Yadda Yadda Yadda

It's review time people! I've been to see some amazing live music over the last couple of weeks. Let's start with Gotye.

Gotye is the solo music project of Melbourne's Wally De Backer. What a taltented man he is! Gotye grabs samples from all sorts of different music and puts them all together to create new tunes. He sings and plays drums, so there is a lot of his own work over the top of these samples too. He plays guitar and keys at times too.
Given the nature of his music, it's not an easy thing to translate it to the stage. However, the creativity of this man never ceases to amaze me! On stage he had 2 violins, viola, cello, percussionist, 2 sax's (who also played the clarinet and flute) and a bass player. Plus Wally himself on drums, vocals, electronic drums and keys. What a show! The music was different to the album, which is what gave it it's special something. It was still his music, but revamped for the stage with an amazing array of people and sounds.
And there was a great light and visual show going on up on the screen behind the band! Impressive stuff!
I love his music anyway, but seeing him live just made me love him more! Such creativity and raw talent.
I recommend getting along to see him if you ever get the chance!


Then on Thursday I went to see the John Butler Trio & Josh Pyke. Josh Pyke opened the show and he was brilliant! I'm such a huge fan of his music. Great interesting acoustic tunes with catchy, yet creative melodies. He's a brilliant lyricist too.
I was impressed with his live show, hadn't seen him live before. but I was disappointed with the sound. His vocals were a bit too muffled and quiet. If I didn't know what he was singing, I'm not sure I would have been able to make it out.


Then the John Butler Trio took the stage! Incidentally they just came on the radio! Love it!
I've seen these guys twice before and I'm always blown away by how good they are. Even if you don't like their music, you have to appreciate how good they are as musicians. Talk about impressive! No-one's fingers should move as fast as John's! And the drummer (Michael Barker) and bass player (Shannon Birchall) are so imcredible! Shannon plays a 5 string and an upright. So very cool. And Michael? Phenomenal!
What I love so much about their music is their obvious passion. John writes about things he is passionate about. His music is a reflection of who he is and what he believes in. I have a lot of respect for that. And he's not just all talk. He acts on what he thinks is important. I love his heart for reconcilliation, compassion and respect. His message is all about love for your fellow man and the planet. Whatever form that takes. If that means overseas aid, then good. It it means just stopping in the street to say hi to someone, then that's good too. If it means not mining our planet to death, then that's another good thing. And everything in between. I have a lot of respect for these guys, as musicians and as people.

I've seen a lot more live music over the last 2 weeks too, but more later. These are the 2 shows that stood out to me the most.

Any musicians you want to recommend?

Tell me what you think about powerlessness. Is it something that just happens to us? Or is it something we allow to happen to us?

I think, once we reach a certain age, we allow it to happen to us. People cannot have power over us unless we given them that power. We are not controlled by external forces, we have the power over how we respond to anything in life. That is not to say that we are not strongly affected by outside sources, but we are not determined by them. We choose how much power we give to others.
While we may like to think that others can control us, that is not true. We have responsibility over who we are and what we do. Perhaps blaming others for our lives is simply a defense mechanism, and we really are responsible for how our lives have turned out.
Sure, we cannot control all the forces out there, but we can control how we respond to them. We are in control of who we are in the midst of our situations.
I'm a bit admirer of Viktor Frankl, who is an Austrian Psychiatrist who survived Nazi concentration camps. He wrote an amazing book called 'Man's search for meaning' if you're interested in the topic. Amazing, insightful and powerful book.
What I got from is that we can't control others/life, but we CAN control how we respond to that. We always have power over who we are.

Feel free to offer opinions, discussions, whatever.

I bought Regina Spektor;s latest record yesterday. I am soooooooo impressed!!! The best cd I've bought in AGES! She is quirky, weird, interesting, catchy, talented and baffling all at once. Some of her songs are catchy and beautiful, some are fun and odd, some are a mixture of everything. She is a taltented woman! Beautiful voice, incredible pianist, talented song writer. I LOVE this cd!

Favourite new albums? Recommendations?

Today was a bad day.
This morning about a quarter of our company was made redundant on the spot. I still have my job, but some of my friends lost their jobs. It was weird and sad and disappointing and baffling and angering all at once. They weren't even given notice. They all lost their jobs right there and then. No handovers, nothing. They were locked out of their computers, door passes were frozen, everything stopped right there and then. It's a strange thing. They turned up to work thinking they had a secure job, and 2 hours later, they are unemployed. I feel so bad for my friends who lost their jobs. A lot of people have their identity caught up in their jobs and when that gets taken away it's devistating.
Our company was in financial trouble so they had to cut staff. It's a sad thing that people have to fall second to the almighty dollar. Sometimes I hate capitalism.

Isn't it weird when you get in contact with friends from your past? Sometimes it's lovely, sometimes it's awkward, sometimes it brings up old emotions and memories, both positive and negative. Sometimes I want to go back, sometimes I'm glad I've moved on. It's a strange thing to reconnect with past relationships.

I discovered facebook last night. I only joined to see photos from Kathryn who is in America at the moment. I'm still unsure about how it all works.

Uni starts again tomorrow. Homework does not thrill me.

Going out for my first work function in my new job tomorrow! Should be great and interesting to see people outside of an office context.