Monthly Archives: October 2020
Levi-X Releases Debut Single Amazing Grace (Grace Amazing)
Levi-X is a young singer/saxophonist (12 yo), based in Queensland. Levi has been performing at several markets in North Brisbane with his father since he was 11 years old, entertaining crowds with his saxophone and singing. He plays all genres of music but has a style that is rooted in light Jazz improvisation. His debut song, Amazing Grace (Grace Amazing) was recorded when he was 12 years old and is the first of a number of songs he is working on.
Watch The Video
Amazing Grace (Grace Amazing) is a new interpretation of the well know traditional song, and digs into the song’s history and meaning with the rawness and innocence of the 12 year old singer, Levi-X. The songs uncomplicated composition aims to delicately remind us of the youthful simplicity where we start life; a place that we often seek to return to along the tumultuous journey that life often unknowingly takes us. Amazing Grace (Grace Amazing) is Levi-X’s debut song, which he worked on with his father, and is played with his older brother (aged 15) on guitar. Levi-X both sings and plays saxophone on this single. With his young voice soaring in all the right places and carrying the heartfelt lyrics with feeling beyond his years this is a beautiful rendition of the timeless classic.
Amazing Grace (Grace Amazing) is OUT NOW – via MGM
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The Jimmy C – Where Was She(Official)
Trysette-Expat Aussie Singer Returns After John Fogerty Tour
Expat Aussie Singer Faces Christmas in Quarantine
Trysette Loosemore, Australia’s own back-up singer to the legendary John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) returns to Australia after a whirlwind 12-month tour of the US, Canada and Europe in 2019.
Like the rest of the world, faced with an uncertain and challenging year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Trysette says “I had to make the decision in March this year whether to return home to Australia when the panic was on to repatriate Australians living overseas, but Los Angeles has been my home now for three years and I thought, like everyone else, that this pandemic situation would pass within a few months or sooner than all of us imagined. So I dug in and rode the wave, confident that the touring scene would start up again and everything would be back to normal. I was wrong”
Touring musicians are among the hardest hit of all this year, relying on crowds of people to attend their shows, and in the USA especially, the coast is far from clear for acts to be back out on the road doing what they love to do.
Just as Trysette did with the John Fogerty World Tour in 2019 (pic below)
Photo Credit – Greg Lewis
With all the uncertainty and ever changing rules and regulations, Trysette decided to pack her bags and join the queue of stranded Aussies trying desperately now to get home before Christmas.
Trysette says that “once I decided to return home until work starts up again, I discovered what was really going on with the international travel situation, flight debacles and the two-week mandatory quarantine enforcement on return to Australia. I had no idea how difficult it would be to not only secure a seat on a flight home as the prices are skyrocketing up to $20,000 right now, but to arrive in time to spend Christmas with my family. As it stands, I will arrive in Sydney (Brisbane not possible) mid December just in time to spend Christmas in Quarantine. All this said, I feel very fortunate that I have friends and family in both NSW and QLD who I am extremely excited to see and spend time with, and I have my health. For that I am truly grateful and all the rest of this shall pass”.
2020 has definitely been a defining and transformative year for all, and Trysette has made the most of her time focusing on her songwriting, on-line concerts and a new youtube show she has created called ‘Shoot The Breeze’ where she interviews some of her “Rockstar Friends” so that people who are interested can get to know these stars through her eyes. So far these interviews include Kenny Aronoff (iconic rock drummer to John Fogerty, John Mellencamp and many more), Bob Malone (Singer Songwriter and “Keyboard Wizard” to John Fogerty), Randy Ray Mitchell (guitarist to Donna Summer, Warren Zevon, Keb Mo and more), and while in Australia, Trysette hopes to surprise us with some of our own “Aussie Rockstars” as well. Follow Trysette on her socials below and stay tuned for new music in 2021.
Checkout Trysette’s Releases on Spotify- Just click the image
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MrHarvey-New EP-It’s Kool to be Kind
MrHarvey New Ep It’s Kool to Be Kind
Release Date: October 23 (Foghorn/MGM) ALL Digital Platforms
MrHarvey is the stage name of singer-songwriter Nathan Harvey. Having only picked up a guitar in 2015 at 44 years old, his music is as interesting and diverse as his life! A blend of blues, folk, country and rock, Nathan’s music is very lyrics focused as he draws on a myriad of musical and life experiences.
