The Inside Line

So I’m going to make more of an effort to get my tax and royalties paperwork done before the end of July this year. I get pretty slack when it comes to doing paperwork. Hell, I’ve been slack at a lot of things this year. But lets look at what I have been doing for the past six months when I could have been blogging.

I’ve been working on a bunch of projects in the studio since late last year, and they’ve all been getting me pretty excited.

Enola Fall - I am an Aerial (EP)

This EP was recorded in a studio in Hobart’s northern suburbs late last year, and was released a few months ago. I’ve worked with this band on a few previous recordings (and played in the band for a while as well), so we’ve got a pretty good relationship now, and this EP came together pretty well. I managed to stay awake and see this clip debut on Rage a few weeks ago, which is a nice buzz. Sounded good on the telly, too!

Luca Brasi – Extended Family (LP)

I’ve been working on this record as part of a team with esteemed colleague Nic White (of The Scandal, Ride the Tiger, and Canasta Kids) since the end of 2010. We tracked drums and guitars at Red Planet in Hobart, and brought with us an awesome collection of guitar amps, snare drums and assorted toys.

Bass player and vocalist Tyler was overseas on holiday, so we didn’t finish the record until early in 2011, but the mix is nearly finished, and Nic and I are both getting pretty fucking excited about this one. The album is scheduled for release on the Broken Bones label in September, and doesn’t have a single flat spot. You’ll be singing along with the choruses on this record for all of 2012. Hell, I nearly crashed my bike while I was fist pumping along with the gang vocals.

Luca Brasi “Extended Family” from Broken Bones on Vimeo.

Snert - Snert (EP)

These guys have been around for a while now, and I was pretty excited to be able to work on their debut EP. They had drawn comparisons to some pretty favourable acts, like Betchadupa,  Maritime or early Sebadoh, which have some great sounding records, so I had my work cut out. This one was cut at Red Planet in Hobart, with the finishing touches added at my crusty little room under the shadow of Mount Wellington (actually, I’m in a valley, so I’m pretty much shadowed on all four sides by various hills and things).

The EP was released at the start of 2011. The band have taken a break while some of the guys go honeymooning and the like, but they’ll be back toward the end of the year with any luck. Check out their Unearthed page.

Face the Fiasco – The Air we Breathe/Proudly Standing (Double A-side)

Formerly going under the moniker Betmax, Face the Fiasco went back to basics and wrote a new bunch of songs before hitting the pubs of Hobart again. I had just finished working with the bass player Cam with his other band Snert (see above), and I play in Ride the Tiger with the amazingly tight and mohawked drummer Jay (look out for an upcoming stubbie cooler featuring his cockateeled block), but it was the first chance I’d had to work in the studio with singer and songwriter Kenny. We recorded drums at Andrew Emery’s Pandemonium studio in Hobart’s northern suburbs and then finished off at my place.

Here are the tracks to listen to on Face the Fiasco’s MySpace.

“What are you guys doing tonight?”

“Nothing much. Why’s that?”

“I’ve got a six pack of stout, some Kung Fu movies and a jar of Sno-Seal.”

“Um. Okay. What for?”

“You guys are gonna dread up my hair.”

“…”

“If that’s cool.”

About three hours later, I had a tangled, waxy mess on my head, and a tender scalp. I can’t think of a better way to describe it. ‘Tender’ sounds a bit understated though. It fucken hurt. Like they’d been sticking pins into it all night. Pins aside, I’m glad I got friends like Matt and Caroline that would actually sit there for three hours of messy tedium and do that for me (and Bernie and Chooka helped as well I think). It almost feel rude that now, ten years later, I’m cutting these dreadlocks off.

So far I’ve raised about $3500 for Cancer Council Tasmania, and I’ve been blown away by the generosity of everyone. Fittingly almost, the donation that took me past the $2500 target was from Tasmanian Minister for Health Lara Giddings. Sadly, she couldn’t make it along to cut the ceremonial first lock, but if I were her, I’m not sure I’d want to touch them either. There’s a lot of Sno-Seal in there. I owe a big thanks to Mel at Vanadium Hair as well, for volunteering to do the cut for charity.

With about twenty-four hours left to go, I’m past the anxiety stage, and am now thinking of all the things I will be able to do tomorrow.

Things I can do without dreadlocks:

• Dry my hair in under twelve hours
• Wear a variety of hats
• Run my fingers through my hair
• Sit with my head actually resting on the headrest
• Hit my head on things and actually have it hurt (not such a good thing, this one)
• Go to the pub without being greeted with “aaayyy Jimmmayyy!” (see Jimmy)
• Live harassment free from the shit-stirring likes of Sean Fennessey

Any other suggestions?

