Another boring day in Canberra?

Yesterday was not one. Even though I had to work until 3 in the afternoon, on a Sunday, I still got to go to two different shows and see a bunch of great bands.

Now that I have a car, I can just pop on over to things, that's exactly what I did yesterday afternoon. Fifteen minutes after leaving work, I was there. I chatted outside for a while, Ivens were playing inside, I didn't get to catch any of their set, they were just finishing off when I came in.

First band I saw was Encircling Sea, I was really impressed with them. A lot of crazy effects, I don't even know what you call that kind of style, but they were really good. It was the first time I'd been to the basement at Morgan's place. A pretty small room, but plenty of people can fit inside. Most people watched the band, nodding their heads along to the beat. This band I really liked actually, I didn't really know what to expect from them, and to say the least I was very impressed.

A Secret Death were up next. It's a long while since they've played in Canberra (late 08 at a guess) and it kind of looked like they hadn't practiced since. Their set was still brilliant, they even chucked in a couple of old ones for good measure. "This songs called Lion of Progression".

Dun dun dun dun du du dun DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN etc

Incredible band. Even though no one seemed that into it, and between songs they debated which songs to play, every song was actually quite close to the sound of the recordings.

4 Dead were last at this show, and I think Morgan may have hesitations about inviting his own band back to play in his house. 4 Dead's set was pretty wild, lights broken, playing in the dark ala Hard Luck launch at Sound Underground. Jon actually went further back, saying last time he went to a show in the dark, he broke his arm and was out for six months. This was the Deadstare reunion show at Hornsby PCYC. Funnily enough, the drummer from Deadstare is now in 4 Dead.

So anyway, people flying everywhere, things getting smashed, there was a little girl who seemed to be moshing harder than anyone else, beer spitting, general chaos. It was what we've all come to expect from a 4 Dead set really. I was trying to stay out of the action, but it seemed unavoidable, I ended up going crashing over some guitar cases, more than once.

After the show I gave Dave and Bel a lift home. We talked old times about some of the venues that have been and gone, there sure are a lot.

After this I drove into the city and went to The Phoenix, where Hoodlum Shouts were playing with Will Wagner and the Smith Street band. Being a Smith St band, of course they are from Melbourne.

I was really impressed by this show. For a start it was free, but surprisingly there wasn't a great turnout. A solid turnout I guess you could call it. Will Wagner and his merry men play some sort of folk punk/rock mix. They are a good band, I had never heard of them before, but I enjoyed their set. Hoodlum Shouts, I have seen them a few times now, and there one of the best straight out rock bands I've seen in a long while. I really enjoy their sound.

On the way home I gave Pete K a lift home, we did some more reminiscing as well as a bit more talk about the future. I am going to be stepping in a bit more in the near future, having a bit more to do with the path of "the scene". Let's see how that goes.

Anyway, it was an awesome day, I'm sure all the people who say there's nothing to do in Canberra had a pleasant afternoon at home.

I went to see A Secret Death yesterday.

That band has been ruling my life so much lately. Their new album is actually the best CD ever made. Maybe not quite, but I have been listening to it on a regular basis.

The show was pretty weird, it was Amity Affliction, A Secret Death, House vs Hurricane, Rex Banner and Dead Kings. There were quite a lot of people there, it had this vibe similar to a "concert" even though it was in a small little youth centre.

When House vs Hurricane played there were heaps and heaps of people into it, not the people I've ever seen before at shows, but I had never heard of them before, but it seems they're quite popular. They pretty much sound like a cross between something like Misery Signals and Enter Shikari. At first I wasn't into it so much, but their sound grew on me.

After seeing so many people into them, I was surprised that barely anyone was into A Secret Death. They played all stuff off the new album, I was hoping they might chuck in an old track or two for good measure, but I didn't really care, every song they've ever written is pure awesome.

I really enjoyed the Amity set as well, last time I saw them was in Melbourne with Irrelevant. I think they played four songs. And of course, being Melbourne, everyone was standing halfway down towards the back of the room. This was a very different beast, it seems they have grown hugely in popularity in the last year or so. It was pretty much all new stuff from them as well. They probably have some of the catchiest songs ever, songs like I Heart Throsby are the ones that I somehow can't stop listening to again and again. This was a really fun show though, I had a sweet time.

However, waiting for the bus home, there were these feral kids, they were spitting at each other and shit. One kid spat over my head onto this other kid. They were so disgusting. It made me wonder about the human race, and why some specimens are allowed to exist.

Come to think of it, that was the first time I've seen A Secret Death in a couple of years. Hopefully it's not too long between the next drinks.

