O' The Places You'll Go - Stellenbosch

Harris Tweed - known for their sweet folk tunes - along with close friends Zebra & Giraffe - who have recently released their debut album “Collected Memories” - started off their Western Cape leg of their ‘O The Places You’ll Go tour on Thursday 28 August. This event took place at the oh-so-quaint Klein Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch.I was to write an Afrikaans exam the following day, but I was going to the gig regardless. With acts like these two, you’d be a fool to miss it!Harris Tweed started the evening off with a little bit of a drama performance revealing their newly adopted name: Dear Reader. (The name change comes in light of legal requirements.) The change of name is a lot more applicable to their style of music. Once the crowd took their seats (yes, we were seated) the band blew us away with their sweet melodies, awesome bass guitar skills and heavenly harmonies. We were introduced to a few new songs which will soon be made known to all upon the release of their new album.

After a short 15 minute break the crowd assembled once more waiting in anticipation for the phenomenon known as Zebra & Giraffe. The band came on stage and we got our money’s worth. With songs like Arm Yourself and Oxymoron you couldn’t help but bust out your moves. Joining Zebra & Giraffe on stage for the out-of-this-world performance of The Knife was Dear Reader lead singer Cherilyn Macneil. With Greg Carlin’s (Zebra & Giraffe main-man) deep vocals and Cherilyn’s beautiful voice the chorus was one to remember.Next up on the tour road is Knysna, Port Elizabeth, East London and ending off in Durbs. Scrape every last cent together; this is an event not to be missed.

Post and photos by Helen Elizabeth

Orlando says DANCE!

Check out the latest mix from Orlando Doom. Its large, but well worth a listen. It features a little Muse and the latest from Bloc Party mixed in there along with many others. If you enjoy cutting edge electro, you will enjoy Daydream Mix!

Keep your eye out for Orlando at a club in the Cape soon!

A is for Awesome

This Friday, the party pix boys from We Are Awesome team up with clothing specialists astore to put forward A is for Awesome. This party promises to be a monstrous night out.

One of the novel features at this party is the use of the pre party request playlist. If there is a song that would make your night, you can mail the organisers and let them know what it is. Pretty sick.

Be sure not to miss this, the launch of the astore and We Are Awesome party combo, this Friday (29 August) at Reception (129-131 Hatfield Street). Doors open at 9pm so be there early so we can get the party started.

For more information and the Facebook invite, click along to the event's page. Also, check out the new fan page.

See you there Cape Town...

It's the Strike of the Tiger

[photo by Zahra Robertson]

Check out the first single from Tigerstrike's EP (still to be completed) called Disappear. Look out for them this summer. They promise to be playing some awesome shows. Also have a look at what they did at Daydream Nation this last weekend.

We are the dream

Once a month a team of music geniuses get together and present to the public, DayDream Nation. A mix of electro-indie-rock beats, laser lights, smoke machines, lighting bolts hanging from the ceiling and a whole lota dancing.

The regular venue, LBs (above Joburg bar in Long Street) proved to be too small to contain this massive party, so where to from there? The hottest music venue in Cape Town, The Assembly. (Even though the period of closure put a slight damper on things, they still reopened at the top of their pile.)

Nevertheless, we had a venue, we had the music, the décor and the date (16 August). All we needed were the coolest kids in town to attend, and true to form, they arrived. Let’s get the party started. As if in a lucid dream, Hipless Couples (Len Cocroft, co-creator of Daydream Nation) begun the laser light party and bodies streamed onto and fill the dance floor, illuminated in neon lights and engulfed in smoke. The Assembly had once again morphed into a different shape, always new never dull.

[Unfortunately, due to restrictions put on The Assembly by the city council and the cops rocking up on Saturday night, the sound and bass had to be turned down a touch, which is sad at any party.]

