometimes you just get screwed :)

Actually I like to remember this simple equation for this type of situation. Well, it's a little bit dramatic for this particular occasion but still appropriate:

Tragedy + Time = Haha (and that's a good haha, not an evil haha).

Brandon Flowers Is My Hero

2009-04-06T00:39:00.004+10:00

I meant to post this last Monday but Telstra managed to cut off my internet and it only came back on yesterday. That's a full week without internet. Two revelations immediately jumped out at me: (1) Telstra really is that shit; and (2) I'm somewhat saddened to realise I rely on the internet a LOT. Sorry, tangent.

Last Sunday I got a last minute call with the awesome news that a friend wanted to give me really cheap V Festival tickets. I had wanted to go but couldn't justify the original $140 price tag considering I was out of work and eating into my savings whilst songwriting. So a $50 ticket made all these problems go away.

So I called my brother (who was also quite stoked) and we headed down the coast for V Fest. Now I went to V Festival last year (free ticket, how good) and was somewhat disappointed. The lineup really wasn't my thing and the festival itself was somewhat of a shambles. The stages were in weird places, it seemed really empty and technical problems were rampant. On top of that it was held on a golf course which seemed weird to me. This year it was at the same place but the layout was way better. And this year I really liked the lineup. So the festival started on a good note for me.

By the time we got there the first act we saw was M83 who are a French 80s electro band. I hadn't heard of them before and I was pleasantly surprised by their set. It was really tight and they pulled some cool sounds. One reservation I had was that they deviated from songs a little too much into instrumental atmospheric (read boring) territory. But otherwise they were a cool band.

At this point I want to point out one of the most annoying things about V Festival. And before you call me out for whining I would like to point out that everyone I spoke to about this agreed with me. The stages at V Fest are called, "This Stage" (being the main stage), "That Stage" (being the second stage), and "Other Stage" (being the smaller stage). I think there was another stage this year as well with another stupid name I can't remember. If this inane labeling of stages doesn't immediately strike you as being stupid then I'll give you a real life example of why it is. As we were waiting for some friends to come back from the bar a lady came up to us asking which stage "Madness" were playing on. The conversation went something like this (almost verbatim):

Lady: "Hi, do you know which stage Madness are playing on?"

Us: "Yeah, I think they're playing on 'That Stage'."

Lady: [pointing behind her] "Oh, is that this stage over here?"

Us: "No, that's 'This Stage'. 'That Stage' is over the hill behind the food stalls."

Lady: "Oh okay, the yellow one right."

Us: "No that's the 'Other Stage'. 'That Stage' is red."

Lady: "Which stage is red?"

Us: "'That Stage'."

Lady: "Which stage?"

Us: [now pointing] "That stage over there."

Lady: "And that's called 'This Stage' right?"

Us: No! [conversation continued further but you get the idea]

If you think that's confusing to read, try talking it to someone where you can't see which words are in quotation marks. In short, stupidest naming of stages ever. And it's one of those things where the organisers have obviously just tried to be clever and cool but all that's achieved by it is confusing, circular conversations like the one above.

So that conversation ended after about five minutes and the lady, now somewhat sure of which stage to go to, said she was off to find her husband. Almost on cue her husband emerged from the bar towards us. No joke, he was the biggest human being I have ever seen in my life. And I don't mean like overweight big, I mean like enormous 6'8" built like a tank muscular huge man big. I think he was probably three times my size. Intimidating to say the least. The lady then told him, "They're laughing at me," while she pointed at us. Needless to say I nearly required the spare pair of boxers that I hadn't brought with me and was about to say, "Hey, we were laughing with you," in order to prevent death by enormous man, when he shrugged his shoulders and headed towards 'That Stage'. I valued life a little bit more after that encounter.

