A REVIEW – Lior, supported by Tom Kline and Gossling

Upon entering The Corner Hotel in Richmond this past Saturday night, one could be forgiven for thinking that they had been washed into a library on the sacred grounds of a mute nunnery, as Tom Kline opened the evening for Lior.

Pulling Away was performed first and Kline had the audience from the first note. His beautifully haunting sound resonated, leaving the audience stunned, silenced and unsure what to expect next from the singer, songwriter and muli-instrumentalist.

It is hard not to gush over Kline as a reviewer and in future I will need to learn to be more critical, because Kline has raised the bar. Rarely is such talent portrayed in a support act and it is fair to say that generally at shows, people chatter amongst themselves, order drinks without care and glance up every now and again at supports, but not with Kline. Few dared to turn even to kiss their loved one on the cheek, fewer dared to order a drink and those that did, did so in hushed, guilty whispers.

The Cure was a particularly noteworthy, among other songs played like My Stage, Silence is Golden and Apparition. Unbelievable it is that this bombshell is not (yet) a big time crooner, but a country bumpkin from Milawa, northeast Victoria. “Tonight I have business cards in lieu of a record,” he joked, although he is currently working with Producer Francois Tetaz (Architecture in Helsinki Lior, Goyte) on his debut album which will be released in the not too distant future. But for now, he is doing his time in Melbourne’s Pubs, Bars and Venues.

That was not the last time we would see Tom Kline that night, who looked a prettier version of Kurt Cobain, in his oversized white Tee, with mousy shoulder length blonde hair and pretty eyes. Kline should change his name to Jack, because like a Jack-in-the-box, he kept popping up throughout the evening, as back up vocalist for both the next support act, Gossling, and the headliner, Lior.

Above: Lior.

Young, pretty and cute as a button was 27-year-old Gossling, (Helen Croome,) who was up next. She performed a duet with Cello player, Anita Quayle, who is a member of Gossling’s band, although she often performs solo as well as with her full band, at venues such as The Espy, The Empress, Veludo, and the Northcote Social Club.

She had audiences laughing along with her as she chattered away about bush turkies and did an impersonation of how her mother would sound, if Gossling had photos taken with her hair in her eyes. “Can you make sure my hair is off my face, or my mum will kill me,” she requested of Faster Louder photographer, Anna Kanci, in a husky voice that can be likened to that of Julia Stone.

Country air must do it to these people, as Gossling is also a country soul, being born in Tasmania and growing up Albury/Wodonga. Songs played included Hazard, Days are Over and He knows my Love.

Notable was Days Are Over, which Triple J started playing about a year ago off her last EP. “People thought it was Sarah Blasco or Lisa Mitchell, but it wasn’t… It was me.” She said, leaving the audience laughing.

In a post show interview Gossling admitted to being nervous and said it was a good thing “If I don't get nervous I play badly. I need the adrenaline running through my veins to perform well.” Which would be my only criticism, as at one point I felt for her as she was visibly nervous, touching her hair and face and fiddling with her dress. But the rest of the audience didn’t seem to notice, too engrossed in her music and laughed away with her between song chatter.

Gossling has the ability to be the girl that everyone knows. She’s daggy like your sister, gorgeous like your best friend and has that innocence of the girl you went to primary school with, yet have not seen for years. “It was my dream to play at the corner…and now I’m playing at the corner.” She said, once again making the audience laugh in an intimate performance.

Gossling’s last song saw Tom “Jack-in-the-box” Kline back on stage to sing backing vocals. The Only Way, was performed which is off Gossling’s new Ep which will be released on November 5th, and was a beautiful way to end her set, as fellow audience members agreed, her performance improved as it went on, perhaps initially slightly quelled by nerves.

Above: Tom Kline, Anita Quayle and Gossling.

Lior causally walked on stage, guitar in hand and his eyes sparkled as he shone a smile to fans. After the first song, Lior recalled his first gig in Melbourne at Bar One. The show was just after he released his first album, where he played to “an empty room of diehard fans,” about 12 of them who knew all they lyrics, a far cry from the sold out Corner.

Lior and the band, consisting of Cameron Deyell on electric guitar, Jonathan "Sparkles" Zion on keyboard, backup vocals and percussion, Brett Hirst on Bass and Michael Iveson on Drums, with Tom Kline who popped up again on backing vocals, mostly played songs from newest record release, Tumbling into the Dawn.

