This Wednesday at Difficult Music Festival.

Seems as though I haven't learned from my mistakes over the last couple of years, I've thrown together a night as part of the 2011 Difficult Music Festival, featuring some choice musicians who like to make obnoxious noises with a number of different instruments. It'll be a thing. You should definitely come along.

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GEODESIC DOMES ON FUTURISTIC LANDFILL

JON HUNTER

KNIFE CRIMES

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5TH, 2011

7:30 PM

FREE

THE CROSS ART + BOOKS

33 ROSLYN STREET, KINGS CROSS

PART OF THE DIFFICULT MUSIC FESTIVAL

Current adventures in pop music: "Silence like the wind overtakes me..."

Dan Deacon is coming back to Australia, in support of his new album Bromst and that's pretty exciting. It's actually kind of amazing now that I think about it. Ever since being introduced to the video for his song The Crystal Cat (directed by Jimmy Joe Roche) by a friend of mine last year, I've been a tremendous fan of Deacon's warped electronics and squirrel vocal stylings. Should you be able to find a retailer in Sydney that stocks it, his album Spiderman of The Rings comes highly recommended as it is the ideal soundtrack for most things.

Whilst his recent live shows have incorporated many numbers of musicians, this run of Australian shows will apparently see Dan Deacon playing solo. As the above image by Mick Ø and this video show, this will not necessarily be a bad thing.

If you would like to hear Get Older from Dan Deacon's new album Bromst, you can do so here.
If you would like to download almost all of Dan Deacon's back catalogue, you can do that here.
If you would like to hear or download an interview with Dan Deacon on The Sound of Yound America, where he discusses things like his history in composition and the evolution of his performance style, well, you might want to do that here.

It's all been done before.

Currently exhibiting at Firstdraft in Surry Hills is It's all been done before, an exhibition curated by myself. I asked a group of people - comprised of artists, writers, curators and musicians - to create a cover version of their favourite artwork, the only restriction being that the work that results retains the title of the original piece.

The exhibition reveals insightful and in some cases surprising turns as the artists showcase those who have inspired them in their work. Conversely, in my role as curator, I reveal the work of those who interest me and the people who inspire and shape my own practice. It's all one great big love in, but hopefully a self-aware and self-reflexive love in at that.

The exhibition runs until Saturday the 16th of August, with Firstdraft being open from 12 - 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday. Should you feel that way inclined, there are talks with some of the artists and myself happening on Saturday the 16th at 4:30pm. Come along, it'll be swell.

Alternatively, if you like your artistic discourse to be of the louder variety you should come by the gallery this Friday [the 15th] from 6:30pm. There you will find The day the music died, an evening of reinterpretations of pop songs from some of Sydney's [and one of Melbourne's] greatest sonic misfits. As always quality is not guaranteed, but at least it will be entertaining. Full spiel follows shortly.

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It's all been done before.

Ben Byrne
Anastasia Freeman
June Green
Michelle Jamieson
Peter Newman
Sean Rafferty
Soda_Jerk

Curated by Daniel Green.

Opening 6th August, 6 – 8pm

Exhibition runs 6th – 16th August, 2008

Performance: The day the music died.
Friday 15th August, 6:30pm:

Peter Blamey
Samuel Bruce
Ben Byrne
Daniel Green and
The End of Everything
Thomas Knox Arnold
Peter Newman
Kusum Normoyle
Alex White and
Monika Brooks

Artist and Curator Talks: 16th August, 4.30pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 - 6pm

>>

Curation is an everyday activity that when put on display can be considered one of the greater forms of vanity available to us as both artists and people. Through the act of curation, Daniel Green is displaying a collection of works by people who have influenced and inspired him. These works are in turn, covers of earlier works which have inspired the people who have inspired Green.

In a way, It’s all been done before is a grand scale exercise in honouring our source material. It is about doing more than just playing favourites; rather, asking why they are favourites in the first place and finding ways of re-presenting them to encourage others to consider what inspires them, what their ‘favourites’ are and explore the impact it has had in their lives.

It’s all been done before explores this challenging subject through a wide variety of mediums and artists, both those taking part in creating the covers and those being covered in the hope that you can consider what your sources are.

The robots are coming.

Daft Punk / Modular's monstrosity of ridiculousness, Never Ever Land, arrives in Sydney this evening. I'm going, and maybe you are too. I really don't want to descend into gloating territory; chances are if you aren't going you will be soon attending events that I haven't managed to get tickets to [namely, anything at the sydney festival]. Nevertheless, I am more than a little excited about this. It quite possibly will be the best thing ever. At least the best thing ever for those who like robots, dancing to robot-made-music, pyramids, and lights... lots of lights.

Newcastle migratory season 2007.

The October long weekend means a number of things in New South Wales; like the AFL grand final on Saturday [alright, that might be more of a Victorian thing, but just go with it OK?], the NRL grand final on Sunday, and a day off on Monday to recover from the hang over. For a large group of artists, musicians, writers and other miscreants however, it means trying to find somewhere to sleep in Newcastle [and trying to work why you didn't learn from your mistakes last year and book accomodation earlier this year]. Now in its seventh year, the This Is Not Art Festival provides refuge to a number of oddballs and curiousities over four days and four smaller festivals - Electrofringe, The National Young Writers Festival, Sound Summit and Critical Animals.

