Idea Fix - The Blog

Can you think of a better way to spend Hitler’s birthday than at Cherry Rock Music Fest 08? Put together by James Young and his team, Cherry Rock is a yearly music lane way festival featuring hard rocking Australian and International acts. A last minute venue change meant the event moved from AC/DC lane to The Palace.

James Young is an old friend of mine. He’s acted in two of my movies, “Bloodlust” and “Pearls Before Swine”. In addition, we shot a cameo for him and Jon Hewitt in the new one. He also used to promote Chaser’s “Hard and Fast” - a great place for picking up pussy in the late 80s and early 90s. He was a lawyer but headed into creative areas by running the ad agency SEE. He has now started his own company “Cherry Rock” of which this event is one of its productions.

James Young loves his hard rock. AC/DC,  Stones, Zeppelin, Guns n Roses, Turbo Negro, etc. He loves his Elvis too… especially the King’s latter day sartorial splendor. He was decked out in a fine black Vegas Elvis-style rine stone suit, that “he had, had made up himself”. An excellent MC, James intro’d each band and hyped up the 1000 or so punters at The Palace into a rocking frenzy.

I’m not a huge hard rock fan, preferring synth, electro and moody vocals etc, but I do dig its aggression and what-the-fuck attitude on occasion and this was in ambundance at Cherry Rock.

X were good. The Hell City Glamours really rocked and by this stage I was pissed and getting right into it. The Hitmen were retro hard rock and had an early eighties New Wave mode with the lead singer dancing ala Ian Curtis . The Galvatrons mixed in some synth rock that I really thought was cool. The Raveonettes with their 50s stylings, bop and ace tunes were my favorite act though…

Kristen was up to her usual tricks. She didn’t bring her ID and somehow managed to offend the door man at The Palace (old Metro). I had to make some calls to get her inside and it took some doing. That girl needs a good spanking sometimes… that I’m more than happy to dish out, given half an opportunity…

I scooted before Supersuckers but I’m sure they would have been great. Congrats to Jamie Young and team for pulling together a late minute venue change and carrying the torch locally for hard rocking enthusiasts out there. James is a true fan of this under appreciated music style and it comes across in the fest’s line up and attitude.

Waking up a little worse for wear after the excellent CSS concert at the Prince. I made my way down to the V festival. I had two comp tickets on the door and Kristen was going to come down after she knocked off work at 4, so I had to bullshit my way in… so as not to use the two tickets. A line worked about needing to get my camera man in and that I had to write a report on Robyn for a newspaper, blah blah. Something to that effect got me past the guards at Stalag V. Yes, another fenced in detention center music festival.

Robyn was already on. She’s a Scandanavian goddess with a hip new CD of electro hip hop shenanigans. I have an old CD of hers from the late 90’s that sucks (housey and commercial), but her new stuff sounds like a happy version of The Knife and is very nice. She played well with a microphone drop and is a spunky chic with attitude. Then I had a wander about to get the lay of the land and a bite to eat (German kransky).

Next up Cut Copy who have a great new CD In Ghost Colours. Excellent electronic music from local lads who Dj’d and played at Kristen’s Teknikunst a few years back. Their star has risen with a new Giorgio Moroder style LA electro sounding CD that is very strong. Wondering how they’d handle a big crowd I was surprised at how polished and pop-staresque they were. The lead singer is Bowie Low period thin, that is always a good look for a pop star and the whole band really got into what they were doing.

I then left to get Kristen with my two tickets still intact. No Pass out, well there was pour moi…

I went home, freshened up, change of clothes and picked up the kooky K and back we went to Stalag V.

Jesus and Mary Chain were on and the vibe of the place had picked up as night approached. We wandered round and saw pals. We also saw (and Kristen photographed) people who had just jumped the fence and were being chased madly by security. I saw two punters bowled over by this high speed chase. They caught the illegal immigrant of the V festival (a feral hippie dude that could run like the wind). I started a chant of “Deport him, Deport Him” much to the crowds amusement as security dragged the dude away.

We also realised there was a VIP area. The Transcendental Fascist in me demanded we enter its hallowed halls. Our comp tickets had failed to include VIP passes. But we bumped in Hank from 161 who was leaving to go to dinner. He gave us his pass. I went inside the VIP area and asked around for a spare and soon Mikey from Vice whipped one out from his back pocket for the glamorous Ms Condon to enter.

