If Honeybone was a 13 year old girl, we'd be all 'OMGGGGG HE IS LIKE, SOOOOOOOOOO HOOOTTTT' (Well, it's been a while since I was 13 and I don't know any, but I assume that's what they're like).
Tis not a bieber-boy we love, but a band. They are Children Overboard, and they rock all of our socks. And our ears. (PS guys if you're reading this, don't be scared. I'm not gonna stalk you or anything... probably).
This is them, they are cool.
They played with us at our gig at The Tote on July 1st and blew my mind. Twas a rainy, cold Sunday evening . Not a huge crowd which was a shame because every band that played (The New Savages and Howard also) was amazing. Children Overboard played a bluesy, soulful, rock 'n' rolly mixture of musical goodness and I was like 'woah'. And they like us too! It's like, meant to be and shit.
They have an EP online that you can download for FREE here www.childrenoverboard.com. I recommend you do it now. They moved here to Melbourne from Wollongong not long ago, so they're in the same boat (so to speak) as us. We're hoping to do a ton of gigs together and be band friends. Yay!
Their facebook page is here: www.facebook.com/childrenoverboard go like them NOW. Well you know, if you want to. I don't want to be pushy. I just recommend it.
Our gig at The Tote was really fun, even though there wasn't a ton of people (we're used to that). Our mates came down and watched us which was cool as. We played for an awesome 40 minutes, which seemed like so long compared to our Revolver 20 minute set. I hear The Tote is an 'iconic' Melbourne venue (Jack from 'Low Speed Bus Chase, fellow Dunedin band living here in Melbourne, told me that), so it was pretty wicked to play on that stage. Hopefully we get to again!
I also want to mention another band that blew my mind, on Thursday last week we headed down to Yah Yahs to watch Children Overboard (we are total fans) and they played with a band called The Velvets. They are EPIC. They played a Black Keys song that I love, and I really wanted to rock out but I was in danger of having a coughing fit so I just hung back and bopped my head a bit. They like The Checks apparantly, which is crazy, cause so do we. Funny that. We want to play with them too so hopefully we'll suss something out.
This is Us at The Tote, cheers Ashleigh Dunn for the snaps.
In the moments between falling in love with the various bands of Melbourne, we've been keeping fairly busy. Drew is getting back into making pedals and things like that, hit him up if you want something made. We're all working at our jobs during the day, writing and rehearsing at night. We've got a couple of new songs on the grow and old ones being played again (Dunedinites, remember that epic 11 minute song we used to play?). Once I get over my hatred of anything I create, songs will probably be coming out me ears.
Our first gig (not counting the Open Mic performance) in Melbourne was on Tuesday 19th June 2012. This coincided with the biggest earthquake in Victoria in 109 years.
Oh, and it was during OUR FUCKING SET!
Seriously. Passes to the Cool Kids Club can be handed out now, thanks.
We didn't feel anything, and our mates didn't either, but the judge man did and decided to hop onto the stage after our last song and proclaim it to be the most awesome thing he has experienced, and allude to the fact that Honeybone's rock 'n' roll manner caused said quake.
I thought he just really dug our tunes, but then I checked facebook and yes, there was a quake.
This came up on my mate Ashleigh's facebook feed after about 5 minutes
So that's a pretty cool story. Although that's the whole story, so it's a short one. But a classic nonetheless.
THE GIG:
(Chur to Ashleigh Dunn for photos)
Stance
We played at 'Melbourne Fresh Showcase' at Revolver Upstairs in Prahran, Melbourne. It was a hell of a mish getting there, as we had to tram then train then change trains, whilst carrying gear and during rush hour. FUN. We had our mates Ash and Paul to help (who were total troopers cause both had worked all day and Ash was a bit under the weather), I don't know what we would have done without them. They're full on Cool Kids.
We played for 20 minutes. Our set was:
Can't Feel Your Love
Don't Need You
Edge of the Sun
Outta Time
You may or may not know these tunes as none of them are on our EP. We gave away about 10 EPS after our set, Aussies seem to like free stuff. If you would like an EP, please email me at rachel@honeybonemusic.com and we'll suss out some sort of deal.
Highlights:
- Fellow Otago Uni ex-pats Oli and BB headbanging raucously whilst all the young Aussies got out their smart phones and videoed them, as if they'd never seen anyone mosh at a gig. Apparantly headbanging is not something often done at Melbourne gigs.