I'll be running around town committing a number of acts of mischief in the name of Electrofringe. My video Ducks Should Be Free From Persecution will be showing as part of the Electroprojections screening series. On Thursday night I'll be stalking Newcastle's walls armed with a video projector and a power generator. Next Monday I'll be taking over TIN Radio with Ben Byrne to present two solid hours of something between 20:30 and 22:30 and this Friday I'll be presenting ElectroPopQuiz!, which may well just be my finest hour.

Taking place at the TINA Festival Club between 17:30 and 18:30, ElectroPopQuiz! will be your opporunity to flex your intellectual muscle over a range of topics that potentially you and most likely far less actually care about. Think of it as Wednesday night pub trivia hosted by your high school electronics club. It'll be sensational, I guarantee. And there's prizes too. All the trimmings.

If you're planning on entering, I suggest you bring a nerd along for back up. You have been warned.

Flashy design that means nothing gets you everywhere.

Someone purely in the name of frivolity has decided to put on a gig at Chalkhorse gallery in Surry Hills. It only costs $5, which is a fairly cheap way to spend a Saturday evening. I haven't heard of most of the lineup, but I have seen Moonmilk play a couple of times before so I imagine the evening will be filled with music of the loud, improvised, drone variety. Have fun if you go won't you. I have to work, so I'll have to give it a miss. I do like the flyer though for some reason, so I figure it's no harm to pass the details on to the masses.

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Intense Nest presents:

Moonmilk
Always
Knitted Abyss

Saturday 21st July 2007
8pm
$5

Chalkhorse Gallery
56 Cooper Street
Surry Hills

Avoid the cold with Kork Chork!

My friend Anastasia has put together an evening of frivolity in order to raise some pennies for a school in Camboida where she volunteered earlier this year. You should come, it'll be quite the thing. You should bring other people too. That'd be swell. If you're keen you can click on the above image or read below for more information. It's tonight, you should probably know that. Sorry about the late notice, but face it you had nothing better to do anyway.

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Kork Chork

Wednesday 20th of June, 6pm
$6 and $8 entry
Pact Theatre, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville

Cameron Foster, Suzan Liu, Miri Wheen, Pip Johnson, Anastasia Freeman, Daniel Green, Monika Brooks, Alice Amsel, T.R. Carter, Louise Dibben, Emily Morandini, Anna Chase, Jade Oldfield, William Noble.

A night of experimental sound, video and performance
A fundraiser for the volunteer development poverty children school in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

In association with Quarterbred and Pact Theatre.

Current adventures in pop music: It's OK 'cause I found multi-part harmonies

One of my all time favourite concert experiences was at the hands of The Polyphonic Spree. They evoked such an ecstatic feeling from within that if they were indeed they great cult that some believe they are and they started handing out little vials throughout the enmore theatre claiming that drinking it would enable my soul to be teleported on to an spacecraft flying overhead I probably would have believed them. At that point everyone was so ridiculously happy, who really would've cared?

Needless to say, this didn't happen; the aliens didn't take me, and bless their cotton socks The Polyphonic Spree have a new album coming out in June titled The Fragile Army. Teleporting your web browser to their myspace page will reveal to you that they've ditched the iconic robes in favour of black, military style get up [they're an army after all] as well as a streaming version of their new single Running Away, which is rather lovely in my opinion.

The most curious thing however lies at the end of the playlist; a cover of Nirvana's Lithium. Covering Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band I could understand but Lithium is a rather odd choice; not being the happiest of ditties after all. Of course it works; utilising a kill them with kindness attitude to things and stranger things have certainly occured before and since. Perhaps this video of the group playing the song in Dallas puts things in perspective. The quality is suitably bad, but it's all about the choir in the background.

Current exercises in productivity #3: A trip to Carriageworks

Through no fault of my own, I'm opening the Sydney leg of the 8th edition of Liquid Architecture, the national sound arts festival. This will be my second attempt at "The Daniel Green Tribute Show," which I did for the first time at the zine fair stage at last year's This Is Not Art festival in Newcastle. All I'm telling anyone is that I'm performing songs from musicals. If you want to know more, you're just going to have to come aren't you? It's going to be quite the thing.

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SYDNEY
Performance Space at Carriageworks
Thursday June 28 – Saturday June 30

Thursday June 28 from 8pm – Gala Opening!
$10/$8
WINNER
TONY MASON-COX WITH ANN ONYMOUS
THE DANIEL GREEN TRIBUTE SHOW
+ Very Special Guests!

Friday June 29 from 8pm – Main Concert One
$15/$12
RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK (SWITZERLAND)
DAVE PHILLIPS (SWITZERLAND)
NATASHA ANDERSON (MELBOURNE)
THOMAS KNOX ARNOLD

Saturday June 30 from 8pm – Main Concert Two
$15/$12
CELLULE D’INTERVENTION METAMKINE (FRANCE)
LLOYD BARRETT (BRISBANE)
ABJECT LEADER (BRISBANE)
KAMUSTA
PETER NEWMAN

+ ‘TERMINAL’ Exhibition
Artists Include:
NATASHA ANDERSON
JASPER STREIT
RIK RUE
WADE MARYNOWSKY

Season Passes - $30/$25

"Let's drive to Brighton on the weekend..."

Bloc Party are coming. I have tickets. I am ridiculously excited. They play the horden on August the 4th, 2007.

Should be back by then.