Stormcellar Band Home Page

Twas the night before Christmas

and all through the land

people went shopping

at Coles

for cheap ham

or crowded in Target

fighting over

the lollies

some ramming old ladies

and cars with their trolleys

but one thing was absent

one thing was missing

it was as if Old Saint Nick

left a sign

'I've gone fishing'

The reindeer searched high for their

ebullient master

'if we cannot find Santa, 'it'll be a disaster'

til a red eyed young reindeer put

his ear to the ground

I know where that fat bastard is

just follow that sound

down railways and streetways and sidewalks and chimneys

and bike lanes and alleys went DONNER UND BLIITZEN!!

at last did they come to a well hidden stair

pointed the young reindeer

I'll just bet he's up there

so they forked out dough for the cover

and marched through the door

and LO, there was Santa, out on the dance floor

He smiled his great smile, gave them a hug

so warm and big

I wondered when you'd get here

it's a Stormcellar gig!

8:30-23:00.

Ho Ho Ho!

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Comedy Gold!

Howdy Folks.

We delved deep into Sydney's Mojo this weekend.  It is the geomancy of Sydney, Balmain and the old white bay power station. A powerful place.

One day soon that glorious, dilapidated and rusting edifice will make way.

For apartments.

Just as the working harbour made way for flats, super yachts and tour boats. 

Just as Balmain went from working mans suburb to the property of princes.

Bless you old girl, may the holes in your petticoat remain long enough to remind us of how truly rough the emerald city once was.

So, having drunk deep of the Mojo (kool aid?) we burrowed into the substrate of Balmain to record another track for the Curious Assembly Project, this time, the epic Twice Shy Girl.

For those who've been following our Adventures in Recording, please excuse the recap; For those new to these pages (Hi to all our UK readers), we've been working on a series of singles, recorded at different studios, with different engineers, released as multiple mixes.

So far we have:

- recorded live onto iPad (onward traveller)

- recorded multi track, layer by layer, digitally (dirty work)

- recorded multi track, layer by layer, on 2" tape (sweet adeline)

- recorded simultaneously, live, to digital (travelling song)

and err...

um

Well we kind of did that again, but sort of on a larger scale, with everyone getting line of sight.

We also chose a song that was only made possible by the fact that The Curious Assembly is all about being brave enough to try the weird and wonderful.

When originally conceived, the idea of the song was met with some degree of internal Band Hesitance.

A 7 minute song? With multiple parts? It'll never work.

Now Dear Reader, I ask you to guess which particular member of the band offered the suggestion that the more batsh-t crazy it was, the better.

if your guess is your present interlocutor, give yourself a pat on the back...unless you're still looking up interlocutor, in which case may I advise a healthy dose of Yes Minister.

With 6 or 7 sections (I may have lost count somewhere), three vocal melodies, two instrumental sections and some random timing, Twice Shy Girl is a blast to perform.

It's cumbersome, dangerous and filled with musical pitfalls that keep the band on their toes. It relies almost completely on communication between everyone to figure out when to go to the next bit.

Also, Rosie once upon a time, got the Solo Of the Gods in rehearsal...Trying to repeat that? YIKES! 

Given that this song is all about vibe, there was no choice but to find a studio where we could all play simultaneously, with line of sight, and still be able to get separation of sounds so we could 'fix' stuff.

We visited a number of studios but were drawn inexorably back to our centre, just around the corner from our gig haunt, the Bald Rock.

But enough mumbo jumbo - here's some scenes for a day well spent recording. 

They have buttons. Many buttons.

Our objective was to be able to keep everything. Guitars through amps, drums live, harp and vocals live.

That meant getting a sound for each of the instruments. Rosie and Paul's amps were outside the room, 

I wandered down to take a sample of their live sounds, Warning its a bit loud but if you're a guitar enthusiast, have a listen to the tones they're trying out.

Theo setting up for the session

I have some more footage but the iPhone is having issues with files over 700Mb so I haven't been able to transfer them, but I whist looking at the clips of us actually recording the song,  was amazed at how much sound separation we got, out int he main room you can hear drums but nothing else.

Cheers to Russell for demon speed in getting a sound and getting it down, Marshall for putting the day together and to Mr Rix for squeezing in another session even with a gig to go to.

By that evening we had a desk mix of the track and it's....it'...ah but you'll have to wait and find out.

We have at least one more song to record for The Curious Assembly project..maybe more. What will we do with them? Release them as an album? Keep dropping them out as single releases?

The 'death' of the album is being touted by internet music pundits.

Maybe they're right, but then again, to quote  William Goldman on the entertainment industry  'nobody knows nothin'

Recording each track in this ad hoc manner is more expensive than recording a whole album, especially when you consider that both Carl's Chair and Hired Guns were recorded inside a single week, although to be fair,  overdubs, patching and mixing took much longer.

On the plus side, we can release tracks whenever we feel like it, without all the fuss of releasing a cd. When we work out which way is best, I'll post it here :-)

Howdy Folks.

A late one last night, dare I say, bohemian even :-)

We played at Lazybones last night. Mr Wizard has been raving about the place for weeks and now I can see why.

Watch out Melbourne, a little piece of Hip is happening in Sydney :-)

We were glad to catch Puggsley Buzzard doing a trio thing, if you haven't checked him out, he's a cross between John Clearly and Tom Waits and one heck of a keyboardist.

I took a little footage of one of his songs, apols for the shaky start, don't worry, i soon worked out how to use the new WOXOM iphpne tripod thing

Here's the result..i start handheld and then work it out :-)

Pugsley is there tonight (14th dec) so get in and see him before he heads back overseas on tour!

Lazybones is on the second floor, hidden away

they pack the place full of music all week!

Neli, Rea and the Laztybones Crew

As this was our last show for the year (we think), on a black Friday, we cranked it up from the get go.

Despite it being the witching hour, the crowd were ready to get up and get down. I took a moment of footage during cant tax love at the end of the set. hmm...on playback it looks like I am a little  ahead of the beat on the singing. Will have to work on that.

I had a few tech hiccups with my power supply for the in ear monitors, and a few little niggles such as having the harp in the wrong case (ARGH) so it took me a moment to settle, but we had a huge night and the bar stayed open the latest they have ever stayed...so far :-)

Mr Wizard is right, this a great venue, right in the heart of marrickville and it's Hip Quotient is officially 3 'Ayyyyy' on the Beeblebrox scale of amazingly amazing.

.

Shout outs to Lee, San, Alan, Frank, Becky and all the Lazyboners for a grand night out inside the velvet curtains. A great way to end our years playing.

Our next gig isn't too far away though - 4th Jan up at The Lakes Hotel at The Entrance. Until then we have new stuff to crack on with and a recording to get sorted out tomorrow, so I better hop to it..

Our last show for '13, fittingly on 13/12/13

OOOH SPOOKY!

Lazybones is an uber hip new venue in Marrickville and we're the second act for the night, the first being our good buddy Pusgley Buzzard from 8-10 and then we start up at 10:30

Lazybones is on the 2nd floor, the street address is:

2/294 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204, Australia

Now if you go reading the poster and start wondering WTF are the black friday riders, don't worry, Dear Reader, I have no idea either, I was just messing aroudn with the artwork and liked it.

Or...there could be some super secret hidden meaning