Nervous Jerk

The Fold by Nathan Gray

2007-07-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Melbourne visual and sound artist Nathan Gray's show The Fold opens at Joint Hassles this Friday 6pm-8pm.

Gray gives an interesting background to the work exhibiting:

"The show was initially intended to be my own version of a museum exhibit. I went to the Osaka Museum of Ethnology recently and was blown away. All the best parts of all the cultures of the world were mixed together, masks costumes musical instruments weapons and rituals. It was a completely different approach to a contemporary Australian museum. I tried to recreate some of the energy of this place by making my own masks and tools, but instead of being in some way ethnological, I realized how much I was being influenced by album covers and band posters. I guess this is my culture.

The work is a collection of collages. The exhibition is a (very) abstract representation of a fictional neolithic village with shelter, tools, musical instruments, masks and decorations all made from paper that I've hand inked dyed, marbled or screen printed. As always it deals with my continued investigations into display and composition, the psychedelic and unseen, music energy and colour."

Much of the mentioned work will be reproduced in the artwork of our forthcoming compilation E.S.P. We highly recommend you see and appreciate it in its original and intended form. Also, check the Joint Hassles blog for a three week calender of free-form live performance.

Robert Scott: Rob Roy 25/07/07

2007-07-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

Our buddies at Switchblade Sisters proudly present Robert Scott's only Melbourne headline show on Wednesday 25 July at the Rob Roy. This New Zealand icon earned his stripes playing bass in Flying Nun's original breakthrough band The Clean from 1980 to present and is also the mastermind behind double-decade running jangle pop heavyweights The Bats. Expect material from an influential catalogue accumulated over twenty years. Scott will be accompanied by Mel from the Clientele on violin along with some very special guests. Support from Batrider duo and Hand Hell. Tickets $10 on the door.

Noise In My Head: Balearic James live mix

2007-07-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

Tune into Noise In My Head (Sunday 10pm-Midnight 3RRR) this week for a live mix from Balearic James AKA Misha Hollenback of P.A.M fame. Be prepared for a cosmic journey with heaps of head nodding. Oddities, space disco, prog and deep minimalist sounds. P.A.M are soon due to issue a mixtape of Balearic James' collaborative set with Belgian holmes 2 Many DJ's. Watch the skies. During the program we'll also be giving away copies of Deerhunter's latest - Crypograms.

Melbourne listeners can tune in to the 102.7 FM frequency while foreigners can catch the live stream at Triple R.

UPDATE: **Balearic James/Misha Hollenback's journey into the cosmic vortex**

zenomon - oh nandu, what we've done
rainer bloss/klaus schulze - road clear
jean-michel jarre - arpegiator
real life games - safari of love
michael bundt - the brain of oskar panizza
kerosene - poco tempo
holger czukay - das massenmedium
fragments - nutbush city limits
electro melody - doctor electro
rinder & lewins - cataclysm
ralph lundsten and the andromeda all stars - horrorscope
ralph lundsten and the andromeda all stars - discophenia
doris nelson - personal computer

An hour and a half without back announcements - too spaced to vocalise!

Always - F.I.S.T. + Top 10

2007-07-06T21:13:00.001-07:00

Future Nervous Jerk act Always (aka Alex Vivian) runs through ten favoured live experiences and dubbed cassette jams running through his walkman phones. Always' forthcoming disc F.I.S.T. is six tracks of intense pulsating, throbbing vocal based techno and consuming organic ethno trance. Mind game dance music and lucid hypnotix. The Sydney based artist also contributes a previously unreleased archival track to our soon-to-be-released compilation E.S.P.

1. Liquid Sky, Soundtrack - Slava Tsukerman, Brenda I. Hutchinson, Clive Smith
Totally dramatic, repetetive and over the top adaptations of classical-esque pieces made with synthesisers and other assorted electronic equipment. Released 1982, it is the score for the film Liquid Sky.

2.TITS/Leopard Leg, Split LP (Upset the Rhthym)
I had the lucky opportunity to join T.I.T.S. for a couple of dates on their UK tour and was totally obsessed with their performance. Guitars sounding inspired by metal and doom and totally witch like. Leopard Leg the 10-piece free noise drum group from Brighton/London recorded their side of the split record in a field. Their shows are totally improvised and range from group singing, singing tubes and heavy drumming, all performed in rounds, growing and growing.

