October 26th

Last night I went to see Black Arm Band at the closing night of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. By far the best gig I've seen in yonks. I laughed, I cried, I had goosebumps aplenty. Tiddas reformed on stage, Gurrumul opened and closed the evening, the highlights were far too huge to list. If this happens again - go see it. It's compulsory.

My feature artist this week was popera songstress Kate Miller-Heidke (introduced on stage by Cyndi Lauper as Kate Miller-Hunky). We talked about recording the new album Curiouser in LA, collaborating with her partner Keir Nuttall, the big hair and the fab frocks, and the correct lyrics of Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann. 

MUSIC LOG

Kate Miller Heidke - Caught In The Crowd

Kate Miller Heidke - The Last Day On Earth

Kate Miller Heidke - I Like You Better When You're Not Around

Kate Miller Heidke - God's Gift To Women

JENNY'S MISH MASH

The Holidays - When The Ship Goes Down

Skipping Girl Vinegar - River Road

Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males - The SUV  Song

Shane Nicholson - Easy Now

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunuingu - Bapa

Jen Cloher  Hidden Hands

Anika Moa - Dreams In My Head

Mei Lai Swan - Calling The Sky

John Meyer - Silver Bullets Don't Work On Vampires

Cats Ransom - Mars to Pluto

Josh Pyke - Make You Happy

Augie March - Pennywhistle

Liam Finn - Energy Spent

Alex Hallahan - Good Conversation

Greg Walsh - A Busy Street

Mat McHugh - Under The Landslide

Ponyface - Warning Bell

Andy Baylor - Every Day Is A Song

MUSIC OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

Dan Sultan's album Homemade Biscuits has been getting quite the workout, he was incredible at Black Arm Band. 

Eva Cassidy's various albums have also been flogged to death this week. I'm in a chilled mood.

NEXT WEEK ON LOCAL AND VOCAL

Liz Stringer is coming in to talk about her new album Pendulum, the Broad tour and her gig coming up at the Spiegeltent. 

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

- The next installment of puppy school for Happy Jesus, and seeing what insane dog trainer lady says this week about his destiny as a show dog. I should watch Best In Show again.

- Leg It For Leukaemia walk around Albert Park Lake on Sunday morning (2nd Nov).

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO

Salt N Pepa at QBH has been CANCELLED. Not happy, dodgy booking agent. Instead I will be sitting at home on Friday night and crying, listening to my SnP cassette tape, failing to push it real good. Sucks to be me, and everyone else in Australia who was looking forward to this for months. 

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

There are millions of other gigs to go to on Friday night. Listen to the gig guide on Local and Vocal for all your giggy piggy needs. 

September 19th

Melbourne International Arts Festival

If you've been hanging around Melbourne the last few weeks you may have noticed everything getting incredibly arty! The Fringe Festival wrapped up about a week ago, and it was wham straight into the Melbourne International Arts Festival. The Spiegeltent went up, there's art installations literally jumping up from the water out the front of the National Gallery, there's quite a buzz in the air. And there's still a week to go. 

I had a chat with folks from four events on today's program:

Four members from the Melbourne Ukelele Kollective came in for a few live songs and a chat about their upcoming sold out performance at the Spiegeltent

Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen had a chat on the phone about their kabaret noir performance 

Dan Sultan spoke with me about about The Black Arm Band - Hidden Republic 

Harry James Angus of Jackson Jackson and the Cat Empire spoke about how exposed he's going to feel playing a solo show of pieces written for voice and guitar.

I was blown away by Melbourne group Husky who played last Friday night at the Spiegeltent, I went along not knowing anything about them and never hearing their music, it was the best gig I've seen in yonks. 

Music Log

• Husky - My Heart
  
• Pikelet - Beyond The Sky
  
• Pikelet - They Call It Love? Wow!
  