By now fatigue from the night before had gone and Kristen and I decided to get tight and a little merry. Kristen was wearing red Ray Bans. She has been for the past two months. We couldn’t help noticing a lot of red sunglasses on female’s at the V fest. Kristen has always been a barometer for fashion. She would wear clothes with big lettering on them about a year ago, ala da 80’s, then suddenly everyone was wearing them. I have counted at least ten occasions when what Kristen wore, became a national trend within a year or few months. Either she intuited what others did earlier or that she actually started some of these trends by dressing a certain way. I mean someone has to do it?! One girl wears something on Chapel or Greville st and then a cool designer sees it and makes some clothes like it and “Voila”. A new fashion trend is born…

N. E. Way, Air were boring just like their music, sounding more like Muzak. A couple of really up and bouncing songs lifted things but we were bored by the slow instrumental tracks. So more booze…

We bounced in and out of the VIP area… allowed to take our drinks on the run!

Duran Duran were next. Being a fan of the whole New Romantic thang and being old enough to remember it when it happened, seeing these guys was cool. I was always disappointed that Duran didn’t stick to the electronic sound of their first two or three albums or that cool Arcadia side project. When they rocked out or got funky, I got bored. I dug Depeche Mode who stayed electro pure for example. But the new Duran CD is good, more electronic and combining their interests in funk/rock. They have always been a cool band living in a world of Bret Easton Ellis style fashion, drugs and women. They were great live mixing up old and new stuff and have aged well to be icons of the 80’s.

Next back to the VIP room. Saw Roy the fashion designer who designed clothes in my new movie - stylish as ever, Will Mclean, we said “Hi” to, who I know from the Hellfire days, James Young of course was present at this big music fest to give it his critical ear, Mikey and Briony from Vice we hung out with most and discussed Briony’s heavy necklace she picked up for a song… was it gold or no? But the king of the Emo’s called us…

Smashing Pumpkins were playing already on the main stage. Corgan just didn’t look happy. Not EMO fake unhappy but really bored, going through the motions. Whenever he (rarely) played an old track, people went mental, including Kristen and I. When he played a new one, people stood around bored or left. The new Pumpkins material is mostly tuneless, meandering noise. The old stuff is Indy pop classics. We left as people screamed, “We like your old stuff, better than your new stuff” ala the Regurgitator song. Corgan needs to rediscover his pop self or fade away gracefully.

That left the Presets. Excellent Electro mayhem, drunken dancing, etc. Can’t wait to hear the new CD, I’ll get it this week.

We then pulled the plug. Good venue at Show Grounds with stages close together. The line up was more Electronic than the BDO and probably more to my (and the young Volk of the 00’s) taste. Rock is so passe. Rage Against the Machine, who cares? I liked TISM’s clever send up Machines Against the Rage…

So that’s all from Stalag V. We did a Charles Bronson and got out of there before the madding crowd, bevy’s in hand to fight another day. Tally Ho!

Yes bitches, I just saw CSS live in concert at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda with the kooky K and they fuckin’ rocked. I’m as drunk as a skunk in a bunk… but fuck did I have a good time.

CCS means something like “I cant be bothered being Sexy” and I know exactly how they feel. They rocked the Prince tonight, playing all the electro hits from their debut CD. Fucking awesome. I want to see the Knife now. But some silly Scandanavian cunt said they’d split up. Whatever.

Thanks to Fiona at MC’s ….I’m off to the V festival tomorrow to see Smashing Pumpkins, Robyn, Duran Duran, Presets, Cut Copy and other cool shit… free… at the Melbourne fest that hopes to rival the BDO. Good weather, we hope. Report to follow.

Saw Modest Mouse, Wed at Palace (Old Metro) and they were cool. But the audience looked like a clone of the band. Everyone is so desperate to be an individual… they all look the same. Fuck that shit. Be yourself. I will be.

Stand by for V fest report, Melbourne. Billy Corgan is such a fucking EMO. Someone should punish him for his crimes against humanity. I won’t… I like peace, the Dalai Lama and little ol’ green Hitler…

I’m drunk, ga’ night!

Ice Cold Swedish Electro from The Knife

Two tracks:

We Share Our Mothers Health

Silent Shout

(I love this track, the way it archipegi’s and contorts, fucking classic. I played this to Pankow in Wangaratta last year, nice moment)

Two classics from Miss Kitten and The Hacker. From the early 00’s but sound just like the 80’s (deliberately I’d say). MK&tH, FisherSpooner, The Knife and handful of other cool early 00 bands are responsible for the whole eighties revival manifest locally here with The Presets, Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernaughts, etc. I love it all. One can never have enough good electronic music. Caroline Herve aka Miss Kitten has a new album out too, “Batbox”, following on from her “I-com” first solo outing. “First Album” by her and the Hacker is still one of the best and purest albums though of the electro revival.