We then made our way over to 'This Stage' (see how excruciatingly annoying the stage names are) to see Kaiser Chiefs. The next thing I want to point out about V Fest is that they suck at putting a timetable together. The three headlining bands were The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and Snow Patrol. I personally like all those bands and wanted to see all those bands. And it's a pretty safe bet that everyone who is a fan of one of those bands is probably going to want to see all three, just like me. Well to sabotage everyone's plans here V Fest decided to timetable it so that Kaiser Chiefs (on 'This Stage') overlapped a little with Snow Patrol (on 'That Stage') who overlapped again with The Killers (on 'This Stage' - sorry I've taken it a bit far now haven't I?). Awesome! So I was faced with a big decision. Do I see every band and cut their sets short of do I ditch one of them to see the others in full? Earnest conversation ensued between myself and the people I was with. In the end my brother and I decided that we wanted to see The Killers more than anything else and so it was worth missing out on Snow Patrol. The other friends I was with took the (I would say 'rookie error') path of seeing all three.

Anyway Kaiser Chiefs were really good. I'd seen them at Splendour two years ago and they were way better this time. When lead singer Ricky Wilson took the stage I wondered for a moment whether the band had replaced him with someone else. He had lost that much weight. Now it's not as though he was really overweight before but he was solid, and now he was like skinny. Almost unrecognisable from a distance.

Anyway fast forward. Kaiser Chiefs ended, some people made a mad dash to see Snow Patrol and my brother and I made a mad dash to get as close to the stage as possible for The Killers. And at last I get to the point of this blog.

When The Killers brought out their debut 'Hot Fuss' in 2004 it became, and still is, one of my favourite albums. Next came 'Sam's Town' which, while it had some really killer tracks, for me anyway, wasn't as good as the first. Last year, 'Day & Age' came out, their third and latest album. On first listen I didn't really like it at all. Actually that's not entirely true. I really enjoyed the first single, 'Human', but felt let down by the rest of the album. And for some still unknown to me reason, I didn't really give it the repeat listens it probably deserved leaving the impression that it wasn't that great an album. So I came to the festival not knowing how the new songs were going to go in the live set.

For the record, I am ashamed that I didn't give one of my favourite bands more credit. From the first song The Killers absolutely ripped up the stage. Brandon Flowers is now one of my heroes. From the moment he walked out on stage he owned it. His look, his voice, the way he moved around - it was all hero worthy. The crowd was going crazy and singing every lyric as loud as they possibly could. Towards the end of the set it started pelting with rain and everyone just went more nuts. Dave Keuning, the guitarist, was on the side of stage where the rain was coming in but he just stood up on his fold back wedges and copped it head on. Ronnie Vannucci Jr. is one of the maddest drummers going around as well. All in all it was one of the best sets I'd seen. And I'd seen The Killers headline the Entertainment Centre in 2007 but their set this time was so much better. I think partly to do with the fact that the Entertainment Centre sucks and partly to do with the fact they had an off night in '07.

So I left the festival a happy man, immediately went home and listened to 'Day & Age' again with fresh ears and an open mind, and realised that it is a really good album.

But most importantly Brandon Flowers is now in my hero list. He's the man.

Here's a photo from the fest. And no I didn't take it, I was busy going nuts in the front row!!

Sleep Deprivation

2009-03-25T15:17:00.003+10:00

The other night I was playing touch football and some idiot on the other team managed to pretty much stomp on my big toe with his tags. It hurt like all hell. Right on the nail. And I figured it's one of those things that hurts for a bit and then goes away pretty quickly. Wrong! I got home and it's still throbbing like those cartoons where someone's thumb gets hit with a hammer. The first thing was how shit it is to get "injured" playing touch football. I would have been a lot more at ease had it been actual football. The second thing was I couldn't believe how much pain I was in just from having my toe stomped on. So I iced it a bit and then went to bed.

When I said I was in a lot of pain, I'm not trying to exaggerate it here. It's not as though I've got a bullet wound or anything. The difference was the throbbing aspect. I could take my pulse just from the painful stabs in my toe. And that was enough to prevent me from going to sleep at all that night. I'm not joking, I did not sleep for a single minute.

