even

Dec 20 2011

This will be the last of my retro blog posts about Australian, indie bands for the year.

I nearly stopped after the Glide post, but decided to press on to get the Snout one up and also this one about Even, because of this week’s Xmas Even gigs.

I’ve written about Even before. They are a band I have been into since their first EP came out, at about the time this article appeared. It was in the same issue as the Glide interview, which dates it in the first half of 1995. Even are still going strong, with their sixth studio album of 60’s drenched, power pop, being released recently and available through their website. In addition, many of their records are available digitally, at your favourite download store.

Even’s Last.fm profile

Even’s website

My friend Al did the interview and the write up, but I was there at the Black Cat café on Brunswick St, during the interview and I took the photo that you can see below. It was the afternoon of launch gig for the In Stereo EP; their first record.

I am going to put up some more retro articles in 2012, including Rail, The Steinbecks, Snout – talking about pinball, The Meanies and You Am I. It won’t just be old school stuff though; I will be blogging about some more recent bands, as well 🙂

Happy Festivus.

Even

An Interview with Ashley Naylor from top Melbourne “groop” Even. By Al Marshall.

Ash Naylor. Fitzroy 1995

If you’ve seen power pop trio Even live, then you’ll know Ashley’s manic guitar wrestles demand your attention. If you’ve heard “24 hour cynic”, the four minute chunk of minor key magic that leads off Even’s debut EP, you’ll know Even demand your attention. If you’ve seen their EP In Stereo gracing CD racks, well it’s equally attention grabbing. So meeting Ash, the mastermind behind this barrage of in-your-faceness, was something of a revelation he’s a pretty regular, twenty-something, bashful sorta guy…

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Tagged blast, blast! magazine, even

Dec 19 2011

Snout — Demolition Men

Hot on the heels of the post regarding Glide, is another one from the archives about a band dear to my heart – Snout. I went to school with Greg who played guitar in Snout and I used to do stuff like go on tour to Adelaide (the glamour!) with them, lugging gear, selling shirts and so on. I also did two pieces on them for my fanzine. The first, you can read below. The other one was about rock music and pinball, which will probably surface on this blog at a later date.

After Snout finished in 2002, Ross went on to release solo albums. Most notably being nominated for the 2008 Australian Music Prize (equivalent to the Mercury or Polaris prizes) for Sympathy for the New World. Ewan drummed with Dan Brodie and the Broken Arrows, amongst others. While Greg put out a hip-hop inspired EP but then retreated from the music world.

This post is timely, as they reformed for a gig at The Tote on Melbourne Cup Day, in November this year, with perennial local favourites, Even. They have been persuaded to play with them again at one of Even’s Christmas gigs on Thursday 22 December at the Phoenix Public House. I’ll be there. I wonder what happened to Ross’ song “Stuntman”?

PS – Guess what? I have an Even archival article too.

PPS – If there are any typos, it’s the OCR software’s fault!

Find a number of Snout music videos here.

SNOUT – DEMOLITION MEN

Ross McLennan and Greg Ng signing CDs at the Big Day Out

There have been some pretty reasonable musical groups that have performed at the Evelyn Hotel over the years. When you get to read this magazine, it will have just been reopened after renovations. Ed speaks to Ross McLennan (bassist, singer and songwriter) who started the demolitions…while on stage.

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Tagged blast, blast! magazine, even, ross mclennan, snout

Nov 23 2008

Video of Even in London

I’ve had this on Youtube for a while but not on here…so here it is, a video I took at Blow Up at the Metro Club, London, May 8 2008. The song is Weather King, from the 1995 album, Less is More

Tagged even

Apr 21 2008

1 Comment

australia, bands, melbourne, music, oxford

Let me tell you about Even

I would like to recommend the music of my friends from Melbourne, Even

Back in the day, I was co-founder of a printed fanzine known as Blast! Magazine. I answered some type of ad that I saw somewhere on the campus of the University of Melbourne, my alma mater and thus I became the music contributing editor and general jack of all trades for this publication.

I learnt a lot by putting out five editions of this fanzine in the couple of years of its existence, including design layout “skills”, image manipulation, marketing and promotion, article and review writing…amongst others. In a way, I wouldn’t be where I am now without Blast!

At this time of my life, I spent a lot of time hanging out with and going to see musical artists of the Australian (and New Zealand) independent variety such as Snout (I was their de facto tour manager once…to Adelaide!!), You Am I, The Fauves, The Steinbacks, Rail and Even. I had a reasonably firm ambition to be involved in the live/recorded music industry in some way.

Therefore one of the activities that enjoyed the most while working on Blast! was writing articles about bands, reviews of their recorded output and organising launch parties/fundraising gigs that involved some of the bands that I wrote about in the pages of the zine.

Even were introduced to my by my friend Greg, a sometime member of the aforementioned Snout. It’s a bit hazy but I think it was at a Student Union night. The photo below is of Ash Naylor, singer and guitarist of Even, taken when I interviewed him at the Black Cat Café, Melbourne the afternoon of the launch gig of their first EP In Stereo at the sadly now defunct Punters Club.

In 2002, Even played some shows in the UK as well as recording some songs that ended up on their Free Kicks album. Ash, Wally and Matt were nocturnally recording tracks in London, going to gigs and generally carousing as far as I can tell.

One of the shows was at the Bullingdon Arms in Oxford. They jumped in a van for the 100km trip up the M40 and arrived in Oxford a little bit fatigued. Luckily for them, I was in tour manager mode for the evening because the time for their set was rapidly approaching but the band were nowhere to be found. I went looking for them and found the trio in their van behind the Tesco supermarket on the Cowley Rd, fast asleep.

How rock is that!?

More after the jump…