Noteworthy of the set was, This Old Love, which was dedicated to Jane and Neil, parents of a friend of Lior’s. “They were high school sweethearts who found each other late in life,” Lior read quirkily from a text message, “who are finally getting married and will be walking down the aisle to This Old Love,” a segway that fans swooned over.

I’ll forget you in time, was also commendable. The previous night the band played a show in Hepburn Springs, where Lior reached out to the audience for someone to fill the harmony part of Sia. Juli Robinsom, was the brave lady to put up her hand, she had apparently done such a great job and it just so happened that she would also be at the Melbourne show, so Lior invited her back to the stage. After a slight time lag, between invitation and actually clambering up on stage, Liors’ face relaxed after showing slight anxiety thinking that “perhaps she had chickened out.” She sang her part and left the audience humbled and jealous. Lior said in a post show interview that Juli was grateful for the experience and was inundated with people congratulating her and wanting to by her drinks.

Above: Lior with Juli Robinsom.

The show greatly incorporated each member of the band with light-hearted banter, laughter filled segways, and anecdotes from Liors recent life. Lior also made reference quite often to his support acts, which meant that the evening was nicely woven together, and balanced.

‘Sparkles’ sat at his keyboard and often giggled at Lior, Cameron Deyell played memorable guitar solos, not bad for a left hander whose dad told him to preserver with his right hand as a child, now playing along side Lior. (Admittedly concentrating so hard, I thought he was going to bite his tongue off.) Drummer Michael Iveson orchestrated the band, with eyes that spoke a thousand words, mostly saying “Are you ready?” And bassist Brett Hirst was confident and cool, while Tom sung back up vocals from the back of the stage, beer in hand.

After the show, Lior met fans and signed merchandise for a long line of fans, as Tom Kline and Gossling mingled and chatted to fans and friends. The band were also accessible, as they packed up their ammunition. It was an intimate show, the only down point of the evening, which is actually an up point is that the Corner was almost at full capacity from when Tom Kline came on stage, which meant that the Corner was crowded the whole evening rather than gradually increasing, making it a little uncomfortable for a longer period of time, rather than just a set.

The above photography is the work of Faster Louder shooter, Anna Kanci.

Below you can view the myspace pages of Tom, Gosling and Lior.

Tom Kline - http://www.myspace.com/tomklinemusic/music/songs/the-cure-69266186

Gossling - http://www.myspace.com/gosslingmusic

Lior - http://www.myspace.com/lior

Interview with the Lovely Lior

A Nervous Miss Drew spoke with Lior not even an hour ago, with reflection on his sold out gig at The Corner Hotel in Richmond this past Saturday night.

As in the interview, Lior has put a call out to the designer who made the shirt he wore. Above in currently the best photo that we have. If anyone knows, please give us at Jaded Reverb a shout and we will get in contact with Lior to let him know.

To hear the interview, please follow the link below.

http://www.box.net/shared/1o6zzev77l

Truth, Beauty Love and… Korn?

Above: Korn

He laughs a coaxed, “G’day,” in a decent Australian accent, as I try to get softly spoken Jonathan Davis, lead singer of Korn, broken in and feeling comfortable for a candid interview. But the man needed no taming. For Davis, the days of conforming to rock god status expectations are gone and we are left with little banter and sad truths without masks or games.

“We were just this band having fun before we got so big, playing shows for beer tabs, stuff like that,” recalls Davis fondly of the early days with the band. But things changed and Davis admits that he has been in the business so long that he’s watched others go through the same cycle – the rise, the explosion of fame and the pouring money. “It changes people and makes them different. But, if you stay in it long enough you become grounded again and stop that crazy shit,” he says. A strange insight from the mouth of one of the worlds highest rated metal vocalists, into the music industry many mortals crave so badly.

Having done the full rotation, Korn steered their lyrical ship in sights of that virginal state of when they first started out by, “going back to the music we want to make and not falling into outside influences,” says Davis, who also stated that Korn’s recent record release, Korn 3 – Remember Who You Are is, “100 percent truly real from the heart.”

Surprisingly in making the change, Davis doesn’t feel caged by the image that the band has created for themselves. “I just sing whatever I feel. So if I want to try something different, I do it. There’s a rule when I’m making music, if it makes me scared, or I don’t know if what I’m doing is good, that’s a good feeling, because I’m letting go.” Says Davis who doesn’t like staying in his comfort zone.

