A lot of DJ’s are boring – FACT!  Mike Who’s different mannn.

Our Favourite Australian DJ “Mike Who” has dropped a new mix-tape to chill back with in the nasty winter…

Usually known for his eclectic and uplifting live hip hop crossover sets across Sydney, he chills back in this one a little to accommodate to any mood or setting at home, at the party, at the beach, or really just anywhere.

Take it in, and if you like what you hear, you can catch this dude all around NSW generally, if the musics good chances are he’ll be setting the vibe from the opening set.

Niceness Vol 1 – from Mike Who

Check it out here

Nice

Hey Peoples…

Throwing back to an earlier piece on Australian Slam Poet Champion Omar Musa, the man’s released his first studio album of Australian hip hop with a unique twist.

Always the gentleman, he’s decided to post the album online for free download for all of those looking for some new materials to chill out to this coooooooooooooooold winter! so head on down to www.obmmusic.com to take a listen.

Press release comin at ya:
Omar Musa is a rapper cut from a different cloth. The 26 year old from Queanbeyan, Australia, won the Australian Poetry Slam at the Opera House in 2008 and believes his debut album “World Goes to Pieces” sets a new standard in poetry and genre-bending in Australian hip-hop. Produced entirely in Seattle, USA, with rock veteran Geoff Stanfield (Sun Kil Moon, Black Lab) it is jam packed with chunky beats, thoughtful lyrics and outright weirdness. From the wild, industrial opening track Nomad to the luscious ode to summer and love Pura Vida (The One), the Malaysian-Australian MC brings a poetic flair to “World Goes to Pieces”. He bears down on wide ranging subjects such as Aboriginal poverty on What We See, his hometown on Raise Up, his relationship with his father on Sunshine and one night stands and “black-lit dreams” on the space age Neon Address.

An ambitious representation of a young man caught between activism and partying, love and depression, Musa says “I treated this album as if it was my last, so everything had to count.” Stanfield and Musa called in help from inspirational keys player Dave LeBolt (Paul McCartney, David Bowie), French jazz pianist Pierre Savoye, as well as Bay Area rappers Young Murph and Mighty Joe. The artwork, an original painting by Vancouver’s Ben Tour, is a testament to this perfectionist approach.

“I know Geoff was influenced by Massive Attack, Bjork and Portishead, but you can also hear the West Coast influence on there,” says Musa. “In terms of lyrical approach, I took influences from everyone from Kanye West and Ben Okri to Gil Scott-Heron. We weren’t afraid to push things a bit and I wasn’t afraid to be brutally honest about my life. Considering the cookie cutter music out there at the moment, it seemed the natural thing to do.”

enjoy

…bs

Kicking off next Thursday (22nd April) is the Space Invadas Launch tour, hitting 5 Australian city’s for a series of one off shows. Along for the ride will be special guests Koolism making for a double header of some strong Australian hip hop crossover artists.

We spoke to half of Space Invadas (Katalyst) not so long ago when he was gearing up for these shows with partner Steve Spacek and their live band / vocalists… well it’s finally here so check it out people…

Space Invadas feat. Buff 1 and RuC.L

Enjoy

…bs

Mos Def – History feat Talib Kweli (Pataphysics Remix) by Pataphysics

Check out the first remix Pataphysics has done for a Mos Def, Talib Kweli joint complete with JDilla gymnastic beat flip navigation..

Weaponry: Trumpet, Flugel Horn, Bass, MS2000, MPC, B4 Organ, Guitars (Acoustic & 330 Jap copy)

enjoy

It’s finally time to kick off the Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics tour this Thursday December 3rd in Canberra!

So excited were the artists that they went out an bought themselves tickets for the show only to learn that as performers they get in for free! So as not to waste these tickets the bands asked Very Good if there were any people in Australia who might want their double passes to enjoy one of the shows they are playing around Australia?

Olmecha Supreme Live at De La Soul Wellington New Zealand

If you would like to enter the draw to take them up on their offer email your name and city to vg@verygood.com.au with the subject line ‘community’.

TOUR INFORMATION:

ANU Bar Canberra, Dec 3rd w special guests TBA Tickets are at Ticketek

Beach Rd Bondi, Dec 4th w Laneous and the Family Yah and DJ Mike Who

Gaelic Club Sydney, Dec 5th w Budspells and DJ JC – Tickets will be on sale at Moshtix

The National Hotel Geelong, Dec 11th w special guests TBA Tickets at Oztix

First Floor Melbourne, Dec 12th w Kano and Guests – Tickets at Moshtix

Great Northern Hotel Byron, Dec 17th w special guests TBA tickets will be on sale at Oztix

Cooly Hotel Gold Coast, Dec 18th w special guests TBA tickets on sale Oztix

The Hi-Fi Brisbane, Dec 20th w special guests TBA Tickets on sale The Hifi

Ruby’s Belgrave, Dec 16th w special guests TBA  Tickets on sale at Moshtix.

Olmecha Supreme play The Woodford Folk Festival Dec 30th

See you there!