Linc

I’ve been tossing this idea around for a while now, but it’s starting to take shape. I know a lot of you have been asking for one for a while, so I’m finally going to record a solo album. Real solo solo this time, with plenty of just me and the guitar, with a few friends helping out here and there. Not entirely sure if it’s going to be a full length album or a long EP yet, so that’s still up in the air, but I’ll look into getting it done in the second half of the year.

There are a few definite tracks already: Hope & Crown will feature, and so will a track I learned from an old busker in Victoria, plus a piano ballad and one of the covers I’ve been tossing around live. If you’ve got any requests of songs to stick on the album, drop a comment and I’ll see how it’ll fit.

Dear friend FMJ has started sketching out some ideas for an album cover, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that comes up. You can see some of her other stuff here.

I’ll be coming to Brisbane next month to play a show at the Troubadour with Ben Salter (The Gin Club, Giants of Science, et al), so come along if you’re up that way. Thursday June 10th, the Troub, with Ben Salter and Tash Parker.

In the meantime, check out the latest on my other band Ride the Tiger. (MySpace here).

Catch you all later,

Linc

I haven’t got around to blogging much lately, but there was just no way I could not tell you all this one.

I’ll set the scene: I was playing a solo show on a hot and humid Hobart night just a few days back. It had been a long day; I had already played an afternoon gig in the sun and I was pretty ruined, but I pulled myself up and on to the stage where two other punks had just finished playing a couple of acoustic sets.

The weird thing is that no matter how shit I feel, it disappears when I start playing a good show, and this one had started well. Halfway through the first track — a cover of Uncle Tupelo’s ‘Still be around’ — I take a quick breath between words and suck out of the microphone a mouthful of what I could only distinguish as seawater. I was more surprised than anything else, not only by the fact that I had a gob full of juice, but that there could be seawater in the microphone.

Before I had time to think about it more, I started to get ready to sing the next line and instinctively swallowed. The instant it went down I thought of Kenny and Pat, the two preceeding sweaty punk rock singers, and realised I had just drank two hours’ worth of their fruitiest spit and sweat.

I drank fucking sweat.

I once knew a girl who liked to pretend her life was a TV show, and all her friends were bit players. I was an A-list friend for a while, but eventually got written off the series. This is an alternative-ending version of the song, which I rewrote specially for my sister’s wedding. I didn’t want to post the video before the wedding, so now that the presents have been opened and the hangover’s almost gone, here it is. Linc.

Apologies that the embedder isn’t working, but here’s the link.
Reruns (apologies to Christina)

To begin with, I was in awe of them. Their daughter looked to be no more than four, and life still seemed to be an adventure for all three of them as they explored the markets in the sun, each with the same wide-eyed fascination as the others.

He had honeyed hair hanging thinly down to his unshaven chin that framed a contradiction of an intelligent gaze and a dumb smile, and he stood casually, leaning back on a crooked hip so that his back leg took most of the weight of his body, and his arms hung down behind his arse. The back of his open jacket would have been swinging gently in the breeze had it not been such a still day.

She, in her thirties, dressed ten years younger and looked all the better for it. The remainder of her gloss-brown hair not cut in a severe line across her brow was collected loosely behind her head and held there by an oversized toothed hairclip. For the entire duration of the time I watched them, I remained undecided as to whether her face was intriguingly cute or distortedly odd.  She had the air of someone who liked to tell people that she worked in advertising, despite being merely a half truth given that she was the firm’s accounts clerk. He was definitely an architect.

The daughter sat like a typical girl her age, straight backed and legs outstretched along the ground at forty-five degrees, bright red kicks punctuating the lines of the angle. Her hair was dark and cut like her mother’s, except for the two loose pigtails that hung unevenly on either side, and her cheeks had the strawberry complexion of someone whose last batch of tears had only recently dried. The scowl did not move from her face, nor did her gaze shift from her parents’ as she stood up. She stretched her top down to cover the bottom of her puppyfat belly and wobbled uneasily before regaining her upright balance. Then she began walking uphill away from the crowded market.

The architect and the accounts clerk simply continued with their wide-eyed fascinations and their dumb smiles as they called after the girl. From behind the glass of the window I heard nothing above the thick hiss of the coffee machine, clinking of crockery and the prickly hum of a dozen conversations, but their faces showed no authority, and their chests and necks showed no sign of volume or projection. The daughter, ignoring them, simply continued along her uphill trajectory until finally, the accounts clerk sprung forth, handing the architect her latte and handbag, and vanished out of sight to the right of my window.

He remained where he stood, juggling the girl’s red parka, two coffees and a handbag, but as his balance shifted forward to his front foot, his mouth changed shape to form an O, and his eyebrows rose sharply. He fumbled to regain his grip on the parka that had become unbalanced and was slipping out of his grasp, and in doing so, tipped one of the two coffees at such an angle that its contents were emptied all over the parka, handbag and footpath, while somehow keeping the now-reclining glass resting on the saucer. Fearing that he might overcompensate and lose the second coffee, he froze, the O still on his lips.

