Against The Tide: Cool tunes for your ears

It’s been so very long…. so here is an adorable cat....

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:04:00 -0500

It’s been so very long…. so here is an adorable cat.

Hello! Hi! I realised that I have been extremely lax in blogging this year. Who can say why? Is it a lack of enthusiasm? A lack of time? A lack of good photos of cats to put as the main picture?

I wanted to get back into the swing of things. Especially considering Against The Tide has moved into the much more listener friendly time of 5-7pm on a Monday. Oh yeah! Daylight!

The change has been slightly odd for me. Going from late nights alone in the studio to the busy daylight times with people popping in and out all the time, staff members waving at me through the glass.

You can check out the back catalogue of the shows I’ve missed (I could make a blog post for all of them… :-/) HERE.

And here is the quick version of the rundown for yesterday’s show: Played some tunes from Meredith bands, played some tunes from Australian bands, accidentally played a tune from an English band I thought was Australian for some bizarre reason. Good work, me.

You can listen back to this week’s show HERE.

Playlist for Monday the 3rd of December 2012

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Fox & Sui | Summer Storm | Taboo

Brous | Streamers |

Prudence Rees Lee | Emmannuelle | Court Music from the Planet of Love
Django Django | Hail Bop | Django Django

Jonti | Nightshift in Blue | Twirligig
Elizabeth Rose | Fight or Flight | Crystallise

Galapagoose | Ploy

Rainy nights. Sometimes when it’s cold and rainy there is...

Mon, 07 May 2012 04:00:06 -0400

Rainy nights.

Sometimes when it’s cold and rainy there is nothing that is better than staying in and playing records on the radio. Sometimes you don’t wanna leave.

You can listen back to this weeks show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday 28th of April

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Air Drops | Champions Chariot | Air Drops EP

Abstract Cannon | All These Years feat RLMDL | Sequences/Melting Sitcoms EP

Record Store Day: The show in which I attempt to play vinyl in...

Mon, 07 May 2012 01:26:46 -0400

Record Store Day: The show in which I attempt to play vinyl in the studio. :D

I’ve always been a bit scared of vinyl. Despite the fact that most of my time as a child was spent playing my Mums old Skyhooks and Elton John records on our old 80’s record player. When it comes to announcing, I’ve been nervous about fiddling with the record players in the studio. NO LONGER. In celebration on Record Store Day, I went and bought a bunch of vinyl and played them on the radio. Pretty good! Records are fun. They are such lovely objects. Oh man, I think I’m in love.

You can listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday 21st of April

Gold Panda | back Home | Gold Panda - DJ Kicks.

Shark Week. I did this week’s episode in a Shark costume....

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:20:06 -0400

Shark Week.

I did this week’s episode in a Shark costume. I think that’s all we really need to say.

Listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 14th of April

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Geoffrey O’Connor | So Sorry (The Townhouses Remix) |

Hourglass Sea | L.A. Lights
fail.safe | confines | parallels

Jamie XX | Touch Me |

HAPPY EASTER (This post is quite late) Making myself a promise...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:12:37 -0400

HAPPY EASTER (This post is quite late)

Making myself a promise that I will make up all my radio posts today. Gonna do it. It’s totally achievable.

Easter weekend’s show is HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 7th of April.

Bogdan Irkuk | The Thracian Plain | The Thracian EP

The one after that one before. Ooh dear I don’t know...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:09:10 -0400

The one after that one before.

Ooh dear I don’t know whether to actually make a post about this one or not. The audio archive for it didn’t capture properly and therefore it’s lost forever! I’ll never hear myself fumbling over announcing the name of the Sufjan Stevens album ever again (until the next time I play it…) Um so yeah. This is pretty much a post with a bit of rambling and a picture of that giant demon baby that was in Melbourne last year along with it’s giant demon baby siblings. They were everywhere! Somebody should really write a B-Grade horror film about it. Giant demon babies.

So anyway the point to this is, you can’t listen back to this show. But here is the playlist anyways. You’re welcome.