Former Channel V host and media personality in the 90’s, Nathan retreated from the spotlight leaving his hometown of Sydney for the Gold Coast working as a show announcer and FOH mixer at SeaWorld. It was here that he literally learnt the ropes from scratch after befriending the Ski Captain to become a professional water skier.
In 2010 a near fatal water-skiing accident in Canada whilst skiing with old SeaWorld buddies saw Nathan return to Sydney with a titanium plate and 4 screws holding his neck together. Always loving music and being a drummer in his teens, Nathan played in a fun “pisstake” band during his V days called “The Velvet Underpants” alongside Ken Stewart from Mr Blonde and Anthony Ousback former MTV host. His debut single “Brand New Day” was played nationally on the Triple M / Austereo Network and reached No 3 on the overall Triple J Unearthed Charts.
Arranged and produced by Nathan Harvey with Magnus as co-producer the EP features Nathan on vocals, guitar, some keyboards and various other instruments, Magnus on Clarinet, BVs and lead keyboards along with Catrina Bargwanna, Tara Resch on Violin / BVs, Alex Gresley on lead and bass guitar, Luke Spies on drums and Brett Chapman on Harmonica.
It’s Kool to Be Kind is OUT NOW – via MGM
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Jimmy C’s New Album The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C
Melbourne one-man-band Releases his New Album – The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C
Jamie Coghill is a musician and songwriter based in Melbourne, Australia, who has been recording solo under the moniker of ‘The Jimmy C’ since 2005. A multi-instrumentalist, The Jimmy C is Jamie’s primary creative outlet, in which he writes, records, engineers, produces, mixes and masters everything himself in his home studio, Casa de Kensington. Originally recording to four-track tape, and gradually moving to digital, Jamie’s ability to make his lo-fi gear produce hi-fi quality sound is part of The Jimmy C’s charm.
Playing primarily as a drummer in The Devilrock Four, Fez Perez and Luxedo prior to 2005, The Jimmy C was Jamie’s opportunity to showcase his unique style and abilities, and quickly became his main musical project. While still touring with Devilrock, including a tour of Europe in 2008, Jamie was working on what would end up being 2009’s Glamour and Fame. Recorded over two years “in lunch breaks and on weekends”, Glamour and Fame was a sprawling 20 track loose concept album, which established Jamie’s talent – as well as his penchant for genre hopping and very short songs.
The Jimmy C has since released three albums: 2014’s Orbital Debris, 2016’s Un Homme Orchestra (released as three EPs but spiritually one record) and 2018’s Songs For The Species; as well as recording original music for two American web series: The Adventures of Superseven and The Sandra West Diaries; and a feature film. He also released several EPs, a Christmas single, and produced a live album with The Jimmy C Group, out of which formed his latest side project: Lava Fangs.
2020 is shaping up to be a huge year for Jamie, with The Jimmy C releasing his latest album, The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C, as well as Lava Fangs releasing their debut, self-titled long player.
Step into “The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C” – a fantasy land of catchy pop songs, self-deprecation, and the struggle for normalcy in a world gone completely bonkers.
The Jimmy C returns with an album that surprised even himself. Despite featuring a few guest contributions from Jamie’s Lava Fangs bandmates: Wesley Fahey and Andrew Horne, and Stu Thomas (The Stu Thomas Paradox, Kim Salmon/Surrealists, Dave Graney), the vast majority of instruments on the record, as always, are performed by Jamie.
As Melbourne headed into lockdown in early 2020, Jamie found himself stuck at home: which conveniently also houses his home studio. With the studio becoming a place of therapy, “The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C” became an album borne out of boredom. Continuing the DIY journey started with “Project E.G.O.” in 2005, “The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C” is The Jimmy C’s most accomplished and fastest finished album to date with Stage 3 Coronavirus restrictions unexpectedly giving Jamie much more time to spend working on new songs.
While The Jimmy C’s previous releases have all spanned genres, “The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C” showcases Jamie’s creativity and musical diversity on another level. No stranger to straight up rock’n’roll, he delivers that on ‘Standing in Doorways’, a track written for and about the Coghill family’s cats and kittens, while ‘Where Was She’ is perhaps the most straightforward pop jangle on any The Jimmy C record to date and melancholy album closer ‘Kings of the Earth’ departs from Jamie’s usual wheelhouse and introduces strings and a trumpet to The Jimmy C’s ever-expanding sound palate.
