Category Archives: Music
Music
Little Prince, big performance: a message from the cheap seats
For a long time I wasn’t sure that I was a stadium show person. I often found myself let down by costly international acts and blockbusters at Rod Laver Arena, attending shows by definitive artists more for the sense of ‘being there’ than for enjoying their exhausted … Read more
Music
Modern adventures in classical music
A few years ago I applied to be a presenter at the classical music radio station 3MBS. I was twenty-three. 3MBS is a certain kind of Melbourne institution: it may not be as well known as FM counterpart ABC Classics but devotees make up for this through the sheer force of their passion. Read more
Music, Reviews
Unreal Love: The Magnetic Fields’ Love at the Bottom of the Sea
Stephin Merritt, the musical arch-contrarian behind American pop fabulists The Magnetic Fields, knows a thing or two about artifice. More specifically he understands that, at its most fundamental level, all music is artifice – what separates music (even musique concrète, music created from recordings of natural noise) … Read more
Music
On the long-awaited cultural item #1: Wild Flag, Sleater-Kinney and me
One of my favourite bands when I was growing up was Sleater-Kinney. The Portland, Oregon, trio wailed and beat their way through a career that spanned from riot-grrl recordings in Australia to hall-of-fame finality six years ago. Mesmerically energised and pointedly feminist, Sleater-Kinney’s music was both catnip … Read more