Playlist for Saturday 24th March 2012.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Glass Candy | Candy Castle | Beat Box (Tour CD)

Santigold | Disparate Youth (The 2 Bears Remix)
Fort Romeau | SW9 | SW9

Sebastien Tellier | Cochon Ville | Skyline

Aleks and The Ramps play some songs! So the Ramps released...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:09:40 -0400

Aleks and The Ramps play some songs! So the Ramps released their new album a few weeks ago and it’s pretty damn awesome! If you don’t believe me you should totally listen back to this show and hear for yourself. The dudes (and lady) came in to record a live set for Against The Tide and argue about fonts. Good times. B-)

You can listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday March 17

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Oliver Tank | Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion | Dreams

Jessica Says | Collarbones | Queen of The Night
Catcall | Satellites |

Aleks and the Ramps Live To Air

Mystery Twin | Middle Dream
Erothug | We Should Have Built From Metal | Touching
Flash Forest | The Romantic Bone In My Sour Body

Seekae | 3 | +DOME

Hello team! Get ready for two weeks worth of updates in one go!...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:03:00 -0400

Hello team! Get ready for two weeks worth of updates in one go! My March shows have been pretty sporadic, because I’ve had weddings and parties and anything that have been going on. FULL ON TIMES. So lets chill out a little with some musics shall we?

This show was that day a few weeks ago when it rained and rained and rained all day long and I didn’t get out of bed until 5pm and wandered into the studio in a rain soaked, sleepy daze. That is the best kind of way to announce Against The Tide. We are all aware of this.

You can listen back to the show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday March 3

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Hot Chip | One Pure Thought | Made In The Dark

galapagoose | summersun | parquet #3
Azari & III | Reckless (With Your Love) | Azari & III

John Talabot | Naomi |

Last Weekend of Summer. ThankyouGoodbye. I am very sad about...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:08:44 -0500

Last Weekend of Summer. ThankyouGoodbye.

I am very sad about the end of Summer. Summer is a wonderful wonderful time. And now it’s all over. :( BUT Autumn is pretty sweet! It looks like it’s totally going to rain for an entire month but WHATEVS. Everybody can just stay inside and listen to albums and drink wine and make out with each other. That’s life!

You can listen back to last Saturday’s show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 25th of February

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
POLICA | The Maker | Give You The Ghost

Zwicker | Oddity (John Talabot Misterioso Remix)

Losing My Voice. :-/ This week’s show was made slightly...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:15:23 -0500

Losing My Voice. :-/

This week’s show was made slightly more difficult by the fact that I seemed to lose my voice just before the show started and regained it shortly after the show finished. Clearly I had done something to offend the radio gods. However the music was good. And because of my lack of voice, I barely interrupt the flow at all! ;D

Listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday 18th of February

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Nurses | Fever Dreams | Dracula

DRC Music | Hallo (feat. Tout Pussaint Mukalo) | Kinshasa One Two

3 weeks later… Oh dear, oh dear. I haven’t updated...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:13:35 -0500

3 weeks later…

Oh dear, oh dear. I haven’t updated this blog for a very long time. Far too long. My apologies. It’s been so long that I don’t really remember how I was feeling/what I was doing in regards to this show. So here it is presented without comment.

You can listen back to my show from 3 weeks ago HERE. Oh dear.

Playlist for Saturday 11th of February

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Holy Ghost! | Some Children | Holy Ghost!

The Knife | Silent Shout | Silent Shout

Laneway Special! Speaking to Washed Out and Active Child....

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:41:12 -0500

Laneway Special! Speaking to Washed Out and Active Child. Playing cool tunes.

I was one of those people who absolutely lost it when the Laneway lineup was announced. The whole thing read like a playlist from Against The Tide and I knew it was going to be totally awesome. As it was I had to run directly from the festival to the studio so I decided to just keep playing tunes from the artists.

Also I got to meet Washed Out and Active Child during the week! They both came in to chat to me about their music and touring and they were both mega awesome, chilled out, interesting dudes.

God I gotta say, that Active Child album still kills me every time. What an amazing record.

You can listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 4th of Feb.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Toro Y Moi | Still Sound | Underneath The Pine

Interview with Ernest Greene from Washed Out

Interview with Pat Grossi/Active Child

Active Child | Hanging On | You Are All I See
Jamie XX | Touch Me (Instrumental) |

Glasser | Apply | Ring
Poor Spirits | Benefits |

Major Napier | Crowning Observation | Major Soldier EP

Things I forgot to do last week: update this blog. Whoops! :D...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:28:12 -0500

Things I forgot to do last week: update this blog. Whoops!