Korn 3 is the third record that the band has worked on, with close friend and mad genius producer, Ross Robinson, who produced Korn’s first two records Korn and Life is Peachy. Since then, Robinson has also worked with rock god greats such as Slipknot, Limp Biscuit, Machine Head and The Cure and most recently has taken The Klaxons, under his ‘God Father of Nu Metal’ wing. “He is definitely different.” Davis says of Robinson. “He’s kind of maddening and hard but I love him. He is a great producer,” adds Davis, who also stated that to work with Robinson is an experience you would never forget as he has an amazing way of pulling things out of people that no one else can do.

Davis describes Korn 3 as, “something minimalist and in your face raw.” The band locked themselves in a little room and wrote and recorded the music together on a two-inch tape without the use of computer programs like Click Track, or Pro Tools. “By doing that we remembered how much better music flows. It has a soul of its own,” he says.

Above: Cover of Korn 3 - REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.

Jonathan Davis has been a great many things, including lead singer and front man of Korn, guitar, drum and bagpipe player, social outcast, victim, actor, DJ, score composer for the sound tracks of films such as Queen of the Damned and The Twilight Zone, asthmatic, mortician, depressant, drug addict and family man. That’s right. The man who’s lyrics contain many themes of a tortured soul is actually the loving, hands on father of three boys, who along with ex-pornographic wife, Deven Davis, are Davis’ best friends. “I don’t really like people,” he admits bluntly. “Being a role model isn’t something I asked for… I don’t go and hang out with new people, it just doesn’t work, people always have some kind of agenda, and so I pretty much keep to myself,” he adds. Davis also states that the only new friend he has made recently is Kalen Chase who is the back up vocalist for the band.

In the peak of his Rock God state, Davis credits his boys for saving his life, when he decided to bin the drugs and alcohol in 1998 and remains sober to this day. “If I could do drugs every once in a little while, I’d do the fuck out of them,” he laughs, admitting that in his unconventional work setting he craves them every single day. “But I know if I did, I would be dead and I want to be with my children. It’s a deterrent,” he says. Giving them up was the hardest thing Davis has even done, detoxing for over a year. “Drug detox is a couple of months and alcohol detox is a couple of months, but mentally, to get all the chemicals back together it took almost a year. It was fucked up,” he admits. Davis did do drugs and alcohol before he was a part of Korn to help him deal with his life and believes that in moderation they are fine, but becomes a problem when a person comes to rely on them, or uses them to be a better person like Davis did. “I got going with this rock star life and I thought it was something I had to do to be a rock star. That’s what really started me and then it became a problem… I needed them to keep going. I needed to write good songs and once I got on them, I was ten times better.” Davis is aware that many people who come to their shows do drugs and alcohol because “they don’t think they can have a good time without them.”

The bands lyrics have been highly criticised in the past for their dark themes and negativity and Davis reads all the reviews, taking the good and leaving the bad. “Life is too short to be walking around paranoid all the fucken time,” he says. But all one must do is flick the contrast switch and the dark becomes light. Davis is a role model and pioneer of Nu Metal. “A lot of people come up to me and thank me for the records and say with out it, they would be dead. It feels really good that my music can affect them positively like that,” he says. As a father role model, david wants to pass on two core values to his children, the first being respect, the second being to work hard. “Respect people, respect yourself, respect everything. If you treat everything in life with respect, it will be given back to you. That’s a big thing with me and my boys,” he says, accentuating ‘my boys.’ The other thing is that nothing will ever be handed to his children. “No matter what they get, they are going to work for it in some kind of way,” both values are what makes someone a ‘good’ person in Davis’ eyes.

In 1999, the year Issues was released, Davis was in detox mode, he would perform shows then lock himself away in his room. Following on from then, it became clear that he could in fact write decent songs without drugs or alcohol and over the next 10 years the band experimented heavily with their records with each one of them receiving Platinum certification. It appears now that the band is much more grounded, realising they have nothing more to prove. They don’t need to conform to what they think we as fans, or others in the music industry expect them to be. But as far rock god status goes, Davis doesn’t see himself that way. “Its weird, I just write music and perform it live.”

Korn will be touring Australia in December this year, performing some shows each with Guns and Roses, Shihad and Sydonia. For more information on the upcoming tour, or Korn 3 - Remember who you are, visit their website at, http://modlife.com/korn

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned over the next week or so for write ups of interviews with New Found Glory, Korn, and Melbourne based Tom Kline. Also there will be a review of Lior’s sold out show at The Corner Hotel last Saturday night.

Peace.

15 minutes with Luke Yeoward from King Cannons

Above: King Cannons opening for Bedouin Soundclash recently at The Prince.

