What people do for tickets

More pictures. Awesome. This one uses a little more creative license. This pic was drawn, photographed and submitted to my scrutiny by Zahra Robertson.

One kid thought he was cool to email me photographs from a previous Desmond outing.
He wasn't.

So, it's been a week, but it's still bloggable. Zebra & Giraffe played at Mercury Live last Saturday night. They were there to launch their new dvd/cd, Collected Memories.
Gregarontosaurus could be seen fashioning a grey Ladyhawk t, and one of those little hats that are becoming more and more 'in' as time goes on. He played a telecaster, but not his. You should know by now, he had a bunch of music equipment pinched from his car in Joburg a couple of weeks ago. Shame. He did well.
Anyway, the band that opened for them were awful, 3rd World Spectator. They played once with Maroon 5. Weird, I would never have given them that much stage. Those were some brave organisers.
Anyway, back to Z&G. I haven't seen their dvd. I wonder what it's like?
Next time they are in Cape Town, will be for Coke Zero Fest in April. They are playing with one good band and a stack of average bands with good marketing, and then South African bands. Fun.

Z&G Page
[Photos by Zahahahra Robertson who finally becomes legal on Sunday]

Because photographers and bloggers are friends...

Photographers make the jobs of bloggers so very much easier. Sourcing quality pics is not always the most pleasant of tasks, but when a photographer who knows what he or she is doing takes photos and posts them on Facebook, Flickr, their own blog or a Google album, a blogger's work load is reduced.

A classic example of bad photography with a point and shoot is my Taxi Violence at Marshall Music post. I had no one to take pics, so I had to.

Anyway, so using photographer's pics is a two way street. Your blog looks great and people get to find out about a new photographer on the scene.

Zahra Robertson, a young girl from the hood spent all she had on a camera so she could make a name for herself in Cape Town's toughest industry. She has overcome many hardships to become one of the finest young artists from the ghetto. I have used her photographs, not because I like the child, but because they are good. [She also is quite delightful in small infrequent doses.] She has recently started a blog featuring her photography.

You would do well to check it out.

Zahra Robertson Photography

NLR break up

Front man John Seth announced earlier today, that the New Loud Rockets have broken up. This comes three weeks after their last show and the dismissal of drummer, Phil Erasmus. [Now would be a good time to stream and view their first and last music video, Bleeding in a Cab as you sob through the rest of this post.]


The four remaining Rockets set out recently to find a replacement for Phil, but due to what they call "personal issues amongst us", Jadan has left the band. Anyway, read what Johnny boy had to say:

"dear friends and lovers

it is with a heavy heart that i announce that the economic unit once known as new loud rockets has come to an end.

i know. it's a kak one. sadly, due to personal issues amongst us, J-dog mccullough will no longer be with us and as such we are down to three dashing young men in search of musical glory.

however...worry not, dear friends, the end is not as nigh as one might have thought. we will persevere, possibly under a new name and most definitely with a fresh new approach. we've had many positive responses to our appeal for a drummer and we'd like to make it clear that you can expect a whole lot more from...new found prophets??? it's a band name i've been sitting on for months...no but seriously we'll think of something cool.

we'd like to thank all of you for your love and support over the past two years. we started this band as 5 clueless kids with nothing other than having some fun in mind, and it has grown into something beautiful and special that we all hold close to our hearts (and hopefully you do too :)

our first gig was in a very dingy club called lepht in front of maybe 30 of our dearest friends. What turned out to be our final one was in front of close to 700 of our dearest friends too. we love you all. thank you for being part of this journey with us. every word, every chord, every song came from a place of sincerity and honesty.

all of us have made some amazing friends, played with some incredible bands, and realized what in many ways were impossible dreams. for this we thank you. here is to the next chapter.

upwards
onwards and


love and rockets



P.S - we don't, and have never sounded like, the fucking strokes."

I think everyone has a favourite New Loud Rocket experience. Their Hidden Cellar show with Desmond was probably mine, or maybe, their video launch? Good times. For all the posts ever done by Smack Talk on NLR, click here.

The very Strokes influenced band played their last show at Assembly in January with The Plastics and Dear John Love Emma. What a rocker. RIP guys, RIP.
[Photos by Adriaan Louw and Zahra Robertson]