:D :D :D

I’m about to do another update in about five seconds so for now let’s just let the music speak for itself in this one, k? YAY!

You can listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday January 28th.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Aleks and The Ramps | Middle Aged Unicorn On the Beach with Sunset | Facts

Sparkle Motion | My Friend (Magic Silver White remix)

Easing back into things…. I feel like my brain has been on...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:04:30 -0500

Easing back into things….

I feel like my brain has been on Summer vacation. I’ve been a lot more focused on picnics and beaches and laying around watching endless reruns of X Files than seeking out awesome new music. It’s gonna change though! New stuff is arriving and it’s sounding pretty sweet. The first hint of what we can expect from 2012 releases… It’s gonna be a good one, I’m sure of it. This show is a weird one, more chilled than I’ve done in a while. But then I seem to say that a lot so it may be time to accept that Against The Tide is a chill program… I’m ready to admit I have a problem.

Also it was my Dad’s bday on Saturday. This has nothing to do with anything and my Dad doesn’t really know how to use computers for anything other than Jewel Quest but anyways: Happy Birthday Dad! :D

You can listen back to this week’s show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 21st January.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | You Need Me On My Own |

Amadou & Mariam | Dougou Badia (feat. Santigold) | Folila

Blood Orange! It’s the day after seeing Blood Orange play...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:24:00 -0500

Blood Orange!

It’s the day after seeing Blood Orange play at the Northcote Social Club and I realise I should have made this update the day before that show because goddamn you’ll wish you’d been there. Blood Orange is the show name of Devonte Hynes, a British/American musician who has gone under some other names in the past, probably the most notable being Lightspeed Champion. His newest record, Coastal Grooves is the first under the Blood Orange moniker and it’s so so smooth. It’s become my favourite record of the summer. I spoke to Devonte really briefly during the week and tried to get an idea of what kind of musician he is which seems to be ‘a very busy one’ and ‘extremely independent’. Cool guy.

This show also features my very first attempt at a gig guide. I think it went VERY WELL. And on that note I’m taking a week off the show this week…. see y’all at Sugar Mountain ;)

You can listen back to this week’s show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday 7th of January

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Grimes | Skin | Vision

Interview with Devonte Hynes aka Blood Orange - Playing a show at NSC on Wenesday 11th of Jan

Hammocks and Honey | Simple Things | Spellbinder
Mystery Twin | Middle Dream

New Years Eve Spectacular! I know some people don’t put a...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:37:54 -0500

New Years Eve Spectacular!

I know some people don’t put a lot of stock in NYE. There is always too much pressure to have a good time, sometimes it’s difficult to organise stuff to do that pleases everyone and occasionally the whole thing can be a depressing exercise in looking back on your life and feeling like maybe you haven’t achieved what you wanted to have achieved by now. BUT THAT ASIDE, I like it! I like stopping and taking a look of the year that was, all the good stuff and even all the bad stuff. All the things I’ve learned, all the people I’ve met, all the places I’ve been. It’s nice. The music in this show was a little haphazard. I decided against doing a ‘best of’ list because I kind of hate them and felt that it was pretty unnecessary to add my voice to the rest of the end of year lists going around. I finished the show (and the year) with Glass Candy. I don’t really know why. Maybe because I ‘want you to know if you should ever look into the mirror and wonder who it is that you are and wonder what it is that you came for. Well… I know the answer. You’re beautiful. You came from heaven. You came down to this place to fill out the dark corners with your everlasting light. And that’s why…I love you’

:D :D :D Welcome to 2012 everybody! May it be full of cheesy pop songs and leftfield electronica, and experimental hip hop and some other genre that hasn’t even been invented yet. ;)

You can listen back to the NYE show HERE.

Playlist from Saturday the 31st of December.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Little Dragon | Ritual Union | Ritual Union

Glass Candy | Warm In The Winter | Body Work

Australian Music times! (mostly) 2011 Music times! (mostly) Man...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:08:00 -0500

Australian Music times! (mostly) 2011 Music times! (mostly)

Man this show made me happy. I decided to do another Australian special that turned into an Australian music from 2011 special and it was fantastic to be able to play all these amazing releases from the year and be like YEAH! MUSIC IS AWESOME!

I dunno how to explain it further than that. I was happy. It was a happy time. Music is so wonderful like that.

