Hey look, according to the official North Korean news, Kim Jong Il knew how to turn on a light for chickens!

Hey and for bonus news, a fire happened somewhere in Australia.

Incredible news reporting.

We have some nice reviews of the bands CD's in German over at justforkicks.de. Here's the english translation:

Bird's Robe Records: Toehider are the greatest rock band ever known!

With this self-confident statement and a big wink, bandleader, singer and guitarist Mike Mills describes his progressive-rock-band from Melbourne / Australia (Australia again?).

One probably has to imagine Mills as creative-insane. Who else would have the idea to record and release a full EP every month, in one year? These 12 EPs have in the meantime been distributed to the people on 2 CDs, but Mills wants more. With their debut-album, To Hide Her, (attention word-joke), Toehider publish their idea of timely progressive rock music. How it sounds? Eclectic, multi-layered, compact, different and very very happy. The boys are completely nuts, but are apparently in charge of - and furiously engaged with their instruments.

Style-limits are foreign to them, the majority of the songs are distributed - to simplify it - on furious hard-rock tracks with a Umphrey's McGee style magic, and more quiet, partly acoustic titles.

Apart from the instrumental cabinet-pieces, Mike Mills voice excites... ok, its high, but strong, secure and variable he sings his parts. The partly detailed vocal-arrangements (The Most Popular Girl In School - do I hear some Queen?) show class, and sing-writing talent. But fun is important to Mills - permanent-depressive spherical music is not his thing. Rock needs to be fun, and if it's done like Toehider, the listener will have a great time for sure. Currently the boys are on Australia Tour with Unitopa.



"To Hide Her" album review

This Australian formation seems crazy somehow, but interesting. The first track sounds like something out of a musical or cheap teen-film, in which the narrator reveals his love to the one he adores. But she's together with another guy, who in his eyes, is a total idiot. Funny, but believable.

The second song is something like a single album, and glam-rock influence are seen. This band, for sure has heard of "the darkness" or "queen", cause these compositions could without hesitation pass as a missing jewel of the brits. Even the choir-pieces can't be overheard, adding to the high pitch voice of band-leader Mike Mills.

It gets a bit more melodious with Daddy Issues, the song convinces with its nice piano-arrangements in the verse. The short intermezzo In this Time is flirting with folky motives.

The title-track is a driving Hard Rocker. Singer Mike Mills, proofs again what a great voice he has.
There's a ghost in the lake, too carries elements of melodious Hard Rock. Giants who walk with man convinces with a great chorus. The gemutlich Fireside unites bon-fire feeling with folk-songs. And "Everybody knows Amy", manages to trump with its creative, slightly-gone-mad lyrics.

Only the almost 7minute-long slightly-psychadelic noise-background at the end, leaves me questioning.

Summary: without doubt, Toehider's debut-album delivered an entertaining, dynamic Indie-album. Without any cliches, this slightly warped, but memorable album is fun listening to. (D. Eggenberger)

Adelaide guitarist extraordinare Cam Blokland is the man! In In 2010 he did a gig where he played the ENTIRETY of Surfing With the Alien... check out the highlights here:



Pretty awesome huh?

So guess what he's going to be doing this year??

Covering the ENTIRE ALBUM of Passion and Warfare!!!

If there's one guy who will pull it off it's Cam... so stay tuned!

BTW I've also added a page about instrumental rock and metal theater.

New song! I did everything from 1:35 -> 2:20 !

Lyrics and listening right here:

http://www.toehider.com/1in1/?p=113

Here's Mike recording the vocs (starts 1 min in):



And me recording my part (about 5 mins in):



Joe Satriani was my favourite guitarist for about 10 years. Obviously.

I am starting to think that Stephen Merchant and I should be friends, but the problem is that we have too much in common.

- We have the same birthday. This would get confusing, we'd have to share the same birthday party. We'd both be trying to take the limelight, and people wouldn't be sure who to pay the most attention to. I think of course it should be me, and Steve would think the same thing, so the night would have a continual undercurrent of uneasiness that wouldn't make anyone happy.

- We are both tall skinny ectomorphs. Ok, this might actually help both of us. When standing next to each other people might start to think that being tall and skinny is the way that normal people should be. But then I'd probably get annoyed that Steve is taller than me, and he'd get annoyed that I'm shorter than him, and no-one would be happy.



- We are both allergic to dust and cat hair. If you got us both into a dusty room with a few moggies we'd be effectively useless. And we'd both resent the other person for it.

- We both agree that the "lord of the rings" movies make no sense. If you got us together talking about our mutual distaste for these movies then no-one else could ever fit a word in. We'd probably disagree with each other about how much the other person hates each movie.

- We have both read the first 20 pages of "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". I read the first 10 pages at my parents one night and got bored, Steve read the first 20 pages trying to impress a lady. Our mutual distate at each other's failure to follow through on our commitment to read a philosophical book would be not a lot of fun.

- We both did university radio. My love of 80's guitar metal and Steve's love of hip hop and pop would definitely clash. We wouldn't really agree on any kind of music that is "good" and it would dissolve into another argument.

