It's My Kind of Scene: April 2017

Tuesday 11 April 2017

Will You Make It In The End, Through All The Twists And Bends?

SOMETIMES DREAMS COME TRUE

by Matt Bond

The first assignment I ever had to do in high school was my favourite. It was for music and it was super simple. Pick your favourite singer or band and make a poster for them. Since it was an all boys school and the year was 2000, there were a lot of Limp Bizkit posters (some would say too many Limp Bizkit posters), plenty of Eminem tributes and a whole bunch of Oasis ones. Notably, there was also a lovely 'Brittany Spears' poster. The spelling still makes me smile, but that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about twelve year old me and the band that I chose to make a poster for... Killing Heidi.

Apparently it's around the age of twelve that you start to really focus on the type of music that you're going to love. And Killing Heidi were the first band that I really, really loved. Fronted by siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper, Killing Heidi stepped into the mainstream in 1999 with the singles 'Weir' and 'Mascara', the latter of which would go all the way to #1 on the ARIA Charts. Like the rest of Australia, I couldn't get enough of their debut album Reflector. It came fully stocked with rock anthems that were made to be sung along to and would walk away with Album of the Year honours at the ARIA Awards. Now that Reflector is finally digitally available, I got myself a copy a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it all over again. If you want to recapture those angsty teenage vibes of days gone by, I suggest giving it a listen. You'll thank me after a good scream-along to 'Superman/Supergirl' and 'Live Without It'.

Killing Heidi would go on to release two more albums; the criminally underrated Present in 2002 and their self-titled third album in 2004. Present was the first album I bought with my own money. The many listens in the years since means it was money well spent. Sadly the band would go on a lengthy hiatus before I ever managed to see them live. Ella and Jesse would go on to work as a duo under the name The Verses, with Ella releasing her brilliant solo album In Tongues in 2014. Two EP's would follow before something truly awesome happened last year. Killing Heidi started doing some reunion shows. And then last month it was announced that they would be doing a full tour, with a stop in Brisbane on June 10 at The Tivoli. Because sometimes dreams come true and I'll finally be able to tick Killing Heidi off my musical bucket list.

To be honest with you, my poster was pretty crappy. But it came from a place of love and I'm pretty sure I got to stand in front of a bunch of boys I didn't know and tell them how much I loved Killing Heidi for a couple of minutes and I'm still doing that so not much has changed and I don't really know where I'm going with this now, but... there are still tickets available for the Killing Heidi shows. And if you haven't picked up some tickets yet, now is the time to do it. Right here - at the Live Nation site. If you're in Brisbane and going along to the show, look out for me. I'll be screaming along to 'Mascara' about how just wearing black won't take care of that and if I hear 'Outside of Me' I might cry because that was legit my favourite song of ever for a long time when I was able to rank music like that.

Will you fulfill all your dreams? It's apparently not as easy as it seems... but for one night, June 10, all of my dreams will be coming true. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday 4 April 2017

Little Mix Are The Greatest Thing To Ever Happen... Ever

...But Seriously, Little Mix Are Pretty Great

by Matt Bond

You may or may not have noticed that we've been even slacker than usual with posting content on here. Sure, we used to show up a couple of times a month last year with reviews and countdowns and all of that fun stuff, but that was then and this is now and now? Now we take three months off and gallivant around the world, living it up on our private yacht with our celebrity friends like Radiohead and... and... okay I can't keep up this ridiculous charade. We got busy alright.

But how have YOU been? What music have you been listening to and loving in 2017? Yes. Yes. Excellent. Yes. That's great, I'm going to stop you there so we can talk about Little Mix and my obsession with them the past three months. Yeah, this is what happens when I stop blogging. I do crazy things like listen to commercial radio and fall in love with British girl groups. Okay, British girl group. Singular. The only one you or I need. They're now the most successful U.K. girl group since the Spice Girls and when they're throwing out banger after banger (plural = bangerz with a 'z') it's easy to understand why.

Little Mix is made up of Jade, Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jesy. One of them dated that Zayn fella. I believe they were on the U.K. X-Factor and are the only group to have won it. I'm not sure if Jesy is pronounced Jessie or Jezy, but it's not important. What is important is that these ladies can sing, they deliver pop smash after pop smash and they seem to have a whole lot of fun doing it. It feels like Little Mix have snuck up on a few unsuspecting music fans over the past year, because the more I sheepishly admit to friends that I harbour these strange, new feelings for their music, the more I'm getting the same thing back.

Did I mention they can all sing? Have you heard 'Secret Love Song pt. 2.'? Only one listen and you'll also be wondering why you can't hold (?) in the street or kiss (?) on the daaaancefloor. You'll wish that it could be like that, why can't it be like that and oh god what is wrong with me? They're like an infection. A super catchy infection that you can't get rid of and it's taking over and I'm just going to get a quick fix and listen to 'Shout Out to My Ex'. I don't even care that it sounds far too similar to G.R.L's 'Ugly Heart' for its own good. It's a damn anthem, you hear?

Okay, now that what little music credibility I had left has been destroyed... let's pretend this never happened and move on with our lives. Just kidding. It's healthy to enjoy all different types of music. And we've all got some 'guilty pleasures' that don't actually make us feel guilty at all. For me, right now, it's Little Mix. Who's it going to be tomorrow? Well... probably Little Mix. But after that, who knows? It will probably still be Little Mix. Ooookay gotta go. Bye.