Over the next 7 weeks, we are lucky enough to be working with some of the greatest crossover artists in Australasia for  a series of one off collaborative performances.

Over the next 7 weeks, Very Good readers are lucky enough to have some free tickets on offer from the bands who have generously offered their community the chance to come along and enjoy the events as their guests.

We are talking of course about Batucada Sound Machine, Olmecha Supreme, Pataphysics, King Tide, LABJACD, and DJ JC. To enter the draw, all you need to do is email vg@verygood.com.au with the subject line saying ‘community’ and your name, city, and preferred concert.

Batucada Sound Machine - He Said She Said

Batucada Sound Machine will play:

Gaelic Club Sydney, Nov 19th with King Tide and DJ JC – Get your tickets From Moshtix

AWME Black Box Melbourne, Nov 20th – Get your tickets to AWME

Ruby’s Lounge Belgrave, Nov 21st with Pataphysics – Get your tickets From Moshtix

East Brunswick Club Melbourne, Nov 26th with LABJACD & Pataphysics – Get your tickets here

Robe Village Fair Robe, Nov 27th and 28th – Get your tickets here

LABJACD Live at Woodford Folk Festival

Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics will play:

ANU Bar Canberra, Dec 3rd w special guests TBA

Beach Rd Bondi, Dec 4th w Laneous and the Family Yah and DJ Mike Who

Gaelic Club Sydney, Dec 5th w Budspells and DJ JC

The National Hotel Geelong, Dec 11th w special guests TBA

First Floor Melbourne, Dec 12th w special guests TBA

Ruby’s Belgrave, Dec 16th w special guests

Great Northern Hotel Byron, Dec 17th w special guests TBA

Cooly Hotel Gold Coast, Dec 18th w special guests TBA Get Tickets

The Hi-Fi Brisbane, Dec 20th w special guests TBA Get Tickets

Tickets on sale next week.

Olmecha Supreme – Bebestyle

…bs

Very Good things are happening now that the spring has arrived and everyone’s coming back out to play… 3 tours coming up over the next 3 months are definitely going to make for some great nights out, first up in November it’s Batucada Sound Machine visiting from New Zealand to drop their massive 13ish piece bands sound on your doorstep if your in Sydney, Melbourne, or Robe. BSM are partnering up with some other great live acts along the way, making for some pretty sweet lineups including King Tide,  LABJACD, Pataphysics, and heaps of wicked local and international artists at Melbournes AWME and Robe Festival, (dates and ticket info  at the end of article)

Dec 3rd will see the first friendly battle of Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics at Canberras ANU Bar. The tour will hit most cities in Australia before Olmecha Supreme carries on to play the Woodford Folk Festival Dec 30th. These two 5 piece multi genre heavyweights go head to head, as well as being joined along the way by some special appearances including Laneous and The Family Yah, Budspells, DJ JC and DJ Mike Who among others. You can get a feel for what will be going down from

Olmecha Supremes awesome live performance at the De La Soul Concert in Wellington.

As if this wasn’t enough, just confirmed in Sydneys world famous live venue The Basement, a performance from New Zealand’s incredible neo soul duo Oakley Grenell and Mark Vanilau. Stepping aside from their hectic solo and group projects, the duo will start in Sydney on January 14th and work their way around the east coast from there. This will be the first time that the duo have toured Australia together and with them will travel some of Australias finer jazz musicians and special guests.

Oakley Grenell and Mark Vanilau – Moving on live at Red Bull Studio New Zealand

Batucada Sound Machine plays:

Gaelic Club, Sydney – with King Tide Nov 19th – Get your tickets From Moshtix

AWME Black Box Melbourne Nov 20th – Get your tickets to AWME

Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave Nov 21st with Pataphysics – Get your tickets From Moshtix

East Brunswick Club Melbourne with LABJACD & Pataphysics Nov 26th- Get your tickets here

Robe Village Fair Robe Nov 27th and 28th – Get your tickets here

Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics plays:

ANU Bar Canberra – Dec 3rd, Beach Rd Bondi – Dec 4th, Gaelic Club Sydney – Dec 5th, The National Hotel Geelong – Dec 11th, First Floor Melbourne – Dec 12th, Hotel Great Northern Byron Bay – Dec 17th, Cooly Hotel Gold Coast – Dec 18th, Hi Fi Bar Brisbane – Dec 20th.

You can check out more from the artists in their artist profiles or at:

www.myspace.com/olmechasupreme Olmecha Supreme

www.myspace.com/brotherpataphysics Pataphysics

www.myspace.com/batucadasoundmachine Batucada Sound Machine

www.myspace.com/kingtidesydney

www.myspace.com/labjacd

TICKET GIVEAWAY – Hey peeps, QLD hip hop crew Laneous and The Family Yah are touring around Australia at the moment in support of their upcoming album release for ‘St Ill Regal’. Sydney got their turn last weekend, and from all accounts the tour kicked off with some mad energy from these crazy kids. Next up Laneous and The Family Yah will be hitting Victorian and Queensland fans with a few shows around Melbourne, culminating in their album launch party in Brisbane.