Next up was Orlando Doom (Jonathan Muir, owner of Baseline Studios in Long street and creator of Daydream Nation), no stranger to the Assembly Dj line-up, mixing, spinning and dominating. The Assembly filled up to a comfortable amount of people, all united as a Nation (even though we lost the rugby) of partying Day dreamers. Let your inhabitations fly and let the music control your mind and soul.To keep us dancing until the early hours of Sunday morning, Backtrack (Loucas Polydorou, guest Dj) knocked out some bass beats with killer synth to round of the night and send us off to dreamland one more time before reality struck and it was 2am closing time.

But no fear, because the dream shall continue with the memories created that night and hey, if you missed it, there’s always next month. Keep the dream alive!

Post by Kate Roux
Photography by Zahra Robertson
Flyer by Jono Waldburger

The Members, #1: Dangerous Douglas

I had this idea a long time ago, but I only am getting my act together now. The Members is a series that I will be running on Smack Talk to get help us learn a little more about band members.
First, we have Douglas MacGregor, the electric guitarist from Desmond & The Tutus.

1. Douglas, are you a student?

No ways man, studying is for people who know what they want out of life. I am more like, "Life, what have you got, I've got a knife and some rope." I love rope and knives.

2. If you studied, what would you be studying?

If I were it would be something like how to make money by fooling people into believing you are working. Like a spy or something.

3. What do you want to be when you get big (besides a muso)?

I thought of becoming a director. It looks like a cool job, and I've got some good ideas.

4. What band are you listening to a lot of at the moment?

I have been listening to far too much Black Keys, I am going to start smoking Gunston if I am not careful.

5. How did you get involved in Desmond & The Tutus?

I played the guitar with Shane and Craig for long, but not serious, Nick and I also used jam a lot. He taught me to play. I am kind of the glue as it were a certain catalyst.

6. What are you hoping to achieve with the release of Tuck Shop?

World fame. People take us quite seriously now that we are a real band and all.

7. Shane getting married, you see this as good, bad or neutral for the band? (Obviously, it is awesome for him!)

Well it is cool for him, but it sucks for me. I have to find a job that can support my lifestyle, Angie won't let me move in with them when they get married so I'll have to find a place to stay too.

8. What dreams have you had for the band that you see being fulfilled in the next five years?

We want to go overseas and play for those bastards there, we'll see though. It looks good. I want Desmond to buy me a house.

9. I remember Craig saying something about you guys wanting to go to Japan. Is that still a dream? Any other long term goals for the band?

No other long term goals. I think those people will flipping dig us. I love watching Japanese people get amped and flip out and kill people. Karate is the coolest art.

Sweet. So that's the first installment. The more we know, the better I reckon. Any band members you want on here, let me know.

Back from the Wilderness

Dave certainly looked like he was back from some sort of time out as he appeared on stage looking a little like I would imagine Jesus looked 2000 odd years ago as the New Loud Rockets whipped out the new material.

I missed the opening two acts, but my friend, Luca said I didn't miss much. Sad, but true. The opening acts were the New Holland and the Pretty Blue Guns. I have seen the Pretty Blue Guns perform, and I enjoyed, but I was quite sad to miss one of the new exciting talents on the scene (ie the New Holland).

The reason I supposedly didn't miss much was down to a couple of reasons. The turnout was poor and the sound mix was awful which obviously lead and leads to poor sounding bands. Having said that, the Assembly is doing things that other gigging venues can only observe and dream of. During their closure, they installed arcade machines, lights above the foosball (finally) and huge amounts of sound proofing. They are pretty unique in that way. Big up! The next step will be to fix the sound.

Anyway, the NLR whipped out some oldies and some newbies, some went well, others, not as well. Unfortunately Bleeding in a Cab is still a crowd favourite (and so they will keep playing it!).

John (the lead boytjie) said in an unofficial interview afterwards, that the band is looking at going places musically that they never imagined. This means, experimenting with a different sound, and (I can't avoid the cliche, because he said it), their music is still a work in progress. I guess that's a good thing though. No one wants to hear a band that is struggling to evolve and mature. Am I right?

Later this month the boys will be playing with Desmond & The Tutus in Joburg, if you are there, check it out. They play really well together!