New Signings & Team-Ups: August 16

Universal Music heats on Sydney’s Hot Spoke

Universal Music Australia signed Sydney indie-folk group Hot Spoke (pictured)to its Mercury Records imprint. The act, repped by Winterman and Goldstein management, consists of lead vocalist and songwriter Vanessa ‘Ness’ Muir, guitarist Seb Bartels and co-vocalist and bassist Damian Enemark. They do two club shows in Sydney this week before heading off to BIGSOUND in Brisbane.

Their debut EP Calm Down is set for release, with the track Outlines issued as a sampler. The song is “about wanting to pause your life and step out of the ring for a while,” according to Muir. The accompanying video was directed by John Meredith of Full Moon Hot Sun, and shot on a farm along the Shoalhaven River on the NSW South Coast. Says Muir, “There’s no better way to feel free of the constraints of the city than the smell of fresh cow dung, and our nostrils couldn’t get enough of it. The setting felt a lot like New Zealand, so the freezing and relentless wind was rather fitting, but we really enjoyed a day of filming amongst the cattle.”

Little Sea loops virtual concert from Twitter base

Sydney band Little Sea team with Twitter Australia and Live Central to host a globally-available, interactive online concert performed and broadcast live from Twitter Sydney HQ. The event, to mark the release of new single On Loop, takes place on September 17 at 8am AEST (3pm PDT, 11pm GMT, September 16). Fans of Little Sea will be able to get front row seats online for #LittleSeaVirtual by purchasing tickets from www.littleseahq.com to watch the band intimately perform their whole EP live on phones, laptops, tablets and more, all while engaging with other concert attendees and the band online.

Jennie Sager, Head of Music and Entertainment Partnerships at Twitter Australia, said of the team-up, “@LittleSea use Twitter every day to connect and chat with their fans and we are really excited to take that to the next level and partner with the band to give their fans something really special. #LittleSeaVirtual is an interactive experience for all of their fans around the world, right from @TwitterAU Sydney HQ.

“With close to 200,000 followers collectively on Twitter, the #LittleSeaVirtual online concert performance will reach and connect fans from Sydney to Paris, from London to New York.”

Our Golden Friend says g’day to Ferla

Melbourne-based Ferla aka Giuliano Ferla (ex-frontman of Twin Beasts / The Toot Toot Toots) has joined the roster of record label Our Golden Friend alongside Jade Imagine, Poppongene and 808s & Greatest Hits. His new single I Can’t Let You Down, combining garage-pop and new-wave synths is off his second EP due in late 2016.

Nadia Rose at Sony Music

Sony Music Entertainment Australia will distribute 23-year-old South-London rapper Nadia Rose, through a deal she struck with Relentless Records in the UK. First single for the deal is Skwod.

Pilerats gnaw at Hideous Sun Demon

Perth’s Pilerats Records signed local indie-punkers Hideous Sun Demon and dropped a single Bad Girl just before the act heads to Brisbane’s BIGSOUND where one of their appearances will be at the September 7 Pilerats showcase at the Brightside Carpark. They then head to Melbourne for two shows (one a secret) before returning to WA for a welcome back date. According to Pilerats, the sound you hear at the b beginning of the track is someone pissing. Whether they reproduce this sound effect onstage at their gigs remains to be seen. An album is due in spring and was mixed by Mackenzie of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

Legacy, Jimi Hendrix estate, brings back the Gypsys

Through a team up between Jimi Hendrix’s estate Experience Hendrix L.L.C and Legacy Recordings, the debut performance of the guitar maestro’s Band Of Gypsys will be released in its entirety through Sony Music Entertainment Australia. Jimi Hendrix Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 is out here on September 30. The group played four historic concerts at the Fillmore East in New York City – two on New Year’s Eve 1969 and two on New Year’s Day 1970. The band – Hendrix joined by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles – was short-lived. But its mix of rock, R&B, and funk has increasingly become influential through the years.

The Band Of Gypsys was a new direction for Hendrix, and neither the band nor the audience knew what to expect from each other before the shows. Cox recalls, “After the gigs were finished, Jimi was quite relieved. We felt the concerts went well. I might add that in previous gigs with the Experience he had used a fuzz face [tone control pedal] and a Wah-Wah pedal, then at Woodstock he used a fuzz face, Wah-Wah pedal and Uni-Vibe, but at the Fillmore East he used a fuzz face, Wah-Wah pedal, Uni-Vibe and Octavia and it was incredible. In fact, you could hear all of it kicking in on Machine Gun. It was incredible. There were people in the audience with their mouths open.

