mikesaid: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Seeker Lover Keeper

Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby, all successful artists in their own right have combined to form Seeker Lover Keeper. They released an album in June 2011 which interestingly debuted higher than any of their own albums (#3). Currently on a tour throughout Australia called Heavenly Hands - A Tour of Churches and Cathedrals I had the opportunity to photograph them at St Michael's Church in Melbourne.

Te night started with Henry Wagons (had to be in there somewhere!) performing solo - quite different from the rip-roaring set I saw on Saturday, and no F bombs, despite me putting up $5 if he did. It's always interesting to see Henry perform as a support act, see him winning over the crowd - quote of the night was early on "Harry Wagons is great, you will love him".

Seeker Lover Keeper came on only about 15 minutes after Henry finished, which was fucking great, well done! There are only a few dates left on the tour so all three are comfortable with eachother, and they are all quite funny - I suspect by the end of the tour they will be out of church jokes.

It was interesting shooting this one - it was such a special venue that the performers were not the most important thing to capture!

See the whole lot here!

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Seeker Lover Keeper (c) 2011 Michael Christian

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Raincliff

I was asked to go to the Queenscliff Festival with The Wagons to get some shots of their set. They have about 10,000 shots of them performing from me so this time they asked for lots of crowd shots which meant I was allowed everywhere, even on stage!

It rained that day, like really really rained, lucky the show was held in a massive tent and everyone was undercover (there was an announcement during the set that peoples tents were blowing away, Si told them that they should probably go check it out, but after their set. We were pretty much in and out so didn't see many bands, I got to witness the tail end (long tail) of the Triffids which looked like a slick and well presented show and about 30mins of The Cruel Sea which was also pretty slick.

See 'em all here

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Wagons (c) Michael Christian 2011

Sunday, November 27, 2011

la puta madre

I have wanted to watch / photograph these guys again ever since I saw them support the Wagons at the Forum a few months back. The Puta Madre Brothers are the worlds biggest one man band from Melbxico, Australia who are the at the forefront of the mariachi/disco/rock scene. Their shows are something to behold... kinda like a mixture of WTF and OMG, or WOTMFG.
Supporting them were The Bluebottles playing some surf rock (who were playing their first gig!) they sounded great but the photos were a bit shit so yea...

He querido ver / fotografiar a estos chicos de nuevo desde que vi el apoyo de los vagones en el Foro hace unos meses. Los hermanos de Puta Madre son los más grandes del mundo un hombre orquesta de Melbxico, Australia, que son los a la vanguardia de la escena del mariachi / disco / rock. Sus espectáculos son algo digno de contemplar ... un poco como una mezcla de WTF y OMG, o WOTMFG.

El apoyo a ellos estaban los moscardones jugar algo de rock surf (que estaban jugando su primer concierto!) Que sonaba muy bien, pero las fotos son una mierda poco para sí ...

a las fotos!

verlos a todos aquí

sígueme en twitter

Puta Madre Brothers (c) Michael Christian 2011

El Video!

Musico!

Puta Madre Brothers - "One Legged Horse" by Shine On Festival

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Flying Nun 30th Anniversary

So I worked in a record store when I was little. It was a small indie store, in a small town that eventually got destroyed by The Warehouse (New Zealand's version of K Mart I guess). This town was pretty much in the middle of Christchurch and Dunedin which were the two places that Flying Nun was born and got a foothold.
Flying Nun was originally started to record the local music of Christchurch but became best known for championing the "Dunedin Sound" (out-of-tune guitars and badly recorded songs is all I thought it was) but listening to these covers on Friday made me think... yea, it sounded a bit shit, but the essence was there, it was the energy. Flying Nun was sold to Festival Mushroom Records (Warners) in 2006 and in 2009 was brought back by original owner and also Neil Finn and his wife and another business partner.

I got there about 8.30, the website said doors at 8 but little did I know that 8 was code for 7 and I had already missed one band.

The night was set up really well - each band played a 20 minute set that had to include two originals and three covers from Flying Nun bands with a 10 minute change-over. The only band I had heard before was Teeth and Tongue who I really like, so much so that I added a song of theirs at the bottom of this post... and also a cover from a Flying Nun band (The 3D's) that he band I play in covered on our last album (saw a window - went for it). All the other bands/performers were really good, it was nice to see some musicians who were over 23 for once - it gives me hope!