Photography by Nic Bischop Photography

“It’s like baking a cake,” enlightens heavily tattooed, rockabilly-esk King Cannons (KC) lead vocalist Luke Yeoward about the bands creative process of song writing. “Some times I’ll come up with something, a little riff, or hook and other times me and someone else will come up with something and we will just build on it from there,” he adds. With culinary skills like the ones KC processes, the sharp looking crew need to get themselves onto Master Chef quick sticks, after a particularly noteworthy performance at The Prince in St Kilda recently.

The New Zealand birthed, Melbourne adopted band, consisting of Luke on lead vocals and guitar, Rob on electric, Johnno on bass, Josh on drums, Mike on keyboard and the lovely Lanae on percussion, (the bands token female,) started out in New Zealand in 2008, as a group of mates and acquaintances who showed up at the same gigs. “We had a bit of a jam in a friends lounge room, wrote some tunes and that was pretty much it, we started playing shows,” Yeoward says in a ‘bobs your uncle’ manner.

KC have recently toured with Canadian, Bedouin Soundclash as their support act on the Australian leg of their journey. “Its pretty hard to find bands in this part of the world that sound like Bedouin Soundclash OR King Cannon for that matter. It was definitely a good match for us and a good opportunity to play to the Bedouin Soundclash fans. We were pretty excited about it,” says Yeoward.

Despite spending most of his life in New Zealand, Yeoward likes Melbourne. “Melbourne is wonderful, I was born here even though I grew up in New Zealand… Yes my accent is fucked,” he laughs. Yeoward likes a casual scene when he heads out, despite living in Australia’s cultural capital. “I like going to the Gem in Collingwood and having a beer there. That’s my kind of place. It has a pretty chilled out mood and the people are always friendly.” Although Yeoward admits he will never be the poster child for city living. “If I didn’t have to live in a city with people and petrol and folks doing crazy things, I wouldn’t fucken be here. I’m only here for the music necessity. That’s what keeps me in the city,” he says. With themes of serenity and healthiness running true throughout the bands songs, with titles such as, Smoked out City, Time to Yourself and Teenage Dreams. However since relocating to Melbourne, Yeoward has yet to find a nice getaway place in Australia and likes to go back to New Zealand and chill by a lake.

Yeoward got his first guitar as a gift from his mother when he was ten. She taught him a few chords then bought him a guitar book so he could teach himself. He sings about this in the song, Teenage Dreams, as well as his experiences growing up, how money was tight and his salvation was music. Once Yeoward had mastered the basics, he took to the streets, “I used to go out busking and that’s how I got my first electric instrument and started a band when I was 13. That’s how I got into playing,” says Yeoward.

Noteworthy also is the bands image. KC present themselves a way that is rarely done these days, wearing a uniform of crisp black shirts and pressed black trousers, with black dress shoes. A look any mother would be proud of and Yeoward says his parents have been supportive of him from day one, despite him getting his first tattoo at the age of sixteen. “It was a skull and cross bones on my back and was done in Taupo in New Zealand. My mum thought it was a fake tattoo and she tried to scratch it off… no parent really wants their child to get tattooed,” he laughed.

Those who have not heard music by culinary experts KC, can expect influences from a wide variety of sources, making them a band with something for everyone. “You sort of mash them all up and that’s how we have come to be,” says Yeoward. With a heavy influence of world music, as well as pre 50’s blues, rock and roll, ska music in the 60’s, rock steady and reggae right through to dance hall, electronic, hip hop and country mixed with punk rock backgrounds, it all makes for a hefty performance, or tasty cake.

“Its really important to remain open minded when it comes to music and everything tells a story,” says Yeoward, who has been playing in bands for the last ten years and has developed a thick skin from an early age. “Criticism can be taken on board when its constructive and everyone’s got an opinion,” he says. And where would Yeoward like to see the bank in two years time? The answer is simple. “In as many peoples record collections as possible and in as many different continents as possible, that’s all I could ever hope for.”

King Cannons will be playing at the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne on November the 25^th.

To find out more, visit the bands website at http://www.kingcannons.com/

Or to try a piece of King Cannons' toe tappin’, rock‘n’rollin’ cake for yourself, please visit their Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/kingcannons

They will be more than happy to have you for a bite. They do cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Also, see below for a review of their recent gig with Bedouin Soundclash.

GWAR to penetrate Australia.

Ahead of GWARS long overdue penetration and beating of Australia, Oderus Urungus spoke with Miss Drew of Faster Louder ahead of the No Sleep Til festival and upcoming record release.

