Friday, July 9, 2010

Buy These Albums

My fave records of the year thus far:

The National - High Violet
The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Massive Attack - Heligoland
The Roots - How I Got Over
Four Tet - There Is Love In You
Beach House - Teen Dream
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
Toro Y Moi - Causers Of This
Spoon - Transference
Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son of Chico Dusty
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
The Morning Benders - Big Echo

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

In The Beginning

Well, my solo "career" (hmm... why does that word feel like such a wank in this context?) has kicked off to a humbling and most enjoyable start.

At the start of June I get an email telling me that one of my heroes - Australia's greatest-ever rock drummer, iconic songwriter and all-round gentleman Rob Hirst - had chosen me for the Vivid Festival's new 10 x 10 initiative. Basically, the initiative means that 10 Sydney icons across various fields (Margaret Pomeranz for film, Heidi Middleton for fashion etc) choose 10 up-and-coming creative Sydneysiders that they feel have something worth checking out. And Rob picked me for my music. Ridiculous and absurdly flattering.

I attended the launch night for this initiative and it barely acknowledged the 100 selected creatives. I'm also doubtful that anything will come of it, but what it symbolised for me is actually really moving. To have Rob choose me for something like that is insane. So thank you Rob.

Moving on, I just wound up a couple of shows with Cogel and Tash Parker. My second and third-ever solo performances to be exact. These gigs were so much damn fun and I have the utmost respect for those guys as musicians and as people.

We were joined by my brother Lloyd and friend Wally (Gotye, The Basics), which resulted in some great collabs. Prince's 'Kiss' was busted out to close the first night, which was hilarious and bore absolutely no resemblance to the mellow sets that had just preceded it. We did Feist's 'I Feel It All' at both shows, Tash sung a tune with me and Wally joined me on drums and b/vocals for my song 'Tie Up The Birds'. So so awesome. Thanks to everyone that attended.

I've also got finished EPs now, so if you want one (is anyone out there?), drop me an email - edwarddeermusic@gmail.com

Til next time,
Ed