Laneous and The Family Yah - Bubblegum

Laneous explains ” ‘St. Ill Regal’ was recorded with Brissie Buzz Man Peet G @ Psi Fi Studios throughout 2008, the 17 track slammer features a whole flock of extended Family Yah members including MC’s, an 8 piece string section, Nepalese Table Master and others”.  The album tour looks to boast some talented guests also including LOTEK (UK), Very Good’s own Pataphysics, and New Zealand’s funkiest Olmecha Supreme in QLD with his Soundsystem brothers along for the ride.

Olmecha Supreme – Snowblood

So Laneous has been cool enough to hook up a double pass to the ‘Bar Open’ show in Melbourne with Pataphysics, and the Hi Fi show in Brisbane with Olmecha Supreme for some Very Good readers!  Thank you to Laneous, and to his wicked massive family.

To enter the draw, email your name to vg@verygood.com.au with the name of the gig you want to go to in the subject line and we’ll notify the winners by email on Thursday.

You can check out more from Laneous and The Family Sly, and get full details of the performances at:

www.myspace.com/lachlaneous

…bs

Peoples… Following their recent interview

Fisherking have been kind enough to put up a double pass to their Melbourne gig for two of our peoples who are interested in heading along. They play at the ‘Northcote Social Club’ on Thursday August 13th for this event, and you can check out the rest of the remaining tour here

All you need to do is contact us with the subject line reading : heck yes i’ll go!

Cool

…bs

Fisherking, are who we caught up with this week from Sydney, to find out a little bit about where this sweet new sound is coming from, and where it’s going…

I came across your music on Triple J’s ‘Unearthed’ sight and it took me as a standout group amongst all of the newcomers to Australia’s music scene. Are you guys newcomers?

We’ve been together as FisherKing since about March 2008 so I’m not sure if that qualifies us as new comers or not! We all feel really comfy on a stage now, but we definitely feel pretty new when it comes to being in front of a video camera. We started work on our first music vid a few weeks ago and ended up with a truckload of footage of us looking especially awkward. But these last six months since winning the Triple J ‘Unearthed’ ‘FUSE Festival’ comp have been such an amazing experience for us and things have moved along so quickly, we’re always trying to keep up with it.

So who makes up FisherKing, and how did you come to be together in Sydney?

FisherKing is Sam Stephenson (vocals and guitar), Paul Hanna (guitar and BVs) Josh Leong (Bass and BVs) and Luke Robertson (drums). We’ve all grown up in Sydney’s south and known each other for most of those years. Josh and I used to get together and play music and we would work on songs and FisherKing just grew from there. It was a pretty organic experience; Paul and Luke were quickly added to the mix to make FisherKing.

Fisherking EP Release Video

How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard it… and where does the name FisherKing come into that description?

The name FisherKing has some meaning, it comes from the old Arthurian legend of the Fisher King or the wounded king who was the keeper of the Holy Grail. But really the name just sounds fresh and coastal in itself which kind of captures the feel of what we do. I usually tell people that our music has the rootsy-ness of Ben Harper with the rock of Coldplay, and that generally makes the most sense.

Where do you find inspiration in the Australian and New Zealand music scene at the moment? anyone or anything stand out?

I’ve always looked up to Lior as a song writer so he’s a definite stand out to me and I’ve loved Empire of the Sun and Van She too. But our good mates from Bonjah (from Melbourne) have been a huge inspiration and help to us over the last year. They’ve lent us a hand negotiating our way along our journey- and they’re also an amazing band.

Your music is very suited to summer days… What’s the plan for you guys this summer?

We’re playing at a few festivals over summer and the New Year and we’re really excited about that. But after we come home from our East Oz tour over July & August, we’ll be jumping back into the studio with Genevieve Maynard (who recorded and produced our EP) to record our first album. So come summer, we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh songs to share with everyone.

What’s it been like trying to bust onto the scene in Australia so far?

It’s been hard work so far but we’ve loved every second of it! We feel we’ve been really lucky to make it as far as we have and we think things could’ve been a lot harder for us. We’re so stoked on the support we’ve been given from all over the place, including Triple J Unearthed but especially from our fans. We’re looking forward to people hearing our new tracks because we’re all so excited about them!

It’d be great to see you guys live with the spread of styles you cover… I imagine you would take the crowd from a slow waltz to bouncing. What can we expect from your live show, and when can we expect to see it go around Australia next?

Yeah, we do have the variety in our show, we love it that way! We really try to balance out the softer ones with the higher energy stuff. Plus, we’ll taking it around Oz this month! Our East coast tour starts in Newcastle on the 17th of July. We go as far north as Brisbane and then back down to coast through Sydney & head down to Melbourne and Adelaide by the middle of August. You can see all the dates and towns we’ll be playing in on our website (fisherking.com.au). We can’t get to the west this time, but we’re definitely gonna get there really soon.

You can check out more of Fisherking at:

www.fisherking.com.au

…bs