Brisbane born, singer songwriter Megan Washington has a uniquely beautiful voice that leaves you feelin’ all warm and fuzzy inside.

At 21 years, this indie-rock/jazz chanteuse has already made her mark on the Australian jazz and independent music scene. She has performed at major festivals including the Woodford Folk Festival, Wangaratta Jazz Festival and the Brisbane Festival. Up until recently she was in a band with Ben Lee and Old Man River, but now strikes out on her own as just “Washington”. 

Tickets for her shows in Sydney and Melbourne have already sold out, but there are still tickets available for the 5th of march at The Sound Lounge in Currumbin. The tickets are only $12 if you pre-book online, so check it out. 

5 March – The SoundLounge on the Gold Coast
(07) 5534 7999; www.thesoundlounge.com.au

6 March – The Troubadour in Brisbane
Oztix: 1300 762 545; www.thetroubadour.com.au

http://www.facebook.com/pages/W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N/41928866076 – Hit the music tab at the top of her profile to have a listen!

The Gold Coast Music Industry Association in short GCMIA, is hosting their first big networking bash of the year at Miami Tavern tonight. The night will feature some of the Gold Coast’s leading musicians, Bowser, Fairchild Republic and Bambini. I missed the last GCMIA night, but apparently it was a full house and people were raving about it. It will be a great chance to party with other local musicians as well as people all over the music industry. So if your free tonight head to Miami Tavern, I promise you will have fun Oh by the way there is a $10 cover charge at the door, so on your way stop at your local money machine and print off a couple of blueys.

Undertow is back in 2010 also, remember undertow? If yes, then your very observant and with a great memory and I applaud you…*clap*clap*.. Basically it’s a free local music street press, you use to see it at record shops around the coast a few years ago. So apparently in 2010 they’re back in digital format and probably will be sent out via the GCMIA and GCBands websites, I honestly don’t know too much about it just yet, I only just read about this today so I’m kind of excited. The magazine was a great thing for promoting the local music scene because it was found in music stores everywhere and all the out going kids (like myself) grabbed it.. So hopefully soon it will be back in print force as well.

Also have you seen Merge? I’m not getting paid to say this or anything but I pick up a copy of it every time I’m out shopping and it’s awesome. I especially like the food section…. mmmm food…. I should go have breakfast.. it’s already 10:15am.. that’s just ridiculous..

Have a whopper of a weekend.. Go see bowser at the GCMIA thing tonight! Do it. Do it.

It’s been a hectic silly season, so I apologise for not saying it sooner, but I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and awesome New Year’s celebration.  I recently kicked off 2010 at the Big Day Out with 55 thousand sweaty Gold Coasters, don’t quote me on the 55 thou though… that’s just what I’ve read… So surprised by how smoothly BDO ran this year actually,  not only was the music 100% better than last year, but the drink ticket lines were short, the water was plentiful, the loo lines were bearable and the atmosphere was amazing! Such a crazy good day! Highlights for me were Muse, The Mars Volta, and Kasabian.

In other GC music news, local band the Hobo Obituaries enjoyed a local TV news report – check out gcbands.com to see the clip… and while you’re there, be sure to check out the local talent playing this Australia day and over the next coming months. I hope you all have a bloody ripper of an Aussie day, surrounded by good friends, good food and really good music! HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

It’s World Music Month at the Ivory Tavern in Tweed Heads. Sounds like fun right? I think so. The music will be something along the lines of African, Brazilian, Latin, Cuban, Reggae, Funk, Jazz, Blues and with that you have Fire & Water Dancers. How does one dance with water?! I can’t imagine it… Grab some friends and go this friday to find out.

First off… I wan’t to say, I know Parklife was awesome in recent years…but…

Here is my list of reasons why Parklife sucked:

1. Because I looked forward to it for sooo long.

2. Because there was 20,000 people and one tiny entrance.

3. Because they had plastic cups instead of cans and all day people had drinks poured on them.

4. Because the majority of the acts just stand there! Basically put on a CD in your backyard and invite a few thousand people.. Your own personal Parklife festival.

5. They shut the main stage at around 5pm because it was too full. So most of us didn’t even get in to see any of the main acts. If your going to have a festival, please make sure that the main stage can fit more than a third of the crowd, or stop being greedy and don’t sell so many tickets!

