yes, camera obscura’s first australian tour started right here in brisbane last night.
master carmen was reviewing the show, and kindly offered me her +1 ticket - you’re my hero - so, luckily, getting in to this sold-out show was a breeze. cross-leggedness appeared to be the theme of the night throughout shiver like timber and institut polaire until the break before the band of “the (well, my and many others’) great expectations,” at which point people all stood up and it became quite unwise to walk around through the dense crowd.

even considering my potentially biased feelings - liked them for a while now and had been waiting for this gig for over two months - it was a blissful performance. thoroughly enjoyable. fun all the way. every band member had unique air around them, which was great, and of course, the lead vocal traceyanne campbell was magnificant: absolutly gorgeous, multi-talented, and sings like no one else. gold. who could resist having a bit of crush on someone like her. i have a crush on her, yes. i find the members very charming and talented, but i can’t get over her placidity. and, yes, you saw it coming, her hair! she’s irresistable.

here are two clips from their “let’s get out of this country” album:

“if looks could kill” with bits of their live performance footage

and

well-known “lloyd, i’m ready to be heartbroken”

2007 tour dates - australia
02.22.2007 - Troubadour Brisbane, Northern Territory
02.23.2007 - Laneway Festival Melbourne, Victoria
02.23.2007 - Northcote Social Club Melbourne, Western Australia
02.24.2007 - Laneway Festival Melbourne
03.02.2007 - Perth International Arts Centre Perth, Western Australia
03.03.2007 - Laneway Festival Brisbane
03.04.2007 - Laneway Festival Sydney
03.05.2007 - Annandale Hotel Sydney, New South Wales

oksana is always a lovely company. we - luckily - made it on time after parking happily on a god-knows-where street, mistaking a huge apartment building for the powerhouse. it was dark, after all… we got there, met with the other exciting ones, and even had enough time to enjoy the photography exhibition and get an asahi.

there’s something about boys in suits. there’s something more about boys in suits with musical instruments. there’s even more about boys in suits with musical instruments in pink light. when the music is good, it signals the beginning of a wonderful night. with asahi in your hand, that’s it, you’re there already. i enjoyed every tune. they do have a few mp3 files available for download on their website (http://www.tobywren.com).

i bought their new cd for a jazz lover whose birthday is coming up soon. (he wasn’t a virgo as i thought… nevertheless->) i’m sure he’ll appreciate it. if you’d like to catch them performing, go to one of these:

• July 30
  The Brisbane Festival, Spiegeltent
  King George Square
  2-5pm ($15/$10)
• August 27
  Jazz on a Sunday Vibe
  The Zoo, Ann St Fortitude Valley
  8pm ($15/$12)
• August 8 & 15
  Ric’s
  9pm

Happy listening-

I am leaving today - no more to say
You can find yourself some
hooker if you really need a lay
You can keep your dope and
whisky and your chain-smoker’s cough
And just wallow for eternity in liquor and slot
– youn sun nah 5

i thought i should be a nice sister at least once in my life, so the other night, i cooked fantastic dinner for my sister and took her to youn sun nah 5 at the brisbane powerhouse. i really like the brsibane powerhouse. it doesn’t seem to be attracting as many people as it should, which is a shame, but there’s always something going on. we should make more frequent visits to the powerhouse, brisbanites! :) besides, the food at Watt is pretty nice, and it’s right next to the new farm park, so really, you can easily have some seriously fun multiple sensory experiences at any time of the day/night.

the concert turned out to be a very interesting one. youn sun nah 5 consists of four men and one female - the vocal, youn sun nah:

Youn Sun Nah – vocals
Benjamin Moussay – piano
David Neerman – vibraphone
Yoni Zelnik – double bass
David Georgelet – drums

you can find some more info at the Australia Northern Europe Liaisons website.

i quite liked youn sun nah’s voice - it sounded a lot like a good mixture of yoshie nakano (ego-wrappin’) and sora lee, and at certain times it remined me of bjork in a very subtle kind of way. nevertheless, it was quite unique in its own way and sometimes was really exciting when she wasn’t being shy or quiet. the music was great - not a conventional jazz type; nah even (very joyfully) rapped from time to time.