Headless Headbangers Oli and BB
- Being able to PLAY REAL DRUMS. My electronic kit is beginning to get tiresome. I was terrified I'd screw up the start of Outta Time since my electronic kit won't let me play snare rolls that fast (rubber is not the same as a real snare in terms of rebound)
-IT WAS A REAL GIG. I could hear myself, and everything else! This is a rare event, but I had a huge foldback speaker next to me and the sound guy was one of those awesome ones who actually knew what he was doing. Kudos to you, my good man.
Drew Glows
I would let you in on the lowlights (is that a word?) but I cannot think of anything. All the other bands that played were pretty good, or on their way to being pretty good (I think we were the oldest band there in terms of age, felt kinda like Rockquest). The organisers were great and everything ran to schedule. Awesome.
We got through to the next round, which is great. I"ll let ya'll know the deets for that one when we hear.
In other news, we're playing with The New Savages on Sunday 1st July (not this Sunday but next week's Sunday) at The Tote. We're on around 7.30 (methinks), entry is $8. You can find out all you need to know here: https://www.facebook.com/events/344258718978219/
Follow us on Twitter: @Honeybone_ (since Facebook is going to charge us if we want our 700 odd fans on our page to see our posts, pssshhh dumb).
My Twitter is @raq_hell. I think I'm pretty cool, so you guys could maybe follow me? maybs? If you want?
So in my last blog I promised a blog including what my ipod comes up with on shuffle. I have 3053 songs on my ipod, this is going to be interesting. This blog will be about other things also, but I will let you know how this goes. It will be interesting. First song: Lily of the Valley- Queen. Not bad.
So you may have guessed form the title of this blog is that I have recently had some sort of interaction with an Open Mic Night. (Oceans - Evanescence. Judge me if you will, it's really not bad).
On Monday night we went to an Open Mic at Cherry Bar in the city. And here are the things I should really have already known, but neglected to remember this time.
1. There will always be someone playing who plays for way too long, and is generally bad/weird.
This is typical at every open mic, as anyone can play, therefore everyone who can play 'ten guitars' gets up and does their version of Wonderwall. This time, there was a slight variation. This guy I'm talking about looked like a blond version of Robert Smith from The Cure. (All My Love- Led Zeppelin. Getting better). He sang like the singer from Placebo, and played songs (I'm guessing they were originals) reminiscent of The Rasmus. He wasn't bad, but after about 6 songs, we all got a little bored. He played Disarm by the Smashing Pumpkins as his closer, which was rather good and suited his girlish voice. He had a large tall badass looking guy playing the bongo alongside him. That was the funny part.
2. There will always be someone who treats it like their own show.
This has happened at several open mics I've been to. The first one where this occurred was when I was still in high school and my band plus some other musical cats from the year above decided to rock out at Oliver's in Clyde, about 10 minutes drive from my hometown in New Zealand. The guy running it got pissed at us because we brought a drumkit, and played 'too loud'. Typical old-man-who-lives-in-a-bus-with-a-hippie-wife syndrome. He played some country noodling. It was ok.
Cherry Bar was no exception. (Higher Ground- The Red Hot Chili Peppers). There was a girl who came with her whole band (who brought their own gear - wise men), minions and grandmother. She was down from Sydney apparantly, and decided this was the perfect opportunity for a gig without any organisation. Smart girl. She was pretty good, think Pink with an ACDC type band behind her (with a drummer who looked like Mick Mars from Motley Crue). Unfortunately she kept saying how nice it was for everyone to come see her, and got her 'minions' to hand out 'albums' to everybody. This album consisted of a burnt CD with the artist's name sharpied onto it (mine was scratched to hell) in a white CD sleeve with a sticker on it. I had expected more of an effort from a girl who acted so professional in every other aspect. She played for a good 30 minutes. Everyone left after she played, and we were next. Awkward.
This is us at Cherry. Ashleigh Dunn took this pic, she rocks all of the socks.
3. The gear will ALWAYS be shit.
This is something I learned years and years ago, but failed to remember whilst going to Cherry. As always, open mics are generally free, so it's not like anyone's going to go out of their way to provide a good kit or guitar amp. The bass amp was alright. The kick pedal provided broke halfway through our second song, so we had to stop. I didn't bring a drum key, so had to ask into the microphone for one. Awkward. Lesson learned. A drum key is now residing on my key chain. Silly Rachel. We played averagely, as we couldn't hear Drew (I think the amp was broken), and the place was pretty much empty. (Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin). The floor tom sounded very silly also. But thats ok, it's an Open Mic night. Expectations should never be high.
