The debut Eyes Like Mirrors EP is being mastered. The band and our extended creative family are also working on finishing off the artwork, the band's first music video and a very special event to celebrate the launch of the EP. Saying we're excited about all this would be a bit of an understatement.
Chad arrives at my place at 6:45 on Friday. Following Anja and I to Pretoria, it initially looks like he's the only JHB friend that will be pulling through for tonight's KRNGY gig. Along the way Patrick calls to say he will actually come as well so Chad pops off to go fetch him.
For the drive through Anja's put together a great compilation. It's one third Anja songs (see Alkaline Trio), a third Ben songs (see Algernon Cadwallader) and a third Ben and Anja songs (see Hole). This soundtrack speeds us through to Pretoria in the most enjoyable way possible and before we know it we're back inside the faux cave that is Shiva's. I'm really happy that we're quickly joined by Christian, Kyle and Olivia and spend an awesome little bit just hanging out. Before I know it, the time has come for Tennyson and I to take to the stage.
What follows is one of the best times I've had in ages. With only one full practice under our belt, it's understandably pretty messy fun. The only song with really well worked out vocals is "Run like Kenyans" which we played at Get a Room last year. The rest the lyrics I'm using range from rough ideas, freely arranged, to pure improvised spazz-outs. The crowd that's gathered to watch us are really sweet. Honestly, for my first full show doing vocals since the demise of Johnny Neon in 2008, I couldn't ask for a more perfect little audience to help me get back on the horse.
Before I know it our set's over and all that's left to do is enjoy the 3 awesome band's that'll complete the night's rock and roll. The Make Overs are next. Unsurprisingly they tear their way through a set of totally brilliant noise.
Next is The Frown. Starting up late last year, the band immediately generated a lot of buzz for their crazy live performances. Needless to say I wanted to see them as soon as I heard about the band, but I somehow missed every show so far. Now, finally seeing them, the band don't disappoint. Eve's performance really is pretty mad, Tim's electronics sound massive and tonight they're debating the addition of live cello to their show.
After The Frown leaves the stage it's time Pity Fucks. Like The Frown this is a band I've never seen before, but unlike them I had no idea who was involved or what I should be expecting. I was really happy to discover Pity Fucks are yet another Sticky Antlers spin-off band. Antlers guitarist Andreas plays drums, bassist Martinique is now on vocals and drummer Jaco plays guitar. What follows is totally sweet. It's somehow in the same vein as the sloppy poppy rawcousness of Make Overs, but at the same time something different. I'm super impressed by how well Andreas and Jaco are playing one anther's instruments and Martinique's vocals, run through a bunch of guitar pedals, sound insane!
After they finish Anja and I say our goodbyes and head home. We spend Saturday at my parents' place. Play with little birds, look at rabbits running around the garden and eat some of the best food ever.
In the evening we head home. Patrick, Phil, Cam and Lindi come over to watch a movie and eat Chinese. We get the dinner thing right, but fail on the movie front. Land up having way to much fun just chatting and the night flies by.
Next thing we know it's almost 4, the kids dash home and Phil passes out on our couch. For some reason I only sleep for a few hours, wake up way before everyone else and take this opportunity to put a dent in the mountain of comics next to my bed. Later Anja and I watch a documentary on the great Annie Leibovitz.
And then in the evening something magical happens. Matt and Nix (our terribly dear friends that have just gotten home from 2 years in London) drop by for a surprise visit. Cue most awesome times, lols and 2 player Ilomilo joy! "Fuck yeah" for special friends being re-united!
Some of you may have been around long enough to remember Matt Suttner, Joe and I playing a totally mad foam party in Pretoria last year. It went down as one of the craziest, most awesome Dogbox parties of last year. Now Griet and Hotbox have teamed up again to bring you the follow up. This is gonna get messy...
Wwwwoooooooo!!!
Congratulations! You're reading the 400th Animal Call! Just wait till you see what you've won!
To commemorate this most momentous of occasions I thought I'd do something special. Tying in with January's on-going listing of my favourite things from 2010, here's the first ever complete list of all the different series's I've been doing posts under over the past year. In keeping with Free Music Friday I've also (where relevant) provided links for downloads of the songs that have inspired each different series.
With a title taken from a song by the same band that inspired the name of this blog, this seems like a good place to start. "Hooray for Humans" posts are focused on good news about my favourite local bands, producers and record labels.
The title I stole from Art Brut is pretty self-explanatory. "Good Weekend" posts are report-backs on what I've been up to over the past weekend. Generally the posts span from Thursday night gigs to Sunday evening chillouts. At their most interesting a Good Weekend could, for example, be an exhibition on Thursday, VJing with a band on Friday, a DJ set on Saturday and trip to Chinatown on a Sunday. At it's geekiest it'll just be about me reading comics and playing video games all weekend.
A far less self-explanatory series title is "ACSBSATTP". Back in 2009 (frustrated by what a pathetic job I'd been doing of updating this blog) I proclaimed that "Animal Calls should be short and to the point". From there ACSBSATTP became a home for one liners, quotes and one-off photos.
A bunch less obscure than ACSBSATTP is "Link Highlight".
These are simply posts about the sites list under this blog's "Animal Words" section. At best these post are concise explanations why I think you should visit a specific link, at worst they're two part epics with me fanning out about how awesome some people can be.
With a title lifted from a lyric by my 2nd favourite band of the last decade, "Days Like Television" posts are built around video clips. Usually a music video by a local band and bonus clip of cat related cuteness.
Titled after the very sorely missed Mae Shi, "We do this all the time" posts are always just photos, generally snapped at gigs I've played or danced at.
Sometimes, on a Friday, I'm lucky enough to be able to share a mix made by myself or one of the awesome local DJs in our community. It's not the namesake of this series, but let me take this opportunity to again share my favourite mix that fell under "Free Mix Friday" over the past year:
The fuel that drives this blog is the sheer amount of awesome little events people put together in Pretoria and Joburg week to week. From intimate Sshhh acoustic shows to out of control KRNGY freak-outs to sold out Griet dance parties, every week there's always at least one awesome show to be featured in "You Are Invited".
One of my first posts on this blog was me saying how I was obsessed with a music video by a UK band called Johnny Foreigner. Little I know that in a month I'd be flown to London, get to see the band live and become friends with the ghosts. And while the experience of befriending one of my favourite bands was one of the most exciting things ever, what grew out of that has been one of the most rewarding thing I've ever been involved in.
In February last year I joined the band, playing visuals on a 5 date South African tour which was later documented in pretty ridiculous detail across the 40 part "We Pray for Moments like this" series.
Later on in the year we were re-united, playing 16 shows across the US in support of one of our favourite acts, Los Campesinos. So far I've done a super-crap job of blogging about our adventures through The States, but I have tons of photos and stories to share in the "Foreigner's in America" series.
In their own words Sad Birthdays is an "Independent music blog based in Jol-hannesburg, South Africa ".
There's not really much that needs to be said beyond that. It is worth noting what a rarity this is for our little part of the world. You only need to spend a minute of Hypemachine to see there are litrally thousands of kids in first world countries writing music blogs. Here in Johannesburg however (as far as I've seen) Sad Birthday's is the first of it's kind.