Oh well.

The song "Crushing Day" from Satriani's "Surfing with the album" has one of his most difficult solos. So difficult in fact that he can't really play it live, he now sooks out and has to sit down on a chair to nail it.

Well, my buddy Cam Blokland has recorded a video showing his approach to learning this solo. It's a two parter and has lots of valuable info. And yes, he can play the solo standing up. Live.

I think that Australia really needs to invest in a high speed rail linking Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

The existing rail services between Australia's major cities are slow, infrequent, and can be more expensive than air travel!

The situation at the moment at Melbourne airport is ridiculous - there is no train to and from the airport, the car park is the largest car park in the southern hemiphere and super expensive, and taxi's are crazy expensive.

High-speed rail is being rolled out in countries across Europe, the US and Asia as a way to link up major cities, reduce congestion and battle pollution. I was recently in China and went on the train from shanghai airport to shanghai, and it was incredible. I've also been on the bullet train in Japan, and it's a fantastic way to travel. Super fast, safe & quick!

What do you think?

We're playing at the Ultimate Drummers Weekend 2011 ! Here's the info for Toehider.

The best thing about this gig is that I'll be able to make a zillion mistakes and no-one will notice.

(Apologies but the joke just can't not be made).

Ok ok, I admit it. In 1915 when I was a military prisoner, my guard George Stevens was killed while I was being transported from Melbourne to a Bendigo camp. It wasn't my fault he wanted to go and play poker! I even told him to lay off the booze! But it wasn't my fault!

The artistic wizard Salty has written a post on his website titled Do Words Offend You? I think he asked some great questions, so I'm going to do my best to answer them here.

"When and how do people actually become conditioned to be offended by certain words?"

It's a great question. I can only answer from personal experience, and I can say that in the few years after I became a christian, somehow it hurt me to hear certain words! It's the most bizarre thing you can imagine. I don't understand it myself. All I know is that whenever I hear someone swearing it makes me wince. Similar to seeing someone hurt themselves. It's something that gradually happened over time, so gradually I barely even noticed it.

It's not like someone taught me to be like this - after all even if you did tell someone "you should be offended by this and feel a certain way when I say these words" - it wouldn't work. You can't teach someone to be like that.



Did I learn this at school? I don't think so... my high school friends tell me that I used to swear like a trooper. We all did. Did I learn it at home? Possibly. I was definitely taught not to swear - but really that just made it even more enjoyable. Maybe my sensitivity to swearing has finally burst into my conciousness after 25 years of swimming around subconciously in my brain as a vague "actually you're disappointing your parents" feeling. I dunno.

I have heard lots of people saying that "offence to swearing will dissappear over time", but based on my own experience I don't think this will happen. Some people seem to think that 100 years ago "people swore less" but I have yet to see any proof of that. Reading books set during world war 2 there was definitely no lack of swearing!

I am in a peculiar situation myself at work, where I am affected by swearing but lots of the people swear. People are actually really good about it - if you let them know that you don't like it, they genuinely make the effort to stop, and I love it when they do. What's difficult is not coming across with a "holier than thou" attitude. Asking someone to not swear can very easily come across as "hey, I don't swear, I'm better than you, at least you could try to stop swearing when you're around me, because hey, I'm awesome, and you're an uncivilised moron who can't express themselves properly. I'm also more attractive".

I can also imagine that from the other person's point of view it would be infuriating! Why would these people care about certain words? Why does a letter in one spot make such a difference to these ficking idiots? How dare they impose on me their own world view of what's right or wrong and force me to do it?

I don't expect people to understand, and nor do I expect them to stop swearing. How can I expect someone else to do what they don't understand or agree with? All I can do is ask them (if they wouldn't mind) to not swear when they are around me, and if they are reasonably mature and have learnt to see things from someone elses point of view (age helps here) then they normally give it a go. If not, then there's nothing I can do, and I can't blame them for it. I won't hold it against them or think any less of them.

This is an interesting topic for me because I play in a band. I feel that my integrity is weakened by playing with groups that swear all the time. Not the best reflection on me and makes me look like a hypocrite! I have certainly played in other bands that sang about all manner of things that I wasn't happy with - and I made the right decision to quit. But really, if someone (that I know) is swearing, it's not my fault. I've said all I can and from then on that's their responsibility. I don't endorse it, I didn't record it. It's a balancing act I guess, and if things changed then I'd have to reconsider my situation.

What I find funny though is when people say "Jesus" as an exclaimation, and then find out I'm a christian. Mostly they get a surprise.. and then apologise! But it always surprises me that they are surprised! Personally I find people shouting "Jesus" as an insult so much more offensive than anything else, but I've gotten used to people not noticing, caring or even thinking about it. A shame I guess.

Oh and my the way, I still swear. I'm not perfect. I enjoy it. Do I think God wants me to swear? No I don't. Why? I have no idea, but I have learnt that God loves us and knows what's best for us (try getting your head around that) - and I've learn to trust that he knows what he's doing. I guess that if you can say that there is a possibility that a moral God might exist, finding offence at swearing isn't quite so bizarre.