6. Lady Sovereign… I tried to pay a mate $50 to steal her hat, close but no cigar..

7. The mini version of last weeks dust storm hit and we all went home with bronchitis.

I still enjoyed Parklife, because: 

1. Metronomy, Sampology, Erol Alkan and The Rapture plus a few others saved the day.

2. There was almost NO drink lines. Haha

3. It was hosted as always in the Botanical Gardens, so lots of shade and lots of spots to see the stage.

4. My friends, it’s always fun going to a festival when you’ve got awesome friends to jump around with.

Overall: If a future Parklife line up was absolutely amazing, I’d have to think long and hard about going again…

Last Friday afternoon I check my email and there I had an invitation to judge “The Global Battle of the Bands” at the Hard Rock Cafe. I hadn’t heard of “GBOB”, but apparently it’s the worlds biggest live music competition and it’s touring around Australia at the moment in search for our best Aussie originals band to take over to London for the World Final! According to one of their web sites, the winner receives $100,000 US cash in hand. So I went down to the Hard Rock Cafe yesterday afternoon, dressed in my best judging outfit and it was awesome!

On the judging panel there was Guy Cooper from Serotonin productions, a local music legend who put together the Undertow Magazines you could once pick up from most music stores around town, also he has worked with something like 400 bands, including the well known local rockers Operator Please. Also on the judging panel was Renton Breen, drummer from the band The Cool Calm Collective, a GC/Brisvegas seven piece that played at this years Big Day Out on the Gold Coast. On my other side I had Bec, she sings, she writes and she plays guitar for the Dirty Wings an impressive indie/electro band. Then there was me, the nacho eating buffoon. I had to try and write an impressive biography for the lad with the crazy hair on stage. I included “all round nice guy” as once of my accomplishments and then proceeded to dip my head slightly as he stretched out my accolades on stage. I’m no rock star, but who cares right? – can rock stars code HTML?….. Yes Probably…. Is there anything they can’t do?!?

So no rock starring for me, but the 6 bands that took stage pulled out all the moves… No crowd surfing though, probably because most of you lot were all at home baking cakes or something. I say this all the freakin time and I know we have a whole lot of fun stuff to do here on the Gold Coast, but if you don’t get out much and your wanting to expand your cultural horizons, you should try treating yourself to a night out supporting our Australian music scene.

From the 6 bands that played, my stand out favorite (who actually came 4^th) was Nine Sons of Dan. I had the pleasure of announcing our local GBOB Comp winner and it went to Birds in Flight, with their first and most impressive on stage performance.. The top 3 bands from yesterday will now go through to play the Queensland finals, where the winners then go on to the play the Australian National Finals and then the World Final in England. A massive journey for one lucky Australian band and I wish all the best to our 3 Gold Coast Bands who are still in with a chance.

This Friday night the hairy stooges from Rogerthat return to the Cooly Hotel, back from their massive world tour. They are joined by The Cool Calm Collective and also The Blackwater Fever. It’s definitely going to be a gig worth seeing, so make sure you check it out.

The B-52’s are coming to our corner of the world! I wish I could say it’s going to be an all out Hawaiian style beach party and your all invited, that’d be pretty cool. But no, just like a fine wine they have matured with age and are bringing the Love Shack and the rest of their legendary pop repertoire to the Sirromet Winery in Mount Cotton. How Delightful! Haha. Tickets are still up for grabs! Go here to get the details, remember me when your doing the rock lobster and have an awesome time: http://www.adayonthegreen.com.au/

What else is exciting in the music world… If your a fan of Moby, your probably already aware that he’s playing at the Botanical Gardens Riverstage for the Second Sunset Sounds festival on the 6th & 7th January 2010. “That’s Years Away!” I hear you say, yes I know but I guess we should think about getting tickets soon, that’s if we actually want to go. I guess I probably will, I’m a total sucker for these things. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Editors are also playing and I’d probably go just to see those guys too.

Actually the story behind Sunset Sounds this year is pretty funny… Some computer whiz kids hacked their way around the website before the line up was officially announced and leaked it all over the internet. I’ve already tried my luck at sneaking a look at the new Big Day Out website, sorry no luck yet. As always, there are some pretty radical & ridiculous rumours about next years BDO Lineup. So far I’ve heard people swear that Metalica, Daft Punk, Muse, Radiohead and Pixies are going to be playing. I’m 100% sure that is NOT going to happen! I still hope Muse come though, that’s pretty believable. If you know anything make sure you leave it in the comments below!