• Melbourne Ukelele Kollective - New York (live in studio)
  
• Melbourne Ukelele Kollective - Take It Easy (live in Studio)
  
• Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen - A Formidable Marinade
  
• Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen - Set Sail
  
• Matt Walker and Ashley Davies - Try Harder
  
• Abbie Cardwell - The Devil and Me
  
• Lisa Miller - Shining Star
  
• Dan Sultan - Your Love Is Like A Song
  
• Black Arm Band - From Little Things Big Things Grow (Live 2006)
  
• Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu - Djaimirri
  
• Black Arm Band - Took The Children Away (live 2006)
  
• Jackson Jackson - A Hole In The Garden
  
• Jackson Jackson - Angel Dust
  
• Toshi Reagon and Biglovely - Have You Heard
  
• Tiddas - Inside My Kitchen
  
• Jordie Lane - I Could Die Looking At You
  
• Kate Miller-Heidke - Politics In Space
  

MUSIC OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

Dude, it's all about Gurrumul this week. Good on him for his ARIA last night for best independent release, and best world music album. Can't wait to interview him next week. I'll also be playing a chat I had earlier last week with Kate Miller-Heidke. What a lovely lady!

Sunday 12th October

The tail end of Mental Health Week was today on JOY 94.9, and my guest in the first hour came in to speak about a topic that is largely misunderstood or feared. 

Kirrily Anderson has recently published a book called Creative For A Second, full of creative works by people all over the world living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). Kirrily herself has lived with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since the age of 16, and is currently in recovery. 

She designs cover artwork for many local independent artists, and creates a lot of artwork inspired by music. Check out her myspace for more details.

MUSIC LOG

First Hour - Kirrily's Picks

• Don't Mess With The Pony - It's You I Love
  
• Laura Jean - I'm A Rabbit I'm A Fox
  
• Sigur Ros - Untitled 3
  
• Sal Kimber - Riverside
  
• Whiskeytown - Crazy About You
  

Second Hour - Hot Little Hands

Tim from Melbourne group came in to talk about their latest release Dynamite in Black and White. Tim is a member of Clare Bowditch's band The Feeding Set and the group toured with her on her last Aussie sojourn before abandoning us and going to Europe for awhile. 

Poor old Tim fractured his arm during the week but soldiered on with the aid of painkillers and a winning smile, playing a fab live track as well as bringing in some other top tracks that were very summery and delightful. 

• Hot Little Hands - Dynamite in Black and White
  
• Tim from Hot Little Hands live in the studio, acoustic - Easy Way Out
  
• Serge Gainsbourg - Tatoue Jeremie
  
• Greg Walker of Machine Translations - Need A Miracle
  
• Dennis Wilson - Riversong
  

Jenny's picks to round out the hour - 

• Austin - See You There (live in Fitzroy)
  
• Angus and Julia Stone - Wasted
  

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Pikelet live at Spiegeltent this week

Outside broadcast at RMIT on Tuesday for Queer Awareness Day with live music from Rosie Burgess, Egg Spontaneous, Molly Whelan and Nick Tiliacos. 

MUSIC OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

It's all about Pikelet for me this week. Had a grand time reliving the love of the Guy Blackman gig by listening to his release Adult Baby as well. Ah, whimsy. My old friend. 

NEXT WEEK ON LOCAL AND VOCAL

Spiegeltent-o-rama! Melbourne International Arts Festival is coming up, heaps of top things happening in the famous structure that generally pops up in Melbourne town this time of year. If there's a ukelele collective, I'm definitely there. Booyah. 

October 5th

This week is Mental Health Week and on JOY 94.9 we're interviewing people in our community who live with mental illness about their experiences. My feature artist for this week was Sandy Jeffs. You may have seen her on the Enough Rope special Angels and Demons, where Andrew Denton chatted with various people who are living with mental illness, and went through a simulated experience of living in their world. 