So all in all, 'twas an average gig. Think Honeybone, circa 2009. Like, just after we formed. I blame the awkward situation and the gear. It was one of those cases where all you could hear was your own voice and it's very unsettling. What's good about this is that now I am reminded is that an Open Mic gig for an actual band (not solo singer songwriter types) is never going to go well. Lesson learned. We weren't terrible, we weren't amazing. (Shihad - Ignite). No one remembers the average bands. So I'm hoping no one will remember us, and we have a second chance for a first impression at the Gig on Tuesday.
Kudos to our good mate Ash for coming to watch us, even though she was hungover. She's a champ. Chur bro xxx
Oh and the practice on Saturday last week at The Wick was in-fucking-credible. I played a REAL drumkit. I could HEAR Peter's bass. We played for FIVE hours. It totally rocked. (Stop - Shihad)
Drew being totes badass at practice.
So not too many embarrassing songs came up this time. Next time I will try harder. I do have Nickelback on my Ipod, and Kidrock. Lets hope they come up so you can all have a laugh.
Here is an amazing speech by Neil Gaiman (author extraordinaire) as he addresses the class of 2012 at University of the Arts. I don't expect you to watch it straight away, because, in this day and age of short attention spans, my blog probably wins in the competition of the least-time-it-will-take-out-of-your-day. But seriously, one of these days any one who calls themselves an artist or art lover should watch it.
The moment I decided I would watch this was the most absolute perfect moment in my life for it. Having graduated university with a music degree, moved to Melbourne and 'gotten a real job', I couldn't help but feel lost. What am I doing, working 8.30-5 Monday to Friday, wrecking my wrists typing at a computer all day, then I come home too sore to play drums? I came to Melbourne to make music and make a little money out of it. I was not doing as much of this as I would have liked. As Drew pointed out, not much point in complaining, we've only been here 2 and a half months and had our gear just under 3 weeks. Yet every day that I don't spend playing music feels like a day wasted. It was easy to be nonchalant about it all whilst at uni, because it all seemed so distant. I had no idea what I would do. Now I am here, it's pretty freaky.
So I watched Neil Gaiman's speech, after hearing about it for a couple of weeks on Twitter. Needless to say, I was rather inspired. His words 'Make Good Art' are probably the best words I've heard someone say in a while. 'Cat explodes? Make Good Art'. That was the kick in the arse I really needed to actually stop worrying and start doing it. We had the best band practice last night. I was so excited about everything. Thanks Neil :)
So we've been practicing. Our first few practices were fairly shoddy, but this could be blamed on a number on things. We live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, so we cannot be loud (for the sake of our age challenged neighbours). So (now that I have an amazingly hip and cool electronic drum kit) we all plug into Drews recording interface and run everything through Logic, then out through headphones. This is pretty cool for a free/quiet way to practice. However, we can't work out how to get mono sends, so we all only have sound going through one side of the headphones. Awkward.
On Saturday we have a 5 hour rehearsal booked at a rehearsal space in Brunswick. They hire gear so we don't have to lug drums over there. That's nice. I'm really looking forward to it, since it'll be the first time I've played a real proper kit since February. I wonder what that will be like. Hopefully fun.
I'll think I'm all:
But I'll really be like:
Exciting time in Honeybone's young life. We recently turned 3 years old (an event I meant to celebrate with a blog entry, but I neglected my post. Soz), and we've got two gigs lined up for the next couple of months. The first is on 19th June at Revolver in Prahran. It is called Melbourne Fresh Showcase, and is similar to a battle of the bands scenario. We have tickets to sell to that, email me rachel@honeybonemusic.com if you want to come support us, that would be so rad.
The second one is a similar deal in the Gershwin Room at the Espy on Sunday August 12th. We also have tickets to sell to that, etc. Email me if you want, that would be rad :)
I can't wait to get back into playing and gigging again. I feel a bit like a 'square' working the typical office job. But I'm using that money I earn to pay for rehearsal spaces, band vans and a new tattoo so I doubt I'm really your typical office girl on the inside. I don't mind it so much, as I can listen to my ipod whilst working, and when it takes an entire album to get to work, and an entire album to get home again, you can bet I'm getting some sweet listening done.