On the Coast this weekend: A Delayed Reaction take the stage at the Hard Rock Friday night (which is actually tonight). Inferno, Beyond Recognition & City In Stone hit the stage at Brannigans, Burning Brooklyn are burning stuff at the Cooly Hotel along side the rest of the Uncharted Showcase Saturday night, make sure you get down and show your support for those guys! Art vs. Science, Splendour in the Grass Favourites, along with electronic pop outfit Hercules in NY take the stage at Never Land Sunday night! Bertie Blackman is playing at the Cooly hotel Sunday night too, shes pretty awesome.

Check out her stuff here: http://www.bertieblackman.com/

Ok well that’s the lot. Check out GC Bands for all the playing times.

Have a good weekend kids!

 Mike

Last night we came out the caves and wondered into the sleepy hollows of Coolangatta. I kinda get a vintage vibe from that place. We were walking down the street towards Never Land Bar with no idea what to expect. I had seen a few photos on their blog, but still wondered what the crowd was going to be like. I really hoped that it wouldn’t be crammed with hundreds of boppers, just there to be seen, but it really wasn’t like that at all.

Never Land is still only young but they have that gritty, cool party atmosphere nailed. We had the best time and the crowd was fun and really getting into the music. So over all, I highly recommend seeing a gig there soon. It has a mezzanine level which opens up over the stage so there is plenty of space to watch the bands and do some 2 step.

Basically, I’m going to let my guard down, be a total loser and say that Never Land puts the “cool” in Coolangatta. Haha… Ok but venue aside, The Lost Valentinos absolutely Killed it! I mean that in a good way. They really went off and did it with the class you would expect from an internationally successful act. I’ve seen them play half a dozen times now and I definitely feel like they are really growing and going to big places with their music.

Coolangatta is definitely not falling short in the music department. Good luck catching a taxi home though… Especially if you live on the northern end of the Gold Coast. It’s always good to have a few southerner friends with a spare space for you to crash after a big night. It might also be a good idea to practice some Fujitsu, last time I was down there some wild alcoholic came running at me swinging his fisty cuffs and bleeding out of his shirt, that was interesting.

Anyway, remember MySpace? Well if you had bands as “friends”, you might remember seeing the billions of *VOTE FOR US ON UNCHARTED* bulletins. Unlike MySpace, Uncharted Live is back, actually I don’t think it ever left. Uncharted Live is a series of weekly gigs held around Australia to showcase the registered Uncharted talent pool, which features up and coming solo artists and bands. Winners receive a spot at either Splendour In The Grass or the Big Day Out, which needless to say, is pretty bloody awesome. Can I say Bloody here?….. hope so …er… I’ll just blame it on Lara Bingle. It’s on at The Cooly Hotel next Saturday (15^th of August) so for the details just check out my site! GCBands.com

Thank you for reading! Leave me a comment!!

Splendour in the Grass might be done and dusted for another year, but if you still have the energy and you want to cure that ‘back to the real world’ depression, you should head out for a rather large dose of local rock music this weekend. There are 10 Gold Coast bands taking the stage this Saturday at the Viper Room in Brannigans and its bound to go off like a sock in a frog.

The line-up (in no particular order) includes : The F1-Elevens, Kill The Apprentice, Endless Nameless, The Big Rigs, Strange Religion, The Meaniac’s, Zeddicus, Mediocore, Hell & Whiskey and Ben Jahman. So there you have it, a nicely rounded off mix of local rock, punk, metal and acoustic sounds to ease your Splendourless sorrows and leave you deaf for weeks.

The show starts at 7pm and there is a cover charge of $20 at the door. Apparently this is a fund raising event and the money raised will be helping out a local touring business buy a new faster bus for the local bands to tour around in. Yes they actually said faster… What an unquestionable* cause. The live stuff finishes at 2am but the party will roll on until about 3am.

If your not ready for another big weekend then definitely check out next weekends major fiasco at Neverland in Coolangatta. One of the Splendour in the Grass festival favourites, a brilliant 5 piece band from Sydney – the Lost Valentinos will be here on the release date of their new single Thief. The Lost Valentinos are currently blazing around Australia on their ‘Cities of Gold’ tour and they’re bringing along indie rockers Ghostwood and The Gallery Kiss. Make sure you get in early and get your golden tickets, right about now…

For more details on this weeks Gold Coast Gigs and music news check out www.GCBands.com

Over and Out

Mike

* Obvious Sarcasm