It occurred to me at that point just how enormously lonely and lengthy night time can feel when you're by yourself, not drinking beers and actually trying to get to sleep. I think if you were to sit at traffic lights for 8 hours the time would still seem to pass more quickly. And all because of a stupid toe. How?

The second thing was that at about 3am, when I'd been trying to sleep for the past 4 hours, I started wondering exactly what I would contemplate doing just to get back to normal. It's sort of like when you're sick, you promise yourself just how much more you'd appreciate being well if you could only just get better. Normal is underrated. The tiny things, like not having an inflamed toe, are the things that are awesome.

The third thing was just how crap it is to "wake up" after not having any sleep whatsoever. And unlike other times in the past where I couldn't sleep properly but would have scraped in at least a couple of hours sleep, that night I literally got zero hours.

Anyway that's my whinge for the day. But the most extraordinary thing for me was how something seemingly so small, like a sore toe, could interfere so much with my normal daily operations.

Inappropriate Concert Behaviour

2009-03-22T00:15:00.003+10:00

Tonight I went to The Fray at The Tivoli. First of all, I love The Tivoli. I'm pretty sure it's definitely my favourite venue. So many good memories at that place. I think band's are just better there. And you have to be pretty bad not to be good at The Tivoli.

When you go to see a live show, generally speaking and depending on the band, you kind of know what to expect in terms of how the audience is going to behave. It's like some kind of agreement between concertgoers that in certain situations you behave in a certain way. For example, tonight, The Fray is the kind of band where people are going to be into the music but they're not going to get overtly physically into it, if you get what I mean. So you stand there and have a great time but you're not exactly going to come out sweating after jumping around all night.

I swear that at every concert there is always one person or one group of people who seem completely unaware of the audience code of conduct. Tonight for instance, there were four people in front of me who were engaging in the most inappropriate mosh-style antics I have ever seen. And they just didn't seem to notice that every single person around them was thinking, "Look, will you just f&#k off!" I'm all for personal expression and being allowed to enjoy yourself in whatever way you want, despite the fact that sometimes you might look really stupid, but seriously, not when it really impacts on people around you. Particularly when a pretty emotionally charged song is reaching its summit and idiots in front are moshing like wankers.

To be truthful, when looking from afar at these sort of people, it can be kind of funny. It's ridiculous to think that some people are so unaware of their surroundings. But when it's happening right in front of you and you're getting bumped the whole time in completely inappropriate circumstances, it just gets annoying.

The chance of the annoying people I'm talking about reading this blog is almost certainly zero, so to everyone else, collectively, as etiquette abiding live music lovers, when idiots are ruining the musical experience for the people around them, let's try and subtly herd them out of the venue.

Coldplay Back Catalogue - iTunes Top 10

2009-03-16T22:43:00.002+10:00

I just jumped on the iTunes store and was somewhat blown away to see that Coldplay's second LP, "A Rush of Blood To The Head", has landed itself in the top 10. It was released in 2002. Wow! Not to mention that "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" is still sitting pretty at number 3. And I'm almost certain it's been in the top list since it's release in the middle of last year. That's just crazy times. Two albums in the top 10.

Wait... this is stupid. I just looked back at the store to make sure I wasn't talking smack to see that the "Prospekt's March" edition of Viva la Vida AND "X & Y" are in the top 10 as well.

Needless to say, Coldplay are killing it!

Russell Brand

2009-03-16T22:33:00.003+10:00

I first encountered this guy in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which by the way is awesomely funny. You know how most comedies can struggle to hit 90 minutes. This film is almost two and a half hours long and is hilarious the entire way through. If you haven't seen it, grab it on DVD. So worth it.

