Aussie acts go Platinum; two new Indigenous festivals; Nashville residency now open

INXS, Lorde sell double-Platinum, Rufus and Bliss n Eso sell Gold

INXS’ The Very Best Of and Lorde’s Pure Heroine have both picked up their second Platinum … Rufus’ Atlas has gone Gold … So has Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes.

In singles, A Great Big World’s Say Something went Platinum … Bliss n Eso’s My Life sparkled Gold after rising five places to its highest chart position … Vance Joy’s Riptide, Lorde’s The Love Club EP, Pitbull & Ke$ha’s Timber and Avicci’s Hey Brother continue their success: all are now 4 x Platinum … Flume & Chet Faker’s Drop The Game is slipping out of the charts, but notched up Platinum certification.

Two more Indigenous music festivals announced

Two more Indigenous music festivals have been announced, both for autumn.

Sydney Opera House presents Homeground on April 5 and 6. Events include a Boomerang Concert featuring Shellie Morris, Casey Donovan, Moana & The Tribe (NZ) and Breabach (Scotland) with other performers including Shane Howard, Dubmarine, Steve Pigram, Street Warriors, Stiff Gins, Yirrmal, Emma Donovan, Ursula Yovich, Pirra featuring Jess Beck, Bow & Arrow, Marcus Corowa and Thaylia. The Opera House’s head of Indigenous Programming Rhoda Roberts said: “Homeground is a feast of music and dance that will showcase the uniqueness of First Nations culture. We have made this a free event to encourage all Sydneysiders and visitors to discover the cultural diversity in our own backyard and on our doorstep.”

Archie Roach will headline the inaugural Baany to Warrna Ngargee (Water To Water) festival – the Mornington Peninsula (Victoria)’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and cultural festival. It is held March 29 in Mount Martha. The festival is a non-profit endeavour  to promote cross cultural awareness, and to highlight the significant Indigenous population on the Mornington Peninsula (approx. 1000). Baany to Warrna gets its name from the local Boon Wurrung word meaning ’water’ and the West Coast South Australian word for ’water’. Maintaining language is important to identity and culture, organisers point out, and the expression ‘water to water’ represents unity, sharing and collaborations.

So You Think You Can Dance sinks further

Channel 10’s reboot of So You Think You Can Dance Australia – for which it brought in US singer and choreographer Paula Abdul as a judge – has started out a ratings disaster. After launching with 466,000 viewers on Sunday night, it dropped to 365,000 the next night. The show was revived after it was axed four years ago for … low ratings.

Everybody gets “stoned”

Rolling Stone Australia’s fifth awards was held at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi. Winners were Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ Push The Sky Away (best independent release), Lorde (best new talent, album of the year for Pure Heroine), Tame Impala (live act), The Jezabels’ The End (single), The Preatures’ Is This How You Feel? with director Alex Ryan (music video),  Aaron Pederson (actor) and Arctic Monkeys (international act). Bluesfest founder Peter Noble was lauded for his contribution to the industry.

Way Over There closes

Melbourne’s Way Over There agency is closing. Ben Thompson’s The Corner Presents takes over bookings and promotions for music venues The Corner in Richmond, the Northcote Social Club, 170 Russell and Shebeen in the City, and Sydney’s Newtown Social Club.

Parachute Youth fold

Aussie electronic duo Parachute Youth have gone their ways. Their debut Can’t Get Better Than This from two years ago was a triple j hit and went to #1 in Belgium. Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. Johnny Castro and Mathew KVon moved to London to work the European festival circuit. Castro aka Johnny Courtidis has launched a new project Yeah Boy in London; the first EP Can’t Get Enough is out on February 25 on Atlantic Records (USA), Sweat It Out! (Aus), and Warner Music (RoW).  He is managed by The Bakery.

Nashville songwriters residency now open

The Australia Council for the Arts is offering Australian songwriters an opportunity to live in Nashville through its Nashville Songwriter Residency. The program, in its second year, will allow local writers to immerse themselves in the local music scene for three months and be mentored. It is facilitated by Aussie expatriate and producer Mark Moffatt. “Nashville has always had a reputation as being a major music town and its commitment to songwriting goes beyond any specific style,” said the Council’s director of Music, Paul Mason. Last year’s recipients were Chris Altmann and Travis Caudle. The latter recorded in Nashville and is heading back this year.

Sennheiser launches Australian affiliate

German audio brand Sennheiser launched an Australian affiliate, with a party at Sydney’s Toronga Zoo. Best known in this market for its headphones, Sennheiser bought local distributor Syntec and brought over its staff to ensure continuity. “Australians want quality,” co-CEO Daniel Sennheiser said.

SWIPE

Which major singer has recorded a duet with an equally well-known actor for a comeback album?

Which manager of a rising young act heading to America is having problems with one member about a confidentiality clause he wants the band to sign to stop secrets leaking out to the media when they get famous?

Stonefield were among those who had to evacuate their home in Darraweit Guim in regional Victoria. Bushfires crept up to their backdoor, but the family house was saved, as was their adjoining rehearsal space shed.

With so many regional festivals collapsing due to inexperienced promoters, suppliers are starting to demand advance payment while regional councils are looking at promoters’ track records before they’ll negotiate with them.

