Blog
Frozen Berlin, Sizzling Sydney, French TV
05/02/10
man - January was an intense "out of bag" experience...Frozen Berlin under 2 feet of snow for a week - then the longest of all long hauls to Australia to rock our sydney festival shows.....Berlin was awesoem - i love it (in small doses) in the winter - and i had totally forgotten you can smoke in the bars in Berghain....so totally awesome to have a civilised drink, and then another one, and then another one, listen to loads of minimal subhouse, then plan on making some, then plan to move there....they should call that Berlin Sydrome....
Australia was immense - to go so far away in a tropical climate, and everyone speaks english and is kinda like you - only bronze, fit and happy....played some great shows at the Sydney Festival, and the legendary Corner in Melbourne - hung out for a bit in Brunswick Street and found the coolest book / comic / stuff store anywhere in ther world - loads of fanzines, comics, music books - they even had a box of old australian 70's porn mags, you know, for, like, irony and shit....so cool - check it and support it if you're ever down under - Timmy will blog the name of it - i can't remember - if it even had one....so underground....also - along with a ton of other bands that were down under right now because of all the festies, saw an amazing Florence show in sydney....really tore the roof off, and a really cute Laura Marling show in sydney - nice band too - did a bit of backstage hanging....in fact our show in melbourne was a cracker - big thanks to everyone who got us down there at last - it was long over due...
the One Shot Not show aired last night on ARTE - we'll post the link once we get the dvd as the online link is a little latent.....This Is The Thing with Manu Katche jamming a huge ending....and my faux hawk is ferocious....totally awesome.....
Recording the Future Rock N Roll show tonight as tomorrow i'm playing with Bonobo and Andreya Triana at Gilles's worldwide awards for BBC on Saturday night at the Garage in London....then off to Holland for some crazy Dutch action - back to Vera !! - all good....
we're also putting together the masters for the release of our KCRW session we did in december in LA - should be out soon - we'll keep you posted...and all the Sideshow remixes of the Fink stuff will be released on Aus Music with an exclusive of Sideshows rub of "Q&A" - neg'd that last week - we'll keep you posted on that as well...
man - i don't even know what jetlag i'v got - they've all kinda melted into one another - all i know is - i gotta go....
FINK RECOUPS
31/12/09
ok ok ok - i know it's been a seriosuly long time since i blogged - but finally - after surfing the snowstorm from chicago (last plane out before airport closed) to New York (last plane out before mass cancellations due to snow) to Paris (last eurostar through the tunnel before whole thing closes down for 4 days due to snow) i kinda feel like protected in some way....just made i down to cornwall in time for xmas....
since the last blog about China we hit the USA for a few gigs- and some of the most memorable of the year no doubt - the wes Coast was just awesome - december in LA - makes sense - although seeing snowy pastiche scenes of seasonal greetings and constant rotation of xmas songs - from "retail christmas", "trad xmas" and even "taxi xmas", which consisted mainly of either smooth jazz versions of xmas classics, or the taxi driver swearing out of the window at shoppers on broadway.....that's a bit weird - almost as weird as the Scientologists having a xmas scene on hollywood boulevard without any traditional iconography, simply using non denominational icons of happiness and contentment, oh yeah - with the traditional stress test at the side....to do KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic was a real honour - really mindblowing hospitality - we reached accross the divide that was playing a set at 11 in the morning.....and the gig the next night at Spaceland was really something special - we loved it....getting into the top ten of aol radio tracks of the year, as well as getting the nod from a few of kcrw's finest dj's for album of the year really made us feel good...
www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb091203fink
New York, freezing and solo, was an intimate and really warm way to end the year - and by the time i had put my guitar back in it's case on the stage after the gig - i was already yearning to get back out there in the New Year....roll on Oz in '10...
massive love to everyone who gave us our best year ever onstage - from everyone at berlin (lido), paris (alhambra), amsterdam(melkweg), brussells(rotunde), New york(joes pub), LA(spaceland), London(jazz cafe) and Beijing(mao live) and everyone and everywhere in between - thanks for coming out - we know you have a choice of bands and thank you for choosing us.....
we also shold say a massive shout to robalicious our soundguy....who has throughly tweaked and swept the mid frequency of our hearts this year...
i have posted a few acoustic tracks on the myspace from the year.....enjoy if you get the time....
much love....see you on the oher side....
fink
China China China
26/11/09
wow - China -different world-not better or worse just very very different....one of the best things about no being able to read, write or even speak the local languages is that you don;t get hit by any advertisiing -it was like a mind holiday in that respect - Beijing was fantastic - staying in the HuJong district kinda kept it very real, and it was beautiful weather -very cold bu clear, well as clear as Beijing kinda gets. The gig was in a punky kinda sweatbox called Mao Live....really grimy but delightful too -very real.....Shanghai was again - hot, steamy, very rawkus - but to sell out the show was an amazing thing for all of us...the people who are trying to grow the scene out there, not just exploit the numbers, are few and far between but tey exist, and are doing a great great job to slowly build a real culture out there, not the kind of culture where green Day fly and fly out of city after city - but a scene where Western bands can sit on bills with Local bands, play dingy venues, make it happen.....
it's hard out there - Beijing has like 2 record shops for a population of 15 million, and the venues are just as rare - there is like Barfly venues - then Stadium venues -and not much in between -so to find a run, to build this up, you gotta tour the hard way....but it's worth it - the hospitality, the food, the people....it's a beautiful, generous, and crazy country -my favorite discovery - the group Yacht were on the same bill in Hong Kong (Along with the awesome Blood Red Shoes-who had the police threateneing to shut the festival down due to noise complaints, and that was just their soundcheck !! the new stuff from their forthcoming lp sounds as grimy and hardcore as ever -it's going to be a treat)-they gave me some YAK Jerky they had brought from the outskirts of Tibet - sounds wrong...but it so soooooooo right....
the picture is from Hong Kong -it isn't a postcard - it's a phone pic from this bar we were hanging out in....if you can get through the ex pat thing hong kong is Mind Blowing -a true collision of east and west- i walked from the area with all the money, gucci, and de-beers shops to my hotel on the last night - a hot steamy hong kong night, raining a little, the 2 hours it took me to get back to the residential area i was staying in it was like walking the set of Bladerunner....
gotta say -thanks so so much to Ed from Outdustry and all at the label MicroMu, and Sean Jhawn in shanghai, and Justin in Hong Kong....ignore the bullshitters, and go straight for these guys....their heart is in the right place....we're not trying to impose our style on anyone, or say we're better, or cooler or whatever....we all just want an underground mmusic scene to develop in China....and they'll do it - one gig at a time.....
i learnt how to say "can i have a black coffee and two sugars please" in chinese - but to be fair, after the hundredth attempt or so, i did just resort to pointing....
more blogs to follow.....it's been a crazy few weeks...
fin