So my new motto is 'make good art'. Or, at the moment, 'make art'. I always seem to forget that for every fucking kick ass song, theres probably 20 or so crap ones. You need to wade through the shit, pay your dues and learn from your mistakes. This is what I've learned from ol' Neil, and it's something we all need to remember.
Make Good Fucking Art EVERYONE
Ok guys?
PS.
With my ipod on shuffle, here's what I listened to whilst writing this blog:
Amanda Palmer: Do It With A RockStar
Amanda Palmer: Want It Back
Katy Perry: California Gurls feat. Snoop Dog (oh yeah)
Shihad: Bullitproof
Jack White: Sixteen Saltines
Princess Chelsea: Goodnight Little Robot Child
Queen: Crazy Little Thing Called Love
White Stripes: Little Ghost
Jeff Buckley: Lover, You Should Have Come Over
White Stripes: Little Room
Led Zeppelin: Since I've Been Loving You
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust
Shihad: Pacifier
I think my next blog is going to be a list of whatever comes up on my ipod whilst on shuffle. That'll be good for a laugh.
On Friday 22nd May 2012, Honeybone got their gear back.
I was all OMFFFFFFFGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD (imagine that going up at the end). But this had to be all inside my own head, as I had to work all day so could not be reunited with said gear until approximately 5.45pm that night. The things we do to save enough money so Honeybone can buy a van.
So I excitedly rushed home from said job and entered our abode. And was immediately accosted with empty boxes. I 'casually strolled' into my bedroom and saw this:
Usually you can see more of my floor
So I kind of stood there in the doorway for about 5 minutes, completely flabbergasted. Yes, that is mostly my stuff in the picture. WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY THINGS!! I ask myself that very question everytime I move. I dislike throwing things away because a part of me is still a child and thinks inanimate objects have feelings.
You would too if your toaster was this cute.
So after I got over the initial shock, I unpacked my electronic kit which is in the large standy-uppy box in the right of the picture. Out came a dead spider. Woops. Sorry Australian Customs. Naturally I meticulously combed through anything in that box (we padded my kit with clothing) for eggs. Luckily it appeared to be a Daddy spider. Mummy spider and little Timmy will never know what adventures that curled up ball of legs and fear would have.
Sorry, I digress.
So then, naturally, I took pictures of everyone reunited with their gear, purely for the purpose of this blog. Look at me, a hardworking dedicated blogger. Good at Life.
Drews things. I'm glad I didn't have to lug that cab up four flights of stairs.
My pretty drums all boxed up in a black cage of emotion. Or just a kick hardcase. You decide.
So much gear lovin'
Saturday was spent at Ikea to buy things to put our things in. Needless to say, we now have an Ikea flat. It's like that episode of Friends where Phoebe hates Pottery Barn because everyone has the same stuff. Only I hate Ikea, because in the space of 1 and a bit months, I have been there THREE TIMES. That is a little over the top. But hey, cheap stuff. And it's got cool swedish names. Score. And we are now all really awesome at building things from a box and a set of instructions with a funny guy on them. Win.
We will now begin to practice, which will be interesting. Peter has not stopped playing bass, Drew is currently noodling away at 'Since I've Been Lovin' You' and I played drums to 'Wherever I May Roam' just last night. But I bet we'll still all suck on our first practice. Ha.
On another note, I have been listening to a shitload of cool music. To name names, Amanda Palmer. AFP. She rules all of the schools. Lately she's been causing quite the stir by putting her new album up for backing on Kickstarter and she has at this present time over 16,000 backers and raised over $700,000 USD in just over two weeks. Of course it helps that she has a rather large, awesome, crazy dedicated fan base Even still, how amazing is that? The revolution has begun. Maybe one day Honeybone will do some sort of crowd funding project. Anyone care to throw some money at the new Honeybone album once it's done?
Cheeky.
Anyway I just wanted to let people know how awesome this is, as it puts the power with the fans. They get to decide who gets the money and who doesn't. This is not the end of shit music, because one man's Beatles is another mans Nickleback. But what I love is that the crowd decides, and that is fucking awesome. There are a few crowd funding websites out there, so go have a look cause there's so much amazing stuff in the world that would never get a look in if it weren't for the internet.
Oh yes, first blogpost in weeks because we finally have internet connected at our house!
I just read the last post to see what I had told ya'll and it was really shit all so I should probably be a good girl and write a really cool interesting funny long one...