Well, I spent Saturday night at the Sandown Park Tet Festival (held around the same time as Chinese New Year) and it was a lot of damn fun. Celebrating Tet, the most important Vietnamese holiday, it is a three day festival held out at Sandown that must have had close to 15,000 Vietnamese Australian’s in attendance with a smattering of interested on lookers like myself. I was there shooting a Malaysian friend’s concert on the main stage and as you might guess, it wasn’t my first choice for a choice Saturday night out. I remembered also the excellent Tet offensive scene in Full Metal Jacket that had me grinning all evening.

On arrival, I told the ticket box manager that I was here to shoot the concert. The manager inside the box was as belligerent as one of the referees in that Russian Roulette match in The Deer Hunter… not believing my story, then refusing to even speak on the phone to an official from the concert area. I hunted down a non Vietnamese security person, who spoke to the official and got me inside the venue… alpha bravo charlie.

The place was packed. It was like a mini Melbourne show. Rides, show bags, markets, clowns. I tried my luck at the food stands and had delicious Bang Chung and a meat on a stick deal that was tasty. I then made my way to the stage and worked out the shooting details with the two cameramen. Then I moseyed through the mini Saigon market and bought some pirate DVD’s, mostly crazy Asian action stuff at 5 bucks a pop but with Lust Caution there too for five smackers. I couldn’t help noticing a lot of Madman Eastern Eye titles being happily pirated by the less than copyright abiding stall owners.

I hung out with some Aussie security dudes killing time and heard this come over their intercom speaker system, no shit - “All we need now is some Napalm”. The security guards laughed and looked at me, in suspicion, as if I would report them and I just laughed at their sick humor. It further confirmed my own observations of the racist nature of most Anglo Australian’s. We shouldn’t forget (..and I don’t) that Australia was at war with Nth Vietnam when I was born and I guess some Australian’s remember little things like that and might hold a grudge. I don’t though, of course.

The Vietnam war was a interesting move in the grand chess game between Russia and the US and not entirely in vain. Ho Chi Minh too is cool. I find him interesting and the war in general was fascinating, from French Colony to American pawn in the Cold War to finally Communist State and victory against the US… then detente post cold war.

Anyway, the concert went well and I had fun shooting the antics of performers and crowd. Two Us Vietnamese singers had the crowd eating out of their pocket. I then looked around some more at the festival until the second performance of my friend closed out the night. The Tet festival is on again tonight at Sandown. Good food, crazy atmosphere, check it out.

In a yearly tradition, Kristen Condon and I headed out to the Big Day Out to cause some trouble. Here’s a first hand account.

The venue this year was Flemington. I was considering Top Hat and tails and pictured myself sitting in the member’s section sipping champagne and talking about how George W Bush ain’t all that bad just to shit people… while watching Rage Against the Machine. But I decided to go more casual in Ralph Lauren top and shorts. Which turned out to be a good idea as the venue was actually the car park at Flemington… not the official grounds. But this car park served the purposes fine for the BDO maelstrom.

Upon arrival two feral junkies asked if we intended to stay all day and wanted our ticket. No doubt some scam was in play. I advised Kristen too keep walking but she was way ahead of me hating these feral scumbags.

We arrived during the Regurgitator set around 3pm. Their star must have fallen if they are on this early. To our dismay checking the guide we have missed Midnight Juggernauts and British India’s gigs all over by 3pm.

But the BDO is about getting drunk and silly and seeing a few bands and friends, so we thought fuck it.

We had VIP tickets that get us into the VIP area. Now called Guest area so as to not sound too elitist. We began the search for the Guest Services tent. Like a quest for the Grail we asked every dumb ass security person in the joint who didn’t have a clue where the guest services tent was. We found a staff person who knew and pointed generically toward the Flemington stand. We looked around, saw a bit of Spoon and eventually found the tent. After securing the all-important VIP pass. Yes, I will call it that, as I have no problem with elitism. We hunted out the VIP area that provides a modicum of civilization and good company in the sea of stinking teenage shitheads.