Anyway, Russell Brand. He's out of control. I was reminded of how stupidly funny he is when I saw him on Rove last night. Go to his website here and have a look, http://www.russellbrand.tv/a-welcome-message-from-russell/. He just keeps talking and talking and I have absolutely no idea how he comes up with that stuff. And that's just a welcome message to his website.

He's on tour at the moment in Australia but sadly is not making the trek to Brisbane. Shame, would have been such a funny set to see.

Jokes With Guitar

2009-03-13T22:01:00.003+10:00

I had a strange desire to blog and I got reminded of this video recently and felt I must share it. The first time I saw this it was on my friend's ipod. I think it was Saturday night and I'd been out having beers. I was in his car on the way to another bar and he showed me this and I had to stop halfway through because I couldn't breath from laughing so hard. Trust me it's funny. Maybe have half a dozen drinks and I it will be even better. Enjoy.

Coldplay - How Are They This Good?

2009-03-10T14:41:00.002+10:00

I went along to see Coldplay on Sunday night and I would have posted this yesterday but they had a second show in Brisbane and I didn't want to spoil it for anyone.

Since I saw their Twisted Logic tour back in 2006 (actually I saw them twice, once at the end of '05 in Paris and again '06 in Brisbane when I got home) I've been hanging out to see their show again. I even posted about getting nervous when tickets went on sale. That's how much I love this band.

Now from what I understand people are split down the middle when it comes to Coldplay. Half of people love them and half of people hate them. I don't understand why that's the case but I won't try to either.

Let's just say that Sunday night was one of the best shows I have ever seen in my life, possibly the best. Their songs translate so well live that it's just awesome song after awesome song. And they have the whole package. Their stage production is simply unreal. At some points during the set I just didn't know what was happening. Instead all I could do was stand there in awe of how great the experience was.

I'm useless and forgot to take any photos so I don't have any for this post but I'll try to paint a picture with words. Actually I'll do my best for one song.

My favourite out of their new songs is "Lovers In Japan" and, wow, it went off. They had an enormous screen behind the stage which, when the song started, had really cool images of Japanese stuff that really cleverly fit in perfectly with the lyrics. But the best bit was when it hit the chorus. Thousands of little paper butterflies in different colours got blasted out over the audience and were lit with blacklights so they glowed with that awesome luminesence you get from blacklights. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was just incredible standing there. Each song had something different. In fact for a couple of acoustic numbers they ran up onto a tiny stage set up in the nosebleed section. The people back there went ballistic.

But it wasn't just smoke and mirrors. The mix of the band was immaculate. They're one of the best sounding bands going around. Vocals were seamless and the band sound was full and spot on. The only minor disappointment was that they tried to cover up some samples a little bit. Their new album was always going to need some sampling live but I just wished they hadn't tried to cover it.

I could go on but I won't. It was awesome. I'll stay on a high for a little while yet. Thank you Coldplay. Sunday night is what all concerts should be like.

Portable Sound

2009-02-24T16:15:00.004+10:00

Right now I'm not going to get into a debate about amps and how valve amps are the only real amps. That's a different topic entirely and one which I don't really want to stir up. I mention it just so you know I believe nothing can legitimately replace an awesome valve amp.

That said, while I've been songwriting, I haven't had the luxury of being able to blast my amp up to 10 due to not having the benefits of an isolation booth in a studio. But an electric guitar plugged straight into an audio interface is somewhat disgusting to listen to and software amp simulators are almost worse. I was trying to find a way around this by having a load resistor replace my speaker cabinet so I could go straight from my amp head into the audio interface. But apparently no one really makes anything like that and even if there was something like it on the market the speakers add a lot of the character to the sound so going direct from the head wouldn't have helped all that much anyway.

Then the Sansamp GT2 was brought to my attention - an analogue guitar amp simulator. Like I said I'd never replace my amp in an ideal situation but when I need to record straight from my guitar this thing was brilliant. I was able to tweak the dials to get a nice warm clean sound that could run with my effects board. I was really really surprised. The sound in headphones was actually decent. Something I wasn't expecting from a simulator.