We'll see how that works out.
So we have a gig! June 19th at a place called Revolver. It's an industry night showcase run by a promo company called Melbourne Fresh. If you live in Melbourne and want to come, we have to sell 30-50 tickets at $10 AUD a pop so we'd love it if you were keen. Just give me an email at rachel@honeybonemusic.com and we'll sort something out.
We get 20 minutes to strut our stuff, and it's sort of like a battle of the bands because I believe there are prizes and a final and everything. So that will be fun. Woop.
Our flat is very very cool. We moved in on the 16th of April, the first day of my new job. That was a hectic day. We still don't have much furniture because we don't have much money, but we have some camp chairs our good mates Ashleigh and Paul lent us so that's cool. They're really comfy and the drink holders are really good for holding my beer (funny that).
Here is one of them and sneaky Peter to the right
We also bought loft beds from IKEA because we will have so much more room for activities. Seriously though, they are cool except for the fact that I'm scared every morning, because I am that kind of person who would fall.
Melbourne is really really great. It takes me 30-40 minutes on the tram to get to work but it's totally worth it.
Especially when Asian girls have Pedo Bear Bags lol
We saw The Verlaines a couple of weeks ago when we were here and caught up with some old Dunedin expats, which was great. We haven't had much money because we had to use our first pays to pay the first month of rent so we haven't been able to do a lot, but once I get paid again (I get paid bi-monthly), it'll be sweet as. There's heaps of places I really want to go to, so there's my weekends full up for the next year or so!
Our gear gets delivered to our flat next Friday which is super exciting. I figured out at work the other day (I don't do a hell of a lot at my new job haha) that it's been more than TWO MONTHS since I've played drums. So Melbourne peeps, don't expect too much on my first outing. Muscle memory will kick in for a bit, but then I'll realise just how much 2 months can set you back. We're going to get straight back into practicing which is going to be awesome. Drew will have his computer and hard drive back and we can listen to the mixes of the recordings we did last year and work out what needs redone. It's going to be so exciting, I've had a bit of a music withdrawal. Although last night I played at an open mic night at the pub a block down from our flat, which was interesting, as most open mic nights are everywhere.
We've done so much since I last posted. We went to the Storm/Warriors game at AAMI Park on Anzac Day. That was really cool because we were surrounded by kiwis (even a bunch of Maoris smoking pot right behind us, felt just like home). Warriors lost, but hey that happens.
Here's a picture of Drew putting my IKEA drawers together. IKEA rocks
Drew and I have a Narnia Wardrobe!
I feel like this a good, decent length blog. Keep an eye out, I'll probably write a really good one next week when we get our gear (woop)
Yep, we went to Melbourne Zoo. All three of us. Check us out, aren't we a bunch o' pretty things.
This isn't a post just about the Zoo though, that was just one day in a whole two weeks since my last post. And things are looking up in the world of Honeybone in Melbourne.
I got a job, Drew and Peter had/have interviews, we've applied for flats (but heard nothing...) so things are getting quite exciting really. The job I am doing is for a vehicle leasing company, don't all fall out of your chairs in excitement at once. I have already done that for you :) Pay is good, I start on the 16th of April which gives me a whole extra week to act like an unemployed delinquent, which is always fun.
Like play on this EPIC pinball machine at a 50's diner in South Yarra. What fun.
We went to a really cool gig on a Tuesday a couple of weeks ago in a place called the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. We went with our friend Sam who used to play bass in the Du Cats Kit, he moved here last December. I was like 'Tuesday, it'll be low key, chilled out et cetera'. Well we walked into the place and it was already packed at 9.30pm, and the people kept coming in. It was like Refuel (in Dunedin) on a really really good Pint Night. Crazy shit. The bands were awesome, the headliners have a two month residency there so they'll just keep getting better and better.
Anyway, I know you only clicked on the title of this blog post to see pictures of zoo animals. You're dying to see them, I know it. So here you go:
A Lion
Gorillas
Rafiki
Honeybone love
This butterfly landed somewhere awkward...
This is more appropriate
Aw baby elephant!
Timone
Patterns
These otters didn't show the first time we went round so we came back at the end and they decided to have a fight, it was so cute.
This concludes this post! BTW I got a twitter after a few months of humming and haaing... follow me if you want @raq_hell. And follow Honeybone if you haven't already @honeybone_.