So congratulations to all of the Australian artists who have released such amazing music this year. I feel pretty lucky to live within such a vibrant music community.

High fives, everybody!

You can listen back to this week’s show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday the 17th of December.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Dream Kit | Cosmic Strut (Faux Pas remix) | Future Tense

Hammocks and Honey | Undone | Spellbinder

That time that I talk to Sun Araw for a really long time about...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:05:00 -0500

That time that I talk to Sun Araw for a really long time about cassette tapes. Like a REALLY long time. Perhaps too long. :D

Sun Araw is Cameron Stallones a founding member of the band Magic Lanterns. Sun Araw builds on the psych rock stuff he does in Magic Lantern except it’s way more bizarre. Multi instrumental, spaced out, strange music that is somehow just so so engaging and lovely to listen to. I’m going to be playing the hell out of these records during the lazy hot summer afternoons. And Sun Araw is gonna be playing the hell out of the Sugar Mountain Festival at the Forum in January. Which I’m already calling as my gig of the summer.

Cameron was so easy to talk to, he’s passionate yet surprisingly humble about his music making. We talked about cassettes for ages, I cut a lot of that conversation out of this interview actually. I was in a strange mood and was slightly weird and opinionated in this interview. Lucky he went with it. Thanks, dude. :)

You can listen back HERE.

Playlist for Saturday 3rd of December.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Peaking Lights | Hey Sparrow |

Interview with Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw

Meth Dad | rookie card |

BrotherSister Records Visit, talk about good times and good...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:46:00 -0500

BrotherSister Records Visit, talk about good times and good tunes.

BrotherSister Records is a purely artist run label based mainly in Melbourne. As such, occasionally their releases are kind of a long time between drinks (like a coupla years…) but they also have a great reputation for releasing really interesting and wonderful electronica, so, y’know, it’s kinda worth the wait. They are just about to release a pretty amazing compilation which is called Mobile Rekodi Situdio, I could try and explain this project myself but I think you should just click the link above or listen back to the show and allow the guys to explain it themselves. Such a cool project that has resulted in such awesome tunes.

Ron, Sam and Royce (via Skype hookup in Seoul) came in on the show to talk about this compilation and BrotherSister in general and play some of the tracks.

You can listen back to this show HERE. BrotherSister stuff begins about 25mins in.

P.S. It was so nice to be back! Can’t believe how nice it was to be back after only having one week off. I like it! RADIO! :D :D :D

P.P.S OH AND, BrotherSister are having a rad launch party for the Comp THIS FRIDAY. At the Buffalo Club. Details HERE. (so many links today, out of control linking)

Playlist for Saturday 26th of November.

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Unknown Mortal Orchestra | Fffunny Friends | Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Jackie Zebraz (prod Erothug + Shamcocks) | Mama | Mobile Rekodi Situdio
X- Cute (prod Okey Szoke) | Born Bad Man | Mobile Rekodi Situdio

Grimes | Vanessa | Darkbloom
John Maus | Quantum Leap | We Must Become The Pitless Censors of Ourselves

Geoffrey O’Connor visits and talks about lasers. Geoffrey...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:46:04 -0500

Geoffrey O’Connor visits and talks about lasers.

Geoffrey O’Connor’s new album ‘Vanity is Forever’ is slightly uncomfortable to listen to. Probably because it talks about feelings we’ve all had at some stage or another. That uncomfortable longing for people, feelings about sex and relationships. It’s also the only album that I’ve heard recently that has done that real romantic ‘80’s style’ synth stuff really well without making it seem slightly ridiculous. It’s good. It’s great. Geoffrey came in to talk about the album and his live show which has changed quite a bit since playing under his previous pseudonym of “Sly Hats”. More smoke machines and climbing up on things. And lasers. All good things.

He played some good tunes, he makes some excellent music.

You can listen back to this weeks show HERE.

Playlist for Saturday November 12

The Radio Dept | Against The Tide | Lesser Matters
Aleks and The Ramps | Middle Aged Unicorn On Beach With Sunset

Frida Hyvonen | London!
Felt | Crystal Ball

El Perro Del Mar | Heavenly Arms
Geoffrey O’Connor | So Sorry | Vanity Is Forever

Boom Bip | Mascot and The Moth | Zig Zaj
Minature Tigers | Goldskull | F O R T R E S S

Zola Jesus | Shivers | Conatus