I got back to Brisbane for rehearsal the other day though and plugged back into my amp, and yeah, the Sansamp is a good thing for the portable studio when demoing, but please don't substitute out the real thing.

Retro Looking

2009-02-20T11:13:00.003+10:00

Now I'm not usually one to get all excited and talk about something computer related but someone just twittered that if you have a Mac you can go all retro by pressing command + option + control + 8. First, I promise it won't cause your computer to crash or kill itself. Just try it. It's v cool.

Grammys Backlash

2009-02-18T21:15:00.003+10:00

I personally didn't actually see the Grammys the other week. But apparently a lot of people did. And apparently a lot of people weren't so happy with them either.

I'm subscribed to a blog called The Lefsetz Letter which essentially is a music commentary by a guy called Bob Lefsetz. It's an entertaining read. He has a lot to say and is often very controversial. Anyway, periodically one of his posts will be called "mailbag" which is essentially all the emails he's received on a particular topic. One such recent mailbag was about the Grammys. Bob himself didn't even bother commenting on the Grammys.

What I was going to say before I diverted to that back story was that I was really quite shocked and surprised at how much criticism people were prepared to spray at the Grammys. I didn't see it like I said so I don't know whether it was good or bad but that's not really the point. I can't understand it when people go out of their way to absolutely bag something just because they don't like it. There was a whole lot of (paraphrased) "the music industry is absolutely f#*ked right now, it's nothing like it used to be, there's no good music anymore" etc etc aimed specifically at the acts that performed at the ceremony. What was funny though was that people would rant and rave about how bad it was but then would say something like, "oh, but [insert artist here] was great, they were the only good bit of the whole show". Heaps of people said something like that but each time the act that they thought was great was different.

I'm going to start a new paragraph to make this easier to read. So essentially pretty much every act who played at the Grammys was great in the eyes of at least one of these people bagging the show. What I'm saying then is that with this is mind, their views are based on nothing but subjective musical taste. There's nothing wrong with musical taste being subjective. In fact if music wasn't subjective I'd be worried. I think music is one of those things that is really personal and so if we all liked the same music we'd all be pretty much the same people which would be boring. What I can't understand is why people go out of their way to passionately (and I mean with hatred) rubbish music they don't like because it's successful.

I've been guilty of it before but every time I do it I always hate myself and I only ever say it to friends, never publicly or anonymously publicly if you get me. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean it's bad. And the same goes for everyone else.

So I wish that people like those writing in to bag the Grammys would just be content to say "I don't like it" and leave it there. And enough about the music industry being in a terrible state as well. 1) It's not. 2) A strong enough belief in something goes a long way to creating the fact.

The Kooks at Sunset Sounds

2009-01-11T22:49:00.002+10:00

Earlier last year The Kooks played a show at The Zoo in Brisbane. Now I really wanted to see The Kooks but I didn't even know they were playing and tickets sold out in like five minutes. The Zoo is a really cool venue but The Kooks should have been playing The Tivoli. So I was a little devastated I didn't get to see them play then.

A couple of days ago was a new festival called Sunset Sounds at Riverstage. It's run by the guys who do the Falls Festival and it has the same lineup. Kooks were on that lineup so I got myself a ticket as soon as they went on sale. Now as cool as festivals can be, when I really want to see a band I much prefer to see their headline show because at festivals they play a shorter set, there are people there who might not really want to see the band and well it's a more casual experience. But The Kooks came on stage and literally tore it up. It was one of the best shows at a festival I had ever seen and I hadn't touched a drop of liquor that night so that's saying a lot. And even though they only played for about 45 minutes it was a killer 45.

Sometimes there really is nothing better than going to see a band you really want to see and having them blow your mind.

