The Understudy
I seem to be blogging…tour update (post temporal mid-point) – bne, ntl, syd, cbr
The spurious nature of using airport codes to indicate which Australian cities I’ve visited by tour van has not escaped me. It’s been too long since I’ve updated this blog–let’s call it a hibernation. And now a game: cities in five words or less.
Brisbane – Twenty-five is not too old.
Newcastle – Old friends bring new dress.
Sydney – New friends make fake snow.
Canberra – Hotel bathroom sans smoke alarms.
Stay tuned for Melbourne and Adelaide updates, plus (maybe) a live mp3.
live review snippet from fasterlouder
“Juxtaposing New York (where Lucy lived in 2007) anti-folk with more traditional whimsical indie-pop, Lucy’s exemplary vocal range is the true star of the show, with both full-on Kate Miller-Heidke shrieks and delicate sighs used to glorious effect”
Read the rest of the review here:
East Coast Tour Begins Saturday!
Friends & neighbours,
This Saturday I, along with Pegs, Alex and Jamieson (and the rest of A Disappointing Fireworks Display), will jump in a car and drive about six hours to Canberra for the first show of our East Coast tour. It’s called The Gifted Gibbon Tour, which was a joke (not very funny) Alex made that somehow ended up on our posters. We like it though.
Check back from Saturday for daily photo posts from the first leg of the tour.
Until then, here’s a list of the tour dates (some details have changed a little):
22/11 (Sat) – Canberra – The Phoenix
(w/ The Ellis Collective)
25/11 (Tues) – Melbourne – The Espy
27/11 (Thurs) – Melbourne – The Wesley Anne
(w/ Monty Sparrow)
03/12 (Wed) – Sydney – The Hopetoun
(w/ Richard In Your Mind (solo) + Eush)
04/12 (Thurs) – Newcastle – The Lass O’Gowrie
(w/ Birds&Belles)
10/12 (Wed) – Brisbane – The Troubadour
(w/ Mr Maps + aheadphoneathome)
12/12 (Fri) – Brisbane – The Hangar
19/12 (Fri) – Newcastle – The View Factory
(w/ Lola Flash)
!#@%
I found this in the back of my good friend Shanna’s (from birds&belles) camping renovated Hiace. The top bubble says “Infinite Power” and the bottom bubble “Build Your Own Stunt”. Now try stopping me!
Listen to ABC1233 Interview + ‘Fine Young Folk’ live in studio
1233 interview this afternoon with Carol Duncan @ the ABC studio on Wood St in Newcastle. Carol has the best voice for radio I’ve ever heard. If I could bottle it and drink it, I would.
You can listen to the interview and an acoustic version of ‘Fine Young Folk’ here. Pegs Adams is singing harmonies.
http://www.theunderstudy.com.au/abcinterview.mp3
Afterwards it was cafe helados at Rolador. I found this on the back of the toilet door.
Sometimes I really dig science.
A friendly review in Rave Magazine.
This was lifted from Brisbane’s Rave Magazine.
THE UNDERSTUDY – What Not To Think While In Love
Friday, 17 October 2008
(The Family Flyleaf)
Lo-fi songstress with a strong debut
The Understudy is a female songwriter from Newcastle who has put together an intriguing resume with her first LP. What Not To Think… weaves from healthy, reliable guitar/piano balladry to atmospheric, pseudo-minimalist folk. Opener Last Easy Day puts the Understudy’s vocals immediately at the fore, which works pretty well, because her voice sounds great.
Smoke & Strangers builds around a relationship between the Understudy’s vocals and some DIY-sounding percussion, while the piano introduction to Fine Young Folk sounds suspiciously like it’s been lifted directly from the Sesame Street theme but hey, it IS a great theme song. Figure 8 is backed up by a Matmos-like array of sounds, a wholly interesting and worthwhile approach, and again the Understudy’s voice flourishes placed next to a more interesting range of sounds. The songwriting is solid and so the quality of the record comes down to its execution. Fortunately the Understudy has executed pretty damn well.
MICHAEL PINCOTT
Charge Group, ABC 1233 Awards, Help Wanted
Charge Group
On November 15, along with Alex, Jamieson and Pegs, I’ll be playing a show at The Northern Star, opening for Charge Group from Sydney. If you don’t know, Charge Group contains ex-members of Purplene, and current members of The Firekites and Josh Pike’s band. All this for the small fee of $10!
Hopefully we’ll see you there.
ABC 1233 Awards
The ABC Music awards are coming up, and The Understudy is nominated for Best Pop Song and Best Female Vocalist. To celebrate, I’m taking Pegs to the station with me on Thursday 30th October, and we’re gonna have afternoon tea with Carol Duncan. Tune in to hear us gossip and sing from about 2:30pm.
Help Wanted
I already made a group on Facebook, but I thought I’d put the word out on le blog also: The Understudy is touring in Nov/Dec and help is needed. We’re pretty sweet on the postering front, but we still need people to divulge to us their awesome press contacts and get us editorial. This IS whorish, but let us know if you’re the kind of person who feels like helping.
Big love,
Lu
Things to do in Newcastle over the next week or so…
1. Georgia and Geordie’s Art Show @ The Glass Factory – Friday 05/09
Between Chris’s Discounts and The Store on Hunter St. 5:47pm. Bring hipflasks. Manifest joints.
2. Last Spring Break!! Ever – Thursday 11/09
In arguably brilliant bad taste, the last Spring Break!! ever will be 9/11 slash Twin Towers themed with only music from NYC. All the usual stuff will be present.
3. Pikelet & Kes @ Suspension – Friday 12/09
I get to play with two of my favourite Melbourne musicians at one of my favourite places in Newcastle. Also, Coffee + Couches + Courtyard. Free wine I’ve heard too. Yup!
If I’ve missed anything out that’s super rad, hit me up.
