Yo it’s the BIG KIDS feat CODY W with their new single
kangaroo
SOMETHINGS WRONG IN THE AMAZON
BUT NOTHING’S GONNA HAPPEN TO YOU
KANGAROO
Author Archive for Stephen McKenzie
13
May
12
Big Kids: Kangaroo
The JAM LIVE in JAPAN for download
This was an old Jam live single / EP I had, and put down in digital before selling my record collection. It was one of those Asian 7inches with a giant hole and a fiddly plastic inset to make it fit on normal record players.
Songs:
1 – Move In Up (Curtis Mayfield cover, the Jam used to play this live all the time but never recorded it)
2 – Get Yourself Together (another obscure track)
3 – The Great Depression (from The Gift, great version)
4 – But I’m Different Now (from Sound Affects, also a great version)
I kinda think of this as an extension of The Jam Live album Dig the New Breed. Performances are pretty good although the singing gets rather wild in places.
The recording is scratchy, deal with it, I played the hell out of the record when I was fifteen and haven’t even tried to compensate on the mix I made on Cubase.
Steve
16
Jan
12
Luker Southern import
Hi,
I just imported the old Luker and Southern site over here wholesale. That site is pretty much closed. Future gigs with Emma Luker of the one-off variery may occur but it’s not going to be soon…
10
Apr
11
The Banjitar Blues
So for the last 18 months I have been gigging with Emma with one of these - a Martinez 6 strong banjo guitar.
It is tuned just like a guitar, but has a sightly lighter, plinkier tone and sounds pretty good on some of the recordings.
I can’t actually remember how much it was – it was fair amount, but not the $849 price tag listed at the Melbourne Music centre site. The model I have might be a step down from this one I pictured, and the writing on the head is different. But it looks similar, otherwise.
Anyway I have just decided to get rid of get and get a regular guitar. The reasons:
- At live shows through a PA or amp, it doesn’t actually sound like a banjo at all. It sounds like a guitar. So why not just play one?
- The pick-up is wonky.
- It goes out of tune easily.
- It has intonation issues even when the open strings are perfectly in tune. There is some problem with the way the G string is set, so that if it is perfectly in tune open, it will be very sharp on the 2nd fret A. That means you basically cannot get it so that open G and open A and D all sound good. You have to pick, or compromise. For a folk player, that is a pretty major issue because those are the main three chords!
- Basically it just sucks.
So I am selling it. Not here though, because I just told you how wretched it was.
I am gonna buy a hollow body electric I think.
09
Apr
11
Recent News and Plans
We have had two shows this year. The first was a spoken word event at Higher Ground last Friday, and the second was a Central Market show last night with Jeremy P. on accordion and whistle. I’ll put up vids and photos sometime.
Plans to do more stuff have been stifled by extreme business on both our parts, and also, I’m moving to Papua New Guinea in July, so, Luker and Southern is going to be on the back-burner for a while, like, three years. We might do another market show before I go, and then shows when I come back for visits. WE’ll see.
So that’s what’s going on.
S.
09
Apr
11
L&S play Celtica
We played the CELTICA Music Festival at the Port Adelaide Wharf on December 5th 2010. It was 40 degrees. A kilt is a surprisingly good option in this weather.
The show was good. At one point the police patrol boat drove over and listened to us.
Here is a photo of me from Emma’s camera, looking kinda cool, but also a little haggard, like Dr Cox from Scrubs.
12
Feb
11
Mandolin Christmas Disco Fever
I just got me one of these:
Exactly the same, except mine has a pickup.The tuning is in fifths so the chords are a little different from geetar or banjo, but you get used to it after a while.
Up til now I have been playing on Emma’s old one, which she got given in Mexico, but decided I needed one with a pickup if we are going to take it on stage.
So we’ll be featuring some madolin tunes in our upcoming shows in April, and on further recordings.
Happy Christmas to me.
06
Dec
10
Little Hefty Runs The Gauntlet
We did a show on Friday night at the Queen’s Arms on Wright Street. (The old pub used to be called the Old Queen’s Arms, but then they renovated.)
Anyway it is, as one Mr Dylan Woolcock noted, something of a “gauntlet”. They have a front bar, a games area, a pokies bar, a meals area, and as the fifth finger on the glove, a band room, which I did not previously know was there. It’s not too bad a space at all. I’d to pack it out, someday.
One of the characters playing before us was a guy called Little Hefty, who I had not previously heard of but who sounds a bit like Jack Johnson vs Bob Marley and has the same kind of “laid back beach funk” vibe as Johnson. I enjoyed listening to this guy, who can sing better than most. His quieter, finger picky numbers appealed to me more than the funkier stuff but generally it was all worth seeing.
Try his Myspace and watch the vids, looks like they are from a gig at the Wheatsheaf. The last one is the best.
21
Nov
10
Two Shows in December
LandS have two shows in December.
Friday December 3rd at the OLD QUEENS ARMS @ 10.30 after Little Hefty and Thom Lion, 88 Wright Street.
Saturday December 4th at the CELTICA FESTIVAL, PORT ADELAIDE, Mundy St Wharf, Acoustic stage, 4pm.
The latter show is free and kid friendly.
Steve.
Everyone's been awful nice...