Concert Ticket Buying Anxiety

2008-11-27T20:41:00.003+10:00

This morning tickets went on sale for Coldplay's shows in Australia, well pre-sale anyway. I've been a massive fan of Coldplay for ages but now that they're enormous everyone wants a ticket, which makes buying a ticket a bit of a nerve inducing experience. Everytime I go to buy tickets to a show I really really want to go to I get really really nervous - heart rate goes up and all that. I just can't help it. I think when you've pumped yourself up for something and there's the possibility of missing out your body jumps into high alert mode. Anyway, I swear that buying tickets online these days is all about the speed of your internet connection and how good you are at navigating the ticket site. And sometimes it just doesn't matter, you're going to miss out. So I was nervous because I really want to see this band.

As much as I hate Ticketek for charging a ridiculous fee that isn't any less despite the fact that you take the option to go and pick up the ticket yourself instead of having it sent to you by registered post, I must say I'm more comfortable with them than other sellers. Earlier this year I had the most frustrating ticket purchasing experience of my life when I went to by tickets for Splendour In The Grass. I swear about 20,000 other people probably did as well. After lining up in a virtual queue for ages that kicks you out randomly for no reason at all I finally get into the site, select my tickets, fill in all my payment details and hit "buy" for the stupid site to go to a blank screen. Meanwhile, I can't get back in because of the queue and all the forums are saying it's sold out. Do I have tickets or not!!!!!!!! Turns out I did, but that's not the point. The point is that a ticketing system that knows it's going to have 20,000 people trying to buy tickets at once should not be so rubbish that it crashes all the time. But enough about that, venting complete.

To end the story, I got the tickets I wanted to Coldplay and when they come to Oz next March it's going to be awesome!! If you were trying to get tickets today as well I hope you got some.

Song on Repeat

2008-11-13T23:11:00.002+10:00

I was driving the other day listening to music on my ipod when I stumbled across an album I hadn't heard for ages. But more specifically it was a song on that album that I'm sure I'd heard before but hadn't really paid any attention to. I don't know why but I literally just kept listening to this song over and over and over. It might have been that it just felt like a really great song to drive to or something but it stuck in my head and I can't stop doing repeat listens. It's almost frustrating when this happens because I know I'm probably going to kill the song but I keep listening to it anyway. Here it is. Check it.

Two Points For Honesty by Guster

More Guster music on iLike

Argghhhhhh

2008-11-02T15:41:00.003+10:00

My amp blew up last night. I was on my way to a gig and thought I'd have a jam in the few minutes I had to spare. I turned on my amp and it started making this really weird noise I've never heard before and then something blew up and it started smoking so I quickly turned it off.

I found out at that moment that Saturday afternoon is maybe the most inconvenient time to have something go wrong with your gear. There are no hire places open and any friend who you can borrow from is either (a) not at home (b) not answering their phone or (c) using the amp themselves that night or even (d) a really frustrating combination of the aforementioned three. I did eventually get one. And I'd like to throw out an enormous thanks to that person because they got me out of an incredibly rubbish situation.

So I got the amp, the gig went really well and that's kind of the end of the story. But if you can avoid it, make stuff go wrong before the weekend. It's a lot easier.

Halloween... What's That?

2008-10-31T23:03:00.003+10:00

It just occurred to me earlier this evening that it is Halloween today - 31st October. Living in Brisbane you wouldn't even know it if you weren't paying attention. I google searched Halloween and this is the first image that came up.

I would have seen hundreds of these on TV or in a film but I have never seen one in real life, not once. It just isn't really an Australian thing. But traverse to the northern hemisphere and it's huge. It's amazing how cultures that can sometimes seem so similar occasionally remind you just how wildly different they really are.

So happy Halloween to those people who care. But for me and most of my fellow countrymen it's business as usual on a Friday night.

This Scared Me A Little

2008-10-23T22:20:00.003+10:00

The first time I saw this I pretty much couldn't believe my eyes. You know when you usually see a comedy sketch ripping on someone you can tell it's a joke - the actor doesn't really look like the person they're depicting and it's usually so exaggerated that there's no doubt it's not real. In comes Tina Fey impersonating American Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. I thought it was real. Check it out.

