Scouty's Blog... Page... Thing

A few months ago I was reading a list in Rolling Stone (USA) of the top 100 albums of the 2000s. The problem was that the list was very America-centric. There were five albums by three bands that were not American. I noted the bias and tried to write my own list. Soon into this project I noticed my own bias being Australian. So to avoid this I made two lists. One from Australia and New Zealand, and one for everywhere else in the world. The rules were simple: - All the albums had to have an original release date between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2009. - All the album artists had to be Australian or Kiwi - The albums had to have had some sort of cultural or artistic impact, or be very popular at the time. - All albums had to be nationally available  Some of my personal favourite albums of that decade, and albums that had a deep impact on my life were not included as they did not fulfil that criteria. One album that had a very big impact on my was by a lo...

The night I bought Hack the Mainframe ’s debut EP Trapped Online I also purchased another EP by a support band. The difference between the two records was worlds apart.  The support band (whose name I have honestly forgotten) had burnt some CDs on their computer and put a sticker on the disc (which went over the edges and made it difficult to play), the artwork was printed on a home printer that I suspect was running low on ink. The sound quality was jarring, and the mixing felt like it was randomised. When I buy a record or merch at a gig I feel I am contributing directly to the band. I like to think that that this EP will help the band drive back to Newcastle. This shirt will help finance their next recording. Quid pro quo, I am not a charity. I expect that the album be decent enough judging from their live show. I know it was only five bucks, but I felt mugged. By comparison, Hack the Mainframe ’s EP was presented in a digipack, the disc was professionally print...

One of my regrets from my youth is not taking more notice of the shirts that people were wearing at festivals. One can make the assumption that if we are all at the same show, we all have at least some musical taste in common. From that I can see which bands are at least one degree of separation away from the music that I am seeing at the show. This works well at standalone shows, however not as much at festivals, especially festivals with wide ranges of music like Big Day Out . However when I am at somewhere like Soundwave , I can be safe to assume that everyone at the festival enjoys punk, and/or metal to some degree. If I listen to the same music over and over then I will get bored and frustrated. I am not saying I don’t listen to my old records, I often go through them. What I am saying is when I get into a mood for a band, I’ll listen to their whole back catalogue over the week, but then won’t be able to listen to it again for another couple of weeks. When I am browsing...

Welcome to Scouty’s Blog... Page... Thing.  Here I’ll be mostly talking about music, whether it be live music, in album form, or general ponderings. I’ll mostly be talking about albums that have been wagging my tail lately, or happen to be in my record player/car at the moment. Some new stuff, some older stuff, some Australian, some from the rest of the world, there is no clearly defined scope. I like to think of myself as a renaissance man; I would rather know a little bit about everything than everything about a little bit. My first loves are punk, ska, and metal. However lately I have been listening to a lot of Progressive rock. I will not restrict myself to just those genres. Here you’ll read about pretty much any genre; from Skip Hop to Kawaii Metal, from Classical to Punk, Folk to Funk, whatever happens to be on my mind. For reference, I live and work in Sydney, hence all the Aussie music. I previously held admin and PA roles at Difrnt Music , and MGM records , b...