Brisbane and its Music

I thought I'd open this blog with a little bit about some things that make Brisbane cool. Then I compressed a lot of it into video. The scenes are as follows: Brisbane skyline in lightning storm, traffic under a pedestrian overpass, bus by University, compressed two minutes of the ferry trip, bridge in city, sunset on river, lightning striking the skyline (I took it!), speed limit sign, water going counter-clockwise, soccer stadium, pedestrian travel lane, then bands from Valley Fiesta starting with Iron On followed by The Audreys.

The music at Valley Fiesta was pretty good, pretty eclectic, and very local. First, I was surprised how good the bands were - I figured most of the local artists would be, well, bad, but the group of us probably bought a half dozen different artists through the weekend (three weeks ago, now). It was eclectic, because they pulled together many different instruments, styles, and personalities. I don't remember which was which, but I remember hearing some Jimmy Eat World type stuff, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer (kind of) styles, some No Doubt, etc. One Band, Whitley, was soft like John Mayer, but had a Beck twist to it here or there. I didn't see it, but I heard there were some pretty good hip hop and rap bands representing, too. In this mix, there were stand up double basses, banjos, harmonicas, and that special piano that you blow into... I had been to Symphony and Surf the weekend before, where they mixed surf music from the fifties to Jack Johnson with a symphonic orchestra (and a did - jer - ee - do). I don't have video from it, I wish I did.

We read a little bit about the music in Australia and for a long, long time it was derivative of U.S. styles (and later Britain). Supposedly, they have been coming into their own, promoting national music. Jet is one band that I'm pretty sure came from Down Under along with Aerosmith. They are pretty good, but they haven't come to develop their own styles - on the radio, they mostly mimic Americans. Locally, it seems like there is a lot of experimenting (Valley Fiesta), but it doesn't seem to be commercial yet. There is a lot that could be done with the didjerido, but Aboriginal music hasn't been exploited and popularized (exploited, in positive and negative terms - recall Paul Simon and the Rhythm of the Saints fiasco). The Aboriginal artists could really benefit from a popularization of their music, since a lot of it goes back to their tribes (for tribal use). I have a feeling that most Australians would avoid Aboriginal music because of racial pretexts, but it has been a success internationally in the past. The didjerido is an amazing instrument and each tribe has its own set of sounds and instruments - the didjerido is just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways, I thought I should include a little bit about Aussie Rock. I like it, but in a lot of ways it isn't very different from American styles, yet.