A Thought

2008-10-18T00:26:00.004+10:00

I had a conversation with someone about our music the other day. And this person said that they really connected with the music and lyrics that we wrote. I'd always thought about how I wanted our music to connect with people on a really personal level, but hearing it from someone who really appreciated our stuff meant a lot. The conversation reminded me about something I'd been thinking for a long time, about why I love playing music so much. So he's a thought about why I love what I do.

If nothing else I hope that my songs can make someone's life better, if only for an instant.

A little bit sentimental but hey, sometimes you need to be.

Last Minute Effort to See Michael Franti

2008-10-13T17:36:00.005+10:00

I wouldn't have gone to this show had a friend not called me up the day before with a ticket. It wasn't exactly the sort of stuff I usually get into but that's kinda why it was cool. And besides, I love The Tivoli and I don't think I've seen a bad show there yet. Michael Franti loved the whole jumping around on stage thing and the whole crowd loved to get into it as well. I swear it was about 40 degrees in there and that combined with a sold out show, everyone jumping and humidity at 98% meant that it got pretty disgustingly sweaty pretty quickly. When I walked out my jeans felt like I'd just put them in the wash.

There was sooo much bass though. It got a bit much for me after a while. And there were some snare hits in there that had so much reverb on them I felt a bit nauseous listening. There's something about overly reverbed snare and 80s toms that literally makes me feel sick. I'm not sure why. I wonder if anyone else suffers from it?

Great Book

2008-10-09T19:18:00.002+10:00

I hadn't read a good book for a while when I came across this one, "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. And I'd been getting through it steadily but last night I was nearing (sort of) the end and it killed me. I just couldn't put it down so I found myself closing the book at about 3am this morning. Destroyed my day. But really really good book.

I really need (want) this

2008-10-08T18:42:00.002+10:00

Why why why is the Australia dollar so useless against the Greenback right now? Way Huge just announced the release of this beautiful looking thing and I just have to get it. I'm convincing myself I need it and it's not just a want thing. Stuff it. I'm buying one now.

I Love This Weather

2008-10-07T18:40:00.003+10:00

The evening weather in Brisbane right now is stellar. Mid-20 degrees, nice breezes. It's that perfect time of year before it starts getting too hot. I hope it hangs around and summer doesn't jump in too early. I wore shorts and a T-shirt for the first time in a while a couple of weeks ago and I forgot how good it is to be able to dress like that. Springtime - how good!!

New Killers

2008-10-05T18:28:00.002+10:00

I just jumped on iTunes and downloaded the new single by The Killers, "Human". I must say I'm a massive fan of it. I think the best bands are the ones who are able to evolve their sound while at the same time still keeping it identifiably theirs. The Killers have definitely done that with this song. I'm looking forward to the album coming out in November. And hopefully they'll be touring Australia again sometime soon.

I Want One of These

2008-08-16T22:24:00.002+10:00

I saw this on the net today and, well, I want one. Very cool idea for capturing those videos you wouldn't usually be able to.

Splendour

2008-08-05T15:15:00.002+10:00

I love this festival. There's something about it that's just fun. You spend a whole weekend listening to cool music and playing up. Highlights this year for me were The Wombats, Vampire Weekend and Band of Horses. I don't have much more to say. Only that it was awesome and I didn't want to go to work today.

Inspiration

2008-06-29T18:48:00.003+10:00

I know I recently posted about Coldplay bringing out their new album and I don't mean to go on again on the same track but it's not my fault that my two favourite artists happen to bring out new material within two weeks of each other.

John Mayer is probably the biggest inspiration for me musically and watching this DVD I just felt inadequate as a musician and songwriter. It's almost disheartening but only for a second. Then there's a tiny glimmer of desperate, misguided hope that maybe one day you can pull off something remotely close to how good this guy is, and that's enough to push you on. I think you need to be reminded every now and again of just how inadequate you are in order to get better. But in the meantime I'll watch this thing a dozen more times and try to steal some ideas.