what i found interesting about this band was that the members were actually all from different cultures. french, hebrew, british, korean etc. they met at CIM in france, so they’re still based there. nah sings in korean, french, and hebrew as well, but mainly in english. so all these multi-cultural aspects are blended in musically, lyrically, and visually as well, which is great. i noticed how those songs in korean were mostly really sad, slow, repetitive and quiet - i almost cried listening to one of the songs - those in english, on the other hand, were more lively, daring, fun, sometimes cutesy, and in faster beats. i wonder why. i’m really curious how differently she feels when she expresses herself artistically in different languages.

i definitely have different approaches to communication when i speak in different languages. ok, no, i don’t intentionally pause and think “oh, i’m going to speak korean now so i should communicate this way” but changes just come naturally. and i tend to behave differently depending on which culture i’m in. so jaz, or hee-jeong, in korea would probably be very different to jaz in australia. but still, this is all on a conversational level - so i really wonder, for an artistic work to have a global appeal, what is needed? are there any core elements that make something more communicatively effective and appealing across various cultures? we’re living in a culture that’s overflooded with shallow formulaic products - yes, i’m generalising and i am aware of some ridiculously fantastic cultures happening in many corners of the world, but one can’t deny that what adorno and horkheimer claimed fifty years ago is still happening (no, i don’t agree with their totalistic macro-approach but i do definitely concur with many of their concepts): the manufactured souless culture may in fact be demoting our opportunity of enlightenment to babarianism.

i’m a big believer of aesthetics. i believe that there are core elements of aesthetics that can be communicated across any culture. this is definitely one of the areas that i’d like to study more in the future. at the moment i only have some vague assumptions.

anyway, youn sun nah 5 wasn’t the best musical collaboration that i’ve ever encountered in my life, but i did think that they had some of those core qualities of aesthetics in different ways, and i immensely enjoyed their performance. it was their last concert in australia this time, but if you do have a chance somewhere else in the world - i think their next destination is china or singapore - do check them out. it’ll be a fun night for your senses in a quiet yet exciting way.

i enjoy listening to music a lot, be it classical, jazz, triphop, rock, or unclassifiable.

oh, talking about genres reminds me of what one of my students said last semester when we were talking about genres of writing. half expecting some funny and not-so-polite responses, i asked, “so, what genre does avril lavigne’s music fall into?” one of the students immediately yelled out “shame.” ok. now i’ve written it here, it doesn’t sound too funny, but when it happened, it was very funny. i’ve got nothing against avril lavigne personally.

there are two songs that i really enjoy in “comfort of strangers.” here are the lyrics:

Worms

Worms don’t dance they haven’t got the balls
No matter how do you do
It’s just you do that’s all
You got what it takes to knock at my door
You wanna get all excited
Never been here before

And now I’m your apple eating heathen
The original sin
Well you ain’t got my faith
So best keep your belief
I had waited forever to love someone
I swear I heard you thank your god that time
For having me come along

Chickens don’t fly but they have got the wings
No matter how hard they try
They bump into things
They’re all running around
Knock their heads on the ground
They got a wish bone where their backbone should’ve grown

And now I’m your apple eating heathen
Any old rib stealing eve
Well you don’t have my faith
So best keep your belief
I had waited forever to love someone
I swear I heard you thank your god that time
For having me come along

Intimacy reduced to cruelty
Had you believe like this was meant to be
And I look for the magic
But you got away with it
That’s all

Comfort of Strangers

I know the stars that shine on me
Are brighter than you and I may ever be
I know there’s an answer to your question
But I don’t know that I could word it right

Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
I’m not sure, should I just say it out loud?
Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Alright this time I’m gonna keep that in mind

One love is better than not enough
I’d rather have no love
Than messing with the wrong stuff
It’s just the comfort of strangers
Always the comfort of strangers…

I know the sun that shines on me
On better terms than you and I may ever be
I know there’s an answer to the question
But I’m not sure that I should word it right

Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Everytime you’re gonna set me free
Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Alright this time let’s take it right home to see

One love is better than not enough
I’d rather have no love
Than messing with the wrong stuff
It’s just the comfort of strangers
Always the comfort of strangers

Well some of those are like best friends
Best friends…
Ones that keep you coming round again

I usually don’t listen to country music at all. I avoid the genre as much as I can. Although some of the songs in this album do go beyond the “folk boundaries” (well, the boundaries are set according to my highly personal classification rules anyway) sound too country-ish for my liking. But I really do enjoy listening to this album, and I particulary enjoy the lyrics. They’re fantastic. If you have a chance, do listen to it :)

While listening to this album and other great music, I’m patiently waiting for the release of Ego-Wrappin’s new album On the Rocks!.

Very excited. Very.