I'm really enjoying the summery weather right now. After a hard long winter of being awake regularly before dark, it's nice to see the sunshine. However, watch this space as the temperature rises for me complaining about how hot it is.

a secret death

This is one I did at the last minute for Issue #3. A Secret Death are one of my favourite Australian bands, their style is not really similar to most other Australian bands. They have a new record coming out sometime this year, and have recently re-released the Fear Is The Driving Force EP. It's been a long time since I last saw them, so I'm keen to hear the new stuff.



The long awaited album will be coming out soon, how's it sounding and when is it expected to be out?

should be out around July, hopefully, depending on artwork, and all that other shit that surrounds a release. It's sounding sweet, im really stoked on it. went over to Sweden and mixed it at the legendary Tonteknik studios by a dude called Magnus Lindberg (or magdogg as i like to call him) who is the producer and drummer for Cult of Luna.

You've got a tour coming up with The Abandonment, who rule a lot. You've toured with them before, anywhere you are particularly excited to play, and any funny stories from other tours?

Umm pretty excited about playing the enigma bar in Adelaide again. we have played there I think twice before, and every show has been amazing and very memorable (for us anyway). Ahh i think last time we toured with those guys we invented the dick chant, where we just chant dick for ages for some reason. We should have probably never done it again after that tour... But they are great guys, an amazing band, and will definitely keep us on our toes every night.

"Fear Is The Driving Force" came out in 2005. What's changed in the way of influences and the general sound of the band in the last few years in the lead up to this album

"Fear" was pretty much all about playing music that we thought was brutal and tech, but still kinda catchy. That was our whole thing back then, and I think now we just play songs that we like, no matter what style it is, even though there is not a huge variety of styles on the new album. It's still very different from "Fear" though, and its a style I would like to think is our own.

A Secret Death have supported a really wide variety of different international acts. Is the any one, or a few particular favourite moments? When the band started, did anyone think you would be up on stage supporting bands like Converge?

I think playing with sick of it all was a favourite moment for me. watching them sound check, spliting a pizza and talking shit. They are such a huge band, and it was so amazing to see how dudes that big can be so level headed, grounded and pretty much just straight up nice. They would have played with a zillion bands, but they all watched every single minute we played cos they still get off on music, which just totally blew my mind. Yeah, no one thought that only a year of being a band we would have already played with some of our heros and no one would have thought after 5 years, pretty much every band that we'd idolised, we'd been able to play with. Converge are just one of those bands I had on my list of things to do, to just watch, and to be able to actually share a stage with those guys was a huge honour. very intimidating though, Jacob Bannon is a very full on dude. None of us really wanted to get in their way, or look like dicks in front of them so we pretty much just kept to ourselves in front of them, except for Al, he doesn't give a shit, he can talk to anyone, doesn't matter to him, and instantly everyone likes him.

There's going to be a re-release of "Fear Is The Driving Force" coming out shortly. What extra features are on that? Is it something to tide the fans over until the new album comes out?

Its out right now! yeah there is some bonus shit on there, the songs from the split cd we did with from these wounds, and 2 other bonus songs that just never got recorded that we did to chuck on there. Also some different artwork, and some shit inside it. yeah its something to tide people over I guess, and also just so its available again. its been out of print for over a year now, so its good you can buy it again. that's good isn't it?

You've just signed up with Skull and Bones, who are starting to get quite a list of bands signed up. How's that all going?

yeah its going pretty good. They helped us out with some bills, and gave us a place to record for free. We did all the vocals there and were able to take our sweet ass time, which we like doing. But yeah, the label is becoming one of the biggest labels for heavy original music, and they have aa part of it. good attitude, so we wanted to be

You played the last couple of shows The Rivalry did...it'd been a bit of a break from the live setting for ASD, how'd the shows go, and how did the crowds like the new tracks?

Melbourne was not so good. we have been out of the live game for a while now, and the problem has been we don't jam enough, mainly because I moved to Brisbane, and we are all lazy. so the Melb show was horrible cos we were sloppy as all fuck, and no one really organised what gear we were using, and it was just a huge shit fight. The show in Adelaide was insane though, we had brushed off the cobwebs and were totally amped up from seeing how many people were there. I thought we played a blinding set too, was real proud of my guys. the crowd really got into it and showed their appreciation, which is rare as fuck for us. so we were totally stoked, but Adelaide always goes off, I wish more places took a leaf out of their book, got into a band if they liked them and showed it, rather than folding their arms and waiting to see what the general consensus is.

You're not making it to Canberra on the tour with The Abandonment.....any plans to visit the nation's capital once the album comes out?

yeah for sure. next tour will be heading to most of the places we've missed over the years.

What's everyone been listening to a lot of lately?

we all listen to weird shit. I think we all mainly listen to old 80's stuff, such a good time for music. I dunno what the other dudes have been listening to, but I've been listening to lots of the arcade fire, sigur ros and revisiting old indy classics like shellac and mclusky.

Anything else to add or anyone to thank?

has anyone seen my dog?