Despite not having the means at all I bought a new delay pedal. I'm searching for inspiration in sounds and I couldn't help myself. I'll regret it later when the credit card bill comes in but for now hopefully it'll spark something great to justify the interest I'll have to pay.

If you've only seen John Mayer in the light of pop singer and haven't seen him live then check out this concert. I don't think anyone can not be inspired at least on some level by this music.

Back to Basics

2008-06-29T18:35:00.001+10:00

Played an acoustic show last night and it really reminded me of the days before the band when I'd play small venues by myself. It was really liberating. When you're not locked into a strictly rehearsed set you can just do things on the fly. You have to work hard though because you've got nothing to hide behind except an acoustic guitar.

We were tucked into a corner of this bar/cafe just near the entrance and people were at the bar just a metre or so in front of me. It's such an intimate experience playing music to people like that. You're not separated by a stage or lights or anything. You play and they either like it or they don't and that's it. Bare and exposed. Great fun though. I hope to do more stuff like it.

Worth the wait

2008-06-14T16:23:00.003+10:00

Recently whenever I want music I usually just download it from iTunes. I always used to buy CDs but these days the convenience is too great to ignore. So I save buying CDs for the albums I've been hanging out for. And I usually get them as soon as they're released. Today Coldplay's new album got released in Australia and so I made the effort to get to the record store. I'm listening to it as I'm writing this and so far I'm liking it a lot. Fair bit different but that's what you want from your favourite bands when they release new stuff. Whenever I listen to new music by one of my favourite artists I always have a sudden urge to try and write something new myself. So when I'm done listening to the whole album I might go and pick up a guitar. Buy this album but. Quality.

Machines using dirty tactics

2008-06-05T22:13:00.003+10:00

Ages ago I made it a point not to carry any coins around. First it means I don't have annoying change weighing me down but second and more important is that I'm much less likely to spend money. If I've got change it's waaaaay too easy to spend it, whereas if I have to break a note then I probably won't. Good theory yeah? I thought so too. This is a new vending machine that just got put in at my work. I don't know about you but I reckon this is just unfair. And guess what. On the first day it was in I broke a ten dollar note to buy some Shapes. I feel like this machine has broken some vending machine by-law or unwritten code of conduct or something. I'll just have to stop carrying cash altogether. You know what will be next though - "insert credit card here". When that happens I'm stuffed.

I thought it would never get here

2008-06-03T20:01:00.004+10:00

I ordered some new gear the other week from the far away place that is the US and it finally turned up on my doorstep today. I love ordering stuff online because it's awesome when you get a delivery in the mail. The only other mail I get these days is bills. I think when I placed the order I chose the cheapest option without realising just how long it would take to get over to oz. And it didn't have tracking on the package either so about a week and a half in I was starting to get a little worried. But it's all good. I now have this brand new pedal in my hands and I can't wait to play it.

Does this even work???

2008-06-01T16:46:00.003+10:00

Apparently Australia isn't good enough for mobile blogging...

Best game everrr

2008-06-01T16:11:00.005+10:00

This here is probably one of the best two player games ever. I was living with my brother until recently but he left and in the process took his ps3 and his massive lcd tv with him. So I've cracked out the ps2 for the first time in years and am thoroughly enjoying this game. Yeah!!!

Introducing myself and the start of lo-fi

2008-06-01T13:55:00.002+10:00

Hey I'm Dave. I play in a band called The Quills - check it at myspace.com/thequills or thequills.com.au. I've decided that in the absence of an awesome camera I'm going to embrace the lo-fi of my camera phone so I can capture everything on the run. I'm so sick of being in situations where I wish I had a photo of something so I figured this is the best way to make sure I never miss anything.