“We are very, very excited. I’ve never eaten hippies in the pacific before and I’ve never had sex with a great white shark either - I’m looking forward to both of those experiences.” Enthuses Oderus Urungus, lead vocalist of GWAR, the world’s only openly extraterrestrial band. “It looks like our Australian children have been able to escape our wrath for a little while. I tell you, the beating is long overdue.”

For many, GWAR need no introduction, with over 25 years of bandmanship terrorising the earth. For others, their presence at No Sleep Til later this year will be a delightful insult of the senses. Consisting of Oderus Urungus on Vocals, Balsac-The Jaws Of Death on Guitar, Jizmak Da Gusha on Drums, Flattus Maximus on Guitar and Beefcake The Mighty on Bass, they belong to an ancient order of aliens called “the scumdogs of the universe.”

GWAR’s banded, brothers originated billions of years ago, but it was not until they were banished to earth for committing cosmic crimes that the group truly bonded, enduring a series of rather unfortunate events. “There were lots of dogs. Dogs were fucked. Cows were fucked. Snakes were fucked. Whales were fucked. Jellyfish were fucked. Maggots were fucked, big maggots, big maggot pussies. Mostly apes though.” Said Oderus, by the by. “We hoped that when we fucked the ape, we would create some kind of super ape, kind of half GWAR half ape. Then we got this strange pinkish, hairless creature – yourselves - so ah, you know, we are a little disappointed with the outcome. We’re not going to fuck anymore apes.”

Upon hearing of the unforgivable act, being the creation of humans, the Scumdogs Master imprisoned them in layers of thick ice in Antarctica, remaining until the 80’s, where the overuse of hairspray was so fierce due to the rise of Hair Metal, that a hole in the ozone was formed and the scumdogs thawed. They were taught how to play instruments, got hooked of crack cocaine and since that time, they have been blood-mad, alien-undead, demon lords of the most wicked metal band in the universe!

Oderus remembers growing up, “I fell out of a womb, it was a birth in that chemical agents were created with each other and I fell out of something that looked like a pussy directly onto the penis of a clown I might add. I was raped at birth in a gladiatorial pit. Not an easy childhood, but one I have overcome through heavy reliance on sex, drugs, alcohol and music - that’s helped as well. Metal has turned out to be the most reliable form of rock and roll kick that you can get.”

However despite Oderus’ hardcore masquerade, his life is not always the Rock Star scene it appears to be. “There is a very small soft spot, everyone has their sentimental core and I am no exception, but I am trying to have it removed. Conditioning, drug abuse, alcoholism then therapy and if all those don’t work, then surgery, I will actually have my heart removed from my body.” He says. “It can be difficult. And now that Michael Jackson has fucked off, I don’t really have any other aliens that I can hang out with and have a good time. So it’s pretty much just me, back at the castel in Antarctica, creating shit sculptures and eating crack. I don’t smoke crack, a lot of people seem to think that I smoke crack. I eat crack!” He pronounces agitated, emphasising each syllable.

GWAR is known for their witty, political (anti or otherwise) lyrics, and have actually been band from areas of the states due to their debauchery. However, their artistic process is possibly not unlike that of any human band known to man, “I don’t know if we really write music so much as we argue with each other and break pieces of equipment over our heads and smash amplifiers which are costing us billions of dollars. It’s a writing process but it is also a process of gladiatorial combat.” He says fondly.

Ahead of GWAR’s thirteenth record release titled, Bloody Pit of Horror, the bands current mission is simple. “Take all the elements of gross liquid that people have inside of them, you know whether its pus or blood or urine, diarrhoea or congealed seamen - did you know that on average human beings have up to 14 pounds of impacted faecal matter stuck in their testicles alone? And what were trying to do with GWAR is loosen up a lot of that baggage.” He says. “Fly, be free!” He adds in a tone similar to that of Adam Sandler in Billy Madison. But inevitably GWAR will cause the demise of the world.

“I think this could be a sign of end the end times.” Oderus said thoughtfully. “I’m honestly surprised the world has lasted 25 years. So getting to Australia and doing all the great cocaine down there could be the one thing that pushes GWAR over the edge.” Then Oderus changes his tone. “But I think it would be a shame to have that happen too soon though, we would like to come to Australia at least four or five times.” He said. “And I want to get a blow job from a Great White Shark.”


GWAR officially releases Bloody Pit of Horror in December this year and will also be playing at the No Sleep Festival.