Brisbane label launches Pig City Records

Andrew Stafford, author of Pig City: From The Saints To Savage Garden, expands the Pig City brand with a record label. It’s a j/v with Red Dust Music Management’s Sean Clift, with its first release in October. This will be surf-garage outfit Some Jerks’ sophomore album Strange Ways.

Fox getting Shazam-based musical game show

After the demise of American Idol, US channel Fox picked up an interactive musical game show based on the Shazam app from TV format producer Mark Burnett. In the way Shazam helps users find the title and artist behind a track, Beat Shazam is about contestants competing to identify a song. They then go up against the Shazam app (which has hundreds of millions of monthly users) for the top prize.

Burnett, the brains behind hit shows as Survivor, The Voice and Celebrity Apprentice, will executive producer with Jeff Apploff (Don’t Forget The Lyrics), and Shazam Entertainment Limited will be a partner on the series. There’s no info on when the show will start screening in America.

Amrap, BIGSOUND, highlight showcase acts

Community radio broadcasters can access music from artists showcasing at BIGSOUND via a special playlist on Amrap’s AirIt. The music of 150 acts will be featured, including Hart, Sydonia, Gabriella Cohen, A.B. Original, Gawurra, KUCKA, Gooch Palms, Alex Lahey, Tash Sultana, Tigertown, Tinpan Orange, Daniel Champagne, Dorsal Fins, DZ Deathrays, Ecca Vandal and Shining Bird.

Nightlife Music gets into fitness

Queensland’s Nightlife Music, which provides background music for a wide range of venues and businesses including cafes and gyms, struck a new sponsorship agreement in support of Fitness Australia, the nation’s peak health and fitness industry association.

This follows a huge take-up in gyms of Nightlife’s crowdDJ technology. With direct links to Spotify, the modern-day jukebox is empowering gym-goers to engage with and influence the music playing in their local gym.

Nightlife Music CEO David O’Rourke points out, “Fitness has been our fastest growing industry segment of the past few years…further fuelled by the introduction of crowdDJ. People want to work out to the music that matters to them.”

Tunein distributing Red Bull Radio

Digital audio service TuneIn announced a new distribution partnership with RBMA Radio, the re-launched streaming platform of Red Bull Music Academy. Billboard reported that TuneIn’s millions of active users in the U.S. and Canada have access to RBMA’s mix of music, interviews and live performances from around the globe. TuneIn has 60 million active users a month listening to 100,000-plus live radio stations and millions of on-demand programs.

To mark the launch, RBMA Radio is broadcasting live from pop-up stations in Atlanta from Aug. 15-20, and Montreal from Sept. 25-Oct. 28 in conjunction with the annual Red Bull Music Academy.

PlayStation, Perisher, celebrate two decades

PlayStation Australia and ski resort Perisher celebrate 20 years together, with PlayStation this year sponsoring five terrain parks in addition to the PlayStation Slopestyle Terrain Park, rated the best terrain park in the southern hemisphere. On the weekend, the partnership launched a new event called Meet the Pros giving Perisher guests the chance to chill with some of the world’s best Slopestyle skiers and boarders as they train and compete during the season, including Winter Olympic and X Games Medallists.

Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Interactive Entertainment Australia said: “It’s an incredible privilege to be in a position where we can reflect on a relationship that spans four generations of PlayStation consoles and millions of snow lovers hitting the slopes in Australia.” The alliance has been the longest running for both the brands.

Triple R goes to the library

As part of Melbourne community radio Triple R’s 40th anniversary, there’s a three-month exhibition at the State Library of Victoria between November 18 to January 29. ON AIR: 40 Years Of 3RRR traces its humble beginning as educational broadcaster at RMIT University’s city campus, to a seminal station which changed Melbourne’s alt-music scene and broadcasts out of its Brunswick East hub to 440,000 weekly listeners.

Triple R will donate a large proportion of its archive, built over the past four decades, to the State Library including original artworks, photographs, posters, magazines, videos of live-to-air performances and more.

Dave Houchin, Triple R Station Manager, said, “We are so excited to partner with the State Library on this exhibition. It’s a fantastic way to celebrate the work of Triple R’s volunteer broadcasters over the past 40 years and the many achievements that have been made possible due to the hard work of volunteers and staff, and the amazing support of Triple R subscribers.”

Added Kate Torney, CEO of State Library Victoria, “Triple R has an incredible archive that is very much part of Melbourne’s story, capturing the cultural heartbeat of the city. With our shared commitment to community, we are thrilled the Library will be the home for this extraordinary collection, and it’s great that people will get to see some of these items for the very first time.”