Bands that appeared:
Betty Airs, Sand Pebbles, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Darren Hanlon, Absolute Boys, Love of Diagrams and David Saunders (The 3D's)

See all the pics here

Betty Airs (c) Michael Christian

Sarah Mary Chadwick (c) Michael Christian

Teeth and Tongue (c) Michael Christian

David Saunders (c) Michael Christian

This And More by Teeth & Tongue

Outer Space by audiac

Georgia Fair

I went along to The Toff In Town on Thursday night to photograph Australian act Georgia Fair for The AU Review. The last few times I have been there, photographing has been easy - I turned up for this one a little later than usual, and man did I pay the price. These guys are popular....

So I stood there trying to make a joke in my head, but only got as far as
Q: How many hipsters does it take to fill The Toff In Town?
A: This many

BUT, it is to be said that these guys were really good, for young dudes they have a grown up sound (listen to the song at the bottom of this post) you should check 'em out. I kinda failed on the photos, not being able to move arund and take pics from different angles leads to a pretty boring set (of photos) but that's a good thing yea? that fact that it sold out?

Anyway...

See all photos here

Georgia Fair (c) Michael Christian 2011

Check out this song:

Georgia Fair - Where You Been? by Sony Music Australia

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Unsensored 11

I'd say that about 98% of my photos are taken on a digital camera... between Jess and myself we own about 35 cameras... 6 of them are digital and we only really use one of those for most jobs (the great 5DMkII). I photograph a lot of bands and Jess photographs a lot of people and children's birthday parties so although we get to put our own spin on these, it's not like shooting film the way we do. Which is usually just for ourselves, mostly on holiday...

So we decided to go in this exhibition run by the Melbourne Silver Mine which is a camera 'club' of sorts dedicated to the art of photography taken using the traditional photographic techniques and equipment. I thought it would be a bad idea to pressure myself into taking something awesome on film in the month or so before the images had to be finalised so I had a look back through all my film stuff (see my favourites here) and picked a couple from that (Jess got 7 rolls of film developed dating back about 7 years!).

I will be exhibiting beside some great friends/photographers from the greater Melbourne area (this includes Sydney), I listed some below:

The Caravan (c) Michael Christian

The S Bend (c) Michael Christian

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Fly My Pretties, Fly

Fly My Pretties is a collaboration of musicians from Wellington, New Zealand that only records live albums, in various locations in New Zealand (and now Australia).
It is the brainchild of Barnaby Weir, front man of the Black Seeds and Mikee Tucker of Loop Recordings Aor(ear)oa, I had the opportunity to photograph them as they tour (and record) for their latest album, Fly My Pretties IV.

I had been a fan of these guys for ages, and it was great to see them play in Melbourne, especially at the awesome Athenaeum Theatre

Just found a review of the gig, check it out

See all my shots here!

Fly My Pretties (c) Michael Christian 2011

3 Men and a

I wasn't going to go to this... it was a shitty week at work so I had intended to sit at home and watch movies on Friday night - but as it turned out, I'd be helping someone out if I did. So I did!

I was off to the Meeniyan Town Hall to photograph Henry Wagons (solo), Jordie Lane and special guest from America - Joe Pug. I was lucky enough to drive the 2 and something hour trip in not just 5 o'clock traffic, but 5 o'clock traffic ON A FRIDAY. People are a little nuts on a Friday, their mind is already in the pub and driving or looking at the road isn't their top priority... or maybe it was just me? Only got tooted at a couple of times and I'd like to think that's because I was hot, not because I was taking ages to merge into that right lane....
Anyway, the drive there is great. You get away from the classic aussie gum-tree-laden country-side that we usually see as gumtrees are replaced by pine trees.. it looks very, New Zealand! YAY.
I got there just in time to scoff down some of the awesome food the hosts were putting on for the musicians (and now photographer) before the show started.

All three played great sets, the audience were really nice, hardly a hipster in sight - seemed they were actually there for the music, not the fashion. I was allowed in the projector booth at the back which was great..

And then drove home.

See 'em all here!

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Henry Wagons (c) Michael Christian 2011

Henry Wagons, Jordie Lane and Joe Pug (c) Michael Christian 2011

Jordie Lane (c) Michael Christian 2011

Joe Pug (c) Michael Christian 2011