Lately, whenever I read about the big upcoming music festivals, I scratch my head, wondering who the hell all those bands are. Not just the small, indie stage bands. Major ones.

Then the realisation hits me: everyone has heard of them but me. These mysterious bands are being played non-stop, on the radio and television, to an audience of millions of adoring fans—I just haven’t been listening. A while ago, I got sick of being let down every time I tuned in to Triple J; so, like a coward, I retreated back into my CD collection and pretty much stayed there.

The older generation is not at all incapable of keeping up with the latest chart music: they think it sucks, and they don’t want a bar of it.

This year, Delta Goodrem put out her debut album, which spent 27 consecutive weeks at #1 on the ARIA chart, and went platinum 13 times. When I heard that Delta had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, my reaction was similar to when I heard that Skulker’s instruments had been stolen at a gig. Not being a particular fan of the music, but realising that no one deserves such a thing to happen to them. From the bottom of my heart, I hope she gets well soon.

When she does recover, I’m positive that she will use the opportunity to get out there and perform, and will use her talent to make albums with artistic and musical merit. Having done all that, if she wants to pose for FHM, or speak out on some important issues, or whatever else musicians do instead of playing music: awesome.

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, in the Southern Hemisphere. Conversely, it is the Winter Solstice for the northies.

The mercury reached 35°C in Brisbane today, and the longest day of the year isn’t even the hottest. That comes later on. I’m positive that there is some irony to be found, the extra sun hours being rendered unpleasant by the excessive heat that comes with them. This is left as an exercise for the reader.

Mayfly Project 2003 — describe your year in twenty words or less:

Three houses. Study, buddies, music, memories. Skiing and Z-ing. Red web site. Orange traffic cone. Concise descriptions of time periods.

To my readers if there are any, a reminder that this site isn’t a live journal. Honest.

A site I visit frequently, Everything2 has taken about a month to relocate its servers to another provider. During this time, all that has remained is a message promising the noding community the site’s speedy return. The wait has been far too long, and I’ve descended to editing Wikipedia to waste time instead. Recently the site has started showing signs of life again, and may soon come out of its comatose state. Come back, e2, wherever you are; all is forgiven!

Don’t ever leave me, e2
I couldn’t stand to see you go
My heart would simply snap, e2
If you walk on out that do’

I promise I’ll be good to you
And keep you warm at night
e2, e2, e2, why don’t we just
Shut off the light

In all seriousness, I’ve always been a very capable individual, with an almost arrogant approach to study, and an ever changing idea of what I want to do. Ultimately, this ambivalence led to poor performance at uni, which very nearly got me kicked out.

Few things are more depressing than failing subjects; uni drop-out is not an ideal thing to have on one’s resume.

That is all in the past now, and I’m back on track to graduate soon. But, I could always use some more motivation, and here it is, in the form of a new higher education package.

Naturally, as a ‘sandstone’ university student, I’ll be working extra hard to finish before 2005, lest the increased fees punish me for wasting time. Also, I’ll be breaking with family tradition by obtaining only one degree, thereby making this one count more, and giving my career some extra ‘zing’!

I knew there was a reason I voted Liberal.

I recall seeing a letter-to-the-editor in a Rolling Stone–type magazine many years ago. This chap suggested a “holy trinity” of grunge music: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana. The first two of them were still kicking arse and taking names at the time, and Kurt Cobain’s corpse was still warm.

As a musically inept, but opinionated, ninth grader, I had serious doubts that Soundgarden were a grunge band at all. In hindsight, I can now say I have never known exactly what grunge is. Seriously, somebody please tell me. At any rate, Superunknown (1994) was not it.

And so it came to pass that Soundgarden made one more album, then disbanded while they were still good. Chris Cornell went on to make a solo album. Around the same time, the singer of influential rock band Rage Against The Machine decided he was too cool for that band.

I think you know where this leads.

The feeling I get listening to Audioslave’s debut album is a strange one. I had been a fan of Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine since the beginning of high school, and had grown accustomed to their respective talents. To this day, every time I listen to their albums, I get something new out of them.

Therefore, while Audioslave would always be a collaboration of great interest to me, the fusion of talents didn’t seem quite right. It is as if the instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine would never sound right with any voice except Zach’s, and Chris’s voice would always sound weird outside the context of Soundgarden.

But with neither band looking like getting back together any time soon, this is what we have: a juxtaposition of very different talents. I find Audioslave a very enjoyable listen, but getting used to it might take a while yet.

Cog (with Ochre, Tension and Sol Terra)
Waterloo Hotel, Brisbane, Australia
Friday, 28th November 2003

I’ve heard Sol Terra called a “heavier version of George”, and “kind of like Evanescence”. I can’t confirm these viewpoints as I really only heard one song. Then it was inside for a counter meal for the remainder of the set, because I was very hungry and didn’t want to miss out on any of the other bands.

It is true that the band has a female singer (a rare thing to see at this kind of show). The vocal is somewhat operatic, with the feminine quality that Human Waste Project has, and that the cookie monster howls of Otep do not have. Also featured is former Ochre skinsman, Tony, who had left that band a few months ago to pursue other musical interests.

Prodigal sons Tension returned for the first time since leaving the Sunshine State several months ago to set up shop in Melbourne. I had been looking forward to seeing them for some time. The first thing I noticed was the trendy new Chapel St attire, but the savage guitars and Fantastic drumming are much as I remember them from before. Quite a few new songs, but no new EP yet—just a redesign of the old one. This band does a great Inspector Gadget cover that I would have liked to hear, but maybe next time.

Ochre have also been gone for what seems like forever and a day, what with Tony leaving, and the subsequent search for a new drummer. They appear to have settled on Hollow’s Craig Richards. It seemed like he was not 100% au fait with the songs yet, especially the opener Synopsis, but by the time they launched into the new stuff, he was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake.

The new songs are refreshingly different and give Anna’s key playing fingers a lot more to do. Awesome.

Cog are also moving into new and interesting directions. I have never understood why they chose to cover the Leftfield/Lydon tune Open Up, but it shows that they aren’t afraid to experiment. In the words of their singer, a lot of bands are viewed as ‘decent bands but their songs all sound the same’. Cog is in no danger of being seen this way; indeed, the danger is that they may try to diversify too much.

Rating: **** four asterisks.