Sandy Jeffs is a published poet and public speaker on the subject of mental illness, and she herself has been living with schizophrenia for the past 33 years. She also brought in some phenomenally fantastic music and read one of her poems on air. It was a great insight into members of our community who are often marginalised, overlooked and excluded due to a lack of understanding. 

Music Log:

• First hour - Sandy Jeffs selection
  
• The Dixie Chicks - Easy Silence
  
• Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl
  
• Martha Wainwright - Bloody Motherfucking Asshole
  
• Patty Griffin - Mother Of God
  
• Lucinda Williams - Broken Butterflies
  

Guy Blackman came in for a chat in the second hour about his solo release Adult Baby, his wonderful existence as a music aficionado and audiences in different parts of the world. Guy is a musician, runs an independent record label and is a music journalist who writes for The Age. 

Adult Baby is a great collection of tunes that cause an involuntary grin response, it's sweet and original, and worth a spin. Get up offa that thing I tells ya! Do it. The artwork is delicious too.

He's played with a bunch of top notch bands around the traps, including Sly Hats, Sulk and Sleepy Township. He's doing a gig in Melbourne this Thursday at the Toff In Town before jetting to the US with his boyfriend for a holiday, and is allowed to play a gig a week. Details on the myspace.

Second hour - Guy Blackman / mish mash

• Guy Blackman - Gayle
  
• Guy Blackman - Dark and Quiet Place
  
• Guy Blackman - Carlton North
  
• Whitley - Cheap Clothes
  
• Xavier Rudd - Guku
  
• Sarah Blasko - Always On This Line
  
• Holly Throsby - One Of You For Me
  
• Josh Pyke - New Years Song
  
• Mr Sister - Apogee
  
• King Tebbutt and Whistler - Japanese Boy
  

MUSIC OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

Holly Throsby's latest offering A Loud Call has had a fair few plays on the stereo this week, I've had a mooching round the house couple of days and appreciated the stillness and calm in this recording. There's bounce of course, and the lyricism is in the usual gorgeous kooky ballpark of Miss Throsby's albums. If you're not familiar with this lady get on the bandwagon, her voice offers equal parts vulnerability and strength, and the albums are a very visual experience, rich with imagery.

CARD SHARK? NAH, JUST A HAM.

Last night I went to Adrian's 31st birthday and had a freaking ball! This guy is well known for his big bang whizz fandangled hootnannies, and this year was no exception. 

He hosted a poker tournament at the Windsor Hotel, it's a $30 buy in, these poker dudes bring all the fancy pants tables and chips and cards and teach you how to play, all the prize money won by the champion goes to the charity of their choice. 

Everyone suited/frocked up to the nines. There were a fair few hats in the room, and folks were looking Mi-T-Sharp, as they say in the classics. 

I have never played poker before in my life, but I dressed to impress. Slouch hat, aviators (thanks for the loan Trev), hot magenta tie and tequila sunrise shirt. Yeah, my tactics were to make my opponents eyes bleed. I had an entourage of Trev and Dan to blow on my cards each time a hand was dealt. I generally didn't really know what I was doing but somehow managed to come second in the first round at a table of about 12 people, and won the championship round!

Funny funny funny. Beginners luck is a beautiful thing. I'll see you all when I get back from Vegas with my new diamond encrusted teeth and dancing girls. 

All the money went to JOY of course, I think it was about $1,200 or something. Yay! 

NEXT WEEK ON LOCAL AND VOCAL

Next week will be action packed, Hot Little Hands are popping in for the first hour and in the second hour artist Kirrily Anderson will be coming in to speak about her book Creative For A Second, which is full of artwork by people with chronic fatigue syndrome and has a lot of great personal stories about how creativity is therapeutic form of expression. 

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Guy Blackman at the Toff In Town on Thursday

Jordie Lane at Spiegeltent on Thursday

Lawn bowls birthday party on Friday night

The last dribbles of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Get amongst it!

Riding my bike to places

JENNY OUT

xoxo