Rather than make a sequel for the hit musical movie The Sapphires, are its producers looking at extending the story through a TV series?

A pilot is being made for a reality TV series called Clubland, based around Melbourne’s Baroq House (Herald Sun)

Former ABC Radio person Adam Spencer’s home in Newtown, Sydney, was burgled. The thief took valuables including his wedding ring and a wallet, and made off with his car, which he previously crashed into a power pole in Marrickville.

An Adelaide accountant is asking why his copy of the Australian Financial Review was confiscated when he took it in to Big Day Out.

Can sponsors who pull out of Australian radio shows after their big mouthed hosts say something dumb (“fat slag”) be sued for defamation? Lawyers for former NZ radio host John Tamihere have sent letters to major corporations who bailed after a controversial on-air interview, saying their boycott was tantamount to defamation. The interview, where a 14-year old girl was asked when she lost her virginity, caused major social media fury. Tamihere and his co-host agreed to stand down, but the co-host was reinstated. He’s apparently suing the radio station as well.

Samantha Jade, who played Kylie Minogue in the INXS biopic, went back to hometown Perth to watch it with her folks. She tweeted that she discovered her mum was “extremely unwell” and asked people to “send positivity and love to my precious mummy right now.” Among the first to tweet their concern was Minogue herself. Earlier this week, Jade added, “We need a miracle!”

MKTO, whose self titled album went to#1 in Australia this week, are expected to return for their third visit soonish.

LIFELINES

Recovering: 2DAY FM’s Merrick Watts after an emergency appendectomy.

Ill: a bout of gastroenteritis by Melbourne’s East Brunswick All Girls Choir singer Marcus Hobbs meant that the entire band were booted off their flight to New Zealand, in case Hobbs infected the other passengers.

Jailed: amateur boxer Lawrence Glover, 26, who infamously held a gun to the head of Sydney bar owner Justin Hemmes during a robbery at the Excelsior Hotel, was jailed for seven years. Glover and two others robbed seven pubs in five months in 2011, taking a total of $200,000. 

In Court: Sydney nightclub bouncer Ehab Taleb, 24, was facing charges of manslaughter at the Downing Centre District Court. On February 12, 2012, Taleb was off-duty at Pontoon club when Jason Daep, 19, was fooling about on the dancefloor. A brawl began inside, and then continued outside. Taleb is accused of pushing Daep into Darling Harbour, where he drowned.

Vale: Australian-born radio producer and voice-over exec, Andrew Crothers, 41, of a heart attack. He moved to Singapore as Creative Director for MediaCorp’s radio stations and then set up promo streaming RadioActive in 2008 with Aloysius Tan. Tan talked this week of “Drew’s intelligent wit, his unparalleled skills in audio production, his silky smooth familiar voice that is heard almost everywhere, his insights into UI and UX design, his God-given talent for music (and) his passion.”

INSIDE TRACK

 Ball Park Music explain ‘Puddinghead’

So where did Ball Park Music find the title for their third album Puddinghead, due out on April 4 through Stop Start/Inertia. They say “puddinghead” is a Shakespearean insult offered to “someone who manages to mess up even the most basic tasks…” While their first two albums were made in between relentless touring, album three was recorded a little more leisurely.  They rented a cheap 1970s fibro shack in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, the mud from the doorway was cleaned up, and the rotten food and vegetables thrown away. In the stifling heat of the place, to the sound of leaking taps and magpie squawks, Puddinghead took shape.  First single She Only Loves Me When I’m There can be heard here.

Dan Sultan unveils release date for album

Following in the tradition of naming records after the studios they were created in – from The Beatles’ Abbey Road to Eric Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard – Dan Sultan’s third album pays tribute to Nashville’s Blackbird studio. He went there after a major reshuffle: new manager, new collaborators and new label. With producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, King Of Leon) at the helm, Sultan recorded 13 tracks over two months for Blackbird. “It’s like therapy,” Sultan explained on the making of the record. “You go through what you’re going through and that can be pretty heavy. And then you write about what you’ve been through, which can be therapeutic. And then you record it and you hone it and you finish it. It’s something I feel very fortunate to be able to do, to get all that stuff out.” The music threw in blues riffs, gospel interludes, rock jams, country ballads, harmonies, horns, banjos – even an Arabic scale or two. Following on from the sturdy guitar riff that drove lead-off single Under Your Skin, the new single The Same Man is a banjo-themed foot stomper. Melbourne’s Kingswood provided backup vocals, paid with a slab of beer.

What do you get for a $45,000 crowd-funded video?

Twelve Foot Ninja premiered the long-awaited music video for the song Ain’t That A Bitch. With the vision to make an epic action-packed gory video of fantasy revenge against an Internet troll, the band turned to fans to fund it. Even they were aghast when donations rolled in, and in, right up to $45,000. They called on a prosthetics make-up artist who worked on the film The Hobbit. In the mix is a 7ft Alaskan brown bear, Penthouse Pet Madison Rhys and members of US metal band Periphery. Asked to define an Internet troll,  guitarist Steve “Stevic” MacKay responded, “The difference between a troll and critic is that there is a line Internet trolls step over – it’s the line that separates constructive disagreement from vitriolic words with malicious intent.” Watch the director’s cut of Ain’t That A Bitch.