The accounts clerk returned to the frame carrying the girl under her arm at an awkward angle before returning her to the same forty-five-degree sprawl. The architect and the clerk argued briefly over who should drink the remaining coffee, gesturing theatrically – no, it’s my fault; it’s okay, I don’t need one anyway; no you go; no you go; no really – but their expressions did not alter from dumb fascination, which in the end, seemed to be less the look of unbridled love and unwavering joy, and more the look of two fumbling adolescents with a new puppy they had just brought home from the pound.

So I went and bought a shitty webcam so I could maybe show you some songs I’ve been playing with for a while. This is a track called Still Be Around by Uncle Tupelo that I play live sometimes. I’ll upload some more over the coming weeks as I get a better idea of how the piece of crap works.

Thanks to anyone that ended up logging on to vote (or, thanks to those people that recognised my name when logging on to vote for some other category, which is much more likely) for this year’s Amplified Tasmanian Music Awards. We took home the Best Country/Roots (or Best Root as we’ve started calling it), Best Solo Act, and Best Songwriter – all three categories we’d been nominated for in the public voting categories.

Special congratulations to our wonderful management team, Julian and Helen at Perfect Crime, for taking out best management. I can safely say that they put a lot more work into things than I do. Oops.

Congratulations to all the other winners as well, especially to Joe and Enola Fall (Most Popular Group), The Scientists of Modern Music (Artist of the Year), and The Brisbane Hotel (Most Supportive Venue, Outstanding Contribution to Original Music).\

Gigs:

Sunday 9th August – The Alley Cat, Hobart
Linc solo with Hayley Couper (4pm start)

Sunday 6th September – Bar Open, Fitzroy
Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders, with the Mike Meston Band, and Emily May & the Alarm Bells.

Friday 11th September – The Penny Black, Brunswick
Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders, with the Mike Meston Band

Friday 2nd October – Republic Bar, Hobart
Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders, with Jen Cloher

Saturday 3rd October – Hotel New York, Launceston
Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders, with Jen Cloher

It’s always nice recognition to be nominated for awards, even if it means dealing with the inevitable shit fight that goes on in a small town. The 2009 Amplified Awards are upon us, and Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders have been nominated for a couple of gongs.

Artist of the Year is a nice one to be in the running for, and it’s voted on by an industry panel, so it’s more like the Oscars than the Logies. However, I’m pretty sure The Scientists of Modern Music are at the top of the pool table.

Now here’s where it gets tricky. There are a few categories that are open to the public to vote. I’ve been inundated with spam from people asking me to vote for them this year, most commonly via facebook, even in categories where The Insiders are sharing the shortlist, which is more than a little cheeky. So I’m going to be completely transparent here and say Sure, I’d love you to vote for us, and I’m going to give you the link, but really, it’s not a big deal, so if you can be arsed clicking the link, vote for whoever you think is good.

2009 nominations – Lincoln le Fevre & the Insiders:

• Best Solo Act
• Best Songwriter
• Best Blues/Roots

So click here to see the voting shortlist.

Amplified Gigs:

As part of the week’s festivities, we’ll be playing a few shows:

Friday 17th July - Hobart Mall (1pm)
Live on the Edge - Broadcasting Live on Edge Radio

Friday 17th July – The Brisbane Hotel (9pm)
Let’s Tear this Fucking State Apart – three stages, all night party

Saturday 18th July - The Republic Bar (9pm)
Roots Up! - Four acts of blues and roots, til late.

We got a few gigs coming up this month, starting with a solo gig this Saturday night, supporting Evan Dando (of The Lemonheads), and with special guest James Dilger (Sole Stickers, The Reactions). I’m a massive fanboy of Dando’s, so I couldn’t be more excited about getting to share the stage with him. Show starts at 10pm at the Republic Bar.

To top that, the next week features a full Lincoln & the Insiders show with young Texan Ben Kweller, also at the Republic Bar. Again, I’m a massive fanboy. As a side note, this will be the Insiders only Hobart show for a while.

Launceston fans, we’re finally coming up to play another show for you. This time on the 18th of April at the Nothern Club with Melbourne swagger rockers The Vandas, and again with James Dilger’s new band Sole Stickers.

In dot point form:

Saturday 4th April
Evan Dando, Linc, James Dilger – Republic Bar, North Hobart (tickets)

Wednesday 15th April
Ben Kweller, Lincoln & the Insiders – Republic Bar, North Hobart (tickets)

Saturday 18th April
The Vandas, Lincoln & the Insiders, Sole Stickers – Hotel New York, Launceston.

Cheers everyone.

See you at a show, and stay tuned.

Linc