The Entirely Unremarkable World of The Jimmy C is out now on Foghorn/MGM.
RADIO DOWNLOADS/Stream
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Andrew Barnum’s New Album Dear Ancestor
Andrew Barnum’s New Album Dear Ancestor
Andrew Barnum is a singer-songwriter, whose music is a modern take on folk-blues based alt-rock. He has been recording and releasing his own original songs as a solo artist in Australia since the 1990s. With long-time collaborator Boris Hunt, they’ve now produced 8 albums. Their sound is a blend of the acoustic and electronic arcane – forgotten analogue technologies, merging with digital interfaces and an array of musicians. Boris and Andrew call it ‘Homefolktronics.’
The song-writing-performance duo of Andrew & Lissa Barnum, aka Vitabeats, had a national hit with ‘Boom Box’ (Hot/EMI) in 1985. This was followed by singles ‘Audrey’ and ‘Build it Right’ from the album ‘Spot the Spanner.’ YouTube clips: https://bit.ly/2Ctb1qo. The band stopped recording and touring in 1988. Andrew has never stopped writing, recording and performing his own songs since then.
Dear Ancestor is a letter to our past, asking for directions for the future. The songs have a dark smoky quality to them, musically they speak volumes, and have a sense of longing, lingering and meandering that is full of romance. There is a continual dark, menacing feel to the tracks that really captures the zeitgeist of today’s isolation.
The tracks were recorded live at Black Rabbit Big Room in Kanimbla NSW, Australia with Boris, Lucius Culliton (drums), Andy Gordon (bass) and Andrew (vocals guitar). Boris added more bass, keyboards and pedal steel, Andrew recorded the final vocals at home on the South Coast of NSW. 27 tracks were recorded, 11 made the cut, 9 released.
This album is part of a continuum of albums that began between Andrew and Boris starting in 1993. Dear Ancestor is their 8th album. The unique process required recording the initial 27 songs over 2 days. The final version of the album was mixed by Boris and mastered by Nat Love. Recorded before the Australian bushfires and then finalized during the arrival of the Pandemic.
Stream the new album here:
Social media links
www.facebook.com/andrewbarnumsongs
www.twitter.com/andrew_barnum
www.facebook.com/andrewbarnumsongs
www.twitter.com/andrew_barnum
Official site
www.andrew-barnum-songs.squarespace.com
Grander Things-No Disco(official)
Grander Things Debut EP MASH
Having played together in various bands since the late eighties, Brent Williams (Pop Mechanix, The Moon), Rhys Lewis-Smith (The Moon, Mr Blonde) and Bruce Thomas (The Moon, Greg Brady Overdrive, Ancient Marinators) reconnected and their weekly jam night recordings were sometimes joined by friend and guitarist Iain Martin.
The collection of tracks quickly grew and they all agreed that some were too good to leave in the vault. Whilst still just a collection of cool ideas, that felt good to play and the thought that this could turn out to be something more than a weekly jam session slowly took hold. The lads agreed it was time to search for a singer/songwriter.
They didn’t have to look far. Longtime friend Liz Clear (The Amazing Woolloomooloosers, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Clear) had vocals with attitude that perfectly matched their brand of epic indie rock.
Checkout the Video for NO Disco
Liz picked up the challenge and was inspired to lay some tracks up with words and melodies. Before they knew it, they had a crackerjack bag of hits.
They formed the band, Grander Things, fine-tuned their set and picked four of their favourites to record with Dave Trumpmanis at his studio in St Peters.
Grander Things wear their influences on their sleeves, but their sound is equally hard to pin down. A combination of all that has lit their fuse; rock, punk, new wave and pop.
Mixed and mastered by Russell Pilling from Damien Gerard Studios, the result is their four-track debut EP, MASH. Short and sharp. It delivers.
Born from the last four decades of rock, punk, new wave and pop all mashed up, these songs are filled with big guitars and soaring melodies that hook you right from the start.
No Disco:
An assault on the senses. This song captures the pain of romance when communication breaks down.
Cold War:
Haunting depiction of a friendship turned sour.
Running:
Classic rock breakup song. You can’t come running to me tells it like it is.
Carry Me:
Not for the faint hearted. This song is all about empowerment.
Streaming:
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