Once inside the hallowed halls of the guest area we saw the drink cue was a fucking mile long. I started down the cue to see whom I knew. Luckily good ole Andrew Mast from Inpress was near the front and we struck up a conversation and soon were in line. Buying up all the Vodka Ice things we could… we quickly started to get drunk.

Greeting Hank from 161 is a yearly tradition at the BDO. Hank is old friends with promoter Vivian Lees and is a staple of the event for me. He was in fine spirits and looking good as usual with his posse of pals including the inscrutable Phil. We then tried to sit down and rest after our quest.

A rude cunt wouldn’t let us have two empty chairs. So we went and smoked (I smoke when drunk, probably a bad idea) up the back fence of the VIP area. Now a little merry I began to muse on the detention centre look of the Big Day Out with its fenced off areas and high security.

I then told all who would listen about my new theory. How funny it is that all these lefty anti whatever types all paid over a hundred bucks to spend the day in a venue that resembles a detention centre or concentration camp. Security guards, police, dogs, high fences, areas of the camp securely squared off for; VIP’s, drinking areas, food zones, etc. I mean these demarcation DMZ areas must be forced on the BDO organizers and you see this absurdity at all big rave events and major outdoor festivals. Can’t they light ‘en the fuck up with all these laws from council or State gov?

I quickly broke down this shit as a Transcendental Fascist and started smuggling booze out of the VIP area so Kristen and pals can go watch bands bevy in hand the way you should be able to.

We saw the excellent Billy Bragg, who I dig and he was tres good…then saw Pnau, which was a bit crap. The water mist fountains where an excellent addition that I indulged in frequently but Kristen avoided them not wanting to get her hair wet. Chicks!

Soon back to the VIP tent and more accosting of friends and acquittances. Jeff from the BDO had fixed the drink cue and the VIP area was now rocking. James Young was in fine form in Red suit and spoke with the usual acumen of a later day Cicero about bands and music. Michael Lynch, the manager of TISM and Midnight Juggernauts agreed with me about his band being on too early and we discussed the merits, subversive or not of Arcade Fire. Someone then held me up who I studied with at La Trobe University (whose name eludes me)…whom I scared off with my most misanthropic bullshit. Then more and more hello’s and chit chat from the people Kristen and I knew. Craig Mathieson from The Bulletin saw me and walked the other way. Always a good sign from an old pal - Not!

Next more booze smuggling out of Stalag 28 got us out to the main act of the day in my opinion Arcade Fire. They were excellent and Kristen and I went bug fuck dancing and getting into the apocalyptic folk dance troupe. Our fav song Antichrist TV Blues about the planes hitting tall buildings came on and we went crazy for it. Arcade Fire is a great band that can broadcast well into the great empty space of the two main stages. The lead singer said that Australia is fucked because we have a reality TV show on border security and he was right. He also said that Obama had won a new State and could be gaining momentum. There he was wrong, unfortunately, as he forgets the pessimism of his own records for a second. I said to Kristen that Arcade Fire are a bit Emo really and she said I was full of shit. And a heated debate ensued with Kristen’s victory. Kristen also naturally found a place a to shop for clothes at the BDO and for lack of a changing room saved us all money there.

During Silverchair we went back to VIP area and got drunker still.

Sunburnt, tired and over it Kristen and I pulled the ripcord and got out before Bjork and Rage, not being over fond of either. All in all a good (half) day of mayhem and madness at the BDO for us. It is still the number 1 all day festival. Just maybe chill out on all the fences and security area bullshit a bit… an event like this should be more like Woodstock and less like Guantanamo Bay. I guess the government probably forces a lot of shit on them, so changes need to be made there -macht schnell.

The magic words “Boyd Rice Presents” are always good enough reason to buy a CD. But Boyd’s latest presentation I had not seen in any stores in Melbourne and I had not got around to ordering it online yet. But this week providence placed one before my mits and five minutes later it was spinning in my car as I tear around the city. What can I say. Fucking classic. With songs like “You give me Hard On”, “Too many People”, ‘The Blackness”, “Doomed”, “I don’t know what to do” and “Fuck it” this CD achieved high rotation on my Cd players. Many other great tracks…it truly is a best of the best. Highly recommended… funny, profound, disturbing, controversial, confronting and just plain fun. Everything good art should be. Find out for yourself!

His website is:

www.littlefyodor.com/

Here’s a cool track and rare video for one of my fav 80’s bands Talk Talk. The singer is Mark Hollis, he has a cool solo album but hasn’t recorded anything new in close to ten years. Such a shame.