3. Lovely Midget, North Head CD (Family Vineyard)

4. The Judy Experience, Judy is Rising cassette (self-released)
Slowed down + droaned out vocals over sloppy saxaphone and gutair. The Judy Experience played a show in olympia 06 in a parking lot powered from an RV with the whole crowd on shrooms + Judy shirtless playing saxophone. People were flailing around screaming and dancing half naked completely intense and incredible.

5. 1996 Mardi Gras Parade mix cassette
Between all the Olivia + Chaka Khan there are some totally evoking rhythms and loops and tracks that seem to never end. I enjoyed the Hare Krishna dance mix, plus another almost medievil sounding mix that i cant remember who performs. It sounds like black label techno or whatever so I guess it doesnt matter.

6. Sharon Cheslow and Elisa Ambrogio live at Vice Cooler's Birthday show- 21 Grand. Oakland, CA July 15, 2006

7. Suckdog, Tour D'lost Kittens VIDEO
I found this VHS at this punk moviestore in SFcisco. Intense documentation of the Suckdog opera early nineties, super bad quality which gives a totally creepy feeling. Some of the footage I recognised from the Suckumentary DVD.

8. Mirror/Dash live at Vice Cooler's Birthday Show - 21 Grand. Oakland, CA July 15, 2006
Thurston Moore + Kim Gordon doing the Mirror/Dash, Coincidently I also played on the same bill which was totally exciting. I've never even seen Sonic Youth live, but this show was totally sweet. Sloppy but together guitars, drumming hands, so incredible. YouTube footage.

9. Yoshimi, TWO 7" (Ecstatic Peace)

10. Coca Cola ZERO advertisment
2 great hits 1 great taste. Super bad imagery but I like the ideas behind the music that sounds mainly vocal based. Obviously created by a computer it employed the same kind of ideas I use with my music, collecting and collating vocal tracks to create a pattern and new rhythm.

Dead Farmers 7"

2007-07-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Sydney space punk unit Dead Farmers deliver their debut 7" platter unintentionally echoing the pioneering brillance of Simply Saucer. A-side Violence leaves the hippy and noodling side of prog at home with a hard and forceful fist to the head. "I dont want to hurt you, you hurt me". How can a song this brutal be so sympathetic? The mid-song breakdown fools you to think its transforming into a handclapping hipshaker before taking an intergalactic flight. Drummer Arthur Chau bangs up a vicious frenzy with what almost sounds like three arms (!!!). Flipside opener The Suns of Thunder finds these starved post-apocalyptic Dead Farmers savaging for food while a constant squall of noise buzzes in their ears from all the wreckage. With screeching fuzzed out guitar work that takes a page straight outta Fun House. Barely having a chance to ring out, Run kicks in like primitive japanese garage before these minute attention spans switch off into a final brief stoner jam sesh. Cool. The 7" was pressed by Eddy Current's own magic hands for his new imprint - the three bid operation AARGHT! Records.

Everything Forever

2007-07-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Click the flyer for a closer squiz of the deets. This Friday afternoon 44 x B&W photographs from 9 x Melbourne based artists are fixed to the walls of Nervous Jerk's concrete backyard for your viewing. See through the eyes of show currator and Serps Press publisher Thomas Jeppe, Note To Self jeans-make Max Olijnyk, Eddy Current Suppression Ring skinsman Danny Young, NJ logo hand Tristan Ceddia and hella talented friends Chris Day, Tim Hillier, Ben Lichtenstein, Kate Moss and Denny Stocks.

Noise In My Head

2007-07-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Nervous Jerk's Michael K presents Noise In My Head, a weekly radio show on Melbourne community broadcaster 3RRR which airs every Sunday 10pm-midnight. Far from the usual ill-prepared program, last Sunday's episode transmitted variations of trance music, raga inbedded pop and spiritual psychedelica challenging audiences' mental capacity and ultimately leaving them hypnotised and disorientated. HIGHlights included the 23 minutes Boredom jam that lost time! Tune in next week and set your mind free. Playlist below.

2nd July 2007

eddy current suppression ring - noise in my head
glass candy - miss broadway (belle epoque)
cluster - heisse lippen
brian eno & david byrne - very, very hungry
black dice - drool
fabulous diamonds - 2:54
brian eno - everything merges with the night
spacemen 3 - feels so good
the velvet underground - jesus
tim hardin - if i was a carpenter
first nation - female trance
alice coltrane - sivaya
syreeta - black maybe
boredoms - seadrum
sven libaek - island of birds
max roach - driva man
trees community - raga
the monkees - can you dig it
panda bear - take pills
scott walker - it's raining today
bjork - i see who you are
dead farmers - violence
simply saucer - electro rock