I’m popping in to this years Splendour in the Grass for this…

Sunday August 1st.

10:00AM – 11:30AM
FILM AND PANEL: APRA PRESENTS ‘FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY: Deadly Serious Threats to Australia’s Live Music Scene’
APRA presents a preview screening of the as-yet unseen Tote Documentary that charts the rise, fall and rise again of the landmark Melbourne pub that has served as a rite of passage for hundreds of Australian and overseas bands. Host Chit Chat (Max TV/MGF) will moderate a panel of musicians and activists from around Australia including rocker Dan Sultan, the organisers of Melbourne’s SLAM rally, Queensland music industry stalwart Craig Spann (AMIN, Soundslikebrisbane), NSW’s award-winning musician/lobbyist John Wardle and Tote doco director Natalie van den Dungen as they explore the legal, political and social battles faced by live music venues across the country.

More details here

….and now that it’s happened…

Last week I helped Mr Darren Hanlon make a diorama of his new album cover. It even has buttons that light up tiny lights in the house and one that makes the tin on the ground vibrate like in an earth quake!

It’s been in the window of Polyester Records, Fish and soon Rockinghorse in Brisbane.
Try the buttons if you get a chance!

a photo.

By Ben Butcher

Here’s a little write up…
http://portable.tv/music/post/darren-hanlon-is-just-too-sweet/

Brisbane singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon has long been known for his intimate, anecdotal approach to songwriting, and his new video visualises the sitting-around-the-fire-at-school-camp feeling encompassed in his songs…by placing him on an school auditorium stage, in front of a (fake) camp fire.

Hanlon made the video for the song All These Things (from his yet-to-be-released fifth album “I Will Love You At All”) with the help of frequent collaborator and occasional tour manager, director Natalie van den Dungen. van den Dungen was also responsible for the videos for Hanlon’s tracks Electric Skeleton, Fingertips + Mountaintops and Elbows, as well as his electronic press kit.

None of those possess half the charm of this latest video, which features rose petals, sparklers, earmuffs, gold glitter dinner jackets, fake snow and synchronised amateur tap-dancing. From the cardboard piano to the solar system stage backdrop, the whole thing reeks of whimsy. And if there’s one thing we can’t afford to deny ourselves, it’s a little bit of whimsy on a Monday morning.

Dan Deacon’s Paddling Ghost has clocked over 110 000 views online!

We’ve now got a facebook group where you can show your support and keep updated on the documentary’s progress.

Aussies! RAGE airs my new video for Darren Hanlon tonight and tomorrow morning on the ABC! It’s also indie clip of the week all week!

It’s my fourth indie of the week.
http://www.abc.net.au/rage/

Here is the 4th Music Video I have made for Darren Hanlon. Once again it was a last minute affair, making it in about 10 days…Would have liked a month but it wasn’t to be! And well, really, I didn’t have that much time spare if we did have a month anyway!
We had an enthusiastic team of 17 working on it as it was quite complicated yet simplistic (we like to be tricky even when it seems there isn’t the time to be). Thank you to the team who worked repetitively and tirelessly to get it right.
It’s for a song titled All These Things which is the first single (out now) off his new album “I Will Love You At All” (out soon).

In a mad dash Darren and I made the impossible happen…It will be unveiled on Friday. This was, once again, a ridiculous amount of fun.

Paddling Ghost recently screened at the 2010 Pictoplasma: Characters in Motion Festival, a festival of
contemporary character design and art in Berlin.
It’s also been included in it’s annual DVD + Book which you can find here.